“I learned so much, I can’t wait till the next Harvest”!
“I now have a new family…..Traveling Vineyard! I made so many new friends”.
“I have a suggestion…..don’t change a thing”!
“I can’t wait to see the results in my business from everything I learned at Harvest”!
“Now i know all about the Five F’s”! (Fun, Friendships, Fulfillment, Flexibility & Financial Reward)
“I was at least 100% satisfied”!
Those were a sampling of the comments we received from our Grape Stomping Traveling Vineyard Consultants who joined us in Boston for our first annual Harvest. For 3 fun filled and educational days we learned from one of the top direct selling (we kind of like the description social selling better for our wine enthusiasts) trainers in the business, Belinda Ellsworth. We asked our Traveling Vineyard team what their biggest “takeaway” was from Belinda’s Training….
Traveling Vineyard Steps Into Success with Belinda Ellsworth
Tanya thought….”It is selfish not to share this home based business opportunity with others, don’t prejudge who would and wouldn’t want to be a part of the TTV business.”
Maureen said….”When talking about the business opportunity (perfect for a stay at home mom) at her events she’ll say. “You might discover you like it. You might discover you’re good at it. But you’ll never know unless you try.”
Doug revealed….”The most powerful thing I took from Bellinda’s training is the fact that this business is not about me. It is about those you help along the way. Whether it’s as easy as helping them discover a new taste for wine, or as deep as giving them an opportunity to make a positive change in their lives, it’s ALL about them.”
Opening Night “Shopping Extravaganza”!
Kathleen grabs her wine rack!
Our Thursday night opening reception was a “Shopping Extravaganza.” All of our guests received $5,000 in “funny money” to purchase wine accessory items. We “sold” over 500 items and generated over $162,000 in wine accessory sales (we only wish we could count these as real sales in August!). From wine racks to picnic backpacks from pewter stoppers to organza gift bags, our posse walked away with plenty of hostess gifts, er, Christmas stocking stuffers? Since many of our “crew” flew in from all around the country, our World Headquarters staff was busy packing and shipping for the next few days in order to get our guests “bling” out the door. I wonder what the spouses thought when the packages arrived with all of the gifts? Did they believe it was really free? Will you let us know fellow Grape Stompers?
Witches & Warlocks take over Salem!
On Friday night our brazen group set off for Witch City, Salem, MA for the Witches, Wine and Warlocks Scavenger Hunt. Salem has one of the most active haunted happenings in the country and we believe our capped marauders from The Traveling Vineyard gave the locals a fright. The Merlot Monsters, Zinfandel Zombies and the Vino Vampires descended on downtown Salem for an “adult” no-holes-barred-hunt around the city. Reports were that most of the historical sights were overlooked in favor of a pub crawl in the local Salem nightlife. Hey, we don’t judge…
Master Wine Tasting Class = New Wines!
Francis Sanders, our very own wine director and winemaker taught our Master wine tasting class on Saturday afternoon. This class provided the opportunity for our classmates to taste and learn about two of our newest products. The new blonde sensation (a companion to our Fissata red) is our new Fissata blonde. Everyone loved this new Moscato d’asti and enjoyed the sprightly effervescence and powerful fruity flavors of melon and apricot - we all agreed that this would be a customer favorite for dessert.
Our new Italian Montepluciano “Giovina” (pronounced joe - veenah) was greeted with much fanfare as our consultants commented on its soft texture and mild tannins which would make it immediately accessible and a fine partner for Italian cuisine at anyone’s table. Serve us up some red sauce pasta!
Saturday Night Gala Awards Dinner!
Our Saturday Evening Gala Awards Dinner did not disappoint. Created as a romantic Vineyard dinner, we surveyed all of our wine enthusiasts (or, if you prefer - guests), and this evening received a 100% satisfaction rating. Every year at Harvest we honor the achievements of the top performers for The Traveling Vineyard in a number of important performance categories. Top Sales Producer, Top Team Builder and Top Number of Events for example, are a few of the many categories in a given year. We also have a few subjective awards. Yes, we do look at performance numbers, but these awards go beyond performance and speak to the heart and soul of our business, our Traveling Vineyard Spirit. We like to talk about helpfulness, playing nice in the sand box, supporting and including everyone. The people that typify these behaviors are the recipients of our Rookie of the Year and Spirit of the Vineyard Awards. This year Heather W. and Penny F. were the deserving receivers of these awards (respectively). Congratulations to all of our Grape Stompers - we’re proud of all of you. But for those of you that came to our First Harvest, we admire your courage. Thanks for your support - we love you and we are always here to help.
Harvest was incredible. I’ve been with the company for 5 years and by far this was the best. Rick is such an inspiring and passionate leader. He is incredible along with the rest of the supporting staff at TTV. Hats off for planning and executing such an awesome event. Belinda was absolutely wonderful. There is only one problem…..how can you top it next year? Thank you, thank you, thank you for the wine, food, training and awesome company. Cheers to you all!
What did Harvest 2012 convention bring to old and new consultants alike?????
- Am amazing feeling of Unity
- Friendships gained that will never be forgotten
- Recognition like no other
- A drive and stamina to accomplish more then you could ever imagine
Hands down one of the best conventions I have seen in 7 years with The Traveling Vineyard.
What can one expect when our Corporate leaders contaigious passion for our wine biz overflows to so many.
Thank You Rick Libby!!!! It was First Class all the way…
I’ve been with The Traveling Vineyard for only a few months but knew I had to go to Harvest to better my business. The connections I made with other consultant has help me feel like part of the team. Its like having a second family. And to be able to visit with Rick Libby like he is just another one of us was pretty neat also. Belinda was so helpful with lots of tips on how to grow your business. Her sense of humor was over the top. Never a dull moment. I recommend this conference to anyone who is serious about growing their business. I look forward to next year!!
After 8 years with this company, it continues to improve with age, just like a fine wine! This company appreciates and lavishes the consultants with shopping sprees, a featured dynamic speaker ( Belinda Ellsworth-unbelieveable!!), private wine tasting, and motivation from our chief grapestomper himself, Rick Libby. Not to mention, feeling spoiled and pampered with an intimate awards dinner and what else…..dancing! A company that knows all it’s consultants by name, truly cares about our success and listens to our needs. No other company does that and I am so proud to be a part of it. Looking forward to the next harvest because i am suffering from Harvest withdrawl! Cheers to many grape achievements and toasting all my new and old friends in the coming year.
I’ve been to several Harvests and found this year’s to be the best! We were treated like royalty - everything was first class. I consider myself very experienced, but was surprised at how much I learned from Belinda … very eye-opening! I have already incorporated some of her ideas into my presentation and communications and am seeing results. It was exciting to try so many wines that will be coming into inventory this Fall …. I am continually “wow’d” by our selection! Thanks TTV for giving us amazing wines to market! The Gala Awards Dinner was spectacular. The room was breath-taking and we had so much fun dancing afterwards to one of the best DJs I’ve ever heard! I’m so thankful I made the investment in my business to attend Harvest!
I remember hearing from a few of the “Vineyard Veterans”: “you do not want to miss Harvest”……I could not agree more!!! I feel blessed to have been there for Harvest 2012!
I was expecting breakfast, lunch, classes and meeting other consultants. This experience exceeded my expectatins tremendously! EVERYTHING (including my new friends) was Top Notch and worth every penny and then some.
I know there were many that could not afford to go. Start saving because you do not want to miss the next one! I expect that our “Family” will be at least doubled in size.
Rick, as far as having a Harvest once a month, I am game….Your the Boss I recommend Vitamin D….
I’ve been a consultant for over 6 years and I’m amazed at all the new things I learned from Belinda and my fellow wine consultants! What an amazing and talented group of giving, fun people! I’ve already started putting new language in place to boost my business to the next level, and feel more comfortable with my presentation. I realize even more how our business creates “hope” for people and how it can truly change lives. I’m forever grateful for the opportunity to change my own life and enhance others’!
Harvest was amazing….a life changing, career enhancing, heck of a good time! The entire time I was there I kept thinking, “I wish my whole team was here to experience this!!”. The knowledge we gained from the guest speakers, the motivation we received from our fellow consultants and the constant flow of amazing wine was incredible! I am already counting down the days until our next Harvest. Since I’ve been back, my team has grown, show sales have went up and several more bookings have gotten on the calendar, thank you Rick Libby, TTV Support Staff and everyone involved in putting together and being apart of Harvest!
Welcome to the Twilight Zone. That’s what Harvest was to me. Everything was so unreal from the moment you stepped up to the table at the Thursday evening reception. There were 2 very lovely young ladies with smiles that wouldn’t quit handing you a 6 wine bottle bag filled to the brim with goodies. Then there was the shopping spree. What the?????? Someone handed me a stack of bills and told me to go shopping. Again… What the?????? Are you kidding me? All of these great accessories filled the tables and were there for the taking. “Let’s see….a great picnic backpack $400. I hope I have enough in my stack to buy it.” Yet again…What the????? $5000 in funny money? This is serious stuff. I starting hearing the theme from the Twilight Zone in my head…do do do do, do do do do..
The next thing I know I’m stacking up my loot and delving into some incredible wine, eating some great food and meeting my new friends. From there everything became a blur. The next thing I remember is waking up to a crowd of teen aged cheer leaders. Now I know I’m in the Twilight Zone. As I await the entrance of Rod Serling, a man appears in front of the group to welcome the crowd to 2012 Harvest. Then the training, OMG, the training. Top-notch, A-one training by the incredible Bellinda.
Before I knew it I was thrown on a bus with a bunch of wine drinking witches in capes and taken to Salem during Monsoon season. Again came the blur. As my eyes reopened, Bellinda was once again standing before me with some great information. Suddenly she was gone and in her place stood a tall gentleman talking about something called facetwit, or pinface or something. Eerie, very eerie. Coming to, I found myself with 2 wine glasses. one in each hand. “That’s strange” I thought. But the good news was that they were both full of glorious wine. There was a man talking about wine, I think I remember thinking “Wow, that’s really interesting information”. “Could THIS be Rod Serling?”
In an instant I was transported to this bizarre feast in Italy. Now how did that happen? There was this incredible food, wine flowed like water and beautiful women were walking around with bottles of wine as big as wine barrels. People were laughing and applauding. Cameras were flashing everywhere. I wondered if I had left Earth and moved on to heaven. Then the music started and the crowd went wild. I am pretty sure I saw Rod out on the dance floor rockin’ the house. (Fade to black)
The next thing I remember, I was walking into my house in Virginia and thinking “How strange was that? Was it all a dream? Did I step into the Twilight Zone? I decided, to maintain my sanity, that I would just try to think of it as a great dream and leave it at that. Then, the following Wednesday, a package shows up at my door. It’s full of wine accessories. Could…could it…could it be? Do do do do, do do do do.
Sometimes it turns out that reality is stranger (and much better) than fiction.
What a great weekend.
Thanks.
I learned so much at Harvest.Belinda was a wonderful speaker and the materials I purchased have been very helpful!!! September is going to be a great month!!!
I met some wonderful people and had a fabulous time:)
The entire harvest experience and the gala dinner was wonderful…I can’t wait until next year!!!
It was so great to meet all the wonderful people that make up this organization. From the amazing people in home office, to my fellow consultants. Watching all my idols getting their awards during Gala was spectacular! 480My biggest regret is not being able to make the whole weekend. I am so glad I did make it to hear a bit from Belinda who honestly changed the way I think about my business. Just the small piece I did hear from her was just the re-engerizing that I needed. Can’t wait until next year - I will be there for the ENTIRE event!
It is so great connecting with other consultants to share ideas, get feedback and have a rockin’ good time! I cannot wait for next year’s Harvest….do we have to wait a whole year?!?!!
This was my very first Harvest. I felt so spoiled the entire weekend. It was hard work from morning until dinner, but all of our needs were taken care of. The gala was over the top, I could not believe the detail, the food, the wine! And then the dancing! It was so much fun. I got to know other consultants from all over the country, and made some great new friends. Rick Libby is the BEST and so likeable, Belinda’s sessions were priceless - I took away so much…and Francis’ wine class - you would have thought the man was a rock star with the amount of respect and attention shown to him by all the consultants.
Most of all, I came away from Harvest with a new found respect and admiration for The Traveling Vineyard. I learned firsthand just how much Rick cares for us, the consultants, and wants to reward our efforts. I learned how much care goes into selecting the wines that we market. This is a tremendous opportunity, I’m now absolutely convinced of that.
I would have commented on this sooner but I was focused on my Power Hour. Belinda Ellsworth was fantastic. In fact everything about Harvest was fantastic! We were treated like royalty. I learned a lot and I am so glad I attended. Can;t wait for the next one!
I can’t stop talking about what a fabulous, fun, fruitful, educational, eventful, enriching weekend we shared. Everything was first class!!! Can’t wait until next time!!