Melissa Hoffman, Dauntless Performance Consulting

Melissa Hoffman, Dauntless Performance Consulting

Cathy Huyghe

Role: Managing Director
Location:  St Petersburg, Florida, USA

My Background:
I have over 20 years in Beverage Alcohol across the on-premise, Distribution, Import, direct to consumer, and Bev-Tech sectors, and grew SevenFifty to a successful exit. My philosophy is rooted in the belief that success comes from empowering and developing high-performing teams, creating environments where talent thrives and innovation flourishes.
I am dedicated to nurturing the next generation of industry leaders and hold several certifications in wine, life and executive coaching, psychology, leadership and mental health. I also hold a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Albany, NY.

What are the top three challenges to maintaining your well-being in your work?
Knowing when to shut it down so the work doesn't suffer and I can come back fresh after a rest.
I bore easily in repetitive, unstimulating work.
Do I live at work or work at home?

What are 3 things you do (or try to do) to maintain your well-being?
I am an avid yogi, meditator, and cold plunge/sauna junkie. I practice Ashtanga yoga and have been practicing pratyahara and breathwork to achieve a meditative state for ten years. I am also a facilitator of guided mindfulness and have a YouTube channel with recordings.

What other beverages do you drink when you're not drinking alcohol?
If a sparkling water addiction was a criminal offense, I'd be locked up for life. Bubbly is my favorite — Blackberry and Blueberry Pomegranate —  and La Croix is a close second with Black Razzberry, Limoncello, and Tangerine as my drinks of choice.

What would people be surprised to know about you?
I have chronic health issues that require an intense amount of dedication and discipline to manage. I have followed the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), a diet and lifestyle regimen designed to help regulate the immune system, since November 2015. After eliminating gluten, grains, dairy, soy, legumes, caffeine, nuts, and nightshade vegetables from my diet, I noticed marked improvements in my mental clarity, level of chronic pain, and overall well-being. After more than eight years on this protocol, I have found that my gut health improved enough to add some flexibility in foods I am able to tolerate with few consequences. 

What are you looking forward to?
All the places and people I haven't met yet.

What's your weirdest wellness hack?
Solitude. I present as wildly extroverted and my alone time is critical.

What inspires you on your journey in the beverage industry?
Solving problems and inspiring innovative thinking.

What is a quote that you love?
“Mental resilience is arguably the most critical trait of a world-class performer, and it should be nurtured continuously. Left to my own devices, I am always looking for ways to become more and more psychologically impregnable. When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. My instinct is always to seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them.” — Josh Waitzkin

You can connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

Cathy Huyghe
Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe is a dynamic media professional with a special interest in wine and the spirit of hospitality. She is also an effective, engaging public speaker on subjects ranging from wine and gastronomy to digital media and entrepreneurship.

Cathy is the co-founder and CEO of Enolytics, a big data startup providing business intelligence for the wine industry. She also currently writes for Forbes.com about the business and politics of the wine industry, and for Inc.com about entrepreneurs with a special focus on women. She is the author of the award-winning book Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass; she was a finalist for the 2016 IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award; and she won the 2016 Innovator of the Year award from Diaz Communications.

Cathy's writing has appeared in print and online for both general-interest and wine industry publications including the Harvard Business Review network, The Atlantic, Decanter, Food52.com (where she was the "Wine, Unfussed" columnist), DailyBeast, The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, GlobalPost, Grist.org, and Daily Candy. She has also been featured on the BBC, WNYC, WGBH, and Nevada Public Radio.

Cathy is the founder of 365daysofwine.com and Red White Boston, a digital media company for the wine industry. Red White Boston produced daily content, monthly tasting events, and a location-based iPhone app of video wine recommendations from their network of 30+ local partner stores. While in Boston, she also managed the wine cellar at WGBH public broadcasting station and managed wine events for donors and the public.

Cathy’s restaurant experience started when she knocked on the kitchen door at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She also has worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris (at Natachef bistro and at his two-star restaurant, Apicius) and for Thomas Keller at Bouchon in Las Vegas. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France; she completed the Wine Studies program at Boston University; and she received Advanced Certification from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust). 

Cathy received a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 2004 and a second master’s degree in Journalism in 2010, also from Harvard. Before that, she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the City University of New York in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1995. She is also a trained mediator, and worked for two years at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School on a project in the Middle East.

In April 2008 she founded the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food special interest group, which provides educational and networking services to the Harvard alumni and current students. She has also served as the President of the Harvard Club of Georgia, and she has begun a term of service on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association.

Her other non-profit involvement includes the Women's Solidarity Society at the new National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta), grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance (an Atlanta-based organization that supports the local network of 350 urban farms and community gardens), Coach at GOTR (Girls on the Run) in Atlanta, Board Member at the Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta), Board Member at The Food Project (Boston), and Mediator at the Neighborhood Justice Center (Las Vegas).

She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys, and their Bernese Mountain dog, Coco.

Website

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