Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Cliff Notes: Business and Culture of South Africa
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- 1:00Speaker 4: We talked about why Art, but you talk about South
- 1:03Speaker 4: Africa and give an insight because you have a relationship
- 1:06Speaker 4: with the country from a variety of different standpoints. So
- 1:11Speaker 4: how what do you see as far as opportunity in
- 1:14Speaker 4: South Africa is an interesting place because you know, it
- 1:20Speaker 4: has the largest economy I think of Africa, but it's
- 1:23Speaker 4: mostly controlled by white people. So you know, everybody knows
- 1:26Speaker 4: about apartheid, or they should know about apartheid, and you know,
- 1:29Speaker 4: the formal system was broken, but the economic system never
- 1:33Speaker 4: really changed, so you still have the minority in rule
- 1:37Speaker 4: of the majority when it comes to the economics of it.
- 1:42Speaker 2: So a lot of people don't even.
- 1:43Speaker 4: Look at South Africa as like a true African nation,
- 1:46Speaker 4: but I would like your perspective from actually spending time
- 1:49Speaker 4: out there.
- 1:50Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean lessen, South Africa is absolutely a true
- 1:53Speaker 5: African nation.
- 1:54Speaker 1: It's Africa, and you know the I think the.
- 2:01Speaker 5: Effects of apartheid are still very apparent, just like the
- 2:05Speaker 5: effects of slavery here in the US are still very apparent.
- 2:09Speaker 5: But I certainly know that there is this younger generation
- 2:14Speaker 5: that's so clear about the fact that they're about to
- 2:18Speaker 5: change their own personal situations and change the climate of
- 2:23Speaker 5: the country. And those are the people that I've been
- 2:25Speaker 5: able to connect with, you know, specifically, in my journey
- 2:29Speaker 5: to Launch's Wine, I connected with a twenty six year
- 2:33Speaker 5: old winemaker, black South African winemaker Hayley September who graduated
- 2:39Speaker 5: with a wine degree going back to get our masters.
- 2:43Speaker 5: And you know, it's those kind of stories that are
- 2:47Speaker 5: going to change the situation for South Africa. But there's
- 2:51Speaker 5: a lot of work that needs to be done. There
- 2:53Speaker 5: are still so many issues, I mean so many issues.
- 2:57Speaker 2: I read Trevor Noah's book, have read that. No, it's
- 3:00Speaker 2: actually really good.
- 3:01Speaker 4: So we talked about even like the different Like I
- 3:04Speaker 4: guess we wouldn't be considered black and South Africa colored.
- 3:07Speaker 1: We'd be colored, right, Yeah, so it's.
- 3:09Speaker 2: White colored and it's black.
- 3:11Speaker 1: Correct.
- 3:12Speaker 4: Talk about that because that's interesting. People from America probably
- 3:15Speaker 4: can't understand that. I mean, we understand light skin, we
- 3:17Speaker 4: know that, but we don't have like set different classes
- 3:22Speaker 4: as far as Dad's concerned.
- 3:24Speaker 5: I'm going to talk about it from my own personal experience.
- 3:27Speaker 5: For instance, the young lady who I was just talking about,
- 3:29Speaker 5: she would be considered colored.
- 3:32Speaker 1: I never call her colored.
- 3:33Speaker 5: I'm like Hayley's black South African because that's not my reality.
- 3:36Speaker 5: And it's not that I'm trying to be disrespectful, but
- 3:39Speaker 5: it's just it's not the reality that we live in,
- 3:42Speaker 5: but it's real for them. There's so much colorism, you know,
- 3:47Speaker 5: is wild. And again, what I can tell you is
- 3:51Speaker 5: that the younger generation is so aware that a lot
- 3:54Speaker 5: of that is just a trap to keep you know,
- 3:57Speaker 5: their minds stuck in a certain place, to see us
- 3:59Speaker 5: different when we should all see ourselves the same.
- 4:02Speaker 1: But it does exist.
- 4:04Speaker 5: And I think the beautiful opportunity for black folks in
- 4:08Speaker 5: America and Africans is that.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Our stories are so similar. You know, there's varying degrees.
- 4:21Speaker 5: But I feel so at home when I'm in South Africa,
- 4:24Speaker 5: Like I've sat with brothers in South Africa that remind
- 4:27Speaker 5: me of you two, you know, so I think dispelling
- 4:30Speaker 5: the myth that there's so much different, and I think
- 4:33Speaker 5: also dispelling the myth that Africa isn't this, you know,
- 4:39Speaker 5: incredible place with so much wealth. I mean, there's so
- 4:45Speaker 5: much wealth in Africa. It's wild and a lot of
- 4:48Speaker 5: people don't know that. A lot of people still believe that,
- 4:51Speaker 5: you know, the only thing to do there is safaris
- 4:54Speaker 5: and you know, they're starving children. It's like that couldn't
- 4:56Speaker 5: be farther from the truth. And like any country, there
- 5:00Speaker 5: is poverty and there are issues, but it's beautiful, you know.
- 5:04Speaker 5: And I think the last thing is again the notion
- 5:07Speaker 5: that somehow South Africa isn't part of, you know, the
- 5:10Speaker 5: African nation is wild. It's crazy, and I think it's
- 5:13Speaker 5: hurtful to Africans in South Africa.
- 5:16Speaker 3: You know.
- 5:17Speaker 5: I've heard them say, like, I don't know why anybody
- 5:19Speaker 5: would think that, you know, and.
- 5:22Speaker 2: So they are aware of that.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.
- 5:27Speaker 5: And I mean that's that's like saying if you're black
- 5:32Speaker 5: and you didn't grow up in the hood in the US,
- 5:34Speaker 5: that like somehow you're not black. It was like we
- 5:38Speaker 5: all black when we walk up, everybody just right. And
- 5:41Speaker 5: so I think it's even hurtful for me to hear
- 5:45Speaker 5: that because I've spent so much time in South Africa
- 5:48Speaker 5: and it's absolutely Africa. I've been to Ghana, I've been
- 5:51Speaker 5: to Nigeria, I've been to Africa, and I'm never in
- 5:54Speaker 5: South Africa like this is in Africa.
- 5:57Speaker 2: You know.
- 5:58Speaker 1: It is very much so Africa, you know, and.
- 6:00Speaker 5: The tradition and the beauty of the tradition, it's just
- 6:04Speaker 5: very powerful. And so I think my biggest thing with
- 6:07Speaker 5: ibest Wines is also showing black Americans, we should be
- 6:12Speaker 5: doing business on the continent.
- 6:14Speaker 6: So I think it's interesting because when you create business,
- 6:17Speaker 6: you have an opportunity to create a narrative, right and
- 6:19Speaker 6: so with I Best, how do you intertwine right ingrid story,
- 6:25Speaker 6: this region story, this cultural story together. How are you
- 6:30Speaker 6: navigating that? What is the story of I best that
- 6:34Speaker 6: the world needs to here?
- 6:34Speaker 5: Yeah, the story is really is it is a blending
- 6:37Speaker 5: and a celebration of culture.
- 6:39Speaker 1: That's really what this is.
- 6:41Speaker 5: And so for me, you know, really telling the story
- 6:46Speaker 5: of like here, I am a black woman from America
- 6:49Speaker 5: who went to South Africa and just fell in love
- 6:51Speaker 5: and felt at home and then quickly understood that like
- 6:55Speaker 5: I could do business, I could do business here, you know,
- 6:57Speaker 5: like this is this place is ripe for us to
- 7:01Speaker 5: go and do business.
- 7:02Speaker 1: And not only can I do.
- 7:03Speaker 5: Business, but I have the support of the people to
- 7:05Speaker 5: do the business right. And so ives is really just
- 7:09Speaker 5: a celebration of culture, global culture. I consider myself a
- 7:12Speaker 5: global citizens. I've been all over the world. I love
- 7:14Speaker 5: the world. I love traveling, and so I hope it's
- 7:18Speaker 5: my way of transporting people to South Africa to experience
- 7:21Speaker 5: South Africa just a bit. And I also hope that
- 7:24Speaker 5: it's a way to have people understand that, Like the
- 7:28Speaker 5: comfortable thing was Napa, the disruptive thing was South Africa.
- 7:32Speaker 4: So when Akorn has said, like, you know, everybody, every
- 7:36Speaker 4: black person from America should go to Africa and start
- 7:38Speaker 4: a business and you become a millionaire a lot. I
- 7:41Speaker 4: was talking to somebody and I understand what he meant
- 7:43Speaker 4: by that, But the how two parties do what's missing, right,
- 7:46Speaker 4: And that's that's very important. So you, as an American
- 7:50Speaker 4: who actually went to Africa and started a business, what
- 7:54Speaker 4: advice would you give people from the States or from
- 7:57Speaker 4: anywhere in the ASP. But that's looking to tap in
- 8:00Speaker 4: with Africa, Like as far as you know cultural experiences
- 8:05Speaker 4: and how to network properly, how to communicate, Like what
- 8:08Speaker 4: what would you give as far as advice based off
- 8:12Speaker 4: of your own personal experience?
- 8:14Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think the first thing that I
- 8:16Speaker 5: would say is specifically Black Americans, we do a lot
- 8:22Speaker 5: of Caribbean, we do a lot of Europe, do.
- 8:24Speaker 2: Some Africa, just to travel and just get the lake.
- 8:28Speaker 5: Like the first thing is like go, I mean, as Americans,
- 8:33Speaker 5: we have the freedom to travel anywhere in the world.
- 8:36Speaker 5: Our passport That's one thing that you realize when you're
- 8:39Speaker 5: in Africa that like the constraints for Africans to just
- 8:42Speaker 5: travel around Africa is bananas. But that's by design, right,
- 8:45Speaker 5: that's purely by design we have that freedom. And so
- 8:49Speaker 5: the first advice would be, go, if you've been to
- 8:52Speaker 5: Italy five times, it's time for you to go to
- 8:55Speaker 5: South Africa once. If you've been to Turks and Caicos
- 8:58Speaker 5: six times, it's time for you to go to Ghana once.
- 9:00Speaker 5: If you've been to think about where we all go
- 9:03Speaker 5: and we spend our money, all of that. So my
- 9:07Speaker 5: first advice would be go tap in and wait to
- 9:13Speaker 5: be widely, wildly surprised by what you're going to uncover
- 9:17Speaker 5: when you get there. The second thing is like our
- 9:20Speaker 5: brothers and sisters in Africa are waiting for us to come.
- 9:23Speaker 5: So when we land, they're like, welcome home, you know,
- 9:26Speaker 5: So understand that you're also going into an environment where
- 9:29Speaker 5: people are welcoming you. They want you there, they want
- 9:33Speaker 5: to connect with you. And then I think, like with anything,
- 9:36Speaker 5: you're going to find your people. I found my people.
- 9:39Speaker 5: It wasn't that hard, you know, So I knew that
- 9:42Speaker 5: I wanted to do this business. I sought out to
- 9:45Speaker 5: find the people that would help me do this business.
- 9:48Speaker 5: And so I just think that we've been taught that
- 9:51Speaker 5: Africa is this really difficult thing for us to do,
- 9:55Speaker 5: and it's actually much easier for us to do than
- 9:58Speaker 5: we know.
- 9:59Speaker 1: And so I would say the first thing.
- 10:01Speaker 6: Is just like go, you know, yeah, So the majority
- 10:04Speaker 6: of time is here or it is here right.
- 10:07Speaker 5: Last the last two years, the majority of my time
- 10:09Speaker 5: with South Africa, people all but thought I moved there,
- 10:12Speaker 5: and I all but did because I needed I needed
- 10:14Speaker 5: to tap in, I needed to be there. It's been
- 10:17Speaker 5: nice to be back home. Obviously I had to prepare
- 10:19Speaker 5: to get the brand launched. Home is southern California. But
- 10:23Speaker 5: now I'm gonna be on the road, you know, slanging wine.
- 10:26Speaker 5: Able to taste the wine. I want people to experience
- 10:28Speaker 5: the wine. People are excited about it. I want to
- 10:31Speaker 5: tell the story as well and just get you know,
- 10:36Speaker 5: just help breathe some like fun new energy into the
- 10:39Speaker 5: wine space. I think wine has been you know, marketed,
- 10:43Speaker 5: and it's also been like looked at a certain way.
- 10:46Speaker 5: And to me, this is like the A side and
- 10:49Speaker 5: the B side of a really great record that I
- 10:51Speaker 5: want everyone to hear.
- 10:52Speaker 6: Yeah, so, because I'm thinking to myself, the business formation
- 10:56Speaker 6: is happening. Happened in South Africa. That means the trademark
- 11:00Speaker 6: and the licensing, even the taxes are done there.
- 11:04Speaker 2: How's that experience been from knowing what you know?
- 11:06Speaker 6: You've been in this spirit's industry, like you said, for
- 11:08Speaker 6: over twenty years here in America. How has that transition
- 11:12Speaker 6: been for you from the legality standpop side in South Africa?
- 11:15Speaker 5: Yeah, so, I mean it's a dual path, right, because
- 11:17Speaker 5: we have to do all that stuff here too. I mean,
- 11:19Speaker 5: I'm an American, the business is also established here too.
- 11:25Speaker 5: The trademark actually was surprisingly the easiest thing to get,
- 11:28Speaker 5: and I thought it was going to be the hardest
- 11:30Speaker 5: because the name best right, you would think I had
- 11:34Speaker 5: already been sewn up fifty times and so that was
- 11:37Speaker 5: like the easiest thing to do. But I think in
- 11:40Speaker 5: South Africa it hasn't been as difficult to navigate because
- 11:44Speaker 5: remember the wine region and wine in South Africa is
- 11:48Speaker 5: hundreds of years old, So it's not like I just
- 11:50Speaker 5: came and I'm doing this for the first time. It's
- 11:53Speaker 5: a very established business, very established industry. So it actually
- 11:59Speaker 5: wasn't difficult at all to do because wine is what
- 12:03Speaker 5: they do. It's one of the biggest wine regions in
- 12:05Speaker 5: the world, so it wasn't difficult. I'm sure in other industries,
- 12:08Speaker 5: depending on what you're looking to get into, may be
- 12:11Speaker 5: a little bit more difficult because you just got to
- 12:12Speaker 5: figure out how to do it. But with the wine
- 12:15Speaker 5: piece of it, it actually wasn't that hard. The hardest
- 12:18Speaker 5: part for me was landing on the blends that I
- 12:22Speaker 5: love that I was ready to feel comfortable to actually
- 12:24Speaker 5: say this is the product. But I would say the
- 12:27Speaker 5: foundational pieces, the legal pieces, they weren't difficult.
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