Celebrating The Everyday - Enrique Morgan - Accolade Wines

Mar 17, 2023

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Welcome to Grit Daily Startup, the podcast series hosted by the expert entrepreneur and business leader, Sebastian Rusk. In this episode, Sebastian talks with Enrique Morgan, the Managing Director of the Americas of a new wine company called Accolade Wines. With over 21 years of experience in the wine industry, Enrique shares his insights into the business from his experience as an assistant merchandiser and the importance of flexibility to make decisions and turnarounds.

Enrique expresses his passion and enthusiasm for Wines, sharing how their beverage is world-renowned, setting Accolade Wines apart from others with its diverse heritage that ties back to the organization today. Furthermore, Enrique reveals the success of their new launch of J-Harden Wines across the United States, anticipated to bring in more consumers.

Enrique focuses on the importance of being a self-motivator and having the right startup mentality when facing difficult processes and making decisions. He emphasizes the need to take steps and have flexibility to turn things around in order to make the venture a success. Sebastian and Enrique’s conversation showcases the unique journey Accolade Wines has embraced, and the discussion offers invaluable insights into the wine business to endear listeners and shine a light on the company’s success. Tune in to Grit Daily Startup and listen to more incredible stories!

Blog Post

Blog Post #1

Have you ever wanted to know what it takes to become a successful startup? Then look no further than the latest episode of GritDaily Startup featuring our amazing host Sebastian Rusk and special guest Enrique Morgan.

In this episode, listeners will get a chance to gain valuable insight into the world of startups. Through Enrique's story, we learn how to manage a successful startup, from the low-level “gritty” details to the big-picture strategies. As Enrique states, “I thought I was going to come out of college swinging, and I was gonna get all these job offers, and that’s exactly what didn’t happen”.

Here are three tips to help you start your own successful journey in business, just like Enrique did:

1. Study and get a degree related to the business field: Enrique gained a degree in international business with an emphasis in marketing and finance and a minor in international relations.

2. Start at the bottom: Even if you have a degree and knowledge, sometimes it’s best to start at the low-level positions to understand the business environment.

3. Be persistent: Just because you don’t get the job offers you gave expected after graduation doesn’t mean you should give up. Use your education and knowledge and keep looking for opportunities.

Listen to the latest GritDaily Startup podcast episode to learn more about the journey of this successful entrepreneur, and don’t forget to share your thoughts and experiences by commenting on the post!

Blog Post #2

Want to see what it takes to get your startup off the ground? While the startup world can be risk-filled and unpredictable, those with the courage to pursue their dreams can be successful. Luckily, GritDaily Startup has a great episode featuring special guest Enrique Morgan, explaining his well-traveled road to success.

Originally from Chile, Enrique explains how he started off as an entry-level employee at the wine sales company, Gallo Sales Company, with a degree in international business with an emphasis in marketing and finance and a minor in international relations.

“I thought I was going to come out of college swinging, and I was going to get all these job offers, and that’s exactly what didn’t happen”.

Grasping hold of an opportunity is not always easy, but it is doable with the right attitude. Here are three tips to consider when starting your own venture:

1. Learn the basics: Getting a suitable degree in the field of interest is essential for success.

2. Start from the bottom: If a higher-up position isn’t available, starting from the bottom allows you to understand the business from the ground up and set your own rules.

3. Have grit: Persistence and resilience are key traits for any entrepreneur. Try and try again, and don’t let failures stop you from continuing your journey.

Take a listen to the GritDaily Startup podcast and learn from Enrique’s amazing story! You can also comment with your own experiences on the post to share with others.

All Quotes

[00:02:03] "So I started sort of at the lowest level of the chain, if you will, working for a gala sales company, an amazing company to work for. It's probably 1 of the jobs that I hated the most while I had it. But today, I'm so thankful for it."

[00:01:03] "Originally from Chile born and raised, and Chile moved to the US when that was about 11 years old to California, went to high school, university out in California."

[00:01:17] "Graduated from South State Monterey Bay, 1 of the state schools out there."

[00:01:40] "I had a degree in international business with emphasis in marketing and finance and then a minor in international relations."

[00:02:17] "I sort of reflected back on it. And I think it's the job I admire the most. I was, I think, an assistant merchandiser basically what that is, just a fancy way of describing somebody that dresses up in a suit and tie and gets up at 04:30 in the morning and goes. And throws boxes around in supermarkets, full of wine and booze so that they can be merchandised into the shelf set."

[00:02:47] "I started noticing that I had a bit of an attraction to selling and to not selling just myself, but actually just understanding how to connect with customers, connect with clients."

[00:03:06] "At this point, you know, I did a bit of marketing and I really wanted to get into that international business role at some point. So, I got a chance to work from a marketing perspective and sales perspective with our Canadian business with their Latin American business. They set up their Asia business and then back in the states."

[00:03:53] "And now, you know and again, I know that I'm floating through this kind of quickly but working for accolade wines in a completely different manner. So, I'm working for sort of a large company, but you know, in a space or in their role that is completely a startup. And what do I mean by that is that accolade wines are a big sort of global wine."

[00:04:24] "Understanding how to manage a balance sheet, understanding how to manage a P and L, understanding how to get, you know, return on your investment as quickly as possible. And basically, that's how we get to this point in my life."

[00:05:17] "So, ACLEWines owns quite a bit of land and quite a bit of brands that have been acquired through sort of M and A, mergers and acquisitions over the past. Several, you know, tens of years, 10:20, 30 years with its main hub out of the Australian market."

[00:05:35] "So basically based out of Australia with Australian wines. Huge market decisions, both in Australia and in New Zealand, where there's lots of great wineries, but also at the same time, a market leader in the UK business and the European business. That had their extent in business in the US. But like I mentioned before, we had to start that from scratch. 2 and a half years ago, amazing timing in the middle of the pandemic to get that up and running."

[00:06:05] "Basically what accolade wines does is that we own vineyards, we own wine brands, we've developed wine brands, and we produce and sell to either."

[00:06:41] "We always talk about the new world being anything outside of Europe. You know, there's plenty of places outside of Europe. They're actually quite old world in the sense of wine. So we've been around for quite some time."

[00:07:33] "Consumers are changing, behaviors are changing, there's all sorts of different complexities. A lot of people are scared about it. A lot of people shy away from it. Actually, I welcome it. I think it's a great, great twist to our business."

[00:07:51] "It's pushing us to think differently. It's pushing us to be different. It's pushing us to look at a consumer base that maybe in the wine industry we never bought off."

[00:08:01] "We were always sort of really caught up in the terra or what the soil brings or how many months in barrel or years in barrel for wine or talk about all sorts of those intricate things. I think that that's 1 consumer. And we have that consumer. We have those products."

[00:08:40] "We just did this venture. It's an ownership venture with James Harden, big NBA star, and he's a lot more than an NBA star is a huge personality, amazing guy."

[00:08:51] "We've launched j Harden wines across the US with immense success. We're super excited about it. And it's really been an incubator and it's been a startup. It's been, you know, from sort of our first meeting with James to the point that we had product up on the shelf."

[00:09:08] "We only had about 8 months of conversation. I'm not even going to call it from a session, from through conversation. So actually, execution took us about 8 months to get that product up on the shelf and launch that into the marketplace and talking to a whole new consumer, talking to a whole new arena of the market that nobody really in their industry is doing today."

[00:09:51] "The uncertainty. Right? So, I think it's an uncertainty coupled by the capacity for you to make decisions. Right? You are in the world of startups; you have to make decisions. And you don't know if those decisions are the right decisions, the wrong decisions. The wrong decisions at the beginning, but the right decision 6 months down the road, and that uncertainty and that forceful decision making, takes up a lot of head space, takes up a lot of mental space, it's draining on people. Right? And those decisions are coupled with risks. And I

[00:10:47] "I think that's the most painful process. You have to make decisions, you have to force yourself to take steps, and you have to understand that out of 10 decisions, you're probably gonna screw up 5 or 6 of them. And you got to have that flexibility to make them turnarounds."

[00:11:14] "It's the thrill of the win, the thrill of as you start up, any growth you get is explosive. Any sort of positive news that you get is a win. That is, you know, going from 0 to 1 is tenfold. Right? From 1 to 10 is tenfold. Right? From 10 to a hundred is tenfold, that growth is not seen on many things. Right?"

[00:11:45] "So winning those things and earning those things is amazing. Why is it thrilling because you look at the categories, you look at the markets, and there's not many markets that are growing 10x, 100x these days. So what are you doing? You're If you win, that means that you're not growing at the pace of a market, but you're stealing share from somebody else. So you're doing something better than somebody. Right?"

[00:12:09] "And that's what you have to be thinking about. You can't sort of we're a little startup. Think about growth. On and on market trends. Now you gotta sort of throw that out the window and you gotta say, what am I gonna go eat up? And so any win that you get that means that you've eaten some sort of the market up and that's thrilling and that drives you and that gets you out of bed every day. And I think that's where you have to be."

Topics

Starting a Wine Company: Lessons Learned from Enrique, Managing Director of the Americas at Accolade Wines

Accolade Wines: A Closer Look at Heritage and History.

The Expansion of the Wine Industry and the Launch of J-Harden Wines.

Self-Motivation and the Startup Mentality

Episode Links

Connect with Sebastian Rusk:

Connect with Enrique Morgan

Call to Action

If you enjoyed this podcast and want to support us, please subscribe on the platform you listen to podcasts from, leave a review and share with your friends. We’d greatly appreciate it!

Support the show: https://hype.co/@gritdailynews

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.