Episode 13 - Meet Gargi Kothari, whose story in the world of wines will simply wow you

[00:00:01] All ah, all you lovely people, now I want to ask you one question. What's your poison? Hmm, if it's wine, then you're surely lucky today. And if it's not wine, then you're even lucky

[00:00:16] Because you will get to know on this episode what is it that really gets a wine lover going? Especially when she's called Gargi Kothari, who's taking her love for wine super seriously.

[00:00:29] You know, she's this truly wine-blowing wine geek who I met at one of the most fun film events organized at my co-workers' place, Work Pain, Bandra.

[00:00:39] And Gargi, well, I want to reduce you to the people who don't know you yet. On this episode 13 of The Art of Sujya Ikigai Kothari, come about and say hello, how are you feeling today? I said, I'm feeling great, how are you?

[00:00:55] I am doing absolutely super and I can't tell you how excited I am. I always say this at the beginning of my show because, you know, it's so nice and I feel so thrilled to be introducing people like you, special and inspiring people like you

[00:01:10] To my listeners on this podcast called Get Up Get Going and Find Your Ikigai Kothari, each of you have truly truly, you know, followed your Ikigai and are doing what you love.

[00:01:22] So Gargi tell us, yeah, I mean, eight and a half years ago in India, a girl actually getting into the world of wine. How did that all happen?

[00:01:32] So first of all, I would like to start off by thanking you so much for inviting me to this podcast and I feel that the name and the concept of this podcast, you know, jails so much with what how I feel about wine.

[00:01:49] And it was completely back accident. You know, I was in advertising didn't quite enjoy that much. So for two years I spent a lot of time in searching about, you know, what I really wanted to do.

[00:02:05] And surprisingly, the idea of wine came from my mom. You know, she was the one who found out about WSCT, which is wine and spirit education trust, you know, which is a global body that, you know, does formal wine education.

[00:02:23] And I came across that course and I went for the level one, which is just for a day. And I just absolutely fell in love with wine. I really knew nothing about wine when I went for that class.

[00:02:36] And it just blew my mind as to there are so many things involved when it comes to wine. It's not just about the technical knowledge of that liquid in the class, but it's got so many things right from the history culture geography, the people behind it.

[00:02:53] The food, you know, that we have with wine, it has so many different aspects and you know, I always say that you could spend your lifetime learning about wine and it might still not be enough because the subject itself is so deep and so vast. So I think that, you know, that curiosity that I have about various things, you know, why kind of stocks that curiosity that I have, you know, to constantly learn something new to explore something new.

[00:03:19] And I think that is what keeps me going in the wine space, you know, because you can be creative, you can be technical. There are so many different aspects that you can explore when it comes to wine that just I absolutely love, you know, doing what I do.

[00:03:35] That's so nice to hear, absolute pleasure to hear actually and what a cool mom. I mean she went and found out about what's W set stand for it's wine and spirit education trust.

[00:03:48] Okay, she actually went and you know kind of found out more about that and why would she do that? I mean, Gardi was there any particular reason for that is it very interesting. I'm just curious to know.

[00:03:58] So yeah, there was actually a reason it being that you know, I was kind of lost. So wine happened to me when I was around 27 years old and you know, I was kind of lost in my career.

[00:04:13] I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And so I think it was her thing, you know that she was just trying to help me figure out what I wanted to do.

[00:04:22] I mean, she's a clinical psychologist herself and she helps kids through their learning difficulties, you know, or that's what she does. So she was like, hey, like, I got to do the same thing for my daughter, you know, try to help her in terms of finding a career.

[00:04:37] Of course, she is my mom. She understands my temperament and by then, you know, I'd already been into jobs and I knew that that typical nine to five was, you know, not really my scene like that was not my temperament at all.

[00:04:51] So she of course knew that and then that is why her endeavor was also to find an off beat career, you know, something that is not your regular job situation.

[00:05:03] And that's how we started exploring different things. So in this exploring different things are also did wedding planning, I did a bit of event management, all of that happened.

[00:05:13] And you know, this kind of event management experience, you know, helped quite a bit with my own events. So, you know, no experience goes to waste, but it's just that I needed to find something that was my passion, that was my calling.

[00:05:28] And that happened with wine and that's so amazing that your mom had such a big role to play in it, right? You mean she loved her behavior.

[00:05:36] Yeah, usually you know, it's the conditioning that parents say that you gotta do this, you gotta get your degree, you gotta be successful in this field, right?

[00:05:44] And here was a mom, you know, who really encouraged you to do what you wanted or follow your heart. You know, could those hats off actually to her gargry, please give her special special compliments.

[00:05:59] That's awesome. So, Gargry, you know, talking about your mom, let's go back to your childhood. Did you have any childhood influences or growing up influences that led you to choose this kind of a career completely different? Have you been like this since you were a child, etc.

[00:06:16] So, you know, of course I was always the different kid in terms of the fact that I was always very opinionated and I was always my thinking was always different from a lot of people of my age.

[00:06:32] And also I had this rebellious streak that I do even now. You know, so I've always been an independent thinker and the way that I was brought up was also to think for myself, you know, my parents always said that you think for yourself, like, you know, we trust you and we trust your decision making. So whatever it is that we want to do, we will advise you but we will never impose anything on you.

[00:06:59] So, I think that that was a very big influence in having even the confidence in myself to think independently and think differently and not feel that, oh, am I doing something wrong or is this okay or anything like that? Like, you know, not second guessing yourself is something I think that was ingrained when I was a kid.

[00:07:23] And also, you know, I would say other kind of influences, you know, I was always heavily into music and into that even now. And you know, once again, that kind of speaks of my free spiritedness, you know, because I really enjoy things that give you the freedom to be who you are, you know, that was one of the most important things for me.

[00:07:46] And other influence would be the fact that growing up, you know, my dad is an entrepreneur and he always, you know, did things his way. And also, you know, when, when we were kids, you know, when we had some financial difficulties, it always happens in business families, you know, there's always up and down in business.

[00:08:06] So that was never a deterrent, you know, for us in the sense that that kind of me does resilient saying that he like it's not about having a paycheck at the end of the day, but it's about really following your dreams and doing what you really want to do.

[00:08:21] So seeing that and then, you know, after even quitting advertising and I quit advertising not just because I had found something else that I wanted to do. In fact, I quit advertising not knowing at all what I wanted to do.

[00:08:36] So at that time also, you know, to say that he like this is not what I want to do and I don't want to, you know, follow the batteries. So that kind of, you know, temperament is what I would say is what set me apart and set me on the path to find my calling.

[00:08:56] So I feel that these would be the influences that I've had, you know, growing up.

[00:09:01] Oh, wow, that reminds me of one of my favorite Frank Sinatra songs, my way and you know, the lyrics of that actually, and it goes, I did it my way and Gargi, it surely seems like you are doing it, you always.

[00:09:15] So, you know, congratulations to you that, you know, when the listen to the lyrics of the song, I'm sure you have listened to it, but you know, maybe go back and listen to it once more today.

[00:09:24] Okay, all right. Let's keep this going and let's keep your journey going as well. Tell us more about what happened after you did W. Set, you know, the course and, you know, what was your journey after that in the world of wine.

[00:09:38] So when I started out, of course, I was a complete novice and therefore I wanted to do a job, mainly to understand how the industry works, you know, who are the people and to of course make, you know, connections and networking within the industry.

[00:09:53] So for the first three years that I was in wine, I worked with a wine impoder where I handled marketing and then in the last one and a half years of the job. I also graduated to a wine trainer because by then I had completed my W.

[00:10:08] at the university level three as well. So this kind of experience, you know, gave me insights into how the industry works and then at the end of the day that was still a job, you know, so and I had this thing in me where I wanted to do something of my own.

[00:10:26] And I saw that there was a gap in terms of, you know, people wanting to learn about wine but there weren't enough avenues or platforms or even wine tasting events where people could go and learn about wine in an informal setting.

[00:10:44] You know, otherwise wine has this image of, you know, being very lardida or has this kind of very stuffy sort of an image and I wanted to kind of, you know, make wine more approachable for people.

[00:10:59] That was the whole idea with which I started my company magic sellers. So, you know, wherein, you know, I wanted to create a community around wine, create a group of wine lovers, you know, who would meet regularly taste different wines, learn about wines together.

[00:11:16] But at the same time, the setting was always going to be informal. Of course, we have different types of, you know, events where certain events are formal as well.

[00:11:27] But most of the events would be casual and informative and a lot of fun, you know, where people are coming together and I'm like giving them some yarn about wine and, you know, in the beginning, of course, everybody is very interested, but after maybe about three, four glasses of wine, people are like, hey, we just want to party, you know, after that.

[00:11:44] So, that's totally cool as well. But, you know, what I have managed to do, what my vision was, you know, is to create this community that had a very fun, casual vibe to it, you know.

[00:11:59] So, at the same time, I wanted to remove all the snobbery from wine. So, you know, so that people can really learn to appreciate and enjoy wine without feeling conscious and hey, do I know enough about wine to even enjoy it?

[00:12:13] But, well, you know, you don't really need to know enough about wine to enjoy it. You just got to, you know, have an open mind and then open pallet in terms of wanting to try different things because that's what wine is about.

[00:12:27] So, my journey from 2012, you know, to about early 2020 would be, you know, a experience in the wine space and then a lot of wine events. You know, we've done some events even with you, so Jata at work, and those have been so much fun, you know. So,

[00:12:49] I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, so I mean, you have been to every single one of them and we had a great run going, I can't wait to start again, especially the events at work, and you know, over the course of the time, you know,

[00:13:03] we kind of incorporated a lot of different things along with wine, you know, and not just wine and isolation. So we did events that have wine and art, wine and news, wine and food, wine and desserts, you know,

[00:13:19] we did so many different wine and beer as well, you know, these campaigns, things of wine and beer, I think you had come to an event, you know, about as well, which had wine and beer together.

[00:13:31] So the whole idea was to kind of, you know, really go creative with what kind of events I can create and therefore kind of expand the reach of those events, you know,

[00:13:44] to more and more different kinds of people, you know, because there are wine lovers everywhere. So that has been the idea behind, you know, magic sellers, but well now, you know,

[00:13:57] the COVID of course events are, you know, not happening, but thank you, you know, we found some solutions for that as well.

[00:14:05] Right, right, that was my next question actually, you know, what keeps you ticking during the pandemic because live events have more or less, I think, completely shut down and no one wants to meet in a close to room anymore.

[00:14:18] So what keeps you going? So, you know, of course initially it was a very disappointing to kind of, you know, when the first time when things started back in March 2020, I mean nobody would have expected things would have gone on, you know, till now.

[00:14:35] You know, so initially I was thinking, oh, this is just a matter of two, three weeks or a month maximum and then we'll be back to life, you know, as usual.

[00:14:44] But of course that wasn't the case. So initially what I did was that I just focused on wine education and wine learning.

[00:14:53] So I did a lot of seminars, sorry, or rather webinars on wine where in, you know, we would take a particular topic and really like deep dive into it.

[00:15:03] So initially that's what kept me going and that's what kept, you know, some people from my wine community going as well, you know, so it was a niche group of an audience that was meeting every week to deep dive into a particular subject or a particular wine region or some types of grape varieties or certain styles of wines.

[00:15:22] So those educative seminars, you know, kept me going. Also it kind of helped me brush up my knowledge about various aspects that I had studied about before.

[00:15:35] So that was one thing. But once when, you know, the wine shops opened up and, you know, we were getting wine to drink at home. So then we kind of moved to virtual taste tanks where when, you know, we would send wines to people and we all meet online on a Zoom call and we taste the wines together and we talk about those wines.

[00:15:55] So things graduated from in-person taste tanks to virtual taste tanks, you know, and that is a format that has kind of kept me going even during these COVID times because, you know, such kind of casual wine events became activities for corporates, you know, to engage, you know, like a team engagement activity or, you know, on a virtual event, you know, where wine tasting was part of the world.

[00:16:22] You know, maybe it was an event for a client or maybe it was an event with a client or something. You know, where there was one hour wine tasting event. So those have also been doing really well.

[00:16:37] You know, people from various corporate companies sign up for these events and that's what I have been doing. Another interesting thing that happened earlier this year during Jan and Frip was that I recorded a video series.

[00:16:55] So it's called wine 101, which basically gives any wine lover a wine enthusiast. Like a load down on everything that they would need to know about wine in order to get started on the journey, you know, playing wine.

[00:17:11] So it covers all the different basics, you know, which kind of makes the person who is actually even just going to a casual wine evening makes him feel confident about, you know, holding a glass of wine or what temperature to drink is why not or how to paste his wine.

[00:17:26] You know, so these various basic things is what we covered in that course. So once again, you know, that also kept me going, you know, because that was a new thing for me as well, you know, being in front of the camera and doing a recording and you know, being alively and you're not talking about wine and stuff ever done something like that before.

[00:17:46] That was another very interesting thing for me to do a lot of learning for me as well. And you know, so this video videos we put out was, you know, is available online and you know anybody can sign up for it.

[00:18:00] And because it's pre recorded like it became very convenient for people to just view it whenever they wanted it. You know, so if event, you know, where they have to make themselves available and one particular time. So you know, you can do that your own pace.

[00:18:15] You know, so we've received really good responses for that and once again, it's like fun course, you know, for anybody to do and like I said, it was a huge learning exercise, you know, for me.

[00:18:28] So that's what I'm doing during these co-grid times. Also, another thing is, you know, doing a lot of content, you know, nowadays everywhere you go, everyone talks about content, you know, like content is thing.

[00:18:41] So what I did to do was take the time that I had with me, you know, because the events are not happening. So I'm as busy, you know, running around with all the operations or the logistics of the events.

[00:18:54] So that gave me a lot of time to produce informative content on wine, you know, besides the wine 101 course, you know, which people can easily access, you know, on my Instagram and they can have a look at it.

[00:19:10] You know, so a lot of it gave me a lot of time to work on building this content, you know, which people can access any time.

[00:19:18] Another thing that I have been, you know, focusing on, you know, so you can't you can keep people guessing you got to give them your Instagram handle.

[00:19:27] Okay, yeah, sure. You can find me under Gargi, Cotari or my handle is magic sellers that's M-A-G-I-C-C L-L-A-R-S on Instagram and you know, follow me for all the wine geeky content.

[00:19:43] Oh, that's super cool, Gargi. And I'm sure that you're going to have a lot many more followers, you know, want to know a lot more about wine and let me tell you this, you know, the events that I attended at work, they were always fun-filled but they were also so long.

[00:20:00] And so inviting, right? Because I'm so glad that somebody has decided to take out the snobbery as you called it out of wine or the la de da or around it.

[00:20:10] I mean, it's for everyone and when you know more about what's going into your body at that moment and what you're feeling, you know, the way you would ask us, right?

[00:20:20] What are you feeling, you know, when you swirl it, when you smell it, when you sniff it and most of the guests who came to these events were, you know, notances like me, right?

[00:20:30] I mean, I didn't know too much. Lonnie, who knows just that I read some stuff up and you know, as you said at parties you're swirling that glass wondering, oh my god, you know what, what has this gotten it, right?

[00:20:41] But I think you broke so many myths about wine and I think we'd like to thank you as a community of wine lovers because I am one of them.

[00:20:51] Now you converted me and I'm having so much fun during the pandemic, I have been looking at your content as well, so well done and keep going well because I think that's what this podcast is all about, get up and get going and find your eating guy right?

[00:21:08] So just going, so Gargi, not the last question. I mean, I would want to go on and on but you know what, what would you give as a message to people who are still in the process of finding out their rich guy and all maybe people who are, you know, who've just recently started following it there have been a lot of people, you know, during the pandemic, they kind of decided, no enough is enough, you know, I'm just going to do what my heart tells me.

[00:21:37] So what sort of advice we do give them?

[00:21:40] The number one thing I believe is persistence, you know, and I feel that to just keep going is the most important thing, you know, and once you have really found something that you love, then I feel that just dedicating some time to

[00:22:01] doing your day, you know, even if you have a regular job, you know, that you are doing but maybe there is a passion that you have, you know, it could be anything, it could be clay modeling or it could be

[00:22:13] Carpentry or it could be I don't know, making like short movies on on your phone or it could be anything like literally absolutely anything, but the idea is to dedicate some time from your day to that activity, you know, even if you're not doing it professionally right now, even if you're not doing it

[00:22:30] full time right now, but to take baby steps, you know, to not of course have the, you know, larger goal, the bigger picture in mind, but you know, we have to know that role was not built in a day, you know, as the old saying goes, you have to take baby steps and you have to keep going and you have to keep assisting because there will be days, you know, where you feel

[00:22:55] play, and you don't feel like doing it or you feel like hey, like this is a waste of time, I'm really going to make a career out of this or am I really going to make any serious money out of this.

[00:23:04] I feel that these are the kind of conditioning that we have, you know, since, you know, we are growing up and therefore I feel that it's important to think for yourself and to break that conditioning that we have and

[00:23:21] at the same time keep assisting with something that you love and eventually, you know, the parts will lay itself out in front of you because you have done the work.

[00:23:31] So I feel that that is, you know, a message that I would like to give to people who are, so finding their eki guy like you said nice, you know, because I think that's what you followed right being persistent and giving it time and being at it,

[00:23:48] right and that's what has got you so far, Garbi, I admire you, I'm inspired by you and I'm really honored that you came on this episode and are giving out this message and hopefully converting many people into wine lovers very soon.

[00:24:05] And what they forward to welcoming you and I was really really forward to those fun filled evenings of, you know, really really really, absolutely affordable right also right.

[00:24:18] Yeah, you made it like really anyone can work and it's not like, you know, it's not like top, notch prices. It's very affordable and more importantly, you get to meet so many interesting and interested people right.

[00:24:33] So yeah, it's great fun and thank you so much once again for being on this episode of Get Up, Get Going and find your eki guy.

[00:24:42] Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, it was a pleasure to chat with you even though it's virtually and hopefully we are able to meet each other face to face soon enough.

[00:24:54] Absolutely, you know, I'm crossing my fingers as I say this take care, stay safe and see you very soon. And that was the completion of yet another episode of Get Up, Get Going and find your eki guy.

[00:25:11] But I'm finding the time to find awesome inspiring people to get on this podcast and try and inspire you as well.

[00:25:19] Please do the same. I know you're really busy, but please do listen in first and then if you like it, love it, share forward whatever you can, you know, to keep this show going, to keep this podcast going and to keep also flow of guess going maybe you can write into me with some interesting ideas, you know, of guess that you may want me to interview at arjseujay at gmail.com always waiting for a feedback on email from you.

[00:25:47] This is sujejse, take care, stay safe and keep following yoreki guy.