What would you do if an experience on vacation stayed with you long after you got home? For Kelly Lewis, a visit to a wine spa in the Republic of Georgia became the beginning of a new business.

Kelly is the founder of The Wine Spa, with locations in Portland and Dundee, Oregon. She joins Stefanie to explain vinotherapy, what guests can expect from a wine soak, and how surplus wine from local wineries finds a second life in spa treatments.

Kelly also shares the less glamorous parts of building an unfamiliar business: securing financing, choosing tubs when there was no established model to follow, managing early staffing costs, and opening a second location in just six weeks. They discuss why she pays winery partners for wine they cannot sell, how TikTok and word of mouth bring in guests, and what it felt like to see The Wine Spa named one of TIME’s World’s Greatest Places of 2025.

Learn more about The Wine Spa at thewinespa.com.

***

If you are an entrepreneur or professional who would like to be on this podcast, please visit BoomtownMarketing.com and click on PODCAST. https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/podcast

We believe that every business has the potential to change the world for good and we want to support our community to help make the world more ethical, compassionate and sustainable for all future generations to come.

And if you are looking to build your business no matter what level you are at now, request your free marketing consultation at BoomtownMarketing.com and click GET STARTED.

https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/get-started

Advertise on The Wild Party Podcast and reach your audience. Learn more: https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/advertise

What if the underwear you wear every day could be better for your body, better for the planet, and even help women in need?

On this episode of The Wild Party Podcast, host Stefanie LaHart sits down with Gabrielle Rooney, co-founder of CUFT, a women-owned company creating plant-based, plastic-free, compostable underwear.

The idea began when Gabrielle's mother, Elizabeth, traveled on safari in Africa and discovered that the disposable underwear she brought could harm the local environment. That experience sparked a question that would eventually become a business: If these materials aren't good for the planet, should we be wearing them against our most sensitive skin?

Gabrielle shares how she and her mother turned that question into a mission-driven company, the challenges of developing underwear without conventional synthetic fibers, and why TENCEL™ became their material of choice.

They also discuss the realities of building a family business, the surprising discovery that CUFT's strongest early customer demographic was women around age 50, and how the company incorporates charitable giving into every sale.

From entrepreneurship and sustainable manufacturing to intimate wellness and marketing, this conversation proves that even the smallest items in our closets can inspire big changes.

Special listener offer: Visit wearcuft.com and use code WILD for 15% off.

***

If you are an entrepreneur or professional who would like to be on this podcast, please visit BoomtownMarketing.com and click on PODCAST. https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/podcast

We believe that every business has the potential to change the world for good and we want to support our community to help make the world more ethical, compassionate and sustainable for all future generations to come.

And if you are looking to build your business no matter what level you are at now, request your free marketing consultation at BoomtownMarketing.com and click GET STARTED.

https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/get-started

Advertise on The Wild Party Podcast and reach your audience. Learn more: https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/advertise

What happens when an engineer with a background in aerospace and machine learning turns her attention to the chickpea?

On this episode of The Wild Party Podcast, Stefanie LaHart welcomes Kathrynn Cook, Co-Founder and CEO of NuCicer, to explore how ancestral chickpea genetics could help change the ingredients we eat and the systems that produce them.

Kathrynn shares the curiosity that carried her from materials science into aerospace, Facebook, and eventually food and agriculture. She also introduces the research of her father and co-founder, UC Davis Professor Douglas Cook, whose work with wild chickpea relatives helped lay the foundation for NuCicer.

Together, they discuss how NuCicer combines traditional cross-pollination with AI-assisted predictive breeding to develop chickpeas with higher protein content and useful traits for food production. Kathrynn explains why a promising crop must work for everyone along the supply chain, including growers, ingredient processors, food brands, and consumers.

The conversation also explores the connection between demand for chickpeas and their role in crop rotation, the opportunity to incorporate protein and fiber through simpler ingredients, and why partnerships are central to NuCicer’s growth.

In this episode:

• Kathrynn’s journey from aerospace and technology to agriculture

• The untapped possibilities within ancestral chickpea genetics

• How machine learning supports traditional plant breeding

• Why taste, texture, processing, and cost all influence adoption

• The relationship between farmer economics and sustainable practices

• Building a seed company through licensing and partnerships

• Turning scientific research into a commercially useful product

• Why curiosity and a willingness to feel uncomfortable matter for founders

Learn more about NuCicer: https://www.nucicer.com

***

If you are an entrepreneur or professional who would like to be on this podcast, please visit BoomtownMarketing.com and click on PODCAST. https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/podcast

We believe that every business has the potential to change the world for good and we want to support our community to help make the world more ethical, compassionate and sustainable for all future generations to come.

And if you are looking to build your business no matter what level you are at now, request your free marketing consultation at BoomtownMarketing.com and click GET STARTED.

https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/get-started

Advertise on The Wild Party Podcast and reach your audience. Learn more: https://www.boomtownmarketing.com/advertise