Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
My name is Renee Ventries, and I like to call
(00:02):
myself a pairing professional.
By day, I pair my clients withtheir ideal collaborators and
other businesses.
And by night, I pair wine withlife and beautiful experiences
beyond the bottle.
SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Amazing.
I'm fascinated.
Now, take me back to how you gotstarted in all of this.
Tell me how you got to where youare today.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
That is such a crazy winding journey.
I was in the military, you know,in the early 90s and uh found
out very quickly that I hadentrepreneured myself out of
being in the Navy.
Fun fact the military doesn'tcare about your ideas or
creativity.
They want you to follow, youknow, orders.
So I learned how to be a goodsailor, a good, you know,
follower, but also learned a lotabout leadership.
(00:45):
And uh so as life went on,started the Cork and Keg Tours
was my winery and brewery tourcompany.
During the shutdown, during2020, I became a mentor to other
entrepreneurs since I wasn'table to do tours.
And that mentoring led intobecoming an actual business
coach.
So I trademarked my companycalled BizLationships, which is
(01:06):
mutually beneficial businessrelationships that generate
revenue for both sides.
So BizLelationships are reallywhat I try to put together for
my clients, help them to seebeyond the four walls that they
consider their business in andcrack a wall open and give them
a window to find a new audienceand learn how to connect with
them through community andrelationships.
(01:28):
So that's where the mentoringcame in, the wine.
You know, once I realized that Ihad a palate for wine and was
able to pick out things in winethat had nothing to do with
fruit flavors, I figured maybeit was time to work on becoming
a Somalier.
So I got certified, got hookedup with some really great
organizations, you know, didvirtual tastings for almost a
(01:49):
hundred people several timesover the years, and it just kept
on growing.
So then I trademarked wineo'clock.
Um, so it's always wine o'clocksomewhere if I'm in the room.
SPEAKER_01 (01:59):
Oh my goodness, I love that.
That sounds like so much fun.
SPEAKER_00 (02:02):
It really is.
I love being able to make I lovemonetizing my passions, right?
And I've always done it.
I didn't realize that I wasdoing it.
Like when I became acheerleading coach, it was
because I always wanted tobecome a choreographer.
And when I started working inluxury travel, well, it's
because I absolutely lovedtraveling and loved helping
other people to find their idealvacations.
(02:23):
So I guess when I look back atmy life, I've always found a way
to make money doing what I love.
It's a good thing I don't lovecocaine.
SPEAKER_01 (02:30):
Hey, I hear you.
But I love the point that youmade.
You got one life to live, solive it.
Doing what you love.
SPEAKER_00 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's not always easy.
Um, you know, excuse me.
I didn't have a lot of choices,you know, for many, many years.
I went into the military afterhigh school because there was no
way we could afford for me to goto college.
I'm number five out of six kids,you know, so college really
wasn't an option.
Plus, I was kind of sick of it,didn't really want to study
anyway.
(02:58):
So I went right into theservice.
Being enlisted in the military,you make absolutely no money.
So you have very few choices,very few options.
But as my husband and I, youknow, got older and got out of
the military and started workingon our lives together, we
started to make decisions thatcould lead us.
What do we want in five years?
Let's live our lives right nowtoward that goal.
(03:19):
What do we want in 10?
Let's live toward that goal.
And so now in our mid-50s, we'veactually been able to achieve a
lot of our goals.
And now we can live life with afew more options than before and
being able to lean into wine,um, writing my best-selling
book.
All of this came because we camefrom very humble beginnings,
made very calculated decisionson how we wanted to succeed, and
(03:40):
then we went for it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:41):
That's wonderful.
I'm excited to learn more.
SPEAKER_00 (03:44):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:45):
So you built your career around connection,
creativity, and community.
What does authentic connectionmean to you in business and in
life?
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
They are very similar in both.
It's more about listening to whoyou're with than talking about
who you are.
No matter what kind of situationI'm in, I'm always more about
what I can do to make that otherperson feel comfortable or what
it is that they're looking forout of the conversation.
Is it just having fun andlearning about wine at a party,
or is it someone struggling withtheir business and just needs
(04:16):
someone to hear them and know,you know, where they are and
meet them there?
Yeah, being authentic to me justmeans listening to other people
and giving any answers you canthat may be able to help them.
I've all I've also learned tonever try to be like anybody
else who's in the room justbecause maybe I respect them or
they're doing really well.
Maybe I should mock mock mock mymock, not so much mock, but
(04:39):
maybe I should imitate theirstyle, or maybe I should tone
down my energy because everybodyelse is low energy, or you know,
maybe I should dress a littlebit less flashy because
everybody else is in, you know,suits and plain color colors.
And I'm like, nah, I'm justgonna be me.
If they invited me into thatroom, they knew what they were
getting.
And who am I to not give themthat?
(05:00):
So yeah, authenticity reallycomes from listening to the
other people who you're talkingto who are looking for something
from you and giving them thebest that you've got for them.
SPEAKER_01 (05:10):
Absolutely.
I think there's some reallygreat advice in there that
you're giving aboutauthenticity.
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
Yeah, you know, and I wrote a blog about it once on
my website.
I have a blog and uh in apodcast called Start Whining.
And um, in my blog and mypodcast, I talk about I was
going to make fun of all this.
Why is everybody trying so hardto be authentic?
You're just being authentic bybeing you.
But then I thought back to mychildhood and I thought back to
(05:35):
how girls weren't supposed totalk about themselves.
It wasn't ladylike, and howdon't speak until spoken to.
And you should say things thatmake everybody else feel
comfortable, even if it's notwhat you really want to say.
We're brought up not to beauthentic.
So as I was writing this blog,written ready to trash,
everybody who didn't know how tobe authentic, I was like, oh my
(05:56):
gosh, I went through that samething.
So um I think it's reallyimportant for people to
understand it's okay to questionauthenticity, since a lot of us
weren't raised to even behavethat way.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
Exactly.
Well said.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
From growing a local division to$2 million in revenue
to selling your ownaward-winning tour company,
you've reinvented yourselfmultiple times.
What do you think fuels yourability to evolve and thrive?
SPEAKER_00 (06:26):
That's kind of an easy one.
It's all the split personalitiesin my head.
No, seriously though, sorry.
I think it's because I'm notone-dimensional and most people
aren't.
Now, I'll give a comparison.
My husband has always had onegoal, one thing he wanted to do,
one way of living, and he's sohappy in that.
He's very target focused.
(06:48):
He's like a smart bomb of ahuman being.
I am more like a rifle, full ofscatter shot.
There's shotgun, you know,shotgun spray everywhere with
me.
And all of that makes me happy.
Drives him nuts.
Not being able to have one thingto focus on makes him absolutely
insane.
Like, okay, this is just toomuch.
For me, I'm like, I can't dojust one thing.
(07:08):
I love all these little thingsthat represent me.
So I think the biggest thing wasprioritizing which one fit in
that moment in my life.
When my son was young and, youknow, I wanted to stay home with
him.
Doing direct sales was thething.
When he was older and he was inschool and I got a part-time
job, but I was home by the timehe was done with preschool.
That was a thing.
(07:29):
So I always was looking atwhat's going on in my life and
which version of Renee fits bestfor that.
And now in my 50s, it's great tobe able to focus on what really
brings me joy.
And so, yeah, when I built thatcompany to 2 million in revenue
in that one division, it wasincredible.
My son was in school.
I was still able to work fromhome.
(07:50):
Um, and when that ran its courseand I was able to get more into
wine and my own entrepreneurialjourney, my husband was right
there for me.
And we just made decisions thatmade it possible for me to be
myself.
So I think it was really justmaking sure that I took
everything into stock.
What was going on in myrelationships, my son, my
husband, my family, my dog.
(08:11):
Um, what was going on with me?
Did I want more school?
Did I want to get acertification?
You know, did I want to travel?
What was I looking for?
And I just I've made all ofthose decisions, including him,
including my son.
Uh, and then we all workedtogether to make sure that I
stayed happy.
But you know the saying, if mamaain't happy, no one's happy.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Ain't no one happy.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
See, you know, the age gap does not make a
difference.
You know exactly how the worldworks.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (08:39):
I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00 (08:41):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (08:42):
And I just I love how you touched on having that
support system at home and justhow much that can help you
flourish in so many differentways.
SPEAKER_00 (08:50):
Absolutely.
You know, it's not easy for myhusband living with the serial
entrepreneur, being a type A,you work 20 years, you get the
gold watch, you retire and youknow, play golf and boat into
the sunset to live with someonewho was a squirrel, you know,
who like I have Jack Russellenergy all the time, just like
our 19-year-old Jack Russell.
So I'm a lot, right?
(09:11):
And I know I am, but being ableto channel it really did help,
you know, help him to be able tounderstand me.
And it also helped me tosometimes back off for him.
So he actually really helped meto settle into just doing like
one thing and then connecting mymentorship and my wine.
Now I mentor women in tourismand women who want to get into
(09:32):
wine.
So I'm able to scratch all theseitches without making him crazy,
seeing me flitting from thisthing to that.
But that calm that he bringsalso gives me a different type
of energy to really focus onwhat I want to do.
And it's part of why I becomemore successful, is because I
didn't just move on to the nextthing or the next thing.
I actually took those things andevolved them and grew them and
(09:54):
made them into something biggerand more beautiful instead of a
bunch of different things.
So it's really, you know, youdon't know what you don't know.
And when you have people aroundyou who are different, when you
diversify where your advicecomes from, where your support
comes from, you start to becomemore well-rounded, both
personally and professionally.
It's really hard for me toseparate my professional life
(10:17):
from my personal life becauseI'm the same in both instances.
And it's just a matter of whichone is getting their priority in
that moment.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
What you see is what you get, right?
You know, so that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (10:29):
Yeah, and it's and it makes it really easy to be
myself both in business and mypersonal life because I've made
who I am a part of my perprofessional brand.
SPEAKER_01 (10:40):
Amazing.
I love it.
Looking back, what's onedefining moment when you realize
that connection, not juststrategy, was the real key to
business success?
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
Hmm.
This goes all the way back towhen I was working for the pet
sitting dog work walkingcompany.
We had no money for advertising.
Advertising was so expensive.
It was hit or miss.
We had taken out some ads, youknow, that just weren't doing
anything.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm just gonna get out there inthe community.
(11:12):
So I started driving around ourgrooming vans when they weren't
full of dogs.
I would drive them around, Iwould park them in the parking
lot, not too far out, but alittle bit in.
And I would pretend to be inthere trying to like straighten
something up or cleaningsomething.
Invariably, every time someonewould come up and say, Oh, is
that a mobile dog walking, dog,dog grooming van?
(11:32):
I I have a dog.
I would love for someone to cometo my house.
And I was like, Oh, this oldthing, yeah.
And it's a it's a Mercedes.
Yeah, we come to your house andwe bring it.
Here's a card, or better yet,tell me what kind of dog you
have.
I can tell you when we haveopenings.
You know, does Fluffy eat agroom right now?
So I decided instead of a staticad, I would get out there in
front of people, let them seewhat we have, and attract them.
(11:55):
I applied the exact samephilosophy to when I owned the
winery and brewery tour company.
Drove that van to thesupermarket, to wherever, had
music playing, had the lightsgoing, did it when the sun was
going down so people could seethe lights and be like, what's
going on?
Is there a DJ back there?
And so I would always justattract people.
My husband called me a moth offlame the other day.
(12:18):
He's like, You just attract allthese moths.
I'm like, maybe so, you know, Idon't know.
But he's like, you just youbring people into your universe.
And I'm like, yeah, I guess Ikind of do.
So that's exactly what it was.
That's when I knew thatconnecting with people really
did work more than just runningan ad or handing out business
cards.
I don't even have business cardsanymore.
I hand up my bookmarks for mybook.
(12:39):
Um, somebody wants to talk aboutthe other things I do on
business.
I've got a QR code saved on myphone.
I'm like, you want to connect?
Here's how.
So they come to me, I give themwhat they're looking for, and uh
sometimes even get paid for it.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
Hey, that's awesome.
It's really just a humanexperience.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, and and what I do arethings that do bring joy and
make people happy.
So it really does make adifference to me that they see
that I'm joyful as I do it.
So if I'm not in a great mood,I'm not going out and trying to
connect.
I'm not gonna fake it.
I don't, I can't put on a smile,you know, they come easily
naturally enough.
I'm definitely not gonna try andforce one.
(13:18):
It just doesn't work.
So I tell that to my clients allthe time.
If you have a day where you justcan't get up and network, you're
just not feeling it, take thatday as a CEO day where now
you're working on your businessinstead of in your business.
You can still get things done,but without having to go out and
force yourself to be somethingthat you're not feeling.
SPEAKER_01 (13:39):
Words of the wise.
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Words of the wise, absolutely.
Learn the hard way.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (13:45):
How do you bring fun and authenticity into leadership
while still driving seriousbusiness results?
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Oh, that's such a good question.
No one's ever asked me that.
So, for example, I have an eventcoming up next week where it is
a corporate event, and I said tothem, Do people want to learn
about KPIs and cross promotionsfrom a slide or from sipping
from a bottle of wine?
And they're like, tell me more.
So I said, I can give thedifferent roles in your company
(14:16):
portionalities, where I say, forexample, this is why you need to
listen to your CTO.
They are like the Cabernet Francof your business.
They're the structure and thebackbone that are necessary for
longevity of that wine.
If you only put this grape inthere, it can be great for a
couple of months, maybe even ayear or two.
But without that foundation thatyour CTO makes, just like that
(14:39):
foundation Cabernet Franc giveswine, the wine falls flat within
several years.
So if you're looking for yourcompany to really succeed, think
of your CTO as your CabernetFranc, listen to what they say,
and your business will havelongevity for 20 years to come,
right?
So things like that.
So I put wine and, you know, andsometimes if they want bourbon
or beer, whatever they want,I'll put any any drink in front
(15:01):
of uh a crowd and give it lifeand compare it to what they're
dealing with.
So when I did that for a cybercommunity, uh cybersecurity
company, I did that with likethe bad guys and the good guys
and the breaches and all ofthat.
When I did it for Salesforce, wetalked a lot about how those
client connections are farbetter.
And we talk about how they'relike a blend in wine, right?
(15:23):
So just there's a lot of funways to do that.
The best way for me to do it isto understand who I'm talking to
and what their mission is at theend of hiring me for an event.
What do you want people to getout of it?
Do you want them to feel moreconnected to sip different
things and work?
Or do you just want them to havefun?
If you just want them to havefun, then I will give them their
(15:43):
personalities.
Gonna find out who theChardonnay in the room is.
If you don't think it's you,it's probably you, right?
So things like that.
I make it conversational.
I don't give speeches, I openconversations, I open the floor.
And just because, justnaturally, in our house, we like
to say ball busting is our lovelanguage.
(16:04):
Making fun of, you know, asituation, making light of a
situation is how we get throughlife in my family.
So I just apply that toeverything.
I need to make sure I know whattheir level, you know, how much
they can take.
Like, look, I'm an ex-sailor.
I will drop the F-bomb withouteven thinking about it, unless I
really know my group is veryconservative, you know.
So uh yeah.
(16:24):
So I just kind of I get to knowwho I'm talking to and then I
let it fly.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah, I think there's always a way to relate
to somebody and you're takingthat philosophy with your
knowledge of wine and to whatthey're doing.
I think it's just a really cooltechnique you have.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
Thank you.
Yeah, you know, and I've made itinto it's that's the first book
came out, Poor RelationshipChoices, P-O-U-R.
So now it's going to be aseries.
And um, one of the books in thisseries is going to be called
Nobody's Perfect.
So it will talk about all thegreat things about somebody, and
then it'll be like, but beware,these are some of the things
that might be pitfalls.
I can use astrology for it, youknow, the color codes, all these
(17:02):
different things.
But all the imperfections thatwe have make us the actual
perfect person.
So yeah, that's something that'sjust been, it's got such a
natural flow, it just keeps onhappening and keeps on
happening.
Sometimes it gets emotional,though.
Um, we were at a family reuniona couple of weeks ago, and I
hope I can tell this withouttearing up because it was just
(17:24):
so cute.
I was talking to um the fiancéof um one of my nephews, and she
wanted me to ask, she wanted meto tell her what her wine
personality was.
And I was like, Oh, I thinkyou're kind of a Pinot Grigio
today.
You're you've been just solight, and your conversation's
been great.
You've been really easy to getalong with, just like a Pinot
Grigio.
And she said, Oh, thank you somuch.
I love Pinot Grigio.
(17:45):
What's my fiance?
What's Brandon, you know, yournephew?
And I looked at my nephew andimmediately I started tearing up
because such a great kid.
He's in his 40s, and I'm callinghim a kid, but such a great kid
with a great son, and he comesfrom a fantastic brother of mine
who's happens to be one of myfavorite humans on earth.
His son represents so many ofthe good things that are in my
(18:09):
brother, so many of the goodthings that are in my father,
and his son represents so manygreat things from all of them.
Port wine is made in that way,with the best from different
generations of wine all into onebottle.
And so I don't have a chapter inthe book yet for that, but the
next book is probably going tolead with that.
SPEAKER_01 (18:27):
Sounds like a perfect family, if I do say so
myself.
SPEAKER_00 (18:30):
It was an imperfect family with a perfect definition
of my nephew.
Yes.
Amazing.
So yeah, those things justreally I've always thought
differently.
I've been writing since I wasseven.
I've never, I've never donethings the regular way.
In fact, my sister, we at thefamily reunion, I was doing a
speaking event, and my sisteropened it for me.
(18:51):
She was an uh introduced me.
And she said when we were young,we all would take pictures out
of a coloring book.
We would each get a page as, youknow, couldn't afford all of us
to have our own.
So we would tear pages out,crayons in the middle.
Everybody else is coloring ontheir page.
They could always tell minebecause mine would have the
picture in the middle and onlycoloring outside of the areas
that weren't the characters, andmy character was completely
(19:14):
blank, and everything around itwas all her colors.
Uh-huh.
I didn't even realize I did thatuntil she said it just a few
weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01 (19:21):
That is too good.
SPEAKER_00 (19:23):
Yep, I just am who I am.
I've just evolved.
Now it's wine instead ofKool-Aid and juice boxes.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
Hey, that's where it's at.
So you often talk about turningreviews into referrals into
revenue.
Why is leveraging reputation themost underused growth tool in
business today?
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
Because it takes the most time, it takes the most
effort, and it makes the personwho that brand represents have
to put themselves into it.
You can't give a marketingagency that type of power and
control because they aren'tgoing to actually capture you.
They can capture your brand,absolutely.
But if you are a big part ofyour brand and if your
(20:04):
relationships either with thecommunity or others are what
drives your business, you don'thave a choice but to use
relationship and community tobuild your business.
I'm big on uh, you know,alliterations.
So conversations convert tocurrency.
You know, community connectionsconvert to currency.
You know, you have to reallylook at the fact that the people
(20:26):
who are buying from you are alsopeople who are telling others to
buy from you.
So I'm not looking at atransaction.
When I'm even when I'm doing apodcast like this, I'm not
looking at this podcast of mejust getting to talk on the
podcast where one of my favoritedresses and hopefully people
watch it.
Absolutely not.
This is a lead magnet.
I will be bringing it up.
I will be showing it to people.
(20:46):
I will be making sure that theyunderstand listen, this is what
we have in our community thatcan help to spread your brand.
You should get one of these aswell so that you can also show
an elevated version of yourselfon film, right?
So it's never just about theone-to-one.
And as soon as I figured thatout, probably, oh my God, 20
years ago in business, I knewthat connecting through
(21:06):
relationships and community wereit.
Philanthropy is another goodone.
When you get, um when you cancome together around a cause,
you find other people with a lotof your same values and the same
things that are important tothem.
Suddenly you have a wholecommunity, you know, within your
philanthropy and yourphilanthropic philanthropic
businesses.
And now you can do good togetherwhile you're also, you know,
(21:28):
able to, you know, fill your ownpockets, which you can use to
help support the charity.
Yeah, it's a no-brainer to me toleverage philanthropy,
community, and relationships.
And then you get those referralsfrom those folks.
Um, you get repeat business fromthose folks, and they tell
others, I spent less than$200 ayear in marketing.
And still to this day, I spendvery, very little money on
(21:51):
marketing.
I put it into philanthropy, Iput it into relationships, and I
put it into my community.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
That is super inspiring.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
And looking ahead, what's your vision for Wine
O'Clock, your podcast, and yourbiz relationships community over
the next few years?
SPEAKER_00 (22:10):
Yeah, you know, they're all gonna grow right
along with each other.
I think the biz relationshipsare going, it's going to be less
individual coaching and moreworkshops and you know, speaking
from stages.
I could have a bigger impactthen.
And also, as I start to retire,I'm not going to want to be on
the phone with somebody everyweek.
So I will definitely bechanging, you know, that into
(22:32):
coming down a bit.
As far as the wine goes, I'll bewriting another, you know,
series of wine books.
I've got three in the hopper sofar.
Um, I'll be writing more.
I'll be doing more events whereI help people to pair wine with
things they don't necessarilythink would actually work,
getting them to expand theirpalettes.
You know, I guess I just reallywant, as I, as I go forward five
(22:53):
years from now, I want people tothink of the way that I create
wine pairings and create wineexperience to be the standard
and not something that peopleare like, wow, I've never heard
of this before.
They're gonna know that wineo'clock with Renee Ventrice was
where they started pairing, youknow, wine with fire pits, you
know, wine with ski boots, winewith, you know, with uh with
(23:16):
vacations, or wine with businessevents.
So yeah, I am going to become ahousehold name in five years,
whether it's between wine,relationships, and they're all
just gonna wrap up together.
SPEAKER_01 (23:27):
I have all the faith in you.
No doubt in my mind.
SPEAKER_00 (23:32):
Thank you.
Yeah.
I see it.
You want to hear somethinggreat?
Gary V, Gary Vanderchuk, um, youknow, big guy in you know,
business and entrepreneurship,super successful wine and
business as well.
So um, six years ago, he made apost on LinkedIn and it said, in
10 years, where do you want yourbusiness to be?
And so I answered that post sixyears ago and I said, I want to
(23:54):
have written a book, I want tohave bought out, I want to have
started and sold a successfulcompany, and I want to make a
difference in people's lives.
And it popped up in my feed twoweeks ago, and I was like, I'm
five years ahead of schedule.
Scary feed, look what I've done.
So hopefully he reaches out tome and is like, let's talk to
this woman about getting yourgoals five years ahead and
(24:15):
actually visualizing it back in2019.
And I've already done some ofthose things.
Well, okay, I've done them all,but now I'm gonna do better even
more.
But to see that in writing thatI said that six years ago, I was
floored.
I was completely flabbergasted.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
That is just a magical full circle moment.
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
It really was.
Oh, I cried and I was like, andI was about to go on stage, and
I was like, oh my god, I shouldnever have been looking at
LinkedIn before I came on stage.
It so I I led with it.
I'm like, okay, guys, I'm alittle, this is not what I
planned to say, but you have tohear this.
And then it just kicked off thewhole thing, and it was amazing.
And people really did talk aboutwhatever I say right now, I hope
(24:56):
I get a chance to see it, youknow, again in six years.
And I said, set an alarm, put analarm on your clock that's going
to go off six years from todaywith what your goal is.
I'll wait.
And in six years, that alarm isgoing to go off, even if you
change phones.
Hopefully, it congres with you,but that alarm's gonna go off.
You're gonna read it, see if youdon't manifest it from today
(25:17):
going forward.
SPEAKER_01 (25:19):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (25:20):
Really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01 (25:21):
Such a such an awesome philosophy to live by.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
I agree.
It's and I really do live by it.
I live by balance, but balancedoesn't mean things are equal.
It's just like the differencebetween equality and equity.
Equity means you give what needsto, you know, to what needs it,
right?
So if I don't need, if I'm full,I don't need any food, and this
person over here is hungry,equal means we both get the same
(25:45):
size piece of cake.
Equity means this person gets abigger piece because they're
hungry and I'm good, right?
And so that's what I do with mylife.
My son lives in Nashville now.
As hard as it is to let go, hedoesn't need me momming,
smothering him as much as Iwould have when he was 16, 17.
So I can pull back on that and Ican lean more into my dog who is
(26:06):
19 and does need more of that.
And I can also put a break alittle off for my husband, who
now is just the two of us.
And I know that sometimes hisjob is stressful.
He needs me more.
So I don't treat them allequally.
I give each of them as much ofme as they need, but I also make
sure I take plenty for myself.
Kind of lean on each other,right?
Absolutely.
My self-care helps me to bebetter for them, and they
(26:29):
understand that about me too.
So they know if they hear thatbath water running, they're not
gonna hear from me for at least90 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (26:36):
Right.
I'm a firm believer that youhave to help yourself first
before you can help others.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
Put your mask on first before you put someone
else's on from the airlines ondown.
Yeah, it's absolutely true.
And I have a very bad habit ofnot doing that.
So something people neverbelieve about me is that I do
suffer from depression.
And depression isn't about beinghappy or sad, it's literally an
imbalance, excuse me, wherechemically um you start to get
(27:01):
the blues for no reasonwhatsoever.
It can happen in the middle of avacation to Italy, or it can
happen in 2020 when the worldwas going to hell.
And so one of the signs that Iam about to crash is I start
putting on everyone else's maskand my mask isn't on.
I will go out and do afundraiser for uh, you know, for
(27:21):
veterans moving forward.
I will look for gifts for my sonand give him advice.
I will try and do all thesesweet things for my husband.
And when he sees all that, he'slike, hey, you need to put your
mask on.
And I'll be like, I know.
And so I do, and then I'm somuch better.
So that vulnerability ofbringing other people in around
(27:42):
you to know when you might be,you might be the one who's
always giving, giving, giving,but they need to recognize when
that's a a a sign of bad thingsto come for you and be there for
you.
But we have to be vulnerableenough to let them in.
SPEAKER_01 (27:55):
For sure.
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
Doing that has changed everything.
My family is so in lockstep withwho I am and understand me so
well.
It's not that everything isperfect because perfection is
only for lasagna and dogs.
Everything else has flaws.
But we know how to work witheach other, we know how to
support each other, we know whento say we're sorry, we know when
to say thank you, and we knowwhen to say, get out of my face.
SPEAKER_01 (28:20):
Well said.
I couldn't have said it better.
SPEAKER_00 (28:23):
It's all true.
SPEAKER_01 (28:26):
As we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add
that I haven't touched on today?
SPEAKER_00 (28:31):
You've really done a great job of covering all the
things.
I think the biggest thing I'dlove for people to understand
is, you know, I have beenmarried for 32 years.
Um, in the book, my husband isnot the toxic X chapter.
He is the love at first sip.
And in those 32 years, we havegone from, you know, scraping
under our car seats for changeto, you know, split a coke, to
(28:52):
now being able to take thesewonderful vacations because we
plan for them and we we movetogether in the same direction.
So I think I just would wanteveryone to understand that
growth doesn't happen in its ownsilo.
Even if you are alone, you mightnot have, you know, a partner in
your life, you might not havechildren, but you have friends,
you have people who care aboutyou, and you need to let them be
(29:13):
a part of your journey.
They may disappoint you, you maybe hurt.
It still helps you to grow.
We learn more from our badbosses than we do from our good
ones, right?
I learned how to be a mom fromwatching mothers who I was like,
I will never do that to mychild, right?
The good stuff came naturally,the other stuff I was like, be
careful, don't do these.
So I just want everyone to knowthere are people out there who
(29:36):
really do support you, want tosee you succeed, blank out all
the noise of all the people wholove to see you struggle, but
are silent when you havesuccess.
Put them off to the side andthank them for reminding you of
your value.
And you will never fail.
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
I love it.
Thank you.
That's just that's amazing.
Thank you so much, Renee, forjoining me on the podcast today.
It It was a pleasure to hearyour story and to have you on.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
My name is Renee Ventries, and I like to call
(00:02):
myself a pairing professional.
By day, I pair my clients withtheir ideal collaborators and
other businesses.
And by night, I pair wine withlife and beautiful experiences
beyond the bottle.
SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Amazing.
I'm fascinated.
Now, take me back to how you gotstarted in all of this.
Tell me how you got to where youare today.
SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
That is such a crazy winding journey.
I was in the military, you know,in the early 90s and uh found
out very quickly that I hadentrepreneured myself out of
being in the Navy.
Fun fact the military doesn'tcare about your ideas or
creativity.
They want you to follow, youknow, orders.
So I learned how to be a goodsailor, a good, you know,
follower, but also learned a lotabout leadership.
(00:45):
And uh so as life went on,started the Cork and Keg Tours
was my winery and brewery tourcompany.
During the shutdown, during2020, I became a mentor to other
entrepreneurs since I wasn'table to do tours.
And that mentoring led intobecoming an actual business
coach.
So I trademarked my companycalled BizLationships, which is
(01:06):
mutually beneficial businessrelationships that generate
revenue for both sides.
So BizLelationships are reallywhat I try to put together for
my clients, help them to seebeyond the four walls that they
consider their business in andcrack a wall open and give them
a window to find a new audienceand learn how to connect with
them through community andrelationships.
(01:28):
So that's where the mentoringcame in, the wine.
You know, once I realized that Ihad a palate for wine and was
able to pick out things in winethat had nothing to do with
fruit flavors, I figured maybeit was time to work on becoming
a Somalier.
So I got certified, got hookedup with some really great
organizations, you know, didvirtual tastings for almost a
(01:49):
hundred people several timesover the years, and it just kept
on growing.
So then I trademarked wineo'clock.
Um, so it's always wine o'clocksomewhere if I'm in the room.
SPEAKER_01 (01:59):
Oh my goodness, I love that.
That sounds like so much fun.
SPEAKER_00 (02:02):
It really is.
I love being able to make I lovemonetizing my passions, right?
And I've always done it.
I didn't realize that I wasdoing it.
Like when I became acheerleading coach, it was
because I always wanted tobecome a choreographer.
And when I started working inluxury travel, well, it's
because I absolutely lovedtraveling and loved helping
other people to find their idealvacations.
(02:23):
So I guess when I look back atmy life, I've always found a way
to make money doing what I love.
It's a good thing I don't lovecocaine.
SPEAKER_01 (02:30):
Hey, I hear you.
But I love the point that youmade.
You got one life to live, solive it.
Doing what you love.
SPEAKER_00 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's not always easy.
Um, you know, excuse me.
I didn't have a lot of choices,you know, for many, many years.
I went into the military afterhigh school because there was no
way we could afford for me to goto college.
I'm number five out of six kids,you know, so college really
wasn't an option.
Plus, I was kind of sick of it,didn't really want to study
anyway.
(02:58):
So I went right into theservice.
Being enlisted in the military,you make absolutely no money.
So you have very few choices,very few options.
But as my husband and I, youknow, got older and got out of
the military and started workingon our lives together, we
started to make decisions thatcould lead us.
What do we want in five years?
Let's live our lives right nowtoward that goal.
(03:19):
What do we want in 10?
Let's live toward that goal.
And so now in our mid-50s, we'veactually been able to achieve a
lot of our goals.
And now we can live life with afew more options than before and
being able to lean into wine,um, writing my best-selling
book.
All of this came because we camefrom very humble beginnings,
made very calculated decisionson how we wanted to succeed, and
(03:40):
then we went for it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:41):
That's wonderful.
I'm excited to learn more.
SPEAKER_00 (03:44):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:45):
So you built your career around connection,
creativity, and community.
What does authentic connectionmean to you in business and in
life?
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
They are very similar in both.
It's more about listening to whoyou're with than talking about
who you are.
No matter what kind of situationI'm in, I'm always more about
what I can do to make that otherperson feel comfortable or what
it is that they're looking forout of the conversation.
Is it just having fun andlearning about wine at a party,
or is it someone struggling withtheir business and just needs
(04:16):
someone to hear them and know,you know, where they are and
meet them there?
Yeah, being authentic to me justmeans listening to other people
and giving any answers you canthat may be able to help them.
I've all I've also learned tonever try to be like anybody
else who's in the room justbecause maybe I respect them or
they're doing really well.
Maybe I should mock mock mock mymock, not so much mock, but
(04:39):
maybe I should imitate theirstyle, or maybe I should tone
down my energy because everybodyelse is low energy, or you know,
maybe I should dress a littlebit less flashy because
everybody else is in, you know,suits and plain color colors.
And I'm like, nah, I'm justgonna be me.
If they invited me into thatroom, they knew what they were
getting.
And who am I to not give themthat?
(05:00):
So yeah, authenticity reallycomes from listening to the
other people who you're talkingto who are looking for something
from you and giving them thebest that you've got for them.
SPEAKER_01 (05:10):
Absolutely.
I think there's some reallygreat advice in there that
you're giving aboutauthenticity.
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
Yeah, you know, and I wrote a blog about it once on
my website.
I have a blog and uh in apodcast called Start Whining.
And um, in my blog and mypodcast, I talk about I was
going to make fun of all this.
Why is everybody trying so hardto be authentic?
You're just being authentic bybeing you.
But then I thought back to mychildhood and I thought back to
(05:35):
how girls weren't supposed totalk about themselves.
It wasn't ladylike, and howdon't speak until spoken to.
And you should say things thatmake everybody else feel
comfortable, even if it's notwhat you really want to say.
We're brought up not to beauthentic.
So as I was writing this blog,written ready to trash,
everybody who didn't know how tobe authentic, I was like, oh my
(05:56):
gosh, I went through that samething.
So um I think it's reallyimportant for people to
understand it's okay to questionauthenticity, since a lot of us
weren't raised to even behavethat way.
SPEAKER_01 (06:08):
Exactly.
Well said.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
From growing a local division to$2 million in revenue
to selling your ownaward-winning tour company,
you've reinvented yourselfmultiple times.
What do you think fuels yourability to evolve and thrive?
SPEAKER_00 (06:26):
That's kind of an easy one.
It's all the split personalitiesin my head.
No, seriously though, sorry.
I think it's because I'm notone-dimensional and most people
aren't.
Now, I'll give a comparison.
My husband has always had onegoal, one thing he wanted to do,
one way of living, and he's sohappy in that.
He's very target focused.
(06:48):
He's like a smart bomb of ahuman being.
I am more like a rifle, full ofscatter shot.
There's shotgun, you know,shotgun spray everywhere with
me.
And all of that makes me happy.
Drives him nuts.
Not being able to have one thingto focus on makes him absolutely
insane.
Like, okay, this is just toomuch.
For me, I'm like, I can't dojust one thing.
(07:08):
I love all these little thingsthat represent me.
So I think the biggest thing wasprioritizing which one fit in
that moment in my life.
When my son was young and, youknow, I wanted to stay home with
him.
Doing direct sales was thething.
When he was older and he was inschool and I got a part-time
job, but I was home by the timehe was done with preschool.
That was a thing.
(07:29):
So I always was looking atwhat's going on in my life and
which version of Renee fits bestfor that.
And now in my 50s, it's great tobe able to focus on what really
brings me joy.
And so, yeah, when I built thatcompany to 2 million in revenue
in that one division, it wasincredible.
My son was in school.
I was still able to work fromhome.
(07:50):
Um, and when that ran its courseand I was able to get more into
wine and my own entrepreneurialjourney, my husband was right
there for me.
And we just made decisions thatmade it possible for me to be
myself.
So I think it was really justmaking sure that I took
everything into stock.
What was going on in myrelationships, my son, my
husband, my family, my dog.
(08:11):
Um, what was going on with me?
Did I want more school?
Did I want to get acertification?
You know, did I want to travel?
What was I looking for?
And I just I've made all ofthose decisions, including him,
including my son.
Uh, and then we all workedtogether to make sure that I
stayed happy.
But you know the saying, if mamaain't happy, no one's happy.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Ain't no one happy.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
See, you know, the age gap does not make a
difference.
You know exactly how the worldworks.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (08:39):
I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00 (08:41):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (08:42):
And I just I love how you touched on having that
support system at home and justhow much that can help you
flourish in so many differentways.
SPEAKER_00 (08:50):
Absolutely.
You know, it's not easy for myhusband living with the serial
entrepreneur, being a type A,you work 20 years, you get the
gold watch, you retire and youknow, play golf and boat into
the sunset to live with someonewho was a squirrel, you know,
who like I have Jack Russellenergy all the time, just like
our 19-year-old Jack Russell.
So I'm a lot, right?
(09:11):
And I know I am, but being ableto channel it really did help,
you know, help him to be able tounderstand me.
And it also helped me tosometimes back off for him.
So he actually really helped meto settle into just doing like
one thing and then connecting mymentorship and my wine.
Now I mentor women in tourismand women who want to get into
(09:32):
wine.
So I'm able to scratch all theseitches without making him crazy,
seeing me flitting from thisthing to that.
But that calm that he bringsalso gives me a different type
of energy to really focus onwhat I want to do.
And it's part of why I becomemore successful, is because I
didn't just move on to the nextthing or the next thing.
I actually took those things andevolved them and grew them and
(09:54):
made them into something biggerand more beautiful instead of a
bunch of different things.
So it's really, you know, youdon't know what you don't know.
And when you have people aroundyou who are different, when you
diversify where your advicecomes from, where your support
comes from, you start to becomemore well-rounded, both
personally and professionally.
It's really hard for me toseparate my professional life
(10:17):
from my personal life becauseI'm the same in both instances.
And it's just a matter of whichone is getting their priority in
that moment.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
What you see is what you get, right?
You know, so that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (10:29):
Yeah, and it's and it makes it really easy to be
myself both in business and mypersonal life because I've made
who I am a part of my perprofessional brand.
SPEAKER_01 (10:40):
Amazing.
I love it.
Looking back, what's onedefining moment when you realize
that connection, not juststrategy, was the real key to
business success?
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
Hmm.
This goes all the way back towhen I was working for the pet
sitting dog work walkingcompany.
We had no money for advertising.
Advertising was so expensive.
It was hit or miss.
We had taken out some ads, youknow, that just weren't doing
anything.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm just gonna get out there inthe community.
(11:12):
So I started driving around ourgrooming vans when they weren't
full of dogs.
I would drive them around, Iwould park them in the parking
lot, not too far out, but alittle bit in.
And I would pretend to be inthere trying to like straighten
something up or cleaningsomething.
Invariably, every time someonewould come up and say, Oh, is
that a mobile dog walking, dog,dog grooming van?
(11:32):
I I have a dog.
I would love for someone to cometo my house.
And I was like, Oh, this oldthing, yeah.
And it's a it's a Mercedes.
Yeah, we come to your house andwe bring it.
Here's a card, or better yet,tell me what kind of dog you
have.
I can tell you when we haveopenings.
You know, does Fluffy eat agroom right now?
So I decided instead of a staticad, I would get out there in
front of people, let them seewhat we have, and attract them.
(11:55):
I applied the exact samephilosophy to when I owned the
winery and brewery tour company.
Drove that van to thesupermarket, to wherever, had
music playing, had the lightsgoing, did it when the sun was
going down so people could seethe lights and be like, what's
going on?
Is there a DJ back there?
And so I would always justattract people.
My husband called me a moth offlame the other day.
(12:18):
He's like, You just attract allthese moths.
I'm like, maybe so, you know, Idon't know.
But he's like, you just youbring people into your universe.
And I'm like, yeah, I guess Ikind of do.
So that's exactly what it was.
That's when I knew thatconnecting with people really
did work more than just runningan ad or handing out business
cards.
I don't even have business cardsanymore.
I hand up my bookmarks for mybook.
(12:39):
Um, somebody wants to talk aboutthe other things I do on
business.
I've got a QR code saved on myphone.
I'm like, you want to connect?
Here's how.
So they come to me, I give themwhat they're looking for, and uh
sometimes even get paid for it.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
Hey, that's awesome.
It's really just a humanexperience.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, and and what I do arethings that do bring joy and
make people happy.
So it really does make adifference to me that they see
that I'm joyful as I do it.
So if I'm not in a great mood,I'm not going out and trying to
connect.
I'm not gonna fake it.
I don't, I can't put on a smile,you know, they come easily
naturally enough.
I'm definitely not gonna try andforce one.
(13:18):
It just doesn't work.
So I tell that to my clients allthe time.
If you have a day where you justcan't get up and network, you're
just not feeling it, take thatday as a CEO day where now
you're working on your businessinstead of in your business.
You can still get things done,but without having to go out and
force yourself to be somethingthat you're not feeling.
SPEAKER_01 (13:39):
Words of the wise.
SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
Words of the wise, absolutely.
Learn the hard way.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (13:45):
How do you bring fun and authenticity into leadership
while still driving seriousbusiness results?
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Oh, that's such a good question.
No one's ever asked me that.
So, for example, I have an eventcoming up next week where it is
a corporate event, and I said tothem, Do people want to learn
about KPIs and cross promotionsfrom a slide or from sipping
from a bottle of wine?
And they're like, tell me more.
So I said, I can give thedifferent roles in your company
(14:16):
portionalities, where I say, forexample, this is why you need to
listen to your CTO.
They are like the Cabernet Francof your business.
They're the structure and thebackbone that are necessary for
longevity of that wine.
If you only put this grape inthere, it can be great for a
couple of months, maybe even ayear or two.
But without that foundation thatyour CTO makes, just like that
(14:39):
foundation Cabernet Franc giveswine, the wine falls flat within
several years.
So if you're looking for yourcompany to really succeed, think
of your CTO as your CabernetFranc, listen to what they say,
and your business will havelongevity for 20 years to come,
right?
So things like that.
So I put wine and, you know, andsometimes if they want bourbon
or beer, whatever they want,I'll put any any drink in front
(15:01):
of uh a crowd and give it lifeand compare it to what they're
dealing with.
So when I did that for a cybercommunity, uh cybersecurity
company, I did that with likethe bad guys and the good guys
and the breaches and all ofthat.
When I did it for Salesforce, wetalked a lot about how those
client connections are farbetter.
And we talk about how they'relike a blend in wine, right?
(15:23):
So just there's a lot of funways to do that.
The best way for me to do it isto understand who I'm talking to
and what their mission is at theend of hiring me for an event.
What do you want people to getout of it?
Do you want them to feel moreconnected to sip different
things and work?
Or do you just want them to havefun?
If you just want them to havefun, then I will give them their
(15:43):
personalities.
Gonna find out who theChardonnay in the room is.
If you don't think it's you,it's probably you, right?
So things like that.
I make it conversational.
I don't give speeches, I openconversations, I open the floor.
And just because, justnaturally, in our house, we like
to say ball busting is our lovelanguage.
(16:04):
Making fun of, you know, asituation, making light of a
situation is how we get throughlife in my family.
So I just apply that toeverything.
I need to make sure I know whattheir level, you know, how much
they can take.
Like, look, I'm an ex-sailor.
I will drop the F-bomb withouteven thinking about it, unless I
really know my group is veryconservative, you know.
So uh yeah.
(16:24):
So I just kind of I get to knowwho I'm talking to and then I
let it fly.
Awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah, I think there's always a way to relate
to somebody and you're takingthat philosophy with your
knowledge of wine and to whatthey're doing.
I think it's just a really cooltechnique you have.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
Thank you.
Yeah, you know, and I've made itinto it's that's the first book
came out, Poor RelationshipChoices, P-O-U-R.
So now it's going to be aseries.
And um, one of the books in thisseries is going to be called
Nobody's Perfect.
So it will talk about all thegreat things about somebody, and
then it'll be like, but beware,these are some of the things
that might be pitfalls.
I can use astrology for it, youknow, the color codes, all these
(17:02):
different things.
But all the imperfections thatwe have make us the actual
perfect person.
So yeah, that's something that'sjust been, it's got such a
natural flow, it just keeps onhappening and keeps on
happening.
Sometimes it gets emotional,though.
Um, we were at a family reuniona couple of weeks ago, and I
hope I can tell this withouttearing up because it was just
(17:24):
so cute.
I was talking to um the fiancéof um one of my nephews, and she
wanted me to ask, she wanted meto tell her what her wine
personality was.
And I was like, Oh, I thinkyou're kind of a Pinot Grigio
today.
You're you've been just solight, and your conversation's
been great.
You've been really easy to getalong with, just like a Pinot
Grigio.
And she said, Oh, thank you somuch.
I love Pinot Grigio.
(17:45):
What's my fiance?
What's Brandon, you know, yournephew?
And I looked at my nephew andimmediately I started tearing up
because such a great kid.
He's in his 40s, and I'm callinghim a kid, but such a great kid
with a great son, and he comesfrom a fantastic brother of mine
who's happens to be one of myfavorite humans on earth.
His son represents so many ofthe good things that are in my
(18:09):
brother, so many of the goodthings that are in my father,
and his son represents so manygreat things from all of them.
Port wine is made in that way,with the best from different
generations of wine all into onebottle.
And so I don't have a chapter inthe book yet for that, but the
next book is probably going tolead with that.
SPEAKER_01 (18:27):
Sounds like a perfect family, if I do say so
myself.
SPEAKER_00 (18:30):
It was an imperfect family with a perfect definition
of my nephew.
Yes.
Amazing.
So yeah, those things justreally I've always thought
differently.
I've been writing since I wasseven.
I've never, I've never donethings the regular way.
In fact, my sister, we at thefamily reunion, I was doing a
speaking event, and my sisteropened it for me.
(18:51):
She was an uh introduced me.
And she said when we were young,we all would take pictures out
of a coloring book.
We would each get a page as, youknow, couldn't afford all of us
to have our own.
So we would tear pages out,crayons in the middle.
Everybody else is coloring ontheir page.
They could always tell minebecause mine would have the
picture in the middle and onlycoloring outside of the areas
that weren't the characters, andmy character was completely
(19:14):
blank, and everything around itwas all her colors.
Uh-huh.
I didn't even realize I did thatuntil she said it just a few
weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01 (19:21):
That is too good.
SPEAKER_00 (19:23):
Yep, I just am who I am.
I've just evolved.
Now it's wine instead ofKool-Aid and juice boxes.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
Hey, that's where it's at.
So you often talk about turningreviews into referrals into
revenue.
Why is leveraging reputation themost underused growth tool in
business today?
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
Because it takes the most time, it takes the most
effort, and it makes the personwho that brand represents have
to put themselves into it.
You can't give a marketingagency that type of power and
control because they aren'tgoing to actually capture you.
They can capture your brand,absolutely.
But if you are a big part ofyour brand and if your
(20:04):
relationships either with thecommunity or others are what
drives your business, you don'thave a choice but to use
relationship and community tobuild your business.
I'm big on uh, you know,alliterations.
So conversations convert tocurrency.
You know, community connectionsconvert to currency.
You know, you have to reallylook at the fact that the people
(20:26):
who are buying from you are alsopeople who are telling others to
buy from you.
So I'm not looking at atransaction.
When I'm even when I'm doing apodcast like this, I'm not
looking at this podcast of mejust getting to talk on the
podcast where one of my favoritedresses and hopefully people
watch it.
Absolutely not.
This is a lead magnet.
I will be bringing it up.
I will be showing it to people.
(20:46):
I will be making sure that theyunderstand listen, this is what
we have in our community thatcan help to spread your brand.
You should get one of these aswell so that you can also show
an elevated version of yourselfon film, right?
So it's never just about theone-to-one.
And as soon as I figured thatout, probably, oh my God, 20
years ago in business, I knewthat connecting through
(21:06):
relationships and community wereit.
Philanthropy is another goodone.
When you get, um when you cancome together around a cause,
you find other people with a lotof your same values and the same
things that are important tothem.
Suddenly you have a wholecommunity, you know, within your
philanthropy and yourphilanthropic philanthropic
businesses.
And now you can do good togetherwhile you're also, you know,
(21:28):
able to, you know, fill your ownpockets, which you can use to
help support the charity.
Yeah, it's a no-brainer to me toleverage philanthropy,
community, and relationships.
And then you get those referralsfrom those folks.
Um, you get repeat business fromthose folks, and they tell
others, I spent less than$200 ayear in marketing.
And still to this day, I spendvery, very little money on
(21:51):
marketing.
I put it into philanthropy, Iput it into relationships, and I
put it into my community.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
That is super inspiring.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (22:00):
And looking ahead, what's your vision for Wine
O'Clock, your podcast, and yourbiz relationships community over
the next few years?
SPEAKER_00 (22:10):
Yeah, you know, they're all gonna grow right
along with each other.
I think the biz relationshipsare going, it's going to be less
individual coaching and moreworkshops and you know, speaking
from stages.
I could have a bigger impactthen.
And also, as I start to retire,I'm not going to want to be on
the phone with somebody everyweek.
So I will definitely bechanging, you know, that into
(22:32):
coming down a bit.
As far as the wine goes, I'll bewriting another, you know,
series of wine books.
I've got three in the hopper sofar.
Um, I'll be writing more.
I'll be doing more events whereI help people to pair wine with
things they don't necessarilythink would actually work,
getting them to expand theirpalettes.
You know, I guess I just reallywant, as I, as I go forward five
(22:53):
years from now, I want people tothink of the way that I create
wine pairings and create wineexperience to be the standard
and not something that peopleare like, wow, I've never heard
of this before.
They're gonna know that wineo'clock with Renee Ventrice was
where they started pairing, youknow, wine with fire pits, you
know, wine with ski boots, winewith, you know, with uh with
(23:16):
vacations, or wine with businessevents.
So yeah, I am going to become ahousehold name in five years,
whether it's between wine,relationships, and they're all
just gonna wrap up together.
SPEAKER_01 (23:27):
I have all the faith in you.
No doubt in my mind.
SPEAKER_00 (23:32):
Thank you.
Yeah.
I see it.
You want to hear somethinggreat?
Gary V, Gary Vanderchuk, um, youknow, big guy in you know,
business and entrepreneurship,super successful wine and
business as well.
So um, six years ago, he made apost on LinkedIn and it said, in
10 years, where do you want yourbusiness to be?
And so I answered that post sixyears ago and I said, I want to
(23:54):
have written a book, I want tohave bought out, I want to have
started and sold a successfulcompany, and I want to make a
difference in people's lives.
And it popped up in my feed twoweeks ago, and I was like, I'm
five years ahead of schedule.
Scary feed, look what I've done.
So hopefully he reaches out tome and is like, let's talk to
this woman about getting yourgoals five years ahead and
(24:15):
actually visualizing it back in2019.
And I've already done some ofthose things.
Well, okay, I've done them all,but now I'm gonna do better even
more.
But to see that in writing thatI said that six years ago, I was
floored.
I was completely flabbergasted.
SPEAKER_01 (24:32):
That is just a magical full circle moment.
SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
It really was.
Oh, I cried and I was like, andI was about to go on stage, and
I was like, oh my god, I shouldnever have been looking at
LinkedIn before I came on stage.
It so I I led with it.
I'm like, okay, guys, I'm alittle, this is not what I
planned to say, but you have tohear this.
And then it just kicked off thewhole thing, and it was amazing.
And people really did talk aboutwhatever I say right now, I hope
(24:56):
I get a chance to see it, youknow, again in six years.
And I said, set an alarm, put analarm on your clock that's going
to go off six years from todaywith what your goal is.
I'll wait.
And in six years, that alarm isgoing to go off, even if you
change phones.
Hopefully, it congres with you,but that alarm's gonna go off.
You're gonna read it, see if youdon't manifest it from today
(25:17):
going forward.
SPEAKER_01 (25:19):
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (25:20):
Really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01 (25:21):
Such a such an awesome philosophy to live by.
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
I agree.
It's and I really do live by it.
I live by balance, but balancedoesn't mean things are equal.
It's just like the differencebetween equality and equity.
Equity means you give what needsto, you know, to what needs it,
right?
So if I don't need, if I'm full,I don't need any food, and this
person over here is hungry,equal means we both get the same
(25:45):
size piece of cake.
Equity means this person gets abigger piece because they're
hungry and I'm good, right?
And so that's what I do with mylife.
My son lives in Nashville now.
As hard as it is to let go, hedoesn't need me momming,
smothering him as much as Iwould have when he was 16, 17.
So I can pull back on that and Ican lean more into my dog who is
(26:06):
19 and does need more of that.
And I can also put a break alittle off for my husband, who
now is just the two of us.
And I know that sometimes hisjob is stressful.
He needs me more.
So I don't treat them allequally.
I give each of them as much ofme as they need, but I also make
sure I take plenty for myself.
Kind of lean on each other,right?
Absolutely.
My self-care helps me to bebetter for them, and they
(26:29):
understand that about me too.
So they know if they hear thatbath water running, they're not
gonna hear from me for at least90 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (26:36):
Right.
I'm a firm believer that youhave to help yourself first
before you can help others.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
Put your mask on first before you put someone
else's on from the airlines ondown.
Yeah, it's absolutely true.
And I have a very bad habit ofnot doing that.
So something people neverbelieve about me is that I do
suffer from depression.
And depression isn't about beinghappy or sad, it's literally an
imbalance, excuse me, wherechemically um you start to get
(27:01):
the blues for no reasonwhatsoever.
It can happen in the middle of avacation to Italy, or it can
happen in 2020 when the worldwas going to hell.
And so one of the signs that Iam about to crash is I start
putting on everyone else's maskand my mask isn't on.
I will go out and do afundraiser for uh, you know, for
(27:21):
veterans moving forward.
I will look for gifts for my sonand give him advice.
I will try and do all thesesweet things for my husband.
And when he sees all that, he'slike, hey, you need to put your
mask on.
And I'll be like, I know.
And so I do, and then I'm somuch better.
So that vulnerability ofbringing other people in around
(27:42):
you to know when you might be,you might be the one who's
always giving, giving, giving,but they need to recognize when
that's a a a sign of bad thingsto come for you and be there for
you.
But we have to be vulnerableenough to let them in.
SPEAKER_01 (27:55):
For sure.
SPEAKER_00 (27:56):
Doing that has changed everything.
My family is so in lockstep withwho I am and understand me so
well.
It's not that everything isperfect because perfection is
only for lasagna and dogs.
Everything else has flaws.
But we know how to work witheach other, we know how to
support each other, we know whento say we're sorry, we know when
to say thank you, and we knowwhen to say, get out of my face.
SPEAKER_01 (28:20):
Well said.
I couldn't have said it better.
SPEAKER_00 (28:23):
It's all true.
SPEAKER_01 (28:26):
As we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add
that I haven't touched on today?
SPEAKER_00 (28:31):
You've really done a great job of covering all the
things.
I think the biggest thing I'dlove for people to understand
is, you know, I have beenmarried for 32 years.
Um, in the book, my husband isnot the toxic X chapter.
He is the love at first sip.
And in those 32 years, we havegone from, you know, scraping
under our car seats for changeto, you know, split a coke, to
(28:52):
now being able to take thesewonderful vacations because we
plan for them and we we movetogether in the same direction.
So I think I just would wanteveryone to understand that
growth doesn't happen in its ownsilo.
Even if you are alone, you mightnot have, you know, a partner in
your life, you might not havechildren, but you have friends,
you have people who care aboutyou, and you need to let them be
(29:13):
a part of your journey.
They may disappoint you, you maybe hurt.
It still helps you to grow.
We learn more from our badbosses than we do from our good
ones, right?
I learned how to be a mom fromwatching mothers who I was like,
I will never do that to mychild, right?
The good stuff came naturally,the other stuff I was like, be
careful, don't do these.
So I just want everyone to knowthere are people out there who
(29:36):
really do support you, want tosee you succeed, blank out all
the noise of all the people wholove to see you struggle, but
are silent when you havesuccess.
Put them off to the side andthank them for reminding you of
your value.
And you will never fail.
SPEAKER_01 (29:52):
I love it.
Thank you.
That's just that's amazing.
Thank you so much, Renee, forjoining me on the podcast today.
It It was a pleasure to hearyour story and to have you on.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
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