More than Wine: Make a Change, Work from Home
Written by Traveling Vineyard on October 9, 2014
Grapes come in thousands of different varieties. Not all are meant to become your favorite cabernet or pinot grigio, but each one has a unique flavor and purpose.
Traveling Vineyard Wine Guides are just like grapes in that regard – each individual has a unique personality and purpose. With different needs, different dreams, and different goals, every Wine Guide has his or her own reasons for becoming part of the Traveling Vineyard family.
Christi, for example, was eager to make a change. She’s a hard-working, career-driven woman. Before she became an independent marketing rep (aka Wine Guide) with Traveling Vineyard, her career kept her away from her family, working long days and well into the night. Her daughter was born, and Christi found herself at a crossroads – how could she continue to be successful without sacrificing her family? She loved being a businesswoman, but needed to better balance her career and family life.
“I did a lot of research,” Christi says, “and the wine business was a place I wanted to go.” In the year since she joined Traveling Vineyard, she’s found the balance she was seeking and, with their support, even more.
You can read the rest of Christi’s story on her profile page.
There are a lot of people just like Christi - they know they want to make a major change in their lives, but they aren’t sure what to do. For Christi, when she discovered Traveling Vineyard, she found a legitimate work from home job that allowed her to find that missing balance she needed. What she didn’t know was just how much more she would get from being an independent marketing rep.
How can I make a major life change without completely turning my life upside down?
With her young family depending on her, Christi couldn’t just quit her job. She had to be responsible. She discovered she could break into the wine industry without being a wine expert, and she began hosting wine tasting events for Traveling Vineyard. “Within a year of doing this, I make more money than I did when I worked 25 years in the media,” says Christi, and she’s not alone.
Traveling Vineyard Wine Guides learn how to make extra money. More than that, though, they learn how to be an entrepreneur without the major financial risk that comes with running their own businesses. Christi was able to quit her 25-year career when her income from Traveling Vineyard was enough to replace her full-time salary.
Best of all, she was able to be present for her family and she found a career that allowed her to be the person she wanted to be. She controlled her own schedule, so she could fit her work around the needs of her family, rather than having to steal moments with her husband and daughter on her way out the door.
It also didn’t hurt that she loved meeting new people at wine tasting events!
What’s it really like to be a Wine Guide? I don’t want to lug around cases of wine.
Wine Guides don’t have to have Arnold Schwarzenegger’s arms to be successful because they don’t carry stock. The fact of the matter is that Wine Guides market wine as independent marketing reps. They introduce people to the wines, give them a chance to taste them, answer any questions, and then submit order interests to the winery. The wine is sold by the winery and shipped directly to the customer. Christi is a businesswoman, not a delivery woman.
When a new team member first signs up, an experienced Wine Guide acts as a mentor. All team members receive a Traveling Vineyard Success Kit and access to tons of online tools to help them get started. Christi found that she didn’t have to carry inventory, and she hosts events as often as her schedule permits.
As team members get more comfortable, they can recruit new members and become a leader in theTraveling Vineyard community. For a leader, a new team member means a new potential friend, a chance to lead and guide, and extra income, too. Many Wine Guides quickly meet and inspire more people to join the community – it’s a natural progression.
Besides making extra money, Christi’s been able to meet wonderful people, whether they’re wine lovers at her events or a part of the community. She’s also earned Incentive Trips to exotic locations for her family. Best of all, she has fun doing a job she loves.
But I can’t tell the difference between a malbec and a merlot!
Some Traveling Vineyard Guides come in as wine experts and can talk all about a wine’s integration and expressiveness. The vast majority of new team members, however, learn about wine as they go. Wine Guides don’t have to be wine experts, or even wine lovers, to excel.
It’s highly unlikely that anyone with Traveling Vineyard can name all 5,000 types of wine grapes. But that’s not what’s important to people like Christi, who was more interested in making a major life change. Christi, and Wine Guides like her, came to Traveling Vineyard for a fun, fulfilling way to make money from home on her own terms, allowing her to reshape her world.
Have more questions about being a Wine Guide?
-Find out how stay-at-home jobs can change moms’ lives.
-Find out how to make some extra money while you’re at it.
Are you interested in becoming a Wine Guide?
Find out more
For current team members and Guides, let us know – what questions did you have before you joined Traveling Vineyard? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
