Harvesting a Passion for Work and Life with Kira Ballotta
In this episode of Good Enough for Now, we hear from Kira Ballotta, a finance professional-turned-winemaker whose curiosity led her to volunteer for a local winemaker on the weekends. Learning more about the clients she was working with ended up launching her into entrepreneurship.
Once Kira got her hands dirty and learned the science behind making wine, she discovered ways to bring her passion, giving back to the community, into her winemaking so the long start-up runway felt more fulfilling to her. Along the way, Kira also became a parent and found herself struggling to manage her time at home and at work.
Tune in to hear Kira share about how she balances early motherhood with a demanding schedule and why telling women’s stories is an integral part of her wine labels.
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what we cover in this episode:
How experimenting with our work can lead to more creativity
How motherhood shaped Kira’s shift to entrepreneurship
What’s helped Kira measure her version of success
How Kira’s wine labels help to elevate women’s stories
Secrets to setting yourself apart in the crowded wine industry
Resources
Follow Kira on Instagram (Olivia Brion and Cantadora)
Call or email Kira for a wine tasting and the history of wine
What Good Enough For Now Means To Kira Ballotta
I think it just depends on how I'm feeling. Sometimes good enough for now is not being showered, drinking a hot cup of coffee, and sending my kids off to school in my pjs. And that's good enough for now.
Sometimes good enough for now is when I've bottled a wine and I love how it tastes and I'm excited to take it to some fancy restaurant and pour it for a sommelier. I put on a really nice blazer because I'm so excited. Sometimes that high is a good enough for now because, again, I'm trying to compare me to me and that was better than I would have been the year before.
It definitely depends on the day, I think. Today, good enough for now is the sun is shining and in California we've gotten a lot of rains recently (we're recording this in January). So it's nice to be dry and be looking at a good weekend to ahead with my kids and finish my business taxes this week, that would be great. That would be more than good enough for now.
ABOUT Kira Ballotta
Kira Ballotta is the owner and winemaker at Olivia Brion. She discovered wine through her work in finance that included valuing wineries. Curious about winemaking, she met the winemaker for Olivia Brion. In 2012, after a couple of years helping with wine production on the weekends (barrel washing, grape picking, bin stacking), she quit her finance job to focus on wine production full time. Working on harvests in Napa and Australia eventually led Kira to a full time role with Alpha Omega in Rutherford, Napa where she became the Enology Research Manager, resulting in the winery’s first 100 point score for the 2018 vintage. In 2016 she returned to Olivia Brion and set upon winemaking and eventual ownership of the winery expanding the label and in 2021, starting Cantadora which focuses on women leaders making community change. She lives in Napa, California with her family.
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Stephanie Kruse (00:05):
Welcome to Good Enough for now a podcast aimed at dismantling perfectionism. One conversation at a time. I'm Stephanie Kruse and along with my guests on the show, we share stories of false starts, unexpected U-turns, and moments of reinvention that happen as we move through life. Thanks for joining me. My hope is that our conversations will help you stay grounded, feel a little less alone, and a little bit more together.
Stephanie Kruse (00:40):
So one of the things that I've been always pretty passionate about is finding ways to elevate women's stories and amplify women's goals, either from when I worked in corporate America or how I chose consulting partners, or even now when I interview people for good enough for now, I find that the more collaborative we are and the more we bring each other along, the more we can give back and help those that need it the most. And I would say that this conversation today with winemaker Kira Ballotta really hones in on how women can support other women and how authentic storytelling through a brand and a product as complex as wine, can be touched and experienced and be engaging. I'm really looking forward to you hearing my conversation. Let me introduce Kira. Kira Ballotta began working in wine in 2011, helping the founding winemaker of Olivia Brion wash barrels.
Stephanie Kruse (01:47):
Prior to that, she worked in finance focused on valuation where she had the opportunity to analyze vineyard projects and felt drawn to the goings on behind the spreadsheets. 11 years later, Kira has made her way around Napa and Australia learning the craft of winemaking and engendering a true reverence and love for the trade. She spent four years at Alpha Omega in Rutherford, running enology research and helped the team earn their hundred point score. On the 2018 vintage, Kira began making wine for Olivia Brion in 2016 with the release of her 2016 Vin Gris of Syran and much LAD 2016.
Stephanie Kruse (02:30):
She took over all winemaking at Olivia Brion in 2019. And since then she's expanded the label with Cantadora whose labels tell the stories of extraordinary women giving back in novel and profound ways to their shared communities. Kira lives in Napa, California with her family. Kira, welcome. It is so nice to have you on the show.
Kira Ballotta (02:54):
Thanks so much, Stephanie.
Stephanie Kruse (02:55):
I can't wait to talk to you today. So we're recording this a little bit before it's gonna be released and I had to try some of your wine, which broke my dry January, but it was well worth it. <laugh>. Well, it's dry wine so it counts. <laugh>. That works for me. So one of the questions that I always start with with guests just so that we can kind of get a sense for who you are and what you're about is tell me where you are in your life right now.
Kira Ballotta (03:23):
Well, I have two children who are two and five. So very much in the early parenting stages and I'm just doing business taxes. That's where I am in terms of, well, my day to day looks like it's a lot of trying to watch Netflix. So I do business taxes, <laugh>, right? So the beautiful fictionalized version of the winemaker in the mansion with the <laugh> vineyards is not exist. <laugh>, there's a handful that I'm aware of that maybe have that life, but I'm one of the many that do not <laugh>. I'm looking at a climbing gym in my backyard. I went into my bathroom this morning and I saw my two-year-old has been carrying around a steamer for vegetables. And so that was in the bathroom this morning. My life is just chaotic, like normal, but sprinkled with lots of good wine. So I can't complain. <laugh>,
Stephanie Kruse (04:20):
that sounds pretty good to me. I think when my kids were that age, there was quite a bit of sprinkle of good wine for me as well. So <laugh>. So one of the things that I think was interesting is looking at where you are now as a wine maker, that's not where you started out. So can you just take me through a bit of your journey as to how you got to being a winemaker?
Kira Ballotta (04:44):
Yeah. So I started out in finance and I love valuing businesses and the theories around it. And so I have a finance degree and I was doing that at the time. I was valuing mainly mines, which is kind of a strange way to enter the industry. But my boss, who is a mining engineer in investment banking, he came up with a way to value some winery land. So the land is usually an asset that's not depreciable against your taxes, it's just, you know, you buy it and that's it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But if you buy like a brand name or something like that, you can depreciate it against your taxes for 10 years.
Kira Ballotta (05:20):
So he found a way to do that for wine land. So if you bought land in Napa Valley, he could say this much is worth the Napa Valley name. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So really big acquisitions were worth it for us to get involved with. And that was my entree into wine, was just learning about what the different names of land related to wine was. And I really enjoyed it and just kind of kept going down the rabbit hole. Eventually found myself learning from a winemaker in the Napa Valley on the weekends, just helping with different things in the cellar and kept coming back because he enjoyed free labor and I wanted to learn more <laugh> <laugh>. And so for a long time, for at least a year, I just thought this would be a great hobby. I'll make some wine, I'll work in finance. It sounds like a neat and tidy proposition, but I really wanted to, you know, just keep getting my hands dirty and doing it.
Kira Ballotta (06:13):
So eventually I quit to work, harvest, work in wine production full-time and go back to school for chemistry and microbiology and all of the necessary coursework to learn about how to make wine in addition, you know, all enology viticulture, all those kinda classes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so mm-hmm <affirmative>, I worked in it, studied it, you know, started making my own wine right away so that I could really feel that pressure of understanding and kept going from there. So that was the transition that I made back in kind of 2012, 2013. And then now you are the founder and owner of a winery. Yes. What caused you to make the leap to sort of take it on at a bigger level? Well, I started to make some commercial wine when I was working for a larger winery in 2016. So I effectively started a company in 2016 mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I made a couple different wines and it was just, I intended to keep it relatively small and be a side project and a creative outlet.
Kira Ballotta (07:17):
You know, that was really the driving factor was it's a very different thing to make wine for somebody else. You learn a great deal. I mean, I still use all of my lessons from working in bigger wineries in Napa Valley because it was just a really essential part of the process. But making all the choices yourself is a very different thing, you know? And mm-hmm <affirmative>, I think the interesting and cool part about wine is your product is very personal. And my boss even told me once when I was making one of those first commercial wines in 2016, I poured him some and he's like, this wine, I know this is gonna sound weird, but it tastes like you, you know, <laugh>. And I'm like, ok, that's, yeah, that's a weird way to put it, but <laugh>. But it's true why? It has a very personal nature to it and the way you make it is a direct reflection of kinda who you are and it's a, in a class of its own in terms of a consumable good.
Kira Ballotta (08:16):
Cuz someone is kind of experiencing your personality in a glass. So that's just a very cool part of it. That's a great way to explain it. It reminds me of storytelling and one of the things that struck me when I started to look at Olivia Brion and the wines there, the story, you have a persona for who the woman is on the label. There's a story behind it, which is inspired by history. Right. Which I found really unique.
Stephanie Kruse (08:43):
So has history always been something that's been a part of you or did you come to it through this experience?
Kira Ballotta (08:50):
I've always loved history. Even when I worked in finance, I read old books, the history of finance, like the early versions of the stock market and the late 18 hundreds and the silver trade and all of that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, I've always loved whatever subject I'm focusing on.
Kira Ballotta (09:05):
I love having the historical context for it. So that's definitely true of wine. I love reading about ancient history of wine. But Olivia, Brion, that brand was actually founded in 2004 and I started contributing to it in 2016. And when it was founded, it just had this one story of Olivia Brion going on adventures and being a suffragist. But it was just one label, one story. And when I joined I said I wanted to take her on new adventures and create new labels that reflect those adventures. And I like to tie the wine back to those stories. So for instance, I have, my first commercial red wine I made was a temperanillo. And the story behind that is based on the life of Epi Hotchkiss who is the first woman to ride transcontinental across the United States. Which I think it's a fun story to tell on this podcast because you're based in the East coast.
Kira Ballotta (10:00):
Mm-hmm <affirmative> and she rode from Brooklyn to San Francisco in 1915 to see the world's Fair. Wow. And I have her on the label with the motorcycle and then some original poster art from the World's Fair from 1915. And a story about, you know, this adventure she takes. And I kind of use Olivia Brion as the proxy character for each of these individual stories. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I say Olivia, Brian's a fictional character, but each of her adventures is inspired by the life of a real woman
Stephanie Kruse (10:30):
So each wine bottle you should be kind of taking an adventure with. And I think having a story that relates to the wine just kind of lets you sink your teeth in a little deeper. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and hopefully enjoy it a little bit more. I think storytelling goes great with a good wine, so, oh my gosh, <laugh>. Yeah. It's an experience, right?
Stephanie Kruse (10:51):
I think about when people open a bottle of wine, maybe because they like the particular varietal or they've discovered the label or someone gave it to them or they're experiencing it with some food. I don't think a lot of people probably understand how complicated the wine business is. Since you have gone into it as an entrepreneur, what's been really surprising to you or challenging to you that you didn't expect or discovered as you've experienced it?
Kira Ballotta (11:21):
I think one of the biggest surprises that continues to present its own set of challenges, I guess is that it's still a very old school business. We like to stay in wine that it's 10 years behind anybody else. So our adaptation of any sort of new technology is incredibly slow. And so a lot of my business is still very kind of, I don't know if data is the right word, but for instance, getting my vineyard contracts is still very much just a handshake proposition.
Stephanie Kruse (11:52):
Oh wow.
Kira Ballotta (11:52):
I go, go out, I try to find someone, there's no clearing house for getting grapes, so you're just sort of dialing up someone calling, getting a referral, going out to see them walking on their property. You know, there's no efficient mechanism really for buying and selling of grapes. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and then selling of the final product isn't so dissimilar either. A lot of it is just going into shops and getting to know people and creating these long-term relationships. And it's such a relationship-based business that it sets it apart and it can be intimidating for anyone coming in new. You know, you're constantly kind of having your credentials questioned, I guess. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And there's a really, really impacted market too because there is this romantic element to it where people have this under the Tuscan sun fantasy of starting a winery and drinking wine and all of that. And I tell people all the time, I'm like, make wine, it's so fun. Just make 200 gallons or less, which you are allowed to make at post-prohibition in your garage <laugh>. And don't try to sell it <laugh> <laugh>.
Stephanie Kruse (13:03):
It's like art. Like if you're an artist like paint Right. But don't expect to live off selling your work.
Kira Ballotta (13:09):
Yeah. It's not a very lucrative business. I think a lot of people get the sense that it is because there's all this sort of like wealth and luxury and smoke and mirrors around the selling experience, especially in the Napa Valley, which has really gotten very ostentatious. Yeah. But the fact of the matter is it's the most impacted consumer product market that we have. If we go into a grocery store, there's more skews of wine bottles than any other product you can buy there. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so to differentiate yourself in this industry is really, really hard. You have to just have this overwhelming passion for it that is gonna stay with you every moment of every day because it's a lot of grind work in order to get to that, you know, end of magazine spread where you're drinking a bottle of wine or something like that. <laugh>,
Kira Ballotta (13:57):
I haven't gotten that yet. <laugh>,
Stephanie Kruse (13:59):
You're gonna get there. You're gonna get there someday. I know it's a long slog is what it feels like. It is just like one step at a time compared to other things that happen in Northern California where you see these overnight successes, right. Valuations of nothing. Right. Right. Of air, of software, of technology, venture capital, that whole world wine is literally grounded. I can't believe that your contracts are handshakes. That's amazing that we're in 2023 and that is still how business is done. Which also there's something sort of lovely about that too, you know, in terms of the relationships I'm sure.
Stephanie Kruse (14:39):
But now you're an entrepreneur and you know, you talked about how difficult it is to make money and as somebody who's recently gone into business for myself, I think there's always around the corner something that surprises me.
Stephanie Kruse (14:53):
And when we were prepping for this interview, you had a great story about doing your business taxes and how that led you to some new labels that you're experimenting with. Can you tell me about that?
Kira Ballotta (15:05):
Yeah, so I was doing my 2020 taxes, um, the early part of 2021. And it was apparent to me as I was projecting forward on wine sales and whatnot, that I just wasn't gonna be able to pay myself in the near future because I'm self-financed, which means I don't take traditional forms of financing from a bank or a lender. So I started with some seed capital and then kept reinvesting it back into the business rather than taking a payroll. So in order to pay all those bills, I realized I had to continue to do that for the next couple years. So I thought about what will give me some compensation that's non-monetary and I just thought about what were my favorite things I've done in life, I guess, you know, just what brings me joy.
Kira Ballotta (15:57):
And when I was in college, I was president of Women in business mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I just loved being a part of this community of really powerful women who were so interested in changing the world. And I got to be an evangelist and go out into the community and bring women in to speak. And I started a foundation and it was a really special time in my life and I wanted to bring some of that back to my business. And so I started Cantadora, which translates to storyteller because I wanted to tell the story of women today. They were doing really phenomenal things for our community right now since I'm a mom. And that is really kind of the driving force. I wanted to highlight women that were giving back to women and children. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so the first woman that I reached out to was one of the founders of La Casa de Los Madres, which is the first domestic violence shelter in the United States.
Kira Ballotta (16:53):
And it's based in San Francisco. And it was where I was a volunteer when I lived in San Francisco for several years. So you know, I had given wine to their gala event in the past and I wanted to partner with them on this project. And then I brought in some other women that I had found in the community that were doing some really just, you know, novel things. So, uh, Cynthia Tom, who's an artist, she founded an organization called A Place of Her Own, which uses art as a healing tool in the healing of generational trauma. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And she really reaches her Asian American community in a really beautiful and profound way and I wanted to tell her story. Um, so she's on a label called the Healer, Sony Mal who founded La Casa Los Madres is on a label called The Protector. And then finally, given my financial background, I wanted to highlight someone in economics.
Kira Ballotta (17:43):
Cause the foundation of it is really economics that was doing something interesting because I love how economics describes or kind of has an interesting interpretation of the world around us. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, it really illuminates how everything works together and if you can change some sort of foundational concept and economics to reach communities that are being underserved, you can make those communities thrive for generations. Yeah. And so I found a woman, Marian Paige, who founded the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research, which is a think tank which incorporates neurobiologists, psychologists, nutritionist, all these different disciplines whose research focuses on poverty and equality, the roots of that. And then she sits on Gavin Newsom's board and and advises us on our state's economic policy using that really robust research from all of these different disciplines. So she's really in uh, creating future change, current change at a large kind of sky view perspective.
Kira Ballotta (18:44):
And I wanted to talk about that because that's a really important element of setting ourselves up for a better future. So I just love starting Cantadora with these three women. And the wine is from this awesome vineyard. The farmer is a woman Ann Kramer and she's been farming that property for 12 years now and doing an amazing job. And so the whole project has just this feminine energy to it that I love and gives me so much great feedback just in telling the stories and selling the wine. And it has so much meaning for me personally that it makes my job so much more fulfilling.
Stephanie Kruse (20:42):
So how has motherhood shaped the way you look at business or how you're spending your time or what activities you're using to amplify Cantadora and the voices that label or for Olivia Brion as well, how has that changed?
Kira Ballotta (21:01):
Motherhood really is what made me pivot full-time to entrepreneurship. I was working at a larger winery and I had my first child and I took maturity leave and the whole thing and came back and like a lot of mothers, I was very sad for a while and I was, you know, awkwardly pumping a lot in strange areas of the winery, <laugh>, and, and I went into harvest. Uh, harvest is a pretty intensive time. You know, you could work definitely over 12 hour days, sometimes seven days a week, you know, just the one time a year that we're really making the wine mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Kira Ballotta (21:37):
And so a lot of times, uh, just you know, mission critical for you to be there. And I was waking up and leaving before my son was waking up and I was coming home after he was asleep and I had so much pain, you know, I just really missed him. I wanted to be there. I didn't wanna disappear every year for several months out of the year. That just didn't seem worth it. And I had worked in finance in a job where at least he got paid to suffer <laugh>. Right. <laugh>. That's what I tell my husband all the time. I'm like, at least you're getting paid to suffer <laugh>. Yeah, I got paid to suffer. I was sad and I was tired, but I got paid for <laugh> for that in finance, in wine. I really didn't. And so I had already started making commercial wine and the founder of Olivia Brion was interested in retiring.
Kira Ballotta (22:26):
And so it was kind of this confluence of things where I was this mother of now one year old and I think a lot of moms will go back to work and think, oh maybe these feelings will fade over time. Mm-hmm <affirmative> as your child gets older. And I didn't find that, you know, as my kids get older I wanna be there more and more cuz it's, you know, it's even more fun to think mm-hmm. And see how they're feeling. And so now having this business, even though it's taken several years to get to a point where next year I probably will be able to pay myself <laugh> that you know, I can be there for them in the morning. Mm-hmm. I can be there for them in the evening. I can, you know, shift things in my schedule around to be there for them if there's something that happens, you know, my time is under my command and I volunteer in my son's kindergarten classroom mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Kira Ballotta (23:18):
On Tuesday mornings and I love it. It means so much to me to be there for him. And so I wish that there was a way that women could have that flexibility without having to go into entrepreneurship because you take on a tremendous amount of risk. Yeah. But in our current environment in the United States, there's just not really another way to have that balance. Yeah, I hear you. I think structurally it's just not there.
Stephanie Kruse (24:25):
As you were explaining about harvest, you know, I imagine sometimes you get to a moment of overwhelming feeling of it's all kind of on your shoulders too, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, whether that be family work or both. Yeah. What helps you to sort of take one more step forward or not let it sort of stop you from doing the things that you enjoy?
Kira Ballotta (24:48):
Well I think just a variety of things depending on the circumstances, you know, I won't lie, there's definitely been points in the last several years where I have done job searches and been like, you know, should I give this up? Should I go work for someone else? This is seems silly, but a couple things that helped me. Um, one, I really just tried to compare myself to myself and so I made just a little chart on my phone of how much wine I sold the first year in business in 20 and then in 2018 and 2019 in 2020 and 2021 in 2022.
Kira Ballotta (25:26):
And I can see a progression and it's just a nice little note I have on my phone to remind myself that it is working. You know, I am making progress even though I feel like on a day-to-day basis I can feel like I'm scrambling or I can feel like I'm on top of the world. It's gonna fluctuate a lot. Yeah. So just having little reminders that are personal to my situation help and then having a good support system. Different people that you can sound off with and talk to, even if they haven't started a business, they can understand the pressure that you're under. Um mm-hmm <affirmative>, because I haven't found a lot of people that I can talk to that are in my particular set of circumstances, I found winemakers that are mothers but they don't have a business or I found entrepreneurs with children but they're not in wine.
Kira Ballotta (26:14):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Kira Ballotta (26:14):
And so you kinda piece together that community just given your different set of circumstances, I think in whatever industry people looking at in terms of entrepreneurship to definitely try to interview people that are already doing it. That's what I did in wine is I talked to several different winemakers that did have a business in wine and I asked them how long it took to pay themselves and they said in my particular industry they said seven years. Wow. Which is what I've found to be true. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I my business in 2016, it takes several years to make the wine, to build relationships, to build your portfolio, to build credibility, to build those accounts. And now I'm finally year seven looking at national distribution and that's when I'll be able to pay myself. So that is a long haul. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but I got very realistic numbers from people I talked to before I started on this.
Kira Ballotta (27:07):
So I would say definitely do your, you know, fair share of informational interviewing before you jump into entrepreneurship and whatever industry you're in because people are often willing to give you realistic insights. Yeah. Well that's absolutely true. I think from a career standpoint, you're always sort of hearing like informational interview, understand about the job you're going to go for. And I would say that similar to you as somebody who has often thought about do I just go back to a corporate structure instead of, you know, consulting or now doing this show, I sort of always come back to finding those informal communities of advisors that can help me celebrate the wins.
Stephanie Kruse (27:53):
I love that idea of the note on your phone of not comparing yourself to other people. As you think about where you wanna go next. I mean obviously we need you to get you paid <laugh>, that's the next thing, that's the next thing. But imagine that happens in national distribution. What comes next for you?
Kira Ballotta (28:13):
You know, I'd probably be just defining those brands more. Right now I am looking at national distribution in a couple different markets for Olivia Brion. And then I'm hoping with Cantadora I can continue to build that community. So I'll be bringing different women on for each label. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I haven't been able to bring them all together yet in different settings and really bring the wine drinkers into that experience of getting to know them. Something that can bring all these forces together for people in a more meaningful way. I've actually, I'm really excited. I have a new label for Olivia Brionn coming out in May. My fantasy of drinking a rose is like drinking on a sailboat or something like that. So I thought it'd be fun to feature, uh, the first female ship captain story on the label and her name is Eliza Thorold.
Kira Ballotta (29:07):
She was a mother of five and her husband who was a ship captain passed away. So she inherited his 44 foot tug boat, the Marion and Ethel and decided that she needed to continue his business in order to support her five children. And she said, I know how to drive a ship. I could do that <laugh>, um, to run a business on a ship, you had to have a license ship captain on board and to pay a man to be that for her, she would've been giving all the money away from her business. Mm. So she was simply very practical lady and went and applied to be her own ship captain. And I don't think she intended to be the first female ship captain, it just is what happened given her circumstances. And she got interviewed about it by kind of the equivalent of the Chronicle at the time.
Kira Ballotta (29:50):
It was in 1897.
Stephanie Kruse (29:52):
Oh my gosh.
Kira Ballotta (29:52):
And this was in San Francisco Bay. They interviewed her and she said, you know, I am compelled to be the captain of my own boat. <laugh>. Just, that's it. Just that simple. No, no other fanfare like sorry, I just, I have to be the captain. This is my only option. <laugh>.
Stephanie Kruse (30:09):
So necessity is the motherhood of invention.
Kira Ballotta (30:13):
Right. Over and over. I, you know, ergo. First female ship captain.
Stephanie Kruse (30:18):
It doesn't get much better than that. You know, and your curiosity that you keep following, I think is the through line here from what I'm hearing you say. And, and that's gonna serve you no matter where you take this <laugh>. So keep doing that. That's amazing.
Stephanie Kruse (30:32):
Now that we're sort of at this point where we've kind of tied it all so nicely with your history and where you've come from and how you're moving forward, I always end an interview with this question, hence the title of the podcast is good enough for now. Right? So what does that phrase good enough for now mean to you?
Kira Ballotta (30:56):
You know, I think it just depends on how I'm feeling. Sometimes good enough for now is not being showered and, but still drinking a hot cup of coffee and sending my kids off to school in my peas, <laugh>. Yes. And that's good enough for now. Sometimes good enough for now is when I bottled a wine and I love how it tastes and you know, I'm excited to take it to some fancy restaurant, pour it for a Sam and I put on a really nice blazer because I'm so excited and, and sometimes that high is a good enough for now because you know, again, I'm trying to compare me to me and that was better than I would've been the year before. So it definitely depends on the day. I think today good enough for now is the sun is shining and in California we've gotten a lot of rains recently after we're recording this in January, so it's nice to be dry mm-hmm. <affirmative> and be looking at a good weekend ahead with my kids and finish my business taxes this week. That would be great. <laugh>. That'd be more than good enough for now. <laugh>.
Stephanie Kruse (31:54):
Good luck, <laugh>. I've gotta embark on that myself. So I feel your pain. Maybe not as complicated of a business as a winery, but
Kira Ballotta (32:05):
I like doing my business taxes. I know that sounds insane, but it is my way of being very self-reflective.
Stephanie Kruse (32:10):
It's like looking at your high school yearbook, right? You know, this is what happened. Exactly. <laugh>, where can people find you, your wines and help to support your business? Um, definitely order them. I shipped to all but three states. So Olivia Brion, um, Olivia, like it sounds, and then Brion is b r i o n.com. I also have Cantadora Wines featured on that site too, since it's such a new brand, although it does have its own website. canora.wine, uh, Canora is c a NT A D O R a. If you could find me on Instagram. I've started posting more reels this year. That was part of my New year resolution to do more video stuff.
Stephanie Kruse (32:51):
So I'm on at Olivia Brion Wines plural and at Cantadora Wine. And then I also repost those things to Facebook and, uh, under the same handle. So, and also listed on every bottle of wine is my phone number, is the email address. Um, you can text me and I'll do a tasting with you. I'll give you a presentation on wine, wine history, a masterclass on wine with, you know, a mini tasting experience. Those are my favorite ways to connect with consumers is really people that wanna learn about history and a good story and also, you know, enjoy a great glass of wine. Well cheers to you and for more stories that you'll tell. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me.
Stephanie Kruse (33:38):
Thank you so much for joining me. Please share the show with your friends by word of mouth. Send them a text and baby leave a rating and review. It really helps people find good enough. For now, don't forget to also follow on your favorite podcast player like Apple or Spotify so you can get new shows automatically each time they're released. You'll find show notes at good enough for now, pod.com and you can connect on Instagram at good enough for now Pod. See you next time.
