Challenges, Self-Efficacy and Moving Forward

Human-scale the big issues.

Two weeks ago, Beck welcomed us back to ABG with a few of her predictions for the year ahead. Some personal favorite themes included the requests for quarter- and half-glass pours; “humanistic capitalism”; analog communities; and needing more rest than ever.

I’m officially and enthusiastically co-signing on every one of those, and would gladly find each of them more and more in my life in the year(s) to come.

As I’ve been sitting with pen in hand for this week’s post, my thoughts leaned more retrospective. ABG hit pause for about eight months in 2023, which I found to be a tidy stretch of time to consider “then,” “now,” and what’s happened in between throughout our industry.

In short, it’s been a lot.

That comes as a surprise to no one. I’d like to give us all a few moments, though, to consider our personal attitudes and responses to these significant shifts. We read industry news each day, and it can often seem like huge macro forces are in motion and beyond our control.

It can make a big difference to human-scale these issues, and focus on YOU as the human that’s scaled. It’s about self-efficacy, friends, and grounding volatile macro forces under the steadiness of our own two feet. Let me home in on a pair of these macro forces, and queue up a few questions to assess (and maybe calibrate) our own responses to them.

The Tsunami of Non-Alc Offerings

Rori Robinson, General Manager at The Zero Co. in Atlanta, says that she is constantly sampling new offerings to stock on the shelves of her well-curated and ever-more-popular shop of exclusively zero-proof products. She’s hardly alone, as the tsunami of low-alc and non-alc options soaks into many points of sale in order to meet demand.

How has your experience with the non-alc movement evolved over the past few months, in your own day-to-day life? Have you been experimenting? Finding some things that you like? Are you, like many of us,concerned about sugar levels in these new options? Aside from nutritional factors, does the non-alc movement raise some anxiety about its impact on consumption trends in our industry?

Take some time to gauge your own narrative about non-alc options, and their place (or not) in your life, personally for sure and perhaps professionally as well. It’s another chapter, and another subplot, for our industry. Figure out – with clarity – your own role in its story.

The “Alcohol is Bad for You” Press

Even the World Health Organization is in on the act of spreading the “no amount of alcohol is good for you” message. This issue clocks, for me, as the most troubling of them all.

Can any of us impact what the World Health Organization says or does? Sounds like a tall order and in the category of “macro forces beyond our control” I mentioned above. For the record, we can familiarize ourselves with (and possibly decide to act on) the Ethics page of the WHO which includes information about responsible research and declarations of interest.

At the personal scale, stop for a moment and consider your gut response when you hear the message that alcohol – and wine, by extension – is bad for you. Consider it, too, when you hear that message again and again and from multiple sources. It can start to wear… especially when, obviously, our livelihoods depend on the general public not buying into the hype. Add a layer of anxiety onto that wear-and-tear.

Feeling demoralized, to some extent, is a reasonable reaction. Recognize if you can relate. Then, in order to embolden your self-efficacy, draw parameters around what the counter message – that wine is part of a healthy lifestyle – means to you personally. Execute and practice that definition, day in and day out.

Here is the point: We are not powerless, certainly not at the personal scale.

That’s a message I’d like to convey to our community, as we head into this next iteration of ABG. Yes, our industry is facing challenges. What are we – what is each and every one of us – going to do about it? Make your own plan.

We are not powerless. Embolden your self-efficacy.

Can I help? I would love to, truly. Self-efficacy matters big time. Drop me a note.