We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sonya Villegas Kelsen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sonya, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Keeping one’s creativity alive after being in the same industry for decades is a real challenge. What has worked for me is teaching others about wine and writing about my experiences in wine. We offer a number of classes from wine 101 to diving deep into wine growing regions which I teach. I love doing the research and writing my own learning materials for our students. We also have a wine club that keeps my creative juices flowing. I search far and wide for wines of distinction and value and write notes about the impact the growers, winemakers, producers have made in my life.
Think of creativity as an evolution that ebbs and flows. If you are not feeling it in your work, do something creative outside of work. I love interior design. If I am in a creativity rut at work, give me a paint brush. I will redo a room in a day.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My husband Mike and I met as servers in the same restaurant, Just happens to be the place we got married 8 years later. We always had a love of hospitality and a passion for entertaining. Mike is a professional musician by trade and I have spent the last 3 decades in wine. in 2014 we opened Colony Wine Merchant. We created a place where we put our years of experience in hospitality and entertaining under one roof. I have a passion for creating inviting comfortable spaces so I was blessed enough to put my blood, sweat and tears in every design detail of our humble little wine bar.
In 2020 I created a pandemic passion project if you will, The Napa Kitchen. It is an online shop that celebrates wine country finds. During the lock down I missed going to Napa and the Central Coast so I wanted to bring wine country home. It is a curated selection of handcrafted sustainable goods such as linens, tableware, baskets, soaps, provisions and more.
There are no words to explain how blessed I feel when I am behind the bar and I look out to the lounge full of guests enjoying themselves, our team members vibing and Mike performing. It makes all the struggles that got us here disappear.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most important qualities / skills I use today were learned as a child. I grew up in the restaurant business working under my father who owned restaurants in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. As soon as I was tall enough to wipe a kitchen counter, I was working. The restaurant I spent most of my time in as a teenager was the one we had in a hotel on the beach. We dealt with tourist from all over the world. I constantly had to be on my toes and learned to read people in the matter of seconds. There were language barriers, unusual demands and foreign exchange. I had to treat each guest with the grace of a hospitality veteran and the patience of a saint. Their needs were our number one priority.
As an adult I have had the pleasure of being a server, restaurant manager, fine wine sales rep, winery sales manager and now a wine bar owner. As a server I had to #1. read people in a matter of seconds. As a manager I honed #2 grace and patience. As a business owner our most important priority is #3 our guests needs.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The current challenge I am facing is loss. What I have learned is there is a lesson in everything even when you are heartbroken. I lost my mother two months ago and my aunt just days ago. Both of these beautiful ladies died unexpectedly and tragically. What I learned is time waits for no one. Time is the greatest gift and it is priceless. How this has helped me personally and professionally is I will no longer wait one extra second to let someone know I love them. I will do what I can to make sure our guests know I much I appreciate them.
There is no time to assume that people know how you think or feel about them. Let people know they matter. Even though you may not agree with them, look for their special qualities. God gave everyone a special gift. Look for it!
Let people know that the world needs their light.
Contact Info:
- Website: colonywinemerchant.com
- Instagram: colonywinemerchant
- Facebook: Colony Wine Merchant
Image Credits
Photos by Viby Creative
