Entrepreneurship and Karaoke in Loudoun County

Speaker 1 0:31

What do you do ?

Speaker 2 0:32

Oh , yeah , oh , are we already filming ? Yeah , yeah , yeah , oh , awesome . So what do I do ? So my main gig is Quark Keg Tourist . It's my winery and brewery tour company and I do all the front end of the business . My husband and I own it together and the reason we can make it work is because neither of us like each other's jobs . So I like all the marketing , the PR , the front end of the house , making the guest experiences . He does all the numbers and the driving and all that stuff that just goes on behind the scenes . So it's a really good partnership . We've been married 26 years . It'll be 26 years in November and , yeah , people , when they find out that we're married and we work together on the weekends and we both work from home , they're like why is it one of you guys ?

Speaker 1 1:19

And you guys are still together , yeah exactly or alive .

Speaker 2 1:22

Yeah , I mean it's hilarious , but you know it's because we really do . We stand up each other's way and we respect the other's opinions . So the tide breaker is whoever's in charge of that division of the company . So , yeah , and we both respect that . You know , and I've made some terrible marketing decisions that he was like I told you it wouldn't work and I'm like you don't get to do that .

Speaker 1 1:42

Yeah , it was a learning experience . Yeah , we learned .

Speaker 2 1:44

Exactly Because now it's going to be even better next time , so I fail up that is my rule , so yeah .

Speaker 2 1:51

So yeah , so that's what I do , so I take care of my guests and we really differentiate ourselves because it's morphed into , in just three years and being in business , a full concierge experience . So instead of just , okay , you want to go to wineries and breweries , which ones ? Okay , we're going to take you there . Now I get people at restaurant reservations , brunch reservations . I'm in the Loudoun B&B Guild as a membership co-chair so I get people special rates at B&B's in Loudoun County . I have special rates with several hotels . I work with other experiential businesses to create a whole weekend , like many petties at the paint nail bar . It hasn't happened yet , but it's gone out and just doing things . Just oh , alpaca farms . So I've become this whole Loudoun concierge where people say what they want out of a weekend and I get them to add different things . Stay in Loudoun County and keep all those dollars coming to our county , I think you can actually visit Loudoun already .

Speaker 1 2:52

Oh yeah , okay , I was going to say I'm sure they love you , they better , at least .

Speaker 2 2:56

They did a profile on me which was pretty cool and yeah , they came out and filmed and just showed what we do in the van and just kind of captured what makes my business uniquely Loudoun and I really do feel that it is uniquely Loudoun in a lot of ways . Loudoun County gives you so many opportunities and resources to connect with other businesses , anything from Visit Loudoun and the Chamber and just all the groups . It's a great place to really be an entrepreneur and so being able to leverage all of that and bring in new people . So corporate outings and , you know , anniversaries and birthdays and just days out , you know I have a lot of local business people who have lived here for 20 years and that's still never been to all of the wineries .

Speaker 1 3:40

Who does that ? I was gonna say well , most people don't even know what . They've lived here their whole life , like you just said , but they don't even know what is out there in Loudoun because they stick to their normal routines . Yeah . Right , so like you're basically it would be fun to do like an event for Loudoun or specifically where it's like that discover Loudoun .

Speaker 2 3:59

Yes , so the hidden gems . Yeah , I didn't really call it that , but that was a , that's a good way to call it . But yeah , so I have a hidden gem tour where I take people to the places that they might not have realized were right here . You know , I can't believe how many people , for example , don't know about Zephaniah Farm Vineyard . It's less than two miles from Stone Tower and when I bring that up to locals they're like what ? And I was like , yeah , it is an old , haunted , historic barn and farmhouse working farm , some of the best wine overall in Loudoun County , and there's a lot of great wine here . Almost all of them have one one award or another , but theirs is just so consistently wonderful across the board . So we love to expose new or in town people , loudouners , to what their hometown has to offer , and it's a lot of fun , that's amazing .

Speaker 1 4:52

Okay , so you started talking about karaoke . How does that fit into what you just talked about ? Yeah , and what inspired you , besides the fact that your husband said get it out there , or was that the inspiration ?

Speaker 2 5:02

Well , no , so , um . So I love karaoke anyway , but I always have and I can only do three songs because I cannot sing at all , which is part of the joke . I mean I have . Even when I listen back to it I'm like , wow , I thought I did that one really well and it's really bad . So anyway , so I love karaoke anyway . So when , when I was doing the virtual wine tastings during the quarantine , somehow I got in I had with Lisa Adams , with her , her Facebook group , we did a live interview and for some reason we were talking about that and talking about getting together to do karaoke , and I just busted out in like song , just as a joke . And then she's like you should totally do that , you know , on your tours . I'm like I should totally do that on my tours . So then , of course , covid hits , and so I'm doing the virtual wine tastings and I'm like , why ?

Speaker 2 5:51

not so I was just YouTubeing karaoke songs at that point and saying , okay , we're going to sing a song on this theme . And then I had people doing polls to vote for whether I was going to do classic rock or divas . So people were voting . You know , nobody ever chose for me to do divas . I never got a Celine Dion or a or a you know tag me in your next one , I hope not because I can't sing those songs at all . Found out that ABBA is really hard to sing . I had no idea .

Speaker 1 6:19

I sing it all the time . Oh my gosh , whether it sounds good or not , it doesn't matter .

Speaker 2 6:22

Mine is so bad I had to stop it . I'm like you guys , I can't even stand here and do it myself . So , anyway , it started out as just a virtual wine tastings , doing local wine whatever was in my fridge from the quarantine when I ran out of local wine . Then we came up with something . Oh , so I was doing the karaoke along with the wine tastings , just to bring people in and have fun . What ended up starting to happen ? Within just a few weeks ? There's people were coming , especially those that were quarantined alone , were like this makes my day . I look forward to it every day . You make me smile , you get me away from the news . Thank you , thank you , thank you . And I was like , oh , that's so sad . I didn't even think about that because I was going to stop at a certain point . I'm like , okay , this is getting old . But those people would write to me and say that and I'm like , okay , I can't stop now .

Speaker 2 7:06

So then , when I ran out of local wine , we came up with doing pickup parties , which is where we still weren't ready to do full on tours , but wineries and breweries were still doing curbside pickup . So we thought , okay , for 100 bucks you can book us , just you and your family , whoever you you know one place , people who are quarantined together you can all get into the van that's been sanitized and we'll take you to the three places where you bought local wine and or beer . So now we're getting you know and we got hundreds of dollars of wine and beer sold at each one of those for these . So that was really cool . So we would take people on a mini tour , let them you know , we would put a playlist on for them and drive them out to the wineries and breweries , got out of the house , got to stock up on wine and beer and we got to bring business to those wineries and breweries . So that was really great .

Speaker 2 7:55

Well , by the time we got toward the end of the quarantine and then people are starting to come back out . In May , I had already figured out how to do karaoke through an app instead of on my laptop with my phone on top , and so then one of our last pickup parties were some regular customers of ours . We put karaoke up on the screen and live streamed them doing the karaoke . Oh my gosh , so much fun , yeah , and it went so well . So now it's one of the options to book the tours and almost everybody gets it .

Speaker 2 8:25

And I always bring it just in case , because by the end of the tour you sure you don't want to sing a couple of songs . You know , first taste is free . You know it's not a big money maker but it pays for the subscription , but it increases and enhances the experience and so much fun . That's yeah , that's what we're all about . We really want people to have an unforgettable experience with us and talk about and laugh about whatever ridiculous thing happened . One of our guests sent us a video once , hilarious . So they're in the back and they're doing karaoke and it was the ride to B's favorite song . So she starts trying to really sing and someone starts singing over her and she's like it's my day , stop singing over , stop staging me it was over .

Speaker 2 9:06

The video was just so funny because she was just like getting into it . So moments like that , when they watch those back , they remember us and they remember that day , and then they book their other special days .

Speaker 1 9:16

Yeah , they're creating and documenting those memories .

Speaker 2 9:19

Exactly tasting the memories , if you will .

Speaker 1 9:21

There we go . I love that . Okay , so in terms of other business owners that are listening to this right now , they might not be in that stage of like , oh my gosh , I've seen so much success , right . What are some different recommendations that you can give to them Because I know you've got this amazing marketing brain in there or strategies or something that you can pass on for them to be whether it doesn't matter what industry they're in , but you can share .

Speaker 2 9:52

So I think one thing that people get in their own way on is trying to be all things and trying to be on every platform that's out there Pinterest , twitter , snapping , instagram , facebook , linkedin . There are so many and you really have to figure out which to maybe three , depending on how savvy you are that you wanna focus on and where your audience is , cause your audience is not everywhere . You have to decide who it is you wanna go after and then pick where they are and start in small bites . So when I'm advising people and mentoring people , that's kind of an offshoot of what I'm doing with Quark and Ked tours . Now I'm helping people not only with wine education but with getting into marketing and branding and understanding how to use social to their advantage . For example , just start your social circle within businesses you already know and patronize . You know something about them , you can support them , you can shout them out and you can start building from their audience , because if you're in their audience , people in their audience are probably going to be in your audience .

Business Growth and Social Media Strategies

Speaker 2 10:56

So you have to kind of make that decision and do it in small pieces . You can't go after every hashtag . You can't go after every time . You have to really give yourself a strategy and just three days at a time , stick to it . Stick to it . Stick to it .

Speaker 2 11:11

Because I'm terrible about that . I don't like to follow rules . I don't know how . I was in the military for six years . I'm not the boss of me and I don't like to be told what to do , even by myself . And so , by giving myself that three day limit , it made it easy for me to say , okay , I can do anything for three days except diet . So I did it in three day chunks because I knew that my discipline of staying focused was my hardship . I call that finding your ick . So when you know what your problem is , you can figure out what your solution is . So because I'm not very disciplined and I'm not very organized , I thought , okay , I'm making these three day plans I'm going to schedule out for three days .

Speaker 2 11:54

So I started using Creator Studio to schedule Instagram and Facebook and I would just sit down and , in an hour , power out three and three , three and three , three and three . And then suddenly it became a habit . I don't even think about it anymore , I just automatically schedule out three and three , and it's such a small bite and it's such a small chunk that it really gives me an opportunity to succeed . So I think the biggest thing that business owners do especially as entrepreneurs , when we're wearing every hat and doing everything is trying to do too much , too fast . I love that . Yeah , and you can't figure out what doesn't work until you figure out what does . You can't figure out what does work because you figure out what doesn't . That's a better way to say it , because if you're trying to change everything at once , if you're increasing your Facebook and adding Twitter and snapping whatever you call that- SnapChat yeah , Snapchat I think there's another one , my husband or my son , he's 21 .

Speaker 2 12:46

He said there's some oh snap stories , oh , and then the tick talking .

Speaker 1 12:51

Yeah .

Speaker 2 12:53

But if you try to do all that at once , how are you going to know ? You're going to have to make a bunch of landing pages , you're going to have to do all these different things to try to track where your leads are coming from , and then you get overwhelmed because you get four here and four there . Oh , which one . But what if you had done it all on that one and gotten eight on that platform ? So I really learned to streamline and to take it in small bites .

Speaker 1 13:15

So I love what you said , because batching out a whole bunch at one time can feel so overwhelming that you just don't do it . But if you can just do it in three day chunks , you're still very thoughtful about what's going on and you can stay current and relevant because the world is changing at such rapid speed .

Speaker 2 13:36

And it gives you an opportunity to then put in something that just pops up on an occasion , for example , when the Loudoun Film Festival was happening out at 50 West . That wasn't in my plan , but I found out about it on a tour on a Saturday . I had my post posted out till Monday . So what did I do Monday evening ? I put something out there about that film festival because I already had stuff that was already set for that Saturday . But I had an opportunity to add something new that I found out about without that sense of oh my God , I'm going to miss it . And so , yeah , my three and three has just been a game changer for me , and it's I don't even think about it anymore , like I said , because when you do that long enough , it then just becomes a habit instead of something that you have to think about . I'm loving it and I'm also very intentional about the time .

Speaker 2 14:25

So using your insights is something that I think locks up a lot of people . They get very nervous about . I don't know what these charts mean . I don't even know where to find my insights . It's okay . Ask for help . Those are the three words . Ask for help . Go onto your page and read your newsletters and find out different tips on how to do different things on social media , how to schedule mindset . I know it sounds trite and I know it's something that might be a little . I don't think it's a played out word yet it's not sexy , though Right Like mindset is not .

Speaker 1 15:03

nobody wants to work on their mindset .

Speaker 2 15:05

Yeah , and when you do it , though , I mean you feel like you unlock something . And I'm not trying to go all the secret on people , but something happens when you just turn that ball around and you look at it from this angle and you're like , oh , what have I been missing by looking at it over here this whole time and see , here's the thing .

Speaker 1 15:22

You don't you know what , after having gone to the other side , after like finding out . But when you talk to somebody who's never worked on their mindset or who don't think it's that important , you really can't explain it to them . You can't .

Speaker 2 15:37

Nobody could have explained it to me . Yeah , I knew what I didn't know . Yeah , I thought I had already discovered these different things and put new strategies in place and done all the things that I need to do to try to get successful . And that was getting frustrating because things really just weren't happening . But the Gary Vee challenge , I'm telling you .

Speaker 1 15:55

What's the Gary Vee challenge ? I love Gary Vee , but I kind of dropped off a little while ago .

Speaker 2 15:59

December 2nd Gary Vee slide deck . That is what you need to look at Okay , wait the mult .

Speaker 1 16:05

The curating a whole bunch of content from it was so I saw it on LinkedIn . Yeah , I saw it .

Speaker 2 16:10

And the slide deck tells you all these different things that you can do how to multi-purpose ?

Speaker 1 16:13

Yeah , exactly .

Speaker 2 16:14

Like how to make you know . It's like making cartoon images of yourself and it's video and it's Instagram . It's everything Now . I didn't do everything . I chose the things that I knew I could do . Well , that was something that I got from Tiger Woods a million years ago . Not , he didn't call me , but yeah , it's like a connect .

Speaker 1 16:31

It's like , hey girl , what's happening ?

Speaker 2 16:33

No , I saw an interview with him where he was talking about how there's a certain thing in golf and my golf terminology is garbage . But let's say what is it ? A slice when he hit it to the right to the left .

Speaker 1 16:43

It's a slice to the right . I can't help you .

Speaker 2 16:45

Okay , see , we don't have to do all the things right . So he was talking about how , let's say , it was his slice . That was terribly at a really hard time not hitting that ball curving to the left , but he was great at leveraging his let's say , it's a hook or whatever like going to the right . So instead of beating his head against the wall with the thing he was weak at , he perfected what he was great at to neutralize the thing he wasn't . So that's not to say that you shouldn't try to learn and shouldn't try to work on your weaknesses , but you should focus on your strengths . I say focus on my strengths , try harder on some of my weaknesses , but pay someone to do everything that I just don't like and just don't have a talent for . And that's what my husband is . He's my hired . Help you want talent .

Speaker 1 17:33

Yeah , he won't watch this , that's fine . Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing a lot of really good strategies . I mean , I was some good stuff and people are gonna see this after your Facebook interview thing so people can see like okay , like this stuff works . This stuff gets the attention and visibility that you need to grow your business .

Speaker 2 17:56

Yeah , I mean I've been able to really leverage . I mean I've always been a business supporter anyway , so I was able to kind of leverage that whole attitude into something that actually helped me as well . There's nothing wrong with doing things that help your business .

Speaker 1 18:09

People are like that's small as a center . That's the whole point . Well , yeah , I mean , I'm not a volunteer for everything Be strategic .

Speaker 2 18:15

Yeah , everything isn't to be for a volunteer and yeah , I'm getting something out of it . Why else would I spend my work time doing it ? Just because I was closed during the pandemic didn't mean that suddenly I had a vacation . No , I had to work twice as hard to stay relevant , and now we're booked out through November and so many other opportunities . So , and it helped me to develop my personal or my professional brand , which I'm gonna have to pick your brain on . Maybe I'll have to hire you for a session called Gobi Grape , which is my wine educator and social marketing coaching , oh nice . Yeah , I wanna speak . I wanna go to different . You know small businesses . I wanna mentor entrepreneurs , and trying to put together all three of these under the same umbrella is a bit of a challenge , but that's gonna be it . I'm not gonna be anybody else .

Speaker 1 18:59

I love it . I love the idea of a high five versus a high-five , high-five . Thank you .

Speaker 2 19:03

Thanks so much . Great seeing you today , you too .

Speaker 1 19:07

Thank you for joining us for this conversation and I hope it inspired you . If you'd like to learn how to hyper attract your powerful tribe to successfully launch a business , movement or idea , please go to alia-storecom and sign up for the free three-day challenge and learn how you can get started today for free . Thanks again for tuning in and I will see you next time .