We recently connected with Jamie Knee and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

I think that Covid really changed my thought on what makes a business successful, as well as what I wanted for my life. Back in March 2020 when the world first started to shut down I had the idea to take my Wine Business on line. At the time nobody was really using Zoom or IGTV, and virtual wine tastings hadn’t started to take off. Initially I began hosting 3 virtual tastings/interviews a week, with winemakers all around the world to bring wines and winemakers to potential customers who couldn’t get out to wineries any longer. I also began consulting with wineries on the best social media practices to market their wines, now that they no longer had live bodies walking in, and had to find a new way to reach potential customers. By the time things began opening back up, in 2021, I had over 100 interviews under my belt, as well as a whole new Instagram following and group of Winemaker from around the world to call my friends. Now I’m transitioning to a Podcast to keep up with the times.

Jamie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Yes of course, I’d love to give you a bit of back ground on myself.

I’m a Wine and Travel Writer, Wine Educator, Wine Consultant, and Wine Tour Guide at my brand Petite Wine Traveler @petitewinetraveler.

I’m currently based in Santa Barbara, CA. I’m so excited to have recently relocated back to my home state of California. Since relocating I’ve been working hard on promoting and sharing the wines of the California Central Coast. I’m a Consultant for a few Santa Barbara County, and California wineries, as well as a South African brand. As a Consultant I focus on brand management, marketing, social media marketing, and helping wine brands find their voice and audience.

I also host bespoke wine experiences, wine tours and wine tastings across California, as well as educating guests on Santa Barbara County wines.

As a Wine and Travel writer I write for my own website Petite Wine Traveler. I also work with PR Agencies to write about travel locations, that include locations to get a great glass of wine. I have contributed to several publications including Somm Journal, Tasting Panel, Vitner Project, Aventura Lifestyles Magazine, Hallandale Digest and others. I’ve additionally hosted over 100 Wine Interviews & Tastings with Winemakers around the world. My passion is sharing my wine finds, and fun wine locations for my audience to visit.

Since starting in the wine industry I’ve been hooked on education and learning more about wine and wine regions. My wine credentials include California Wine Appellation Specialist, American Wine Expert, Certified Specialist of Wine, Wine Spirits Education Trust (WSET), Spanish Wine Scholar, Court of Master Sommelier Level 1, Rioja Wine Educator, Champagne Comité Certification, and Napa Rocks Certification.

I’ve also travelled the world with what I call my Wine Judging hat, and my Wine Judge credentials include; The San Francisco Chronicle, The Original Rosé Competition, The American Fine Wine Competition, The California State Fair Wine Competition, TheBerliner Wine Trophy, Alameda County Fair, to name a few.

In 2020, I launched the annual “California Central Coast Wine Day”, observed the 4th Sunday in October. This day has become a huge hit amongst the wineries of Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles region, with more wineries signing on annually to participate in the days festivities, offering discounts on wines, food & vineyard experiences the entire weekend.

Prior to transitioning exclusively to the Wine Industry in California, Jamie resided in Miami, Florida, and ran a successful Lifestyle, Food & Wine Marketing Company since 2012.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think I’ve built my business on Social Media by being honest. I’m just sharing myself, and I’m sharing what I love about the wine, and the wine travel industry. I have people regularly ask me, “How do you get so many followers and so many comments on your Instagram?” The truth is because I post regularly, but more importantly, I try to engage my audience. I make a point of always answering questions, and making meaningful comments on others posts. Basically liking someone else’s posts without commenting is worthless in my opinion. It’s all about engagement, being interested and interesting.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think my resilience can be found in the fact that I’ve worked so hard to curate a career that I actually love. I’ve had a few careers before finding the wine industry, and my job prior to launching my wine business lasted much longer than I would have liked. In my last job I got complacent and stayed because it was familiar, it was easy, and thought the benefits were worth it. I think the fact that I knew there had to be a career I would love, throw myself wholeheartedly into, and never gave up looking, points to my resilience. I’ve found a career that is ever changing and very challenging in wine. Wine is such a diverse industry, including the study of not only grape varieties, (there are over 10,000 different grapes in the world) and winemaking techniques, but also history, culture, geography, geology, sociology and even a bit of psychology).

My one piece of advice is never give up on finding your calling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://petitewinetraveler.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petitewinetraveler
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petitewinetraveler
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/petitewinetrvlr