I’m glad you’ve decided you want to let your talents shine and make profit from that. I have a few things to let you know…
You’re going to run into some bumps along the way that may seem like the end of the world but let me tell you, it’s just the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Don’t get discouraged by a bad day or two or six. It doesn’t define you, and it doesn’t define your business.
Stay true to who you are. Don’t find yourself following the fad and trying to run your business like someone else. It’s you and your product that people want, not a copycat wannabe. Being unique, being yourself is the best sales quality anyone could ask for.
Just take the plunge. You’re probably waiting for certain things to be in order before you launch or have a perfect business plan you took 4 years to put together. In all honesty, most of that goes out the window once you actually start, because your business plan can’t account for life.
Don’t apologize for being a business person or selling your product. Unless you’re selling in a distasteful way, you should be proud of what you do. If someone doesn’t want to make a purchase, it’s totally ok!
At the end of the day, just do what makes you happy!
It’s no secret, I’m bigger now that I’ve had our beautiful son, Elijah. Instead of whining about it (like I have been), I’ve decided to nut up and do something about it. I kept saying I was going to start working out but hadn’t actually done anything yet.
I finally started using my Every Mother subscription and recently started doing rides on Peloton. I’ve learned that their “low impact rides” are still intense and have me sweating.
Beyond that, I’m being more conscious of the things I eat and drink. I’m not a terrible eater but have a habit of just eating whatever when I don’t feel like cooking. To negate that, I’ve meal prepped to help stay on track.
Then there’s the issue of still being able to drink while, I guess, “dieting”. I hate that word. I wouldn’t call it a diet, more of a “make better choices with what you put in your body”.
That’s where wine comes in.
It’s way less fattening than beer, and hey, I’m getting in a serving of fruits! This here is some Fissata Blonde with frozen strawberries. The strawberries soak up the alcohol nicely for some sweet, fruity fun after the moscato is gone.
I’m just out here living my best life, drinking wine, losing weight, being cute. Don’t judge me if I drank the whole thing ❤
I’ve had a few people reach out to me with questions about what Traveling Vineyard is and what it means to be a Wine Guide. Here are a few quick, key facts that will help clear any confusion and answer some burning questions that may have been lingering in your wine-loving brain.
What is Traveling Vineyard?
Traveling Vineyard is like Avon and Scentsy in respects to being a direct sales company. Unlike those companies, there aren’t any monthly minimum sales amounts or quotas that have to be met. Traveling Vineyard gives us Wine Guides complete freedom with our business by not having any unnecessary fees or requirements. Instead, they have amazing incentives, personal bonuses, and perks that make us Wine Guides want to excel in our business.
What is a Wine Guide?
I know you’ve heard me say I’m a Wine Guide or seen my #wineguidelife posts. We help hosts set up their free wine tasting events and allow people to order wine directly from us. We sell wine and get paid a nice commission from all the wine people order.
There isn’t any inventory we have to keep on hand, we don’t have to deliver people’s wine since it gets shipped directly to their door, and get to order our personal wine at a 20% discount.
You don’t have to know anything about wine, just love to drink and share wine with others! There isn’t any info to memorize either. Traveling Vineyard provides all the info in shnazzy little cards to take with you as well as detailed info in our Wine Guide portal that you can print or save.
How Much Does A Wine Guide Make?
You start off at 15% commission and it goes up from there. You get paid 3 times a month, which is practically unheard of with direct sales companies. You get to reap the benefits of your hard work 3 times a month rather than waiting for a once a month check. There are also personal bonuses that you get paid on top of your regular commission.
Like earning trips and perks instead? You can earn points called Thrive points that can go towards luxurious getaway trips, free wine, shopping for designer brand products, etc.
How Much Time Does It Take?
You can be as active or inactive as you like. Obviously, the more active you are, the more money you can make. Each wine tasting event takes about an hour, so you can do 1 event a weekend for a total of 4 events each month if you’d like a couple hundred bucks a month in your pocket.
You also get paid whenever someone orders wine from your website/directly from you, so you can also devote time to social media and sharing your website with friends and family to order. There is no minimum or limit to how much time you spend on your business!
How Much Does It Cost?
You can sign up to be a Wine Guide for $99 or $179. One kit doesn’t make you any more or less a Wine Guide, they just offer different things.
And here’s the kit I purchased when I joined:
Everything you need to smash the Wine Guide Life
If you’re wanting Fun, Friendship, Financial Reward, Flexibility, and/or Fulfillment, this is the place to be. I’d be your ‘wine mama’ and guide you to success!
A lot of people look forward to drinking as part of the holidays. Not just to get drunk, but to have fun making memories with loved ones over a cup or glass of something delicious. I’m traveling to Louisiana to visit family this year and am really excited to catch up with them and let them meet baby Elijah.
To mark the occasion, I’m bringing a bottle of Fissata Blonde to make some white sangria! I tried out the recipe last night as we celebrated my nephew’s birthday and it was delicious!
When I tell you it was magical, it was maaaagical. The Fissata is already a fizzy moscato so it just really sets off the sangria! I’m impatiently waiting for us to get to Louisiana next week so I can make more with my fam and laugh my ass off hanging out.
Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think about it!
Say hello to our new Tanglerose, Fireside Red! If you’ve never had any version of Tanglerose, you’re probably a more productive person. Sitting down with a bottle of this will make your heart and body warm. You just can’t help but relax and unwind for the night.
This medium-bodied beauty is an inky garnet-to-brick color with a slightly floral, black earthy and blackberry nose. It’s sleek and supple with a lengthy finish.
The organizing principle for this initial Tanglerose, Fireside Red, was to blend together the strongest price/value ratio less-commercially-sought-after red components available to us from Paso Robles and Lodi—both California “value central” appellations. This was done in the service of framing a knock-out 18 Lodi Teroldego lot that wasn’t large enough to bottle as a varietal.
There are 18 Noble Grapes that make up all of the red and white wine varietals that we know and love. That’s right, 18. The crazy thing is that you’ve probably been only drinking 3 of them.
The best way to learn about wine is to drink it.
Taking the time to taste each of these grapes is the ultimate drinking challenge. It will expand your palate, you’ll learn so much about what wines you do and don’t like, and hell yea you’ll have a nice buzz doing it.
Text a friend and tell them this is yall’s next drinking venture!
Follow the wine trail! Try all the grapes!
Here’s a quick breakdown of each Noble Grape. Keep a copy and check them off as you try them.
You heard right! It’s national nacho day and I’m ready to throw my ground beef on the stove right now.
Something that I learned after becoming a Wine Guide is that SWEET LOVES HEAT.
What does that mean?
It means that while you’re scorching your mouth with jalapenos and every other kind of pepper there is, a nice cool glass of sweet wine will do you good. I promise!
So while you’re chowing down on some spicy nachos tonight, pour you up a glass of sweet wine for a perfect pairing to your nacho day celebration.
Of course, it’s the day after Monday and that holds a lot of meaning for you.
It’s Tipsy Tuesday!
But let’s take it a step further and incorporate Taco Tuesday, since you know I love tacos.
Yesterday, I gave some pretty great tips about drinking dry wine, upgrading your palate to excepting dry wines, and even mixing them with something else to make it a bit sweeter for you.
Let’s expand on the idea of making stuff taste better.
Have you eaten a really nasty taco before?
Probably not, because tacos are amazing. But I bet there is at least one taco that you’re just not that crazy about. And there is probably a wine that you’re just not that crazy about, either.
What if I told you that eating your taco with a certain wine will make the taco taste better!? And vice versa!
It’s true, pairing wine and foods together correctly can dramatically enhance your taste bud experience for the better. I’ve learned a lot about this since becoming a Wine Guide. There a tons and tons of different pairing options for wines and foods that I had no idea about.
Delicious taco and wine pairings
So in honor of Tipsy Taco Tuesday, here are some pairing suggestions for you. Try them out and let me know how it goes!
Some of you are die hard advocates for sweet wine. Anything that has the slightest hint of tartness will send you flying through the windows. Yea, I’ve seen some of you.
Then there’s another bunch of yall who completely disregard any wine that doesn’t suck all the moisture from your tongue, leaving you looking like SpongeBob out of water!
But why does that happen? Why are some wines sweet and some in between or dry?
The grape sugar turns to alcohol.
You already know that wine comes from grapes. What you may not know is that the natural sugar in the grapes turns to alcohol during the fermentation process. That’s where the varying alcohol content comes into play.
The sweet wines you like have simply not been fermented to the same degree as the non-sweet wines, so there is still sugar in your wine. This may also be why you get a headache after chugging 2 bottles!
Meanwhile, the good ol’ off dry & dry reds have been nicely fermented and practically erased any trace of sugar. In it’s place is a gleaming bottle of 14.5% or more ABV.
So Get More Buzz For Your Buck.
If you’re feeling adventurous and want to turn up this week, or better yet turn down after a long day of work, try a bottle of red wine or even some off dry whites that are not as sweet. You’ll have a better, stronger buzz by the time you finish the bottle.
I mean finish the glass…😅
“But I Only Like Sweet Wine!”
Ok, ok, calm down. Here’s a solution for you.
Get a bottle of red or white that’s dryer than your normal taste preference and mix it with Sprite, 7 UP, or some sparkling drink/soda. Squeeze in some lime or lemon juice and you’ve got yourself a nice little spritzer.
It will be sweeter and fizzy; perfect for any beginner wine lover!
Or just try this tasty sangria made with a dry red wine!
You can also just try ‘upgrading your grapes’ in a progressive way. What I mean is, start off drinking the moscatos and sweet rosés that you like. Then start introducing some semi-sweet whites like Malvasia Bianca or even Chardonnay to your palette.
Next are off-dry whites like Riesling and Muscat Canelli (sometimes these are sweeter than you think). Then move on to drier whites like Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc.
Before you know it, you’ll be ready to move on to reds! I wouldn’t start off with a Merlot or Cabernet just yet. Take it easy with a Syrah, Grenache, or a basic red blend.
Now You’re Sipping Like A Pro.
Whatever that means 🤷♀️
I hope you’re at least considering trying some new wines now that you know it’s not so scary. And plus, you can get buzzed a lot faster just FYI!
Have any fun wine recipes you’ve created? Share them with me and I’ll feature them on my website!
Thanksgiving is a time of good food, family, being thankful, and creating those memories you talk about for years to come. Here are the top 5 wines for Thanksgiving dinner that you can order online and pair with your delicious meal.
Varietal: 2018 Gewürztraminer Price: $19.99 Description: Very pale lemon-yellow-straw; medium to medium-to-full body. Floral nose of peach, nectarine, apricot, nuts and banana notes. Integrated and accessible, rich mouthfeel and bright acidity. Good structure, weight, feel and extraction— apricot followed by spice, with a subtle lingering minerality plus rose petal and dried herbs precede a crisp finish.
Varietal: Viognier Price: $17.99 Description: Brilliant pale lemon-yellow; medium-to-full body. Nose of white flowers, peach fuzz, apricot and nectarine over a touch of minerals. Good weight, feel and extraction—an impression of fresh, ripe fruits in the mouth. Acidity supports the fresh apricot and nectarine flavors, followed by a lengthy finish.
Varietal: Nebbiolo Price: $19.99 Description: Translucent, brick; medium body. Perfumed-but-fresh, not-quite-candied raspberry/plum nose with hints of rose petal, herbs, tar, plank & tobacco then earthy, minerally, meaty blueberry/blackberry notes. Earthy, round plum and raspberry “fruit hybrid” flavors in the mouth. A vibrant first red at any event—good acidity, feel and extraction. Fresh, focused raspberry/plum over sleek, extracted blueberry/blackberry framed by the agricultural nose flavors.
Varietal: Malvasia Bianca Price: $17.99 Description: Pale lemon yellow, medium body. Nose of earthy nutty white flowers over orange.Stone fruits and mandarin orange in the mouth, good structural acidity and a long, orange finish.
Varietal: Sweet Red Price: $17.99 Description: Translucent, dark watermelon red in color, this release opens with floral, sweet-ish stone fruit over a raspberry-ish nose. A well-integrated palate of sweet fruity red berries and a nutty quality are repeated in the mouth. Gentle effervescence makes for an overall pleasing dessert wine experience.
