Career Discovery Success Stories – Shelbi Elkins

The Rootstock for a New Career

A successful big-business strategy consultant, Shelbi Elkins longed to work with a product she could really get behind. Over the years, she had developed an interest in wine, and began to think about where she could work in the industry. Shelbi found her niche while vacationing in Argentina, where she fell in love with the country's wines.

After conducting a three-month market analysis of Argentinean wines, she discovered an opportunity for importing handcrafted, small-production wine brands—and Copa Fina Wine Imports was born.

While setting up her company, Shelbi decided that Career Discovery – The Professional World of Wine—which she had read about in an article in Food & Wine—would be a good way to accelerate her understanding of the business. "The class provided an astronomical amount of wine and wine-industry information," says Shelbi. "The newfound confidence and credibility I gained has greatly helped me in scouting trips to Argentina and in speaking with clients in the U.S."

It certainly has. After just eight months in operation, Copa Fina has 60 accounts in Northern California—and counting.

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