Meet Jasper Riddle | President Noisy Water Winery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jasper Riddle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jasper, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
In building my business I started with absolutely nothing. I heard no from over a dozen banks in trying to get things started before I was able to hear my first yes. Its grown from 4 people to over 100 in the past decade and when facing challenges I can understand the fear of “Oh no! what if I fail? What If I make a big mistake? What if it all goes away?” All small businesses are undercapitalilzed from day one and usually remain that way for the majority of their business life. When times get hard and it seems that any move could be of potential determent to the business I constantly joke with my wife about the worst case scenario.” I say to her well let’s just say this all goes away? I bet somebody would hire me for a lot more to run their company than I currently pay myself.” Risk reward scenarios are the backbone of small business you need to learn from the one that don’t work, build on those mistakes to shape ones that will and keep getting up when life knocks you down. I think the economic principal of “Sunk cost” is invaluable to a small business owner. Don’t worry about the past decisions you can’t change those and you’re in the leadership role. You need to keep moving, stagnation in more dangerous than bad decisions sometimes. Keep taking risks, keep failing and remember your building you business and if your business fails you’re building your resume for someones else’s business. Most of you came from nothing and built this from nothing, whats the real fear of starting back there again. You’ve already done it. I think if this is the backbone you have for your business than you’ll take the risks needed to be successful.

What should our readers know about your business?
My business is Noisy Water Winery- we produce premium category wines, farm organically and have direct to the consumer tasting rooms across the state of New Mexico. We started 14 years ago with hopes dreams and nothing else. I attribute the success to the team we have built we have had great people that believe in who we are and what we are doing and have worked together to overcome so much. Nothing in business is easy and we have had a lot of adversity, 3 years in I was basically broke living above one of our businesses questioning the life I had gave up to come do this. That was a turning point, I could have walked away then but instead I was motivated to hit the gas and we haven’t looked back. In adversity we have always looked how to gain success and to get past the obstacle. Solutions aren’t always easy nor are they clear but I am a believer that if you keep trying your going to come out on top. Thats been our companies motto and the key critical people in this company have that same attitude. I’d love for the world to know that they should pay attention to who they support and where they spend their dollars. As a consumer you can vote with your dollars and supporting small and local is way to help positively impact your communities and the world around you. We can all be the change in this world that we want to see sometime you don’t even know where that starts. Start at home, start in your own communities and start by buying products from companies that care about their people and the world they are leaving behind.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If they were visiting Ruidoso I’d make sure they came out to the winery, got to see the tremendous amount of wildlife and enjoyed the amazing community I am lucky to be a part of we would drink plenty of Noisy Water Wine drive around the historic parts of this area from the Hondo Valley to Lincoln (billy the kid country) and around Ruidoso. Nature is immensely beautiful and I think people need to reconnect with it. That might mean taking a hike or sitting our at our wedding venue having a glass of wine or a delicious pizza and beer at Downshift brewing listing to the river run. We need the reminder of what the world is and its hard to find that behind a screen indoors..

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shootout to those that have always pushed me to keep trying to shoot for the moon. My mother Mary Jo Piedmont -deserves this particular shoutout because she has been foundational in my life in supporting me to keep trying. My whole life she was always working to try to provide a better life. She’s the type that just gets things done. In business it’s not just about a good idea, most everyone has a good idea it comes down to who’s going to make it happen “She’s the roll your sleeves up make it happen type.”

Website: noisywaterwinery.com

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Facebook: Noisy Water Winery

Yelp: Noisy Water Winery