Welcome to Crystal Uncorked!

Wine Recommendation from this Episode: 2018 Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon.

Prefer to listen? Here you go! And be sure to subscribe and leave a review on Apple here.

Prefer to read? I gotchu, keep scrolling but first, a little update:

[UPDATE] During the launch weekend of Crystal Uncorked, I got to go to the Austin Hope winery! We tried so many delicious wines but my favorite was the 2018 Reserve Cabernet, followed by Quest, which is a red blend. My friends loved The Troublemaker. Usually my favorite is the Cabernet but they were out of 2018, so we tried the 2019. It’s a little too young yet, it needs about 6 more months to “lay down”.

During our trip such a sweet surprise happened! My dear friend Robin called the winery ahead of time and had them give me the below card and she bought me a bottle of wine, it was SO incredibly sweet and made my entire weekend. ❤️ I have the best friends. I was wine tasting with Robin in Carlsbad, CA when we both tried Austin Hope for the first time. We just love their wines!!

You have NO idea how excited I am that you’re here!

This idea started in the summer of 2017. After returning home from a business trip in Atlanta I stood in my closet feeling confused, frustrated, and alone. At the time I was 5 years into running my business Crystal Media and I wished for a place to go to learn, feel supported, and a place that I could let loose and have some fun.

I knew there were SO many blogs, podcasts, and resources out there, but I felt like there wasn’t anything that totally fit what I was looking for. I wanted honesty, I wanted to hear about the hard parts of running a business, like the messy stuff, the embarrassing stuff, the straight-up shitty stuff. I wanted to relate to others, to connect. I deeply craved connection.

And I wanted to share the hard stuff I was going through. I thought, “If I could help just ONE person feel less alone, or get unstuck, or feel a little bit better, I would be so happy.” I was yearning for more in my life. More transparency, more open conversations, and more of an impact that I could make on the world. But I was terrified.

I had a lot of head trash around opening up. I worried (and honestly, still have some worry) SO much about what people would think.

What will my family think?

My current audience?

My clients?

My team?

And then I worried about my topics.

Is anyone going to care what I have to say?

Is this just stuff I’m going through and it’s not relatable?

People tell me I’m not a good story teller, will I be boring AF?

And then I worried about being credible enough.

Who am I to do a show about business and relationships and life?

Shouldn’t I wait until I’m more successful?

Why me?

And then I remembered a story my dear friend and loyal employee Pauline told me. She wanted to go to Italy for her 40th birthday and stay in a staffed castle. She wanted people cooking her amazing meals. She wanted memorable experiences. She wanted to do it right!

She started thinking the same thing, why me? But then one day she flipped it and said, “Why NOT me?” And the rest was history. She booked an Airbnb, texted her friends, and three years later Pauline plus nine close friends and family were sitting around an epic table in a Castle eating an 8 course out-of-this-world delicious meal. And I know this because I was there. (More on this in later episodes of Crystal Uncorked, there are life-changing stories from this trip. ☺️)

So here I am, why NOT me? I’ve had to say that to myself probably over 100 times but that’s ok!

I started scripting episodes and posts in 2018 but never published anything. I bought bizwinelove.com in 2019 thinking that would be the name but never did anything with that website. I bought the crystaluncorked.com URL in January 2020, but still never did anything…until now.

And I think there are a few lessons in my timeline. I trust the timeline, I wasn’t ready and things needed to happen in my life and business to allow me to do this the way I wanted to do it. People say start before you’re ready and I agree with this, but I truly needed to mentally get to a place that I felt ready, and that can be ok. At least I’ve started, right?

A few years ago I shared an honest post on Instagram and Facebook about how I wanted to start this blog. I couldn’t believe how many people commented saying THEY wanted to do the same thing! It was wild. Here’s the post:

If you were one of those people that commented on the post, here’s a reminder that now might be the time for you to start. Or if you’ve been pulled to do something but have had fear, maybe it’s time to just take action.

Put fear on the back burner instead of your passions and desires!

Or, maybe it’s just not time yet and that’s ok. Just promise me that you’ll get around to it because I have to tell you, I’m SO happy I finally started Crystal Uncorked. It’s such an amazing feeling. And you can have that too.

So buckle up, baby! Because this has been brewing inside of me for years and I am so ready to share and open up.

AND!! Crystal Uncorked will have lots of incredible guests who will share their stories and advice and I can’t wait for you to meet them, and get inspired by them. I’m hoping to meet many more incredible people through this show, and who knows, maybe all of this will lead me to my own talk show, which has been a dream of mine since I was in high school.

Finally, if you like wine, I think you’ll really enjoy Crystal Uncorked. I LOVE wine. I love the experience of wine tasting, learning about the regions, the flavors, the winemakers, all of it! It’s also on my bucket list to have my own wine, so maybe this show will help me get a step or two closer to fulfilling that dream, too.

Plus, if we’re going to open up and talk about business and life topics, we might as well do so with a glass of wine, right? ?

So…are you ready?!

I hope so because I am!! If there are any topics you want to hear about on the show please email your ideas to [email protected]. And don’t forget to follow along on social media, you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Cheers! Let’s do this. I’m incredibly grateful you’re here.

Are you a wine-lover too? Check out The Wine List to see wines featuring on all Crystal Uncorked episodes.

If you’re on Instagram follow Crystal Uncorked! I’d love to connect with you and Instagram is the best platform, but I’m also on Facebook, TikTok, and Clubhouse as @CrystalUncorked.