Ingrid Best on Building a South African Wine Empire, Art Investing, & Unveiling Africa’s Truth

Join us on an enlightening journey with Ingrid Best, a visionary in the wine and spirits industry, art collector, and cultural advocate. With over 20 years of experience, Ingrid has left an indelible mark on the world’s largest spirits suppliers, revitalized iconic brands like Hennessy, and fostered groundbreaking partnerships, such as the D’usse relationship with Bacardi through Roc Nation.

Dive deep into Ingrid’s adventures as she explores South Africa’s exquisite vineyards, uncovers the secrets to launching a successful wine business with “IBest Wines”, and delves into the nuanced world of wine blending. Beyond the bottle, Ingrid shares her inspiration from Jay Z to invest in art, discusses the ethics of art collection, and highlights the significance of donating culturally important pieces to institutions like the Smithsonian Museum.

This video also tackles pressing issues such as colorism in South Africa, the importance of dispelling myths about Africa, and the impact of apartheid that lingers today. Discover why Ingrid was hesitant to accept investors’ money, how she stepped down from Bad Boy to create her own wine company, and the strategies she employed to ensure her wine’s success without compromising quality.

Experience the journey of IBest Wine’s first launch, which sold out in just 6 hours, and learn why these companies need our culture more than ever. Ingrid Best’s story is not just about wine or art; it’s a testament to the power of authenticity, cultural integrity, and visionary leadership.

#IngridBest #WineAndSpirits #ArtCollecting #CulturalAdvocacy #IBestWines #SouthAfricaVineyards #WineIndustry #ArtInvestment #CulturalRevolution #entrepreneurship
0:00 Intro
1:55 Ingrid’s Journey Venturing into the Wine Industry
6:55 How Ingred Reformed Brands through her Storytelling Ability
8:28 Leaving the Corporate World to Start a Wine Brand
14:08 Competing with other Brands in South Africa
15:50 The Inner Workings of Funding a Wine Brand
18:40 Supply Chain Breakdown
24:59 The Art & Science of Winemaking
27:01 Handling Distribution in South Africa
29:53 Investing into 50+ Pieces of Art
39:00 Best Practices for People Investing into Art
42:50 The Future Opportunities of South Africa
49:40 Advice for American Entrepreneurs Looking to Venture into African Business
54:19 Navigating Parenthood at a Young Age
57:43 Roadmap to Scaling IBest Wines & Disrupting the Industry
1:02:23 Outro

All right guys welcome back Ernie your leisure we are back in New York yes and um very special episode something that you know was been in the works for a few years now so finally getting it done for sure most importantly we’re getting it done yeah ingred best um did I say your

First name correctly absolutely ingred best so from the Bay Area originally now you live in SoCal but um you have a Spirits business I do I have a wine business I’m I’m just waiting for you to say originally cuz you know New York really claims you I know I just get so

Caught up I was born in New York okay I was raised in the Bay Area there we go I really like to say I grew up in San Francisco I got my muscle from Oakland there we go what does that mean so it’s where I became a woman but did you ever

Live in Oakland or you just going across the bridge yeah I graduated from Oakland High School okay I had my son in Oakland okay and um it’s I had a my business my promotions business was in Oakland MH so you know just all the things that I

Think really were the foundation for the woman that I am today is is from Oakland yes area Bay is crazy because it’s like San Francisco once you cross the bridge is like it’s like a different world t two cities yeah I mean not only the Bay right but even Northern California to

Southern California you know in one state it’s just so different so I like to say I’ve had the best of a lot of world you know for sure yeah Cali so big though it would be essentially like New York Virginia right that’s how large it

Is from you know Coast to Coast so um all right well thank you for joining us thank you thank you for having me absolutely yeah we’re g to talk about not only one I know you’re obviously an entrepreneur you have your art collector as well absolutely so we’re gonna talk

About that as well so um but I want to start with the wine um okay so this is the wine right here that’s the wine I best is the name of the wi right yeah it’s my name sake I best wines and um it’s my way of definitely putting some

Legacy on the Shelf so okay what what’s the process what’s your your journey in the spirits industry to even get to this point and at what point do you decide that you want to take a leap of faith and create your own product so 20 plus

Years I’ve been in the wine and spirits business I’ve worked for three of the largest suppliers in the world I’ve worked on two joint ventures and I think it was the exposure to just seeing what those businessmen did in the wine and spirits industry that really

Inspired me I was like well wait a minute you know I’m helping everybody make all this money what was your role so I started out as an ambassador um that’s how I started and I launched a small rum brand for diio and through that role I just got

Hyper exposed to every function which typically in Ambassador roles you don’t always get exposed at that level I did and so I quickly realized I was like I love this because before that I was a street promoter I did Street promotions and on the music side and I realized I

Was like oh this is like working records working these you know Brands is like working records so it was I think I just had a natural talent for it and so I started as an ambassador then I moved into a hybrid role sales and marketing which was good for me initially I really

Fought being in a sales Ro I was like it’s not sexy I don’t want to do this I’m a marketer I do promotions but learning the commercial side of the business made me so well-rounded like I was Unstoppable because I understood how to sell and then um got a role just on

Marketing proper on Hennessy During the revitalization period of Hennessy because there was a period where nobody was what year what time frame we talking about with the revitalization cuz some of the listeners are like this always been hot yeah yeah I would say from um probably 200 like

15 until about a couple of years ago what that Hennessy fell off no that that we actually did a revitalization revitalization henness was that like when Nas Nas got involved when Nas got involved were you part of that yeah we were all part of that and there was an

Incredible group of people that were working on Hennessy at the time you know how you have those teams that get assembled and you’re like that’s the team it was an incredible team and it was a special moment and definitely a defining moment for me to to see such a

Like I think Legacy brand and iconic brand be reimagined right cuz at one point people really saw Hennessy is like your dad’s drink and then it was like how do we make this young and hot and fresh and we did that and it had a great

Run and then Here Comes tequila which is what’s happening now right so I did that I worked on the Hennessey team and then I worked on the beler team because the gentleman who was running Hennessey got the job to try to revitalize badier and uh and I did that for a bit

And then I got a call from The Rock Nation team saying we need someone to fill this role on duay to manage the joint venture for bardi and and Rock Nation and what they really were looking for was somebody who had the business side right who did understand the

Commercial the marketing the promotion but culture and there’s not a lot of people unfortunately in corporate that have that check all those boxes so then I went to run the joint venture on the bardi side and I did that for two years and it was incredible as you guys can

Imagine yeah and at the time again coniac was very much so having its moment you know duay is a great brand and we built an incredible team and definitely got the attention of bigger Brands like a Hennessy you know we were considered one of those ankle biters

Like what are they doing how are they doing this um and that’s the power of obviously Rock Nation and Jay and everything that they’ve built and then I got a call from Puff’s team saying we need somebody that understands joint ventures that knows how to run you know run this business

Where at a critical point the joint venture has been around for a while and we just need to bring breath some life into it yes so each one of these brands are looking at at you for your expertise because not just because you’re a marketing genius but because you’re

Telling stories correct I feel like that that’s the part even when you we spoke about the Hennessy thing I remember I mean we first for me was like watching mob deep and pry has a jersey on I’m like what’s that right to now where I’m hearing Nas narrate stories and now it

It feels different and so where did where did you get the sense of Storytelling right is it from that love of music or was it just a natural instinct that you had yeah I definitely would say you know music is my first love in my mind I was going to be a big

Music executive like nobody couldn’t tell me that I wasn’t going to like run a label launch a label music is really my first love and during the street promotion days that’s what you were doing you were telling these stories for these artists in your markets and so I

Took that and I applied it to how I would tell stories around Brands and all these brands have long Legacy I mean crazy Legacy they’re you know some of these brands are 300 years old the problem is those stories aren’t stories about us cuz these Brands aren’t owned

By us and so when you get a marketer that can then make it relatable to A Whole New Generation to cultures um that’s what I I realized that I was really good at doing that and I was really good at building teams to do that you know putting together the

Right pieces of the puzzle to do it so for instance on duay you know I hired a a a black Parisian guy moved him from Paris to New York to work on duay because duay is a French brand who better else to tell the story than a

French black guy right and to do education and do all that kind of stuff so I think my sweet spot was like understanding how to storytelling it through building great teams yeah so so all right so you’re establishing yourself when do you leave the corporate world and become an

Entrepreneur yeah yeah so I I I called Puff and I said you know it’s time for me to launch my wine and when when I took the job with him you know I told him this is going to be my last job you know I know that if I’m forever working

If I don’t give myself a like Exit Plan I’m going to do this forever because listen the checks are nice it’s nice to be an executive it’s nice to have all the budgets and all the bells and whistles uh and you get you can get very

Comfortable and so I knew I didn’t want to find myself just getting too comfortable and so I told told him I said listen it’s time I got to take this leap of faith and he fully supported me and was like you know what I already know that you’re going to do your thing

Like and I’m here to support you any way I can and I’m forever grateful to him for that and so two years ago I resigned and I went on a missionary to launch this brand you know and it really was this life-changing trip to South Africa where

I was like why they didn’t tell us that this was here but of course they didn’t tell us right we had to go find it for The Vineyards yeah they have Vineyards in South Africa oh man one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world and

Some of the most incredible wine in the world and for people in wine they know South African wine for real wine collectors real wine connoisseurs people who you know travel they absolutely know about the wine region but here I was 20 years in the game I didn’t know anything

About South African wine and I like to consider myself you know someone who was really in the know I had traveled the world for while so how did you find you just randomly was in South Africa or you went there specifically looking for it yeah so my girl Angela got hired for a

Gig in South Africa and she called me she said I’m going to South Africa you want to come I was like what she’s like it’s the week your birthday I was like say no more I booked my ticket and I’m I went to South Africa and I was actually

There a few days before her and then she arrived and I just just remember like being in restaurants and you would open up the because of course I always go I’m conditioned to look at the wine list look at right and I’m like South Africa South Africa I’m like look at this wine

Less like look at these wines and it was really that trip that just like made me want to go and ex like really understand what was going on and so then we decided um so that was the first trip it was really a casual trip it was just girlfriends hanging out but

I remember those wine lists like stuck with me I was like this wine is really good and then um we activated around Global Citizens when it was in South Africa so I basically added a few days in advance of the trip and I went to the wine region

And that’s when I was like oh okay that’s what’s going on here they’ve been hiding this they’ve been hiding this from us and initially I was going to launch a wine from Napa cuz I’m from the bay the I mean I could have done that with my eyes closed but you know telling

This story about South Africa and the truth is I really fell in love with South Africa like I love it it Feels Like Home to me I planted my roots there and I knew that I didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t disruptive like I

Knew if I just did NAA like that was expected so launching from South Africa was certainly the disruptive route which makes sense for me I mean so life changing trip outside of just falling in love with the country and finding the wine I know art plays A Part we’ll get

To that a little bit later but what’s step one now right like you found out that this is I think the third largest wine region in in the country in the world in the world in the world you have the vision for it I want to create my I

Have to be disruptive Nappa is not going to do it because everybody does that right what’s step one now when you get back and create the plan what does it look like um so step one was really um I prayed about it that was step one step

One I I prayed I was like okay you know God tell me if this is what I’m supposed to be doing and and the answer was yes and then I would say the next step was connecting with people in South Africa and the biggest thing for me was I

Wanted to make sure that no one in the wine industry in South Africa would feel any offense to me as a black woman like touting the South African wine Renaissance right cuz I’m still a black woman from America and so I think it was super important for me to like connect

With wine makers kind of just really understand the background of the wine region you know listen the black Farmers black wine makers part that like I just really did a lot of research so I wasn’t going into this as like a naive American which I think a lot of times we do you

Know I wanted to be respectful I wanted to be tasteful and I wanted to do this with South African people so that was I would say you know after praying it was like okay find the people that are going to tell you yay or nay and everyone that I spoke

To was so excited they were like man we’ve been waiting for America to really understand what’s going on with South African wine this sounds amazing you know I got so much love and so much blessing I really felt like I needed to ask a bit of permission just from a

Respectful standpoint not that I not that I can’t do what I want to do as a business but just out of pure integrity and respect and everyone was so supportive and from that I was like oh it’s on as going through that the research and doing the due diligence

Finding the right people in South Africa are you finding that other brands are there as well and did some of them surprise you right because a lot of times when we think ju we think French or we think like you said NAA Valley we never think South Africa are were their

Brands there already that have been taking advantage of this that’s a great question what I’ll tell you is the first thing I noticed on that very first trip was how much the big brands that we know here in America are tapped into South Africa so big big brands are doing tons

Of AD advertising tons of activations they’re locked in they see the opportunity in South Africa right even when we did the activation with duay for Global citizen like I remember coming back and saying we got to lock in in South Africa because I could see what

All these Brands were doing I would say from a wine perspective if you know wine there going to be some wines that are familiar to you but only if you know wine right and so that’s where for me I best wines becomes like the icon like I

Want this brand to be the icon of South African wines here in the United States cuz I don’t think there is one and it’s not to say they’re not offered there’s some great wines being sold here but none of them have reached iconic status I don’t think any wine brand to be

Honest with you has has really taken the position of being an icon there’s a lot of great wine but when you think about spirits you can think of the icons right there are some Brands especially in culture that are iconic and in my mind IB best wines is going to be the iconic

Brand for culture in the wine space so okay so you establish South Africa is the the way to go um from the business side like what’s needed to actually get this off the ground like you have to talk to the manufacturers and get a distribution deal to bottle it up like

You a percentage of that like how does the inner workings of that business actually work yeah so the inner workings I mean listen the 20 plus years that I spent in the game it was it was like it was the manual for me to do this and I I

Wouldn’t have been able to do this the way that I’ve done it if it wasn’t for the 20 years of foundation that I had in this business and so the first thing was like first of all building a model that was going to make us money

Because why is not an easy thing to make money off of the margins often times aren’t as impressive as most people I think would think they would be so for me the first brief to like my finance grow was like I want the wine to be like

Spirits in in the spirits World 35 40% margins are typical and the wine world is 20 to 25 I was like I want I wanted the margins to be at 40% like this is like a Spirits brand cuz I knew that inner workings of that piece of the

Business so Wine and Spirits are two different things Wine and Spirits are two different Spirits is alcohol yeah Spirits are you know your concs your teas vodka your vodka and wine is wine and champagne is champagne and champagne is champagne yeah and in South Africa they make champagne but because it’s not

Made in Champagne it’s called MCC um because you know there’s all these laws and these rules but um South Africa hasn’t incredible sparkling wine you said the average margins is 20% for wines right yeah 20 25% and you said you wanted 40% yeah so okay how were you how

Did you envision getting 40% when the average is 20% well I think one of the things that I understood was in South Africa you can get very really good quality wine and the cost of doing business is much lower than the cost of doing business other places

So the quality of my wine for instance if I was producing this in a Napa or even a France you know in some instances would be double triple and so understanding that and again building these relationships in South Africa so we weren’t going out there you know

Blind um that was the first thing was to understand like I I don’t want to cut corners on quality but I know based on just purely relationships we can get the wine that we want to then help us get to the margins that we want to be at

So the the order and the spirits and I guess wine industry supplier distributor customer it’s a three- tier system in the US right y so is it similar in South Africa and and how are you navigating through that there right are you finding you’re the supplier I’m the supplier

Right so you’re finding the distribution system what is that system like there as opposed to here right what are some of the differences that you experience yeah so I’m the supp liar I have a partnership with a winery one of the Premier wineries in Stell OS it that was probably the longest part

Of the process was identifying who was going to be the right partner because there’s a lot of basic things like Integrity is super important to me like I don’t care if you make great wine like how do you treat your people you know what the winery environment is like and

Then it was super important for me to connect with a wine maker who understood my vision that was going to like follow my brief in terms of like what I wanted to do from a blending perspective um and so we were able to do that and then I would say secondarily it

Was just thinking about everything from like the packaging the design like all of that and making sure that it made sense business sense right so everything is done in South Africa nothing is done here the only thing that’s here is the owners me my team um who are who are

Equity owners um but everything else everything that you see on this pack is done in South Africa so how is the exporting process work as far as I’m assuming you you’re shipping bulk product like is that done at one time or you do like you know every month you get

Orders shipments that come in so um it’s a very intricate process which is why I mentioned earlier I wouldn’t have been able to do this I you know the chops that I have from 20 years in the business have have positioned me to to get through what this process requires

So it’s it’s first you know identifying what you what you want to produce blending it going through the bottling process you know the packaging process and then you know getting it on an actual container on a cargo ship cargo ship goes from continent to continent getting it through customs and

Then working with dist a distribution Network to get it out in my case um you know I’ve done this 100% myself like I own this brand 100% myself so I did every part of that process and I have five incredible women that have been working with me women that I’ve met just

At different points in my career who trusted me understood the vision and what I said to them was like these are all the roles that we’re going to need to make this happen and I’m going to give all of you equity and so everybody had their piece of the of the puzzle

When we made it happen again it’s not easy to do it requires a lot of knowhow it requires um patience you know you can’t rush this process because ultimately beautiful pack but when you open it if the wine isn’t good it doesn’t mean anything so so before there

Were Equity Partners it was just you just me and this is I don’t know if I don’t want anybody to get this mising screwed this is not an an easy thing to do number one but it’s cash intensive as well so how did you get fun was it self-funded what was that process

Like yeah 100% self-funded so all my Capital went into this um you know I made good decisions in my life real estate art investing saving just understanding you know that cash is so important um and and I knew that that there was going to come a time that like all those

Decisions would come into play and this is this is the result of that right so yeah just it’s just me in terms of investing my own capital and then the women on the team have invested their time and that’s equally as valuable right because without a team and without

People to build it with I mean their their time is as valuable as my Capital because they have been the ones that have been helping me move the pieces which is why making sure that they all got equity in the business was so important to me um a month before I

Launched five friends who all women came to me and said listen we see what you building we already know you know what you’re doing this is going to be amazing like we want to invest in this so five black women came together and invested um in the business but before

Then it was it was just me so um you have uh Winery that you get your wine from right yes I’m assuming you’re not the only person that gets wine from that Winery no yeah so they do they do tons of white labeling projects um this is a

Proprietary to I best wines these Blends I actually blended with with the wine maker I’ve I’ve shared a lot of that across my social channels because I wanted people to see what it took for me to build this um but the winery is you know best-in class award-winning and

They do tons of of business around the world and they were so excited about this so how do you make your wine different from somebody else’s wine that’s is coming from the same Vineyard yeah so it’s the process of actually making it different so these are again these are blends with specific

Percentages you know that we actually said I love shin and Blanc I love savan Blanc and then charday from sa South Africa is so different than other places in the world that I was like let’s show people how great Shard is from South Africa so we Blended those three Blends

Right and then for the red same thing it’s C it’s cab dominant but petite SAR shiras malback so these are my own proprietary Blends BAS on like the wine that I love but then also understanding the wine that consumers love like and that’s that’s done in the winery that’s

Done in the winery so it’s not like a farm where like everybody’s getting the same chicken no no everybody’s Blends are different people use sulfates and this and I everybody’s process is different what are you blending it with like what exactly to to the average person doesn’t know like what you’re

Talking about as far as like what what wine what is that getting blended with so there’s three so I’ll use the white as an example so there’s three varietals three different grape varieties in the white wine there’s a charday a shinen Blanc and a savan Blanc that gets rested in

Oak barrels it sits right that’s where a lot of times you get that like um smooth oy you know whether it’s the nose or the or the taste and then that process goes through a f fil filtration process there are some things that are added to just

Stabilize the wine all natural so that’s another thing I think that’s important for people to understand the process in other places outside of the US tends to be a lot cleaner so win that wines and Spears that are being produced in the US typically don’t go through as much EST stringencies

As wines and and Spears being produced outside of the US and I mean that just goes to like our food source and all that like the US is as big and as powerful we are we a lot there’s a lot of [ __ ] that goes on on here right

Yes so very clean um you know process in terms of um you know what’s in the wine it’s considered vegan it’s not organic but it is considered vegan and then it gets bottled and typically for instance we bottled these Wines in June you want to let a wine be bottled anywhere from

Four to six months because the wine goes through Bottle Shock I mean it’s fruit right it’s alive so four to 6 months after bottling the wine is tasting perfect so you bottle it in June which is why you had to launch in October correct got

That point it has to get on I mean it’s literally going continent to continent and you know there’s there’s some shipping routes that are two weeks you pay them for that you want something to get from Africa to the US in two weeks it’s a premium some shipping times are

60 days you know we I didn’t want the wine on the water that long so we did two weeks so the from a distribution standpoint where are the the largest places that you’re shipping to and I mean because you can have the bottle you can have the right taste but if it’s not

Placed in the right position right if it’s not marketed correctly if it’s not sitting in the right shelves if it’s not at the right restaurant it’s not going to move no so number one where are we Distributing outside of the continent in the country and within the country how

Does that look right because we know what wine and spirits looks like in America but what does that look like in South Africa yeah so um just to speak to the distribution piece um I elected to go with a smaller distributor that I knew could help us do all the things

Like customs and and a lot of the areas where a lot of Brands they get stuck you you don’t have that foundational just like how do I even get it into the country I know so many people who tried to launch Brands and their product is

Sitting in customs still so went with a reputable smaller distributor I knew that we would launch online first just to give us an opportunity to get it out there and now the process of securing largest Distributors is underway which I feel confident again because I know that

World and I have those relationships and I can make those phone calls and so we launched online we sold out of a twow week pre-sale in six hours I mean that’s how excited people were about the wine hundreds of cases in six hours all over the United States which was really

Really um felt good as you can imagine and now the work begins to actually build get it into on premise which is restaurants and you know night clubs and for me where I see the brand again this is this is the new icon for me when when

When people think about you know when they’re out or when they’re in a cultural moment I want I best wines to be that like iconic wine brand and so we’re being really specific about where we want to see the brand right where we think it should show up but there’s also

Like just the pure business right do I want to be in Target absolutely why because I shop at Target I spent a lot of money in Target there’s a lot of Shoppers that look like us in Target right and I think there was a day and time where new brands felt they couldn’t

Have those kind of ambition that they felt that they had to build and start small and then and for me even though this is a new brand it’s a big brand like I’m a big brand right so I want to show up that way and I want to show up

That way fast and we are you know of course working with smaller retailers we appreciate smaller retailers my first stop was in Oakland to wine bars and wine shops but the goal is is is to have this be a very very big brand and very lucrative it’s a lot of money in the

Wine and spirits space and I know firsthand just because of the 20-y Year career I’ve had so um how do you get into art investing so you know I used to get these big bonuses the the wine and spirits business is is a bonus based business and uh I would get these big

Bonuses and I would you know buy a watch buy a purse buy all the toys the things the things I like things and I remember hearing a record I think it was a j record and he talked about art and I was like I have not bought that yet you

Know it like it pricked my conscience and the first real piece that I invested in was a piece of art from South Africa from an artist named Nelson m was incredible artist and the reason why I say invested in is because it was literally half my bonus and I and it was

Hard for people to understand they were like you’re going to spend what you’re G to what what are you talking that’s a lot of money just because we haven’t really been taught the Val how much how much was it it was like $225,000 and who educated you to know

That that was something that you should buy well in in and with that purchase I just loved it you just looked at it and just like it loved it and I I researched the artist and it I mean it fell in line with just kind of me falling in love

With South Africa too you know and I loved it so I think the first thing that I always like to tell people is even though I invest in art I only invest in what I love like if I don’t love it I’m not really going to spend my

Money on it and so I’ve been really fortunate to get to know a lot of artists directly buy from artists directly so you circum vent the the whole gallery and all that kind and you’re supporting the artist like the artist is getting 100% how much is that

Worth now you know um uh I don’t know that that’s interesting right I see it I love it it’s definitely worth more than what I bought it I’m I’m assuming that maybe it was Picasso babies a Json that that might have sparked it but does

That now spark your love for art or is did it just transition to to South African art right did you start studying art American Artist artist throughout the world and now this becomes a passion for you based on that one purchase yeah you know what I realized um art for me

Was I just got lost in it like I I realized I was like I love this like I I had just like this genuine passion for it I didn’t grow up going to museums I didn’t grow up going to art exhibits I didn’t grow up in a house where there

Was Art um and so I think for me I was like oh wait we belong here too you know that it was really that that fueled me I was like wait this is this is a space that we belong in as well and they’re such an incredible art community so I

Also was enjoying like getting to meet people you know and those people are like involved in in some cool stuff you know so I think it was that definitely you know African art art black artist in general you know was was something that I was like okay I love this these stories are

Incredible and then it became like yeah like you know I remember buying a piece you asked about the value I bought a piece for like $122,000 and I remember seeing an an auction for the the artist and her piece sold for $90,000 and like I have one of her

Bigger pieces earlier works that I bought for $122,000 that’s clearly gone up in value so I then also started just to understand like oh okay this is how that works and then I think when you study really wealthy people really wealthy people have a few things in

Common they have real estate a lot of them have a lot of investment in wine and they invest in art and I was like okay this all kind of makes sense for me you know this is the space that I play in anyway so how many pieces do you have

Roughly oh now um I probably have over 40 or 50 pieces of Art and and everything not just you know I have sculptures I have vases I have I mean you I mean where where do you where do you keep it all it’s everywhere I mean

It’s in my bathrooms it’s on the floors but does it ever get to a point because it’s like all right you could invest in a variety of things that art is some way where it has to be kept right so after a while it’s like you can’t really fully appreciate

It I don’t think because you can’t put it on your wall you can’t put 50 pieces of art on one wall right so it’s like you could put it in your office you can put it in different places but when you really start to get a lot of art I’m

Always curious to know like what are people doing with all all of the art they are they just hoarding it in a basement take the dam Dash roll yeah I mean listen people do have um you know art storages that are specific for art just like they have wine

Storages um for me I’m working to sell a lot of wine so I could buy a nice big house so I can have all my art up in it you know I mean now it’s because the art the art storage that kind of I don’t

Understand that I used to go I used to go to Art um school when I was young but I don’t understand art storage because the point of art is to be appreciated and if you’re just storing it I feel like it’s actually disrespectful to the art form right cuz now you’ve taken the

The beauty out of it and now it’s just become like a file cabinet I think it’s a double anandra you use the word appreciated while story it is appreciating appreciating but I get what you’re saying look at art from an artist standpoint I understand the business yeah but art should always come first

The business should come second but some people create galleries right they create their own galleries which I mean I know people who have like bought the houses next to their house and the house next to the house art the there a gallery which is amazing right so I’m

With you like part and when you ask me like the buying you know my rationale around buying I only buy what I love because like you I want it up I want to see it I want to appreciate it I also want to share it with people so like

When friends come over they’ll be like your house is like a museum and that makes me feel so good you know what I mean like I’m like yeah so um everybody does it for a different reason but what I could tell you is again one thing I learned is that people that understand

Wealth they into art they into wine and they into real but one thing I learned about art is that if you put it in um your office is a tax right off it is a tax right off yeah so I was I was saying the one of the places that we definitely

Know that your art is going to show up is the Smithsonian yes talk about that I mean that that’s something that people will be able to frequent and you go down in history forever right yeah that’s exciting so uh myself and 10 collectors uh got together we we’ve now acquired

Three pieces together and it’s it’s our way of you know Collective economics and we purchase a piece a Aba Butler piece that we then donated to the Smithsonian Museum in in DC and so my name will forever be on the museum walls at the Smithsonian as a donor of the piece

And that even that little thing right like we talk about like having the art in your home and wanting to see it I remember thinking like wow donating to a museum but that’s really also a big part of you know the art World art collecting and also increasing the value of your

Collection so my collection inadvertently increases in value because I own a piece in in a museum and and people who are in the art World they know all these little nuances yeah do you see cuz we talk about it in real estate right A lot of times if if people

Can’t afford the property let’s have a collective maybe it’s five people and we make the down payment or we go into do you see that in the is that something that happens in the art World often especially among our community you know I don’t want to misspeak you know the collective that

I’m a part of that was the first instance that I had ever heard of it I’m sure people are doing it I just don’t know you know the the two pieces we bought um they were both $150,000 each they go together it’s Adam and Eve by harmonia Rosalez so the the

Total price of the work was 30 thou $300,000 and when we all thought about it we were like I can’t do that but I could do this and so 10 of us got together and purchased it the those two pieces have been on on display at different museums it’s actually at the

Spellman Museum right now um and so we’re allowing the to just tour so people get to experience it and once we did that one we were like all right let’s keep doing this this is amazing so I I don’t want to say that it it does

Happen but I don’t want to say that it doesn’t happen I just wasn’t aware of it I know that when we had the opportunity to do it together I said come on y’all let’s do this because it was $30,000 but at the end of the day I’m

Part owner of $300,000 worth of art yeah and that’s just that one buy so what are like some best practices for people that want to get in art like is it like always go through a art dealer have insurance like you know like when you buy a watch right like you his best

Practice is to go through authorized dealer as opposed to just a jeweler right his best practice is to have insurance on the watch right what are some of the best practices for art buying yeah I mean I again I’ve been really fortunate I’ve been able to buy a

Lot of art directly through ART through artists and and the reason why I say Fortune is because one you get to know who you’re buying the work from I mean this work is in your home it’s energy right A lot of these pieces have stories these artists may be going through

Different things while they’re actually creating the work and so um you know I’m I’m an advocate for people that want to get to know the artist if you can it’s worked for me secondarily you know I’ve gotten to know some galleries that I respect that I think are doing good by

Artist so you know it doesn’t hurt to have some galleries in your repertoire only buy what you can afford and so I would say that that’s my biggest advice to people you know I’ve never financed any art although you can you know there are financing programs for art but I

Just like to think um for Good Financial High hygiene buy what you can afford that’s worked for me you absolutely have to ensure your art and you have to make sure that it’s a reputable insurance that specializes in art Insurance you need to think about where the art is

Going to be in your home a lot of light is is not friends is not Arts friend like light yeah so it it ruins it it can yeah it can so you know making sure that the art is in a position in your home that it isn’t getting damaged making

Sure that you’re framing with a reputable framer that’s going to talk to you about UV glass versus Museum glass this is all the stuff that goes into thinking about preserving your art and then you know I have not been someone who’s gotten into the business

Of selling my art I know people that are in that business of selling I can’t say that I would never do it for me it’s Legacy building so this is what I’m going to leave behind for my son my goddaughters my grandchild you know what I mean like this is really Legacy

Building for me and wealth building for them so I think it’s just making sure you get educated like you do in anything that you’re going to be investing your money and the last thing I’ll say is the 10 people that I invested in art I respect

All those people I I I expect their port respect their portfolios right what they’ve done with their money I would have never just gotten with 10 people and bought some art that I didn’t know I felt were a good fit in what I was trying to do because that’s a

Relationship you’re getting into a a business relationship with them but I think the biggest thing is buy what you can afford and then do do all the due diligence the insurance and all that kind of thing to make sure you’re protecting your asset so when it’s

Touring museums are paying to have it on display how how does that work yeah so sometimes um you will get paid by museums to have the work um sometimes it’s that you’re donating it because you want the the connection you want to lean into the equity of the of of I think um

The institution right A lot of these institutions have incredible Equity Smithsonian for example I mean for me to say that I’ve been collecting for five six years and I already have my name in a Smithsonian Museum is like a big deal so you know it’s a it’s a mix but yeah

There are times when institutions will pay you to um to actually have your art and their exhibits so we talked about wine art but can you talk about South Africa and give an Insight because you have a relationship with the country yeah from a variety of different standpoints um

So how what do you see as far as opportunity and South South Africa is an interesting place because um you know it’s has the largest economy I think for Africa but it’s mostly controlled by white people so you know everybody knows about aarth or they should know about

Aarth and you know the formal system was broken but the economic system never really changed no so you still have the minority in rule of the majority um when it comes to the economics of it so a lot of people don’t even look at South Africa as like a true African nation

Right um but I would like your perspective from actually spending time out there yeah I mean listen South Africa is absolutely a true African nation it’s Africa and um you know the I think the effects of aparti are still very apparent just like the effects of slavery here in the US are

Still very apparent but I certainly know that there is this younger generation that’s so clear about the fact that they’re about to change their own personal situations and change the the climate of the country and and those are the people that I’ve been able to connect with you know specifically in my

Journey to launch this wine I connected with a 26 year old wine maker black South African wine maker Haley September who graduated with a wine degree going back to get her master’s and you know it’s those kind of stories that are going to change the situation

For South Africa but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there is still so many issues I mean so many issues I read Trevor Nova’s book have you read that no I haven’t it’s actually really good so he talked about even like the different

Like I guess we wouldn’t be considered black in South Africa colored we be colored right yeah so this white colored and this black correct talk about that CU that’s interesting people from America probably can’t understand that I mean we understand lightskin we we know that but we don’t have like set

Different classes as far as D concerned I I’m I’m going to talk about it from my own personal experience for instance the young lady who I was just talking about she would be considered colored um I never call her colored I’m like Haley’s black South African because that’s not

My reality and it’s not that I’m trying to be disrespectful but it’s just not it’s not the reality that we live in but it’s real for them there’s so much colorism you know um is wild and again what I can tell you is that the younger generation is so aware

That a lot of that is just a trap to keep you know their mind stuck in a certain place to see us different when we should all see ourselves the same but it does exist and I think the beautiful opportunity for black folks in America and Africans is that

Our stories are so similar you know um there’s varying degrees but i’ I feel so at home when I’m in South Africa like I’ve sat with Brothers in South Africa that remind me of YouTube you know so I think dispelling the myth that there’s so much difference and I think also

Dispelling the myth that you know incredible place with so much wealth I mean there’s so much wealth in Africa is wild and a lot of people don’t know that a lot of people still believe that you know the only thing to do there is safaris and you know they’re Starving

Children it’s like that couldn’t be farther from the truth and like any country there is poverty and there are issues but it’s beautiful you know and and I think the last thing is again the notion that somehow South Africa isn’t part of you know the African nation is

Wild it’s crazy and I think it’s hurtful to Afric an in South Africa you know I I’ve heard them say like I don’t know why anybody would think that you know and so when they are aware of that yeah that that oh yeah for sure if you’re

Black and you didn’t grw up in the hood in in the US that like somehow you’re not black I like we all black when we walk out the door everybody just right and so I think it’s even hurtful for me to hear hear that because I’ve spent so much

Time in South Africa and it’s absolutely Afric I’ve been to Ghana I’ve been to Nigeria I’ve been to Africa and I’m never in South Africa like this is in Africa feels different you know what I mean like this is very much so Africa you know and the tradition and the

Beauty of the tradition um is just very powerful and so I think my biggest thing with I best wines is also showing black Americans we should be doing business on the continent so I I think it’s interesting because when you create business you have an opportunity to

Create narrative right and show so with I best how do you intertwine right ing’s story MH this this region story this cultural story together how how are you navigating that what is the story of I best um that the world needs to hear yeah the story is really it’s it is a

Blending and a celebration of culture that’s really what this is and so for me you know really telling this story of like here I am a black woman from America who went to South Africa and just fell in love and felt at home and then quickly understood that like I

Could do business I could do business here you know like this is this place is ripe for us to go and do business and not only can I do business but I have the support of the people to do the business right and so IB best is really

Just a celebration of culture Global culture I consider myself a Global Citizens I’ve been all over the world I love the world I love traveling and so I I hope it’s my way of transporting people to South Africa to experience South Africa just a bit and I also hope

That it’s a way to have people understand that like the comfortable thing was Napa the disruptive thing was South Africa so um when Aon has said like you know everybody every black person from America should go to Africa and start a business and you’ll become a millionaire a lot I was talking to

Somebody and I understand what he meant by that but the how-to part is the what’s missing right and that’s that’s very important so you as an American who actually went to Africa and started a business what advice would you give people um from the states or from anywhere in the diaspora that’s looking

To tap in with Africa like as far as um you know cultural experiences and how to network properly how to communicate like what what what would you give as far as advice based off of your own personal experience yeah you know I think the first thing that I would say is

Specifically black Americans we do a lot of Caribbean we do a lot of Europe do some Africa you know just go like the F the first thing is like go get the vibe I mean as Americans we have the freedom to travel anywhere in the world our

Passport like that’s one thing that you realize when you’re in Africa that like the constraints for Africans to just travel around Africa is bananas but that’s by Design right that’s purely by Design we have that freedom and so the first advice would be go if you’ve been

To Italy five times it’s time for you to go to South Africa once if you’ve been to Turks and koos six times it’s time for you to go to Ghana once if you’ve been to right think about where we all go and we spend our money Paris London

All of that so my first advice would be go tap in um and and and wait to be widly wildly surprised by what you’re going to uncover when you get there the second thing is like our brothers and sisters in Africa are waiting for us to come so when we land they’re like

Welcome home you know so understand that you’re also going into an environment where people are welcoming you they want you there they want to connect with you and then I think like with anything you’re going to find your people I found my people it wasn’t that hard you know

So I knew that I wanted to do this business I sought out to find the people that would help me do this business and so I just think that we’ve been taught that Africa is this really difficult thing for us to do and it’s actually much easier for us to do

Than we know and so I would say the first thing is just like go you know so majority of time is is here or is it it’s it’s here right the last the last two years the majority of my time was South Africa people all but thought I

Moved there and I all but did because I needed I needed to tap in I needed to be there um it’s been nice to be back home obviously I had to prepare to get the brand launched home is Southern California but now I’m going to be on

The road you know slanging wine I want people to taste the wine I want people to experience the wine people are excited about it I want to tell the story as well and um and just get you know just help breathe some like fun new energy into the wine space I think wine

Has been you know marketed and it’s also been like looked at a certain way and to me this is like the aside and the B side of a really great record that I want everyone to hear yeah so that because I’m thinking to myself the business formation is happening happened in South

Africa corre that means the trademarking the licensing even the taxes are done there how’s that experience been from knowing what you know you’ve been in this Spirits industry like you said for over 20 years here in America how has that transition been for you from the legality stand side in South Africa yeah

So I mean it’s a dual path right because we have to do all that stuff here too I mean I’m an American the the business is also established here too um the trademark actually was surprisingly the easiest thing to get and I thought it was going to be the hardest because the

The name best right you you would think had already been sewn up 50 times and so that was like the easiest thing to do but I think in South Africa it hasn’t been as difficult to navigate because remember the wine region and wine in South Africa is hundreds of years old so

It’s not like I just came and I’m doing this for the first time it’s a very established business um very established industry so actually wasn’t difficult at all to do um because wine is what they do I mean it’s one of the biggest wine regions in the world so it wasn’t

Difficult I’m sure in other Industries depending on what you’re looking to get into may be a little bit more difficult because you just got to figure out how to do it but with the wine piece of it it actually wasn’t that hard the hardest part for me me was landing on the Blends

That I love that I was ready to feel comfortable to actually say like this is this is the product but I would say the foundational pieces the legal pieces they weren’t difficult how has it been um you have a son right I have a son yeah how is that as far as traveling

And how is that as far as parenting yeah my son is 29 oh wow I was a teenage Mom that’s makes it a lot easier that’s it makes it a lot EAS thank you I know I look younger than what I am no I had my

Son take that as a compliment yeah it is a compliment I had my son at 18 years old okay and um so now he’s 29 he’s very proud he understands that this is Legacy that we’re building and I actually just became a grandmother oh congratulations yeah I just became a grandmother so I

Had my first little grandson so this is really Legacy I mean he was born within days of of this launch launch yes it like two births you know at the same time but I will tell you looking back at my career and being a teenage mother and

Having to figure all that out it wasn’t easy and thank God for my mother and I think a lot of us right rely on the grandparent especially when you’re younger and you have children so my mother was was absolutely co-parenting with me um and so luckily now at this

Phase in my life I don’t have a young young one other than my grandson but I I know a lot of people that are out here grinding trying to navigate Parenthood and it’s not it’s not easy not for sure do do you talk about succession does he

Find in this business interesting is it something like you guys working together I know at one point you said that being a team mom you have to grow together right like you’re growing as an adult and you’re raising somebody so you’re growing are is that synonymous now with

This business yeah I think um listen everybody knows that I’m doing this for legacy purposes including him MH I I think he is still wrapping his around his head around like my mom is the talent of this thing right everybody’s been talking to me like how does it feel

To be the talent of I best one like talent because I never saw myself as that I think my son is processing that part that like people want to you know interview his mom and talk to his mom and have my autograph on the bottles

Because I’m just his mom you know so I think that’s probably the thing he’s navigating most he SE me in this business for so long so he understands it and he’s like about to get that money mom you know in that part he’s like this is really exciting um but I also haven’t

Necessarily forced him to be in the business you know I think I think the wine and spear is business represented for my son for many years why his mom was gone so much so I had to also balance the like he could have a love

Hate for this you know and I’m I’m aware of that right I’m aware that like this industry that I’ve given my life to kept me on the road a lot kept me gone a lot so he was he also wasn’t like a kid that like drank at an early age he didn’t do

A lot of those things because in his mind he’s like that’s what my mom is into that you know but he gets that this is some real Legacy that we’re building here and um you know I’m building this to have it acquired so I know I’m going

To make a lot of money I understand that space I’ve learned it at the highest level through the joint ventures that I’ve worked on so he he knows so what’s the what’s the future for I bet you said you building it to be acquired but um before that like what what’s your road

Map to get to that point yeah so the road map is again establishing that you know I best wines is is the the icon in the wine space I think that’s the first thing is for people to see that here here goes this brand that just came in

It was just so disruptive and people wanted wanted to make sure that it was at their tables at restaurants and on their menus and at at events and again I’ve done that for Big Brand so I I have a plan to do that for for this this

Brand you know ideally um you know partnering with the right Distributors because I think a lot of people don’t realize is those early Partnerships also Define the kind of acquisition you’re going to have you a lot of people sign with Distributors fast and and then when it comes to acquisition times like the

Cost to buy out all those Distributors is crazy so being very strategic about the distributor partners that we take on and for me I want the big Distributors you know I mentioned earlier like I don’t it’s a new brand I don’t see it as a small brand you know how we always are

Conditioned little business small business I’m like no this is a big business now you know and so the road map very much so is built with it being a big business in mind and then you know these Brands these companies these suppliers they need our culture like without our culture without

What we bring to the table our buying power they are nothing and I know that and so you know I’m looking forward to the day in three to five years where I’m sitting down at the table with the supplier that I think would make the right sense to do an acquisition with

And doing you know a historical acquisition for iest wines that’s what I see you are I’m assuming you’re still the majority owner I know you took you have five Partners now is there at any point you see yourself I know you didn’t like to use the word raise yeah but

Raise capital and perhaps have more people in the ownership group absolutely so the the structure right now is I’m the founder I have five women that have been working with me on this journey that I’ve given Equity to and then I have five women who have invested um but

For people who understand Investments they’ve invested on a convertable note it’s not Equity yet they’ve invested in believing in something that eventually if we determine that it may makes sense for them to to get Equity they will um so I am the owner of I best wines yes

Absolutely I will raise money you know it gets to a point where like okay you can’t just spend all your capital and think that you can do everything that you want to do but I don’t want to raise capital in a way where I’m forced to

Give up ownership of my brand and a lot of people do that and they don’t understand it and what I can tell you is that um I understand marketing I understand commercial I have a great commercial competency obviously understand investing so when it comes to understanding the world of fundraising

That’s been the thing that I’ve been educating myself the most and so I’ve been really patient in in the fundraising process because I’m like until I get a bit of a Mastery on this I don’t want to take nobody money and I think a lot of people make that mistake

Right they make the mistake of like I need money or I I’ve heard that I should go get money spend someone else’s money you know all these things that you I mean you guys know this world owe too much and for me it’s been hugely important for me to understand it like

What does it really mean to fundraise what does it really mean to take Capital what does it really mean to have people on your cap table because one thing I don’t want to do is find myself in a situation that I can’t build this brand

In the way that I know the brand should be built and so I I I want to just be mindful that you have to have have a healthy mix mix of I think people that are willing to get on your cap table but that are willing to do it in a way that

Makes sense for you so yes we’ll raise but I’m not rushing to the to the first you know group of people that like say we want to be a part of it let has be a good fit it’s it’s a marriage yeah you when you take investment is it is a

Marriage and they have to also have your your goal in mind you know everybody wants to sell some people want to hold their Brands forever you know I’m building this to be acquired and the reason why is because I understand the opportunity in that you know and and

What it’ll allow me to do from a just I think a a wealth building perspective this is one of many things that I want to do you know so that’s my plan thank you for joining us thank you how can they um purchase the wine and any other

Information you like yeah so iest wines.com we have a direct consumer model which is I’m really excited about right because we’re controlling that um the website is beautiful you learn a bit more about myself about the women that have been working with me we also have a section that highlights Global creatives

Because again this is my way of just connecting people so we have all these in credible people that we’ve worked with that we aspire to work with um because I wanted the website to be a place where people can discover not just shop but discover as well so ibest

Wines.com my social is missor iest and the I best win social is iest wines there you have it ladies and gentlemen High best wines are we gonna get a bottle yeah absolutely okay okay I appreciate it absolutely I got appreciate that so we got sure I need

This in you guys’ repertoire because I I know y’all drink wine drinking wine the rumors are true yes the rumors are true these guys drink wine so absolutely thank you for having me appreci we appreciate you coming and thank you thank you for the one yeah

Thank you yes thank you guys for rocking with us see you next week peace peace