Ep. 1655 Maryam Ahmed | Masterclass US Wine Market With Juliana Colangelo

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at italian wine podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pots. Welcome to Mastercost US Market with me, Juliana, full Angelo. This show has been designed to demystify the US market for Italian wineries through interviews of experts in sales and distribution, social media, communications, and so much more. We will quiz each of our esteemed guests at the end of each episode to solidify the lessons that we've learned. To sharpen your principles, get out your notebooks, and join us each week to learn more about the US market. Hello. Welcome to Masterclass US wine market. Today, I'm throw to welcome Mariam Ahmed to the Italian wine podcast. Maryam is the founder of Mary Young Company and has a social impact entrepreneur, speaker, writer, and community builder who is making waves in the world of food and wine. She's also an experienced speaker, facilitator, and moderator, which frequently called upon to create engaging spaces for both virtual and in person events. Welcome to the show, Mary. It's so great to have you here. Thanks, Juliana. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Of course. Mary and I met a few years ago right in Napa. One country connection. So it's really fun to have another California on the show today, but also a fellow East coast transplant like myself. So But we we can't help it, you know. I know. You gotta get some sun. Right. Exactly. But before we dive into today's discussion, Mary, tell us a little bit more about Mary Mankoe and what you the kind of work you do and also the work you're doing specifically with field blends. Absolutely. So like you mentioned, I am an East Coast transplant. So I got my start in the beverage world. In upstate New York. I went to the hotel school at Cornell and studied beverage there, also working at a winery, which ended up as a young person, you know, getting me then straight into the three tier system. So I went to work in distribution in New York City, empire merchants. And the opportunity to be to be young in that space and to understand a more like, three hundred and sixty degree facet of wine industry was extremely helpful as an early career move for me. But I think when I was there, you know, I I had really become very passionate and about wine education. And I saw a lot of opportunity for more of that. And at the same time, I was kind of missing the rural nature of upstate New York. And so I ended up moving to Walla while washing to get a wine making degree and to hone my education and, honestly, like, translation abilities among, you know, employees and consumers and industry so that I could be most effective in telling these stories. And I give you all that background to say that that's kind of what has culminated into Marion and Company, which, focuses on creating education and experiential programs that celebrate food and wine. And that holds our clients accountable to their goals around diversity and sustainability. So we could be working with food and wine industry specific brands and companies, but we also work in private sector. You know, I do a lot of bridging of other industries into the food and wine worlds, programs that we offer. So that's the work that we do. Maryman Company is an umbrella of a number of things, one of which you mentioned, which is field blends, and the others, the diversity and mind leadership forum, of course, in addition to our our client work. And so And we're gonna talk about all of it today, which is exciting, but I love that, you know, everything kinda comes back full circle and seeing those moments and people's career and and how you describe that background and distribution and seeing that need for education. And many years, you know, later, creating Mariam and company and and things come in full circle. Yeah. And I I think, like, the timing timing is everything in a lot of cases. And so I was really just lucky to be at a point in my career where I could shift into consulting and also to create, programs for people to attend. Like, field blends, I I created as our own brand extension, as our own program to engage a demographic in wine that I felt wasn't really being engaged both from the consumer and industry side as well as the regional side, meaning field lenses taking folks that maybe haven't had a chance to visit regions, be immersed in regions in the vineyards, in sellers, and beyond, to the regions that are maybe a little bit more under celebrated. And so far, these trips are are domestic. But anyway, that's a little bit of that. I don't feel fun. So I can dive more thoroughly into it if you want, but that's kind of the impetus. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get into it a little more and I have some more specific questions about that program that I think will be really relevant for our listeners. So today's episode, Mary, and we're gonna focus on your work, but also that broader topic of how as an industry, do we use creative programming to bridge some of the these gaps between consumers and wine while also reaching new consumers and new demographics? Our three key takeaways for today's mass or class and what, you know, we're really excited to learn from you are number one, what kinds of programming can introduce new consumers to wine, where the formats, just some of the the basics, and in terms of the structure of these programs, Number two, how to create a program that effectively promotes an entire wine region and maybe effectively promotes a lesser known or lesser celebrated region as you mentioned. And finally, number three, how to engage new demographics with wine in a real and human way. We know that really important right now for the entire industry. So, for starters, talk to us a little bit more about programming that in your experience can effectively introduce new consumers to wine. I know you also ran programming at the culinary Institute of America for many years and you have tons of experience in this space. So let's start there. Yeah. So we'll kind of combine my time as the director of public programs at the culinary Institute in California and my time as Marion and Company. Because it's all very relevant. And I I think when we're talking about creating programming, we have to actually even define, like, new consumers to whine a little bit further. So are these consumers that already engage with adjacent products to wine, or are these consumers that are coming into the beverage alcohol industry completely new? So that's, like, maybe your younger generation, that's maybe folks who who didn't grow up with wine, who come from, places where wine isn't as common. Like, that's a that's a different set than people who are already engaged with beverage alcohol, who are curious, who are into tourism, maybe. So anyway, I I differentiate that because I think we tend to talk in broad brushstrokes when it comes to designing, like, strategic programs that effectively roll up into our like marketing and messaging strategy. So I'm just trying to pull those two apart. So if I'm talking about the people who are, you know, already engaged with other like products, but are new to wine. The programming that I think works effectively is the programming that bridges different areas of lifestyle to wine itself. So Mhmm. I can give you an sample, if that's okay, I I I would live for examples. Yes, please. I work, Kia is is one of my main clients. And so I work with them to create, programs that connect the sustainable lifestyle, of around electric vehicles and driving to what other areas in life can those folks engage with that can be sustainable as well. And wine, and it's a big part. I will obviously asterisk this with no one is encouraging anyone to drink and drive. This is just linked to a commitment to sustainable lifestyle to another area in lifestyle where things can be sustainable. So the example is a consumer event that we did where the product launch is actually obviously on the main stage, a new electric vehicle, But we want to bring in, sustainable wines to the event that was also, of course, tons of sustainable food and hosted in sustainable venues. So the wines, my goal is now, how can I get people who are interested in cars interested in the wines that brought in? And the question was well, okay. This is an electric vehicle. So what's the drive range on this car? And if the drive range is two hundred and twenty miles, what wineries are within that drive range that I can engage age. And then from there, I went further just to bring in, women and women owned brands or women run brands, to port. So this was like amazing for women who were into cars who haven't ever I don't think been reached out to during a car event even. Right. Yeah. Because you think of that as a more male dominated industries, right, with with cars. So, yeah, that's super interesting. And where where was this event happening? Was actually in Monterey at at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Okay. Very cool. Mhmm. Yeah. And so, no. I mean, even even that program alone, it's it was during car week. There's a lot of different kinds of cars, like putting EVs front and center was something really important to Kia. And I think, look, look at how natural that bridge is between what they're doing and what we can do to engage already invested consumers in the wine world. Yeah. And what did you find really resonated with that group of consumers in this Kia partnership when it came to the sustainable wines that you showcase. Was it the story of the brands, the wines themselves? Like, what did they really latch on to? I I mean, one of the exercises we did was, like, which car is this wine. You know, what what what would you like in this wine to in the car world? And people really engaged with that exercise. And then they were like, well, why is that? And we got to talk about the wine. So kind of have to lean in, like, meet them where they're at. The other thing that people really loved was how how close, like, the proximity of the wineries that were represented and also, you know, the fact that it was women. Yeah. Very cool. I love that example, and I think, the idea on the exercise of comparing cars to wine. It's like putting it into relative terms. Like, you talked about earlier, and wine is that topic that requires a lot of education. You have to, like you said, meet people where they are. I think that's really, really important for us in the industry and our listeners should always keep top of mind and remember. Yeah. And if so, I feel like that's a really good kind of segue back to that other subset of consumers that I was saying that are, like, brand brand new. These are this is a different effort, especially when it comes to programming. And this can look like literally the the experience that you offer when someone walks through your door or your online experience if you're trying to reach, obviously, further than what regionally possible for you. So that looks a lot more like what kind of interaction can we provide in a one on one education setting that's gonna leave a mark that's gonna maybe be a little bit different than what they might experience down the road or from the, you know, social or like media campaign side, what programming can we offer that'll reach those audiences, whether that's a, a personality or just the education itself. You know, I I think we have we have a thing about that differently than this other bucket that I was just talking about. Right. I see. Okay. So talk to us a little bit more now about field lens specifically. And what start as you did earlier with which audience are you looking to reach with this programming? So field funds started in in twenty twenty two. We took a trip to Walla, Walla, Washington. This year, we just took a trip the finger lakes in New York. And I created this program because I felt as though at least we could create a program that others might be able to offer themselves, whether that's regionally or, you know, as an as an organization, etcetera, where we're really kind of co going back to this agritourism mindset where we aren't going to five wineries a day for four days in a row, just really stretching everybody. We are instead being very intentional about what we learn about a region from tribal historians to multi generational properties, to, programs that are engaging youth and looking at land and labor differently. More collaborative, you know, where exploring all these different topics while in enjoying and learning more about things. And I want I just basically created the program in a way that, we'd be able to highlight a lot of the change makers that are, you know, based in these regions. And what has come of that is regional commitment to the wave that we're all hoping, which is a more diverse, equitable, and sustainable industry. Right. We're seeing that the success of the program comes through not just while we're there. But also before we get there and after. That's something as travel, you know, as climate change continues and travel restrictions continue that we need to really be mindful of and more creative about on a sleep as wine marketers and storytellers. Definitely. Italian wine podcast, part of the Mamojumbo shrimp family. So now you're going into the third year of field blends. Correct? With, a new trip coming up in Michigan, which was really exciting. And I believe you were in the Finger Lakes this year. So talk to us a little bit about now that you're going into the third year with field blends, how the program has evolved. And, again, that question of, like, what do you what have you seen really resonating with the last two groups? Of attendees that that you hosted. Yes. I'm so I'm so excited to go to Michigan. The Michigan Wine community has shown up very strongly to create this program. So I can't wait. When you hit ear of, like, just about anything evolution is heavy on your mind. And, you know, some we can't we can't have so much repetition that all the trips look exactly the same. But I would say, like, adaptations, you know, as far as the program is is concerned, that the sessions we find most successful and most engaging are always outside. So we prioritize, you know, we visit these regions in June. So we're mindful that. Ideally, we are not in the super rainy season anymore, and not in the high heat season either. So we're aiming for that, like, perfect weather. Week where we can be outside. Yeah. And and I think this is for a number of reasons. First is right. I mentioned the group we're bringing. Some of these folks have never been to the state or region number visiting. A a great number of them. And a lot of them are coming from cities and just haven't had as much exposure or as much opportunity to have an outdoor experience that kind of be be a huge part of their wine journey. You know, they're not acing in the inventory room or around family meal. They're, like, in the vineyard or in a soil pit or, you know, you, like, you name it. We we've done it. And so the outdoor component, I've seen really successfully illustrate, winery's mission or the topic at large much more effectively than I would if we sat and had four wines in front of us in like, the tasting room or cellar. Right. But getting people really out into the vineyard getting their hands dirty, like, really understanding the place, it sounds like. Yeah. There's the level of immersion that we definitely see success. And I know immersion for a lot of folks isn't isn't scalable. So I I say I do say that with, like, understanding if we're implementing a strategy here, we want a scalable one, but I do think you want ambassadors for life as well. And, like, this isn't this is a way to do that for sure. Definitely. It's it it might be smaller scale, but more impactful. It sounds like that the experience that, yes, and the attendees are away with. Definitely. Yeah. And I'll also say I think we have seen a shift here. This is new news but we see also a lot of engagement around who else is at the table when we're programming. People want to hear from the vineyard teams. They want to hear from. I will often ask, like, who's been at the winery the longest. I don't care what position they're in. I would let I would like them to be in. You know, things like that. And and that Yeah. From bringing in more stakeholders too from the wiring themselves like that typically might not get a platform or being put in front of a visitor. It sounds like. Exactly. But that might make especially when we're talking about new demographics or new consumers, we're, like, alluding to diverse consumers. Right? Like, if we're talking about that, Sometimes that person is the person that's gonna make that the visitor feel the most at home. Absolutely. Feel the most welcome. Mhmm. So I think we get a little bit too stuck in the hierarchy of wine sometimes, and it can affect our programming, even even if unintentionally. Yeah. Absolutely. Talk to us a little more about, you know, you're on your three. You're planning now, but I imagine this sounds like a program that will continue to grow and evolve. What are some other regions that are top of your list to go to next. And what are you really looking for when you're identifying a new region? Great questions. The questions everyone wants the answer to. I feel I will say I feel for two particularly proud. It it wasn't necessarily intentional, but we have been championing these regions that I I don't think have gotten as much of the spotlight. And that there's something really amazing about what that does to bring a community together. Mhmm. So I really love that aspect of field ones. And I would also say just just supporting the domestic white market is is special, but I have already been asked by other folks internationally. Like, can we can we adapt this? Can we bring this? So I think, you know, even if I, like, this is obviously a podcast, about Italian wine. So I could or, like, the Italian market in US white makers. So I could say, like, sardinia is definitely on the list. Oh, that'd be amazing. Right? Like, I think so beautiful there. Alto Adi Jay could be really amazing too. I think common threads for the places we visited thus far. Like, They're beautiful. And I think wine regions generally are. Right. But there's something that, like I said, we get outside as much as we can. There's reclamation happening in that. There's an immersion happening that there's there's so much, again, more illustrated to folks, agriculture y and reg and, like, regionally if we're outside and they can see it. Totally. Also, Hadi J also would be fantastic. I'm sure there's many regular listeners here who could help you out and just make some suggestions for the itinerary. You know, as we think about, you know, international trips or even your domestic trips, obviously, it's not cheap to travel to some of these places. They're harder to get to. They require long flights. How do you go about, you know, when we think about sustainability, you know, we have to also think about costs and and finances, like, how do you go about funding these trips? How do people who are attending them? Pay for them. Tell us just a little bit more about how that works. Absolutely. So we have a kind of a dual structure when it comes to attending field lens. We do have tickets that are on sale. We allow anyone to either send an inquiry or to directly purchase through the website. And we also have a trip award component. So these awards are for the diverse community in wine to a apply and the folks who receive them, receive a door to door, you know, immersion experience in said region to and from home. And those partnerships are funded privately and regionally, typically. So I think that's going to continue to change and evolve. This is one of the areas that's evolving. But we, for me, it was really important when we started to to add ask regions, like regional organizations think like Washington State Wine Commission or the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance, these these types of organizations to be part of it because I don't want the onus of this narrative to be on single wineries. I mean, ideally, what we want is that a a consumer, whether they are a wine professional or a lover, they are a consumer when it comes to field ones, we want the consumer to feel like they they'll come back. And so the region needs to be responsible for creating a welcoming environment, creating creating an environment that one would want to return to. So that's why I engage at the regional level before I go to to single, like, family owned wineries to help us fund because I believe in the importance of the regions being on board and and being part of this work. Yeah. I think that's really important. You need that regional buy in to promote the larger stories too. And and like you said, I think the onus shouldn't necessarily be on one single producer necessarily as just when you're creating a program like this. Yeah. And I'm not so naive to think, like, right? We're going these regions that are smaller. The big guys in all those regions get hit up the most for funding. Like, you know, it's not sustainable. Of course. Yeah. But I also say that the other component, for raising funds is our, my wine collab with Masicon. So I'm a collaborating Wine maker with Masicon and we launched our wine in twenty twenty two and we are making it twenty twenty three and proceeds from the wines go to creating the triple awards as well. And so that's just it's an it's an added opportunity for us bring more folks to a region. Amazing. Yeah. That's incredible. So talk to us a little bit more just switching gears a little bit because I wanna make sure we cover every aspect of what you do a little bit more about the diversity and wine leadership for him. So switching hap the diversity in wine leadership forum is an organization that I created in twenty twenty with Elaine Chukan Brown and now run-in partnership with doctor Akila Caday, who's the CEO on found of Change cadet based in Oakland. And the purpose of the forum was frankly that in twenty twenty, we saw the emergence of many organizations dedicated to equity and diversity in the wine industry and I didn't see a lot of them talking to each other. And I was in a unique position to have really had relationship with many of them, and felt like, if we could all get in a room and when I say all, I say that loosely, there are so many more grassroots and and organizations that are out there that we're still working to, you know, bring in and things change every year. So But in the beginning, it was how can we get as many folks doing this work around the table as possible Right. To ensure that best practices and and challenges could be held in this supportive space by other leaders, but also to be mindful of the the recipients, the people who are going to bring into this industry. What is their experience going to be interacting with multiple organizations? Like, we have to be mindful of unintentional harm. We have to be mindful of just really what their needs are at the end of the day regardless of how the organization is, going to achieve like the goals it set out to achieve. So the forum has been this space for those leaders since twenty twenty and to sort of, like, move into where people can be involved now. We do a biannual forum that's invitation only that's for those organizations specifically. But we also offer a program called Do the work series. Okay. And Doctor. Today teaches those, it's a three part series. And we offer foundational diversity equity and inclusion training for folks who are in the wine world, you know, there's gray area. We're in beverage alcohol at the end of the day. This this series was in direct sort of response to what the organizations in the forum were saying they needed. They said, people wanna support us, but they don't have the foundational knowledge even around the AI. So, like, how do we get people up to speed? So we've decided to offer the series. That was, you know, at an affordable rate, at also an, subsidized rate so that people could come in and So in the two and a half years, we've been running the series twice a year. We've had over two hundred global wine professionals come through the program. Amazing. And, you know, I I I think that's amazing. Now there's communities and communities everywhere. Kind of working on this, and it's been really amazing. And at this point now, we're just we continue to maintain membership. We have a collaborative fundraising, this school agent, SOM Foundation, that's come in so that we can distribute equitable funds to these organizations at the end of each year. And, yeah, trying to continue to grow the program. But, you know, the diversity of my leadership forum and field blends and and the client the client work that we do, it's all an ecosystem, you know, like it all works together. Of course. And make sure that we clean this work. It is also a lot of inspiration for the programming that we do for Mary Mc Company and for our client. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And when it comes to the diversity of my leadership forum, who's attending typically, like, just tell us a little bit more about who's participating, and also is it mostly domestic. You know, we have a largely international audience on an Italian wine podcast, I'd love to hear just a little bit more about your participants. Basically, the forum is by invitation. Obviously, if someone is part of an equity or diversity organization, we would love to hear from them, but we keep the biannual forum for our members to be able to, have that space. I think in the future, we'll grow into something bigger where we can have more people around the table, more people learning from the organizations. But for now, that's the structure. And then our do the work series and our round tables. Anything else we do are completely open to anybody in the in the wine industry. So we post those online. We post them on social media. And I think it's like these things help people start to understand how they can engage with the, like, with the new demographics they're hoping to in wine. Like, this is one way they can do it. You know, there are other ways, but this is one. Amazing. Yeah. Great. So that's good to hear this through the work series is open to to anyone. And international. And it's done all virtual. Correct? Mhmm. Yes. Great. Yeah. I participated a couple of years ago. It was a really great experience. So I highly recommend for all our listeners. So we're coming to the end, and we wanna make sure we get to do our rapid fire quiz that we do at the end of every episode. So if you can do your best to just answer these questions in a couple sentences, that'd be great. Okay. Question number one, what is your number one tip for mastering the US wine market? My answer, I feel like is is like a little bit heady, but I feel like it's a combination of research and creativity. I could expand, but I'm still wanna take too much time on the rapid fire. No. I like that. I think that's a good thought starter there. For listeners. Question number two, what is something you might have told your younger professional self about working in the wine industry in the US? Gosh. I would have said don't change anything. Just keep doing what you're doing. But I I think, like, brought more broadly, just that there isn't one way to do it, but relationships and how you treat other people will always matter. Definitely. That's a really good reminder. And then finally, question number three, we all travel a lot in this industry, and we talked a lot about travel today. But what is your number one travel hack when you're doing any type of events or travel work? Well, I would I'm a carry on guy. So, like, I I would rather carry on any day. So I'm I'm big into like packing layers. I always leave a little bit of room if I have time to hit a thrift store, wherever I am. That's like sort of what I collect from places that I visit. But I always also I'm really mindful to pack something that, like, when I get where I'm going, it's a self care item, like a mask or, you know, something in that vein that I can sort of mentally shift into whatever work I came there to do. It's like a little ritual that I have. Awesome. Oh, I love that. Yeah. That's a great idea. Face sheet masks. Great for hydration too. We know that airplanes dry you out. So great tip. But, Mary, and thanks to again for being, on the podcast with us today. How can our listeners connect with you and follow all the great work that you're doing. Well, we do monthly newsletter. It has a lot of the info that everyone heard today in it and more. So you can sign up, through our website. I'm also pretty active on social media at Miriamint Company. And, yeah, I'm always open for a conversation. I'm I welcome conversation. So anyone who's interested in having one of those after hearing this, please just send a message. We'll make it happen. Fantastic. Thank you again for being here today. Thank you so much for having me, Joanna. I appreciate it. Of course. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned each week for new episodes of Master Class US wine market with me, Juliana Colangelo. 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