Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jack Beguedou. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

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

As someone who loved to connect with others, I quickly found that good connections always happen around food and spirits. I wanted to know more about the spirit I was consuming and make that knowledge as a subject of conversation. One problem I found is every time i go online to look up more information about spirits, not a lot of folks looked or sounded like me. The idea came to mind to create a new voice in the spirit industry. A voice of diversity inclusion love of spirit and people from all around the world THE HOOD SOMMELIER was born

Jack, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Jack Beguedou born and raised in West Africa. I came to the USA when I was 20 years old, I am a girl dad. I graduated with a Bachelor in Science of Business from Bellevue University and started my career in the Insurance and financial industry over a decade. Currently the proud owner of the Independent Insurance agency here in Nebraska and serving communities around the Midwest. Education, protection, diversity, and inclusion have always been important to my vision. As I started being serious about the spirit industry five years ago, I wanted to apply the same vision. I was able to build a community of spirit lovers from around the world. I use my social media platform to educate the average consumer about spirits. Today my platform is a safe, yet fun space for brands and consumers to connect. I have taken my knowledge and personality on the road with the AFROFUSION dinner series where African Food meets Whiskey. The objective of these dinner series is to elevate and highlight minority chefs and mixologists around the world in a fun dinner experience.

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

Just like when I started in my insurance sales career when I started to approach whiskey brands about working with me on showcasing their spirits to my audience, I received a lot of “no” or unreturned emails. it was frustrating but I never gave up. I kept posting creating content showing my passion for going to whiskey events and meeting brands and telling them about who JACK is. Because what I have learned in my sales career is no doesn’t mean you are not good enough it means you haven’t presented your picture in the way it makes sense yet

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When it came to building an audience I will only have three words for anyone that wants to start:

Consistency: It took me to post constantly two to three times a week for 90 days before seeing traction, and that according to experts is not even good enough.

Authenticity: do not post what you think people will like to post what you truly believe in.

Patience: Chances are you will never go viral but there are more chances that are you post consistently there will be people looking forward to your post and as time goes by those are the people who will support you endeavor( event merch etc.)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hoodsom.com
• Instagram: @hood_sommelier
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hoodsommelier
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jackbeguedou
• Twitter: @ttacques1
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@HOODSOMMELIER