Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #283 Ingrid Best on Building a South African Wine Empire, Art Investing, & Unveiling Africa's Truth

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EYL #283 Ingrid Best on Building a South African Wine Empire, Art Investing, & Unveiling Africa's Truth · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back, Earn your leisure. We are
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: back in New York. Yes, and very special episode something
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: that you know, there's been in the works for a
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: few years now.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: So finally getting it done.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: For sure, most importantly, we're getting it done.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, ingrid Best, Did I say your first name correctly?
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Absolutely?
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Ingridest So from the Bay Area originally. Now you live
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: in so Cal. But you have a spirits business.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I do. I have a wine business.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I'm just waiting for you to say originally, because you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: New York really claims you.
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: I know, just caught up. I was born in New York.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: I was raised in the Bay Area.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I really like to say, I grew up in San Francisco.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I got my muscle from Oakland.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: What does that mean?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: So it's where I became a woman.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: But did you ever live in Oakland or you was
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: just going across the bridge.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: I graduated from Oakland High School. I had my son
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: in Oakland, and I had my business, my promotions business
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: was in Oakland. So you know, just all the things
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: that I think really were the foundation for the woman
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: that I am today is from Oaklands.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: The area Bay is crazy because it's like San Francisco.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Once you cross the bridge, it's a it's like a
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: different world the two cities.
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, I mean not only the Bay, right, but
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: even northern California, Southern California, you know, in one state.
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: It's just so different. So I like to say I've
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: had the best of a lot of world.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: You know, for sure.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Calli's so big though, it would be essentially like
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: New York Virginia, right, And that's how large it is
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: from you know, coast to coast. So all right, well,
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: thank you for joining us.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for having me.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Absolutely we're going to talk about it. I only want
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: to You're obviously an entrepreneur and you have your art
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: collector as well. Absolutely, so we're going to talk about
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: that as well. So, but I want to start with
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: the wine. Okay, So this is the wine right here,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: that's the one I best. Is the name of the wine, right.
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's my namesake, I Best Wines, and it's my
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: way of definitely putting some legacy on the shelf.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: So okay, what's the process, what's your your journey in
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: the spirits industry to even get to this point, and
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: at what point do you decide that you want to
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: take a leap of faith and create your own product.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: So twenty plus years I've been in the wine and
• 4:37
  Speaker 6: spars business. I've worked for three of the largest suppliers
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: in the world. I've worked on two joint ventures, and
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: I think it was the exposure to just seeing what
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: those businessmen did in the wine and spirits industry that
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: really inspired me. I was like, well, wait a minute,
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: you know I'm helping everybody make all this money.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: What was your role?
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: So I started out as an ambassador. That's how I started,
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: and I launched a small rum brand for Diagio, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: through that role, I just got hyper exposed to every function,
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: which typically an ambassador roles you don't always get exposed
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: at that level. I did, and so I quickly realized.
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: I was like, I love this because before that I
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: was a street promoter. I did street promotions and on
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: the music side, and I realized I was like, oh,
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: this is like working records. Working these you know, brands
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: is like working records. So it was I think I
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: just had a natural talent for it, and so I
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: started as an ambassador. Then I moved into a hybrid
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: role sales and marketing, which was good for me. Initially,
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: I really fought being in a sales role because I
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: was like, it's not sexy. I don't want to do this.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: I'm a marketer. I do promotions. But learning the commercial
• 5:49
  Speaker 6: side of the business made me so well rounded, like
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: I was unstoppable because I understood how to sell and
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: then got a role just on marketing oper on Hennessy
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: during the revitalization period of Hennessy because there was a
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: period where nobody was what time frame.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Were talking about with the revitalization because some of the
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: listeners like, there's always been hot.
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say from probably two thousand and like.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Fifteen until about a.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: Couple of years ago that Hennessy fell off.
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: No, that that we actually did revitalization Tennessee.
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: Was that like when NAS NAS got involved.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: When NAS got involved, Are you part of that? Yeah?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: We were all part of that.
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: And there was an incredible group of people that were
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: working on Hennessy at the time. You know how you
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: have those teams that get assembled and you're like, that's
• 6:42
  Speaker 6: the team. It was an incredible team and it was
• 6:46
  Speaker 6: a special moment and definitely a defining moment for me
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: to see such a like I think legacy pran and
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: icon iconic brand be reimagined, right, because at one point
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: people really saw Hennessy is like your dad's drink, and
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: then it was like, how do we make this young
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: and hot and fresh? And we did that and it
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: had a great run and then here comes Tequila, which
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: is what's happening now, right, So I did that. I
• 7:15
  Speaker 6: worked on the Hennessy team, and then I worked on
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: the Belvedere team because the gentleman who was running Hennessy
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: got the job to try to revitalize Belvetere. And I
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: did that for a bit and then I got a
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: call from the Rock Nation team saying, we need someone
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: to fill this role on dust to manage the joint
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: venture for Bacardi and rock Nation. And what they really
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: were looking for was somebody who had the business side right,
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: who did understand the commercial, the marketing, the promotion, but culture.
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: And there's not a lot of people, unfortunately in corporate
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: that have that check all those boxes. So then I
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: went to run the joint venture on the Bookardi side
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: and I did that for two years and it was incrediboys,
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: you guys can imagine, and at the time, again Coneyak
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: was very much so having its moment. You know, do
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: you say, is a great brand, and we built an
• 8:11
  Speaker 6: incredible team and definitely got the attention of bigger brands
• 8:16
  Speaker 6: like a Hennessy. You know, we were considered one of
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: those ankle biders, like what are they doing? How are
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: they doing this? And that's the power of obviously rock
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: Nation and Jay and everything that they've built. And then
• 8:27
  Speaker 6: I got a call from Puff's team saying, we need
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: somebody to understands joint ventures that knows how to run,
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: you know, run this business. We're at a critical point.
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: The joint venture has been around for a while and
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: we just need to bring brief some life into it.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: So each one of these brands of looking at you
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: for your expertise, because not just because you're a marketing genius,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: but because you're telling stories.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I feel like that that's the part. Even when we
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: spoke about the Henessy thing, I remember, I mean we
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: first for me it was like watching mob Deep and
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Priory has a jersey on. I'm like, what's that right now?
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Where I'm hearing nas narrate stories and now it feels
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: different And so where did you get the sense of storytelling, right,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Is it from that love of music or was it
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: just a natural instinct that you have.
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I definitely would say, you know, music is my
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: first love. In my mind, I was going to be
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: a big music executive. Like nobody couldn't tell me that.
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: I wasn't going to like run a label, launch a label.
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: Music is really my first love. And during the street
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: promotion days, that's what you were doing. You were telling
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: these stories for these artists in your markets. And so
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: I took that and I applied it to how I
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: would tell stories around brands. And all these brands have
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: long legacy, I mean crazy legacy there.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: You know, some of these brands are three hundred years old.
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: The problem is those stories aren't stories about us because
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: these brands aren't owned by us. And so when you
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: get a marketer that can then make it relatable to
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: a whole new generation, to cultures. That's what I realized
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: that I was really good at doing that, and I
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: was really good at building teams to do that, you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: putting together the right pieces of the puzzle to do it. So,
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: for instance, on Ducey, you know, I hired a black
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: Parisian guy, moved him from Paris to New York to
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: work on Duce because Duce is a French brand. Who
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: better else to tell the story than a French black guy, right,
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: and to do education and do all that kind of stuff.
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: So I think my sweet spot was like understanding how
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: to storytell, but doing it through building great teams.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: Yes, so all right, so you're establishing yourself. When do
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: you leave the corporate world and become an entrepreneur?
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: So I called Puff and I said, you know, it's
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: time for me to launch my wine. And when I
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: took the job with him, you know, I told him
• 10:52
  Speaker 6: this is gonna be my last job. You know, I
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: know that if I'm forever working, if I don't give
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: myself a like exit plan, I'm gonna do this forever.
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: Because listen, the checks are nice. It's nice to be
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: an executive. It's nice to have all the budgets and
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: all the bells and whistles, and you get you can
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: get very comfortable. And so I knew I didn't want
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: to find myself just getting too comfortable. And so I
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: told him, I said, listen, it's time I got to
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: take this sleap of faith.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And he fully supported.
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: Me and was like you know what, I already know
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: that you're going to do your thing like and I'm
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: here to support you any way I can. And I'm
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: forever grateful to him for that. And so two years
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: ago I resigned and I went on a missionary to
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: launch this brand, you know, And it really was this
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: life changing trip to South Africa where I was like,
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: why they didn't tell us that this was here? But
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: of course they didn't tell us, right, we had to
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: go find it.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: For the vineyards. Yeah, the vineyards in South Africa.
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: Oh man, It's one of the most beautiful wine regions
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: in the world and some of the most incredible wine
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: in the world. And for people in wine, they know
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: South Africa and wine. For real wine collectors, real wine connoisseurs,
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: people who you know, traveled, they absolutely know about the
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: wine region. But here I was twenty years in a game.
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: I didn't know anything about South African wine. And I'd
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: like to consider myself, you know, someone who was really
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: in the know.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I had traveled the world for wine.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: So how did you find you just randomly in South
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Africa or you went there specifically looking for it?
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So my girl Angela got hired for a gig
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: in South Africa, and she called me.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: She said, I'm going to South Africa. You want to come.
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: I was like what, She's like, it's a week your birthday.
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: I was like, say no more. I booked my ticket
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: and I went to South Africa and I was actually
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: there a few days before her, and then she arrived,
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: and I just remember like being in restaurants and you
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: would open up the work because of course I always
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: go I'm conditioned to look at the wineless.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Look at it, right, and I'm like.
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: South Africa, South Africa. I'm like, look at this Wineless,
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: like look at these wines. And it was really that
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: trip that just like made me want to go and
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: like really understand what was going on. And so then
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: we decided. So that was the first trip. It was
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: really a casual trip. It was just girlfriends hanging out.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: But I remember those Wineless like stuck with me. I
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: was like, this wine is really good. And then we
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: activated around Global Citizens when it was in South Africa.
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: So I basically added a few days in advanced a
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: trip and I went to the wine region and that's
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: when I was like, oh, okay, that's what's going on here.
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: They've been hiding this from us, And initially I was
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: going to launch a wine from Napa because I'm from
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: the Bay.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I could have done that with my eyes closed.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: But you know, telling this story about South Africa, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: the truth is I really fell in love with.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: South Africa, like I love it. It feels like home
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: I planted my roots there, and I knew that I
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: didn't want to do anything that wasn't disruptive, like I
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: knew if I just did Napa that was expected. So
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: launching from South Africa was certainly the disruptive route, which
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: makes sense for me.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, so life changing trip outside of just falling
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: in love with the country and finding the wine. I
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: know art plays a part in that. We'll get to
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that a little bit later. But what's step one now? Right,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Like you found out that this is I think the
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: third largest wine region in the country, in the world,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: in the world. You have the vision for it, I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: want to create my I have to be disruptive. NAP
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: is not going to do it because everybody does that.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: What's step one? Now, when you get back and create
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: the plan, what does it look like?
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: So step one was really I prayed about it that
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: was step one.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Step one, I prayed.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: I was like, okay, you know, God tell me if
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And the
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: answer was yes, And then I would say the next
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: step was connecting with people in South Africa, and the
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: biggest thing for me was I wanted to make sure
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: that no one in the wine industry in South Africa
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: would feel any offense to me as a black woman,
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: like touting the South African wine renaissance, right, because I'm
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: still a black woman from America, and so I think
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: it was super important for me to like connect with winemakers,
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: connect just really understand the background of the wine region.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: You know, listen, black farmers, black winemakers and apart, Like,
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: I just really did a lot of research. So I
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: wasn't going into this as like a naive American, which
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: I think a lot of times we do.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: I wanted to be respectful, I wanted to be tasteful,
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: and I wanted to do this with South African people.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: So that was I would say.
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: You know, after praying, it was like, Okay, find the
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: people that are going to tell you yay or nay.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: And everyone that I spoke to was so excited. They
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: were like, man, we've been waiting for America to really
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: understand what's going on with South African wine.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: This sounds amazing. You know.
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: I got so much love and so much blessing. I
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: really felt like I needed to ask a bit of permission,
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: just from a respectful standpoint, not that I can't do
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: what I want to do as a business, but just
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: out of pure integrity and respect. Everyone was so supportive,
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: and from that I was like, Oh, it's on.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: As you're going through that the research and doing the
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: due diligence finding the right people in South Africa, are
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: you finding that other brands are there as well? And
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: did some of them surprise you? Right? Because a lot
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: of times when we think wine, we think French, we think,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: like you said, I have a value. We never thinks
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: that have Africa where their brands they are ready, that
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: have been taking advantage of this.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That's a great question.
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: What I'll tell you is the first thing I noticed
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: on that very first trip was how much the big
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: brands that we know here in America are tapped into
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: South Africa. So big big brands are doing tons of advertising,
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: tons of activations. They're locked in they see the opportunity
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: in South Africa. Right, Even when we did the activation
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: with do say for Global Citizen, Like, I remember coming
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: back and saying, we got to lock in in South
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: Africa because I could see what all these brands were doing.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: I would say, from a wine perspective, if you know wine,
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: there are gonna be some wines that are familiar to you,
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: but only if you know wine, right, And so that's
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: where for me, I Best Wines becomes like the icon,
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: Like I want this brand to be the icon of
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: South African wines here in the United States, because I
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: don't think there is one. And it's not to say
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: they're not offered. There's some great wines being sold here,
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: but none of them have reached iconic status. I don't
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: think any wine brand, to be honest with you, has
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: has really taken the position of being an icon There's
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: a lot of great wines, but when you think about spirits,
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: you can think of the icons.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: There are some brands, especially in culture, that are iconic,
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: and in my mind, I Best Wines is going to
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: be the iconic brand for culture in the wine space.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: So, okay, so you established South AFA because the way
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: to go from the business side, Like what's needed to
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: actually get this off the ground, Like you have to
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: talk to the manufacturers and get a distribution deal to
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: bottle it up, like give them a percentage of that,
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: Like how to in the workings of that business actually work.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so the inner workings, I mean, listen, the twenty
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: plus years that I spent in the game, it was
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: it was like it was the manual for me to
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: do this, And I wouldn't have been able to do
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: this the way that I've done it if it wasn't
• 18:32
  Speaker 6: for the twenty years of foundation that I had in
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: this business. And so the first thing was like, first
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: of all, building a model that was going to make
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: us money, because wine is not an easy thing to
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: make money off of. The margins oftentimes aren't as impressive
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: as most people I think would think they would be.
• 18:51
  Speaker 6: So for me, the first brief to like my finance
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: girl was like, I want the wine to be like spirits.
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: In the spirits world, thirty five forty percent margins are typical,
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: and the wine world is twenty to twenty five. I
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: was like, I want I wanted the margins to be
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: at forty percent, Like this is like a Spears brand.
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: Because I knew the inner workings of that piece of
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: the business.
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: So wine and spirits are two different things. Wine and
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: spirits are two spirits is alcohol.
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, spirits are you know, your coniacs, your your vodkas.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: And wine is wine and champagne and champagne and.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Champagne and champagne.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: And then South Africa they make champagne, but because it's
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: not made in Champagne, it's called MCC because you know,
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: there's all these laws and these rules. But South Africa
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: has incredible sparkling wine.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: You said the average margins is twenty percent for wines.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: Right, yeah, twenty twenty five percent, and.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: You said you wanted forty percent.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so okay, how were you How did you envision
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: getting forty percent when the average is twenty percent?
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: Well, I think one of of the things that I
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: understood was in South Africa you can get very really
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: good quality wine and the cost of doing business is
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: much lower than the cost of doing business other places.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: So the quality of.
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: My wine, for instance, if I was producing this in
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: a NAPA or even in France, you know in some
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: instances would be double triple. And so understanding that and
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: again building these relationships in South Africa, so we weren't
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: going out there, you know blind. That was the first
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: thing was to understand, like I don't want to cut
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: corners on quality, but I know based on just purely relationships,
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: we can get the wine that we want to then
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: help us get to the margins that we want.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: To be at.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: So the order and the spirits and I guess ye
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: industry supplier that should be the customer.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: It's a three tier system in the US.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so is it similar in South Africa? And
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: how we you navigating through that there? Right? Are you
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: finding you're the supplier, I'm the supplier, right, so you're
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: finding the distribution SYSM. What is that system like there
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: as opposed to here? Right? What are some of the
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: differences that you experienced?
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm the supplier.
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: I have a partnership with a winery, one of the
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: premier wineries in Stellingbosh. That was probably the longest part
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: of the process was identifying who was going to be
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: the right partner because there's a lot of basic things
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: like integrity is super important to me, like on curve
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: you make great wine, Like.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: How do you treat your people?
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: You know what the winery environment is like and then
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: it was super important for me to connect with a
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: wine maker who understood my vision that was going to
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: like follow my brief in terms of like what I
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: wanted to do from a blending perspective, and so we
• 21:46
  Speaker 6: were able to do that. And then I would say
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: secondarily it was just thinking about everything from like the packaging,
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: the design, like all of that and making sure that
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: it made sense business sense, right. So everything is done
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: in South Africa. Nothing is done here. The only thing
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: that's here is the owners me my team who are
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: equity owners. But everything else, everything that you see on
• 22:12
  Speaker 6: this pack is done in South Africa.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: So how is the exporting process work? As far as
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I'm assuming you're shipping bulk product, Like, is that done
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: at one time or you do like you know, every
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: month you get ordershipments that come in.
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: So it's a very intricate process, which is why I
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: mentioned earlier I wouldn't have been able to do this.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: You know, the chops that I have from twenty years
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: in the business have positioned me to get through what
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: this process requires. So it's it's first you know, identifying
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: what you what you want to produce, blending it going
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: through the bottling process, you know, the packaging process, and
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: then you know getting it on an actual container on
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: a cargo ship. Cargo ship goes from continent to continent,
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: getting it through customs, and then working with a distribution
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: network to get it out. In my case, you know,
• 23:14
  Speaker 6: I've done this one hundred percent myself, Like I own
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: this brand one hundred percent myself.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So I did every part of that process.
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: And I have five incredible women that have been working
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: with me, women that I've met just at different points
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: in my career, who trusted me, understood the vision, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: what I said to them was like, these are all
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: the roles that we're going to need to make this happen,
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: and I'm going to give all of you equity. And
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: so everybody had their piece of the other puzzle when
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: we made it happen.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Again, it's not easy to do.
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: It requires a lot of know how, it requires patience.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: You know, you can't rush this process because ultimately beautiful
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: pack but when you open it, if the wine isn't good,
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: it doesn't mean anything.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: So before there were equity partners, it was just you,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: just me, and this is I don't know if I
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: don't want anybody to get this misconscrewed. This is not
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: an easy thing to do, number one. But it's cash
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: intensive as well. So how did you get funding? Was
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: it self funded? What was that process? Like?
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: One hundred percent self funded? So all my capital went
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: into this. You know, I made good decisions in my
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: life real estate, art, investing, saving, just understanding you know
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: that cash is so important, and I knew that that
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: there was going to come a time that like all
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: those decisions would come into play, and this is this
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: is the result of that.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: So yeah, it's just me in terms of investing my
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: own capital, and then the women on the team have
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: invested their time, and that's equally isn't valuable, right because
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: without a team and without people to build it with,
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: I mean, their time is as valuable as my capital.
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: But because they have been the ones that have been
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: helping me move the pieces, which is why making sure
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: that they all got equity in the business was so
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: important to me. A month before I launched, five friends
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: who all women came to me and said, listen, we
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: see what you build and we already know you know
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: what you're doing.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: This is going to be amazing. We want to invest
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in this.
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: So five black women came together and invested in the business.
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: But before then it was just me.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: So you have a winery that you get your wine from, right, Yes,
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: I'm assuming you're not the only person that gets wined
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: from that winery.
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: No, yeah, so they do. They do tons of white
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: labeling projects. This is a proprietary to I Best Wines.
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: These blends I actually blended with the winemaker. I've shared
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: a lot of that across my social channels because I
• 25:52
  Speaker 6: wanted people to see what it took for me to
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: build this. But the winery is, you know, best in
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: class award winning and they do tons of business around
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: the world, and they were so excited about this.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: So how do you make your wine different from somebody
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: else's wine it's coming from the same vineyard. Yes, that's
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: the process of actually making it different.
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: So these are again, these are blends with specific percentages.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: You know that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: We actually said, I love Shannon Blanc, I love Savagnon Blanc,
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: and then chardonnay from South Africa. It's so different than
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: other places in the world that I was like, let's
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: show people how great chardonnay is from South Africa. So
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: we blended those three blends, right, and then for the
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: red same thing. It's cab dominant but petite Sarah charras malback.
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: So these are my own proprietary blends based on like
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: the wine that I love, but then also understanding the
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: wine that consumers.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: Love, and that's done in the winery.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It's done in the winery.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: So it's not like a farm where like everybody's getting
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: the same chicken.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: No.
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: No, everybody's blends are different. People use soul fates and this,
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: and I mean everybody's what.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Are you blending it with?
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Like what exactly to the average person doesn't know like
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: what you're talking about as far as like what wine,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: what is that getting blended with?
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: So there's three. So I'll use the white as an example.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: So there's three varietals, three different grape varieties. In the
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: white wine. There's a Charnay, a shinnen blanc, and a
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: saveen blanc that gets rested in oak barrels.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: It sits right.
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: That's where a lot of times you get that like
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: smooth oaky. You know whether it's the nose or the
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: or the taste, and then that process goes.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Through a filtration process.
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: There are some things that are added to just stabilize
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: the wine. All natural, So that's another thing I think
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: that's important for people to understand the process and other
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: places outside of the US tends to be a lot cleaner.
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: So wine that wines and spears that are being produced
• 27:53
  Speaker 6: in the US typically don't go through as much a
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: stringencies as wines and spirits being produced outside of the US.
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: And I mean that just goes to like our food
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: source and all that. Like the US as big and
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: as powerful we are a lot of there's a lot
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: of bullshit that goes on here, right, yes, so very clean.
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: You know process in terms of you know what's in
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: the wine. It's considered vegan. It's not organic, but it
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: is considered vegan. And then it gets bottled and typically,
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: for instance, we bottled these wines in June. You want
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: to let wine be bottled anywhere from four to six
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: months because the wine goes through bottle shock. I mean
• 28:37
  Speaker 6: it's fruit, right, it's alive. So four to six months
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: after bottling the wine is tasting perfect.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: So you bottle it in June, which is why you
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: had to launch in October.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Correct, got that point?
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: It has to get on. I mean it's literally going
• 28:50
  Speaker 6: continent to continent, and you know there's there's some shipping
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: routes that are two weeks.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: You paying for that.
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: You want something to get from Africa to the in
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: two weeks, it's a premium. Some shipping times are sixty days.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: You know, I didn't want the wine on the water
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: that long, so we did two weeks.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So from a distribution standpoint, where are the largest places
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: that you're shipping to? And I mean because you can
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: have the bottle, you can have the right taste, but
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: if it's not placed in the right position, right, if
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: it's not marketing correctly, if it's not sending in the
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: right shelves, if it's not at the right restaurant, it's
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: not going to move.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: No.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: So number one, where we distributed outside of the content
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: in the country and within the country, how does that
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: look right? Because we know what wine and spirit looks
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: like in America, but what does that look like in
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: South Africa.
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So just to speak to the distribution piece, I
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: elected to go with a smaller distributor that I knew
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: could help us do all the things like customs and
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: a lot of the areas where a lot of brands
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: they get stuck, you know, you don't have that foundational
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: just like, how do I even get it into the country.
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: I know so many people who tried to launch brands
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: and their product is sitting in customs still. So went
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: with a reputable, smaller distributor. I knew that we would
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: launch online first, just to give us an opportunity to
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: get it out there. And now the process of securing
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: larger distributors is underway, which I feel confident again because
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: I know that world and I have those relationships and
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: I can make those phone calls. And so we launched online.
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: We sold out of a two week pre sale in
• 30:26
  Speaker 6: six hours. I mean that's how excited people were about
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: the wine. Hundreds of cases and six hours all over
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: the United States, which was really really felt good as.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: You can imagine.
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: And now the work begins to actually build get it
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: into on premise, which is restaurants and you know, nightclubs,
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: and for me, where I see the brand again, this
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: is this is the new icon for me when people
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: think about, you know, when they're out or when they're
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: in a cultural moment. I want IBS Wines to be
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: that like iconic wine brand. And so being really specific
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: about where we want to see the brand right where
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: we think it should show up. But there's also like
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: just the pure business. Right do I want to be
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: in Target? Absolutely?
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Why? Because I shop at Target. I spent a lot
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: of money in Target.
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: There's a lot of shoppers that look like us in Target, right,
• 31:17
  Speaker 6: And I think there was a day in time where
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: new brands felt they couldn't have those kind of ambition,
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: that they felt that they had to build and start
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: small and then and for me, even though this is
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: a new brand, it's a big brand. Like I'm a
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: big brand, right, So I want to show up that way,
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: and I want to show up that way fast. And
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: we are, you know, of course working with smaller retailers.
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: We appreciate smaller retailers. My first stop was in Oakland
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: to wine bars and wine shops. But the goal is
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: to have this be a very very big brand and
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: very lucrative. It's a lot of money in the wine
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: and spirits space. And I know firsthand just because of
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: the a year career I've had.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: So how do you get into art investing?
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: So you know, I used to get these big bonuses.
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: The wine and spirits business is a bonus based business
• 32:14
  Speaker 6: and Uh, I would get these big bonuses and I would,
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: you know, buy a watch, by a purse, buy all
• 32:19
  Speaker 6: of toys, the things, the things I like things.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: And I remember.
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: Hearing the record I think it was a J record
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: and he talked about art and I was like, I
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: have not bought that yet, you know it like it
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: pricked my conscience. And the first real piece that I
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: invested in was a piece of art from South Africa
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: from my artist named Nelson Macomo. It was incredible artists.
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: And the reason why I say invested in is because
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: it was literally half my bonus and I and it
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: was hard for people to understand. They were like, you're
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: gonna spend what you're gonna what?
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Where are you talking?
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: That's a lot of money, just because we haven't really
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: been taught the value.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: It was like twenty five thousand dollars.
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: And who educated you to know if that was something
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: that you should buy.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Well with that purchase, I just loved it.
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: You just looked at it and just like I loved it.
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: And I researched the artists and I mean it fell
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: in line with just kind of me falling in love
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: with South Africa too, you know.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: And I loved it.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: So I think the first thing that I always like
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: to tell people is, even though I invest in art,
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: I only invest in what I love, Like, if I
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: don't love it, I'm not really going to spend my
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: money on it. And so I've been really fortunate to
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: get to know a lot of artists directly. Buy from
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: artists directly, so you circumvent the whole gallery and all
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: that kind off, and you're supporting the artists, Like the
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: artist is getting one hundred percent.
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: How much is that worth? Now?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: That's interesting, right, I see it.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I love it, definitely worth more than what I bought it.
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  Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Castle
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  Speaker 2: Babies ad Jason. That might have sparked it, but does
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: that now spark your love for art or did it
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: just trans into South African art? Right? Did you start
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: studying art, American artists, artists throughout the world and now
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: this becomes a passion for you based on that one purchase.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you know what I realized art for me was
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: I just got lost in it. Like I realized I
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: was like I love this, Like I had just like
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: this genuine passion for it. I didn't grow up going
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: to museums. I didn't grow up going to art exhibits.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: I didn't grow up in a house where there was art,
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: and so I think for me, I was like, oh, wait,
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: we belong here too, you know that it was really
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: that that fueled me. I was like, wait, this is
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: this is a space that we belong in as well.
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: And there's such an incredible art community. So I also
• 37:40
  Speaker 6: was enjoying like getting to meet people, you know, and
• 37:43
  Speaker 6: those people are like involved.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: In in some cool stuff, you know.
• 37:47
  Speaker 6: So I think it was that definitely, you know, African art, art,
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: Black artists in general, you know, was something that I
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: was like, Okay, I love this. These stories are incredible,
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: and then it became like yeah, like you know, I
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: remember buying a piece you asked about the value. I
• 38:06
  Speaker 6: bought a piece for like twelve thousand dollars, and I
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: remember seeing an auction for the artists and her piece
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: so for ninety thousand dollars, and like, I have one
• 38:15
  Speaker 6: of her bigger pieces, earlier works that I bought for
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: twelve thousand dollars, that's clearly gone up in value. So
• 38:21
  Speaker 6: I then also started just to understand, like, oh, okay,
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: this is how that works. And then I think when
• 38:27
  Speaker 6: you study really wealthy people, really wealthy people have a
• 38:30
  Speaker 6: few things in common. They have real estate, a lot
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: of them have a lot of investment in wine, and
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: they invest in art. And I was like, okay, this
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: all kind of makes sense for me. You know, this
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: is the space that I play in any way.
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: So how many pieces do you have? Roughly?
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Oh now, I probably have.
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: Over forty or fifty pieces of art and everything, not
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: just you know, I have sculptures, I have vases.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: I have I mean, you meanweit Where do you keep
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: it all?
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: It's everywhere. I mean, it's in my bathrooms, it's on
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: the floors.
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: But it ever get to a point because it's like,
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: all right, you could invest in a variety of things
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: that art is some way where has to be kept, right,
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: so after a whole it's like you can't really fully
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: appreciate it. I don't think because you can't put it
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: on your wall. You can't put fifty pieces of art
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: on one wall, right, So it's like you can put
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: it in your office, you can put it in different places.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: But when you really start to get a lot of art,
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: I'm always curious to know, like, what are people doing
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: with all of the art that they are they just
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: hoarding it in the basement.
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: Takes Yeah, I mean, listen, people, do you have you know,
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: art storages that are specific for art, just like they
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: have wine storages. For me, I'm working to sell a
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: lot of wine so I could buy a nice, big
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: house so I can have all my art up in it,
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: you know.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, now, it's.
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: Because the art the art storage that kind of I
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: don't understand that. I used to go I used to
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: go to art school when I was young, but I
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: don't understand art storage because the point of artists to
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: be appreciated, and if you're just storing it, I feel
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: like it's actually disrespectful to the art form, right because
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: now you've taken the beauty out of it, and now
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: it's just become like a file cabinet.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: You know, things a double entendre. You use the word
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: appreciate it while it's story it is appreciatedreiating. But I
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: get what you're saying.
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: Your art from an artist's standpoint, I understand the business. Yeah,
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: but art should always come first. The business should come second.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Well, some people create galleries, right, they create their own galleries,
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: which I.
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: Mean, I know people who have like bought the house
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: is next to their house, and the house next to
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: the house.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: It's for art, the gallery.
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: It's just amazing, right, So I'm with you like part
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: And when you ask me like the buying, you know
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: my rationale around buying only buy what I love because,
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: like you, I want it up, I want to see it.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I want to appreciate it. I also want to share
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: it with people.
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: So like when friends come over, they'll be like, your
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: house is like a museum, and I.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Make you feel so good, you know what I mean.
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: Like, I'm like, yeah, So everybody does it for a
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: different reason. But what I could tell you is again,
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: one thing I learned is that people that understand wealth
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: they into art.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: They interwine and they well, one.
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: Thing I learned about art is that if you put
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: it in your office, is a tax right.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: On, It is a tax right off.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I was saying, one of the places that
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: we definitely know that your art is going to show
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: up is the Smithsonian. Yes, we'll talk about that. I
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: mean that that's something that people will be able to
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: frequent and you go down in history forever.
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, that's exciting. So myself and ten collectors got together.
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: We've now acquired three pieces together, and it's our way
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: of you know, collective economics, and we purchase a piece,
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: a Beisa Butler piece that we then donated to the
• 41:53
  Speaker 6: Smithsonian Museum in DC. And so my name will forever
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: be on the museum walls at the Smithsonian as a
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: donor of the piece, and not even that little thing,
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: right like we talk about like having the art in
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: your home and wanting to see it. I remember thinking
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: like wow, donating to a museum. But that's really also
• 42:15
  Speaker 6: a big part of you know, the art world, art
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: collecting and also increasing the value of your collection. So
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: my collection inadvertently increases in value because I own a
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: piece in a museum and people who are in the
• 42:31
  Speaker 6: art world. They know all these little nuances.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: Do you see Because we talk about it in real
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: estate right a lot of times, if people can't afford
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: the property, let's have a collective. Maybe it's five people
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: and we make the down payment. All right, we go
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: into do you see that? In Is that something that
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: happens in the art or often, especially amongst our community?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to misspeak.
• 42:54
  Speaker 6: You know, the collective that I'm a part of, that
• 42:56
  Speaker 6: was the first instance that I had ever heard of it.
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: I'm sure people are doing it, I just don't know.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: The two pieces we bought, they were both one hundred
• 43:06
  Speaker 6: and fifty thousand dollars each. They go together. It's Adam
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: and Eve by Harmonia Rosales. So the total price of
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: the work was three hundred thousand dollars. And when we
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: all thought about it, we were like, I can't do that,
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: but I could do this, and so ten of us
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: got together and purchased it. Those two pieces have been
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: on display at different museums. It's actually at the Spellman
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: Museum right now, and so we're allowing the work to
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: just tour so people get to experience it. And once
• 43:37
  Speaker 6: we did that one. We were like, all right, let's
• 43:39
  Speaker 6: keep doing this. This is amazing. So I don't want
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: to say that it does happen, but I don't want
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: to say that it doesn't happen.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: I just wasn't aware of it.
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: I know that when we had the opportunity to do
• 43:50
  Speaker 6: it together, I said, come on, y'all, let's do this.
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: Because it was thirty thousand dollars. But at the end
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: of the day, I'm part owner of three hundred thousand
• 43:58
  Speaker 6: dollars worth of art that one buy.
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: So, what are like some best practices for people that
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: want to get in art? Like, is it like always
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: go through an art dealer, have insurance, like you know,
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: like when you buy a watch, right, like you can,
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: it's best practices to go through authorized dealer as opposed
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: to just a jeweler. Right, it's best practices to have
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: insurance on the watch.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: What are some of the best practices for art buying?
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean again, I've been really fortunate. I've been
• 44:25
  Speaker 6: able to buy a lot of art directly through art
• 44:27
  Speaker 6: through artists. And the reason why I say fortunate is
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: because one you get to know who you're buying the
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: work from.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: I mean this work is in your home. It's energy, right.
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: A lot of these pieces have stories, these artists maybe
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: going through different things while they're actually creating the work.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm I'm an advocate for people that want
• 44:49
  Speaker 6: to get to know the artists if you can.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: It's worked for me.
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: Secondarily, you know, I've gotten to know some galleries that
• 44:56
  Speaker 6: I respect that I think are doing good bye artists.
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: So you know, it doesn't hurt to have some galleries
• 45:02
  Speaker 6: in your repertoire. Only by what you can afford. And
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: so I would say that that's my biggest advice to people.
• 45:10
  Speaker 6: You know, I've never financed any art, although you can.
• 45:13
  Speaker 6: You know, there are financing programs for art, but I
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: just like to think for good financial hygiene, buy what
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: you can afford.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: That's worked for me.
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: You absolutely have to ensure your art and you have
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: to make sure that it's a reputable insurance that specializes
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: in art insurance. You need to think about where the
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: art is going to be in your home. A lot
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: of light is not friends. It's not art's friends like light.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Light.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it ruins it. It can, yeah, it can.
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: So you know, making sure that the art is in
• 45:48
  Speaker 6: a position in your home that it isn't getting damaged,
• 45:51
  Speaker 6: making sure that you're framing with a reputable framer that's
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: going to talk to you about UV glass versus museum glassman.
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: This is all the stuff that goes into thinking about
• 46:00
  Speaker 6: preserving your art. And then you know, I've not been
• 46:06
  Speaker 6: someone who's gotten into the business of selling my art.
• 46:09
  Speaker 6: I know people that are in that business of selling.
• 46:12
  Speaker 6: I can't say that I would never do it for me.
• 46:15
  Speaker 6: It's legacy building. So this is what I'm going to
• 46:17
  Speaker 6: leave behind for my son, my goddaughters, my grandchild, you
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: know what I mean. Like, this is really legacy building
• 46:24
  Speaker 6: for me and wealth building for them. So I think
• 46:28
  Speaker 6: it's just making sure you get educated like you do
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: in anything that you're going to be investing your money.
• 46:33
  Speaker 6: And the last thing I'll say is the ten people
• 46:37
  Speaker 6: that I invested in art, I respect all those people
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: I expect, respect their portfolios right what they've done with
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: their money. I would have never just gotten with ten
• 46:48
  Speaker 6: people and bought some art that I didn't know I
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: felt were a good fit in what I was trying
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: to do, because that's a relationship. You're getting into a
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: business relationship with them. But I think the biggest thing
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: is by what you can afford and then do all
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: the due diligence, the insurance and all that kind of
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: thing to make sure you're protecting your asset when it's touring.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: The museums are paying to have it on display. How
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: does it over.
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so sometimes you will get paid by museums to
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: have the work. Sometimes it's that you're donating it because
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: you want the connection. You want to lean into the
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: equity of the of I think the institution, right, A
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: lot of these institutions have incredible equity. Smithsonian for example.
• 47:32
  Speaker 6: I mean for me to say that I've been collecting
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: for five six years and I already have my name
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: in the most Smithsonian Museum is like a big deal.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: So you know it's it's a mix.
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: But yeah, there are times where institutions will pay you
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: to actually have your art and their exhibits.
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: So we talked about why art. But can you talk
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: about South Africa and give an insight because you have
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: a relationship with the country from a variety of different standpoints.
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: So.
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: How what do you see as far as opportunity in
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: South Africa is an interesting place because you know it
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: has the largest economy. I think of Africa, but it's
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: mostly controlled by white people. So you know, everybody knows
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: about apartheid, or they should know about apartheid, and you know,
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: the formal system was broken, but the economic system never
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: really changed, so you still have the minority in rule
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: of the majority when it comes to the economics of it.
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: So a lot of people don't even.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: Look at South Africa as like a true African nation,
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: but I would like your perspective from actually spending time
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: out there.
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean lessen. South Africa is absolutely a true
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: African nation. It's Africa, and you know the I think
• 48:51
  Speaker 6: the effects of apartheid are still very apparent, just like
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: the effects of slavery here in the US are still
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: very apparent. But I certainly know that there is this
• 49:02
  Speaker 6: younger generation that's so clear about the fact that they're
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: about to change their own personal situations and change the
• 49:13
  Speaker 6: climate of the country. And those are the people that
• 49:15
  Speaker 6: I've been able to connect with, you know, specifically, in
• 49:19
  Speaker 6: my journey to launch this wine, I connected with a
• 49:22
  Speaker 6: twenty six year old winemaker, Black South African winemaker, Hayley September,
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: who graduated with a wine degree.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Going back to get.
• 49:31
  Speaker 6: Our masters, and you know, it's those kind of stories
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: that are going to change the situation for South Africa.
• 49:41
  Speaker 6: But there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
• 49:43
  Speaker 6: There's still so many issues, I mean so many issues.
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: I read Trevor Noah's book, have read that no I have.
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: It's actually really good. So he talked about even like
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: the different like I guess, we wouldn't be considered black
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: in South Africa colored. We'd be colored, right, yeah, white
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: colored and is black correct? Talk about that because that's interesting.
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: People from America probably can't understand that. I mean, we
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: understand light skin, we know that, but we don't have
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: like set different classes.
• 50:12
  Speaker 5: As far as Dad's.
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: Concern, I'm going to talk about it from my own
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: personal experience. For instance, the young lady who I was
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: just talking about, she would be considered colored. I never
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: call her colored. I'm like Hayley's Black South African because
• 50:25
  Speaker 6: that's not my reality. And it's not that I'm trying
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: to be disrespectful, but it's just it's not the reality
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: that we live in, but it's real for them. There's
• 50:34
  Speaker 6: so much colorism, you know, is wild. And again, what
• 50:40
  Speaker 6: I can tell you is that the younger generation is
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: so aware that a lot of that is just a
• 50:45
  Speaker 6: trap to keep you know, their minds stuck in a
• 50:48
  Speaker 6: certain place, to see us different when we should all
• 50:50
  Speaker 6: see ourselves the same.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: But it does exist.
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: And I think the beautiful opportunity for black folks in
• 50:58
  Speaker 6: America and Africans is that our stories are so similar.
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: You know, there's varying degrees, but I feel so at
• 51:13
  Speaker 6: home when I'm in South Africa, Like I've sat with
• 51:16
  Speaker 6: brothers in South Africa that remind me of you two,
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: you know. So I think dispelling the myth that there's
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: so much difference, and I think also dispelling the myth that,
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: you know, incredible place with so much wealth. I mean,
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: there's so much wealth in Africa. It's wild and a
• 51:35
  Speaker 6: lot of people don't know that. A lot of people
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: still believe that, you know, the only thing to do
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: there is safaris and you know, they're starving children. It's
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: like that couldn't be farther from the truth. And like
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: any country, there is poverty and there are issues, but
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: it's beautiful, you know. And I think the last thing
• 51:54
  Speaker 6: is again the notion that somehow South Africa isn't part
• 51:57
  Speaker 6: of you know, the African nation is wild, is crazy,
• 52:00
  Speaker 6: and I think it's hurtful to Africans in South Africa.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 52:05
  Speaker 6: I've heard them say like, I don't know why anybody
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: would think that, you know, And so.
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: When they are aware of.
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: That, yeah that oh, yeah, for sure, if you're black
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: and you didn't grow up in the hood in the US,
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: that like somehow you're not black.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: It was like we all black when we walk out
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: the door, everybody just right.
• 52:24
  Speaker 6: And so I think it's even hurtful for me to
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: hear that because I've spent so much time in South
• 52:30
  Speaker 6: Africa and it's absolutely Africa. I've been to Ghana, I've
• 52:34
  Speaker 6: been to Nigeria, I've been to Africa, and I'm never
• 52:37
  Speaker 6: in South Africa like this is.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: In Africa, you know what I mean. This is very
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: much so.
• 52:42
  Speaker 6: Africa, you know, in the tradition and the beauty of
• 52:45
  Speaker 6: the tradition.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: It's just very powerful.
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: And so I think my biggest thing with I Best
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: Wines is also showing Black Americans we should be doing
• 52:55
  Speaker 6: business on the continent.
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting because when you create business,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: you have an opportunity to create a narrative, right, and
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: so with I Best. How do you intertwine right ingrid story,
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: this region story, this cultural story together. How are you
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: navigating that? What is the story of I Best that
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: the world needs to here?
• 53:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah, the story is really is it is a blending
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: and a celebration of culture.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: That's really what this is.
• 53:25
  Speaker 6: And so for me, you know, really telling this story
• 53:29
  Speaker 6: of like here, I am a black woman from America
• 53:32
  Speaker 6: who went to South Africa and just fell in love
• 53:34
  Speaker 6: and felt at home and then quickly understood that like
• 53:38
  Speaker 6: I could do business, I could do business here, you know,
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: like this is this place is ripe for us to
• 53:44
  Speaker 6: go and do business.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: And not only can I.
• 53:47
  Speaker 6: Do business, but I have the support of other people
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: to do the business right. And so IBST is really
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: just a celebration of culture, global culture. I consider myself
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: a global citizens. I've been all over the world. I
• 53:57
  Speaker 6: love the world. I love traveling, and so I hope
• 54:01
  Speaker 6: it's my way of transporting people to South Africa to
• 54:04
  Speaker 6: experience South Africa just a bit. And I also hope
• 54:07
  Speaker 6: that it's a way to have people understand that like
• 54:11
  Speaker 6: the comfortable thing was Napa, the disruptive thing was South Africa.
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: So when Akorn has said like, you know, everybody, every
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: black person from America should go to Africa and start
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: a business and you become a millionaire a lot. I
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: was talking to somebody and I understand what he meant
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: by that, But the how two parties do what's missing, right,
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: And that's that's very important. So you, as an American
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: who actually went to Africa and started a business, what
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: advice would you give people from the States or from
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: anywhere in the aspect that's looking to tap in with Africa,
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: Like as far as you know, cultural experiences and how
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: to network properly, how to communicate, Like what would you
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: give as far as advice based off of your own
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: personal experience?
• 54:57
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think the first thing that I
• 55:00
  Speaker 6: I would say is specifically black Americans. We do a
• 55:05
  Speaker 6: lot of Caribbean, we do a lot of Europe, do
• 55:07
  Speaker 6: some Africa, you know, just go. Like the first thing
• 55:12
  Speaker 6: is like go. I mean, as Americans, we have the
• 55:17
  Speaker 6: freedom to travel anywhere in the world our passport. Like
• 55:20
  Speaker 6: that's one thing that you realize when you're in Africa
• 55:23
  Speaker 6: that like the constraints for Africans to just travel around
• 55:26
  Speaker 6: Africa is bananas. But that's by design, right, that's purely
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: by design, we have that freedom. And so the first
• 55:33
  Speaker 6: advice would be, go, if you've been to Italy five times,
• 55:37
  Speaker 6: it's time for you to go to South Africa once.
• 55:39
  Speaker 6: If you've been to Turks and Caicos six times, it's
• 55:42
  Speaker 6: time for you to go to Ghana once. If you've
• 55:44
  Speaker 6: been to think about where we all go and we
• 55:46
  Speaker 6: spend our money, cyrus, all of that. So my first
• 55:51
  Speaker 6: advice would be go tap in and wait to be widely,
• 55:57
  Speaker 6: wildly surprised. But what you're going to unco when you
• 56:00
  Speaker 6: get there. The second thing is like our brothers and
• 56:04
  Speaker 6: sisters in Africa are waiting for us to come. So
• 56:06
  Speaker 6: when we land, they're like, welcome home, you know, So
• 56:10
  Speaker 6: understand that you're also going into an environment where people
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: are welcoming you. They want you there, they want to
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: connect with you. And then I think, like with anything,
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: you're going to find your people. I found my people.
• 56:22
  Speaker 6: It wasn't that hard, you know. So I knew that
• 56:25
  Speaker 6: I wanted to do this business. I sought out to
• 56:28
  Speaker 6: find the people that would help me do this business.
• 56:31
  Speaker 6: And so I just think that we've been taught that
• 56:34
  Speaker 6: Africa is this really difficult thing for us to do
• 56:38
  Speaker 6: and it's actually much easier for us to do than
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: we know.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: And so I would say the first thing is just
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: like go, you know.
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: So the majority of time is here or it is
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: here right.
• 56:51
  Speaker 6: The last two years, the majority of my time with
• 56:53
  Speaker 6: South Africa, people all but thought I moved there, and
• 56:55
  Speaker 6: I all but did because I needed to tap in.
• 56:58
  Speaker 6: I needed to be there. It's it's been nice to
• 57:00
  Speaker 6: be back home. Obviously I had to prepare to get
• 57:03
  Speaker 6: the brand launched. Home is southern California. But now I'm
• 57:06
  Speaker 6: gonna be on the road, you know, slanging wine. I
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: want people to taste the wine. I want people to
• 57:11
  Speaker 6: experience the wine. People are excited about it. I want
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: to tell the story as well and just get you know,
• 57:19
  Speaker 6: just help breathe some like fun new energy into the
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: wine space. I think wine has been you know, marketed,
• 57:26
  Speaker 6: and it's also been like looked at a certain way.
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: And to me, this is like the A side and
• 57:32
  Speaker 6: the B side of a really great record that I
• 57:34
  Speaker 6: want everyone to hear.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, because I'm thinking to myself, the business formation
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: is happening. Happened in South Africa, right. That means the
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: trademarkt the licensing, even the taxes are done there. How's
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: that experience been from knowing what you know? You've been
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: in this spirit's industry, like you said, for over twenty
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: years here in America. How has that transition been for
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: you from the legality standpop side in South Africa.
• 57:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so, I mean it's the dual path, right, because
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: we have to do all that stuff here too. I mean,
• 58:02
  Speaker 6: I'm an American, the business is also established here too.
• 58:08
  Speaker 6: The trademark actually was surprisingly the easiest thing to get,
• 58:12
  Speaker 6: and I thought it was going to be the hardest
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: because the name best right. You would think I had
• 58:17
  Speaker 6: already been sewn up fifty times and so that was
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: like the easiest.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Thing to do.
• 58:21
  Speaker 6: But I think in South Africa it hasn't been as
• 58:26
  Speaker 6: difficult to navigate because remember, the wine region and wine
• 58:30
  Speaker 6: in South Africa is hundreds of years old, so it's
• 58:33
  Speaker 6: not like I just came and I'm doing this for
• 58:35
  Speaker 6: the first time. It's a very established business, very established industry.
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: So it actually wasn't difficult at all to do because
• 58:45
  Speaker 6: wine is what they do. It's one of the biggest
• 58:48
  Speaker 6: wine regions in the world, so it wasn't difficult. I'm
• 58:50
  Speaker 6: sure in other industries. Depending on what you're looking to
• 58:53
  Speaker 6: get into, maybe a little bit more difficult because you
• 58:55
  Speaker 6: just got to figure out how to do it. But
• 58:57
  Speaker 6: with the wine piece of it, it actually wasn't that hard.
• 59:00
  Speaker 6: The hardest part for me was landing on the blends
• 59:04
  Speaker 6: that I love that I was ready to feel comfortable
• 59:07
  Speaker 6: to actually say like this is this is the product.
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: But I would say the foundational pieces, the legal pieces,
• 59:13
  Speaker 6: they weren't difficult.
• 59:14
  Speaker 5: How has it been You have a son, right.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: I have a son? Yeah?
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: How is that as far as traveling? And how is
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: that as far as parenting?
• 59:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, my son is twenty nine. I was a teenage mom.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah I was.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: It's a lot easier.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I know I look younger than what I am.
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: No, I haven't mad as aliment.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a I have.
• 59:38
  Speaker 6: My son at eighteen years old, and so now he's
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: twenty nine. He's very proud. He understands that this is
• 59:45
  Speaker 6: legacy that we're building. And I actually just became a grandmother.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: Oh congratulations.
• 59:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I just became a grandmother. So I had my
• 59:53
  Speaker 6: first little grandson, So this is really legacy. I mean
• 59:56
  Speaker 6: he was born within days of this long launch. Yeah,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 6: it was like two berths, you know, at the same time.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 6: But I will tell you, looking back at my career
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 6: and being a teenage mother and having to figure all
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 6: that out, it wasn't easy. And thank God for my mother.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 6: And I think a lot of us right rely on
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 6: the grandparent, especially when you're younger and you have children.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 6: So my mother was absolutely co parenting with me, and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 6: so luckily now at this phase in my life, I
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 6: don't have a young young one other than my grandson.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 6: But I know a lot of people that are out
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 6: here grinding trying to navigate parenthood and it's not easy
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 6: for sure.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Y'all talk about succession. Does he find in this business interesting?
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: Is it something like you guys working together. I know
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: at one point you said that being a team mom,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: you have to grow together, right, Like you're growing as
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: an adult and you're raising somebody, So you're going is
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: that synonymous now with this business?
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 6: Listen, everybody knows that I'm doing this for legacy purposes,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 6: including him. I think he is still wrapping hisself around,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 6: his head around like my mom is the talent of
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 6: this thing, right. Everybody's been talking to me, like, how
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 6: does it feel to be the talent of I best
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 6: one like.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Talent because I never saw myself as that. I think
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: my son is.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 6: Processing that part that like people want to, you know,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 6: interview his mom and talk to his mom, and I
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: have my autograph on the bottles because I'm just his mom,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 6: you know. So I think that's probably the thing he's
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 6: navigating most. He's seen me in this business for so long,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 6: so he understands it and he's like, you're about to
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 6: get that money, mom.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: That part he's like, this is really exciting.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 6: But I also haven't necessarily forced him to be in
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 6: the business, you know. I think I think the wine
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 6: and spears business represented for my son for many years
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 6: why his mom was gone so much. So I had
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 6: to also balance the like he could have a love
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 6: hate for this, you know, and I'm aware of that, right,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 6: I'm aware that like this industry that I've given my
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 6: life to kept me on the road a lot, kept
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 6: me gone a lot. So he was He also wasn't
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 6: like a kid that like drank at an early age.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 6: He didn't do a lot of those things because in
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 6: his mind, he's like, that's what my mom is into that,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 6: you know. But he gets that this is some real
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 6: legacy that we're building here. And you know, I'm building
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 6: this to have it acquired, so I know I'm gonna
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 6: make a lot of money.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: I understand that space.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 6: I've learned it at the highest level through the joint
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 6: ventures that I've worked on, so.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: He he knows.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: So what's the future for But you said you're building
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: it to be acquired, but before that, like, what what's
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: your roadmap to get to that point?
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 6: So the road map is again establishing that you know,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 6: I Best Wines is the icon in the wine space.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 6: I think that's the first thing is for people to
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: see that here here goes this brand that just came
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 6: in and was just so disruptive, and people wanted wanted
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 6: to make sure that it was at their tables at
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 6: restaurants and on their menus and at events. And again
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 6: I've done that for big brands, so I have a
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 6: plan to do that for this this brand. You know, ideally,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 6: you know, partnering with the right distributors, because I think
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 6: a lot of people don't realize is those early partnerships
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 6: also define the kind of acquisition you're going to have.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 6: You know, a lot of people signed with distributors fast
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 6: and then when it comes to acquisition times like the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 6: cost of buyout all those distributors is crazy, So being
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 6: very strategic about the distributor.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Partners that we take on.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 6: And for me, I want the big distributors, you know,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 6: I mentioned earlier, like I don't it's a new brand.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 6: I don't see it as a small brand. You know
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 6: how we always are conditioned to little business, small business.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 6: I'm like, no, this is a big business now, you know.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 6: And so the roadmap very much so is built with
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 6: it being a big business in mine. And then you know,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 6: these brands, these companies, these suppliers, they need our culture.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 6: Like without our culture, without what we bring to the
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 6: table are buying power, they are nothing.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: And I know that.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 6: And so you know, I'm looking forward to the day
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 6: in three to five years where I'm sitting down at
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 6: the table with the supplier that I think would make
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 6: the right sense to do an acquisition with and doing
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 6: you know, a historical.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: Acquisition for IPS wines. That's what I see.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming you're still the majority owner. I know you
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: have five partners. Now, is there at any point you
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: see yourself I know you didn't like to use the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: word raise, Yeah, but raise capital and perhaps have more
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: people in the ownership group.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 6: Absolutely. So the structure right now is I'm the founder.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 6: I have five women that have been working with me
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 6: on this journey that I've given equity to. And then
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 6: I have five women who have invested. But for people
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 6: who understand investments, they've invested on a convertible note it's
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 6: not equity yet, They've invested in believing in something that eventually,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 6: if we determine that it makes sense for them to
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 6: get equity, they will. So I am the owner of
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 6: I Best Wines. Yes, absolutely, I will raise money. You know,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 6: it gets to a point where like, Okay, you can't
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 6: just spend all your capital and think that you can
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 6: do everything that you want to do. But I don't
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 6: want to raise capital in a way where I'm forced
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 6: to give up ownership of my brand. And a lot
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 6: of people do that and they don't understand it. And
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 6: what I can tell you is that I understand marketing,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 6: I understand commercial I have a great commercial competency, obviously
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 6: understand investing. So when it comes to understanding the world
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 6: of fundraising, that's been the thing that I've been educating
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 6: myself the most. And so I've been really patient in
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 6: the fundraising process because I'm like, until I get a
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 6: bit of a mastery in.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: This, I don't want to take nobody money.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 6: And I think a lot of people make that mistake, right,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 6: They make the mistake of like I need money, or
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 6: I've heard that I should go get money, spend someone
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 6: else's money, you know, all these things that you I mean,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 6: you guys know this world owe too much. And for me,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 6: it's been hugely important for me to understand it, like
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 6: what does it really mean to fundraise? What does really
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 6: mean to take capital? What does it really mean to
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 6: have people on your cap table? Because one thing I
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 6: don't want to do is find myself in a situation
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 6: that I can't build this brand in the way that
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 6: I know the brand should be built. And so I
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 6: want to just be mindful that you have to have
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 6: a healthy mix mix of I think people that are
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 6: willing to get on your cap table, but that are
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 6: willing to do it in a way that makes sense
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 6: for you. So yes, we'll raise, but I'm not rushing
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 6: to the first you know, group of people that like,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 6: say we want to be a part of it, Let's
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 6: be a good fit.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: It's a marriage.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 6: When you take investment, it is a marriage, and they
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 6: have to also have your goal in mind. Everybody wants
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 6: to sell. Some people want to hold their brands forever.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 6: I'm building this to be acquired and the reason why
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 6: is because I understand the opportunity in that, you know,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 6: and what it'll allow me to do from a just
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 6: I think a wealth building perspective, this is one of
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 6: many things that I want to do, you know.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: So that's my plan.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 5: How can they purchase the one and any other information
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: that you're like?
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So, ibestwines dot com. We have a direct consumer model,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 6: which is I'm really excited about right because we're controlling
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 6: that the website is beautiful. You learn a bit more
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 6: about myself, about the women that have been working with me.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 6: We also have a section that highlights global creatives because
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 6: again this is my way of just connecting peoples. We
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 6: have all these credible people that we've worked with that
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 6: we aspire to work with because I wanted the website
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 6: to be a place where people can discover, not just shop,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 6: but discover as well.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: So I best wines dot com.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 6: My social is misunderscore I best and the I best
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 6: wine social is at IBST Wines.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, high best wine
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: is Are we going to get a bottle?
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, I think Okay, okay, I appreciate it. I
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: appreciate that.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 6: So we got this on you guys's reps because I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 6: know y'all drink wine.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: I have seen us drinking wine.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 6: The true Yes, these are true. These guys drink wines. Absolutely.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 6: Thank you for having me.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you coming in and thank you. Thank you
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: for the one.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, Yes, thank you guys for blacking one.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 5: You next week.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 7: Peace Pease an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 7: a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from
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  Speaker 7: l Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan
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  Speaker 7: charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 7: are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 7: of President Donald J. Trump's leader. I'm Christy Noman, the
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 7: United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President Trump. Attempted
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 7: illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded,
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  Speaker 7: and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 7: If you are here illegally, your next you will be
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 7: fine nearly one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 7: you will never return. But if you register using our
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 7: CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 7: to return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 7: Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,