This interview was published in its original form in WineShop At Home’s monthly National Call Deck on the occasion of Diane being named the company’s very first Senior Executive Director.
Diane Nozik has been with WineShop At Home since July 2005. Less than two years old at the time, WineShop At Home was offering an opportunity so compelling that Diane quit her corporate job at another DSA company to give the in-home wine tasting business a try. It didn’t matter to her that she knew nothing about wine before she joined or that she didn’t even know how to use a corkscrew. Because of her experience in the industry, Diane knew that this new company offered something unique and a vision began building in her of getting in at the ground floor and rising up the ranks of leadership.
Over the next two years, she met her goals and became WineShop At Home’s first Executive Director. She has the distinction of having earned and attended each of WineShop’s incentive trips and has personally sponsored the first IWCs in new states as they opened, including Texas and Illinois. Currently she has, on her team, the other Executive Directors, most of the current Managing Directors, and most of the Directors!
When asked to share tips on success or ideas for how to build big teams, she always returns to her belief in building vision in others:
“I try to make it a goal to have the most team members at Leadership or Convention, or on Incentive Trips. We joke that it’s because I’m so competitive, but in reality I believe it helps me with my job! When people just GET THERE and experience it for themselves, it builds vision in them like nothing else. After their first event, you find that people are so much more invested in WineShop At Home and they start working the business driven solely by their OWN vision.”
Diane feels so blessed by the opportunities her business has provided for her and that she can make a full-time income from a career that allows her to stay home with her one-year-old son Hayden and spend a lot more time with her husband, Andrew. Andrew’s Naval career means that they’ve had to move a couple of times since Diane became an IWC and that they will certainly move again.
“Being able to take a job I love with me and know that I can rebuild my personal business almost anywhere we go is such a great feeling. There aren’t many jobs that a military wife can keep running full speed regardless of where their life takes them. And certainly, not any that are this fun or allow them to get to work with such great people.”