When author Grey Chapman caught up with Imbibe 75 alum Samara Davis for our July/August 2024 difficulty, Davis hinted at eager to go the torch and transfer past her impactful membership group Black Bourbon Society (BBS). “There’s an entire group of African American spirits professionals which are coming into this house. And I would like to have the ability to simply plug and play the place I must,” she mentioned. Then in September, she introduced she was ending BBS on the shut of 2024. So what does that imply for BBS members and for her variety initiatives throughout the trade? We checked in along with her to seek out out. This interview has been edited and condensed.
How and when did you understand you needed to maneuver past Black Bourbon Society?
I’ve recognized it for some time. And I believe someplace between final yr and now this yr, I began to finally resist that nudge to transition as a result of I felt very responsible about wanting to try this. I felt very liable for saving this group by way of Covid. As an illustration, I used to be simply on the retailers with my husband on Saturday, and one other gentleman and his spouse have been in there. He walks as much as me, shakes my hand, and says, “Hello, I’m such and such. I do know precisely who you might be. Thanks. You saved my life throughout Covid.” By no means knew his title, I by no means interacted with him. He’s not a member of BBS. However, I perceive the influence that we’ve made has been enormous and it was very life-saving for people throughout a really powerful, powerful time.
I felt this want to hold this duty for people. However as we began to transition out of Covid, all of the members who have been hooked up to our model have been like, “I can return to my common life and now I don’t wish to drink bourbon anymore as a result of I do that, or now I’m busy at work.” My group was shifting and I used to be nonetheless feeling like I needed to maintain all of it collectively, not realizing that, no, it’s truly okay for everyone to go on.
What’s the following step?
What I’m discovering over these previous couple weeks is that it’s time to place what I do know from doing this and creating this group, and what we’ve been doing for the previous eight and a half years, and actually apply it internally. I nonetheless love my model relationships. However as a substitute of manufacturers coming to me saying, “Hey, we simply had this launch and wish to ship you a bottle, and we wish you to put it on the market to your viewers.” No, I’m not doing that. Now it’s the time for me to return in and work with you internally to inform you methods to join. It must be a part of a company tradition and a company construction.
Corporations can rent me as a guide. I’ve consulted on initiatives behind the scenes, I’ve consulted on up-and-coming manufacturers and rising manufacturers to assist them with their branding and their advertising. So, sure, I’m nonetheless consulting throughout the trade. But it surely is not going to be as this public-facing influencer. As a result of, actually, it’s simply not pretty much as good a use of my skills. I’ve far more to contribute.
A model reached out to me a pair weeks in the past and mentioned, “We heard that Black individuals actually like butterscotch whiskey, so can we ship you a bottle and also you inform your entire members to go purchase our bottle?” No, I can not! However what I can do is figure with you. I can analyze your bottle, analyze the liquid, inform you if it’s good or not. I may help you to enhance and refine what your product is. As a result of, once more, I don’t wish to be the face. I don’t wish to be the spokesperson of that. I don’t wish to be the endorser.
Will another person take over the Black Bourbon Society?
No, nobody’s gonna take it over. I’ll nonetheless preserve my IP, I’ll nonetheless preserve my trademarking. I do assume that there’s a chance to circle again to redefining Black Bourbon Society and a extra unique community-based group however a lot smaller and way more targeting the unique spirits experiences that I want to create for that group.
Possibly I take 10 individuals with me to spend 10 days in Scotland, and we simply study scotch. Or possibly we go to Barbados and we study rum. Or we go to Napa with 15 individuals and do a grapes and grains expertise with Napa Valley wine nation and the Napa Valley bourbon distilleries which are popping up all over on the market. However it will likely be extra catered and extra unique but additionally very a lot inclusive of Black group and constructing a particular connection for these of us.
However, for me, BBS grew to become about amount as a result of we wanted the amount to show to the manufacturers that we exist. Now I would love to concentrate on high quality. So it’s not a free group, it’s not simply free training, it’s not simply “manufacturers meet Black individuals, Black individuals meet manufacturers.” It’s way more strategic, intentional, and extra intimate. I suppose that’s a greater phrase than “inclusive,” but it surely’s a extra intimate expertise with Black Bourbon Society transferring ahead.
We’ve a paid membership and we’ve got a free membership. Proper now, our paid membership is about 1,500 individuals. Whereas our free membership is about 30,000. So it’s extra of like, “Okay, we are able to reduce out the 28.5 and simply actually focus and share these intimate experiences with the 15 which are really devoted and actually wish to be taught and actually wish to decide to what BBS is doing. It’s time for us to get extra targeted and extra particular with what we wish to do with BBS as a substitute of simply being this come-one, come-all group.
So that you’re not leaving the trade—you’re persevering with to broaden throughout the trade.
To ensure that me to have the ability to department out, I want to scale back. I’m being pulled in too some ways with such a big group and types coming left and proper simply wanting me to do issues, and all people desires me to do one thing, and no person desires to pay for it. I wish to scale back all of that all the way down to one thing that feels prefer it’s a mutual change. Everybody is ready to get one thing out of it and all people appreciates the expertise they’re getting from it.
By decreasing that each one the way in which down on BBS and getting very clear on what the group is and the way I work with the manufacturers, that opens up loads of alternative for me to then have the ability to, once more, write the ebook that I actually wish to write, to concentrate on my company. We’ll proceed to provide direct shopper advertising occasions and activations for manufacturers, however now I’ve the chance to work with different manufacturers exterior the trade.
I do wish to take my time to be sure that as we transition out of this, that plan develops into one thing strong. And once we’re prepared, we’re prepared. The concepts of Black Bourbon Society will be translated into something. Like I inform my manufacturers that I work with on a regular basis, “Your why is robust sufficient; the how doesn’t actually matter, the what doesn’t actually matter.” So we could possibly be Black Bourbon Society and we might launch a classroom partnership with William Sonoma and it’ll make sense, you recognize? Or we might do a sequence of spirits journey and turn out to be a spirits journey company and it’ll make sense as a result of the why remains to be robust sufficient. However the what, and the way we execute the what, is what’s altering.
What does this imply for BBS members come January 1?
They’ll know by then however in all probability not a day earlier than. Undoubtedly not at the moment. That is one thing that I’m nonetheless being nonetheless with. I simply completed my media package. So that is one thing that I’m sending out to my present sponsors. All my colleagues within the trade that I’ve labored with for eight and a half years, they’re all freaking out. They’re like, “Bye! We didn’t get an opportunity to work with you.” They assume I simply retired. I didn’t retire, however we’re transitioning into one thing. Let me present you what we’re working with and how one can nonetheless work with me since you’re nonetheless my associates. I nonetheless love you. I nonetheless wish to come to Kentucky. This isn’t over. That is simply change.
