Transcript
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What happens when a love for wine and a passion for rescuing dogs comes together.
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You get Rescue Dog Wines, a company that blends philanthropy and fine wine.
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In this episode, I'm joined by Blair Lott, co-founder and CEO, whose journey from the music world to winemaking is full of unexpected twists you're not going to want to miss.
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We'll talk about the challenges of balancing business and a mission, and what's next for Rescue Dog Wines.
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Stay tuned.
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You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk, a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets.
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Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk.
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I'm your host, Amy Castro, and my guest today is Blair Lott, and he is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Rescue Dog Wines.
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And I don't know about you, but I mean to have two things in one bottle that are like your favorite things.
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How can you do anything wrong with that?
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But we're going to learn more about it.
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Blair spent the first years of his career working in the music world, writing and performing in Athens, Georgia, and then moving to Nashville and later on to Melbourne, Australia.
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He then transitioned into a career as a consumer insights and digital media consultant.
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During his three years in Australia, he became immersed in the food and wine scene and intrigued with the idea of making wine his vocation.
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So, after moving back to Atlanta and marrying his wife, Laura, they decided to move to Northern California to be closer to wine country and Laura's family, and I won't tell any more of a story because I want to hear from Blair as to how did that turn into Rescue Dog Wines.
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So first, Blair, welcome to the show.
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Yeah, well, thank you.
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Thank you Very, very happy to be here.
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Yeah, I'm excited.
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I had not heard of Rescue Dog Wines, but I'm all in now.
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So how did you go from deciding oh I think I might want to move to wine country, and I'm really interested in that to starting Rescue Dog Wines with its mission and all that?
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Yeah, yeah, definitely.
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The idea kind of took a life of its own.
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Initially the plan was just to be growers right, I was going to continue my consulting career and then we were going to go grow grapes.
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I really was pushing for that to live out in the country, Kind of got tired of living in the Bay Area.
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Laura not so much, she's more of a city gal.
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So the deal we kind of came up with that if she could foster dogs, that we would move out to the country.
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Yeah.
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So we looked for properties and even when we were looking for the properties I would always ask about, you know, the grapes, but really it was fostering dogs.
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It was kind of the top of Laura's mind when we were kind of doing that due diligence around it.
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We finally found a fantastic property in Lodi and I mentioned along the way about doing a Rescue Dog Wines because of her interest in fostering dogs, and initially she said no.
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But as we kind of got on the property and saw what it would take, I pitched the idea that as a hobby, I would start this as an online business, and really that's how it started.
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But, like I said, it kind of took a life of its own.
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As do all things that involve dogs, I think, or getting into the rescue life.
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When it comes to a business, I would think that it might be a struggle and you can tell me it's one thing to be.
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I'm about money, I'm trying to make business, I'm trying to sell wine, get customers, but it's a whole another ball of wax.
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I think.
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When you are mission centric, like you are in you know, basically knowing that the proceeds of your wine are helping save the lives of rescue dogs, how do you find that balance to be a good businessman and a good steward of dog rescue?
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Yeah, I mean mission first is really important.
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We really are a purpose-driven brand.
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We're not just cause marketing to sell wine.
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It really the biggest priority to us is being able to help save animal lives and really I think this is.
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You know, it's a very old business, a very entrenched business.
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There's a lot of beating your head against the wall.
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If I was just selling wine, you know, as a newcomer, without a story about how my family had been doing it for generations, I think you know I'd have given up the ghost a while back.
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But it's the mission that really drives me, gets me up in the morning.
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Yeah, that's great.
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I don't know a lot about the industry, but I know it can be certainly a tough one from a lot of different directions, and so you need something to drive you to keep driving forward.
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I'm sure how much does the mission impact decisions that you're involved in, as opposed to, maybe, somebody that just has a winery and just sells wine and it's not mission centric?
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What's different about your day-to-day running of your business?
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Yeah, I mean we'd see them as a partner, right, and I think that's kind of unique.
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And then if we're having a sales meeting and there's a buyer, but the buyer wants a discount and we'll go well, if there's nothing left for the dogs, it's not worth it for us to do right.
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So having margins to support our mission is always top of mind, and again it goes back to being mission driven why are we doing this?
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And that really helps guide our choices.
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Okay, great.
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So tell us exactly how does this work, because there's a lot of people that say they give back and it's like such a small amount Not that it doesn't count, but you're exceptional in my experience.
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Tell us about how that works.
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Yeah, yeah, I mean, it was definitely baked into the business model, you know, the idea being that if we started this way, it wouldn't hurt, right?
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If all of a sudden we decided we were going to give a X percentage or whatever.
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And that was very important to Laura, that we don't just make it some kind of gimmick to sell wine.
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And not only do I, everyone that works with us gets that.
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Like I said, when we have sales meetings, the sales guys understand that and it's really, really important and what drives everyone, and we give that in a lot of different ways.
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We have done cash donations.
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What has turned to be in our favorite way to give, but also seems to be the favorite way to receive by the organizations, is us donating wine and sometimes a representative to explain the mission to the rescue organizations.
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They really love that.
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They can take a small amount of wine and make a lot of dollars off of that, to the point where we've even had events where they've centered around our wine, maybe paired some food to that and sold tickets in advance for, say, $100, and have a few hundred people, and then, when people get there, they have some wine, they bring out their checkbooks and donate even more, and it's really great to see.
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Yeah, serving wine at fundraisers is always a good idea.
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Loose with the tongue, loose with the pen, loose with the checkbook, it's always good Feeling good about yourself, good about life in general.
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That's great.
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So how does that work if I'm going to just go ahead and buy a bottle of wine online?
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Am I still giving back to rescue pets?
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Yeah, absolutely so.
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50% of our profits go to rescue dog organizations.
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As I mentioned before, we really consider rescue dogs as an equal partnership in the business.
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So that's been from day one and we want to continue that and hopefully one day you know, when I retire and we're gone the company will continue on and maybe potentially do a hundred percent where it's part of a foundation or something like that.
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Wow, yeah.
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It's really something that we or something like that.
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Wow, yeah, it's really something that we hope will be around after we're gone.
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Yeah, I would hope so.
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I mean there's got to be somebody else out there other than you and me and your wife.
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You know that are like dogs wine like you can't.
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I'm sorry, you just can't go wrong with it.
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It's just such a great thing.
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I've seen a lot of fundraising things and I've seen 10% and I've seen you know 1% and I've seen you know it's.
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It's kind of like some of these online programs for these ginormous companies where, oh, it's the give back program and everybody's all excited about it.
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And as the receiver, when I get like a half a penny on the dollar, it's, it's nice, but it's not the big thing you think you're accomplishing.
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I mean, I get $76 a quarter and I'll take it, I'll use it, but I mean 50% is a whole nother ball of wax.
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So that just shows the commitment to the mission to me.
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Yeah, and then we're blessed that we didn't have to get outside investors or anything like that.
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We don't have stockholders to pay, so it's something that we were capable of doing.
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That's awesome.
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So what year did you start the company?
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So we actually formed the corporation in 2017 and then started work on the first wine and then we released it around 4th of July 2018.
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And at that time it was one blend.
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We made just a barrel of that and and thought, well, we'd make enough where if we couldn't sell it?
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that we could drink it, or give it to our friends, so kind of a a no risk.
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You know, a startup and I put the first label we had the artist do before the wine was ready, put up on Facebook and at that time, you know, facebook was very organic and within 30 days we had around 10,000 likes or followers.
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It was just kind of blow your mind, amazing.
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I'm telling you you can't go wrong.
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You can't go wrong with dogs and wine.
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It's just a, it's a recipe for success.
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So how have things grown since then?
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What are the things you've been proudest of, as you've seen the company and the mission grow?
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Yeah, I mean it's been kind of nuts because over the first few years we were growing 100% or more every year, with just online sales, moving from one wine to now I think we have close to 10 different wines or different versions of wines, and then we're in retail stores in California and restaurants and stuff.
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And then we're looking to expand in California and restaurants and stuff, and then we're looking to expand to other states.
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But really the biggest milestone in my mind that we reached and that was back in September, so very recently we crossed the $100,000 given, and that, to me, is what it's all about.
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So I'm very proud of that.
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In the grand scheme of growing a business.
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That's not a huge period of time, that's a huge accomplishment.
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Yeah, and we're still very small.
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You've never heard of us, even though you're an active wine drinker and active in the dog community.
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Yeah, but I only drink the cheap wine though so I don't drink the good stuff.
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I'm no connoisseur, for sure but I am looking forward to trying that wine.
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Yeah, yeah, hopefully there were some weather issues with the heat getting it to you before the interview, but hopefully you'll get that soon and I think you will enjoy them.
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I'll do a non-connoisseurs review after the fact.
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Now, you definitely don't want that, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
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So how do you decide who you're going to help, what rescues that you're going to donate to?
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Is there a process involved in that, or how does it work?
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Yeah, and it's definitely evolved.
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Initially, rescue organizations would email us.
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99% of them they find us and we find that that seems to work better, because I tried cold calling some and their initial reaction is what are you trying to sell me?
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You know what is, what's, what's the?
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So if they kind of hear from their people and they kind of get their head around it before they reach out to us.
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But now we have like a web form on our website.
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They're able to upload their 501Cs and all that information that helps kind of move the process a lot quicker and we're able to vet them very quickly and get them what they need.
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You know, if they're having an event, I'd like to have them do it maybe three or four weeks in advance.
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But you know, sometimes we can.
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If they're close by, we can do it a lot quicker.
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Yeah, I mean and I think that's pretty much that's fairly standard.
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I mean, any organization that you're going to ask to provide product for an event needs a little bit of a heads up.
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But you are expanded beyond just your local area.
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You're working with rescues around the country, right?
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Yeah, that's correct.
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So through our compliant shipping system we can get wines to I think it's 47 states and as far as I know, I can't remember turning anyone down as far as what they're asking for.
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I've had to turn down organizations because they weren't properly set up as a charity and by law they have to for us to donate wine to them.
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But no, it's really fantastic to how widespread geographically at least, that we can reach and help organizations out and as we grow, that will grow.
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And that's the really exciting thing about this business is the future and how many animal lives and so many different places we can touch.
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Yeah, I mean obviously nobody's expecting you you to run all over the country jumping to everybody's event, but you said that you and your wife have had the opportunity to go to some of the events and really enjoyed that.
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Yeah, we really do, and we'd like to do that when we can right, you know, we obviously can't do it everywhere.
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It seems like we're giving something away on an almost daily basis.
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Now, it's kind of cool and, like I said, 99% of the organizations are legitimate organizations and I just I will give them something, right, and I don't think I've ever had one that just shopped for the moon or something, asked for something that we couldn't give.
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That's good.
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People aren't being greedy about it.
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Exactly, exactly, so yeah.
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I'm sure you probably interact with people on the wine side of the industry.
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Do they think you're nuts for doing this?
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Yeah, it really varies.
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It's a wide variety.
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I know that I had one with me.
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But our head of sales in California.
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He's sitting next to a guy during a sales pitch meeting to a grocery chain and someone from the distributor that was there and that guy's like why do they do this?
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He just cannot get us.
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Why would you want to give away your money was basically his point of view.
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So you have that every now and then.
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Yeah, I could see people thinking that it's a significant sum.
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That's for sure.
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As far as the feedback that you've gotten from rescues or maybe the events that you've attended, is there anything in particular that jumps out at you that says this right here is what makes it worth it, or this story, or whatever it might be?
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Yeah, I mean we love a lot of the facilities, will let us tour and, you know, hold the animals or take pictures with them and seeing how their volunteers, our employees, are so passionate, you know, and we see from one-person organizations to.
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There's an organization in Southern California I think it's 200 employees and 1,400 volunteers, so we see the gamut right.
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But as a rule, everyone involved in this calls.
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They're always down to earth, they're always passionate about what they do and they're great people.
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So it's the people and the animals, of course, but the people that support the animals that really warm your heart as well.
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Yeah, I think it's interesting.
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You know, having done this rescue work as a volunteer the entire time I mean even you know when I started back volunteering at animal shelter it's like there's a certain level of crazy.
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You have to have going on to get involved in animal rescue, but money seems to be the furthest from anybody's mind.
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It's like, you know, I'll do it for free, I'll do it for a crappy salary, when I know I could get a better salary over here.
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And I think it's just that the mission is so important.
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I mean, how do you put a price on the life of an animal that relies on humans to stay alive?
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Yeah, that's, absolutely so true.
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But at the same time I will balance that out with the fact that you've got to be smart about it.
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Like it would do nobody any good if your winery went out of business because of the philanthropy it's like.
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Then it's kind of pointless and it's the same thing in rescue.
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I see some people, whether it's mental or physical, driving themselves in the ground, or driving themselves in the ground financially.
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At some point you have to create parameters and good practices to make things work.
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But I think, like you had mentioned a couple of times, the mission is the thing that drives everything.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So what does the future hold?
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Do you have big plans or any exciting changes, new products, new programs that you have lined up for the future?
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Yeah, I mean, we had a sweepstakes, that kind of attaches to our holiday, that we celebrate Rescue Dog Month, and we're figuring out how to use that to not only promote our brand but also promote rescue organizations.
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So it's really about saying, hey, if you're going to adopt a dog, this is a great month to do it kind of thing right.
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It's starting to get ground.
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This is a great month to do it kind of thing right.
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It's starting to gain ground.
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We're starting to figure out how to do that and kind of lead to the end of the year, which is our biggest selling season, into the holidays Because of the hurricanes.
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We decided during the month of October because the timing was right there and there was an immediate need that 10% of everything people spend in our online store in October goes directly to a handful of organizations in Florida and North Carolina.
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Okay.
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So that's awesome, and for those of you who are listening to this right now, there's still plenty of October left.
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No excuses to go ahead and order some wine.
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I mean, we've all seen the videos, seen the things on the news.
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I mean it's devastation for humans and animals alike, so I can only imagine.
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I mean I know what it was like just trying to hold down the fort here at my little rescue ranch during Hurricane Beryl, and you know, let alone, we didn't have any massive damage afterwards.
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But they're going to definitely use all the help they can get, and you get a bottle of wine for it too.
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So you know, everybody wins in that instance.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.
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And it is such an immediate need?
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Yeah, for sure, and we're going to put links and things like that up on our show notes so people can get to your website and, you know, get to more information about what you're doing.
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What else can people do to help support your cause other than buying wine and, you know, telling their rescue friends?
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Hey, you need to get connected with rescue dog wines.
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Telling their rescue friends.
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Hey, you need to get connected with rescue dog wines.
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No, really, it's like be a part of the rescue community, I think.
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Volunteer your time, open up your checkbooks, all of the above it's such an important need.
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Spay and neutering very important for specific programs that support that to make the situation more manageable where there's not so many animals out there that get in desperate straits.
00:18:54.619 --> 00:19:01.506
So I think, yeah, we need to culturally rethink how we think about our pets and our farm animals and stuff like that.
00:19:01.907 --> 00:19:02.750
Yeah, definitely.
00:19:02.750 --> 00:19:07.829
I mean, that's something that we try to stress a lot on this show is that pets are for life and you've got to.
00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:16.615
You know, you've got to take care of them and the spay and neuter and the, you know vaccination and everything else you know, appropriate to their age and all of that is just so important.
00:19:16.615 --> 00:19:31.449
But yeah, I know that I know California really struggles, because I think California is the number one state for shelter, euthanasia, and we in Texas are right behind you as far as the hundreds of thousands of animals being euthanized.
00:19:31.449 --> 00:19:33.934
I think the primary reason is lack of spay and neuter.
00:19:33.934 --> 00:19:38.695
It's just that perpetual cycle of puppies and kittens being born and not enough people to take them in.
00:19:38.695 --> 00:19:41.810
So we all need to work on that for sure.
00:19:42.011 --> 00:19:49.615
Yeah, no, we'd really love to see where the 100% of the US was no kill, where there was no need for that.
00:19:50.116 --> 00:19:51.906
Definitely All right.
00:19:51.906 --> 00:19:53.051
So now I'm going to get personal.
00:19:53.051 --> 00:19:54.648
So tell us about.
00:19:54.648 --> 00:19:56.474
Do you have foster dogs now?
00:19:56.474 --> 00:19:57.710
Is that where Laura is?
00:19:57.710 --> 00:20:01.285
She's taking care of those foster dogs while we're on this call.
00:20:01.726 --> 00:20:10.114
We are currently between fosters and we recently lost Daisy, but we do have five rescue cats.
00:20:10.996 --> 00:20:17.171
Ah, that's right, you said you had your cat guy or you have at the moment, right At the moment, it just again.
00:20:17.250 --> 00:20:22.451
It's something that's kind of evolved in its own Three of the cats we found among many cats.
00:20:22.451 --> 00:20:41.832
Laura got very active with the kind of the trap and neuter program and was able to place most of those kittens, but two of them we were fostering them in Foster Field and then one slightly older cat, about a year old cat.
00:20:41.832 --> 00:20:47.560
He showed up one day, jumped into my arms oh, wow.
00:20:48.926 --> 00:20:51.252
And initially I thought, well, this is a neighbor's cat.
00:20:51.252 --> 00:21:07.773
But we did all the things that you should do put up posters, took him to see if he had a chip that identified him, and so eventually he ended up, made his way into the house and into our hearts, and then we ended up getting two additional cats.
00:21:07.773 --> 00:21:09.980
Laura's sister passed away and she had two rescue cats, and so we ended up getting two additional cats.
00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:13.313
Laura's sister passed away and she had two rescue cats, and so we took those on as well.
00:21:13.313 --> 00:21:16.762
So we're a quickly growing cat family.
00:21:16.824 --> 00:21:19.935
For a couple of years, yeah, you know what that means, though, don't you?
00:21:20.417 --> 00:21:20.839
What's that?
00:21:21.241 --> 00:21:26.273
You got to start a whole another line of product, rescue cat cheese.
00:21:26.273 --> 00:21:27.738
Don't they do cheese in California?
00:21:27.738 --> 00:21:30.068
I mean, I know Wisconsin's cheese, but I know there's cheese.
00:21:30.691 --> 00:21:31.152
There is.
00:21:31.152 --> 00:21:31.492
There is.
00:21:31.492 --> 00:21:32.375
That's a good idea.
00:21:32.375 --> 00:21:37.332
We do have one uh, very nice sparkling wine on our website.
00:21:37.332 --> 00:21:41.473
Only that has a cat, and that was for one of Laura's sisters.
