The Barefoot Spirit

How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand

By: Michael Houlihan, Bonnie Harvey, Rick Kushman

Narrated by: Alamada Karatihy

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best seller, The Barefoot Spirit, comes a new style of audiobook....

Learn valuable lessons while Hollywood actors voice the parts in this entertaining and true story of Barefoot Wine.

A Sherwood Players Production featuring a full ensemble cast ​including Hollywood Legends Ed Asner and Gigi Perreau​, an original cinematic score, sound effects, and behind the scenes interviews with the real Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey (creators of Barefoot Wine) with author Rick Kushman.

It is amazing that such an iconic brand as Barefoot Wines began as a startup in the laundry room of a rented farmhouse. Even more surprising is that it was started by a business couple with no money and no knowledge of the wine industry.

They regularly ran into difficulties that nearly killed the brand. It was their unshakable belief in Barefoot's potential that kept it going, along with the use of classic business principles, and a never-say-die outlook. Hardship, hustle, and heart are the essence of The Barefoot Spirit.

This book is a testament to the power of out-of-the-box thinking. It is a guide for anyone in business, and a great listen for everyone who loves a rags-to-riches story. Filled with encouragement, inspiration, and empowerment, including:

• How worthy cause marketing out performed paid advertising
• How boot-strapping was used instead of conventional financing
• The surprising advantages of being small and broke
• How creating a fun, yet hardworking company culture encouraged innovative leadership

If you like wine, the wine country, or a story about how a plucky couple disrupted an industry, if you want to know what it takes to really succeed in the face of adversity, if you want to know how to use your core beliefs to build a national brand, then The Barefoot Spirit is for you.

©2013 Footnotes Press, LLC (P)2019 Footnotes Press, LLC

Disappointing

The authors boasted about a new and entirely different way of presenting an audio book, making it more of a performance like a movie. They did get good voice actors but the editing was sloppy and kept reminding me that I was listening to people in different rooms and at different times recording their parts. I've listened to many audiobooks with a single narrator that produced a much better effect.

The authors also claimed in a podcast where I heard about this book that it was filled with business insights transferable to any business. while it's true there are some business lessons to be learned in here I would argue you have to dig to get anything that would apply to another business. Things aren't pointed out or identified as business strategies. It's just a story.

In the end this felt more like a reminiscence and a love story between the two authors, which isn't very interesting to me, but if you find that interesting it was probably well done.

Loved this !

I thoroughly enjoyed this production. it was extremely engaging and fun to listen to. It was a fantastic lesson in Entrepreneurship.

An amazing listen!

This Audio Theatre was very entertaining and educational. It's filled with not only business lessons but also life lessons that are extremely valuable. I definitely recommend this! It's perfect for your next road trip!

Great business and life story

This was just excellent. I enjoyed it as a lover of books and as an entrepreneur.

I had no idea Barefoot had a riveting story. What a journey Michael and Bonnie went on: taking a pile of debt and some leftover product and grinding it over years to turn it into the brand it is today.

The format is unique, the book is both read by actors and there are also cutaway interviews with the founders. Really refreshing way to break up the chapters and brought an authenticity to the story.

GREAT STORY

so I didn’t think I would get as into an origin story such as this, lol! But learning about the history of the company was so interesting. You can even listen to this... while drinking a glass of barefoot wine bc WHY NOT?! the acting is really good, highly rec for car rides.

Business to my ears

I was able to receive an early copy of this audiobook, and it is so exciting to see it on Audible now! I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and some of the narration puts me to sleep. What is unique about this audio production is that the scenes are acted out, and I feel like I am listening to live theater. The stories are compelling and the business lessons and takeaways are simple and powerful. This is the type of book that I will listen to multiple times. If you want a chance up from the deep base, monotone narration that audiobooks default to, check this out!

Outstanding Production of A Real Life Success

As an entrepreneur who has built and exited businesses over 25 years, I totally relate and understand the highs of the peaks and the lows of valleys entrepreneurs have in bringing their ideas to life. If you are an entrepreneur who feels like you are constantly up against the challenges that are restricting or slowing your progress, this Barefoot story and how it produced with Hollywood actors bringing the audiobook to life is like nothing else I have listened to. With over 250 audiobooks in my library, this stands out as a top 3 listen for the content and its unique production.

The journey will give you encouragement and real-life examples with Q&A sessions with Bonnie and Michael that just nail the key questions you have in your head as an entrepreneur.

The story is inspiring and as relevant today as they were when Barefoot was introduced in the mid-80s.

Today you know Barefoot as the world's largest wine brand but the journey was the rollercoaster of all rollercoasters and could have ended up so differently as the company was on a knife-edge for large periods of time. I loved the detail in the book on how the founders Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan addressed their obstacles (each 'Brick' as they called them), their attention to detail and always learning from their mistakes, how they stuck to their beliefs, their self titled and brilliant 'worthy cause marketing' everybody can use today in 2019 and despite the obstacles they pulled through to outstanding success.

If you are an entrepreneur just getting started or experienced and already successful, this book will provide you with nuggets of gold in every chapter that can be applied to improve your business, your team and bottom line. Hollywood actor, Ed Asner was my favourite character playing the grumpy buyer of Lucky Stores - Don Brown!

Outstanding content, outstanding production, totally unique and highly highly recommended.