Thanks to all the new subscribers after last week’s post, especially those who joined as paid subscribers. My daughter Charlotte loved all the supportive comments on The Sounds Are Not Okay—and quite a few people wrote to say her experiences gave them hope in their own children’s lives.

Next Saturday, I’ll begin alternating in paid posts, so if you like this latest Work/Craft/Life profile, it’s time to get in behind the paywall. Now onto Helen Diehl. Profiles like hers, featuring individuals who we meet in our everyday lives, are what inspired me to start this newsletter in the first place. She’s a kick!

If you happen to be in North Wales, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, and you’re in need of some wine or spirits, do yourself a favor and drop into the state-run Fine Wines and Good Spirits. Make sure, however, to bring your pocketbook. It’s likely you’ll be spending more than anticipated. Most days of the week at the Tasting Bar in the back of the story, you’ll find Retail Wine Specialist Helen Diehl. She’s ready, able, and eager to fill up your cart.

Typically, she’ll welcome you and ask some variation of “What can I help you with today?” It’s never: “Can I help you?” Most people, Helen advises in our interview, instinctively say no even if they need help. It’s human nature. Helen knows as much about that as she does her wine. She prefers questions that are open-ended, which require more than a simple yes or no. Stand in the Tasting Bar, you’ll get your fair share.

“Are you looking for yourself or is this a gift for someone? What do you like to drink? What’s the budget you have in mind? What will you be having for dinner?” If there happen to be some items already in your shopping cart, Helen has noticed. She’ll comment on your choice, maybe tell you a story of the vintner or distiller. Then she’ll make some other suggestions. She is particularly keen on wine.

“I like helping people find wines they will love,” Helen says brightly.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Helen was the youngest of six children. Her father was the plant manager of a train manufacturer—and as Helen says, “ a weirdo.” Her mother stayed home to raise their posse of children. Helen and her siblings went to Catholic schools. Upon graduating high school, Helen attended LaSalle University in the city. It was 1979. Two years into her studies, she married and moved to Texas. She worked at Texas A&M’s veterinary hospital and liked it enough to consider becoming a vet, but then her marriage soured. After packing up, she headed to Chicago. There, she sold vacation timeshares and took classes in finance at the University of Illinois. The Windy City didn’t stick, and after a few years, she returned home to Philadelphia. Sometimes life takes us on a circuitous ride back to where we started. That was okay with Helen.

For the next 25 years, she worked as a trader on the floor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Most of the traders only had high school diplomas. They had worked themselves up from clerks. Helen was similar in starting from the ground floor and moving up, but she also pursued her college degree in finance. One class in the fall. One class in the spring. Summer’s off. It took decades, but she finally graduated from LaSalle in May 2000. However, most of the useful lessons on business, sales, and human nature came from her experiences on the exchange floor. When she started she was what was called a $2 broker—the commission at one point for her line of work. All day, every day, she would match buyers and sellers and negotiate between them. “Basically you were helping both people,” Helen says.

In 2011, a couple of years into a role as director of equity trading at a small brokerage firm, Helen left the industry. Computers rather than people were increasingly running the show. By chance, her cousin recommended she get a job selling wine at the newly opened Wegmans grocery store in New Jersey. “You like wine, don’t you?” Helen did, though she didn’t know much about wine other than what she liked to drink. Wegmans hired her anyway. She started meeting vendors. One recommended she take some classes on wine and spirits. She did. Soon after, she was hired away to be a sales representative at Winebow, an importer and distributor, where she remained until the pandemic shut down the business.

After some part-time work in a local wine shop, Helen saw a listing for a full-time job as a Wine Specialist for the State of Pennsylvania—or specifically the PA Liquor Control Board, which rigidly controls the sale of alcohol within the state. Helen applied and was quickly rejected by an email saying she was not qualified. Most Wine Specialists, she learned, had worked their way up from clerks at one of the 600 state liquor stores—as well as taking a battery of state-sponsored courses. Helen was not one to let this stand and sent a note to the Control Board. Her moxie is to be applauded:

I am disappointed to hear that it was determined I am not qualified for the Wine Specialist job. Based on my previous experience I thought I might be overqualified and never imagined you would suggest I wasn't qualified.

As a retail associate at Wegmans I made many suggestions & customers would come in looking to buy a bottle of wine & would leave with a case. The customers learned my work schedule & only shopped when I was available to help them with their selections.

I passed Intermediate & Advance WSET classes with merit.

As a wine rep for Winebow (salesperson of the year 4 times in 7 years) I curated a plethora of wine lists for many restaurants.  I also conducted all of the staff training. Additionally I would organize & host food/wine pairings for my restaurant customers. 

With Winebow we had weekly educational classes taught by experts. Furthermore we regularly held "class" among immediate colleagues where we would teach about specific grapes, regions, producers along with tastings. 

In my current position I do all the wine buying (Vintage, Wine Merchant, Breakthru & Southern) in addition to beer purchases.  Customers rave about our selection & seek me out for suggestions.  My customers also recommend me to their friends & advise them to come into the market when I am working as I am a huge help with wine selections and food pairings.

I'd very much appreciate knowing how I am not qualified & what I need to do to become qualified.  Thank you in advance.

Two weeks after sending this email, Helen received a call to come in for an interview. That was a Wednesday. She was hired on Friday. She now works for the largest wine buyer in the United States.

At her store, Helen oversees the luxury selections of wine rather than what she calls the “mass-produced stuff” that resides on most of the shelves. “They make millions of cases of these regular wines. You get the same ones. Yesterday, tomorrow, five years ago, five years from now.” That’s okay for some people, Helen says. They don’t know much about wine, nor do they care. Red or White. That is about the sum of their selection process.

Helen likes to educate though. And she likes to sell. For her, they are sides of the same coin. “The way I always describe it to people—and I get so excited about it, I get them excited—is that I liken buying wine to buying produce. Would you rather buy at a big grocery store or from a farmers’ market.? And generally, everyone says the farmers market. Of course, I always give that choice second. It’s a sales trick. But I believe it. I mean nobody has ever said to me, I’d like mass-manufactured stuff. They want someone who cares about their product.”

Part of the education—and sale—is revealing the story behind individual wines. “A lot of the wines that I fall in love with are the ones that have a story to tell,” she says. “It’s usually a family. They’ve passed down their vineyard from generation to generation, and they care deeply about their wines. They know what grapes go great in which soils, and on which hillside. Some even play music to their vines. These are the smaller productions.”

It is a mark of her skill that customers often leave her store with more than they intended to buy. Helen speaks of these interactions with childlike glee. “The other day I was doing a wine tasting with a lady. Before we start, I was telling her about the grapes and the special way the family grows them. ‘Oh my god!’ the lady says before grabbing two bottles and heading to the register. She didn’t even taste the wine. She was so thrilled she just took it and left.” Helen has dozens of these stories. Many begin with a customer looking for a particular bottle, then leaving with a whole case.

Her coworkers marvel at her ability—and get a fair bit of entertainment over it. “They always laugh at me about that. And I’m like, well, I’m just helping. People think sales is like getting something over someone. I never think of it that way. I believe I’m helping these people find a wine that they’ll love as I do. You just have to ask a lot of questions.”

I’ll end this profile with a list. In my exchanges with Helen, she consistently signed her emails, “Always Positive, Helen.” I asked her about the origination of this line and here’s her reply:

I have my own set of “Commandments” that I try to live by – 8 of them (my favorite # is 8):

1. Have a positive mental attitude

2. Be enthusiastic

3. Remember every adversity has a benefit

4. DO what you say

5. Apply what you know

6. Learn something new every day

7. Help other people

8. Take steps in the right direction

I try to be positive & optimistic in all situations.  TRY.

We’ll talk again in a week. As always. Same time, same band, same place.

Yours,

Neal

P.S. A shoutout to Alex Dobrenko and his newsletter

Both Are True

absurd, honest comedy delivered twice a weekish through the vulnerable personal essays of Alex Dobrenko: friend to all, father to one, and tv actor+writer to anyone hiring

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