Women and Wine: How Two Sisters Cornered The Beverage Industry
While the novel coronavirus pandemic has taken over our world in a matter of weeks, we all need a bevy of feel-good stories to offset the Age of Anxiety we’re living in and channel positivity in the midst of all chaos. In the spirit (no pun intended) of International Women’s Month, two LA-based sisterpreneurs Lauren and Rachel Simmons sat down with us to talk the business of beverages and finding inspiration and motivation during these troubling times.
The Simmons sisters are the founders of IND Beverages, a full-service agency that helps both start-ups and established brands increase their reach and market share in the wine, beer, spirits, and beverage industry. With more than 35 years of collective experience, the Simmons sisters just launched two wine brands this year, as well: Sugar Momma Wines and Influencer Wines.
The part we’re obsessed with? Their core mission focuses on philanthropy and giving back through their charity partners. A portion of each bottle of Sugar Momma Wines sold is donated to supporting girls all over the globe through their partnership with the award-winning, NYC-based charity She's the First, an award-winning non-profit organization, headquartered in NYC, that is fighting for a world where every girl can choose her own future. As of September 2019, She's the First has reached more than 7,200 girls across 11 countries, by teaming up with local organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected, and heard.
BTI: What inspired you to launch your brands?
L&R: Our company was founded because of the desired need to sell with purpose. We have over 35 years combined in the beverage industry and we saw some voids on the shelves we wanted to fill. We’re sisters on a mission to be the largest female-driven organization specializing in building brands, while giving back to our local and national charity partners with every bottle sold. Our wines launched last year and this year our whiskeys will launch! We’ve worked hard to curate a portfolio of growth brands that are all purpose-driven.
BTI: What inspired you to partner with She's the First?
L&R: Being a female-driven company, when launching our first brand [Sugar Momma Wines], we really wanted to empower and inspire other girls and women. After working with a couple female charities, we got in touch with She’s the First and just really loved their mission and what they’ve done as an organization. To us, building awareness for the charity is prioritized just as highly as building our first brand—Sugar Momma Wines.
BTI: How has that work impacted your lives and the lives of girls you work with?
L&R: We’ve had some great responses to our company and brands in its first year and are so excited for the growth ahead. We’re about to start the really fun (and scary) part of hiring employees and meeting with investors. This is a really big growth year for us and we are so excited to start building our team of Leading Ladies across the country. Working with our charity partners and seeing the give-back results has been amazing as well and will only continue to grow.
BTI: What do you hope to accomplish with your brands now and in the future?
L&R: The end goal for us is to leave this world a better place. We are striving to #influencegood and inspire others to make a change whether it be through our brands or our charity partners. Raising awareness for our causes and charity partners are the most important. We believe every Influencer counts and are paying homage to these influencers through our second brand launch, Influencer Wines. We are more focused on what we do now than ever before.
BTI: Can you share a few challenges you've faced in what is known to be a primarily male-dominated industry?
L&R: In business in general, but especially in the business of wine and spirits, you need to be extremely resilient and be strong enough to overcome challenges and weaknesses. There are 100 no’s to every yes you get—so pushing through and maintaining your voice are key. This business is a very male-dominated industry, so our first introduction to being resilient really came from being who we are. Strong women. We are lucky to have some really great men supporting us through our accounts and distributor network that continue to believe in us and support our mission.
BTI: Which female entrepreneurs or role models do you look up to?
L&R: We continue to be inspired by Sara Blakely’s journey and what she did to build her company. We also love that she is all about giving back. A little over a year ago we went to a wonderful female entrepreneur event and met with a couple women: Daina Trout, Co-Founder of Health-Ade Kombucha and Katie Warner Johnson, Co-Founder of Carbon 38. Both women have been so gracious to us with their time. They are really the first female CEOs to support us as new founders and are making time to guide us and mentor as we journey through these next steps of our company. Truly amazing to get to work with these women.
BTI: What advice would you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
L&R: One of our favorite quotes from Lucille Ball serves as inspiration to us every day: “I rather regret the things I’ve done than the things I haven’t done.” Learning through this experience of starting a business and investing in ourselves has been a huge boost in confidence and assurance that we can do anything we put our mind to. As women, we all need to lead by example, and we need more of us to lead in general. Every influencer counts and if you can change just one person’s life for the better, it’s all worth it.
