Entrepreneurs, Barefoot Wine co-founders, and co-authors of the inspirational and engaging book The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey describe how they built their highly successful company and brand through a shared vision of living and acting on their personal values. Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey share their challenges and triumphs as they overcame obstacles through creative thinking and applying their values as a touchstone for every decision. They present their important Worthy Cause Marketing initiative as a way to build brand awareness without advertising, while also giving back to hundreds of non-profit organizations. The authors provide insights into the key principles that built their company, their visionary company culture, and their wildly successful brands. The authors offer their experience and wisdom to other entrepreneurs as part of fulfilling another of their visions, of that of the mentor to other entrepreneurs.
Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey are my internet radio show guests on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.
The show airs live on Tuesday, August 20, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
Entrepreneurs, Barefoot Wine co-founders, and co-authors of the inspirational and engaging book The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey describe how they built their highly successful company and brand through a shared vision of living and acting on their personal values. You will learn:
* How the founders started and built their winery and brands
* How vision and living your values, and acting on them creates good decisions
* How the Worthy Cause Marketing concept achieved greater results than advertising
* How challenges and obstacles develop creative thinking and innovative solutions.
Michael Houlihan (photo left) s a serial entrepreneur, industry reformer, and brand builder. His consulting company, Great Thinks helps small and medium size businesses build their brands and achieve profitability.
As a keynote speaker, author and consultant, Michael focuses on the proven Business and Marketing principles he learned growing the Barefoot Wine Brand. Using out-of-the-box thinking, pay-for-performance, positive culture, channel distribution management, and "Worthy Cause Marketing" he took an obscure brand to a National and International Best Selling American wine icon. He shares his winning business philosophies in his new book, "The Barefoot Spirit."
Michael is a partner with Martin Jones in a consulting firm assisting small and medium size wine country businesses to develop their brands, become more efficient, and achieve profitability.
Founder, President and CEO of Barefoot Wines, June 1985 - January 2005
With no money and no knowledge of the industry, Michael started and built the famous Barefoot Wine brand. Michael earned the industry's top sales awards, including "Trend Setter, "Fast Track Growth Brand" and "Hot Brand" for sales and growth in 2003 and 2004 - all without advertising. In 2005, he successfully sold the brand to E&J Gallo. During the next year, he worked with them as a business consultant to maintain Barefoot's entrepreneurial character and Worthy Cause Marketing program.
Bonnie Harvey (photo left) is Co-Founder of Barefoot Wines and was Vice President for 19 years. During that time, she was an active proponent of Worthy-Cause Marketing over commercial advertising. This resulted in strong company culture and a loyal customer base. She was responsible for the design of the now iconic Barefoot label. The famous bare footprint is Bonnie's footprint.
She used her personal interest in clean water, land preservation, and civil rights to guide Barefoot's support for hundreds of local non-profits. By participating in their fundraising efforts, donating products, and helping them get the word out about their goals, she gave their membership a social reason to buy Barefoot Wine.
Bonnie has a background in entrepreneurialism and financial oversight as well as cash flow management. As Vice President, she was responsible for the company's goal setting and business strategy. She was the final editor for all written materials.
My book review of The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand by Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey.
Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.
If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.
To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832
Let's talk with entrepreneurs, Barefoot Wine co-founders, and co-authors of the inspirational and engaging book The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, as they describe how they built their highly successful company and brand through a shared vision of living and acting on their personal values. Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey share their challenges and triumphs as they overcame obstacles through creative thinking and applying their values as a touchstone for every decision. They present their important Worthy Cause Marketing initiative as a way to build brand awareness without advertising, while also giving back to hundreds of non-profit organizations. The authors provide insights into the key principles that built their company, their visionary company culture, and their wildly successful brands. The authors offer their experience and wisdom to other entrepreneurs as part of fulfilling another of their visions, of that of the mentor to other entrepreneurs on Blog Business Success Radio.