We were lucky to catch up with April & Channez Bird & Dancy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, April & Channez thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The way that we started our business was simple, we were two friends who sat next to each at work and in the midst of our many conversations we discovered that we both have a love for wine. While living Northeast Ohio (NEO) we knew that were many wineries that we wanted to visit but we wanted the luxury of not having to drive ourselves. We noticed that NEO was lacking a successful wine tour business.

Through numerous conversation and hanging out, an idea came to mind and we decided to offer wine tours with a twist. From that the name Dancing Birds was birthed in late 2018. With excitement to start our new venture, we quickly got to work. We held bi-weekly meetings, created and launched our website, met with local winery owners to introduce ourselves, and partnered with a luxury limousine coach company that fit our needs.

We launched our first tour in March 2019, where we had 20 people in attendance. We do things by a high standard, meaning each of our guest was welcomed with a swag back along with mini charcuterie box. On board, we played numerous games to win prizes and at the end of our last stop on the tour, lunch was provided.

We specialize in providing a luxury and unforgettable wine experience. What makes us most proud is that we get to connect with people who are new wine and those who are wine enthusiasts. We enjoy doing something that hasn’t been done before and what sets us apart from others is that we are the ONLY women AND minority owned wine tour business in Ohio.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

April and Channez are both Cleveland natives. We currently reside on the eastside of Cleveland. As previously stated, we got into this industry by being two friends who shared a love a wine and wanted to bring something special to Northeast Ohio.

While wine tours is our core, we offer a variety of products and services. In addition to our wine tours, we offer wine events such as paint ‘n sips, bottomless mimosa brunches, and personalized wine set up for private parties and events. We are pretty much your one stop shop for all things wine related. As of recently, we have branched out and started creating our own products. We sale wine scented wax melts and candles and a variety of wine related items that you can find on our website (www.dancingbirdswinetours.com).

The one thing that we are most proud of is that we get to work along side each other. Our friendship has turned into a sisterhood and we would couldn’t imagine doing this without each other. We are a fun, upscale, and unique wine tour connecting wine enthusiast, big and small, to an experience of a lifetime. We love having fun and educating people about wine in the process.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We have definitely had our share of challenges especially in 2020 with it being a rough year due to COVID. This caused us not to be able to do all the events/tours we had planned for that year. Another area of struggle for us is our public tour sales and really getting our name out there. While in the lockdown, we began doing virtual events so that we can really get to know our customers and it allowed them to interact with us and some of the winery owners. In 2021, we switched our focus from public tour offerings to private tours, which helped our customer feel more at ease while still getting a chance to experience our tours. We also took that time to do a total rebranding and introduce our wax melts and candle line.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

As crazy as it may seem, majority of our new customers come from a variety of events where we work as vendors. They are able to interact with us and see our products that we sale as well inform them about what we do and who we are.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dancingbirdswinetours.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dancingbirdswt
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dancingbirdswt
• Youtube: Coming soon!!!