John Obrist is the Owner of WineJug in Weirton, West Virginia. John received his BS from Ithaca College and his MBA from Penn State University.
John has been married for 29 years to Ledea Obrist with four kids (ages 20, 19, 19, and 16) – yes, 3 in college!
WineJug is a wine specialty retail store and online company designed to offer incredible wine across a spectrum of price ranges. Since John and his team try to personally taste many of the wines they sell, the descriptions and tasting notes are based on their honest evaluations of the wine as opposed to the copy and paste regurgitations you’ll find other websites.
As a small business, they offer a personal touch that other companies can’t. WineJug is passionate about satisfying every customer; they promote other small businesses, care about what you think and help you enjoy delicious wine.
SHOW NOTES:
- 3:11 John take a minute, fill in some gaps from that brief intro and give us a little behind the curtain look into your company.
- 3:44 How did you get into the wine business?
- 4:20 What was it like to launch your business during the pandemic?
- 4:54 What is your 30 sec. pitch for WineJug?
- 5:46 What are you most excited about right now for WineJug?
- 6:40 What is the geographic market that you serve?
- 6:53 Do you have any employees?
- 8:06 Everybody has different preferences for wine, so you go with what you like, correct?
- 9:08 Which wines are your personal favorites?
- 10:00 How does the online process work?
- 11:45 Can you talk about the experience you had with the American Wine School?
- 13:16 Can you talk about some wines that are really good in the $20 price point?
- 13:59 What did you have to do in order to be able to sell wine online in WV?
- 14:51 Was the licensing process easy or difficult for you?
- 15:23 What is the most challenging business moment you’ve had so far?
- 16:59 PWV Commercial Break
- 17:18 What is the long term vision you have for WineJug?
- 18:01 How do you attract new customers?
- 19:21 What is one of the biggest challenges you face right now?
- 20:40 How do you get sales on your website?
- 21:58 How old are you?
- 22:07 What is one piece of advice that you would give to young business owners/ entrepreneurs in WV?
- 24:07 What is one thing you do every day that you think contributes to your success?
- 25:00 What is one resource that you use in your business that you couldn’t live without?
- 26:19 What is one book or podcast that you’d recommend for aspiring business owners or entrepreneurs?
- 28:14 Is there anything else you would like our listeners to know about WineJug or your story?
- 29:00 How can our listeners learn more about WineJug and get in touch with you?
- 30:13 Is it best for experience wine drinkers to drink wine they know they like? Or is it good to try something different sometimes?
- 31:05 Outro