March 27, 2025 • 33 mins
Meg Hiney shares how she transformed her passion for wine into the Hutto Wine Bar, creating a unique space that spotlights female winemakers while balancing family life, entrepreneurship, and personal health challenges.
• Growing up with a father who loved exploring wines, especially from California
• Moving to Hutto in 2011 and recognizing the need for a local wine bar
• Creating a business that specifically showcases wines made or owned by women
• Starting the wine bar while maintaining a full-time career in software management
• Building relationships with building owners and other entrepreneurs that proved crucial
• Hosting community events including free bingo nights, live music, and wine tasting dinners
• Supporting other female entrepreneurs by providing space to showcase their products
• Balancing running a business with raising two young daughters
• Battling stage 3 breast cancer at age 30 while having an infant and toddler at home
• Finding strength through faith and focusing on being present for her children's futures
• Developing the philosophy of never accepting "no" as the final answer
Learn more about our amazing sponsor the Hutto Wine Bar.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meg Hiney (00:00):
I don't think you have to worry about going short,
more about going long.
We should probably wrap it up.
Piet Van Waarde (00:08):
Was your hubby nervous about you doing this?
Meg Hiney (00:11):
No, I think he was surprised that.
Piet Van Waarde (00:13):
I was going to do it.
Meg Hiney (00:15):
And then he reminded me that I did do another one
before this.
I did it with.
His name is Tom and he cameinto the wine bar.
I met him through other winebar owners and when we opened
the wine bar he wanted to do aspotlight on how to wine bar and
we did it and his is on YouTubeand I just totally forgot that
I had done it, not because Tom'snot memorable, because he is,
(00:38):
but I I didn't really connectthe two as of like a was that in
your, in your spot, or did yougo to a studio?
Piet Van Waarde (00:50):
It was yeah it was right after we opened and it
was in.
Meg Hiney (00:51):
You know I have the blue couch now, so we've been
able to upgrade all thefurniture.
Yeah, it was when we had justhad those four chairs there and
so we set up inside and it wasreally a great thing, because
that day it was just a reallybusy day and it was one of those
, I think, kind of a blessing sothat people could see that
we're a thriving business.
But it was really nice, so hewas focusing on his YouTube
channel.
Does a lot about Texas wines.
Piet Van Waarde (01:11):
Okay.
Meg Hiney (01:12):
And because I feature some Texas wines and I'm also a
Texas wine bar owner, he wantedto chat.
Piet Van Waarde (01:30):
All right, well , welcome to another Sidewalk
Conversations.
I am so grateful that you'vejoined us today, and we have
another very interesting guestthat I am very much looking
forward to introducing you to.
But before we get started, Iwant to tell you about our
business, because it's oursponsor today and it's the Hutto
Wine Bar in downtown Hutto andit's got a great environment and
(01:53):
great specials and, of course,a very informed, well-mannered
and fun proprietor.
So I want you to help mewelcome my guest today, meg
Heine.
Thank you for joining us.
Meg Hiney (02:08):
Meg, thank you for the introduction.
I was waiting to see who youwere talking about under all
those adjectives, but I reallyappreciate it.
Piet Van Waarde (02:15):
Oh, I'm a wordsmith I tell you Well, one
of the things that we want to doon this podcast and I tend to
do it with most of my guests isI just love the story behind the
story.
So there is the public personaof Meg and her business and her
influence within Hutto.
But I want to go back and talka little bit about kind of your
(02:38):
upbringing, how you were raised,and so tell me a little bit
about your family, how you wereraised, where you were raised,
maybe some key influences.
Meg Hiney (02:45):
Yeah, I was born in Houston, originally from Fulcher
, which is not so little anymore, but it's really near Katy, and
when we lived there, I thinkthe town had 250 people in it,
oh my.
And now you can buy a homethere for a cool million dollars
.
Oh there you go, fulcher hasreally grown up since the last
time I was there.
You go, fulcher has reallygrown up since the last time I
(03:06):
was there.
I spent the first 10, 11 yearsof my life there with my dad and
my mom and my brother and wemoved to Austin and I started
going to middle school in theLake Travis School District and
that's where.
Piet Van Waarde (03:15):
I, I guess.
Oh wow, so you've been here fora bit.
Meg Hiney (03:17):
We've been here for a long time.
I won't tell you exactly howlong without going into too much
detail about me, but yeah, wespent a lot of time here in
Austin, so I feel like I'm aTexan, born in Houston but
really raised in Austin.
Piet Van Waarde (03:30):
That's how I put it.
Yeah, okay, yeah, now we metbecause I did a story on your
business for Huddle LivingMagazine and I'm hoping I okayed
this.
We became quick friends alongthe way, yes, and I'm now a
regular participant in yourspecials and all the things you
have going on.
Meg Hiney (03:49):
Yeah, our wine club member.
Yes, yeah, you have to shoutout the wine club.
Yes.
Piet Van Waarde (03:54):
And you insist on showing me all kinds of new
kinds of varieties.
Meg Hiney (04:00):
And.
Piet Van Waarde (04:00):
I kind of get stuck in my lane and you keep
trying to push the boundaries.
Meg Hiney (04:03):
I do Try this, I do.
Hey, try this, I do.
Piet Van Waarde (04:05):
Yeah, tell me how you got in the business.
Meg Hiney (04:07):
Yes, when we first moved to Hutto, my husband and I
moved here in 2011.
And when we moved here, we saidthis place needs a wine bar, we
need a tasting room, we need awine bar.
Where's this at?
Because we're driving toGeorgetown, we're going to
Fredericksburg, we're going intoAustin.
So I always like to say that theidea was born 13, 14 years ago
when we first moved here, andobviously I didn't take it
(04:29):
seriously until about four yearsago, but that's where the idea
for the business came from.
But really, the passion forwine started when I was really
young and watching my dad justkind of take his way through the
wine world and explore thingsthat he liked, things that he
didn't like.
We spent a lot of our timediscussing really cool wines
from California, and then he waskind of starting to dip into
(04:51):
the old world style of wines youknow that Western Europe type
of place and his love, though, Iwould definitely say, was
California wines, and so I kindof picked up on that, and then I
became a Cali wine girl myself,and then, as I grew up, I
realized well, there's a lot ofreally cool stuff outside of
California, there's some greatstuff in Texas and beyond, and
(05:11):
so I spent probably.
Piet Van Waarde (05:13):
And I mean like when you say that you grew up
around wine.
Meg Hiney (05:16):
I mean you had your graduation party at a winery.
Piet Van Waarde (05:19):
You had your wedding at a winery.
This is true.
Meg Hiney (05:21):
Yeah, good reminder.
So some sort of celebrationalways included really, really
fine wine, and when I graduatedhigh school my dad took it upon
himself to buy himself a reallynice bottle of wine to celebrate
my graduation.
When I graduated from college Iwent to A&M for my undergrad
and we had our party.
Two of my cousins and I had itat the Messina Hoff Winery in
(05:42):
Bryan and then when my husbandand I met we had our wedding at
the Spicewood Vineyards out inSpicewood.
So wine has definitely alwaysbeen around a celebration of our
lives.
So it just kind of made an easyselection when I knew I was
ready to kind of go out on myown and start my own business.
Piet Van Waarde (05:58):
And you did this alongside of another
full-time job, so this was kindof like you were doing your
full-time work and then you werestarting.
I was.
Meg Hiney (06:05):
I was.
I was doing software management.
I did corporate softwaremanagement for almost 12, 13
years it was.
It was wild to think that I wasgoing to start a business while
I was doing a full-time job,but I get bored really easily,
and so it just made sense that Iwas going to do something that
was going to overtax me and myfamily, you know, financially,
emotionally and physically.
Piet Van Waarde (06:26):
Um, but you know it's just that's me and
that's what my husband alwayslike.
He's like oh, meg must be boredCause she wants to start
another business or something.
Now, um I, there's a couple ofthings about your business that
I want to get into.
Uh, first of all, you have avery unique focus.
Like you have decided fromearly on that you wanted to have
a specialized focus for yourwinery or your wine bar, and it
(06:48):
has to do with kind of women inthat field.
So tell me a little bit aboutthe thinking behind that.
Meg Hiney (06:53):
Yeah, I started with that in mind, because I come
from the tech world and there'sa lot of dudes in the tech world
.
There's a lot of dudes thattell the girls how they should
do their job better, and I'm notof the mindset of that kind of
person that's like oh yes, thankyou.
Piet Van Waarde (07:06):
Please tell me more about how to do my own job.
Meg Hiney (07:08):
And when I started to get into more wine, I was
asking questions of like who'sowning the vineyard, who's the
winemaker, who's managing thebusiness?
And it was just a lot of malenames and I thought this can't
be it.
There have to be more peopleout there that look like me,
that think like me, that are inthis and enjoying their passion
of wine.
And the moment that I startedasking that question, it just
(07:29):
exploded.
And so there are womeneverywhere doing super fantastic
things.
And when I was looking at thewine bar and what's going to
make us unique and stand outagainst other wine bars in the
area?
I was like.
This is it.
I want to give women theplatform to show their story and
their passions, which they dothrough their wine in a bottle,
and I want to take that to thepeople of Hutto and hopefully
(07:49):
further than Hutto.
Piet Van Waarde (07:50):
Yeah right.
Meg Hiney (07:51):
Start in Hutto.
Start small and then grow big.
Piet Van Waarde (07:54):
Well, and in your wine bar you have actually
a whole section that if somebodyis saying, okay, well, I want
to explore these variouswineries and wines from women
who are in the field, you can goright to a particular place in
your store and find them all,and there are a lot.
Meg Hiney (08:11):
Exactly yeah, we want to make it as easy as possible
for people to find our girlwines as I call them.
We have little tags that saycrafted by women on all of our
by-the-bottle options, and thenon our by-the-glass menu we have
a plus sign next to all ofthose that are somehow woman
influenced.
So when I say woman influenced,it's either owned by a woman
the business is owned by a womanor it's a female winemaker.
(08:31):
And if you're never really sure, you're like, oh, is this owned
by a woman or made by a woman?
Piet Van Waarde (08:35):
You just ask and we'll tell you and we have
the story for all of them.
Well, and your team one of thethings I like about it is they
are so willing to talk to people.
Like, I won't consider myself aconnoisseur.
I can tell you know a littlebit better wine from a cheaper
wine, but I am by no means anexpert.
But your team is like, takes alot of joy in helping inform
(08:58):
people about wines.
And is that like intentional,do you?
Is that part of your pitch?
Meg Hiney (09:03):
Yes, it is.
I want to make sure that thepeople that I bring into my team
, my wine family, it has as muchpassion about wine as I do Now.
I always say when I'm hiringnew people, what I'm really
looking for is can you hold aconversation and are you
friendly?
Because those are things thatyou can't teach.
I can teach you how to you knowuse a computer, I can teach you
(09:26):
about the different facets ofwine, but one of the
expectations is that now thatyou're part of our family, you
really need to be able to sharethese stories and really share
things about the wine toencourage customers to hang out
longer and to try new things,like I do with you.
You know, get to know onecustomer that comes in regularly
enough that you get familiarwith their taste, and then you
can kind of start helping thembranch out, find new things
which is uh, yeah, so I really,I really do expect that from my
(09:47):
staff, and they have done areally fantastic job because, we
have people that come inspecifically asking for certain
people, and so I think that'swonderful.
That's really a testament tothem you know, not really to me,
but to them to be able to standon their own and like and
handle that without my like,looking behind their back to
make sure hey did you offer.
Did you know you should offerthat?
Piet Van Waarde (10:06):
No micromanaging, Good for you Well
and it was like it wasn't likeyou had a lot of previous
business experience to launchthis big business.
I got the sense that you hadsome entrepreneurial gifting and
passions, but this was kind oflike your first real venture, if
I'm remembering, right intolike starting a business.
(10:27):
And then when we went throughthe story, you told me like you
learned lesson after lessonafter lesson and I.
So if you had to go back andkind of think about, like what
were some of the things that youjust learned from the process
of starting a business fromscratch, Document the process,
find somebody who already has aprocess documented, because that
was the biggest problem is thatyou start with one entity.
Meg Hiney (10:50):
You think let's start at the state level.
I have to get my TVC, I have tobe able to serve and I have to
purchase and sell wine.
Okay, great, that's one.
And they make it really easy.
They have an online system andthey're like you have to go to
Comptroller, you have to go herehere Great.
Well.
Then you get to the county andthe county is like well, we
don't have anything like that,but here's a step-by-step
process on our website, but itturns out you have to talk to
(11:11):
four different people to do that.
And then we get to the citylevel and there's really no
roadmap for that.
And then sometimes you have tostart at the state and go to the
city and then go to the countyand go back to the city and then
go back to the state.
So what I would have loved tohave had was hey, meg, start
here, and then you're going totalk to this person and you're
going to go here.
Unfortunately, that's reallyhard to find, especially having
(11:33):
a business.
That has never been done inHutto before.
Hutto has never had a wine bar.
Never had a tasting room beendone in huddle before.
Huddle has never had a wine bar, never had a tasting room.
We have a lot of great bars inhuddle, we have a lot of great
restaurants, but when it comesto this specific business
venture, nobody had done itbefore.
So there wasn't really any wayfor me to feel guided through
the process.
I couldn't go to one person andbe like, okay, I've had a
really hard day.
(11:54):
Tell me what to do tomorrow,and that was just something I
had to keep.
I had had to keep going on withmyself.
Piet Van Waarde (11:59):
Bless you for your tenaciousness.
Thank you, yeah, that's one ofthe really great qualities I get
from my dad, that's for sure.
Now you did, along the way,build a relationship with the
building owner that turned outto be quite serendipitous,
absolutely.
Talk to me about that a bit,yeah.
Meg Hiney (12:15):
Gracie.
She's great.
I met her through my bestfriend, sarah.
Her husband had worked withGracie in the past, and when I
met Gracie she was in the midstof trying to figure out what she
was going to do next with thebuilding that I'm in now, and
she had a previous tenant.
She knew she wanted to remodelthe building and so I met her at
just.
You know what a blessing to meether at the time that I did
because she hadn't started totear the building down yet.
(12:36):
She really hadn't started, likeactively working on, I'm sure,
paperwork wise.
Piet Van Waarde (12:40):
Yeah.
Meg Hiney (12:41):
Yeah, she was on it, for sure, she's the kind of gal
that's on things, and so for meI had my business plan.
I sat on my business plan forabout a year.
I was like I, just I, but Idon't know where to go with this
from here Again, no path right,there's no guidance to the next
step.
I met Gracie.
I showed her my business planand we hit it off immediately.
We're great friends now.
We're great business partnersbecause, being in her building,
(13:03):
I looked to her as a mentor too.
So you know, hey, I think I'mI'm starting to consider what
the next thing looks like, andshe said, well, here's the,
there's some things you shouldthink about.
And so it was just a reallywonderful timing to meet her.
And then she was super excitedabout the idea.
She loves the fact that thewine bar is where it is, and I
think our relationship, businessand friendship wise, is going
(13:23):
to continue to grow because,yeah, really great girl to meet.
Piet Van Waarde (13:27):
So you have a variety of activities that you
do there, like it's not just goin drink your wine, I mean, like
you have.
I happened to fall in on anight where you were doing, I
think, a trivia night or a bingonight or something.
Tell me about some of the.
Yeah, we're trying.
Meg Hiney (13:43):
We're still in the testing phase of what our events
are going to be.
One thing we know for sure ispeople love our bingo nights.
We do free bingo.
People love free bingo.
You don't have to pay for yourcard.
There's some really cool prizesfor each game and it's family
friendly is really nice yeah um,so we're yeah, we're rocking on
bingo.
We do live music a lot, which isreally cool.
We have a great patio space,and so we put our musicians out
(14:04):
there when the weather is that'sright, because you have like
that area outside, yeah, picnictables, yeah, so as much of the
of the indoor spaces we have.
We have almost the exact amountof space outside on the patio
so we're like our space is splithalf and half, which is perfect
.
We.
We've got picnic tables, greatshade trees outside, um.
So we do live music, bingo.
I do tasting dinners.
So I've offered in the pastquite a few options of their
(14:27):
three course dinners and I havepaired wine specifically with
each course so you can kind ofenjoy the pairing specifically.
For one of the times we had,like a shrimp Cristini and I had
a really great white winepaired with that and then we
have some big like ragu shortribs.
Of course that comes with a bigbold red wine and people enjoy
that too.
And then, just trying to branchout and trying to find other
(14:49):
female entrepreneurs that maybedon't have a shop, I like to
bring them into the space aswell.
They can set up their tablesand sell their knickknacks and
T-shirts.
Piet Van Waarde (14:58):
Well, you did that for me too.
I did, yeah, I had a booksigning.
You opened up your space for me.
Meg Hiney (15:03):
I'm always happy to open up, because that's one of
the beauties of having abrick-and-mortar space is that I
can bring in other people thatmaybe don't get that level of
exposure.
I love not only being aplatform for female in the wine
industry, but just anybody ingeneral that's just trying to
get their name out there.
You want to come set up for acouple of hours, set up on the
patio or inside.
Just give you an opportunity toshare your business and your
(15:26):
story with the world.
I'm so happy to do that.
Piet Van Waarde (15:28):
Awesome, yeah, and it's a great I mean, it's a
great vibe for that.
Yeah, all right.
So I know you hate thisquestion because I've had you
try to answer before, but I'msure there are people who are
watching who want to know, like,what are some of your favorite
wines?
Meg Hiney (15:45):
What are some of?
Piet Van Waarde (15:45):
my favorite wines.
Like if somebody is thinkingabout let's pick a price point,
let's say so if somebody issaying between $20 and $40.
Meg Hiney (15:55):
$20 and $40.
Right now we have a reallygreat Cabernet Sauvignon from
California called actually, thisone's from Washington.
I misspoke, it's called GreenWing and it's part of the
Duckhorn Portfolio which, asyou'll remember, is my favorite
portfolio.
Dan and Margaret started thisportfolio back in the 80s and
now they have about nine winesin their book which is really
(16:16):
cool, and Green Weaning was oneof them.
I've had it and it is.
Yeah, it's a really good one,isn't it?
That one, I think, is pricedright about $40.
And then we've got some reallygreat Cote de Provence rosés
that are really fun.
I just brought two in and Ibought, I picked them.
I love that type of rosé, but Ialso picked them because the
labels are just really pretty,and I know that sounds silly,
(16:36):
but sometimes you know, if youthink about when you go to the
store and you're looking for awine on the shelf, you're going
to gravitate towards thoselabels that are just a little
bit more fun, maybe somethingthat speaks to you in that
moment.
So both of these have reallybeautiful floral designs on them
.
One's called Summer in a Bottleand the other one's called
Forever Young, and they're bothFrench rosés, so they're going
to have like a great, nice,clean finish on them, really
(16:57):
like fruit forward, and they'reboth, I think, priced about $30
a bottle.
Piet Van Waarde (17:03):
Now, what was the one that you gave me in the
Wine of the Month Club?
It was, I think it was a roséand it had like a blue.
Meg Hiney (17:13):
Matthiasson yes, so.
Piet Van Waarde (17:15):
I brought that to a friend's house for dinner
this past week and that was thefirst thing they said.
They said that is such a coollabel.
Yeah, matthias.
Meg Hiney (17:23):
and they do some really cool work.
A lot of times their wine,though, can be a little bit
higher on the price point, butthis one was really comfortably
priced, I think around $33.
But Matthias and they've beenmaking wine for a really long
time Really well-known andreally well-appreciated wine
book, but known and really wellappreciated wine book, but I
wanted to pull that in.
I was able to find some at areally nice price point so I
brought that in for the wineclub last month.
(17:43):
And we're about to do anotherwine club party next Monday, so
you have to come in and figureit out, there you go.
I don't ever share secretsbeforehand.
Piet Van Waarde (17:51):
You know that I keep everything very close to
the vest until the day of therelease.
I find it in that little orangebag.
Yeah right, All right, let meshift gears a little bit.
You are obviously very good atyour business, but you also have
two little girls at home.
Well, they're not that littleanymore.
Meg Hiney (18:08):
Oh no, they're little .
Let's keep calling them littleplease, because I can't think
about them getting much biggeror much older.
Piet Van Waarde (18:15):
And so you have to manage family and business.
I'm sure that some days it'sjust crazy, but are there some
little tricks, tips, that you'velearned that boy?
If I can keep this straight,then that seems to work best.
Meg Hiney (18:30):
Yes, I would say that I make a really strong point to
be at home, when they're athome, as much as possible, and
if I can't be at home with them,then I like to bring them with
me to the wine bar just so thatwe can stay.
Piet Van Waarde (18:43):
Yeah, they're there a lot.
Meg Hiney (18:44):
And against a lot of their will.
Sometimes they're like, oh, dowe have to go back to the wine
bar again?
You know then we're puddling inthe garage on the way to the
car, but I really do.
I try to take as manyopportunities to just be close
to them.
Yeah, I think back a lot on thetimes that my brother and I had
with our folks and then ourgrandparents.
It was just more of just beingaround them really made an
(19:07):
impact on my life, and so thatproximity is really important to
me.
And then I am really criticalabout the time that I spend
behind the bar, and when I'mthere you know I'm am I doing
something that I could probablypass off to one of my staff to?
do Is this something that Ireally really need to be here
for Cause?
If not, then I need to go and Ineed to go get them.
Um, my husband is so supportive.
(19:29):
He we kind of call ourselvesmorning and night parents.
Where I'm the morning parent,he gets to kind of like take his
time in the morning and thenhe's the evening parent.
So right now we have theability for him to do swim
lessons and voice lessons andthen you know whatever else is
needed in the evening that Ican't be there for, um, which is
really wonderful.
So my support system is greatand my best friend lives next
(19:50):
door too, so having her there.
Piet Van Waarde (19:51):
She was part of the whole reason that we have a
wine bar as well she is.
Meg Hiney (19:58):
she is the one that made the connection to Gracie
and we started this thingtogether, which was really cool,
and she works at the wine bar.
Whenever we feel like we don'twant to spend time together,
just the two of us, then she'llbe there and I'll be there
working somewhere in the office.
But, yeah, having a strongsupport system has made it
really really easy.
Easy is a good way to describeit, but it's not easy because
(20:23):
I'm not always there with themwhen I want to be, but it's
definitely much more manageable.
Piet Van Waarde (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, now you talked about your husband's
investment.
I mean, it's not just he hasn'tjust been, you know, morally
supportive, I mean he's likebuilt stuff in the wine bar he
has.
Yeah.
Meg Hiney (20:38):
Maybe more than he would have wanted to build for
the wine bar.
So we have a 30-foot bar thatruns down the side of the store,
and I did that because I wantedto mimic a lot of what tasting
rooms in California and in Italyand France offer you.
Right, the experience is youwalk in, you educate on the wine
, you pick out what you're goingto enjoy and then you go find
(20:59):
somewhere else to sit.
There's no bar stools, we'renot sitting down.
We're not like spending threehours at the bar with the server
.
And when I told him that we did,we got a quote from somebody
and he said I can do that forlike a third of the price.
And I said put your money whereyour mouth is bud because I've
got an opening date.
Piet Van Waarde (21:15):
We got to get this done.
Meg Hiney (21:16):
And so I was there every step of the way.
I like to say that I, you know,I helped build it as well, I
mean, but again, he did a lot ofthe work and he's my, he's my
handyman.
So I hope none of the tradesmenthat I hire is listening
because I always refer to myhandyman so I don't have to be
like, well, let me call myhusband and figure that out,
cause that kind of also removesa little bit of my power and so
I say I have to talk to myhandyman and see when he can get
(21:39):
out to make that adjustment.
Piet Van Waarde (21:42):
Love it All.
Right Now.
On a more serious note, you'vealso had your share of
challenges of life.
In fact, one of the things thatwe kind of connected over early
on was we are fellow cancerwarriors.
So you've had a battle againstcancer.
However comfortable you feel,tell me a little bit about how
(22:04):
that journey played out for you.
Are you now in a good place?
What helped you work throughsome of those challenges?
Meg Hiney (22:11):
Yeah, I was diagnosed with breast cancer stage 3
breast cancer when I was 30.
I had just had my youngestdaughter.
She was 8 months when I wasdiagnosed.
So we had an almostthree-year-old and an
eight-month-old at home and itwas a real shock.
I knew that I had the BRCA1gene mutation.
So we knew.
My husband and I found outright after we got married.
(22:33):
We knew that at some pointsomething was going to either
occur or we would need to dosomething preventative.
But you never have a time and adate on those things.
And so when I found my lump,went into the doctor.
It was very fast growing and soimmediately was put on to
chemotherapy.
I did two rounds ofchemotherapy that lasted a total
(22:55):
of 20 weeks, and then I didanother 12, 15 weeks of
radiation.
I always say I don't rememberexactly, because I went into
fight mode and I just was like,whatever they're telling me to
do, I'm doing it, I'm notquestioning anything Like I just
had a baby.
This is not the thing that'sgoing to keep me from like
(23:16):
walking my kids down the aisleif they ask me to one day.
And I remember telling mydoctors that specifically I said
am I going to be able to see mykids get married?
And they said, if we starttreatment now, this won't be the
thing that tops you.
And so I went through that.
I had three surgeries after that.
I went ahead and I had cancerjust in one breast, and so I
(23:38):
went ahead and prophylacticallytook out the other breast
because we're not going torevisit this.
And then I had another surgerytoo because of the BRCA1.
It's not just breast cancer,it's all female reproductive
cancer.
So you know it is what it is.
You know you get handed thesecards whenever they're dealt out
to you, whenever things startgoing and you just do what you
(24:01):
have to do to keep surviving, asyou know.
Piet Van Waarde (24:14):
And so during that process again my husband
insurmountable support, tooknotes on everything, was
actually paying attention whenthe doctors were talking,
figuring out when theappointments were, which is not
easy to do.
It's not easy to do Becauseyou're so like, so overwhelmed,
emotionally as well.
Meg Hiney (24:20):
It was, I know, and I never say I don't think I could
do what he did.
Being the patient, I think, wasthe easiest part, because I was
doing everything that I wastold to do.
I was like this is what youneed to do to survive and just
go do it.
But he's the one that's notgoing through treatment and he's
having to watch all of thisplay out, plus with the kids at
home.
You know, and it's uh, you know, I just, I thank God every day
(24:42):
that he was the man that Godpicked for me.
And, um, through all of that,we, we made it on the other side
.
And now I'm five years laterand I go in for every six month
checkups.
I think the type of cancer thatI had I'll see my doctor every
six months for the rest of mylife is what she said.
So we just became really goodfriends you know, first name
basis sort of thing.
(25:04):
Unfortunately, during thattreatment, my dad was also
diagnosed with brain cancer, andso he passed away 18 months
after he was diagnosed with hisglioblastoma.
So we shared a doctor's office,which you never want to do with
a parent.
You know we shared a radiationoffice, which you never again,
never want to do with parent Um,but it was a really it was an
(25:27):
experience that I learned a lotfrom because again, it brought
me so much closer to my dad andwe were already very close,
daddy's girl all the way.
You know he raised me like alittle boy, cause I have an
older brother.
He was like this is just easyenough to do.
She can wear boys clothes andbe a tomboy and do all the
sports that Clark's doing.
And so we already had a really,really close relationship and it
(25:47):
just kind of felt normal tobring him along and my brother
and I were there to support himdoctor's appointments, treatment
appointment, whatever it was.
Unfortunately, we lost him in2020, after all of that, which
is five years without him, whichis really hard to say out loud,
but I know that he's here allthe time and we have some really
great memories together.
He lived with us for a fewweeks because, you know, just
(26:11):
telling your dad to do somethingand then him actually listening
to you.
He didn't want to.
He was like you're my kid, youshouldn't be telling me when to
take my medicine.
Piet Van Waarde (26:22):
I'm like, well, except you're taking your
uppers at night and your downersa day, and so I was like you're
not good for anybody right now.
Meg Hiney (26:25):
So that was really special and he got the girls got
to spend a lot of good timewith him before, before he
eventually passed.
Piet Van Waarde (26:30):
But now there, there are a number of people
because of my own situation.
I have a number of people herewho've kind of worked through
that same challenge and I alwayslike to ask them like what were
some of the keys that helpedyou survive the most difficult
times?
Were there some things that youlook back on and say, boy, I'm
really glad I either had thispiece of advice or this thing
(26:53):
that I did that helped me workthrough the most challenging of
physical circumstances?
Did you have anything like that?
Meg Hiney (27:00):
Yes, I got very strong in my faith.
I'm Catholic, I was raisedCatholic, I'm still practicing.
I had Ash Wednesday onWednesday.
I get to walk around and havepeople look at you a little
interestingly, like letsomething on your forehead.
I got very strong in my faithand I really looked to Mary
(27:20):
Jesus's mother for a lot ofguidance, because she was a
mother and she was going throughsomething very, very difficult
herself, watching her son growand then his untimely death
right and so I took a lot fromher story of just that
perseverance and support andlooking and trusting that this
is not something that'spermanent, but these feelings
are real.
(27:40):
So feel the feelings you have,but this is just a season.
The season after this is goingto be something completely
different.
So I had to keep remindingmyself of that, that nothing
that I was experiencing in thatmoment was going to be permanent
, that there was something onthe other side waiting for me,
holding my kids, just havingthem like sit in my lap, because
they were still so little theywould want to do that.
(28:00):
Now I have a nine and an almostseven year old and they're like
touching me with their pinky.
They're like this is, this isgood physical contact, mom, I
don't need much else, thank you,unless they need something.
And then the hugs start.
Um, but I would have.
Yeah, I had Sadie, my youngest.
I would just put her in my lapbecause that's all I could
really do.
I couldn't lift her, I couldn'tcarry her around, I was so
physically weak from everything.
So I would just plop her downin my lap and she'd eat crackers
(28:22):
or whatever, watch Mickey MouseClubhouse, and then with Emily
too, she, just she would drawstuff for me, and then I think,
just-.
Piet Van Waarde (28:30):
I remember you actually when sorry, but when I
was like in the middle of mytreatment and I came into the
wine bar one time and I said Ineed some encouragement.
I said what helped you survive?
And you said looking at my kidsyeah, just knowing that you
already referenced it, butknowing that if I get on the
(28:53):
other side of this battle, I'llbe able to watch them get
married, I will be a part oftheir life, and that provided
all kinds of motivation for you.
It sounded like Absolutely.
Meg Hiney (29:04):
Yeah, they really were.
They were the thing that justsaid.
You know, this is really hardand this is really crappy.
I don't know what I can say onthis.
Piet Van Waarde (29:12):
I was going to say the best word, but I'll keep
it to myself.
Meg Hiney (29:15):
I just had to keep reminding myself that there are
things bigger than me in thismoment and I just couldn't, I
couldn't imagine, I wouldn't letmyself imagine them not having
me.
Piet Van Waarde (29:26):
Right.
Meg Hiney (29:27):
And it's like, because I'm going to be here,
I'm going to do this, and so Iyeah, I encourage anybody if
they have, even if it's likekids of their own, if just their
spouses, their partners orwhoever it is.
There are things outside of youthat you will create a very big
void if you're not there for,and so that's one of the best
ways to keep fighting.
Piet Van Waarde (29:45):
Yeah, and I think that mindset itself is so
critical, just to be able to sayyou know, it's about more than
me and I'm going to fight forthis because it is about more
than me.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, all right.
So when you think about, thankyou for sharing that, yeah,
absolutely.
Meg Hiney (30:00):
That was really really great.
Piet Van Waarde (30:02):
As you think about your future, kind of, what
are you looking forward to?
Oh, I'm looking forward to.
Meg Hiney (30:06):
You got other things on the horizon, so I have so
many things in my head that someof them are on paper and some
of them are not.
None of the thing is officiallystarted yet is officially
started yet.
I created a vision board thisyear, which I've never done.
I was outside of my comfortzone with that Cause.
It's like pictures of thingsyou think might happen or that
might want to happen.
It was definitely not a Megthing to do, but I did it, which
(30:29):
I'm really glad, and I have itup in my office.
So I see it every single day.
I see the things that I haveplanned out, and I was actually
at a little panel discussion onTuesday for Hutto entrepreneurs
and business owners and one ofthe panelists asked me
afterwards.
He said what is Hutto Wine Bar2.0 look like?
(30:49):
And I said well, I got to getto 1.5 first.
I have a 1.5 plan, but there isa 2.0 plan and definitely this
isn't it.
There's definitely going to bemore coming.
It just takes a little bit oftime and resources, as you know.
It takes resources, includingmoney and time myself you know,
(31:10):
so one of the things that I'mdoing right now to prepare for
all the things that are comingis setting up a really great
team at the wine bar so I have amanager in training right now.
She's doing fantastic.
Up a really great team at thewine bar so I have a manager in
training right now, she's doingfantastic.
And then once I feel like I cannot be there every day, then
the next things really start.
Piet Van Waarde (31:25):
Can you give us a sneak peek, maybe?
Meg Hiney (31:27):
There may be something that looks a lot like
HWB, maybe somewhere else, orthere might be something that
has to do with sports somewhereelse.
I don't want to put too muchout there, because what I have
also found is the moment thatyou say something out loud
people that's what they want toknow about.
When can we expect that tohappen?
(31:49):
And so one of the lessonslearned of being an entrepreneur
and a business owner is that,until you know for sure, please
don't share dates.
Piet Van Waarde (31:57):
I do remember that when we had done the
magazine, it was like okay, thisis going to be like our date,
and I think it was like threemonths later.
Yeah, I know.
Meg Hiney (32:05):
I know what a bummer that was, but that's another
thing about.
There's no roadmap and sothere's no timeline either.
Now, you know who to talk to,but you have to wait for them to
respond.
You who to talk to, but youhave to wait for them to respond
.
You can ask the question, butwaiting for that response is
(32:25):
kind of what lags out.
I think we were supposed toopen like in summer of 2023, and
then October of 2023, and thenDecember of 2023.
And then finally, in Februaryof 2024, we opened.
Lesson learned.
Piet Van Waarde (32:35):
Yeah, right, at the right time.
Meg Hiney (32:36):
Yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (32:37):
All right, last question, right at the right
time.
Yeah, all right.
Last question um, do you, doyou find yourself with a like a
life theme life message thatkind of provides your true north
and how you kind of think aboutlife and how you want to live
your life?
Is there something like thatthat you kind of use as a
guiding principle or or maybe alife message?
Meg Hiney (32:59):
I don't ever let no be the first and final answer.
You can sav it as your firstanswer, but it shouldn't be the
final answer that you accept.
I think that every no is anopportunity for a discussion and
an understanding of why youwould react with a no first, and
I think anybody that wants togo into business.
That's the thing that you haveto learn immediately.
You cannot accept no, becauseif you accept no, everything
(33:21):
will stop and you can tellyourself no or it can be an
external no.
So I never let no be the firstand final answer.
Piet Van Waarde (33:28):
I love that.
Yeah, wow, cool, thanks, well,thank you so much for joining me
today.
It's been such a fun time tohave this conversation.
Thank you for saying yes.
Meg Hiney (33:39):
Yeah, thank you, all right.
Piet Van Waarde (33:41):
Thank you for joining us.
It's been so good to have you.
Please join us again on ournext Sidewalk Conversations.
I don't think you have to worry about going short,
more about going long.
We should probably wrap it up.
Piet Van Waarde (00:08):
Was your hubby nervous about you doing this?
Meg Hiney (00:11):
No, I think he was surprised that.
Piet Van Waarde (00:13):
I was going to do it.
Meg Hiney (00:15):
And then he reminded me that I did do another one
before this.
I did it with.
His name is Tom and he cameinto the wine bar.
I met him through other winebar owners and when we opened
the wine bar he wanted to do aspotlight on how to wine bar and
we did it and his is on YouTubeand I just totally forgot that
I had done it, not because Tom'snot memorable, because he is,
(00:38):
but I I didn't really connectthe two as of like a was that in
your, in your spot, or did yougo to a studio?
Piet Van Waarde (00:50):
It was yeah it was right after we opened and it
was in.
Meg Hiney (00:51):
You know I have the blue couch now, so we've been
able to upgrade all thefurniture.
Yeah, it was when we had justhad those four chairs there and
so we set up inside and it wasreally a great thing, because
that day it was just a reallybusy day and it was one of those
, I think, kind of a blessing sothat people could see that
we're a thriving business.
But it was really nice, so hewas focusing on his YouTube
channel.
Does a lot about Texas wines.
Piet Van Waarde (01:11):
Okay.
Meg Hiney (01:12):
And because I feature some Texas wines and I'm also a
Texas wine bar owner, he wantedto chat.
Piet Van Waarde (01:30):
All right, well , welcome to another Sidewalk
Conversations.
I am so grateful that you'vejoined us today, and we have
another very interesting guestthat I am very much looking
forward to introducing you to.
But before we get started, Iwant to tell you about our
business, because it's oursponsor today and it's the Hutto
Wine Bar in downtown Hutto andit's got a great environment and
(01:53):
great specials and, of course,a very informed, well-mannered
and fun proprietor.
So I want you to help mewelcome my guest today, meg
Heine.
Thank you for joining us.
Meg Hiney (02:08):
Meg, thank you for the introduction.
I was waiting to see who youwere talking about under all
those adjectives, but I reallyappreciate it.
Piet Van Waarde (02:15):
Oh, I'm a wordsmith I tell you Well, one
of the things that we want to doon this podcast and I tend to
do it with most of my guests isI just love the story behind the
story.
So there is the public personaof Meg and her business and her
influence within Hutto.
But I want to go back and talka little bit about kind of your
(02:38):
upbringing, how you were raised,and so tell me a little bit
about your family, how you wereraised, where you were raised,
maybe some key influences.
Meg Hiney (02:45):
Yeah, I was born in Houston, originally from Fulcher
, which is not so little anymore, but it's really near Katy, and
when we lived there, I thinkthe town had 250 people in it,
oh my.
And now you can buy a homethere for a cool million dollars
.
Oh there you go, fulcher hasreally grown up since the last
time I was there.
You go, fulcher has reallygrown up since the last time I
(03:06):
was there.
I spent the first 10, 11 yearsof my life there with my dad and
my mom and my brother and wemoved to Austin and I started
going to middle school in theLake Travis School District and
that's where.
Piet Van Waarde (03:15):
I, I guess.
Oh wow, so you've been here fora bit.
Meg Hiney (03:17):
We've been here for a long time.
I won't tell you exactly howlong without going into too much
detail about me, but yeah, wespent a lot of time here in
Austin, so I feel like I'm aTexan, born in Houston but
really raised in Austin.
Piet Van Waarde (03:30):
That's how I put it.
Yeah, okay, yeah, now we metbecause I did a story on your
business for Huddle LivingMagazine and I'm hoping I okayed
this.
We became quick friends alongthe way, yes, and I'm now a
regular participant in yourspecials and all the things you
have going on.
Meg Hiney (03:49):
Yeah, our wine club member.
Yes, yeah, you have to shoutout the wine club.
Yes.
Piet Van Waarde (03:54):
And you insist on showing me all kinds of new
kinds of varieties.
Meg Hiney (04:00):
And.
Piet Van Waarde (04:00):
I kind of get stuck in my lane and you keep
trying to push the boundaries.
Meg Hiney (04:03):
I do Try this, I do.
Hey, try this, I do.
Piet Van Waarde (04:05):
Yeah, tell me how you got in the business.
Meg Hiney (04:07):
Yes, when we first moved to Hutto, my husband and I
moved here in 2011.
And when we moved here, we saidthis place needs a wine bar, we
need a tasting room, we need awine bar.
Where's this at?
Because we're driving toGeorgetown, we're going to
Fredericksburg, we're going intoAustin.
So I always like to say that theidea was born 13, 14 years ago
when we first moved here, andobviously I didn't take it
(04:29):
seriously until about four yearsago, but that's where the idea
for the business came from.
But really, the passion forwine started when I was really
young and watching my dad justkind of take his way through the
wine world and explore thingsthat he liked, things that he
didn't like.
We spent a lot of our timediscussing really cool wines
from California, and then he waskind of starting to dip into
(04:51):
the old world style of wines youknow that Western Europe type
of place and his love, though, Iwould definitely say, was
California wines, and so I kindof picked up on that, and then I
became a Cali wine girl myself,and then, as I grew up, I
realized well, there's a lot ofreally cool stuff outside of
California, there's some greatstuff in Texas and beyond, and
(05:11):
so I spent probably.
Piet Van Waarde (05:13):
And I mean like when you say that you grew up
around wine.
Meg Hiney (05:16):
I mean you had your graduation party at a winery.
Piet Van Waarde (05:19):
You had your wedding at a winery.
This is true.
Meg Hiney (05:21):
Yeah, good reminder.
So some sort of celebrationalways included really, really
fine wine, and when I graduatedhigh school my dad took it upon
himself to buy himself a reallynice bottle of wine to celebrate
my graduation.
When I graduated from college Iwent to A&M for my undergrad
and we had our party.
Two of my cousins and I had itat the Messina Hoff Winery in
(05:42):
Bryan and then when my husbandand I met we had our wedding at
the Spicewood Vineyards out inSpicewood.
So wine has definitely alwaysbeen around a celebration of our
lives.
So it just kind of made an easyselection when I knew I was
ready to kind of go out on myown and start my own business.
Piet Van Waarde (05:58):
And you did this alongside of another
full-time job, so this was kindof like you were doing your
full-time work and then you werestarting.
I was.
Meg Hiney (06:05):
I was.
I was doing software management.
I did corporate softwaremanagement for almost 12, 13
years it was.
It was wild to think that I wasgoing to start a business while
I was doing a full-time job,but I get bored really easily,
and so it just made sense that Iwas going to do something that
was going to overtax me and myfamily, you know, financially,
emotionally and physically.
Piet Van Waarde (06:26):
Um, but you know it's just that's me and
that's what my husband alwayslike.
He's like oh, meg must be boredCause she wants to start
another business or something.
Now, um I, there's a couple ofthings about your business that
I want to get into.
Uh, first of all, you have avery unique focus.
Like you have decided fromearly on that you wanted to have
a specialized focus for yourwinery or your wine bar, and it
(06:48):
has to do with kind of women inthat field.
So tell me a little bit aboutthe thinking behind that.
Meg Hiney (06:53):
Yeah, I started with that in mind, because I come
from the tech world and there'sa lot of dudes in the tech world
.
There's a lot of dudes thattell the girls how they should
do their job better, and I'm notof the mindset of that kind of
person that's like oh yes, thankyou.
Piet Van Waarde (07:06):
Please tell me more about how to do my own job.
Meg Hiney (07:08):
And when I started to get into more wine, I was
asking questions of like who'sowning the vineyard, who's the
winemaker, who's managing thebusiness?
And it was just a lot of malenames and I thought this can't
be it.
There have to be more peopleout there that look like me,
that think like me, that are inthis and enjoying their passion
of wine.
And the moment that I startedasking that question, it just
(07:29):
exploded.
And so there are womeneverywhere doing super fantastic
things.
And when I was looking at thewine bar and what's going to
make us unique and stand outagainst other wine bars in the
area?
I was like.
This is it.
I want to give women theplatform to show their story and
their passions, which they dothrough their wine in a bottle,
and I want to take that to thepeople of Hutto and hopefully
(07:49):
further than Hutto.
Piet Van Waarde (07:50):
Yeah right.
Meg Hiney (07:51):
Start in Hutto.
Start small and then grow big.
Piet Van Waarde (07:54):
Well, and in your wine bar you have actually
a whole section that if somebodyis saying, okay, well, I want
to explore these variouswineries and wines from women
who are in the field, you can goright to a particular place in
your store and find them all,and there are a lot.
Meg Hiney (08:11):
Exactly yeah, we want to make it as easy as possible
for people to find our girlwines as I call them.
We have little tags that saycrafted by women on all of our
by-the-bottle options, and thenon our by-the-glass menu we have
a plus sign next to all ofthose that are somehow woman
influenced.
So when I say woman influenced,it's either owned by a woman
the business is owned by a womanor it's a female winemaker.
(08:31):
And if you're never really sure, you're like, oh, is this owned
by a woman or made by a woman?
Piet Van Waarde (08:35):
You just ask and we'll tell you and we have
the story for all of them.
Well, and your team one of thethings I like about it is they
are so willing to talk to people.
Like, I won't consider myself aconnoisseur.
I can tell you know a littlebit better wine from a cheaper
wine, but I am by no means anexpert.
But your team is like, takes alot of joy in helping inform
(08:58):
people about wines.
And is that like intentional,do you?
Is that part of your pitch?
Meg Hiney (09:03):
Yes, it is.
I want to make sure that thepeople that I bring into my team
, my wine family, it has as muchpassion about wine as I do Now.
I always say when I'm hiringnew people, what I'm really
looking for is can you hold aconversation and are you
friendly?
Because those are things thatyou can't teach.
I can teach you how to you knowuse a computer, I can teach you
(09:26):
about the different facets ofwine, but one of the
expectations is that now thatyou're part of our family, you
really need to be able to sharethese stories and really share
things about the wine toencourage customers to hang out
longer and to try new things,like I do with you.
You know, get to know onecustomer that comes in regularly
enough that you get familiarwith their taste, and then you
can kind of start helping thembranch out, find new things
which is uh, yeah, so I really,I really do expect that from my
(09:47):
staff, and they have done areally fantastic job because, we
have people that come inspecifically asking for certain
people, and so I think that'swonderful.
That's really a testament tothem you know, not really to me,
but to them to be able to standon their own and like and
handle that without my like,looking behind their back to
make sure hey did you offer.
Did you know you should offerthat?
Piet Van Waarde (10:06):
No micromanaging, Good for you Well
and it was like it wasn't likeyou had a lot of previous
business experience to launchthis big business.
I got the sense that you hadsome entrepreneurial gifting and
passions, but this was kind oflike your first real venture, if
I'm remembering, right intolike starting a business.
(10:27):
And then when we went throughthe story, you told me like you
learned lesson after lessonafter lesson and I.
So if you had to go back andkind of think about, like what
were some of the things that youjust learned from the process
of starting a business fromscratch, Document the process,
find somebody who already has aprocess documented, because that
was the biggest problem is thatyou start with one entity.
Meg Hiney (10:50):
You think let's start at the state level.
I have to get my TVC, I have tobe able to serve and I have to
purchase and sell wine.
Okay, great, that's one.
And they make it really easy.
They have an online system andthey're like you have to go to
Comptroller, you have to go herehere Great.
Well.
Then you get to the county andthe county is like well, we
don't have anything like that,but here's a step-by-step
process on our website, but itturns out you have to talk to
(11:11):
four different people to do that.
And then we get to the citylevel and there's really no
roadmap for that.
And then sometimes you have tostart at the state and go to the
city and then go to the countyand go back to the city and then
go back to the state.
So what I would have loved tohave had was hey, meg, start
here, and then you're going totalk to this person and you're
going to go here.
Unfortunately, that's reallyhard to find, especially having
(11:33):
a business.
That has never been done inHutto before.
Hutto has never had a wine bar.
Never had a tasting room beendone in huddle before.
Huddle has never had a wine bar, never had a tasting room.
We have a lot of great bars inhuddle, we have a lot of great
restaurants, but when it comesto this specific business
venture, nobody had done itbefore.
So there wasn't really any wayfor me to feel guided through
the process.
I couldn't go to one person andbe like, okay, I've had a
really hard day.
(11:54):
Tell me what to do tomorrow,and that was just something I
had to keep.
I had had to keep going on withmyself.
Piet Van Waarde (11:59):
Bless you for your tenaciousness.
Thank you, yeah, that's one ofthe really great qualities I get
from my dad, that's for sure.
Now you did, along the way,build a relationship with the
building owner that turned outto be quite serendipitous,
absolutely.
Talk to me about that a bit,yeah.
Meg Hiney (12:15):
Gracie.
She's great.
I met her through my bestfriend, sarah.
Her husband had worked withGracie in the past, and when I
met Gracie she was in the midstof trying to figure out what she
was going to do next with thebuilding that I'm in now, and
she had a previous tenant.
She knew she wanted to remodelthe building and so I met her at
just.
You know what a blessing to meether at the time that I did
because she hadn't started totear the building down yet.
(12:36):
She really hadn't started, likeactively working on, I'm sure,
paperwork wise.
Piet Van Waarde (12:40):
Yeah.
Meg Hiney (12:41):
Yeah, she was on it, for sure, she's the kind of gal
that's on things, and so for meI had my business plan.
I sat on my business plan forabout a year.
I was like I, just I, but Idon't know where to go with this
from here Again, no path right,there's no guidance to the next
step.
I met Gracie.
I showed her my business planand we hit it off immediately.
We're great friends now.
We're great business partnersbecause, being in her building,
(13:03):
I looked to her as a mentor too.
So you know, hey, I think I'mI'm starting to consider what
the next thing looks like, andshe said, well, here's the,
there's some things you shouldthink about.
And so it was just a reallywonderful timing to meet her.
And then she was super excitedabout the idea.
She loves the fact that thewine bar is where it is, and I
think our relationship, businessand friendship wise, is going
(13:23):
to continue to grow because,yeah, really great girl to meet.
Piet Van Waarde (13:27):
So you have a variety of activities that you
do there, like it's not just goin drink your wine, I mean, like
you have.
I happened to fall in on anight where you were doing, I
think, a trivia night or a bingonight or something.
Tell me about some of the.
Yeah, we're trying.
Meg Hiney (13:43):
We're still in the testing phase of what our events
are going to be.
One thing we know for sure ispeople love our bingo nights.
We do free bingo.
People love free bingo.
You don't have to pay for yourcard.
There's some really cool prizesfor each game and it's family
friendly is really nice yeah um,so we're yeah, we're rocking on
bingo.
We do live music a lot, which isreally cool.
We have a great patio space,and so we put our musicians out
(14:04):
there when the weather is that'sright, because you have like
that area outside, yeah, picnictables, yeah, so as much of the
of the indoor spaces we have.
We have almost the exact amountof space outside on the patio
so we're like our space is splithalf and half, which is perfect
.
We.
We've got picnic tables, greatshade trees outside, um.
So we do live music, bingo.
I do tasting dinners.
So I've offered in the pastquite a few options of their
(14:27):
three course dinners and I havepaired wine specifically with
each course so you can kind ofenjoy the pairing specifically.
For one of the times we had,like a shrimp Cristini and I had
a really great white winepaired with that and then we
have some big like ragu shortribs.
Of course that comes with a bigbold red wine and people enjoy
that too.
And then, just trying to branchout and trying to find other
(14:49):
female entrepreneurs that maybedon't have a shop, I like to
bring them into the space aswell.
They can set up their tablesand sell their knickknacks and
T-shirts.
Piet Van Waarde (14:58):
Well, you did that for me too.
I did, yeah, I had a booksigning.
You opened up your space for me.
Meg Hiney (15:03):
I'm always happy to open up, because that's one of
the beauties of having abrick-and-mortar space is that I
can bring in other people thatmaybe don't get that level of
exposure.
I love not only being aplatform for female in the wine
industry, but just anybody ingeneral that's just trying to
get their name out there.
You want to come set up for acouple of hours, set up on the
patio or inside.
Just give you an opportunity toshare your business and your
(15:26):
story with the world.
I'm so happy to do that.
Piet Van Waarde (15:28):
Awesome, yeah, and it's a great I mean, it's a
great vibe for that.
Yeah, all right.
So I know you hate thisquestion because I've had you
try to answer before, but I'msure there are people who are
watching who want to know, like,what are some of your favorite
wines?
Meg Hiney (15:45):
What are some of?
Piet Van Waarde (15:45):
my favorite wines.
Like if somebody is thinkingabout let's pick a price point,
let's say so if somebody issaying between $20 and $40.
Meg Hiney (15:55):
$20 and $40.
Right now we have a reallygreat Cabernet Sauvignon from
California called actually, thisone's from Washington.
I misspoke, it's called GreenWing and it's part of the
Duckhorn Portfolio which, asyou'll remember, is my favorite
portfolio.
Dan and Margaret started thisportfolio back in the 80s and
now they have about nine winesin their book which is really
(16:16):
cool, and Green Weaning was oneof them.
I've had it and it is.
Yeah, it's a really good one,isn't it?
That one, I think, is pricedright about $40.
And then we've got some reallygreat Cote de Provence rosés
that are really fun.
I just brought two in and Ibought, I picked them.
I love that type of rosé, but Ialso picked them because the
labels are just really pretty,and I know that sounds silly,
(16:36):
but sometimes you know, if youthink about when you go to the
store and you're looking for awine on the shelf, you're going
to gravitate towards thoselabels that are just a little
bit more fun, maybe somethingthat speaks to you in that
moment.
So both of these have reallybeautiful floral designs on them
.
One's called Summer in a Bottleand the other one's called
Forever Young, and they're bothFrench rosés, so they're going
to have like a great, nice,clean finish on them, really
(16:57):
like fruit forward, and they'reboth, I think, priced about $30
a bottle.
Piet Van Waarde (17:03):
Now, what was the one that you gave me in the
Wine of the Month Club?
It was, I think it was a roséand it had like a blue.
Meg Hiney (17:13):
Matthiasson yes, so.
Piet Van Waarde (17:15):
I brought that to a friend's house for dinner
this past week and that was thefirst thing they said.
They said that is such a coollabel.
Yeah, matthias.
Meg Hiney (17:23):
and they do some really cool work.
A lot of times their wine,though, can be a little bit
higher on the price point, butthis one was really comfortably
priced, I think around $33.
But Matthias and they've beenmaking wine for a really long
time Really well-known andreally well-appreciated wine
book, but known and really wellappreciated wine book, but I
wanted to pull that in.
I was able to find some at areally nice price point so I
brought that in for the wineclub last month.
(17:43):
And we're about to do anotherwine club party next Monday, so
you have to come in and figureit out, there you go.
I don't ever share secretsbeforehand.
Piet Van Waarde (17:51):
You know that I keep everything very close to
the vest until the day of therelease.
I find it in that little orangebag.
Yeah right, All right, let meshift gears a little bit.
You are obviously very good atyour business, but you also have
two little girls at home.
Well, they're not that littleanymore.
Meg Hiney (18:08):
Oh no, they're little .
Let's keep calling them littleplease, because I can't think
about them getting much biggeror much older.
Piet Van Waarde (18:15):
And so you have to manage family and business.
I'm sure that some days it'sjust crazy, but are there some
little tricks, tips, that you'velearned that boy?
If I can keep this straight,then that seems to work best.
Meg Hiney (18:30):
Yes, I would say that I make a really strong point to
be at home, when they're athome, as much as possible, and
if I can't be at home with them,then I like to bring them with
me to the wine bar just so thatwe can stay.
Piet Van Waarde (18:43):
Yeah, they're there a lot.
Meg Hiney (18:44):
And against a lot of their will.
Sometimes they're like, oh, dowe have to go back to the wine
bar again?
You know then we're puddling inthe garage on the way to the
car, but I really do.
I try to take as manyopportunities to just be close
to them.
Yeah, I think back a lot on thetimes that my brother and I had
with our folks and then ourgrandparents.
It was just more of just beingaround them really made an
(19:07):
impact on my life, and so thatproximity is really important to
me.
And then I am really criticalabout the time that I spend
behind the bar, and when I'mthere you know I'm am I doing
something that I could probablypass off to one of my staff to?
do Is this something that Ireally really need to be here
for Cause?
If not, then I need to go and Ineed to go get them.
Um, my husband is so supportive.
(19:29):
He we kind of call ourselvesmorning and night parents.
Where I'm the morning parent,he gets to kind of like take his
time in the morning and thenhe's the evening parent.
So right now we have theability for him to do swim
lessons and voice lessons andthen you know whatever else is
needed in the evening that Ican't be there for, um, which is
really wonderful.
So my support system is greatand my best friend lives next
(19:50):
door too, so having her there.
Piet Van Waarde (19:51):
She was part of the whole reason that we have a
wine bar as well she is.
Meg Hiney (19:58):
she is the one that made the connection to Gracie
and we started this thingtogether, which was really cool,
and she works at the wine bar.
Whenever we feel like we don'twant to spend time together,
just the two of us, then she'llbe there and I'll be there
working somewhere in the office.
But, yeah, having a strongsupport system has made it
really really easy.
Easy is a good way to describeit, but it's not easy because
(20:23):
I'm not always there with themwhen I want to be, but it's
definitely much more manageable.
Piet Van Waarde (20:25):
Yeah, yeah, now you talked about your husband's
investment.
I mean, it's not just he hasn'tjust been, you know, morally
supportive, I mean he's likebuilt stuff in the wine bar he
has.
Yeah.
Meg Hiney (20:38):
Maybe more than he would have wanted to build for
the wine bar.
So we have a 30-foot bar thatruns down the side of the store,
and I did that because I wantedto mimic a lot of what tasting
rooms in California and in Italyand France offer you.
Right, the experience is youwalk in, you educate on the wine
, you pick out what you're goingto enjoy and then you go find
(20:59):
somewhere else to sit.
There's no bar stools, we'renot sitting down.
We're not like spending threehours at the bar with the server
.
And when I told him that we did,we got a quote from somebody
and he said I can do that forlike a third of the price.
And I said put your money whereyour mouth is bud because I've
got an opening date.
Piet Van Waarde (21:15):
We got to get this done.
Meg Hiney (21:16):
And so I was there every step of the way.
I like to say that I, you know,I helped build it as well, I
mean, but again, he did a lot ofthe work and he's my, he's my
handyman.
So I hope none of the tradesmenthat I hire is listening
because I always refer to myhandyman so I don't have to be
like, well, let me call myhusband and figure that out,
cause that kind of also removesa little bit of my power and so
I say I have to talk to myhandyman and see when he can get
(21:39):
out to make that adjustment.
Piet Van Waarde (21:42):
Love it All.
Right Now.
On a more serious note, you'vealso had your share of
challenges of life.
In fact, one of the things thatwe kind of connected over early
on was we are fellow cancerwarriors.
So you've had a battle againstcancer.
However comfortable you feel,tell me a little bit about how
(22:04):
that journey played out for you.
Are you now in a good place?
What helped you work throughsome of those challenges?
Meg Hiney (22:11):
Yeah, I was diagnosed with breast cancer stage 3
breast cancer when I was 30.
I had just had my youngestdaughter.
She was 8 months when I wasdiagnosed.
So we had an almostthree-year-old and an
eight-month-old at home and itwas a real shock.
I knew that I had the BRCA1gene mutation.
So we knew.
My husband and I found outright after we got married.
(22:33):
We knew that at some pointsomething was going to either
occur or we would need to dosomething preventative.
But you never have a time and adate on those things.
And so when I found my lump,went into the doctor.
It was very fast growing and soimmediately was put on to
chemotherapy.
I did two rounds ofchemotherapy that lasted a total
(22:55):
of 20 weeks, and then I didanother 12, 15 weeks of
radiation.
I always say I don't rememberexactly, because I went into
fight mode and I just was like,whatever they're telling me to
do, I'm doing it, I'm notquestioning anything Like I just
had a baby.
This is not the thing that'sgoing to keep me from like
(23:16):
walking my kids down the aisleif they ask me to one day.
And I remember telling mydoctors that specifically I said
am I going to be able to see mykids get married?
And they said, if we starttreatment now, this won't be the
thing that tops you.
And so I went through that.
I had three surgeries after that.
I went ahead and I had cancerjust in one breast, and so I
(23:38):
went ahead and prophylacticallytook out the other breast
because we're not going torevisit this.
And then I had another surgerytoo because of the BRCA1.
It's not just breast cancer,it's all female reproductive
cancer.
So you know it is what it is.
You know you get handed thesecards whenever they're dealt out
to you, whenever things startgoing and you just do what you
(24:01):
have to do to keep surviving, asyou know.
Piet Van Waarde (24:14):
And so during that process again my husband
insurmountable support, tooknotes on everything, was
actually paying attention whenthe doctors were talking,
figuring out when theappointments were, which is not
easy to do.
It's not easy to do Becauseyou're so like, so overwhelmed,
emotionally as well.
Meg Hiney (24:20):
It was, I know, and I never say I don't think I could
do what he did.
Being the patient, I think, wasthe easiest part, because I was
doing everything that I wastold to do.
I was like this is what youneed to do to survive and just
go do it.
But he's the one that's notgoing through treatment and he's
having to watch all of thisplay out, plus with the kids at
home.
You know, and it's uh, you know, I just, I thank God every day
(24:42):
that he was the man that Godpicked for me.
And, um, through all of that,we, we made it on the other side
.
And now I'm five years laterand I go in for every six month
checkups.
I think the type of cancer thatI had I'll see my doctor every
six months for the rest of mylife is what she said.
So we just became really goodfriends you know, first name
basis sort of thing.
(25:04):
Unfortunately, during thattreatment, my dad was also
diagnosed with brain cancer, andso he passed away 18 months
after he was diagnosed with hisglioblastoma.
So we shared a doctor's office,which you never want to do with
a parent.
You know we shared a radiationoffice, which you never again,
never want to do with parent Um,but it was a really it was an
(25:27):
experience that I learned a lotfrom because again, it brought
me so much closer to my dad andwe were already very close,
daddy's girl all the way.
You know he raised me like alittle boy, cause I have an
older brother.
He was like this is just easyenough to do.
She can wear boys clothes andbe a tomboy and do all the
sports that Clark's doing.
And so we already had a really,really close relationship and it
(25:47):
just kind of felt normal tobring him along and my brother
and I were there to support himdoctor's appointments, treatment
appointment, whatever it was.
Unfortunately, we lost him in2020, after all of that, which
is five years without him, whichis really hard to say out loud,
but I know that he's here allthe time and we have some really
great memories together.
He lived with us for a fewweeks because, you know, just
(26:11):
telling your dad to do somethingand then him actually listening
to you.
He didn't want to.
He was like you're my kid, youshouldn't be telling me when to
take my medicine.
Piet Van Waarde (26:22):
I'm like, well, except you're taking your
uppers at night and your downersa day, and so I was like you're
not good for anybody right now.
Meg Hiney (26:25):
So that was really special and he got the girls got
to spend a lot of good timewith him before, before he
eventually passed.
Piet Van Waarde (26:30):
But now there, there are a number of people
because of my own situation.
I have a number of people herewho've kind of worked through
that same challenge and I alwayslike to ask them like what were
some of the keys that helpedyou survive the most difficult
times?
Were there some things that youlook back on and say, boy, I'm
really glad I either had thispiece of advice or this thing
(26:53):
that I did that helped me workthrough the most challenging of
physical circumstances?
Did you have anything like that?
Meg Hiney (27:00):
Yes, I got very strong in my faith.
I'm Catholic, I was raisedCatholic, I'm still practicing.
I had Ash Wednesday onWednesday.
I get to walk around and havepeople look at you a little
interestingly, like letsomething on your forehead.
I got very strong in my faithand I really looked to Mary
(27:20):
Jesus's mother for a lot ofguidance, because she was a
mother and she was going throughsomething very, very difficult
herself, watching her son growand then his untimely death
right and so I took a lot fromher story of just that
perseverance and support andlooking and trusting that this
is not something that'spermanent, but these feelings
are real.
(27:40):
So feel the feelings you have,but this is just a season.
The season after this is goingto be something completely
different.
So I had to keep remindingmyself of that, that nothing
that I was experiencing in thatmoment was going to be permanent
, that there was something onthe other side waiting for me,
holding my kids, just havingthem like sit in my lap, because
they were still so little theywould want to do that.
(28:00):
Now I have a nine and an almostseven year old and they're like
touching me with their pinky.
They're like this is, this isgood physical contact, mom, I
don't need much else, thank you,unless they need something.
And then the hugs start.
Um, but I would have.
Yeah, I had Sadie, my youngest.
I would just put her in my lapbecause that's all I could
really do.
I couldn't lift her, I couldn'tcarry her around, I was so
physically weak from everything.
So I would just plop her downin my lap and she'd eat crackers
(28:22):
or whatever, watch Mickey MouseClubhouse, and then with Emily
too, she, just she would drawstuff for me, and then I think,
just-.
Piet Van Waarde (28:30):
I remember you actually when sorry, but when I
was like in the middle of mytreatment and I came into the
wine bar one time and I said Ineed some encouragement.
I said what helped you survive?
And you said looking at my kidsyeah, just knowing that you
already referenced it, butknowing that if I get on the
(28:53):
other side of this battle, I'llbe able to watch them get
married, I will be a part oftheir life, and that provided
all kinds of motivation for you.
It sounded like Absolutely.
Meg Hiney (29:04):
Yeah, they really were.
They were the thing that justsaid.
You know, this is really hardand this is really crappy.
I don't know what I can say onthis.
Piet Van Waarde (29:12):
I was going to say the best word, but I'll keep
it to myself.
Meg Hiney (29:15):
I just had to keep reminding myself that there are
things bigger than me in thismoment and I just couldn't, I
couldn't imagine, I wouldn't letmyself imagine them not having
me.
Piet Van Waarde (29:26):
Right.
Meg Hiney (29:27):
And it's like, because I'm going to be here,
I'm going to do this, and so Iyeah, I encourage anybody if
they have, even if it's likekids of their own, if just their
spouses, their partners orwhoever it is.
There are things outside of youthat you will create a very big
void if you're not there for,and so that's one of the best
ways to keep fighting.
Piet Van Waarde (29:45):
Yeah, and I think that mindset itself is so
critical, just to be able to sayyou know, it's about more than
me and I'm going to fight forthis because it is about more
than me.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, all right.
So when you think about, thankyou for sharing that, yeah,
absolutely.
Meg Hiney (30:00):
That was really really great.
Piet Van Waarde (30:02):
As you think about your future, kind of, what
are you looking forward to?
Oh, I'm looking forward to.
Meg Hiney (30:06):
You got other things on the horizon, so I have so
many things in my head that someof them are on paper and some
of them are not.
None of the thing is officiallystarted yet is officially
started yet.
I created a vision board thisyear, which I've never done.
I was outside of my comfortzone with that Cause.
It's like pictures of thingsyou think might happen or that
might want to happen.
It was definitely not a Megthing to do, but I did it, which
(30:29):
I'm really glad, and I have itup in my office.
So I see it every single day.
I see the things that I haveplanned out, and I was actually
at a little panel discussion onTuesday for Hutto entrepreneurs
and business owners and one ofthe panelists asked me
afterwards.
He said what is Hutto Wine Bar2.0 look like?
(30:49):
And I said well, I got to getto 1.5 first.
I have a 1.5 plan, but there isa 2.0 plan and definitely this
isn't it.
There's definitely going to bemore coming.
It just takes a little bit oftime and resources, as you know.
It takes resources, includingmoney and time myself you know,
(31:10):
so one of the things that I'mdoing right now to prepare for
all the things that are comingis setting up a really great
team at the wine bar so I have amanager in training right now.
She's doing fantastic.
Up a really great team at thewine bar so I have a manager in
training right now, she's doingfantastic.
And then once I feel like I cannot be there every day, then
the next things really start.
Piet Van Waarde (31:25):
Can you give us a sneak peek, maybe?
Meg Hiney (31:27):
There may be something that looks a lot like
HWB, maybe somewhere else, orthere might be something that
has to do with sports somewhereelse.
I don't want to put too muchout there, because what I have
also found is the moment thatyou say something out loud
people that's what they want toknow about.
When can we expect that tohappen?
(31:49):
And so one of the lessonslearned of being an entrepreneur
and a business owner is that,until you know for sure, please
don't share dates.
Piet Van Waarde (31:57):
I do remember that when we had done the
magazine, it was like okay, thisis going to be like our date,
and I think it was like threemonths later.
Yeah, I know.
Meg Hiney (32:05):
I know what a bummer that was, but that's another
thing about.
There's no roadmap and sothere's no timeline either.
Now, you know who to talk to,but you have to wait for them to
respond.
You who to talk to, but youhave to wait for them to respond
.
You can ask the question, butwaiting for that response is
(32:25):
kind of what lags out.
I think we were supposed toopen like in summer of 2023, and
then October of 2023, and thenDecember of 2023.
And then finally, in Februaryof 2024, we opened.
Lesson learned.
Piet Van Waarde (32:35):
Yeah, right, at the right time.
Meg Hiney (32:36):
Yeah.
Piet Van Waarde (32:37):
All right, last question, right at the right
time.
Yeah, all right.
Last question um, do you, doyou find yourself with a like a
life theme life message thatkind of provides your true north
and how you kind of think aboutlife and how you want to live
your life?
Is there something like thatthat you kind of use as a
guiding principle or or maybe alife message?
Meg Hiney (32:59):
I don't ever let no be the first and final answer.
You can sav it as your firstanswer, but it shouldn't be the
final answer that you accept.
I think that every no is anopportunity for a discussion and
an understanding of why youwould react with a no first, and
I think anybody that wants togo into business.
That's the thing that you haveto learn immediately.
You cannot accept no, becauseif you accept no, everything
(33:21):
will stop and you can tellyourself no or it can be an
external no.
So I never let no be the firstand final answer.
Piet Van Waarde (33:28):
I love that.
Yeah, wow, cool, thanks, well,thank you so much for joining me
today.
It's been such a fun time tohave this conversation.
Thank you for saying yes.
Meg Hiney (33:39):
Yeah, thank you, all right.
Piet Van Waarde (33:41):
Thank you for joining us.
It's been so good to have you.
Please join us again on ournext Sidewalk Conversations.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.