Jeanine Lum

I attribute my success to resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to step into unfamiliar territory and figure out what comes next. My career spans 20 years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, where I retired as a Sergeant, plus nearly a decade in aviation, real estate, commercial construction, and ultimately entrepreneurship. Each chapter has challenged me differently and strengthened my leadership, communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.

Founding 3rd Bottle® has brought all of those experiences together. I identified a real problem, developed a patent-pending solution, and learned how to take an idea through product development, manufacturing, intellectual property, logistics, marketing, e-commerce, and retail. I have also learned the value of seeking guidance from people with experience beyond my own. I don't believe successful leaders need to know everything; they need to ask questions, keep learning, and surround themselves with people who can help them grow.

Above all, I attribute my success to perseverance. I have never been afraid to reinvent myself, take on a new challenge, or start again when something didn't go as planned. Service has also remained an important part of who I am, from my years in public service to supporting veterans, volunteering in my community, and fundraising for charities. For me, success isn't defined only by what you build or achieve, but by how you use your experience to create opportunities, solve problems, and make a meaningful difference for others.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is: don’t be afraid to be the person in the room who asks the question. You don’t have to know everything to be successful, but you do have to be willing to learn. Throughout my career, I’ve stepped into industries and situations where I didn’t have all the answers, and I learned to seek out people who knew more than I did, ask questions, listen, and then trust myself enough to make the decision.

Building 3rd Bottle® reinforced that lesson more than anything. I had a product idea, but I wasn’t an expert in manufacturing, patents, logistics, e-commerce, or retail. I learned each piece by finding the right people, asking a lot of questions, and refusing to let what I didn’t know stop me from moving forward.

You can learn what you don’t know. What you can’t teach is the determination to keep going long enough to figure it out.

My advice to young women entering any industry is to seek out people who have actually done what you are trying to do and learn from them. Find experienced professionals, mentors, and experts who have built businesses, developed products, made mistakes, recovered from them, and are willing to share what they learned along the way.

At the same time, learn to distinguish meaningful advice from noise. There will always be people on the sidelines with opinions about what you should or shouldn’t do, even though they have never taken the risks themselves. Listen carefully to people whose experience has earned your respect, but don’t allow someone else’s fear or limitations to become your own.

Ask questions. Stay curious. Build relationships with people who know more than you do. And then trust yourself enough to make the decision. You don’t need everyone to believe in your vision; you need the courage to keep building it.

One of the biggest challenges in my field is also one of the greatest opportunities: helping consumers recognize a problem they may not realize until it’s too late. People invest significant time and money in selecting wine, yet they often overlook temperature exposure during transportation. Heat can compromise a bottle long before it reaches the table, and traditional wine carriers are generally designed around convenience rather than temperature protection.

That creates an exciting opportunity for innovation and consumer education. Wine consumers are increasingly interested in experiences, travel, wineries, outdoor entertaining, and products that combine function with thoughtful design. I believe there is tremendous room for products that protect the investment people make in wine while fitting naturally into the way they live and travel.

As an independent founder, another challenge is bringing a new product to market and competing for visibility alongside established brands with significantly greater resources. But being smaller also creates an advantage: you can listen closely to your customers, move quickly, identify gaps larger companies may overlook, and create solutions specifically around those unmet needs.

For me, the opportunity isn’t simply to sell another wine accessory; it’s to help establish a better way to transport and protect wine.

The values that matter most to me are integrity, compassion, service, perseverance, and giving back. I believe how you treat people, especially when there is nothing to gain from helping them, says far more about who you are than any professional title or accomplishment.

For six years, I volunteered my time and cosmetology skills by providing complimentary haircuts at a veterans’ recovery home. When the facility was ultimately shut down due to fraud, I couldn’t simply walk away from the veterans I had come to know, particularly Vietnam-era veterans who had little or no family support. I helped connect them with other homes and resources so they would not be left without a place to go.

That experience reinforced something I have carried throughout my life and career: success comes with a responsibility to do some good with it. Whether I’m leading a business, developing a product, working with my team, or serving my community, I try to operate with integrity, treat people with compassion, and follow through on my commitments.

At the end of the day, I don’t want my legacy to be measured only by what I built. I want it to include who I helped along the way.