My Lessons Learned as a Sparkling Entrepreneur - #3

Bruce Lundquist at Team Meeting

Entrepreneur Bruce Lundquist recounts the lessons he learned in his career and what he hopes his six kids learned from his experience.

Why Bruce?

He and his business partner Rebecca Faust changed the landscape for sparkling wine, making “small grower sparkling wine” possible in Northern California! They founded Rack and Riddle, a custom crush operation focused on sparkling wine.

Bruce is one of the “people behind the sparkle” for many small wineries that now have a way to make Methode Champenoise sparkling wines. Prior to the creation of Rack and Riddle, making bubbles was only practical for large wine companies who could afford the huge capital investment in the equipment needed to make sparkling wine.

Bruce has been involved in sparkling wine since 1996 when he joined J Vineyards, where he quickly moved to the role of general manager. He and Rebecca launched Rack and Riddle in 2007. They have produced tens of millions of bottles of sparkling wine. If you love sparkling wine, I’m certain you’ve had a bottle made in their facility.

Here is Part 3 of my conversation with Bruce.

Lessons Learned as a Sparkling Entrepreneur

Vicky

We’ve talked previously about building your business. Let’s talk about what you’ve learned from that adventure. What would you say are your top three lessons learned about being an entrepreneur?

Bruce

Demonstrate passion for your plan. You really need to know your plan, be able to confidently talk about what it is you’re going to do and demonstrate your passion. You have to excite the person and get them to believe in you. You can’t get a loan if you can’t convince someone to bet money on you.  

If you can’t name your numbers, explain how your business will be successful and what the future will be in two or three minutes, why would I give you money? They need to look in your eyes and know you have the passion to commit to a six- or seven-day week.

Expect success. It’s never “if”, it’s “when”. Never look into the abyss. It doesn’t mean you’re being a Pollyanna. There’s failure out there, but you don’t look at it. You must believe enough in yourself to step off the cliff not knowing if there is anything beneath your feet and know you’re not going to fall.

About three years after our launch, my partner said, “Do you realize, we never used the word ‘if’ during the difficult years? We only used the word ‘when’.” We always assumed we were going to cross the finish line. Using the word ‘when’ demonstrates a resolve that you’re going get the mission accomplished. Most entrepreneurs don’t look into the abyss. Successful business owners know the abyss is there, but they focus on the horizon and believe ‘we are going to make it.’

“It’s was never if, it was always when. We assumed we would cross the finish line.”

Surround yourself with talent. Have enough humility to realize you don’t know it all and you can’t do it all. I remember the first crush we had in 2007, Rebecca and I were weighing trucks, dragging hoses, driving tractors. We were taking orders from our employees because they were the experts.

Trust the people you surround yourself with to make good decisions. Have enough humility to say, it’s not about me; it’s about the business. Find people who are excited and want to be a part of the business and let them do their jobs.

Bruce Lundquist on Tractor Duty

An Amazing Lesson in my First Job

Vicky

Speaking of people, have you had any role models or mentors who helped you? What impact did they have?

Bruce

When I was in my first job, I was in a board meeting with our CEO and all these grizzled timber executives. I was an upstart kid, and I had an idea, but they didn’t seem to be interested. I implied that they weren’t as engaged in the business as they should have been. They proceeded to skin me alive. I went back to my office and figured I was minutes away from getting my pink slip.

One of the board members from Boise Cascade came into my office and said, “You just learned a great lesson. We are listening. We love your enthusiasm, but if you want to get an idea across, you need to find out who your audience is and how to draw them in. You need to learn how to deliver your message and be respectful of who’s in the room. If you can learn that you can have a real future. I expect to hear your idea at the next board meeting.” This lesson has made a lasting impact in a variety of situations in my career.

How Being a Sparkling Entrepreneur Affected My Kids

Vicky

Wow! What a lesson. You have six children, and they were young when you launched Rack and Riddle. How did you manage that and what are the lessons you hope they learned from watching you.

Bruce

I still to this day drag around some regret that I could have done more for my kids when they were growing up. I worked six and seven days a week. I tried to do coaching and be involved in their lives, but we didn’t have as many vacations as other families.

They’re all adults now and I’ve asked them about it. They said, “Hey dad, we’re fine. We don’t have regrets about our childhood or high school years. You were part of our lives, and you gave us enough freedom to stub out toes and figure out what life is about.”

All my kids worked at the winery and none of them want to be in the wine business! They learned that owning a business isn’t easy. But they also learned a work ethic and they appreciate that there’s no job that is beneath them.

The Trends I See in Sparkling Wine

Vicky

Given that you make tens of thousands of bottles of sparkling wine for many producers, you’re in a unique position to see what’s going on with sparkling wine. What trends do you see?

Bruce

Sparkling is making a transition from being a celebratory beverage to an everyday beverage. That is being embraced more and more by younger generations because they did not grow up with it being celebratory. They like bubbles and effervescence. I am hoping as they move from seltzers, they will drink a nice Methode Champenoise sparkling wine and they will be more inquisitive about the bubbles they want to drink.

I am hoping the seltzer craze turns people on to carbonated beverages like sparkling wine and people become lifelong consumers. I hope people see that American made sparkling wines can be well-crated and as serious as a French Champagne.

All images courtesy of Rack & Riddle