We recently connected with Angelica Enwesi-Imhoede and have shared our conversation below.

Angelica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

When I set out to do Everybody Loves Wine. My vision was simple place food, wine and piece of the world together and bring happiness and joy to someone. My mission was to also being more awareness to the wine industry to other women of color. I learned in doing research on my business only .05% of black women were in the wine industry and that was shocking to say the least. Even women in general make up only 18% and I knew going in most of peers would be men.

Being from the Twin Cities has taught me that sometimes when you are making a difference you may start off as the only one at first but you can be a catalyst to others. Becoming one of the few black women sommeliers in Minneapolis, made me realize how I didn’t just want my company to grow as a concierge service for food and wine but also something that brought education of wine to others. I wanted people to feel like they could also learn a thing or two about wine and know wherever they go, they have that tool on their tool belt.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi-I’m Angelica, Senior Manager in Technology Risk by day and Twin Cities Sommelier by night! Just kidding, I absolutely adore travel, food, and wine! I always knew that if I started a business it would need to incorporate those three items after all life is too short and I wanted to have fun in my business.

After coming back from Santorini Greece for my birthday in the summer of 2023 and spending the trip going on wine tours and eating amazing food, I knew I wanted to bring a piece of that experience to the Twin Cities. I then set out to take a business plan course that fall and voila Everybody Love Wine was born.

I think what make my business unique is that we are a mobile wine tasting & food concierge service. We also do wine and food events and partner with a organizations around the Twin Cities. We want to be household name and continue to grow in our city and state and eventually the country.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

It took me a long to time to decide on a business. I spent several years knowing there was something I needed to do but I could articulate to see it yet. Then one day it just came to me and I realized after it came to me that I would have to execute it and by executing it, I would have to put myself out there. Good, bad or indifferent, I would have to put myself out there and that was probably one of the most scariest things, I could do because believe it or not I can be shy or unsure, or not confident in certain moments. I remember a month before my ticket sales went live for my first event, I had a full on panic attack and melt down. My husband reassured me that I everything would be okay and it was. Our goal was 75 tickets and we sold 90. I remember putting up the sold out sign on eventbrite and being so happy but scared because I knew I had to deliver after so many people believed in me enough to purchase a ticket to my first event. Well it was a success, I basically went viral in my city for two days and so many people congratulated and looked forward to the next event.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to learn in business to take the higher road sometimes. As someone who prides herself on being direct, assertive and not afraid of confrontation. I learned that may not always be great disposition as a entrepreneur. I learned early on this lesson when I was faced with partnering with someone on something and not being paid properly. What made it worse is that they promised for us to do cross promotional work and yet when the time came for my event, they did not promote a single post.

I think that was my first lesson in making sure to work with people who align with my values and also not outwardly showing my disappointment by calling anyone out or making it into a big deal but instead double downing on making sure my event is successful despite a lack of support. In the words of Beyonce Knowles as I like to say “Always Stay Gracious Best Revenge is your Paper” and I received that because I tuned around that did a 90 person event off of my first try.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.everybodyloveswine.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/_everybodyloveswine.com_s