IAM1074- Founder Runs 100% Woman-owned Boutique Winery

Heather Rader is the founder of Spirit Horse Vineyards, a 100% woman-owned boutique winery based in Napa that empowers community and connection through delicious wines, unique member experiences, and philanthropy. The winery proudly supports the SpiritHorse Riding Center, an equine therapy rescue horse ranch that helps the next generation of girls thrive.

• CEO Hack: Morning routine that includes meditation, some time outside, and journaling
• CEO Nugget: Know your worth
• CEO Defined: Freedom

Website: http://www.spirithorsevineyards.com/

Shop page: https://spirithorsevineyards.vinespring.com/purchase

Use promotional code IAMCEO at checkout to get free shipping on purchases of $75 or more

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spirithorsevineyards/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:27 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share the valuable information you seek. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Heather Raider of Spirit Horse Vineyards. Heather, it's great to have you on the show.

01:04 – Heather Rader

Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here.

01:07 – Gresham Harkless

The honor is all ours, and you're doing so many phenomenal things. What I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Heather so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Heather is the founder of Spirit Horse Vineyards, a one hundred percent woman-owned boutique winery based in Napa that empowers community and connection through delicious wine, unique member experiences, and philanthropy. The winery proudly supports the Spirit Horse Riding Center, an equine therapy rescue horse ranch that helps the next generation of girls thrive. Heather, great to have you on the show again. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:40 – Heather Rader

I am. I'm so excited. Thanks so much.

01:43 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, excited to have you on and as a recipient of the fabulous one. I know you make so many, you know, phenomenal products and make so many people happy. But before we jump into that and what did you, could you take us through a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story?

01:56 – Heather Rader

Yes. Absolutely. So, my background I started in corporate. I, was VP of sales, at a at a Fortune five hundred company, for about twelve years. Ran about a hundred million dollar portfolio there at its peak, and managed a large team. There were things I loved about it, which were mentoring, mentoring the team, teachables, and all those things. That's what I loved about my job. But it was I got to a point of burnout.

I was living out of hotels and everything was looking good on paper, but I just was not feeling fulfilled and, wanted to do something where I could connect with people in a more meaningful way, and we could get something back into the community, which is just something that's just so important to me. So that's how we started Spirit Horse Vineyards. I left that corporate job. I dumped my boyfriend at the time. This was many years ago, and I did a little walkabout through Europe and came back and started the winery.

02:57 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. And I love even it sounds like, especially with the mentorship and the giving back and that connection piece that you mentioned so well, that's coming through everything you've been able to kinda create, with all the awesome things you're working on.

03:10 – Heather Rader

For sure. And I think for me as a consumer I wanna align my dollars, with, people and products that, do give back to the community and that align with my value system. So I looked at it from a consumer standpoint. I belong to a lot of different wine clubs, and they were all really the same, which was, I would just get my quarterly wine shipment every quarter. They had a harvest party every year. I didn't know who owned the winery. I didn't know any of the other club members. There was no giving back element. I couldn't choose my allocations every quarter. I was just told what I would take. And so, I guess, as they say in the world, if you don't like, what you're seeing in the world, you go out and create it yourself. So that's really what I did.

03:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. That's the entrepreneurial charge for sure. If you don't like it, then you have that great idea, why not go about doing that? And I love how you mentioned too, like, so many times we forget that the dollars that we have, they could be ways by which we could support causes or support certain initiatives or even not support certain initiatives. So I love that you have that piece of awareness around being able to support certain initiatives in organizations.

04:14 – Heather Rader

So as I was saying, I really, think that you do vote with your dollars, every dollar you spend, whether you realize it or not. Like you said, either it's for something or it's against something. And I am really about supporting, marginalized groups, whether that be the LGBTQ community, people of color, or women. The interesting thing to me was that only three percent of wineries are owned by women, and only ten percent of winemakers are women.

So, essentially, you have ninety-nine percent, old white guys, for lack of a better term, selling wine to, eighty percent of wine buyers are women. So you just have this huge disconnect, and there's just this real disconnect I feel like in the value systems of the things that we hold dear, particularly community, and giving back. So I set out to change that narrative and change that dialogue.

05:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I appreciate you for mentioning that and, of course, doing that as well because I think so many times, there's not enough conversation around being able to I guess, reconnect that disconnect that often happens, you know. And I think that's why I love entrepreneurship. And at the heart of it, being able to create something because you see something that isn't how it necessarily should be, and rather than resting on your laurels, you decided to create that.

So I commend you for doing that, and I know you're inspiring loads and loads of people, to do that as well. And and so I wanted to to hear a little bit more about, like, what you're doing with your company. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you serve your clients and what that looks like?

05:39 – Heather Rader

Sure. So again, I think for me, I just really thought about, you know, what are my unique differentiators. Again, you know, we are women-owned, which is rare. We do we do have a giving back element, which is sadly also rare. You know, and we do help support the Spirit Horse Writing Center. So not only do we help children, we work with all kinds of groups. There's a, you know, there's so many groups we wanna help. Right? That there's a waiting list. We help as many as we possibly can, but that's what I'm all about. We support this riding center where we rescue horses.

So these horses are what we call second chance horses. For example, we have a horse named Hobie, who was a racehorse. If you know anything about horse racing, the minute they are unable to race anymore, they are typically put down on the spot. Hobie was saved from that, and, he now is, living out his life's purpose at our horse ranch as a therapy horse. He is the kid's favorite horse in the world. He's brown with little white spots, and it's just, like, such a beautiful story, I think, of showing kids that they have worth. And we particularly work with a program. We work with foster kids, coming out of the Napa Valley foster care system, and show these kids that they have worth. And that, you know, to go from a lot of times very abusive situations, and, we put them on an eight-week leadership and empowerment program on those horses.

At the end of that program, they are confidently riding a two thousand-pound animal, and leading it around. And it's the look on their face and their shoulders are back and they're confident and that to me is what we're all about. Right? You can drink beautiful wine, and you can also do awesome things within your community. And so it's really a really special, magical place, and that is one of our unique differentiators. Members can come to the Spirit Horse Riding Center in Napa. They can see exactly where their dollars are going. Besides drinking the beautiful wine, they actually get to see their rescue horses. They can see the kids. A lot of them have their corporation sponsor camps for the kids, which is great, and that's just more full circle for us. So we love to see that, and it's an amazing community.

07:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I appreciate you so much for doing that, especially that self-worth, self-confidence piece that you just talked about that I think so many times we don't see, like, we were talking about you being able to create that lane. It provides so much awareness and I think confidence to people that we sometimes don't realize are looking that they can do that too and that we're able to see the world as we hope to see it. And I think that as you said so well, when you're able to have phenomenal wine with that, really phenomenal cause that you have, that's where you don't have to choose either where you create a win-win experience. So I love that you've been able to do that.

08:28 – Heather Rader

That's certainly our magic sauce. So like I said, it's one thing to talk about it, but, I always invite people out to the ranch. It's a a magical place, like I said. A lot of people, cry when they and I always get the apologies. I'm sorry. I'm crying. And I said, why are you apologizing? I said, pretty much everyone cries. So it reminds you of what's important in life. It is about connection. It is about people. It is about lifting each other up so that all ships rise together. That is what the place that that place represents, and that's what the wine represents.

08:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I love that. And I think, you know, that being part of the secret sauce and what you feel is setting you apart is, like, as you said, we often will forget that. I think, especially with the hustle and bustle, even though we had, like, what people call sometimes the great pause of this past year, it still is very necessary for us to be reminded of what matters, and how we can be and create that impact in our lives by the things that we do and the things that we don't do. So I appreciate you for creating that atmosphere and that culture.

09:30 – Heather Rader

Can't wait to have you out. I know you got the wine, but it's not it's not the same. So we gotta get you we gotta get you and the listeners out for some after the branch. We would really love that.

09:39 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yeah. The one was just a bridge for me to get there, so I'm looking forward to getting there and being around that phenomenal environment. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:56 – Heather Rader

I made a mental shift. I used to think of myself more as a night person, and I realized that, wow. I just get so much more, for lack of a better term, shit done in the morning. So we'll have to leave that up. But, I made a mental shift that I am a morning person, and, my biggest hack is adhering to a morning routine that is meaningful to me, and that I know sets me up for success in the day. It's different for everyone depending on where you are, time in your life, or what you need at that moment. But for me, it's some meditation, and some time outside, and some journaling. It helps me just get focused on my day, and then what I really wanna accomplish for that day.

As you know, it's so easy to get just caught up in your email inbox, and then you're being told what you're gonna do with your day versus you saying, these are the things I need to focus on for the day. And I love having a few hours in the morning when no one else is really up, and I just get a lot done. So, that's my hack, so to speak. I mean, I just think really creating an ideal morning routine that really works for you and sticking with that, I just think it's a great domino effect, for the rest of your day.

11:10 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. You might have already touched on this, but this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine you would tell your younger business self.

11:23 – Heather Rader

Oh, yes. This is one of my favorite questions. For me, in particular, societal conditioning, I think it's knowing your worth. So, Shrini, I was in corporate America. I remember the day I found out I was making almost a third of what my male counterpart was making, and I managed twice the amount of accounts and revenue. And I had a team under me. I mean, all the things. Right? And I just was upset about that.

But I wasn't taught, and most women are not taught, especially, to know their worth and to ask for it. And I remember walking into my boss's office that day, and I put a number on his desk, and I said, I want this number on my desk tomorrow while I'm walking. And in that moment, I knew my worth. I knew I was the top performer by far on the team. And guess what? The next day, I walked in, and the letter was on my desk with that number.

12:12 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome.

12:12 – Heather Rader

So key learning. Advice to my younger self is to know your worth. Ask for what you're worth. I used to take, the junior people on my team. I would take them, my top performers, I would take them out for a glass of wine, and, casually, like, let's run through how you ask for a raise. Right? And I have them practice with me, and then I would say, and tomorrow, I'm gonna make you walk in and actually ask me for a raise.

So I could give you this raise that you deserve. Right? And, like, just really paying it forward. And that was so fulfilling to me, but, yeah, that was certainly my biggest lesson knowing my worth. It's important. And it's important as an entrepreneur. Are you pricing your product in a meaningful way? Are you pricing whatever is your service, right, to what it's worth? And I think as a a lot of us entrepreneurs early on, we tend to undervalue, what we're providing. So I would say that's my biggest nugget.

13:09 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I appreciate that. And I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Heather, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:20 – Heather Rader

Being a CEO to me means freedom. Truly, I would say my probably my number one value outside of learning is freedom. So to me, I spent many years, again, in the corporate world, where I was making a lot of other people a lot of money. And, I wanted the freedom to travel and spend my time where I wanted to spend it and giving back and creating this whole neat ecosystem. So to me, it's freedom. That's my biggest, I think, takeaway.

13:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's extremely powerful because I think so many times, again, like, we were talking about self-worth. A lot of times, we don't realize that even, you know, if we have a business or even if we don't have a business, sometimes we can create that freedom in some ways in our life. And I think, you know, when you couple that with the self-confidence, with, the self-worth, then then you can really go to another level because it begins not so much what can I do? It begins to become What can't I do? And I think that's a phenomenal and powerful place to be.

14:19 – Heather Rader

For sure. And again, you're modeling it. Whether you realize it or not, you're modeling it for the next generation. So it's fun for me to, show the the foster girls at the ranch hey. Like, not only you have work, but like we care about, like, where you're going in this world, and you can do awesome things. Right? I didn't grow up being handed a lot. I didn't come from a lot. My father picked cotton. My grandfather couldn't write his last name. He was illiterate. So that if you work hard, and you have a beautiful heart and you work hard, you can do anything in the world. Right? So absolutely. It's the freedom of choice.

15:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think when you're reminded of that and you can see that being exemplified in so many different people, that's when you really can start to look in look within, and see what can you do and then start to move towards that.

So, Heather, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all about some things you're working on.

15:26 – Heather Rader

Absolutely. Well, I would love to I mean, if you love wine, we would love to, have you try some Spirit Horse. I do have a special, code. If you go to spirithorsevineyards.com and you put in I AM CEO, you will get fifteen dollars off, any orders of a hundred dollars or more. And I also invite, if you do buy wine or join the club, of course, you're invited out to the horse ranch. And, Gresham, I can't wait to see you and, and your crew out at the horse ranch, but, certainly, you're invited there as well. My email is Heather@spirithorsevineyards.com. You can also DM us on Instagram.

16:01 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, Heather, truly appreciate that. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well. And anybody who's listening, looking forward to seeing you there as well, maybe we can get a whole crew to go there, which would be extremely awesome. But I love every yeah. I love everything you're doing. I love everything, you know, what you stand for and what you've been able to build and create in so many different ways. So thank you so much again for your time and, obviously, the work that you do, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:24 -Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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