We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Josh Beliso. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Josh below.

Josh, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Like many, at a certain point one asks themselves, “can I keep doing this?” That’s exactly where I found my thoughts going again and again, cyclically. I would rationalize where I was. At that time, I was teaching undergraduate classes at the University of Southern California through an awarded fellowship I received while working on my MFA. I was being mentored by great artists like Ruden Ochoa, Edgar Arceneaux, and Suzanne Lacy to name a few. Art was my life at this point and I was all in. Academia was my set goal and I liked it, at first. This is all an important lead up so please stay patient past this point.
It became apparent very quickly that the art world and academia had shifted quite radically. It had always been the collection of odd balls and quirky eccentrics, opinionated to a fault and stubborn. It was the circus, but with a bigger budget. The art world had always had its share of rabble rousers and political shriekers as there was an entire vein of this work, well established within the cannon of fine arts. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. However, amidst the social political unrest and a communal shut down at the start of the 2020 Covid era, there was a collapse. During my time at USC, I experienced an utterly life changing event that would soon lead me towards my life with bees and the golden nectar they produce. In the beginning, we all entered optimistically, bright eyed, and dreamed of being that artist we always looked up too. Yet, we all soon knew there was something very fishy about the program. Some didn’t care and others wondered why. Out of hundreds that applied to the Roski School of Art and Design, only 8 artists are selected. I will keep this portion brief but it is important in the buildup of why I left the path I had spent the last 10+ years building.
Acceptance into the school was presented as a merit based entry and that we all had to pay the full tuition as no funding was available to award at that time. Very quickly, me and a few other students all within our cohort discussed the lack of aid given. It became apparent that other students did in fact receive quite a large amount of aid. In fact, multiple members of my cohorts were either on a full ride or had 50% or more provided. Everyone actually had money awarded to them except me and one other. So we were like WTF, this doesn’t make sense. So over the next 6 months we started to piece it together as everyone shared more about themselves, including the professors. It became quite clear that there was a bias for anyone that was considered to be from an alternative lifestyle. Anyone who either identified as a member of an oppressed community or checked a DEI box was given money. Some openly expressed they came from well off families and did not need it. For example, a young girl who we all enjoyed hanging out with was given an almost full ride, yet she lacked the active history of engaging with the art world that the rest of us had earned over years of work. When we asked why she chose USC she said because they gave her the most money, not because she actually wanted to in the program or a fine artists. It became apparent that her invitation to the program was more about filling a diversity quota rather than adding a student who was well matched to the program. She was very open about how much more interested in fashion and influencer lifestyles she was. In another case a trans artist was given a full ride because her(biological sex) performance art was quite intense and would often use sex, real blood (self mutilation), violence, and bodily fluids of her own in her performances. She later left the program after throwing a tantrum about not getting enough support. Her funds were not redistributed to other students. She was in fact championed by the professors and was awarded a rather large travel grant for an exhibition. I was shocked she left because she was clearly set up for success. It became a game of favorites as the faculty clearly gave more attention to others that aligned with their ideals. It was only me and the other straight white male that received zero financial support amongst other deficits. He eventually left the program for lack of faculty interest and support and I heavily considered leaving too, except that I really needed the job that would hopefully come after the program. A consistent position as a teacher in higher education. I was a single dad in the midst of a malicious divorce while teaching and attending graduate school full time with a community that othered me and berated me just for asking questions about their rhetoric. I was not a political artists, but, this community of the art world demanded so. A cement cast of a water bottle was considered a ghostly echo of immigrant labor and slavery, my stone sculpture of Groucho Marx’s famous toy mustache and nose glasses where considered a tribute to Hitler and students complained about my work being offensive and violent, even though they were based off of gag toys like “snakes in a can.” After attending classes with Patrice Cullors, the cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement and seeing her personal hypocrisy and heavy manipulation of the community, it broke me. I will give one main example. After publicly demanding the defunding of the police, not many people knew that while at USC she consistently had a police escort and presence while on campus, often an officer standing outside her studio door. She was quite adamant that she needed it for her safety despite having her own male entourage. We all now know that the BLM organization was a massively corrupt organization that funneled millions in donations to specific individuals and no actual community benefits were made with those funds.
This is where I left academia and the pursuit of gallery representation. The notions were clear. If you wanted to be anybody in the art world you had to be politically invested in radical ideology that leaned very left or identify as some kind of oppressed or neglected person. There was no room for an individual who wanted to just focus on the art, someone who just didn’t care about politics or identity. I will always be an artist, that is a blood trait.
So I simplified. Honey bees and the natural world had always been a passion, so I took a gamble on it and with my Covid relief checks, I started Out There Flavors. This way I was able to still be creative and use my artistry in a more direct way creating wonderful honey infusions and other delights with often a medicinal benefit. My products are truly one of a kind and I am very proud of them.

Josh, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always loved honey. Bees have fascinated me with their efficiency and cut throat determination. Animals and nature in general have captivated me. I also love food, and consider myself an experimental foodie. Flavors were a big interest, especially in my own home cooking. I would always research and experiment with new foods and spices. Then I started with hot sauces. They were so popular and the hot sauce show “Hot Ones” was really taking off, so I tried to start there. However, permitting was so much more complicated for those products, especially fermented products. So I simplified. I was now focusing on honeys, mustards, and vinegars. I figured they are all shelf stable and can last for years untouched. So product loss would be low if any. Plus they were my favorite things. The flavor boosting powers of condiments and sauces are what I am all about.
So the next challenge was how to stand out. Most honey, if it was pure ands unadulterated was naturally delicious, but there was potential for improvements. So I started infusing the honeys as they have a natural way of leaching out the essence of whatever is stored in them. Honey was also a great preservative that will never go bad. They have found human corpses perfectly preserved in honey in Egypt and the honey was still edible. It is truly a magical liquid. So I began testing infusions. First I was just using simple but loved ingredients like cinnamon to start, then chocolate and espresso, then lion’s mane mushrooms, and so on. It’s a hit. This was brand new territory and an untapped market to investigate. Nobody or very few have commercial products available like mine. I was onto something new and exciting.
I am so proud and grateful for how I have been able to reach people all over Southern California and enrich their lives. Be it just the appreciation of a tasty and well crafted product to add to morning toast or how my more medicinal blended honeys have continually aided and soothed many conditions from brain fog to colds and flus. I want people to walk away knowing they just invested in themselves with a quality product, feeling secure and confident. Questions are always welcome and my customers know they can reach out whenever it is needed.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Early on when I was just fostering the idea of starting a business I was met with mostly criticism and doubt from family and friends. I still had a foot in the fine art world and was just indecisive. After I graduated from USC mid Covid era, my family expected me to get a job anywhere I could regardless of how bleak it looked. “Starbucks has benefits,” or “come work for my company,” where things I often heard. However, that didn’t resonate with me and I wanted something to call my own, with unlimited growth potential. I needed to start at the bottom, so I did. That gave me the space to figure things out. Now, I am not saying everything is perfect now and I have reached my pinnacle. There are still good and bad periods as with any business, but I have already come so much farther than I ever thought I would and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I am expanding daily with new customers, clients, and directions to take the business.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

In a nutshell, it’s honesty. Honesty is a quality that people yearn for. We have been so conditioned to mindlessly believe and repeat what we are told to do and believe. Many have turned off their internal guidance systems. Transparency, authenticity, and honesty has always been what clicks within my customers. Honesty then combined with public events where you can engage, talk, and really explain your mission with your product. That seems to be the winning combination.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.outthereflavors.com
• Instagram: out_there_flavors

Image Credits

Jenae Berg
Josh Beliso