Globetrotting Sommelier Leads Popular Wine Tours

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Happy Christmas Eve! Greetings, it is the 24th of December. That's today this episode's going out at least. Episode number 1088, 1088. 'Twas, indeed, the night before Christmas.

And all through the land, the people were working to make their own plans. The website was up, the shopping cart ready. They'd stay up all night to ship orders out steady. That's all I've got for this version, but a couple years ago I did a complete 64-line stanza, my own little side-of-school remix of 'Twas, the Night Before Christmas, complete with shout-outs to each of our sponsors from that year, and so much more. So just in case you'd like to hear some award-winning poetry, go back to episode 358, number 358.

But for today, our story features a globetrotting sommelier who leads wine and food trips around the world. His business came to life out of two simple questions. How would he like to eat and drink in some of the most beautiful places on the planet, and how could he get others to pay for it? Two good questions, and in fact, he found the answers. But first, he spent 25 years acquiring the knowledge that he now dispenses to his lucky guests.

We're going to look at the combination of skills that led to this particular success. I often talk about how you already have the skills you need. It's just a matter of transforming or adapting them. So we'll look at exactly how this guy does it, this globetrotting sommelier, right after this shout-out to today's sponsor. Stay tuned.

Heath Porter has been a sommelier and food and beverage professional for more than 25 years. It was his passion for food and wine that led to the birth of his then-hustle, now full-time work at Heath & Wine Tours. What inspired his love of wine? Well, Heath grew up in a dry county in North Alabama, where alcohol was not allowed. According to him, that led to a life of drinking.

From his late teen years onward, he moved around to work at wine bars and holiday resorts in Hawaii, West Virginia, and Miami. Traveling, meeting, and tasting with winemakers was simply part of his work, a part that Heath very much enjoyed. He acquired a great deal of experience and knowledge, so much so that guests, who were impressed by his tastings and classes, began to ask about the possibility of tagging along on his next wine adventure. Heath didn't think much about it at first. But finally, one day he simply responded and said he would book a group trip if they would give him a credit card number.

To his surprise, his regulars did so. This wasn't cheap. At around $2,000 a person, Heath booked a trip to Wine Country Santa Barbara, California, for his party of 10. With tremendous positive feedback from the guests, and some of them remarking that he should charge more than he did, he organized another trip to Italy. As the guests returned to request yet another trip, he found himself visiting Spain and France, and then Chile.

All of this took place from 2014 to 2018, while he was still working full-time at his last wine bar. His first thought was to plan trips to places where he knew the most winemakers and owners. The idea was to be able to bring his guests to sellers and vineyards where they could eat and drink like family. This obviously required some degree of familiarity and comfort with others, something which Heath has cultivated over many years in his career. Soon, friends of friends were booking tours.

Those that attended enjoyed the experience so much that for the first five years, about 80% of his business came from repeat customers. In 2018, Heath realized he likely had enough trips booked to look at doing this full-time. While that first trip had made him just a couple of thousand dollars after expenses, he had viewed it mostly as a fun experience that he did apart from his real job. Now, he looked at what it would take to make the tours more of a steady gig. Doing the numbers, Heath realized he could earn the same amount of money running his tours as he did running the wine shop, faced with a choice between eating, drinking, and traveling, versus exhausting himself working up to 100 hours a week, it was easy for him to pop the cork.

He officially launched Heath and wine tours that year. Dining and drinking well all over the world is harder than it sounds. One of the first things Heath quickly learned was that logistics is almost an art as much as it is a science. He had all the technical knowledge and industry connections to run the business, but he also realized he needed to make sure that each tour had the right blend of people. Some customers were just interested in getting as much good wine and food as they could.

Others, however, were equally interested in the people they would meet and the stories they would hear. He recalls having someone on the tour who was always late and holding up the group. So today, he makes sure to interview his guests to get to know them better before having them on his tour. He also learned that the maximum group size he could handle was 14. As with other luxury products and experiences, it wasn't easy for Heath to price his service.

He did so by making comparisons with similar tours and then making sure he could offer better value, typically by providing more while charging less. This, he says, is what has allowed his business to take off. In fact, a tour he organized to essentially serve as an advertisement ended up netting him over $10,000. On average, Heath is able to make a 40% profit margin on his tours. At the end of each one, he raises a glass in celebration.

And then he gets ready for the next trip. So let's look at the specific skills that merge together to make Heath and wine tour such a big success. Now Heath says the one thing that always prevails is service. Service is always something people will notice and come back for. And that is especially true in this kind of luxury experience.

But when I think of skills, I think first and foremost of product knowledge. So that is his professional background. That is what he has put all those years into learning about wine. Okay, but that's not the only thing. Because just as important, or at least let's say very important, is relationship building.

He's building relationships with these vineyard owners and families and other wine professionals all over the world. He's building relationships with his guests who are making this pretty big decision to trust him, not just with their money, but also with their time. For him to lead them on a trip to Europe or South America or wherever, like that's a pretty big decision. Leadership is also important. Kind of leading the way, guiding the tour, handling any situations that come up.

Could be some kind of conflict. Could be that guest who's always keeping everybody behind, who's always late. So everything associated with that. And then as we heard logistics, logistics, planning, budgeting, and then adaptability as well. Just being able to make a change on the fly if something goes wrong.

So there's a lot of stuff there, right? It's not just about the product knowledge. It's also about all of these soft skills, which are so important to develop regardless of your profession. You might not know anything about wine, but whatever your topic is, if you can bring to bear some of these soft skills, that's what makes this kind of business a success. That's what makes people keep coming back.

That's what leads them to say your prices should be higher. That's what leads them to refer others and so on. So congratulations to Heath. Well done. Congrats on achieving that life of eating and drinking and traveling.

I respect that. And listeners, I hope you are surviving the holidays. Maybe even thriving. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to heave and wine tours, and anything else I mentioned will be at sidehustleschool.com/1088.

Episode 1088. More holidays are coming up, but 2020 will be here before we know it. Thanks so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.