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