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

Hi Matic, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Firstly, everyone needs to find joy in what they are doing to be successful. That is what happened to me, it was my long-time hobby from my younger age, which I turned into a business.
But it didn’t happen overnight, I changed nine jobs until I was 27 years old and also worked abroad for a few years, so I got tons of experience before I started my business career.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Because of my love of spicy food, I have started with the production of different kinds of “hot” chilli, BBQ sauces, and marinades.

My father already had a small beekeeping hobby, which we soon expanded from one beehouse to three and are offering more than ten unique cream honey varieties.

But what we are the proudest of is the first official spicy wine that we presented to the world and also got a gold medal for the innovation in the great American wine competition in 2017 in New York.
This year we take one step further and present the CHILLINO SPRITZ slightly spicy summer drink that also won a gold medal in the same competition as the best wine spritz 2022!
It can be found on www-chilli-wine.com

It really excites me when we launch a new product and customers love it, this is immense satisfaction for me.
Of course, challenges are presented daily, but with persistence and trust in our experience and teamwork, it is a bit easier to overcome them.

We are still far from feeling that we have reached any significant success yet, but I firmly believe that our brand and my story will be recognizable as a great success being created from 250$ that I had when I started.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Because I am in the wine business and love food&wine pairing, being a sommelier myself, I would first take them to the best wine cellars in the area to try the finest selection of wines. And also, as a foodie some great places to eat the best local food.

After more than 25 years of being a passionate mountaineer and hiking lover, we might try to summit a mountain and take an overnight trip to the best sunrise ever seen from the top of the mountains.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I was 22y, I got my hands on a Robert Kiyosaki book Rich dad poor dad. This was my first eye opener that there is something more in life than just working from morning till late, from Monday till Friday …
Later on, I’m still reading and listening on monthly basis books and audio tapes to stay on track. Otherwise, life happens, you can get easily disturbed and being leed away from your goals!

The second part are my parents, who always gave me tremendous support in starting my small business at home on a small farm, which nowadays is growing and expanding to a much larger scale than it was at the beginning.
If they wouldn’t believe and helped me all the time, I would never be where I am today!

And the last part is my joint venture with a company that was built by four business partners who are also all from the food sector – Kooperativa 103.
We are now collaborating in one big warehouse and having our fast-growing modern production line, which ensures our even more rapid growth and expansion.

Website: www.chilli-wine.com

Instagram: maticvizjak

Linkedin: Matic Vizjak

Facebook: Matic Vizjak

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