Inside A Century In The Ag Business With Serres Ranch

DANO WEIR: It's a crisp morning in 1875 and they slam the hammer on the last nail and they said the watcher's house is finished and I can't wait for someone to host a podcast here.

DANO WEIR: That's how it went, right Taylor?

SPEAKER 2: 200 years later, here we are. Almost 200.

SHELBY WIRICK: Financial confidence for your hip pocket. Money is really just energy. If you're checking out, It's All Money.

DANO WEIR: Hey, welcome to It's All Money from Sonoma Wealth Advisors. My name is Dan O'Weir. I'm the Marketing Director for Sonoma Wealth Advisors. Co-host today, Shelby Weirich, also a Financial Advisor with Sonoma Wealth Advisors.

DANO WEIR: And we are at Saris Ranch, Highway 12, just four miles north of the Sonoma Square. We are so excited to talk about everything that Saris Ranch gets into and supports in the Sonoma community. Very excited to be joined by our guest. She is the company officer for Saris Ranch, Taylor Saris.

SPEAKER 2: Thank you for having me, or welcome.

DANO WEIR: Welcome to where? Why don't you describe to our audience where we are? I said the Watrous House. What is that?

SPEAKER 2: We are in the Watrous House. So a little history about our property. It was originally owned by General Fighting Joe Hooker after the completion of the Mexican-American War. And Hooker had this property, planted some wine grapes, ended up deciding that, you know. Farming was not his thing.

SPEAKER 2: He was more into women and wine and ended up going back into re-enlisting into the military, sold the property to George Watrous in 1857 on the courthouse steps in San Francisco. And so Watrous came, became very good friends with my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. Both were John Saris.

SPEAKER 2: Convinced them, I don't think they had to twist his arm very hard, but convinced, Watrous convinced the Sarises to move onto the property. The Sarises fell in love, slowly started acquiring parcels with the final parcel being acquired in 1924. But if you back up a little bit, the house that we're in right now was completed in 1875. And this was the house that the Watrises and then the Sarises lived in.

DANO WEIR: That's amazing. It's so cool to be sitting and be surrounded by history. And so much of that influences the businesses that you get into today, that foundation today. Absolutely. As I did my research for this episode.

DANO WEIR: I'm seeing kind of two verticals, as they call it, or avenues or categories, if you want, to what the Saras do in Sonoma County. So let's start with maybe what you're best known for. A lot of people know this already. Maybe we've got a new fan in the making. Tell me about the wine business. Tell me about why your wines are.

SPEAKER 2: I thought you were going to say blueberries. My dad's joke. We've been farming grapes since 1972, and we've been farming blueberries since 2001. And everyone knows us for blueberries, and only a couple people know us for grapes.

SPEAKER 2: It's As far as the two entities, we have our construction company and then we have the ranching side. So the ranching side, we have blueberries, we have wine grapes, a commercial cow-calf operation up in Northern California. And then we also recently started our wine label. 2018 was our first vintage. As far as farming goes, we have been farming this ground, the Saris', since 1924.

SPEAKER 2: So we're on our 102nd Year of owning the property. And as I said earlier, farming grapes since 1972. We actually still have those vines planted today, some old Merlot vines. They were one of our heaviest producers of Merlot two years ago, which is astonishing, in my opinion.

SPEAKER 2: And then as far as blueberries go, we have those up in Mendocino County in Laytonville. And we have about 20 acres of those. Blueberry season, mid-June to mid-July, keeps us really busy, keeps us out of trouble. And then the grape harvest comes September to October, and the wine business is Year-round hosting ranch tours, giving people a snapshot into the daily life of the Sarises.

SHELBY WIRICK: She also has not just blusé, but a new gin drink, right?

SPEAKER 2: Yes. So we have our bottled wines. We have a rosé and then a bunch of different reds, being mainly Bordeaux heavier type reds. And then we created a blusé, which is a canned wine. And that's co-fermented blueberries and aleutical wine grapes. And then what Shelby was referring to is our Blue 75. So that's basically the Saris twist on the French 75.

DANO WEIR: I saw it's all over your website and a lot of your social media. 100% estate grown.

SPEAKER 2: Yes.

DANO WEIR: What does that mean?

SPEAKER 2: That means that every grape that is used in our wine, anything that says Saris has been grown and produced by our family on our property. Even our cocktail and our blusé. The blueberries and the wine grapes are grown by the Saris's and that's something that we really pride ourselves on.

SPEAKER 2: We are 100% sustainably certified, third-party certified through fish-friendly farming as well as the California Sustainable Wine Alliance and we are also 100% estate grown as you referred to. So everything that we use is our stuff. We have it from before it was even in the ground to the bottle that we sell you during the ranch tour.

DANO WEIR: I think it's a misconception a lot of people have that don't understand the wine industry, which is you see a winery, you see grape grow grapes, you see the vintage and then you think, okay, well, they grow the grapes and then they turn into wine at that house. And then I drink it at that house.

DANO WEIR: And that does happen sometimes. It does. But there's a whole other game going on where these grapes are being grown and they go into five different wineries from here and all over the place. And so sort of, is it rare right now in the industry to have something that is vertically aligned? All in one spot, or is it?

SPEAKER 2: Well, it's not necessarily rare. Well, it's not rare in Sonoma County. I would say that Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley are very well known for being family, multi-generational farming families that have vertically integrated, that maybe started, you know, with prunes and pears, and then switched to wine grapes, and then have their winery now.

SPEAKER 2: In the grand scheme of things, in the world of wine, I would say it's... More on the rare side. There is a huge industry, sub-industry, it's not sub-industry, but a huge part of the wine industry that is buying a Shiner, which is a blank bottled label, or excuse me, a blank labeled bottle of wine. Excuse me. It is a, a Shiner is an unlabeled bottle of wine that has been produced by somebody, maybe a grower or somebody else.

SPEAKER 2: And then a winery comes, purchases as it puts their own label on it. It doesn't make it bad. There's so many facets of it. And that's the beauty of the wine industry is that we are able to really take advantage of different facets and different inlets throughout the growing. Because really what it comes down to is we just want people drinking wine no matter what it is. And hopefully Sonoma County wine.

DANO WEIR: It's interesting how it ends up being a market not unlike the markets that we deal with at our.

DANO WEIR: In our side of the business at cinema wealth advisors so it's just there's just different flavors and different styles and it works for different in certain situations absolutely i think there's been a lot of miss i don't want to say misguided but just a lot of different sentiments about what's happening right now in the wine industry some people are positive some people are negative i'm just curious where you kind of fit.

SHELBY WIRICK: Within that and how you feel Obviously, you guys have your own label, but then you know so many people within the industry that are experiencing different levels of, you know, growth, but then also are struggling.

SPEAKER 2: Absolutely. It is an interesting time in the industry, but really what it comes down to is agriculture is not for the faint of heart. And, you know, growing grapes, you know.

DANO WEIR: Put it into a reel.

SPEAKER 2: There it is right there on social that's what a great statement you know when you grow anything and i'm just using grapes and blueberries because that's what i know best but when you grow grapes you have to be able to sell them when you make wine you have to be able to sell it and in this industry especially with the wine industry right now there is something out there that wine can be intimidating for that new consumer and so really trying to target a way you and figure out a way to captivate that new consumer.

SPEAKER 2: And what we have done here is it's all about the experience. Shelby, I know you have been here on a tour, and we really like to bring you out, like, while the wine is the thing that you're able to take home, along with your memories of coming out here and experience the ranch, but, you know, we have a Texas longhorn herd.

SPEAKER 2: That's what I call our yard art. But it's something that I, there's one other person in Sonoma that has longhorns.

SPEAKER 2: We were, we had them first, but that's okay.

SPEAKER 2: But I think my point is, is that we really try to showcase what happens here on the ranch. I've had a ranch tour where the cows got out. And so I was like, well, hold on a second. I got to go get these cows away and put them away first. And so it's, we are authentic. We're real. You are hosted by a family member.

SPEAKER 2: It's really about giving you that experience and that like behind the scenes feel. But to your point of the industry, some people say that it's a reset. Some people say that it's just the ebb and the flow. Really what it comes down to is you just have to figure it out. It's tough. Like, there's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER 2: Like, I know a lot of people that had grapes that they did not harvest last Year. And that's really hard because you farm all Year long for one day or one snippet of time. And if you don't get that paycheck, you've lost all of that time, all of that money, you know, the employee wages, everything.

SPEAKER 2: And so it's challenging, but that's where diversification comes in.

SPEAKER 2: As you said earlier the two pillars you know we have our construction company we have our blueberries we have our cattle herd we have the wine we have the wine grapes and even within the wine world we have the canned wine we have the bottled wine so we have a lot of things going on and a lot of balls that are juggling in the air sounds like a diversified portfolio to me it's it's something that we're that we're proud of and we really really like to emphasize that like you know like I said when you come out here you get a snippet into the world of Saris whatever that may be on that day.

SHELBY WIRICK: Yeah I think it's from personal experience you you get to you get a sentiment of who the family is you feel the history I mean you can even feel it in this room it's beautiful but they I mean it's not just like where you go in and you have a quick wine tasting there Taylor comes out and shows pictures of the how many generations have been on this property?

SPEAKER 2: So I'm fifth generation. My son and nieces and nephews are sixth.

SHELBY WIRICK: So sixth generation. And you're seeing pictures of great-great-grandfather. And every single bottle, each label has a story behind it and a person that is represented in the family that was a stakeholder in this land and their history.

SHELBY WIRICK: It's just remarkable. So you really feel the... Not only the family, but then you get to see all of the animals and you're out in nature. There's a pond here. I mean, it's just, it's, it's so beautiful.

SPEAKER 2: We'll have to get you out.

SHELBY WIRICK: Yeah.

DANO WEIR: I'm just going to say, so to someone watching this right now, you've got the eye in the ear of Sonoma Wealth clients of Sarah's Ranch Social.

DANO WEIR: You are ready. You want to meet people. You want them to come out to the ranch and they will taste in this room and they will learn. And there's no intimidation because you want to start them at step one.

SPEAKER 2: Absolutely.

SPEAKER 2: I think it's really important, you know, whenever we do a tasting here, we want it to be about, obviously, our story, our history, but we want it to be about you. And one thing that I'm very adamant on is that we don't tell you what you're going to taste in the wine. We let you tell us what you experience with that bottle of wine, with that taste.

SPEAKER 2: Because wine can be intimidating for some, but really what it comes down to is there is a wine out there for everyone. And I am a firm believer in that. My favorite is when somebody comes in and says, I do not drink Merlot. I hate Merlot. Just like Paul Giamatti or whatever that guy's name was.

SPEAKER 2: And I'll tell you, that's my favorite thing to have experience because somebody will come in and they'll say that. And then I'll pour our bottle of our Merlot, but I won't tell them it's a Merlot. And I'm like, Oh my God, what is this? And it's like, and so, to my point, There is a wine out there for everyone and some people don't like it and that's okay. And then that's why we have our canned wine.

SPEAKER 2: But, or we have our blueberries or preserves or olive oil or, you know, all the extra added on items. But as far as booking a tour, we do ranch tours. We are private by appointment only. You can go to our website, give us a call. And it's really, you know, when we can fit you in. We obviously do have a lot of things going on, but...

DANO WEIR: Experience or hosting people is is a top priority of ours we've alluded to it this is a family business this is what is one benefit and what is one challenge to being in a family business okay especially for one that wears a lot of hats so.

SPEAKER 2: Just to preface i have two older brothers i'm the youngest i'm a girl i'm daddy's little girl there's no denying that my dad's speech at my wedding. He said, you are John Saris' little girl and you'll always be John Saris' little girl. And the benefit of working with your family, especially like brothers.

SPEAKER 2: So I'll take it to the brothers and then I'll take it to the parents level. I never met, I never worked with my grandparents. Both of my grandfathers passed away before we were born. And my grandmother passed away when I was young. But as far as my brothers, everyone knows.

SPEAKER 2: How to push the right buttons the antagonistic buttons is the benefit or the challenge this is it'll come in too yeah and so my point being is that you can fight like cats and dogs one day but the next day you're totally fine because you know how to fight Sometimes it takes longer than a day, let's be honest.

SPEAKER 2: And so that is, I would say, a benefit and a challenge because, like I said, I'm the youngest. I have two older brothers. There is that level of like, oh, that's just my little sister.

SPEAKER 2: But I think that I've kind of proven myself to the point where it's like, no, come on. I can rub eyeballs with the best of them.

SPEAKER 2: One benefit, I recently, well, I guess not so recently, I have a 17-month-old son. And one awesome aspect of the family business is I can bring him to work. He's come to multiple board meetings. He's come to, he's probably going to show up on this podcast. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER 2: He is, he is normally right here on this hip and being able to work with my family and, you know, have your family step in when needed, or he just comes to the meeting. Like when we have winemaker meetings or meetings with our winemakers, he's there. And he's sniffing the wine. He hasn't tasted any yet.

SHELBY WIRICK: Good.

SPEAKER 2: But he might. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER 2: So in a roundabout way, being able to work with those siblings, have your children come up with the family and grow up together. That's awesome. I couldn't ask for anything more. A challenge, you know, it's your family.

SPEAKER 2: But it's also, it's a negative and a positive. So it's. A roundabout way, it's a positive. A roundabout way, it's negative. Not a negative, a challenge. But I wouldn't change it. We had a rule within our family that you had to go work for somebody else for five years before you could come back to work for the family business.

SPEAKER 2: So I did that. I put on the Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction, or helped put it on for five years, and then worked for a private hunting club in Sonoma and decided it was time to come back to the family business and kind of get things going with the wine side.

SPEAKER 2: I learned a lot. I'm so thankful for that time. I learned things I loved. I learned things I didn't love.

SPEAKER 2: But at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

SHELBY WIRICK: Yeah, the mic dropped right there.

SHELBY WIRICK: So let's talk about your dad. He's got quite the reputation.

SPEAKER 2: Oh, yes.

SHELBY WIRICK: What's one thing people should know about your dad?

DANO WEIR: Describe him for someone who's never met John Saras.

SPEAKER 2: He's a big guy. He's got a big personality. He can be pretty quiet, actually. Most people I think are very intimidated by him just because of his size. And he's, he's like a gruff cowboy. Like he's just, he's either been on a horse, a dozer or a grape tractor his entire life. He started driving, I think when he was like a dump truck, when he was like eight years old or something like that.

SPEAKER 2: We still have that dump truck today. It's the one that we use, in our, in the parades and whatnot. He actually rebuilt it, but he is, I would say he's a man of little words, but not really. He really, when you give him a microphone, he is all about it. But he, I don't know.

DANO WEIR: John, should we get him on?

SPEAKER 2: Yeah, you know, he might be driving by soon with my son, so you never know.

SPEAKER 2: But he's, yeah, he's awesome. He's an only child, so he's learned to just work really hard, and he has given us the platform. To build off of what we have today. So he's, and he has one thumb. He lost it in a roping accident. So I guess that's something.

DANO WEIR: That's a cowboy.

SPEAKER 2: Yeah, yeah.

DANO WEIR: You mentioned it a couple of times, blueberries. That is newer for the agriculture part of the business. So what opportunity did you see there? What were the market signals that were telling you, this is what we need to do? And what did you eventually end up getting it into? You mentioned the blouse.

SPEAKER 2: Yes, so. Blueberries, this is actually our 25th anniversary of the first planting of blueberries up in Laytonville. And so what ended up happening was my dad can never sit still. They purchased some land up in Laytonville and ended up clearing this kind of plateau and tested the soil and ended up having a family meeting of sorts. That's how I remember it.

SPEAKER 2: They tell me that they just decided, but you know, got to give myself a little credit in the whole thing, I guess. Anyway, tested the soil and it was either hazelnuts or blueberries. And my dad remembers an old timer saying one time up in Laytonville that this is berry country. Even though there's no berries around anywhere close to us. I think we're like 200 miles from the closest berries in Oregon.

SPEAKER 2: But in that event, we planted berries in 2001 and have been farming them ever since. Have learned a lot. Tried to implement a little bit of the farming and cultural practices of grapevines with the berries, with a heavier pruning.

SPEAKER 2: But as far as that goes, my parents and brothers and I, you know, everyone has done an awesome job really.

SPEAKER 2: Hitting the pavement in the beginning like it is definitely a mom and pop operation in a positive sense but they we still have the old screen that we sorted the blueberries on and it was literally like you picked it up shook it all the bad ones fell out the good ones you tip the the screen up and you filled the boxes and so it was it started from scratch and slowly my parents have just built it.

SPEAKER 2: A big part of that was my brother Buck. He was really into the blueberries. He went to Oregon State, which is big berry country, and learned a lot and just brought it to what it is today.

SPEAKER 2: I did create a sustainability plan, so now blueberries can get certified sustainable for those. And so that's been a fun project. So we are 100% certified sustainable in blueberries as Well.

SHELBY WIRICK: How many cases or is it time? I mean. Tons, I would assume?

SPEAKER 2: Blueberries or pounds.

SHELBY WIRICK: Pounds. Yeah. So how many pounds do you sell a Year?

SPEAKER 2: It's ever-changing, but anywhere between 100 to 150,000 pounds of fruit every Year.

SPEAKER 2: And then we use some of it for, we use all of it for our own production. We then, once we are finished with our season, because berries are very temperamental in the sense that you only have a small window in which you can pick them during the day.

SPEAKER 2: They have to be dry. So you can't have any dew on them. And if you look at a blueberry itself, they kind of have like a frosty look to them. And that frost is called the bloom. And that's the natural preservative of the berry. So when we pick our fruit, if it's wet, the bloom will rub off quickly. Or if it's too hot, the bloom will, excuse me, will rub off quickly.

SPEAKER 2: So you can't, it can't be too hot. It can't be too wet. And so you have a very small window and all of our fruit is handpicked. And so we pride ourselves on that as well. So it's very labor intensive, but it's something that we're very proud of. And we're in a lot of kind of smaller grocery stores and markets, like the Nugget markets, Oliver's markets.

DANO WEIR: So Blue Zay is like a blueberry wine can? Yeah.

SPEAKER 2: Describe that taste. Yeah, canned, co-fermented blueberry wine. And it is a wine. It's 11.5% alcohol. Also, it.

SPEAKER 2: Packs a punch for sure but it's it's light effervescent refreshing we sell it at the farmer's market in Sonoma a couple local markets in Sonoma have it and it just kind of gives you that little taste of blueberries all Year round i've never had it you haven't no you're gonna have to change that i haven't had several of them ever oh got it they're great you So where, so you sell in Sonoma County, you have the farmer's market.

SHELBY WIRICK: Are you anywhere out of Sonoma County or is it strictly?

SPEAKER 2: We have a distribution in Texas and in North Carolina. Oh, wow.

DANO WEIR: Wow. That's amazing.

SPEAKER 2: Hoping to get into Chicago here soon or Illinois.

DANO WEIR: I've not seen that product before. Is that, is a blusé a common product from other competing companies or is that unique?

SPEAKER 2: Nobody, the closest thing to it is called Bluette and that's just a blueberry wine.

SPEAKER 2: But ours is co-fermented because blueberries you have to add a lot of sugar to be able to get the alcohol fermentation and so that's why we mix it with the grapes because then that's where you get the sugar content but in my opinion it's a antioxidant rich you're detoxing while you're retoxing so it's net zero so you have that breakfast wine it's a perfect brunch beverage that sounds amazing i didn't realize that you're so good at sales yeah So in 2023.

SHELBY WIRICK: Your family was recognized by the Sonoma County Farm Bureau for Family of the Year. Can you talk a little bit more about your involvement, how you got the award, and your participation with the Farm Bureau?

SPEAKER 2: Yes, so the 2023 Farm Family Of The Year, that was a complete surprise to us.

SPEAKER 2: I, to be honest, I don't want to say I don't know why we were chosen, but we got a call from Dana Ghirardelli and she said, you've been selected, the board has...

SPEAKER 2: Unanimously voted for your family. It was a huge honor.

DANO WEIR: Unanimous.

SPEAKER 2: Yeah, which is surprising because you know everyone ruffles feathers here and there. But it's something that we're super proud of. It was a great honor. The families that have come before us, at least in Sonoma Valley, the Sandrocomos and others, the Duttons out in the Grayton area. It's great to be a part of that Awesome group.

DANO WEIR: The Duttons are in Yellowstone.

SPEAKER 2: The real Dutch are in Grayton.

SPEAKER 2: And then as far as the involvement, we do have a scholarship that we give every Year through the Farm Bureau because agriculture is our backbone, so we want to make sure that we're continuing that on for generations to come. I know that when I was a young kid in 4-H and FFA, super supportive of the Farm Bureau, and now I sit on the board, so it kind of has come full circle.

DANO WEIR: I think what I want to know is a lot of people don't know what the Farm Bureau does and I don't think a lot of people in the area until you really spent time on a farm in Sonoma County there's just not an understanding of what it does for the county as a whole and so if you could just speak to what it means to be a part of the farming community and for someone who doesn't know you know what is what does this level of agriculture really do for the entire area what does it mean?

SPEAKER 2: I mean, as far as the Farm Bureau goes, it is the voice of agriculture. We have local organizations that then funnel into the state organization that then funnels into the American Farm Bureau. And if we didn't have farming, we wouldn't have anything, especially here in California.

SPEAKER 2: But across the United States, it is literally the backbone of our society because most people don't understand, but milk does not come from a grocery store. Milk comes from a cow on a farm.

SPEAKER 2: And that cow is probably in California or Wisconsin, in all honesty. As the previous dairy princess, I can attest to that. Were you? Yes. Yep, back in high school. How old were you in high school? 18 and 19, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Senior Year of high school.

SHELBY WIRICK: Can you send me some pictures of that?

SPEAKER 2: No.

SPEAKER 2: And so, but as far as, you know, your milk, your cheese. Your produce, most of it probably comes from the Salinas Valley in California.

SPEAKER 2: You know, your bottle of wine comes from Sonoma or Napa. I mean, granted, every state has a winery, every state has a vineyard, but the majority of those bottles of wine come from our regions. And if we didn't have food and fiber, we wouldn't be living. Because, I'm sorry, but being sustained on lab-grown meat is not an option. If you just look at something that... Is as simple as the ingredient list.

DANO WEIR: Now you're going to get me going down.

SPEAKER 2: I know you're going to get ready because I could get on this.

DANO WEIR: We're going to talk about seed oils next.

SPEAKER 2: No, but you know, look at hamburger.

DANO WEIR: Yeah.

SPEAKER 2: There's one ingredient beef.

DANO WEIR: Oh, that's awesome. Okay. So Farm Family Of The Year, or should we call you the construction family of the Year? Because let's get into the second vertical of the business. And that's the Saris Corporation. Yes. Talk about the work you've, you do and talk about when that started.

SPEAKER 2: So Saris Corporation started in 1929. My grandfather, Frank Saris, started that company as a ready mix company where he used to dredge rocks out of the Creek and then paved or rocked, graveled, paved most of the parking lots and roads in Sonoma. And my dad carried that on. That's where I was saying he drove a, a dump truck.

SHELBY WIRICK: A dump truck.

SPEAKER 2: Since he was eight years old, hauling rock up Cavedale Road, which if you don't know Cavedale Road, it's a very windy, narrow road. So he's a good driver. But my brother, my oldest brother, John, has kind of taken that over and runs our construction company now.

SPEAKER 2: We do grading, paving, excavating, civil engineering, underground work, and have done a lot of work all throughout Northern California mainly like Sonoma County Bay Area for the most part but i can't really take too much credit on that one i just kind of help in the office where it is needed but yeah they my i'd say my dad and my brother John are the ones that are really spearheading that effort probably helps though when you're running a agriculture business to have a construction business chilling in the background yes we definitely like when it comes time to haul grapes and everything we are completely vertically integrated and we don't have to have outside sources or anything like that because we have it all in-house.

SPEAKER 2: Makes things easier.

SHELBY WIRICK: You ready for the next question? We're grilling you.

SPEAKER 2: Okay, go for it. Okay.

SHELBY WIRICK: In 2024, Saris Corp won a North Bay Business Journal award for best places to work. For business owners watching, what's one business principle you feel as an employer makes your company a special place to work?

SPEAKER 2: Treating our employees like family. We are a family business. We bring them in. I mean, In our office, you have five people total working regularly, and then you have the drop-ins here and there and whatnot, but they are literally family.

SPEAKER 2: One of our office managers is going on maternity leave soon, and literally she has said, No, I mean, I'm just going to be gone for a little bit because I love this place. I don't want to leave. I don't, you know, and she's awesome. Like we couldn't run the business without her. She is a definite backbone of the construction company as far as billing and everything like that goes.

SPEAKER 2: But we have had people, when my dad was running the company, he would have softball games that he would put on and just fun stuff. I mean, they work hard. But they also play hard. And we really try to make sure that we have instilled that in the next generation of leadership within the company of making sure that we are taking care of our employees.

SPEAKER 2: We provide a lot for them, but they also provide a lot for us. So it doesn't go unnoticed, their hard work.

SPEAKER 2: Every Year, Christmas time, we always have our Christmas party and we give out awards and there are they've kind of evolved through the years but, one award you don't want to get the two awards you do want to get, but this Year, we had kind of the, I forget what they call it, the most improved hand and a person who is retiring this Year got that award and he literally started crying when he got it.

SPEAKER 2: So just knowing that, like, we are, I don't want to say making a difference, but we are really trying to make a difference in their lives.

DANO WEIR: Now is the point in the interview where I say something unexpected after that emotional statement. I'm ready for it. It's going to take a turn now because this is not the first time that Taylor and I have met and in fact she has frozen me to negative 250 degrees.

SPEAKER 2: I have.

DANO WEIR: Tell me about this is just you now you have some passion project of yours tell me about Sonoma Cryo.

SPEAKER 2: Yes I started Sonoma Cryo in 2019. It was kind of a fun project it evolved from my dad actually. He had his hips replaced. And so I was trying to find something that would help in pain management. My now husband's good friend had a cryotherapy wellness center in Boulder, Colorado, and told me to try out cryo.

SPEAKER 2: I was a total skeptic to be completely honest, took my parents down as my Guinea pigs to try whole body cryotherapy at a place down in Marin area and ended up falling in love with it. So decided to open up Sonoma Cryo. It's been a roller coaster. I opened up right before the global pandemic. So, you know, my timing is pretty impeccable with most things, especially opening that business. But we made it through.

SPEAKER 2: You know, right now it's it's could be a little bit better, to be completely honest. But it's not always roses and butterflies. There's good times, there's bad times. But cryotherapy. We offer whole body cryotherapy. We have an infrared sauna, red light therapy, compression therapy, detoxing, ionic foot bath, cryo skin services. So more facial type work and the list goes on.

SHELBY WIRICK: So, so some people don't know what cryo is. So I was going to describe it here. What is, what is cryotherapy?

SPEAKER 2: So whole body cryotherapy, it's a chamber that you step into nitrogen gas, gets pumped into that chamber. Your head is exposed. So you're not going to be like up to here. Yeah, right to your shoulder level. And it chills. Yes. I'm sure there's plenty of photos of him on Facebook. It's all over my Instagram, yes.

SPEAKER 2: But it's one of those things where the nitrogen gas engulfs your body, drops the temperature of that chamber down to negative 130 degrees Celsius, so about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. And what it does is it tricks your body into thinking that you're going into hypothermia. You don't because it's only three minutes. But what it does is pulls your blood from your extremities to your core to keep your temperature regulated.

SPEAKER 2: And as you step out, you have that tingly sensation like you just got out of a cold river. And that's your blood flowing back to your extremities. So it's kind of like a reset and refilter for your circulatory system as well as your blood flow. And not to mention cold. There's no doubt about it. But it's only three minutes. And I swear by it.

SHELBY WIRICK: So how often would you recommend that someone does cryo? And is it anything specific or like when you need a reset? I mean, I know you're obviously a firm believer, but for someone who hasn't tried it.

SPEAKER 2: Right. If you have aches and pains, if you need that reset, that mind body connection, I definitely would encourage it. But then we have people that come in on a regular basis. Like we have clients that come in every single day and they swear by it. It's helped with weight loss. It's helped with inflammation. I had one client who had stage four melanoma.

DANO WEIR: I have done it for. Five years myself, and I can tell you I always feel great after. So thank you for being in Sonoma. It's been one of my favorite breaks when I'm at the office, and then I'm like, all right, I'm done with the stock market. I'm going to do Friot. It's a great reset.

SHELBY WIRICK: It's a great reset. All right. Can you? Talk a little bit about your involvement with Modwella. Did I say that right? Modwella, right?

SPEAKER 2: Yeah, so we recently partnered with Modwella. It's an IV therapy company that we have a nurse come in. She does B12, vitamin D shots, and then IV therapy. So she has the hangover helper for those who have indulged a little bit too much the night before. She also has hydration. Kind of the list goes on and on. So it's a new venture that we're partnering with. That so far has been very successful.

SHELBY WIRICK: And how often are they at Cryo?

SPEAKER 2: Currently, we're still in the testing out phase and the beta phase, but she's there like five times a month, but hoping to get that more frequently.

DANO WEIR: All right, they've heard the story. They've learned the quality. Let's loop it all back. Where can our viewers find Sarah's Ranch Wine?

SPEAKER 2: The best place is coming out to the ranch. Booking an appointment, you can go to our website, sarisranchwine.com, and they can contact us, book a tour, experience what we have to offer.

SPEAKER 2: And that's actually, we are direct-to-consumer, so that is the only place that you can get our bottled wine. You can also give us a call or go to our website and purchase as well. But I really highly encourage you to come do a tour and get the real feel for it.

DANO WEIR: They grow grapes, they grow blueberries, they build things, they freeze you.

DANO WEIR: They do a little bit of it all. We're your one-stop shop. A pillar of the town and county of Sonoma.

DANO WEIR: We are Sonoma Wealth Advisors. This is our show, It's All Money. You can learn more about us at SonomaWealth.Com. We are a holistic financial advisor right here in town. We're just off the square. You can meet with Shelby or any of our advisors. Thank you so much for checking out this episode.

DANO WEIR: Whether you're coming to us from Saris Ranch or whether you're coming to us as a Sonoma Wealth fan. We appreciate you making it this far. You can check out the show notes if you want to find links to all of the items and properties and people we talked about in the episode today.

DANO WEIR: And thank you so much for being on the show, Taylor. We appreciate it.

SPEAKER 2: Thank you for having me.

DANO WEIR: Thanks for watching and listening to It's All Money. We hope today's episode shared information to increase your financial confidence. Now is the time in the show for the voiceover with a bunch of words at the end. Listen close though, you might find out something you didn't know.

DANO WEIR: It's All Money is powered by Sonoma Wealth Advisors. Sonoma Wealth Advisors helps individuals and families in Northern California and across the country with building, managing, and sustaining wealth.

DANO WEIR: Sonoma Wealth is a comprehensive, holistic finance solution offering financial planning, asset management, tax planning, 401 solutions and appropriate insurance. Take our free wealth analysis now at SonomaWealth.Com. If you haven't already, like and subscribe to It's All Money on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

DANO WEIR: It's All Money features human hosts, musicians, editors, video crew, and voiceover talent. Video production by Forz Media in Roanoke Park, California. Online at ForzMedia.Com. Music by Neon Beach, Sparkle Rising. On Soundstripe. Voice over by me, Dano.

DANO WEIR: Thank you for listening to the very end. We appreciate diligent viewers and listeners. Fermata Advisors LLC is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

DANO WEIR: This content was produced by Fermata Advisors LLC, DBA Sinema Wealth Advisors, DBA Fermata 401K, DBA Fremont attacks. The opinions expressed by Fremont Advisors LLC on this show are their own.

DANO WEIR: Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information.

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