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

Nayana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea?

My husband and I were becoming tired with working in corporate America and were looking for a change in life. We wanted a life where we could dictate our own future and do something that we had a passion for.

I was losing my job as the entire finance department was moving to New Jersey and my husband, an executive at a major mortgage company, kept getting moved around from area to area. We decided to finally do something about it.
I asked my husband, a tequila connoisseur, if he could do anything in life, what would he like to do. He said “own a tequila brand but there’s no way we can do that”. I replied “why not?” and the journey began there.

While I was laid off, I began the search for a distillery in Mexico, as all tequila must be produced and bottled in Mexico. Since I speak Spanish, it made this much easier and within two days I found the distillery in Jalisco that we work with today. I have an MBA along with vast experience in the financial industry so coming up with a forecast to launch the brand came pretty easily. I was actually within $100 of my projections from idea to actual creation.

It took 11 months to launch the brand which is incredibly fast. We knew what we wanted, we were serious about it and we felt if we didn’t do this now, we may never do it. In life, we have to take chances and incur risks for our lives to change. We knew nothing about the spirits industry, but we learned very quickly. It wasn’t easy but when we held the finished product in our hands, we knew we created something special.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Nayana Ferguson, Co-Founder of the multi-award winning Anteel Tequila brand, the first black woman to own/co-own or lead a tequila brand, a former financial analyst, a wife, a mother and a Glam-Ma (Grandmother).

When we launched in 2018, we truly did not have any knowledge in the liquor industry, but my husband and I both had co-owned businesses in the past. We knew the basic fundamentals with business, marketing and sales but we would have to learn about this type of business as we went along.
When we launched Anteel Tequila, we knew we wanted to do something very different in the tequila world that would set ourselves apart from the competition.

The margarita is the most popular cocktail in the world and the coconut margarita is one of the most popular flavored margaritas. We wanted to replicate that, but not add any sugars or sweeteners to the tequila. It took some time to get it just right, but we created the world’s only Coconut Lime Blanco Tequila, infused with all-natural flavorings from the meat of the coconut and lime. This would attract a lot of attention from those that love a great margarita or prefer sipping a tequila that is incredibly smooth with a hint of all-natural flavors.

When we launched we also wanted to satisfy the tequila enthusiast with an aged tequila that would also appeal to most whiskey and bourbon drinkers. Anteel Reposado is aged for 8 months in charred Tennesse whiskey barrels and provides a depth of flavor that is refined and complex with a slight hint of whiskey on the finish. These two expressions were what we launched on the market and together these two expressions have won a combined 36 awards and accolades since 2019. We would later release two more expressions in the Anteel Tequila portfolio that have also won multiple awards. With these other two expressions, our 50 awards and accolades since 2019 has made Anteel Tequila one of the most awarded tequila brands since that year.

In late 2019, I learned that I was the first black woman to own/co-own and lead a tequila brand. I am proud of that because it allows me to share my story that goes way beyond being a pioneer in the spirits industry. I am also a 17-year pancreatic cancer survivor and a 10-year breast cancer survivor. My story has garnered attention worldwide and I am proud to also be a national advocate for PanCAN, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

On the back of every bottle of Anteel Tequila we have the tagline “Create Your Legacy” as we believe that everyone has a legacy to create. Anteel Tequila has opened doors that I never had thought would open and hopefully I am proof to others that you can do anything in life you want as long as you have no fear to go after it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we created Anteel Tequila, there was no way in the world that we could have seeen a global pandemic in the future. This is something that can be destructive to a new business and even some established companies.

We were just getting ready to set our sights on launching in California and Florida when we heard about Covid but at that time it was very early in the pandemic and it seemed it would go away. Unfortunately, it didn’t and we had to immediately think of a different strategy as this virus quickly got out of control.

We shifted to online marketing and sales. We partnered with a retailer that had a great online retail presence and fine tuned an online marketing strategy. We doubled down on our media outreach as we knew this would drive the brand to not only create visibility for Anteel Tequila but also lead to increased sales to markets we couldn’t physicially reach.

At that time many states shut down for extended periods of time leaving people the inability to venture out like they did before. We knew that increased ads on social media as well as media articles would help us market Anteel Tequila and it worked. Many major publications picked up the story and our sales actually increased tremendously during 2020.

In life and in business you’ll always face adversity, it’s a given however it’s how you accept it and allow yourself to remain calm and pivot that helps with a favorable outcome. In business, it’s a must to think big picture and execute effectively in a time sensitive manner to succeed.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Social media is an absolute blessing for business owners! Having businesses in the late 90’s / early 2000’s I’m all too familiar with handing out paper flyers and putting up posters but social media allows you to reach an audience way beyond your physical reach.

One thing that we do often is do a LIVE session on social media, mostly Instagram or Facebook. This allows us to share updates about Anteel Tequila. We like to invite consumers into our world and answer questions that they may have about us or the brand. We have fun with this and we don’t see too many other brands doing this. We title this “Happy Hour with the Owners” and besides providing updates, we’ll make a cocktail or two and just have as much fun as we possibly can. We feel it’s very important for fans of Anteel Tequila to learn about who we are and what our brand stands for. We also educate our followers on the tequila making process and why our tequila is different than many on the market.

We feel that this little thing actually goes a long way in creating success for our brand and for us personally.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.anteeltequila.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anteeltequilas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anteeltequila
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/anteel-tequila
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/anteeltequilas
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIZj-VACBnmg0X29xfzgREA
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@anteeltequila

Image Credits
Manna Ibanez