00:00
well when i was looking around to
00:01
further my education i uh
00:04
found this program that at csusb that
00:09
that really fit my career path
00:13
so it made sense for me to
00:15
go into that and it was allowed me to
00:17
use some of the credits that i had from
00:19
my previous
00:20
college experience
00:22
my degree in the field of natural
00:24
sciences
00:25
and industrial technology led me to
00:29
the entrepreneurship
00:30
and in wine
00:33
in business
00:36
what it did was it allowed me a gave me
00:39
a wide breadth of knowledge in a lot of
00:41
different things from the sciences say
00:43
physics
00:44
biology chemistry
00:46
through
00:47
management management science and really
00:50
allowed me to
00:52
to
00:53
be able to understand all facets of a
00:55
business
00:57
and the technical side of it along with
00:59
the management side so it was really
01:01
really helpful
01:03
i got started in the wine business uh
01:06
through my brother doug he uh he and i
01:08
used to grow big gardens when we were
01:10
kids and
01:11
he went on a degree get a degree in
01:13
horticulture
01:14
and food science and then
01:17
i
01:18
pursued a career path in music and then
01:21
into aerospace with my electronics
01:23
degree and then
01:25
i decided i wanted to start my own
01:27
business and he was growing wine grapes
01:30
and suggested we started a winery so
01:33
that's that's really how i got started
01:35
and in the family we always wanted to do
01:38
a family business so we involved
01:41
a lot of the family
01:43
and it just went from there i started
01:45
the business side of it and
01:48
it
01:50
has been a great success
01:52
my biggest influence has probably been
01:55
from my family and other co-workers that
01:57
i've i've been with through the through
01:59
the years and it's just the
02:01
the drive to want to do things together
02:04
and
02:05
and
02:07
be successful and and do something that
02:10
you love to do
02:12
gosh one of the toughest things it's uh
02:15
it's not for the faint of heart this
02:16
wine business
02:18
it does require a
02:21
great deal of work a great deal of
02:22
capital
02:24
um
02:25
you just have to
02:28
gosh one of the biggest challenges is
02:29
growing growing grapes it's it's tough
02:32
to do tough to do it get it right and
02:34
and uh if you can't you can't make great
02:37
wine from
02:38
from mediocre grapes so really is
02:41
important to grow
02:43
grapes and then take care of it along
02:45
the way and really pay attention to
02:46
detail
02:48
i love being out in the vineyard and
02:50
then
02:51
the other side of it is
02:53
is uh
02:54
having customers come to the
02:57
to our tasting room here and and meeting
02:59
with us and and enjoying the product and
03:01
having a great time and it's really a
03:04
fun social
03:06
activity
03:07
one of the most rewarding things about
03:09
the job is
03:11
is the satisfaction of of helping people
03:14
of
03:14
of
03:16
providing a nice working environment for
03:18
our associates here
03:21
and allowing them to grow and prosper
03:24
and and
03:26
helping them along the way and then also
03:28
providing a
03:30
a
03:31
a place for our customers to come to
03:33
they just love uh
03:34
coming out here and
03:36
and uh experiencing this and it really
03:40
is a it's such a nice feeling when a
03:42
customer thanks you for having this
03:43
place to come to it's
03:45
it's really nice
03:47
what i do personally is i'm on a a
03:50
couple of committees at a local high
03:51
school there in san bernardino
03:55
to help help that
03:57
high school
03:58
keep going and and prosper
04:01
and uh
04:02
and then as far as locally here in the
04:05
community we do a lot of fundraisers
04:07
here at the winery
04:08
to uh
04:10
to help local charities and then we of
04:12
course donate our time and
04:14
and product uh
04:16
to help charities as well
04:19
it's important for our family to give
04:20
back to the local community
04:23
and we do it through
04:26
through donations of our product of our
04:28
time
04:29
at pouring events for example or we hold
04:32
events here as well
04:34
uh for local charities
04:36
and then on a personal note
04:38
i also give back and volunteering on
04:41
some committees at a local high school
04:44
i'm defining my future by providing a
04:49
welcoming place for our guests providing
04:51
a a
04:52
a nice
04:55
work environment for our associates and
04:57
our employees uh
05:00
it's it's uh
05:02
providing growth for
05:04
for all the individuals that are that
05:06
are here at the winery so
05:09
and the family too so
05:11
some of the best things that csusb
05:13
taught me was to
05:16
keep working and keep trying and and
05:22
um really work as a community and and uh
05:27
to
05:27
to help
05:29
help others and uh
05:32
really just
05:33
to try to work together so
05:35
i stay connected
05:37
to csusb
05:39
through
05:39
some
05:41
associates that work there
05:44
i stay connected with csusb
05:47
through some associates that work there
05:50
through some some friends
05:53
uh and i think it's important to stay
05:55
connected as well
05:57
to help uh students to help uh
06:01
people that want to go to the university
06:02
or or are at the university to give back
06:06
to
06:07
to provide some knowledge some
06:08
information that i have that can help
06:10
them
06:11
to grow and and
06:15
make their lives better
06:17
so i do i volunteered things like the
06:20
entrepreneurship program i've i've been
06:22
to some meetings
06:24
to meet with students
06:26
during that i've
06:28
poured wine at the homecoming you know
06:30
it was a lot of fun
06:32
got to meet a lot of people there
06:35
uh
06:36
it's i think it's it's important to stay
06:39
connected uh
06:41
really is to to help uh help the
06:43
community overall and help help
06:46
individuals you know raise their
06:51
standing in life i guess so
06:54
ah no i'm not
06:56
i was i got an email uh
06:58
received an email
07:00
a few months ago and i was going to sign
07:01
up for the lifetime thing and i
07:03
i don't the emails
07:05
long since gone so i don't know
07:07
the value of my my degree from csusb is
07:11
is really invaluable i mean it's i
07:13
wouldn't be in the position i'm in today
07:15
without it there's no
07:17
no question about that i mean i've i've
07:21
had multiple positions in companies
07:23
simply because i have a college degree
07:26
and it's so important if you don't have
07:29
one you're really putting a
07:31
kind of a lid on on on yourself and how
07:34
far you can go
07:36
i believe and it's it's so important to
07:38
get
07:39
to
07:40
to see a lot of things
07:42
gain the knowledge so you can live a
07:44
fuller life
07:46
and uh it's
07:48
i just i can't
07:50
say enough how important it is
07:52
when i attended the university in the
07:54
90s i started there in the late 80s
07:57
actually it didn't
07:59
i was already working so i was going to
08:01
night school so that i wasn't really
08:03
aware of or wasn't pursuing any type of
08:06
internship
08:07
programs
08:09
so
08:10
although i suspect there was some
08:12
available i didn't didn't really wasn't
08:15
part of my um
08:18
yeah
08:18
i have one son
08:20
uh who's
08:22
a recent college graduate
08:24
he went off into a different field into
08:27
the medicine my wife's uh into medicine
08:29
so
08:30
he got a degree in neuroscience he's
08:32
trying to find a the lab job he wants so
08:35
yeah we really impressed on him the uh
08:38
the need to to go on to college and get
08:41
his degree and
08:42
and he went to aquinas high school there
08:44
in san bernardino so that's where i
08:46
volunteer on the president's council and
08:49
the finance committee so the degree is
08:51
so valuable that we my wife and i really
08:55
encouraged our son to to go on to
08:57
college and
08:58
and he embraced that and did right out
09:01
of high school went to college and
09:03
finished his degree
09:06
when i first went to college i took
09:08
three years off and it was a because i
09:11
was pursuing pursuing my musical career
09:13
so
09:13
it uh
09:15
then i decided well i better get back to
09:17
school so i did did go to school for a
09:20
couple of years and
09:22
then took a 10-year hiatus after that
09:24
and then
09:26
found csusb and
09:28
the rest is history so
09:33
the name of our winery was really came
09:36
out of the family's involvement in
09:40
in the business and wanting to be a part
09:42
of the business we're a large family
09:44
we've always been very tight-knit always
09:46
every little reason to get together any
09:49
kind of
09:50
event or holiday or whatever we got
09:53
together
09:54
and really had a lot of fun together and
09:57
we decided to start this business
09:59
we were just going to call it wean
10:01
sellers to begin with just using our
10:03
last name
10:04
but then it occurred to us that gosh you
10:06
know we really are
10:08
a family so we included the name family
10:10
it's so important to us it's weens
10:12
family sellers
10:14
and that's that
10:16
really shows who we are and seven days a
10:18
week you'll find a family member here
10:21
on site so
10:23
we really believe in the
10:25
the
10:26
the um
10:27
the value of and the of sticking
10:30
together and having the family in the
10:32
name
10:34
i like to feel we provide a a warm and
10:37
welcoming environment for our employees
10:40
here for our staff members
10:43
so that you know they feel like they
10:45
they want to come to work each day and
10:47
they want to
10:49
to do the right thing and and
10:52
grow and
10:55
we really do promote growth within the
10:57
company we have a lot we have many
11:00
long-term employees 10 years plus
11:04
and it's important for me to promote
11:07
from within
11:08
in every instance that we can
11:11
so
11:11
we've really done a i think a a good job
11:14
of that and we'll continue to do that in
11:16
the future
11:18
it really
11:19
you can
11:20
really grow and nurture people and and
11:22
provide a supporting environment i think
11:25
it's so important
11:27
to
11:29
in in their growth and your own growth
11:31
in the growth of the company
11:34
and the customers see that this kind of
11:36
thing is
11:37
really
11:38
is businesses are a reflection of their
11:40
owner so i like to think that we
11:43
we're a reflection of us as a family and
11:46
and me personally as well
11:48
uh when when customers come to us that
11:51
that we
11:53
show that uh
11:56
our
11:57
personality you know it's it's so
12:00
important
12:01
i can go to any local winery here and i
12:03
can go in the tasting room and i can see
12:06
the owner
12:07
in
12:08
how i'm treated in the winery
12:11
it's it's bizarre but it's true
12:16
well on a typical day here at the winery
12:17
you can find me
12:20
upstairs and
12:21
doing some accounting or finance work
12:24
you could find me in the tasting room
12:26
uh
12:27
meeting with customers
12:29
i might be out in the vineyard running
12:31
around
12:32
checking on things actually i do
12:35
work in the vineyard i do pruning i
12:38
check on the grapes i help with the
12:40
watering i
12:41
do a little bit of everything
12:43
i repair things i'm the resident
12:45
electrician so you can find me in pretty
12:48
much any and every corner of this
12:49
facility and all of our grounds i'm i'm
12:53
out and about all the time
12:56
although we have of course roles for
12:59
the family members and the employees
13:01
here a lot of us most the family were
13:04
really uh can-do kind of people so we're
13:07
happy to do anything and
13:09
and help in any way we can
13:11
we're really a can-do kind of family we
13:14
if the
13:15
an issue or problem comes up we feel
13:17
that we can
13:19
solve it so we like to
13:21
we're a builder of things we want to
13:22
build things we want to fix things we
13:25
want to make things better really grow
13:28
the company grow grow
13:30
personally
13:31
and
13:32
through fixing things through making
13:35
things better
13:36
what makes our winery unique and special
13:39
are the three things that are on our
13:40
seal and it's
13:42
family
13:43
quality and integrity
13:45
so we really live by those three words
13:48
we
13:48
we think it's so important
13:51
that the family is involved
13:53
we have integrity with everything we do
13:56
and the quality part of it we
13:58
we feel that we grow the best grapes
14:00
make the best wine and it's so rewarding
14:03
to hear our customers come in and say
14:05
gosh you know we if we want the best
14:08
wine we know where to come and that's to
14:10
come here and and it's really uh makes
14:13
us feel proud of the work we're doing
14:15
here
14:16
we do try to innovate we
14:18
we
14:20
do a lot of things to improve the
14:22
quality of the wine always continuously
14:24
working on
14:26
making things better
14:28
our family came to start the business
14:29
through
14:30
many uh
14:32
times getting together and having a
14:34
desire to work together and uh i had
14:37
wanted to start my own business years
14:38
ago and
14:40
my brother doug
14:42
i was speaking to him one day and he
14:44
suggested that we
14:46
start a winery
14:47
and that kind of came about because he
14:50
was growing wine grapes and
14:52
his background education is in
14:54
horticulture and food science
14:56
so i thought well gosh that makes sense
14:58
it sounds like a lot more fun than i was
15:00
gonna
15:02
get into so i said let's go for it
15:05
and then we we
15:07
then got some other family members
15:09
involved and before you knew it uh
15:12
things were rolling and
15:14
we got the family off the ground and i
15:16
started the business side of it and he
15:18
started the line making side and
15:21
and uh one thing led to another and
15:24
here we are
15:26
the industrial technology
15:28
degree that i received from csusb had a
15:33
great influence and really set me up for
15:36
my career there was a lot of
15:38
different types of courses
15:40
ranging from
15:42
sciences like physics biology
15:46
up through management management science
15:49
that kind of thing that really provided
15:51
me
15:52
a wide breadth of knowledge
15:54
to
15:55
really
15:56
understand all facets of a business
15:59
and and it really
16:03
provided that that information that i
16:05
needed and could use on a daily basis my
16:08
my goal when i went to csusb was to
16:11
to
16:12
get up and be a general manager of a
16:15
company someday a manufacturing company
16:18
and it was a it was just a perfect
16:20
opportunity for me to
16:22
to
16:23
get that education that provided me the
16:26
knowledge to to get to that point so
16:29
i really think it was a
16:31
it was just a perfect fit for me
16:34
i really enjoyed it learned an immense
16:36
amount
16:37
and thankful
16:39
every day for it
16:40
the degree provided me
16:42
with opportunities in the company i was
16:45
working at when i when i was going to
16:47
school i was promoted to an engineering
16:49
manager
16:50
and then from there i went to another
16:53
company and landed a
16:56
a manufacturing engineering job which
16:58
was fabulous i was
17:00
in between kind of the liaison between
17:02
the engineering group and the
17:04
manufacturing group
17:05
and
17:07
it was really
17:09
had gave me the knowledge so i could
17:11
speak with and work with all different
17:14
portions of the company
17:16
anything from accounting cost accounting
17:18
to
17:19
to manufacturing to the engineers uh to
17:22
management so
17:24
it really really helped a lot from there
17:26
i i landed a
17:28
senior industrial engineer job
17:30
at another manufacturing company and
17:33
then that was kind of
17:34
when i had decided that i was going to
17:37
become an entrepreneur and start my own
17:39
company that i thought well gosh i
17:41
see how all this works now
17:44
and i think with all the knowledge that
17:45
i've gained that i can i can do this
17:48
myself and and uh
17:51
be successful
17:54
oh sure with it with a degree in in the
17:56
hospitality you can go from working in a
17:58
golf course to an events place to
18:02
hotel
18:04
being a tasting room manager or
18:06
you know an events manager or something
18:09
at a place like this so
18:11
so when the pandemic hit we uh of course
18:15
everybody was shut down and us included
18:18
and the first thing i did was try to
18:21
work to
18:22
figure out what what are we gonna do
18:23
what's what's our plan here what uh
18:26
how can we survive and keep the business
18:29
going
18:30
and
18:31
and still be successful
18:34
and keep on as many employees as
18:36
possible
18:37
so we did that so we came up with a plan
18:39
right away on on
18:42
all of our expenses
18:44
what we needed to do to keep the doors
18:46
open to keep things rolling
18:48
and who who uh
18:50
who and what we needed to do
18:51
[Music]
18:53
really to
18:54
to
18:55
survive this whole thing and it's just
18:57
uncharted territory
18:59
really
19:00
not knowing
19:01
what was going to happen next whether
19:02
we'd be open of course the whole retail
19:05
side of the business was shut down and
19:06
that's basically
19:08
where we sell all of our product
19:10
is through the front door
19:12
so luckily we we do have a very loyal
19:15
wine club following and they
19:18
supported us during the
19:20
during the pandemic which we're very
19:22
thankful for
19:23
and then
19:24
as time went on and some of the rules
19:26
started changing we
19:28
we were able to adapt
19:31
and
19:31
to our outside tasting no more inside
19:34
tasting so we just were tasting wine
19:36
outside so we came up with numerous
19:38
plans on how to do that to purchase
19:42
additional tables and chairs and where
19:44
to set them up
19:46
how to uh
19:47
training the employees on all the things
19:49
we needed to do
19:51
to maintain safety
19:53
and but still have a place for our
19:56
customers to come to and enjoy the wine
19:59
i was concerned a little bit that that
20:01
we may have some trouble but we were in
20:04
a pretty good position and and we felt
20:07
with with our customer base that
20:10
we would be
20:11
we would be okay uh
20:13
it it was touch and go there for a while
20:15
because you kind of worry about things
20:17
but
20:18
uh once we
20:20
once we were able to get to the first
20:23
month or so
20:25
uh realizing that yeah we're we've
20:28
we've we've narrowed things down enough
20:30
that we can afford to to stay open and
20:33
keep working
20:35
yeah the customer loyalty was was the
20:36
biggest part of of us being able to
20:40
survive the uh the pandemic intact and
20:43
we were still able to
20:45
harvest and crush grapes uh
20:48
last year
20:49
which was huge
20:52
and really it is the the customer and
20:56
and our product and and the family
20:57
involved in it i think is is uh
21:00
was key
21:02
can i ask about his wines that have won
21:05
awards yeah absolutely
21:07
uh jeff i understand some of your reds
21:09
uh real best reds have won some awards
21:11
can you tell us a little bit about those
21:13
uh yeah we've we've based on the quality
21:16
of our wine we've won many awards over
21:18
the years we really pride ourselves on
21:21
having top quality wines that are
21:23
distinctive and
21:25
true to the variety
21:27
we have a lot of blends a lot of
21:29
different things
21:30
one of the most recent awards is a
21:32
little vineyard that i
21:34
that i take care of a little fianno
21:36
vineyard it's a white wine and just won
21:39
a gold medal at orange county fair so
21:41
i'm excited about that um really
21:46
uh
21:46
love uh making the wine and and uh it's
21:49
just kind of the feather in the cap to
21:51
get an award for it
21:53
wine awards are given out uh
21:56
periodically there's there's comp
21:58
numerous competitions across the country
21:59
in the world and you submit your wines
22:02
for uh these competitions and they
22:06
they have panels that judge your wines
22:08
uh
22:09
and take the scores down and then and
22:12
compare them to other wines the same
22:15
same variety or type or
22:17
price range or whatever and
22:21
so that's really it's a it's a
22:23
an industry professionals that do it
22:25
either somalia's wine makers
22:28
wine riders that sort of thing so it's
22:30
really a kind of a
22:32
judging by your peers so to speak of the
22:36
wine
22:37
the awards process will help bring in
22:41
people or interest from customers
22:45
really the best thing
22:46
is
22:48
about wine is you need to taste it so
22:51
that's why we have a tasting room and
22:53
customers can come in and it doesn't
22:55
matter if you're a new wine drinker or
22:59
an experienced wine drinker
23:01
we
23:02
we have
23:03
wines
23:04
and
23:05
our our staff is as well versed in
23:08
in helping to guide you
23:10
uh to what what you need or what you
23:13
like or
23:15
what makes you happy really the the the
23:18
best wine is the wine you like so that's
23:20
really what matters
23:23
right so it's just to kind of get a feel
23:25
of where do where do you want to start
23:26
you know do you want
23:28
kind of sweet or semi-sweet or
23:30
maybe a dry
23:31
white or something and then
23:34
would you like something more fruity or
23:37
some other
23:38
flavors or aromas then you can
23:41
kind of guide and go
23:43
what direction you need to go
23:45
to make you happy
23:46
i think one of the most important things
23:48
about a university experience is not
23:51
that
23:52
you're being forced to go to school or
23:54
that you
23:56
that you have society says you have to
23:58
do this you really need to go
24:00
to learn
24:01
i took a number of years off after high
24:04
school
24:05
to go to college and for me that worked
24:07
out and for many people it works out
24:10
that you need to go or you can go right
24:12
after high school but for me i needed to
24:15
experience a little bit first and then
24:19
go to college and i went there to learn
24:23
really it it's about
24:26
finding the learning about things you're
24:28
interested in
24:30
and it's so important you have an idea
24:31
or a place that you want to go in your
24:34
life and you can think about
24:36
gosh what what do i need to learn or
24:40
is there someone there that can help me
24:42
find out what i need to learn
24:44
to get to that point like in my case to
24:46
be a general manager i knew i needed to
24:48
learn about accounting i needed to learn
24:50
about
24:51
management management science uh
24:55
gosh
24:56
and any of the other sciences that might
24:58
be involved in whatever
25:00
manufacturing industry
25:02
so really it's it's it's important that
25:06
you keep in mind that you're there to
25:07
learn
25:09
and
25:10
one of the things that you the dreaded
25:12
speech class oh my gosh i have to take
25:14
speech you know
25:16
well you realize later that it's so
25:18
important
25:19
that even though you may not feel
25:21
comfortable you don't want to do it you
25:23
don't want to take the class
25:25
you need to take the class you need to
25:28
try to learn from it so that when you
25:30
get up in front of your peers your
25:32
associates at work or
25:35
public speaking you
25:37
to help some something in your area that
25:40
you have some confidence or some way to
25:42
be able to communicate
25:44
in the same thing for some of the other
25:46
classes like writing gosh i was always
25:49
scared of writing and and
25:50
i don't know why i was
25:53
because it's so important the most
25:55
important things you need to to do
25:57
is you need to be able to communicate
25:59
so you could be the smartest person to
26:01
have the greatest ideas but if you can't
26:03
communicate either
26:05
through speaking or through writing
26:08
somehow then it it's not going to do any
26:11
good so it's really important that you
26:12
try to learn and gather as much
26:15
information as you can from
26:17
from your professors from your fellow
26:19
students that
26:21
so you can
26:22
improve your chances for success in life
26:25
and it's
26:26
gosh to to start a business is a tough
26:28
thing it's not easy it's a scary
26:31
uh
26:32
you know can be a slippery slope to go
26:34
down and and uh you really have to
26:37
have to want to do it and and
26:40
it takes a lot of hard work but
26:42
it can be so rewarding
26:45
and uh it's really it's it's a
26:47
worthwhile if you have the desire to do
26:50
it go out and give it a shot you know
26:52
and if it doesn't work try again or go
26:54
do something else it's uh
26:57
you know uh don't don't be discouraged
26:59
so
27:00
really uh and the education it can be
27:02
such a key component in that
27:05
to learn the skills that you need to
27:07
[Music]
27:08
be successful
27:10
i was in aerospace you know i was that's
27:12
what i was going to do and
27:14
i had no idea i was going to be in the
27:15
wine business and then have to kind of
27:18
use some of my experience in the music
27:21
business as an entertainer to entertain
27:23
guests and you know and
27:26
science stuff that or accounting i spend
27:28
a lot of time doing finance work and
27:31
and a lot of that uh it's really
27:33
important to to understand
27:35
those kind of things because if i hadn't
27:37
had the accounting then i
27:39
wouldn't know what to do with the
27:41
business you know and you need to at
27:43
least know enough so that if you hire an
27:45
accountant that they're not going to
27:47
buffalo you and do something and same
27:50
with
27:50
a law you need to know enough about law
27:53
that you don't need to be a lawyer but
27:55
you at least need to know when they're
27:57
pulling your leg or not you know
27:59
so the same goes for a lot of a lot of
28:02
different parts of running a business
28:04
being an entrepreneur every day is
28:06
something new it's like yesterday i was
28:08
up to my elbows in the dishwasher in the
28:10
back repairing it i mean i could have
28:12
called somebody but i like fixing stuff
28:14
so yeah our parents really impressed on
28:18
us that you know you need to get an
28:20
education
28:21
it's important uh you need to make sure
28:24
you can provide for yourself and if you
28:26
have a family you know to provide your
28:28
for your family and and that really is
28:30
helpful and necessary to get an
28:33
education and
28:34
and uh
28:36
it
28:37
it's gosh it's just it's just invaluable
28:39
really
28:40
hi i'm jeff wiens i love csusb and i'm a
28:43
coyote for life
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