We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Stearn Wieters. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.
Laura, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The definition of success is a personal point of view, actually defined by each individual. Success can be measured in actions and or results. It can be physical, personal, spiritual or financial.
For me success is accomplishing my goals in all of the above. It is the feeling of pride for being successful in arranging my life how I want, to be able to do what I love to do, and to do it well.
Success is reinforced with the appreciation and acknowledgement of others, yet not dependent on that.
Success can also be dependent on timing; right time, right place, a right decision that leads in the right direction.
Whatever the definition of success is for you, the most important point is not to give up, no matter how hard it may seem at the moment, or how disappointing a set-back can be. Life is not a smooth path. If you learn to ride the bumpy road and overcome those hurdles, see tomorrow as another day and another opportunity, you will eventually reach your goal if it is meant to be. And if it doesn’t happen, or the tide changes, then that just means that there is something else meant to be in your future. Onwards and upwards!
Laura, 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?
A graduate of Parsons School of Design, I moved to Paris, France at 19 years old to finish the last two years of my Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Fashion Design. I’ve always been extremely creative; enjoying painting, sculpting, creative writing, photography, graphic design, sewing, fashion design and interior design.
I wound up staying in Europe for six years moving later to Milan and Rome with time spent also in London and Madrid. After graduation I worked for design houses in Europe as a designer before returning home to LA to start my own fashion company.
After 20+ years in the fashion industry wholesaling to stores like Nordstrom and owning my own clothing boutiques in Laguna Beach and Newport Coast, California, I decided I wanted, and was ready for, a major life change and new adventure.
My husband and I decided to sell everything and move from Orange County to Temecula Wine Country to follow our next dream and design and build our own vineyard estate with a winery and bed & breakfast. We took a big gamble on our calculated plan for our new future, but were confident in our talents and abilities as architectural and interior designers.
Blood, sweat and tears and three years later we moved in and opened our new business. Little did we know that we would be so good at hospitality and that we would love the wine country lifestyle so much. It was better than we ever dreamed, and worth all the hard work and sacrifice to get here.
We’ve grown so much through our experiences and have discovered that we really enjoy creating special, beautiful environments and sharing it with others.
Have you ever had to pivot?
After twenty plus years in the fashion industry I found myself so burned out that I couldn’t even bear to look at my sewing machine, or stand another hour in high heels on my travertine floors in my fancy boutique.
As talented and passionate about fashion as I was, the business itself was so difficult and stressful for me at that time, for various unfortunate reasons as well as bad timing, that it wound up taking all the joy out of it for me. I knew I was done, needed to sell my last boutique and forge a new path for myself. It also came at a time of great personal change and growth.
It took several years and a few other attempts at building new companies and launching new product lines that were at best luke warm, but I never gave up trying. At 50 years old, I eventually found my next big success story, developing it alongside the love of my life who I finally had the good fortune of meeting (better late than never!) This new multi-faceted success catapulted me in to the second half of my life with a new found passion and energy, and set my heart on fire once again.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
It’s often good to have multiple revenue streams in a business to balance out the ebbs and flows, ups and downs of any market. As long as you are not distracting yourself from being able to complete projects and are able to compartmentalize your daily responsibilities, multiple revenue streams can supplement cash flow and be lifesaving to any business.
Fortunately my husband and I are both capable of doing this. Our main income stream is Domaine Chardonnay Bed & Breakfast (domainechardonnay.com), but we successfully supplement it with sales from our winery’s private wine label, DeCoupage, (my husband has become one of the top winemakers in Temecula!), as well as growing and selling wine grapes to other wineries. I also have a beloved organic skincare line that I have been manufacturing and selling for the last ten years in natural health food stores and on our own website, called Just Pure Essentials (justpureessentials.com). As well we both still take on outside design clients; my husband designing custom homes and I, interior design.
This year we are expanding our Bed & Breakfast with ‘Petite Domaine’, building on another 3,000 square feet with three more guest rooms, a large beautiful walled courtyard with picnic tables and fire pits and a swanky bar-lounge area for private wine tastings for our guests on property.
Sometimes I am amazed how we do it all. But we are both very organized, we get up early and get busy, and we don’t waste time on doing things that don’t give us results. We also work pretty much seven days a week, although we love what we do so much it usually doesn’t even seem like work. As they say, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://domainechardonnay.com
- Instagram: DomaineChardonnay
- Youtube: Domaine Chardonnay
Image Credits
Laura Stearn Wieters
Robby Gogatz