Ep. 1194 Ryan MacDonnell | Uncorked

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My name is Holly Hammond, and you are listening to uncorked, the Italian wine podcast series about all things marketing and communication. Join me each week for candid conversations with experts from within and beyond the wine world. As we explore what it takes to build a profitable business in today's constantly shifting environment. In this, our last uncorked episode of the year, we are showcasing a very special initiative that brings stories, community, and purpose together for good. I'm pleased to welcome Ryan McDonald Broker to the show. Alongside her brother Miles, Ryan is the second generation leadership at Ultra Premium Napa Brand Round Rounda State. Weeks Ponda State. Weeks, they launched the honorin project. To bring awareness togetherness and funding to support Alzheimer's research. Today, we talk about their family journey to wine, how communication was key to succession planning, and how they've turned their family's experience into a deeply personal initiative that supports a greater good. Let's get into it. Brian, thank you so much for joining me this morning on this my last, episode for the Italian wine podcast. I have you here for a very special reason, but I don't think we're gonna get to that until later in this episode. So welcome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Now you are second generation. Owner operator, Round Ponder State. For everyone who's listening, we've got a big European audience. Can you just tell us a little bit about Round Ponder? And kind of what sets you apart from some of your Napas and Ooma neighbors? So round fund, for us as a family business, as you said, we've been in Napa Valley since nineteen eighty three. Actually, we were in Napa Valley starting in the late seventies, but, where we are now, sort of physically, we're down, on the valley floor. And, you know, this was a love of my dad's. He wanted to be a farmer, you know, sort of in his in his real life. Unfortunately, never really got that chance other than threw round pot initially, you know, selling the grapes. And that's that's what we did for the first twenty, thirty years of our existence, when mom and dad were running the business. And, when Miles and I joined, which was in two thousand, we started sort of envisioned that we had a special opportunity to make wine. And, you know, we have this incredible piece of property, which is, you know, super lucky in Rutherfordford, in the Napa Valley on the Valley floor, and we realized that, you know, not only did we have the vineyards, but if we were able to build a winery and, have the selection from those vineyards, to actually create our own wine that we, you know, would have an opportunity opportunity to do something special. So that was sort of what we envisioned and and why we started. But it didn't start out with wine as my understanding. I actually love this story that as children, you played in the original property, your family would camp on the original property. Like, because I know that you have an ultra premium property that's written up all over the place, but it actually was a a real, like, I'm gonna just use the word down home family effort in the late seventies and early eighties. Right. So you started out with olives. Is that right? Yeah. So we actually, yeah, initially, there was nothing on the property we would camp, you know, would go up. There was just a platform, an old wooden platform. And so my dad would take us. And really the real reason was, you know, there were four of us kids, and my mom was exhausted by the weekend. And so my dad would put us all in the car and take us away, to give my mom a bit of a break. And so, you know, she loved her her Saturday morning, with her coffee and getting to relax, and then we head out and go up and, you know, into the Napa Valley and into the hills and and camp for the weekend. And so that was sort of our first exposure. And and What was it about olives that your dad, who wanted to be a farmer was like, right? Here here's what we're doing, kids. Sure. Well, so the way it really started was the vineyards. Right? So we had the vineyards and we had the the farming business, you know, from, you know, eighty two to ongoing. So we still have that. And so in about, I think it was nineteen ninety five, you know, my dad had this idea to recreate, what he had experienced, he and my mom had experienced when they were younger, they would come up to the Napa Valley in their twenties and thirties And there was this old, olive mill where they would go and fill up a jug of oil and bring it back to the city to enjoy. And so he had this vision that, hey, Let's recreate something like that that can be a community resource and people can come and, you know, have this fresh product that's so incredible. And so, that's why we initially did it. And we built a whole olive mill and have an incredible, stone mill and the centrifuge and the whole process where we now, can make our own oil. And so that was sort of the genesis of the project. Wow. Wow. So, I understand that to this day, along with the olive oil, there's also a really strong farming component that runs along with, you know, we've got the grape grown and we've got the olive oil. But in fact, you've got a full garden on-site. Is that correct? We do. We've got my mom has a huge passion for the land and for gardening. And so, we've always had a a very big personal garden, at Round Pond where, you know, the family goes and gathers and and we use for for everything for cooking and produce and all of that. And so I think it was in twenty ten, we decided to sort of replicate that for the winery itself so that consumers could come to the winery and walk through the garden and pick, you know, the fresh, produce from the land. And so What do you grow? Oh my gosh. We grow so many different things. You can kind of, we grow it. You know, you name it. We grow it. Everything from zucchini and cherries. And we've got, gosh, avocados, which are difficult to grow here, but we we do have a few plants. We've got Does that bring the millennials to you? The avocados? I had to make the avocado too. Right. Right. I mean, honestly, so many different things I can't even tell you. And, right now, it's all, you know, winter lettuces and chards and kales and and things like that. But come summer, it's, you know, all of the usual summer produce, which is wonderful. So because I do have to talk about business a little bit, is that actually a commercial component that that people can come strictly for the farming side of the property even if they're, you know, not wine levered. Do you sell that produce, or is it is is it strictly experiential? It's really strictly experiential. We we have at times, sold some of that produce to restaurants, you know, locally so that they can they can use it. But really, it's part of the experience for people who visit round pond. Not only can they go out to the garden and and pick the produce themselves, but they can also experience that in all of their, tastings. We have and beautiful El Paso lunch that we do where people can, you know, taste through all of the produce and not only the olive oils and and everything else and the wines, of course, that come from the property, but, the food as well. So, second generation in that process when you and your brother Miles took over and or when you were not necessarily took over, but when you were, you know, becoming more involved in it and making some of those business decisions, You know, how how did that work between you and your parents? Is it you saying, hey, we see a real opportunity. You know, we can build this. We can grow it in this direction. Was it you know, kind of the light bulb came on for everyone all at once. What did that process of secession look like? Sure. Well, it's so interesting. So, There's a couple of things there. So dad, first of all, was such an amazing, mentor and leader. You know, and throughout our childhood, we grew up with his, sort of lectures as we called them. And so We always had this sort of incredible advice coming at us, you know, that could be applied to business, but really was sort of life advice, like, you know, follow-up, follow-up, you know, if you don't care who gets the credit, you'll be fine, you know, take care of people. It was all this kind of stuff. And so, so we sort of had that in the back of our minds as we were getting going. And, part of that I think is spending a lot of time thinking about how do you plan for succession and how do you pass from one generation to the next? And so he was very willing to say, pass the buck to the next generation because I think he knew that so often, you know, that that is the source of conflict in families and that's, often why businesses don't, you know, transition successfully from one generation to the next. So Yeah. And and that's why I'm asking because it can't be a huge problem. Either we just kind of stick our heads in the sand about it or, you know, there's contention. So to hear that this started early on is is fabulous. Yeah. So he had no problem letting go. Yep. Yeah. And, you know, I think he had a lot of faith in us and he, he allowed us to make a lot of mistakes, which I think you you have to do. In order to sort of evolve and be successful. Probably helps if there were four of you. I think that the more children you have, the more you just embrace the fact that, alright, we're gonna learn some things, the brute force method. You know, it's just it's it's not gonna always be smooth sailing. So you've got you and your brother came in to, to kind of take on the to what is it? To take the torch, to carry the baton. Was there ever this moment when you just looked at each other and you're like, Come on. Don't you wanna just like, don't you wanna bail? Don't you wanna go live in Costa Rica? What what are we thinking? Why are we continuing this wine journey? You know, we're gonna go make pickles. We're off. Right. Well, you know, wine is a tough business and olive oils and even tougher business. And that's mostly because of the process of making the product, it takes a very, very long time. Right? So with with wine, you're, in the ground planting you know, it's really not until your seventh year that you've got a fantastic, crop that, you know, the winemakers are happy with. And then after that, you don't release the wine for another three years. So it's really a ten year venture. So there are definitely a lot of moments along the way where you're thinking to yourself, like, why didn't I go into high-tech and, you know, make a billion dollars overnight? And how come, you know, how come we're doing stuff? We work so hard. Why do we work so hard? But, you know, it's so soul satisfying in so many ways, and there's just really nothing like being able to put your, you know, hands in the dirt and and feel like you're creating something from nothing. Both as far as the product is concerned, but also as far as, building a business and building it with your family. So Well, that's a really nice segue because, one of the reasons that ultimately I, invited you on the show, is that you have a fabulous marketing team. It's one of those things that we notice, like, just the content's great. The email's good. The comms are outstanding. So I would say for anybody listening, if you wanna roll master class on good email communications, you need to go and subscribe to the Round Pond email. And I'll I'll come back to that in a minute. But having this history, you know, in Napa, and, of course, we've got articles coming out now about how expensive Napa has become and and how the the environment, the tourism environment, and even just the residential environment has changed so much. Because have are are there any kind of stand out changes that you could talk about to marketing and ultra premium brand in Napa, and then, of course, in the era of D2C, getting that beyond Napa. Mhmm. Well, that's really interesting. I would say, you know, COVID, obviously, propelled a lot of people and businesses forward or or not. Right? So I think we all realized we had to embrace this. And one of the things I think that happens in the wine business is that it's very easy to be complacent and sort of happy with where you are and, rest on your laurels. And I think brands can become very tired that way. And so you know, from the get go, we've always said we don't ever wanna be that old tired brand. And so, every opportunity that we, you know, can find, we try and propel ourselves forward in some sort of an interesting way. And so COVID was one of those ways digital, digitally, of course, where we could. And so we had always talked about doing, you know, zoom tastings and sort of bringing our product to our club members for instance that live in Wisconsin or abroad or wherever it was and who couldn't necessarily get to visit us. And so, it was as as you said, sort of a master class in overnight, how do we do this and how do we do it well? And so, you know, I'm super proud of our team for leaning into that and figuring out what we can do and how we can stay relevant and interesting, as a brand. Is some of it risk taking? Is it, you know, saying we have no idea if this is going to work or not? And and if So how do you balance that being, you know, a legacy brand, really? Is there a fear? Are you constantly kind of guarding the brand that you're like? We just have to be so careful that, everything that we do is either perfectly on brand, or is it because we're a legacy brand, we have so much freedom to actually try things that maybe we couldn't if we just started out. Well, it's, it's interesting because, you know, I think I don't think of us as a legacy brand. I think of us as a young sort of new ish brand. And because when in Navajo Valley, there's so many, you know, companies that have been around for you know, many, many generations. And so I guess that gives us the freedom. I feel like we have the freedom to take risks, and his dad used to say, you know, throw things up against the wall and see what sticks. And To me, that's the only way if you don't take risks, you're not gonna be able to try new things and and experience experiment. And, of course, you make mistakes along the way, but that's okay. You know, most most things you can recover from. So Right. Well, in the context of digital, I have to say I was pretty impressed because you have a YouTube channel that dates back twelve years. And I know that I'm forever saying to clients, and you please embrace video, just come on a little. And they're like, no. No video. No YouTube. And I was like, well, you've been doing that a long time. Well, thank you. Yeah. We we've been trying. You know, we've, like I said, I think it's one of our sort of guiding principles is that you know, we wanna understand, what's coming and what's relevant to our consumer and how we can best reach them. And so, of course, we have a lot to learn, you know, my next my next venture that I wanna understand and figure out is the whole NFT market and how can we as a winery sort of enter that and, you know, what does that mean? And and I don't know yet, but there's gotta be something. I think anybody that tells you they do know is full of it. You know, we we've interviewed a handful of people at NFTs on this podcast, as I know many of my, any many of my colleagues on the podcast have as well. And I come away from every one of those interviews, probably more confused than I went into it just saying, Is it art? I mean, like, I really just just totally lost on that. Now that having been said, I did ask you on for a very special reason, which is along with possibly NFTs and some of the other things you're doing. You have just launched a new initiative at Round Pond, and I would love it if you could just talk to us a little bit about that. And I will try not to get weepy, but if I mute myself, that's why. Oh, thank you so much. I am so excited. You know, for me, this really, brings me personally full circle. Yeah. I I got it involved with Round Pond when I was very young, and I'd had, some health issues and, and was really thinking about what was important to me, in life and where I wanted to end up and wanted to be able to give back. And, and so You know, as we've talked about the wine businesses, a difficult business. So it's taken us a long time, twenty years, but I feel like, you know, finally through our new project, it's called honoring which is dedicated to raising funds for people with Alzheimer's, we can finally do that. So sort of on a personal level, I'm just so thrilled and excited. On another personal level, this is really, to honor not only so we are dad. My dad, we lost to, Alzheimer's last year, May of twenty twenty one. After a really long battle and it had been, such a difficult journey, for us as a family. It'd been ten years, at least, of of going through this process. And so after that, after we finally passed, we knew that we wanted to do something more. And so we have created this line. It's called honoring, which means Guardian or, you know, to show and pay respect to. And so, I'm really excited not only to honor dad, but also to honor all of the other people who so many, families struggling with this disease and, to honor them and to raise awareness so that, you know, we can support each other and, raise funds and and awareness. That's a deeply personal thing to go out to the public with. How have you embraced the experience or what has been the reception as you go out into the world and you actually talk about the fact that this was ten years that it was so challenging and it was so much work. You know, has it been all good? Has it been just liberating? Has it been like, you know, experiencing trauma in public? You know, I think it has been, for me, so cathartic. And the thing that's been most surprising is how many people are going through this. I mean, I can't tell you the number of emails, and calls and conversations I've had with people who are, either in the in the midst of this or I've lost someone, it's it's so, it's so unbelievably pervasive. And the fact that as a society, you know, we don't talk about it more, I think, I think it's becoming more acceptable to talk about these things, but I know when dad initially was diagnosed, you know, we had this weird sense of stigma and shame about it. And we sort of went through this whole process of not talking about it and then having to come to terms and accepting it ourselves. And so I guess if we can help people to have those conversations and to feel okay, I feel like not feeling alone through the process will, in and of itself, help people, to deal with the deal with it because, it's so difficult and painful. And for some reason, we isolate ourselves and we don't talk about it together. So to the extent that we can get people to share their stories. I think I do think it will be, you know, help as much as it can. And and having people share their stories is a part of the project. Is that right? And Yeah. I'm so excited about the label itself. So as we were thinking about this, we we didn't wanna just honor dad. We wanted to honor everybody. As I said, it became very clear how many people are going through this, and sort of talking more about this. And So the label itself is going to have the faces and images of, other people who have either been lost or are struggling with Alzheimer's. And so on our website, we've we have a place where people can submit the images and then tell the stories of these people, you know, either of their journey or of the person they were before. They, you know, struggled with Alzheimer's and, there's just something so incredible about telling those stories and then, of course, reading those stories that they make me cry every day as I read them. But, I do feel like for people, it's helpful to them and it's, you know, giving them a voice, where they've been silenced. And what do you envision doing with those stories? We know that the photos are going on the label. Is there a bit more storytelling coming in the days and years ahead? Yes. So in my mind, I envision, you know, having the label and then maybe having something on our site where you can scroll over each, you know, person's image and then that will, you know, pop up their story, something like that. This is sort of where the whole NFT idea is. You know, maybe we have these, poster size, you know, labels where people can actually see the images clearly if their loved one and and then, you know, have that for all eternity or whatever live digitally and then maybe live in some, you know, posters style format available as well. So maybe a piece of artwork. And this is this is the first year. Is that correct that you've done this? It is. But is it is it gonna be a year on year or is it just a a one off experience? No. No. We're really excited. So we have been working with the Alzheimer's association here to raise funds for the last couple of years. And go ahead and tell us. You've raised a fair bit. How much has Round POND? Yes. Yes. Yeah. No. So last year, we were able to raise, seventy thousand dollars for the Alzheimer's Association, and then, this coming year, well, twenty twenty two, we hope to be able to donate a hundred thousand dollars, which is fantastic. And we've just gone through a November promotion fully committed to Alzheimer's, awareness. And so we're putting those numbers together now, but I expect it'll be around a hundred thousand. And then with honor in the project, we really hope to do this every year. We'll release a wine, called honor in in honor and in support of the Alzheimer's you know, funding and awareness. And so we're hoping next year, if we're successful and I intend to be, we will raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for, for the Alzheimer's cause. That's that's incredible. That's it. And then the sky is the limit from there. You know, we hope to grow every year. So we are in an era where every brand is being told that they need purpose, they need you know, value driven, that they need something beyond just profits to motivate them. Round Pawn made a really personal decision on that. What would you say to brands who are listening, who are thinking I would like to be purposeful, but I'm afraid that maybe my purpose isn't the purpose that everybody else is jumping into and talking about right now. You know, if it is something deeply personal, Do you have any advice for them about how to culturally make that happen and how to communicate that to an audience? Sure. Well, I think it has to be deeply personal to be meaningful. Right? Like you said, I think from a branding perspective, a lot of companies are, going after the ESG, you know, motto and and and if it's not authentic and real, you know, the consumer will know that. So I guess my my recommendation would be to pick something that is deeply personal, and it will resonate, with everybody. And you know, it it can be something that's really personal amongst your staff. It can be something that maybe you've experienced, but, like I said, I've been amazed at the outreach and support we've received, from people who are going through this. And so I I imagine that anyone that endeavors to do something for the right reasons will feel the same way, even if it's a, you know, a less well known. Or even if it's not safe because I I think that that's something that we really encounter in alcohol is that this notion of we kind of need to be safe. I'll give an example. This was from probably ten years ago. I remember, you know, on a wine site, and there was, like, an easter egg on the site that was how to send I can't remember exactly how it worked, but it was basically a click this button to change the screen immediately. And it was something that indicated, you know, that generally it was a domestic violence or domestic abuse situation. And there are so many things in terms of mental health, safety and security, it that I think are a lot of brands whether they're white or not, don't know how to message or don't know how to go out to the public with because by and large, we wanna pick things that feel good. You know? And and in your case, you've pick something that your outcome is wonderful, but possibly, especially in your early days talking about it is not, like, the biggest feel good Right. Moment you've ever had. Absolutely. But, you know, Even the things that are most difficult to talk about, I think those are the things we need to talk about the most. Right? Because you are somehow more isolated and alone, you know, whether it's mental health issues or you know, domestic abuse or those things, and it's it's that siloing that that makes it so horrific and makes it so difficult for people. So, you know, maybe those are the issues we all need to be tackling the most. Probably. So just moving forward, honoring right now, is it in bottle? When does it when does it become available to drink? And how do you decide whose pictures to put on it? I mean, you're gonna have years and years and years worth of pictures. Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, again, it's, you know, like I said, it's the whole learning process. So we are in the process of designing the label now. In fact, our designer is just taking all of the images that we have submitted And so we're basically gonna set a deadline of the end of the year, and we're gonna take all the images that come in, and and work with those to put them on the label. And then, of course, any images that come in after that, we can look at putting on you know, the the twenty twenty, twenty twenty two bottling. So the honor in twenty twenty one, which is the first vintage will come out, be released in November, but we will have you know, an ability, I think, for people to purchase it, before that just throughout the year next year, in order to start to raise awareness for it. And beyond honoring, what's in store for Round Pond in the year? Well, I'm also super excited about our sustainability initiatives. And, I know that's sort of pokey or maybe everyone's focused on that right now, but we've made a huge decision or around fond to switch two lighter weight glass, which in the industry, you know, it maybe it sounds like if you don't know the industry is not a big deal, but it it is because often, you know, heavy big glass is associated with you know, quality wine. And, so we've decided we're going to buck that trend and do something for a planet and, start putting all of our wine in much lighter weight glass And so that's just one of the many Can I jump in and say thank you? Thank you because we need we need premium and super premium and ultra premium brands doing that because, you know, that's where we change that opinion about the high high weight equals the high quality, which we all know. Look, I'm gonna love your wine, but I'm not gonna sell her it. I'm gonna drink it. I wanna drink wine. And and, really, that's that's the hurdle that we have to jump is accepting that so much of the wine, even our fabulous super freemium wines, we really wanna drink. Yeah. Yeah. So a hundred percent, most people, you know, they they buy a wine and they they drink it that night. I mean, I think the statistics are Exactly. Clear that way. But, you know, so I agree with you. I think you we need to make these leaps and we need to, and we feel as a company that our customers, for the most part, will, understand that it's, you know, it's more important to, to save the the planet than to drink out of a really heavy bottle and that the isn't doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the wine itself. So, you know, we're we're making that leap and hoping our customers will come along with us. With that in mind, are you seeing, younger and younger customers? Because obviously, our younger customers are completely, like, onto it with the lighter weight bottles. We don't have to explain that to them. It's so often kind of our older, you know, boomer, elder gen xers who are still hardcore on the heavy bottles. Yeah. We are for sure. You know, we're an expensive expensive line. So, we are more and more appealing, I think, to the millennials, and to the, you know, the younger generations, but, it is expensive. And so I'm hoping, you know, as, as they come up through the world and their resources are better, they'll be able to, you know, join the round fund brand more. But, But we're even hoping, you know, our our baby boomers will come along with us with this crazy, decision. Well, they have to because they have grandchildren who are giving them a ton of shit if they don't. That's really it. Like, every boomer I know is learning from their grandchildren So you've got that. You've got, an extensive events and gifting portfolio. Correct? We do. We do. Our events are amazing here on-site at Round Bond. And, you know, we can host anything from small groups up to multiple hundreds of people, in a barn that we have here on-site, but, which is really fun and incredible team that puts that all together. And, and then we've got a great hospitality program where we love to have people as well and you know, just to come in and and taste in the whole, sort of ethos of that is that it's a very approachable, sort of humble, hopefully experienced, but in a very elegant settings that people can come and not feel, the humorous of wine or any of that, but, just enjoy a a wonderful high quality experience. Oh, that's fabulous. Ryan, thank you so much. I'm really grateful to you for coming on. We both made it through without crying, which I think is a a huge high five. So for anyone who would like to know more about roundpond and specifically the honor and initiative. Where do they go? So, specifically, they can come to our website, roundpawn dot com. Very simple. And, you know, you'll you'll be able to go to our mission page. And you'll be able to see all of our initiatives both for honor and and sustainability. And, and you'll be able to submit a photo. If anyone wants to, we'd be so honored to tell, you know, your loved ones story And so submit a photo there and, and, you know, feel free, but don't feel obligated to tell their story, so that we can put it out for the world to know as well. And and on top of that, I will just say I found that you have a very lovely YouTube video. About this initiative as well. So we can find you at Round Ponda State on YouTube and twelve years worth of storytelling right then and there. So it's a really great resource for anyone who's trying to learn about the brand and what you're up to. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ryan. I will let you get on with your day at this holiday season when I know you're probably swamped. Oh, thank you so much. It's been such an honor to be here. And that's a wrap on our very last episode of Uncourt. Thank you so much, Ryan, for joining me today. 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