Ep. 1851 Rebecca Hopkins | 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 Colangelo. 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. So sharpen your pencils, 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 am thrilled to welcome Rebecca Hopkins to the Italian wine podcast. Many of you probably already know Rebecca, but for those of you who don't, she is an experienced wine communication strategist speaker and moderator host and writer. Rebecca spent fifteen years in the Australian wine industry and sales, marketing, and communication roles before relocating to San Francisco with constellation brands as the VP of PR and national events in two thousand and seven. Today, Rebecca is based in Northern California and represent small luxury global wine producers in developing and sharing their unique brand stories. Rebecca is also the founder of a balanced glass, which is what we're here to to her about today. So welcome to the show, Rebecca. It's great to have you here. Thanks, Juliana. Thank you so much for the opportunity to join you. Of course. So today, we're gonna talk about all things wine and wellness. It's been a really hot topic and you know, as we get into the think of event season, and we're all on the road, I know myself, I'm I could use a little more wellness and balance, and my wife. So I'm particularly excited for this conversation on a Friday afternoon. But before we dive in, tell us just a little bit more about the backgrounds of a balanced glass as well as the recent relaunch. Yeah. Sure. Thank you. A balanced glass has had now six years of being out in the world. Started in twenty eighteen, And, really, it was a response to, both an industry need for conversations and topics around, you know, being a wine professional and doing what we do every day. And how do we navigate working in an industry where we have no shortage of, you know, eating, drinking, traveling opportunities to be in and around wine. And so it was really a response to what the industry was saying that they needed. I mean, for me, I had a yoga and meditation practice. I kind of self taught myself for moving to the US, actually coming into this kind of big corporate job with constellation. I had not very many coping tools. And so I really set about taking myself off to study some of these practices that would help me keep myself together. And then, in twenty eighteen, I was offered an opportunity to present a workshop at a Napa Valley wine conference on BreathWork, which is something that I have a very dear interest in. And so I approached Kathy Hoihar, who's a a great wine writer author, meditation teacher, yoga teacher, to present that workshop with me. And we did that and and literally the following day. We wrote our first web post as a very practical way to to navigate the industry, and and we've really been doing it ever since. It's always been free. Actually, in twenty eighteen, I was there. I remember sitting in that room with You were there? I was there. I remember that. Very cool to have students call from from the very beginning. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's look, it's taken its journey. Right? I mean, it's always been free. It was always intentionally to make it accessible to people, because that was really what the premise was, you know, make it accessible so we can really make a difference. It has really grown, but also, you know, mid twenty twenty three, I I had to kind of put a stop on it because I needed to take a step back. We've been you know, working on this project really as a love for, five years, and it was really time to step back and reassess the conversation, obviously, around wine or wine and health or alcohol and health. However, you wanna frame it, is really changing. I think our industry is definitely changing as we are seeing, you know, shifting generations coming through the wine business. And so, really, it's been a great step back to kind of reassess and now ready to to step forward and and see where we go from here. Italian wine podcast, part of the momo jumbo shrimp family. Yeah. In a lot of ways, it feels like, you know, you back in twenty eighteen already had this handle on this topic and we're we're diving into it, and and it's is last year, like you said, that the rest of the industry is almost woken up a little bit to the fact that the importance of wellness, both internally for our industry, for us, since professional is working in the space, but also what it means to the consumer. So in today's episode, Rebecca, we're gonna talk about both things. The wide and wellness space, how it's evolved since you watched a balanced glass back in two thousand and eighteen, and what it means for both our industry and the consumer. So our three key takeaways for today's master class, number one, how has the wine industry embrace the concept of wellness, maybe how they have not. Number two, how important is wellness in marketing for the wine industry to consumers, especially us we're facing these challenges of a a changing demographic and and lower consumption. And then finally number three, how can wine companies better prioritize wellness? So for starters, I always like to start with definitions, in these episodes since we are broadcasting to people across different languages and countries. So, Rebecca, how do you define wellness? Yeah. Wellness to me is really, a state of being kind of in good health. And what does that health mean? You know, what does that wellness mean? It could be mental health, spiritual health, emotional health, financial health, community health, environmental health, or physical health. And so I I I think what we often see is this wellness or well-being is depicted by the media and society as being, you know, this this kind of very elitist dare I say, you know, people in extreme yoga poses or in very elaborate settings, but the reality is well-being and wellness is is far simpler than that. It's really about how are we you know, showing up every day in our lives at the best that we can be with the tools that we have. Yeah. I like that definition because like you said, it's not just physical. It's also mental, financial, holistically, how are you showing up and living, you know, as a person. And Rebecca, what do you think, you know, wellness needs in particular for the beverage alcohol industry? I think the the critical elements is kind of as a subset of that are really around three key areas. One is moderation. So there's self moderation how we actually manage our relationship with alcohol with wine. The second thing is the culture and the community and the work place that we have as a part of our well-being. So what company do we keep? What communities do we have? You know, our industry by nature is very much grounded in hospitality. It's grounded in sharing experiences and really being in a in a group. And so how do we make sure that that framework is is healthy, that it is inclusive and welcoming and and safe. And then the third thing is industry leadership. I think what's really important for us for well-being is how are leaders really creating a thriving industry for the long term? So what are we doing as leadership if we're in those roles, or how are we looking to leadership to really create a career that is sustainable, that is supportive, and that is overall something that's that's safe to be in, and to bring new generations into as professionals for those looking for a wine career. Mhmm. So really, like, thinking about it from that larger industry lens of how are you running, how are you managing your team, your company, how are you prioritizing wellness in a space where so much of our careers and jobs do involve being out, eating out, drinking alcohol, right, and and how are we balancing those things? Yeah. I think it's definitely an added an added challenge. I mean, I had a friend the other day. We had coffee one morning. It's wow, I was telling her about my week. Wow. Your job is so social. That sounds so fun. And I'm like, you know, I I feel lucky every day for industry I'm in, but it is a challenge on weeks, like, the week I had this week with events and suppliers in town to find some balance. Right? And I think that's why we need platforms like what you created with a balanced class to remind ourselves of the importance of it. And I would add to that, Joel, because you're absolutely right. The nature of the industry is not nine to five. And because it is so heavily hospitality based, the boundaries between our personal lives and our professional lives are very blurred. And what I do believe is to work in the industry, you really need to have discipline an awareness of the type of, either role that you're in or the company that you're keeping. And you need to have those outlets, right, those outlets that are outside of the wine world, like your girlfriend who doesn't work in the business just to reset your own emotional emotional state. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And I think the discipline is key. I know. Something I started doing a few years ago is in my planner, I keep track of all the days that I don't drink alcohol. And I try to aim. I set every month of goal, and based on what's happening, you know, whether how many events I have going on, if I'm traveling, etcetera. And I try my best. I don't hit it every month, but I definitely do try to make sure I'm I'm carving out days in a month where I'm not drinking and prioritizing sleep because otherwise, you know, things go haywire quickly as we know. And I think that that keeping yourself accountable, I think is one of the most powerful things you can do because not only are you it's it's not about whether you quote get it perfect every time. It's about your intention to actually have your own self awareness around what your behavior is. Exactly. Yeah. I think we're talking about our individual habits and the importance of the individual responsibility. How do you think the industry has embraced wellness in the last six years since you launched a balance glass? How have you seen the industry respond and evolve Yeah. I would it's really been very much two lanes of two very different roads. I think when, when we started, and there was a lot of discussion around looking at ourselves as an industry and how are we really looking at the aspects of well-being for our own industry. Right? So are we paying people what they should be paid? Do we have diversity and inclusive approaches in our industry? Are we supporting working families Do we have protocols and alcohol in the workplace? So on on ourselves, I think we're getting better if I had to rate us, I'd say we're kind of a six out of ten at the moment over the last six years. But we have a long way to go. But the intention is very much there. And I've seen more movement on that in the last year than I have probably in the five years prior. Five years prior was very much the real work and the real action was being done either by very small operators who had a very deep interest in it, either a personal interest or they had, you know, team members who were very proactive in bringing these kinds of wellness practices into their workplace. Or there was conversations happening at a very large corporate level where wellness programs were being brought in through HR to start to offer as an employee benefit. And so that was kind of the industry stuff. The real change, I think, has been you know, the the wellness conversation, well-being conversation for consumers because we we cannot deny that the industry has had to play catch up to a consumer demographic that's saying this is important to us. And I would definitely say between eighteen and twenty, it was growing slowly and then COVID fundamentally revolutionized the conversation about well-being because I would say that you know, COVID united the world on one common issue, which was health. And I don't think either is know anyone that was a unaffected, right, by this. We had lockdowns of varying time frames, we had obviously very tragic loss of friends and family members, and there was illness. And so and people were home, you know, and and with that downtime, there was either a willingness or a necessity to look at. Overall relationships and and one of those was definitely with wine. And so, you know, as part kind of coming out of that out of COVID, if we fast forward two years later, we also have people now a lot more interested in what's in everything. Right? So this starts to be discussion around ingredient labeling, transparency and ingredients, you know, how much am I putting, quote, in my body? And wine is obviously part of that. And we also coming out of COVID had an incredible amount of innovation in product, non traditional alcohol, whether that was non traditional, you know, package sizing, whether it's cans, whether it was, you know, adaptogen drinks, whether it was hard seltzers, low alcohol, no alcohol. There's tons of innovation coming out, and Now as the industry is looking to attract new consumers, all of this environment is is quite different to what was, you know, COVID twenty two post or twenty twenty or even eighteen. And so on the wellness conversation from the consumer point of view, I think we're we've accelerated like crazy. The most recent months of activity from the World Health Organization on recommended drinking guidelines are just accelerating the conversation. So I would say on the consumer side of things, we're really they're probably at an eight. So they're ahead of the industry. Yeah. As you said, we as an as an industry and wine in particular do have some catching up to do and to the overall consumer. But as you said, there's been a lot of momentum and and great strides made in in recent years, especially to be more conscientious of of wellness, in in our category. You know, as the founder of a balanced class, can you talk to us a little bit about how you're utilizing that platform to really support the industry in this evolution and the wellness space. Yeah. So I would say the the first thing that we did when coming back in twenty three was really look at the kind of information that we were putting out there. And we really settled on three really key parts that we wanted to focus on, and and to be honest, people told me they wanted more of. The first thing was moderation. So focusing really on Not so much on the nehor prohibitionist conversation around alcohol, but really on moderation, wine is part of a balanced diet, low no alcohol products, what's good, what's bad, you know, what's worth drinking, and then helping people have more comfortable conversations around, you know, I wanna do dry January. What the heck is sober October? How do I become part of this if I wanna talk about it? So moderation is definitely a bull's eye. And it is something that it's like the more you look for it, the more you find. We're having increasing conversations as an industry of, you know, friends and family who are choosing not to. Drink as much so they're moderating or they're abstaining. The second thing is offering mindfulness practices, and I think this is something that's still pretty unique to a balanced glass is the opportunity of offering knowledge around meditation, breath work, yoga, mindfulness practices that help you navigate, you know, the six local subway on a Friday night so that you can really keep your wits about you, settle your breath, keep your mind alert. And we just are at the end of a five part really simple meditation series, guided meditation series on ABG. That was, gifted by Jill Gordon Smith, who's one of the Australian members. And she developed it for her WSET students to help them study with their studies and to clear their minds while they were studying. And my fondest practices have so much value beyond, again, I think what we maybe, you know, perceive them to be. So that's had really great response. And so we're looking to do more of that. Right? Little quick snacks of helping you get your mind back together and your breath stable. And then the third thing is what I call the middle path, which is everything that goes into living well. So that's your travel hacks, that's your jet lag hacks, that's your eating on the road. That's your lifestyle shifts. And so we're gonna be doing a lot more of that because, again, it it all has to be this holistic system that you know, you improve kind of any one part and and it helps you to then move on and and develop your your overall approach to well-being. Right. Starting small and starting with maybe some little things you can do that all will add up. I mean, I lived last week in Las Vegas Vegas hotel conference room for two straight days sitting in a room without windows, eating three fairly heavy buffet meals a day. And very little zero time to go to the gym or get some movement in. So I went with the thirty minutes I had or at the end of the evening and just walked up and down flights of stairs outside. That helped just get, you know, some movement, the blood moving, and I think just more of that education, those life hacks, those tips on the road, getting people, hey. Do you wanna skip the bus with me and walk at wine to wine in November, me and, Dan patrol ski, you know, walked one day to the fair about a mile and a half just to get some movement in, you know, before the day started and making those things more commonplace. It doesn't have to be, you know, intimidating. Right? And I think that's that's key. Absolutely. And also the things that you can do if you're sitting in a general sales meeting on a Friday and you're sitting in presentations from eight AM until five PM, you know, you can actually do postures and poses in your chair, a little like airplane yoga, that you don't have to move. So no one even has to know you're doing it. And I think that is a powerful thing particularly if we're trying to bring new audiences into this discussion A lot of people get embarrassed by these subjects, and these are subjects that are not intuitive. And and I think that that's really critical for us too is to really meet people where they are. Speaking of, airplane yoga, we act actually in our sales meeting last week. One of our team members, Nora, led us through some breath work, and she showed us some in seat yoga, and in a room of mostly men and a few women. It was great to see everyone participating and engaging with the, you know, the where she was leading. So I was excited to to see that as part of the program we had. What are some of the questions that you get from wine industry leaders and companies in terms of wellness? How are they looking to engage their employees? Like, what are those some of the most common questions you're getting from the industry leaders? Yeah. I I would say that there's a lot of fear, a leadership level of getting it wrong. And not quote offering the right tool. I mean, employee assistance programs, we actually spoke about this earlier in the year, at the financial symposium about the lack of uptake of EAP programs with for mental health support. And mental health is still probably the hardest, you know, topic to address because it is such a deeply complex, incredibly personal, and it's a subject that, you know, is is really the realm of specialists, right, of qualified specialists to treat. And so leadership are are saying, you know, what can I do that is going to be the right thing to do or enough to do? And my response to that is always do something. Do one thing. And and include your teams in the feedback. What do they want? Have you sat down and asked your teams what they are looking for? Because they may not want another thing to do. You know, they may not want another session to go to. They may not want another gym membership. So it's, you know, what can I do for my people? I'm afraid to make the wrong decision? Well, the reality is you can't just start the conversation. I think lead by example is a big thing, and that's, you know, do you tell people about what your own program is? Like, do you put wellness breaks on your calendar, dear CEO? Well, I'd never do that. Well, why not? Because otherwise, you you can't model the kind of behavior you wanna see in your people. Do you have a protocol on drinking in the workplace? Well, not really we're too afraid to say. Okay. Well, you have to involve your people in that. You know, what do they want? What do they feel comfortable talking about? That's a very deep cultural conversation, right, because it comes down to the company, how it's been built, the philosophy, and so that's again. And then it's how do I keep my great people happy? And keeping your great people happy a lot of the time is hearing their concerns valuing that feedback and taking action. I think the way you responded to that question, Rebecca is showing us that wellness again is not just about physical wellness and gym memberships. It's also how are you incorporating practices and habits and policies around around mental health, around policies, around consumption, in the aspects of the companies that you're, you know, that you're running. And I think that's that's so important. The low no category is now, you know, receiving such attention rightfully so. It's creating conversations around how do we approach this? How do we engage in this if we choose to? And so it's making the overall kind of well-being wellness conversation easier for people. Right. Because now not only is it seen as having an internal conversation. It's an external consideration for how we're marketing, you know, our products to the consumer and what they are demanding as we talked about earlier, and everything they consume, transparency, ingredient labeling, alternatives that offer different benefits, So I wanna talk a little bit more about that topic and, you know, as an industry, how do we face these challenges of lower consumption, you know, at the end of the day, many of us that listen to this podcast or selling wine. So how how do we balance that? That could those considerations of the consumer has if they wanna consume less, they wanna be healthier, but at the same time, we're on the other end of the table, and we have a product to sell. Right? So do we think about that moving forward? I mean, this is the golden nut. I think that we all really, first of all, need to make a priority to talk about in our own businesses and also is reassessing what we how we prioritize the success of the wine category. And, yes, we have, you know, I I worked for foliar fine wine partners. We had twenty family owned producers. We had a thousand plus skews. So it was in our interest, obviously. To sell and to sell well. But again, we also have to reconcile that with the reality of a of a changing drinking demographic, but wine is still as part of a balanced diet as part of this Mediterranean lifestyle, the most approachable style of alcohol. And of course, you know, our limitations, we're not talking about health. We it's not legal in America to be talking about health with alcohol, but using wine and selling wine and positioning wine as part of this cultural conversation, the historic conversation, the creative conversation, a culinary conversation, a culinary conversation. It is so much more than just liquid in a glass. And I would say that part of what we have not really capitalized on, and I've I've I've I've seen Danny Brager and Dale Stratton stand up over ten years and talk about this. You know, wine is a natural product. The how close it is to farming, how conscientious it is in terms of sustainability or water use or land use. I think there are elements of us of the the wine industry we're not really talking about. And I think, you know, consumers see wine as natural. They believe it to be natural. The natural wine kind of phenomenon has done great things, I believe, for the wine category. And I think honesty is important. I think, you know, we we have to be transparent and honest. And when you look at some of the category leaders like Ridge who've been ingredient labeling for goodness knows how long, I think that kind of transparency will serve us well. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think it's just we're so transparent in many ways internally, and I think it's taking some of the things that we do among one another and and pushing them more externally, right, and getting that that message out there. Rebecca, I think you could probably talk for another two hours about this topic or I'm, excited that I know you're gonna be diving into some more topics just after Vin Italy. Tell us a little bit more about what you have coming up. Yeah. Thank you. So, actually, Felicity Carter and I, we have presented it initially for goodness. I think ten years or so on and off. Thanks to Stevie's faith in us. In twenty twenty, we presented a session on wellness health and the wine consumer. And a lot's changed since twenty twenty. So we're going back and we're updating our data and really looking at the new trends. So we're going to be presenting that as a webinar, hopefully by the end of April, so after in Italy. Just to look at where we are now, a lot of things have changed. Let's admit a lot of it stayed the same. So we're excited to do that. We're excited just to see where we are globally and what's happening and hopefully provide some really helpful tips and insights for your audience. So watch this space and that will be after Venadilly as a webinar, so accessible to everyone I imagine. That's great. Looking forward. We're hearing an update from from you and Felicity. Rebecca, as we wind down in every episode, we like to do our rapid hire quiz where we ask our guests the same three questions about the US market. So if you can do your best to answer these in one or two sentences, I know that's a challenge, but more or less. Question number one, what is your number one tip for mastering the US wide market. Build long term relationships, know your cost of doing business and know the channels, the sales channels that you want to be in. And RN. Very valuable. Focus. Absolutely. Number two, what is something you might have told your younger professional self about working in the wine industry in the US? You need to have a lot more patience than you think. Every day you're building relationships, so build them well and never underestimate luck. Luck can get you a lot of places. But how do you work the luckier you get, Joel? I wanna see the the chart on the correlation with that. And finally, we talked about lifestyle hacks and the industry and things we can do to maintain our wellness. But what is your number one favorite? Travel hack for when you're traveling for work. Zip blocks of snacks. I am a squirrel. I will have little bags of fruit and almonds in my bag somewhere in a side pocket. Because you burn so much energy when you're traveling. And if you don't need it, you're probably gonna be with someone who will. So I always have, you know, the little snack bags of mixed fruit, trail mix, always. I've always got something shoved in my pocket. Yeah. Absolutely. Especially when you're down at that breakfast buffet and all they have are patience and weapons. Yep. Sometimes, yeah, as much as I love a croissant, I can't have one every day. So, Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Great. Great tip, Rebecca. Well, thank you again so much for being here on Master Class US Y Market today. How can all of our listeners follow along and connect with you? Sure. Yeah. You can find a balanced glass at a balanced glass one word dot com. That's the same on Instagram, a balanced glass, LinkedIn, and then we have a Facebook group, not a page. It's a group. It's a close group for everyone to join in the industry, and that's a balanced glass. And then you can find me at their Hopkins Wine, probably posting about something ridiculous. Fantastic. Well, thank you again, Rebecca. It's so good to have you on today. Wonderful. Thanks, Juliana. Thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned each week for new episodes of Master Class US wine market with me, Juliana Colangelo. I remember if you enjoyed today's show, hit the like and follow buttons wherever you get your podcasts.