WINEIFY: AN INTERVIEW FUELLED BY MIMOSAS

It was a warm Winters day. The sun was smiling, the air was crisp and Ash the pupperoo was excited for his serving of crispy bacon. Or maybe he was excited, like me, to talk to the Central Coast’s newest entrepreneur Jessey McGuire, otherwise known as the founder of the Wineify podcast and bespoke label maker. Regardless, we were both excited.

Greeted with an infectious and welcoming smile, Jessey instantly made me feel comfortable and at ease.

“Is this your first time interviewing someone for MLT2?!” he asked.

“Ahh yes! Can you tell I am a bit nervous?”

It is safe to say we then ordered two mimosas as I was most definitely nervous. But in all honesty, as if we were not going to be drinking some form of wine for this occasion.

For those of you who are unaware of who Jessey is, “I'm a high school teacher and I am currently studying an MBA which is a Masters of Business Administration. A lot of people do this degree to learn more about business which is exactly what I'm doing.”

As Jessey is not a simple man, he simply could not just be a teacher and an MBA student, he also had to put his theory to the test and start his own company….

“I started Wineify to implement the things I was learning at Business School into a more practical and hands-on version of the lessons I was learning there.”

So, what exactly is Wineify do you ask? Well, “Wineify is a little business idea where I make personalised wine labels which compare your personality to the personality of grapes found in wine. It also has a little podcast called the Wineify podcast where I interview young artists, creators, and entrepreneurs from the Central Coast to empower their story and inspire the lives of others on the Central Coast.”

Both Jessey and I grew up on the Central Coast, and if you have also lived there, can know at times it can feel like a little, community bubble. Well, at least it used to be. Now that Jessey, as well as the wonderful, unique people who appear on the Wineify podcast such as Georgia Bunt, Mitchell Harvey and KESMAR, it proves to residents all along the coastline that your life is what you make it, not what your postcode is. “The least I could do in my job is create that [new] space. Because I would have these great conversations with people, like we have done this morning, and it just never seemed like there was enough time. There was never enough space so I felt like if I could create that space and give you know, an hour or so to those voices then that's my job.”

And what an inspiring job it is.

Wineify is a fast paced, empowering space for daring souls to start following a, “life by design not by default.” And within the Wineify podcasts, Jessey really drives home to both his guest speakers and listeners that it is time to, “follow your voice and follow your passions because there's only one you, and we all have these different skills. I think that if we can tap into these skills that we have and we own them, that's you living your life by design and not the default. Which is a big factor where I come from in the podcast. It is all about creating your life, which you decide upon. Chasing this purpose and creating this purpose because life is meaningful. I think we have a have a job to play in creating that meaning too and I think a big part of that comes from chasing our passions.”

Starting your own business and sharing your work for the world to see can be quite daunting. As it isn’t just your writing, your art or your product that you are placing on display for the world to consume, it is also revealing different pieces of yourself. However, Jessey seems to use this to his strength. Showing others that the key to a successful business, is to find what your passion is and make it yours.

“When you do these things and you release it to the world you have a bit more of a stake in it. You become more accountable and that was one of the biggest things with University as the study was theoretical and there was no real sense of responsibility in regard to the world. But when you start creating something that has more meaning to you, you then have a stake in what you create, and you have that accountability in what you create yourself. When you're putting stuff out, like you do with your writing, that's a reflection of your heart and you have to think about it more because there is that sense of accountability. When I thought about creating podcasts I was like, yeah, this is great. This is actually something I have to think about, this is something I love.”

Whilst the podcasts are engaging, well thought out and incredibly empowering, what really got me intrigued with the business plan was, you guessed it; the wine. How could one person mix their love for business, building a platform for creatives AND wine into a successful project?

“It actually started when I saw that I would buy people a bottle of wine as a gift and also a card to say thank you and happy birthday. Then I thought, well most of the time people have these and then they throw out both of them. So, I was thinking about how I could reduce a little bit of waste and perhaps put both of them together and make it more personal.”

Which is where we get the personalised wine labels, which can also be delivered to your door! I think we all know what we are getting Mom for Christmas now don’t we?

The creative process for Jessey when making a bespoke wine label involves a few things such as asking a few questions about the person he is writing the label for, remembering not everything will be perfect, and of course, research.

“I absolutely think one of the best parts of Wineify is the product research I get to do.”

“By research Jessey, are we talking about Googling or tasting?”

“Research as in taste absolutely! Maybe a little too much…but it’s always fun to try wines and see what your friends think and how you taste so differently. It’s one thing I really like to do but it’s also one thing I’d like to bring to other people.”

Mental Note: pick a career that involves wine so I can conduct such research and claim it on tax.

And just when you think Jessey cannot be any cooler of a high school teacher, he pulls out these absolute pearls of wisdom that can do nothing but make you smile and make you truly believe that you can design your life. Exactly the way you want it to.

“When you get into 20s you have to start making those choices around what path you’re going to choose. And today is a very different world than what it was 10, 20, 30, 50 years ago when our parents were taking on these decisions. And we get fed their decisions constantly that we should choose this degree we should choose this path and we should try and attain that right lifestyle. Any of these outside voices whether it's family, friends or society at large; if you don't agree with it and you think that you're being put in a box that's a life by default right, and that is the complete opposite to your purpose and that is the thing that really leads to feeling meaningless. I feeling like you don't have a purpose, it can be very hard to live in…everyone can relate to it because we all have a different design and a different passion and a different purpose and I think that if you really examine your life you know like the unexamined life is a life not worth it.”

All I can say is that if I had Mr McGuire as my English teacher, I think I would have been a lot more engaged in Shakespeare.

Throughout our interview, which was rudely interrupted quite frequently from Ash stealing other dogs’ toys and crashing BBQ’s, there was one poignant line that I couldn’t get enough of and had to be exaggerated further. That line is, “progress over perfection” which all started when Jessey was, “just chasing what I thought was cool. What I really liked and that was my style. Understanding that it takes patience to build stuff. You really can't expect things to be perfect. Wineify has been going six months now and one of my biggest sayings is, progress over perfection. What could you achieve if you just added on and just added to this idea? Creating that process, creating that progress rather, is so much more effective long term instead of having to be perfect every time because that is just a recipe for disaster.”

And how does one person get this kind of patience? Oh yes that’s right; from your favourite bottle of wine.

“I've been loving a cab sav! A nice heavy one right now I really like is the Penfolds really. I know it's such a big brand, but I think they really hit the Shiraz and the Cabernet Sauvignon really well, so I love having a glass or two or 10.”

Because we all know some days, two glasses just don’t seem to cut it.

“Passion is what we do, and we stress about it and just to relax is really important. To understand and have the patience that it can't all unfold right now. If we think of us like a song, we can't get to the crescendo straight away. There's a melody, there's a bridge, there’s all sorts of elements in your story and a new path that you have to go through. I think if we can have the faith in that making one step at a time will lead to something great then that's the progress over perfection. Which is so much more empowering because it's like, ‘what little thing can I do today and what little thing can I accept that isn't perfect and is OK because I'm making a little step towards this bigger goal?’”

As if we needed another excuse to have a glass of wine tonight? It is practically essential for our business progress am I wrong?

Now if you have spent your entire time reading this, salivating over the thought of a smooth glass of red and thinking how you can get one of these bespoke wine labels to drink whilst listening to the Wineify podcast. Look no further, because the answers are all here.

“Right now, with the small brand I'm only on Instagram (@wine_ify). You simply have to reach out to me, but I mean, I'm pretty on top of it. So when people follow me I try and reach out to them because you see that with brands they might be a bit standoffish and I really want to make an effort to connect with my audience and people on the coast because it's a little bit bigger than me you know. A big part of Wineify is talking to people and empowering their stories, so if you want a personalised wine bottle head on over ‘cause I can make a great one.”

I believe a lot of Jessey’s customers can testify to that.

I don’t know about you, but after this conversation I left feeling warm, inspired and ready to completely immerse myself in my new life of design rather than by default. But before you go and do the same, I thought I would leave you with some of Jessey’s most choice advice to those wanting to start their journey as well.

“In the beginning, just dabble and have fun and when you’re starting on this journey. That's what you've just got to do. You've really just gotta get your fingers in there, hands in there. Just get dirty with it. Just play, create, dabble. That's all I did.”

Stay Fire,

Madeline.