The recent Holiday Wine Tasting Event in Callaway was a success!  

Who would have thought charging people to sample wine, then purchase wine would work in Callaway (Pop 230).  

Robyn with St. Michelle wine Estates worked with our Liquor Store Manager Patty Spry.  

They picked a date, picked a theme and advertised locally.  

The Liquor Store put flyers in all off sale purchase bags; they put flyers up around town, in the store and sent postcards to customers and people we wanted to be customers.  

The cost for admission was $5 if they preregistered or $10 at the door.

When November 13th came around it was a very nasty day, yet 18 people came to the event.  

This might not sound like a lot for larger communities, but for Callaway it was a SUCCESS!  

Minimal effort on our part, great presentation from Robyn, equals additional wine sales for us now and in the future.

Plans for a Kentucky Derby Wine Tasting event are in the works.  

You never know what will happen until you try.

Cheers!

Shelly Dillon

Callaway City Clerk  

A Big Thanks!

We can now give thanks the TV ads for our elected officials are now over.  

Now the constant barrage of how we can save money by spending at any number of retailers across our fine state to buy gifts for loved ones has begun.  

Whether you buy gifts or not makes no difference the advertising agencies and stores have figured out there are enough that do and the retailers will take time to open at 5pm on Thanksgiving Day. (I believe this to be outrageous, IMHO)

A local retailer has been running an ad in the opposite direction.  

Click on link to watch.

http://youtu.be/jKndXCnImpE  

Our willingness as municipal liquor store managers to share our successes in a struggle against difficulties or obstacles with members in our association gives us an advantage in all areas of our business if we continue to work together.

I want to give thanks to everyone who has shared ideas with me to help my business grow.

Happy Holidays a.k.a. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & and to all a Happy New Year J

Michael Friesen

Hawley Liquors  

From Lakeville Liquor Manager Brenda Visnovec.... 

Here is our creative idea for the day.

Gift bag bought at dollar store cost us $.33

One 12 oz. bottle of Angry Orchard Cost is .90

One 50 ml of Jameson cost is $1.31

One 50 ml of Fireball cost is $.66

Total cost is $2.90

Retail if bought as singles $5.97

We are retailing them as impulse at the registers for $5.00, but within the bag is also a $5.00 coupon free on a $50.00 purchase in December.

We are calling them our Gift to Go Bag, but in explaining it to the customers, as long as they come back and use their $5.00 coupon in December, the bag and contents are really free!

You mix angry orchard with fireball and the cocktail is called = Angry Balls

Mix Irish Whiskey and angry orchard and you have = Johnny Jump Up

Making extra money while making the customer commit to coming back.

Have you ever worked for a boss who made you work harder than other bosses?  

This boss was motivating - not because they asked you to do a lot or placed outrageous demands on you.  

They inspired you to want to go the extra mile.  

Their words of praise filled you with intense satisfaction.  

It was rewarding and left you wanting more.

If we're lucky, over the course of our career we'll have the opportunity to work for at least one leader like this.  

Fortunately, I am one of the lucky ones.

I've had the privilege to work for more than one extraordinary leader.  

They each had their own unique leadership style but they all shared one key characteristic: 

They respected me. (Which, in turn, earned my respect and admiration.)

They took time to understand me and expanded my perspective with just a few words.  

The emails they'd send with a simple "Thank you" or "Thanks for asking that; this is important" filled me with such pride that I was inspired to work even harder - and stretch myself just a little further.

Exceptional CEOs do more than just push their employees to execute, they focus on helping them expand to their greatest potential.  

The challenges my bosses put before me stretched me in ways that made me better.  

These opportunities forced me to learn far more than if I had just remained safely in my box.  

They recognized my capabilities and pushed me out of my "comfort zone."

If you want to make one improvement to your leadership style today, ask yourself where your focus lies.  

Is it with driving your own plan or are you focused on expanding the capabilities of your people?  

Work on earning their trust and respect by trusting and respecting them - and their decisions.  

This is not easy, but compared to the results you'd see by dictating what to do the old-fashioned way, the results generated from these efforts will be exponentially greater.