November 6, 2024 • 34 mins
Fawn Weaver On Nearest Green's Story, Entrepreneurial Tips, Not Having A Mentor + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his way up at Angela. Ye, I'm here.
My girl Stacy tis Daye is here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
She's my partner in Wealth Wednesday, and we have a
true unicorn unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
We are so excited to have fun. Wea. We here
and Fawn is one of only five African American women
in the United States to lead one billion dollar plus
company in the United States. That's amazing. I'm so excited
for everyone to learn the story because it's a story.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Yeah, and to lead one that I own one that
she so we do lead a few.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
But and I want to say, I remember when you
first bought Uncle Nerris, and we're bringing this story to
the masses and telling this story about Jack daniels a
relationship to Uncle Nerris and how Uncle Nerris is the
person who actually taught them how to make the whiskey.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, tell our audience why Jack Daniels could arguably be
called Uncle Nerris.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Well, you know, it's so cool because right now, we
just released a new bottle called Neares Green Tennessee Whiskey,
and one of the things that we're doing when we
released it is called Nears Green Versus Everybody, Part two
and the reason it's part two is when Jack was alive,
it's one of the most brilliant marketing things I've seen,
is he had to figure out, how do I get
people to drink Tennessee whiskey coming out of Lynchburg, Tennessee,
(01:22):
when Kentucky is putting out all this bourbon, when there's
one thousand Tennessee distilleries, How do I do it? So
he would show up at bars as saloons is what
they were called then, But he'd show up at bars
with a silver dollar, which was a really big deal
back then, and he would put a silver dollar on
the counter with the consumer there and he would and
he would tell them, try mine versus whoever you were
(01:44):
already going to buy, and he will put that silver
dollar on the line. And so we called the US
Treasury and bought a whole lot of silver dollars. So
when we released Near's Green Tennessee Whiskey, our whole team
silver dollars going out and doing blind taste tests. Whoever
you're drinking, put this up against it, and when you
think about it, it's it's a thirty dollars bottle. Twenty
nine ninety nine, And the very first takedown we did
(02:07):
was Blenton's blind taste tests at a Mexican restaurant of
all places, competition and so but the reason why it
is it's Nearest Green versus everybody is is when Jack
was taking Jack Daniels out at that time, the whiskey
in those bottles was Nears Greens, right, and so even
(02:27):
then he was putting up Nearest Green's whiskey against everybody
in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And he did give credit, yes, a very clear about that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's because you always are very It was really another person.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But the what is it a distillery?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Yeah, another person bought the brands. The brands Okay, when
Jack Daniel and his family ran the distillery until the
very last one passed away in seventy eight. Nearest Green
and his boys. They were talked about so much on
the tour that Nearest's descendants would come back from college
with their college friends to brag on their ancestor because
(03:03):
he was so integrated into their story. And then after
Reggor died, Jack's descendant Reggor died in seventy eight, the
story disappeared. Between seventy eight and the time that one
of Nearest's descendants went to work there in seventy nine.
In that one year, the story literally it was disappeared
and it was replaced by a story of a white
(03:25):
preacher and distiller who both Jack and Nearest worked for.
That person in the official story became the teacher versus
what the story always had been, which was Nearest was
the teacher and the mentor. And now we now know
he was not only the first master distiller for Jack
Daniel Distillery, but he's the only known master distiller for
(03:46):
Jack Daniel Distillery number seven. So everybody out there drinking
old number seven that is paying homage to the distillery
in which nears Green is the only known master distiller.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So we've talked around the story. Yeah, give our audience
just the quick for one one on you got exactly
what happened, and especially that photograph.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Absolutely so. Nera's Green is the first known African American
master distiller, the teacher mentor of Jack Daniel, the first
master distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery and the entire time
that Jack was alive. Which I'm so happy Angela you
pointed this out because a lot of people still don't
know that Jack and his descendants always made sure not
(04:25):
only did they give nearest credit in Nearess's boys credit
and Grandkid's credit, but they also made sure that we
knew the difference between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. They're
both straight bourbon whiskeys. The difference between the two is
the process that came in with the West Africans, the
Lincoln County process, taking traditional bourbon distiller, running it through sugar,
(04:48):
maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel to remove
the impurities. That's why Uncle Nears doesn't give you a
headache like you drink that meat. You could drink a
meat all night. I do it all the time. It
does not give you, It doesn't give you ahead, and
it won't make you tipsy because we're pulling out those
impurities now.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Since this is Wealth Wednesday, I also want to talk
about you Fun Weaver as an individual in your background,
because this was not something that you.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Even had intended to do right and at all at all.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and this wasn't even something spirits, was not something
that you had a background in, but you became extremely
passionate about it when you went to go do this deal.
So can you just give us a little of that
story because I think it's really important for people to
understand that you can feel such a strong passion for
something and actually educate yourself the way that you did
and what that process was like, because I'm sure there's
(05:37):
people listening who have something they really want to do
but feel like, well, this isn't what I do, this
isn't my background, so let me figure out something else.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well, we have this. And I don't know if there
was a book that came out that told people they
needed mentors and allies to get a hit. I have
no idea where this came from, but my dms are
filled every day with people asking me to be a mentor.
You don't need a mentor. I literally never have a mentor.
Let chat, GPT be a mentor. Literally, you throw it
in it listen, best assistant ever.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And we didn't have that.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We didn't have that. We had to go to the library.
So I told people when I was learning how to
write business plans, Google didn't exist. I had to go
to the library. Now you have templates. All you got
to do is do the work, fill it in. And
so we now have everything at our fingertips to succeed.
There are no excuses at this point, right, except for
(06:29):
the ones that we create. And if you say, well,
you know, I come from an area where education isn't great.
I dropped out of high school at fifteen, so let's
not have a conversation about and by the way, you know, John,
your high school in Pasadena, California, you know it's not
at the top. Let's just say that, right, And so
even I dropped out of high school so early. Last
(06:50):
grade I completed was the tenth grade. But I studied myself.
We have to get to a place where were we
stopped looking for people to lead us. And when it
comes to this story, when I came into it people,
I remember sitting down with now he's the chairman of
Brown Foreman, who owns Jack Daniels. And this was long
after Uncle Nars came out and we sat down and
(07:13):
I remember and I like this guy a lot, so
this isn't a negative thing. But we sat down. He said, listen, fun,
I just didn't believe you could pull this off. Like
that was the first thing he said, right he met me,
and then we began talking about the whiskey business. He's like, well, wait, wait, wait, wait,
I thought you did marketing, you're talking about the whiskey
making process, and he said, I don't even know the
(07:35):
science of the whiskey making process. Now, mind you, he's
like fifth generation in this business. He was running one
of the top bourbon companies and he left that to
his scientists and his engineers and his distillers. And I
was like, that's it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Was the business man. He wasn't the person that actually
could do the business right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
But here's the thing is is we now have access
finger tips like literally to figure out pick an industry,
any industry. We can master it. And it's why I
love AI. I know there's some dangers to it, but
I believe it to be the great equalizer for women
and people of color because now standardized tests don't matter
(08:18):
because we know how to answer the way that the
tests expect because we can just toss it in to chat,
GPT or I don't know whoever else. I use that.
I've been an early adopter of it, and I'm not
sponsored by them.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I'm just saying that's what I like exactly.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
But now the reason why I love it and I
embrace it is because what I did to learn the
whiskey business, to learn the marketing behind what Jack did.
A lot of the marketing you see with Uncle Nears
now it's stuff Jack did in the nineteenth century, and
I'm like that still works and bringing things back because
what Jack was doing was marketing Nearest his product. What
(08:58):
I'm doing is marketing nearest product. So a lot of
what I do just pulls back from the marketing from
when when Jack was alive and when Nearest was alive.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Let's talk about you for a minute, yeah, because this
is interesting. When you were fifteen years old, your parents
told you to shape up or ship out.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
And I shipped out. Yeah, and one.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Of the places where you stayed was Covenant House.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, I love it. That was the lat That's so
I moved to Jordan Down's. I moved to Watts and
that's where I That's where I began my journey on
my own. And if you ever wanted to to build
some thick skin, move to the projects at fifteen and
I went from there. By the time I got to
Covenant House, that was my third homeless shelter. So it
(09:44):
was Jordan Downs to the first one homeless shelter to
the second homeless shelter, my last homeless shelter was Covenant House.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I've done workshops at Covenant House. I love them, and
I know that a requirement is either go to school
or get a job. Yes, And I was reading how
old kids would be like, oh, I can't find a job. Yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Different tell us about fun?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
What's different about.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
What I so I One of the biggest mistakes I
think we make and and parents don't intend to do this,
but they are doing it, is that we mold our
kids into someone they were never meant to be, the
ship or the shape out. It's not like I was
a terrible kid. I wasn't. I mean even when I
left home, I've never to this day ever tried a drug.
(10:30):
I've never tried a cigarette. I wasn't promiscuous. So it
wasn't like I was doing all these things and they
needed me to leave because of that. They needed me
to leave because I challenged their authority. Not not not
for black not for black parents. You couldn't ask them why.
And I did a lot of asking why, and they
(10:50):
were just they were fed up with it. But here's
the problem is that we raise our kids to then
be molded and shaped into someone that they weren't created
to be so most people. I was teaching at Harvard
yesterday and one of the students she was asking me
a question about how she gets ahead in a certain
space with AI involved in all the rest of that,
(11:12):
and if AI can write great brand stories for everyone,
how does she differentiate herself. I said, here's the thing.
AI can write these brand stories, but what makes them
effective is a person that's authentic. And most people show
up as representatives of themselves. So we can look at
all the people that we know and we could probably
(11:33):
narrow it down to one percent of the people we
know who show up as themselves right instead of a
representative of themselves. And so for me, the greatest blessing
when I walked into the room, even when I was
eighteen years old at Covenant House, walked into a place
to get a job, what they were picking up was confidence.
(11:53):
But it wasn't confidence in my knowledge. It wasn't confidence
in what I was doing. It was confidence in my
auten unique ability, my unique ability. Everybody and I leaned
into mind. So no, I didn't have the formal education
of other people that were out there getting jobs, but
I knew who I was.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Is this why you said? And this, I was like,
what that was?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Really?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You told Forbes when they ask you what you want
your legacy to be, you don't care.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I literally don't care. I think that so many people
live their lives for their obituary. Literally, they spend their
whole lives thinking about what are people going to say
after I leave? But I have a freedom that I
don't care, So I don't live any aspect of any
day of my life thinking about how people will remember me.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You know, I want to talk about some of the
other things that the other experiences that you had. I
feel like that really helped you in building this business,
because you did start your own business at eighteen PR
marketing special events, and even in that space, create your
own and doing things that were against the norm of
what was done.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And so I want you to.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Elaborate on that and then talk about how that actually
helped with your whole storytelling.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
As far as Uncle neris, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think if we go back to authenticity, any person
who is truly authentic to who they are is a
great storyteller. Because we're all born with whatever the stories
are that are in our hearts, that we experience in life,
our world views. We get tongue twisted, trying to formulate
them for other people to embrace or to love, or
(13:32):
to hear or things of that nature. So from the
very early on, I was eighteen and I interned for
the top black PR firm in LA called Tobin and Associates.
And I was interning for Pat Tobin and she had
two clients that could not she just could not get
them pressed for no matter what they tried. And I
(13:53):
looked at what they were doing. And I'm eighteen, I'm
an intern, But I looked at what they were doing
and I was like, Yeah, that ain't right, because this
isn't gonna work for this. This works for Toyota who
she represented a Lexus, but this doesn't work for this
over here. And I said, but here's the thing. There,
we're in LA. There are all these events that celebrities
go to. They're in green rooms. Your product is Thomas Blackshear,
(14:17):
he's a painter, and you know Daddy long legs, it's
a toy. It's all the rest of this stuff. And
I said, just outfit these green rooms. They're always terrible, right,
So outfit the green rooms so that every angle that
an image or a video or press is taken. It's
in the image. So now we call that product.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Placement, right right, product placement. I did that as a
living for quite right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
But now people charge for that, right now people charge.
But at that time, it was like, well, we're going
to be in a green room. That's blank anyway, go
ahead and fill it up and make it beautiful for us.
And so that's how I began. Is what we now
know is product integration. To me just made sense.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
And back to your point of Chad GPT, that's not
something that somebody could that any AI could create, because
there are certain templates that you can follow. But that's
why people are necessary, right and things working in tandem
where something that can help you, but then you can
actually formulate it into something more. It can help give
you a base. But again everything is not a plug
(15:19):
and play too. Oh, and that was something that had
never been done. And they told you if you start
your own company, they would go with me.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And I started my own company and both both of
them came with me. Both clients came with me. Now,
obviously I'm young and I wouldn't do that again right now,
But being young, I was like, wait, you won't pay
me how much money to go do that, Yeah, let's go,
let's go yesterday, Yes and so and so I did,
and I started my own company. And that is the
(15:47):
foundation of how I've built Uncle Nears because this industry
is run by essentially six spirit conglomerates that have boxed
everybody out everybody. And the way that I've been able
to cut through the noise is that taking that PR
background from when I was eighteen and constantly I've led
PR strategy for Uncle Nearest from day one. I've got
(16:11):
an amazing PR team, but they execute my vision, they
execute my strategy, and what I love about them is
they have no ego because they're like, Okay, she's different,
she's special. Let's let her do her thing, man, and
let's support her.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And even the fact that when you first went to
go purchase this land, yeah, you did not know where
the money was going to come at all at all.
And I want to say, when you tell us that story,
that is something that people would always advise against when
it comes to real estate purchases. I mean, you know,
I think that fundamentally, you don't want to put yourself
in a position. This is what we learn where how
(16:46):
am I going to come up with the money for this, Yeah,
tell us your mindset.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Absolutely. And then if you look at the top of
the Forbes list, this story I'm about to share is eight.
There's a different version of it on everybody that's on
the Forbes list that is not generational wealth, right, that's
not the Walmart family or sc Johnson family, or if
it's self made, everybody has this same type of story.
(17:11):
Elon Musk, who just hangs out at that number one spot,
Jeff Bezos has ten similar stories. But I remember being
around Elon at an event and he was sharing with
the group that when he was doing I believe it
was his series D rays that if he had not
funded on that Friday, every paycheck was bouncing on that Monday.
(17:31):
That's normal. So when you're an entrepreneur or when you're
going after a big vision, you're going to have risk,
and the risk associated with it may end up with
egg on your face. And so you have to figure
out am I going to allow what may happen to
keep me from pushing forward. So with the Land, when
(17:52):
I got to Lynchburg, Tennessee, to learn the story, to
do interviews with Nearess's family, and to learn about the
story of Jack Daniels and Nears Green and all the
rest of that stuff. Jack's second eldest descendant, now his eldest,
but at the time his second eldest descendant. She said, hey,
you know the farm where Jack grew up, where Niers
was the distiller. Yahd YadA, YadA, YadA. It's for sale
(18:14):
three hundred and thirteen acres where we now know the
original Jack Daniel Distillery Number seven is the original home
where Jack grew up. Like so much of the original
distillery elements are still there. The water that runs through
their same exact spring water that ran through and what
Naress was putting in. I mean, this is American history.
(18:36):
That property was on the market for fifteen months while
the folk's up at Jack Daniels, God bless them, the
marketing department, none of them are still there, so I
could say this now. The marketing department was arguing to
buy the property. The operation side was saying, but we
can't put warehouses there. There's too many rolling heels. And
(18:57):
so while they're going back and forth fifteen months, we
just slide in and it was like, we'll take that.
But Keith and I my husband Keith my favorite person
in the world. We had literally just lost about two
million dollars of our own money that we had saved,
that we had invested in other founders in another business,
and we were literally watching it go down. There was
(19:19):
nothing that we could do to prevent it, and we
knew we were going to lose a lot of money.
By the time we got to Lynchburg. I want to say,
if I remember correctly, Keith would have to to like
get me right on this, but I think we had
like less than twenty thousand dollars in our bank account and.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I need how Okay, okay, did you how did you
do this? Fine?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well, there's there's there's a couple of things. I mean,
we were still making money. I'm just saying that what
we were put out was greater. Yeah, because every single
payroll we were covering every So even though this business
was going down, we still were trying to keep it
afloat as to not lose everything. Finally we had to
just cut and just go we can't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Also, oh, it's when you know that it's that there's
so much loss. But at that point we were still
covering the business. So every penny almost that we had
was constantly going to pay for this other business that
we didn't even own, and we were I think we
owned I don't know, thirty percent or something like that,
but we were trying to keep it afloating. So I
want to I'm positive we had less than twenty grand
(20:27):
in our banker in our sate, like everything, savings, everything,
I don't remember the exact amount. Now we had real
estate holdings and things like that, but in terms of cash, yeah, liquid, liquid,
And so when we put in the offer for the property,
the property was on the market for one point four
and someone in the community, white dude who self proclaimed redneck,
(20:49):
who fell in love with us, like seconds after seeing
us in Lynchburg, started hanging out. He's like, hey, I
hear you're interested in the Dan Call farm. I used
to work for him, that was my very first job.
He only has it that high because he wants to
choose who the owners will be. But if you offer
it in cash, he'll take a lot less on the
mark for one point four we offer nine cash cash.
(21:12):
Now we had less than twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
We're going to figure in our bangoutu.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
We're gonna figure this out. But we offered it. And
this is what I love about God, this is how
this is just how God works. We make the offer
and we're leaving the property and Keith and I are like,
we don't know how this is going to work. We're
either going to have the egg on our face because
we can't come through, or God is gonna come through
(21:37):
and make away. And literally the owners they were really
a lot older. They had been there for forty fifty years,
more than fifty years. And so we get a call
asking could they have a four month escrow? Yeah, because
they needed time. They needed time to move. We're like, okay,
God is working the South, thank you, this is it.
(21:58):
And then the next thing they asked for was an
earnest deposit, which is normal and we come from La
Arnest deposit is like five percent is what you would
put down or something like that. I can't remember what
we didn't have five percent. They came back and asked
for an ernest deposit of nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
That was divine.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We had.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
It's like we got that, we got that part.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We can do this.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
And and then in order to do it, we literally
sold our cars sold like we just began selling stuff,
but we have four months to get it done. But
we there was something in both of us that knew
there's something big on the other side of this. We
don't know what it is, but there's something big on
the other side of it. We knew that maybe it
(22:46):
was like this, this book and every every book makes
a different amount of money or whatever, and we're just now,
I mean, we're still selling as many books a week
now as we did when we when we first came out.
But even the deal on this book, I did it
where my publisher doesn't have a cut. It's literally like
that's a whole other, that's a whole other, that's a
(23:08):
whole other, that's a whole other, that's a whole other topics.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But Whiskey is the.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Book, by the way, and it's been and it keeps
on making the New York Times.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah, it falls off, pops right back, all right, And
like we're not doing anything except for continuing to be
out there and sharing the book. But more importantly, people
are sharing the book because they're like, there is so
much hope in this book. I wrote it so that
it feels like a novel, even though it's completely nonfiction
when people, you know, all they got to do is
(23:39):
read two pages and they hooked till the end.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Listen, I feel like I could distill some whiskey.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But it's entertaining. But it also does give you a
lot of information.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And you know, there was some disappointing information in there
for me about tequila.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And you're doing a tequila take I'm doing a tequila.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Take down now. Yeah, listen, listen.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's my because I'm not gonna lie. I do enjoy
my tequila. I was just saying, yes, I was telling
you they don't really sell tequila like that. Everywhere I
was going, I'm like, you guys don't have and they
have a lot of whiskey though.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
But and here's the key. Almost all of the tequila
that we get here in the US, they don't drink
it in Mexico. So we've got to ask ourselves, why
is the tequila in America almost one hundred percent export?
And it's because all of our most popular brands, all
the brands that are at the top, have additives. So
this is the thing. And this is why I said
(24:33):
tequila takedown is because I had an investor send me
a text message last week and he was asking me
specifically about bourbon and the sugar content in it. I said,
Uncle Neis is sugar free and he's like, wait, but
my doctor told me I needed to cut out sugar
and I needed to cut out carbs, and so he
(24:54):
said I needed to cut out bourbon because it was
like drinking snicker eating a snicker bar. It's like, who
the hell? And his doctor told him it was better
to have tequila.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And I was like, I will say that I've always
been hell.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And so, but the tequila industry has spent billions of
dollars getting us to believe it. And so the tequila
takedown that I did, that it went so viral, I
can't track it. Like, I think, it's so weird that
people record my page and put it on It's so weird.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And how when you did the whole take awe their money?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
That wasn't wait super everywhere, but yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
What you're doing.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
No, I mean this is honestly the storytelling. But also
people buy into you as a person and they trust you.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
And I do my hate, I do my homework, I
do so research. Even the tequila takedown isn't like I
don't like tequila. No, I love tequila, but the fact
that I had to spend so much time trying to
peel back the layers to figure out when something says
one hundred percent blew a gave, tequila will pay eighty
dollars for it because we think that means it's pure.
(25:59):
Absolutely not what it means for most of the brands
we're buying, most of the most popular is they distilled
out all the sugar. Just like we do with Uncle Nears.
Uncle Ners is fat free, carb free, gluten free, and
sugar free because it's naturally we distill out all of
the properties. What tequila has been doing is they distill
everything out and then they'll add a gave syrup back.
(26:22):
So like you go to the grocery store. No, so
the taste that people love about tequila, they're drinking a gave. Literally,
they're drinking. You go to a grocery store, you pick
up some agave to put in your tea. That's what
you're having in your tequila. And so the fact that
a doctor would tell someone don't drink bourbon, but drink tequila,
(26:43):
and this dude was drinking cosamigos that's got sugar on
sugar on sugar that's been added. I was like, oh no, no, no,
we're taking this down.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And sugar is what gives people a headache.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, That's why normally when I drink things, a lot
of times I try not to mix it with anything.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
It's exactly right. Yeah, I tell people all the time.
If you drink Uncle nerest you you it's like there
is nothing in it that is going to give you
a headache. But if you add carbonation or if you
add sugar, all bets are off because it's no longer
the alcohol, it's what you've a you've added to it.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You are such a study in just believing and just follow,
just following it, Just just follow, follow, follow before you go.
What is our audience is full of entrepreneurs? Yeah, what
are some tips that you have for entrepreneurs. You've talked
about your marketing success, You've talked about following your vision,
being comfortable with financial stress, all of educating, educating. What
(27:37):
are some real takeaways that you want our audience to have.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
If you think you're going to build your company from
your savings, you're you're highly mistaken, meaning people entrepreneurs are
so afraid to risk you have so many that are like,
oh my gosh, I'm almost down to the end of
my savings. I better go and get a job, and
they'll quit what they've been working toward for years because
(28:05):
they're afraid of their savings going below a certain place.
And I'm like, look building, Uncle Ners, I've been broke
probably twenty five times, and by the way, I'll probably
be broke twenty five more times as I build out
the cognac company and the vodka company. But it's a
calculated risk. And so for entrepreneurs, if you were told, listen,
you gotta do this on your savings, don't take out loans.
(28:27):
Da da da da da. I want you to look
at every successful entrepreneur in America and I promise you
that's the opposite of what they did.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Case in point. Keep the success comfortable with uncertainty.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And another thing, I want to say this too, because
I thought this was important as far as leaning into
the truth and to the story right, because even with
Uncle Ners and you talked about how what is it
called again?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
The company that.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Bought it Brown Brown Foreman Brown format a kind of
time to erase the real story and not leaning into
the fact of the whole Nearest Green story and what
that brought to the table, because it's not a negative story,
and they could have leaned into it in a positive.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Way, and they would have had to have done the
research right. So there's most people, on face value, you
would look at this story as America did. When this
story first came out, the headline of New York Times said,
Jack Daniels embraces the secret hidden ingredient, helped from a slave.
And it's that photo of Jack with George Green, Nearest
the son next one. The whole world assumed that Jack
(29:27):
was a slave owner, he stole the recipe, he hid
the slave.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
They changed the picture.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
But no, no, no, the picture was right.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah. I thought I was reading that Nearest was moved
from the center.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Now what this is? This is it Nearest? This isn't Nearest.
This is George Green. He is literally the whole center
of the photo. So Jack Daniel is off center. George
Green is who's in the center.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Of the phot We've seen Jack.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
No, no, you've never seen it with Jack in the center.
Jack has always been off center. It's just when they
when they cry, the focal point was Jack. But he
was still He's always been off center and got you
and that I was trying to say, oh yeah, yeah.
So the photo itself is the only known photo Jack
has ever taken with anybody else during his entire lifetime,
(30:15):
and he's surrounded by white dudes that work for him.
But the entire photo, the person in the center is
the African American guy, George Green. So the whole world
made the determination this story was negative. I looked at
that photo and said, this photo was taken either nineteenth
century or the top of the twentieth century we now
know around nineteen oh four. If you don't want to
(30:38):
give a black man credit, you simply didn't put him
in a photo like you literally think that right. But
here's the thing going back to They could have looked
at that photo and came to the same conclusion. But
let me tell you why they didn't. They're all white.
It took an African American to look at that, to
look at that photo and say, wait a minute, I
(30:59):
know our history. We would not be a center of
any photograph unless there was an ally in that photo
who wanted to make sure we weren't erased.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And in this.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Instance, Jack was that ally, and he understood America is
absolutely going to try to erase to you. I'm not
going to allow it.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That gave me chills, and the family did the same
for you. The family. A lot of people don't realize
that how supportive the family has been.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Oh so unbelievably supportive. Yeah, I got so many aunties
and cousins and the and nephews, and yeah, Nearess's family
has been unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Last thing I wanted to touch on tell us about
the Black Business Booster Program and the Nearest Green Foundation.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Yeah, so Near Screen Foundation. Before we ever sold a
bottle of Uncle Narras, I told Nearess's descendants, if you
get into college, you got a full ride. And so
from day one, I have paid for all of his
descendants and there's a lot of them, and to go
to listen, let me tell you there was a whole
(32:03):
subsect of Green family members or Greens in in Lynchburg
that were so highly disappointed to find out they weren't
on the family. I got a kid in college. No,
but but we but literally every no matter. I mean,
(32:24):
we've paid for them to get their jds to go
straight through and they're doing amazing. And then the Black
Business booster program essentially my company, every person in leadership
for my company where everybody's bat phone. If you are
black and you are in this business, the likelihood that
you have reached into us to get help with your distributor,
to get help with connecting on capital, figuring out how
(32:47):
to raise money, how to get barrels, how to get bottles,
how to it's a real high high likelihood of that.
And then every year we gather about two hundred of
them at Nearest Green Distillery and do a whole full
day workshop. Is a part of the Nearest and Jack
Advancement Initiative, and literally all the gatekeepers in this industry
(33:08):
come from behind the gates to come to the Nearest
Green Distillery to support all of these black founders.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I bet that's your favorite part.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And listen, and that's a fact. That's my girl, Ingrid best,
I best. She's been talking her fun and her birthdays
also September fifth.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yes it is, she and I share birthday.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
And that's especial to say for you any September fifth people,
it is.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
But I appreciate all the work you do.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I love the fact that you've built this from the
beginning when I first met you to see like it's
just been amazing and a great product as well. And
I think it's so important the story behind a brand.
And I think a lot of people I see maybe
tried it because of you, you know, at first, and
then they hear the story and they try it because
of that. But I think, you know, it's a testament
(33:54):
to the work that you put in, the research that
you've done, the lives that you've touched, and the continue
wing philanthropy that you keep doing as well. So it's
a combination of things.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Thank you, and everybody go to Amazon and get love
and whiskey somebody. A lot of people out there needed
to hear this message today. I know I needed to
hear it. And here so Funweaver, we love you, We
are so proud of you. Keep shining. Everybody follow at
fun dot Weaver on Instagram with everybody, please just stop
what you're doing and follow Wealth Wednesdays on instagrams. We
(34:25):
have our newsletter, we have features, we have free resources
at Teamwealth Wednesdays dot com and you will be featured
in all of them. Thank you so much, Yes all
their money, don't it all works out?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Thank you? Thank you
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Well
What's up his way up at Angela. Ye, I'm here.
My girl Stacy tis Daye is here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
She's my partner in Wealth Wednesday, and we have a
true unicorn unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
We are so excited to have fun. Wea. We here
and Fawn is one of only five African American women
in the United States to lead one billion dollar plus
company in the United States. That's amazing. I'm so excited
for everyone to learn the story because it's a story.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Yeah, and to lead one that I own one that
she so we do lead a few.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
But and I want to say, I remember when you
first bought Uncle Nerris, and we're bringing this story to
the masses and telling this story about Jack daniels a
relationship to Uncle Nerris and how Uncle Nerris is the
person who actually taught them how to make the whiskey.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, tell our audience why Jack Daniels could arguably be
called Uncle Nerris.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Well, you know, it's so cool because right now, we
just released a new bottle called Neares Green Tennessee Whiskey,
and one of the things that we're doing when we
released it is called Nears Green Versus Everybody, Part two
and the reason it's part two is when Jack was alive,
it's one of the most brilliant marketing things I've seen,
is he had to figure out, how do I get
people to drink Tennessee whiskey coming out of Lynchburg, Tennessee,
(01:22):
when Kentucky is putting out all this bourbon, when there's
one thousand Tennessee distilleries, How do I do it? So
he would show up at bars as saloons is what
they were called then, But he'd show up at bars
with a silver dollar, which was a really big deal
back then, and he would put a silver dollar on
the counter with the consumer there and he would and
he would tell them, try mine versus whoever you were
(01:44):
already going to buy, and he will put that silver
dollar on the line. And so we called the US
Treasury and bought a whole lot of silver dollars. So
when we released Near's Green Tennessee Whiskey, our whole team
silver dollars going out and doing blind taste tests. Whoever
you're drinking, put this up against it, and when you
think about it, it's it's a thirty dollars bottle. Twenty
nine ninety nine, And the very first takedown we did
(02:07):
was Blenton's blind taste tests at a Mexican restaurant of
all places, competition and so but the reason why it
is it's Nearest Green versus everybody is is when Jack
was taking Jack Daniels out at that time, the whiskey
in those bottles was Nears Greens, right, and so even
(02:27):
then he was putting up Nearest Green's whiskey against everybody
in the marketplace.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And he did give credit, yes, a very clear about that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's because you always are very It was really another person.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But the what is it a distillery?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Yeah, another person bought the brands. The brands Okay, when
Jack Daniel and his family ran the distillery until the
very last one passed away in seventy eight. Nearest Green
and his boys. They were talked about so much on
the tour that Nearest's descendants would come back from college
with their college friends to brag on their ancestor because
(03:03):
he was so integrated into their story. And then after
Reggor died, Jack's descendant Reggor died in seventy eight, the
story disappeared. Between seventy eight and the time that one
of Nearest's descendants went to work there in seventy nine.
In that one year, the story literally it was disappeared
and it was replaced by a story of a white
(03:25):
preacher and distiller who both Jack and Nearest worked for.
That person in the official story became the teacher versus
what the story always had been, which was Nearest was
the teacher and the mentor. And now we now know
he was not only the first master distiller for Jack
Daniel Distillery, but he's the only known master distiller for
(03:46):
Jack Daniel Distillery number seven. So everybody out there drinking
old number seven that is paying homage to the distillery
in which nears Green is the only known master distiller.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So we've talked around the story. Yeah, give our audience
just the quick for one one on you got exactly
what happened, and especially that photograph.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Absolutely so. Nera's Green is the first known African American
master distiller, the teacher mentor of Jack Daniel, the first
master distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery and the entire time
that Jack was alive. Which I'm so happy Angela you
pointed this out because a lot of people still don't
know that Jack and his descendants always made sure not
(04:25):
only did they give nearest credit in Nearess's boys credit
and Grandkid's credit, but they also made sure that we
knew the difference between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. They're
both straight bourbon whiskeys. The difference between the two is
the process that came in with the West Africans, the
Lincoln County process, taking traditional bourbon distiller, running it through sugar,
(04:48):
maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel to remove
the impurities. That's why Uncle Nears doesn't give you a
headache like you drink that meat. You could drink a
meat all night. I do it all the time. It
does not give you, It doesn't give you ahead, and
it won't make you tipsy because we're pulling out those
impurities now.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Since this is Wealth Wednesday, I also want to talk
about you Fun Weaver as an individual in your background,
because this was not something that you.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Even had intended to do right and at all at all.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and this wasn't even something spirits, was not something
that you had a background in, but you became extremely
passionate about it when you went to go do this deal.
So can you just give us a little of that
story because I think it's really important for people to
understand that you can feel such a strong passion for
something and actually educate yourself the way that you did
and what that process was like, because I'm sure there's
(05:37):
people listening who have something they really want to do
but feel like, well, this isn't what I do, this
isn't my background, so let me figure out something else.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well, we have this. And I don't know if there
was a book that came out that told people they
needed mentors and allies to get a hit. I have
no idea where this came from, but my dms are
filled every day with people asking me to be a mentor.
You don't need a mentor. I literally never have a mentor.
Let chat, GPT be a mentor. Literally, you throw it
in it listen, best assistant ever.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And we didn't have that.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We didn't have that. We had to go to the library.
So I told people when I was learning how to
write business plans, Google didn't exist. I had to go
to the library. Now you have templates. All you got
to do is do the work, fill it in. And
so we now have everything at our fingertips to succeed.
There are no excuses at this point, right, except for
(06:29):
the ones that we create. And if you say, well,
you know, I come from an area where education isn't great.
I dropped out of high school at fifteen, so let's
not have a conversation about and by the way, you know, John,
your high school in Pasadena, California, you know it's not
at the top. Let's just say that, right, And so
even I dropped out of high school so early. Last
(06:50):
grade I completed was the tenth grade. But I studied myself.
We have to get to a place where were we
stopped looking for people to lead us. And when it
comes to this story, when I came into it people,
I remember sitting down with now he's the chairman of
Brown Foreman, who owns Jack Daniels. And this was long
after Uncle Nars came out and we sat down and
(07:13):
I remember and I like this guy a lot, so
this isn't a negative thing. But we sat down. He said, listen, fun,
I just didn't believe you could pull this off. Like
that was the first thing he said, right he met me,
and then we began talking about the whiskey business. He's like, well, wait, wait, wait, wait,
I thought you did marketing, you're talking about the whiskey
making process, and he said, I don't even know the
(07:35):
science of the whiskey making process. Now, mind you, he's
like fifth generation in this business. He was running one
of the top bourbon companies and he left that to
his scientists and his engineers and his distillers. And I
was like, that's it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Was the business man. He wasn't the person that actually
could do the business right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
But here's the thing is is we now have access
finger tips like literally to figure out pick an industry,
any industry. We can master it. And it's why I
love AI. I know there's some dangers to it, but
I believe it to be the great equalizer for women
and people of color because now standardized tests don't matter
(08:18):
because we know how to answer the way that the
tests expect because we can just toss it in to chat,
GPT or I don't know whoever else. I use that.
I've been an early adopter of it, and I'm not
sponsored by them.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I'm just saying that's what I like exactly.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
But now the reason why I love it and I
embrace it is because what I did to learn the
whiskey business, to learn the marketing behind what Jack did.
A lot of the marketing you see with Uncle Nears
now it's stuff Jack did in the nineteenth century, and
I'm like that still works and bringing things back because
what Jack was doing was marketing Nearest his product. What
(08:58):
I'm doing is marketing nearest product. So a lot of
what I do just pulls back from the marketing from
when when Jack was alive and when Nearest was alive.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Let's talk about you for a minute, yeah, because this
is interesting. When you were fifteen years old, your parents
told you to shape up or ship out.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
And I shipped out. Yeah, and one.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Of the places where you stayed was Covenant House.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, I love it. That was the lat That's so
I moved to Jordan Down's. I moved to Watts and
that's where I That's where I began my journey on
my own. And if you ever wanted to to build
some thick skin, move to the projects at fifteen and
I went from there. By the time I got to
Covenant House, that was my third homeless shelter. So it
(09:44):
was Jordan Downs to the first one homeless shelter to
the second homeless shelter, my last homeless shelter was Covenant House.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I've done workshops at Covenant House. I love them, and
I know that a requirement is either go to school
or get a job. Yes, And I was reading how
old kids would be like, oh, I can't find a job. Yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Different tell us about fun?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
What's different about.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
What I so I One of the biggest mistakes I
think we make and and parents don't intend to do this,
but they are doing it, is that we mold our
kids into someone they were never meant to be, the
ship or the shape out. It's not like I was
a terrible kid. I wasn't. I mean even when I
left home, I've never to this day ever tried a drug.
(10:30):
I've never tried a cigarette. I wasn't promiscuous. So it
wasn't like I was doing all these things and they
needed me to leave because of that. They needed me
to leave because I challenged their authority. Not not not
for black not for black parents. You couldn't ask them why.
And I did a lot of asking why, and they
(10:50):
were just they were fed up with it. But here's
the problem is that we raise our kids to then
be molded and shaped into someone that they weren't created
to be so most people. I was teaching at Harvard
yesterday and one of the students she was asking me
a question about how she gets ahead in a certain
space with AI involved in all the rest of that,
(11:12):
and if AI can write great brand stories for everyone,
how does she differentiate herself. I said, here's the thing.
AI can write these brand stories, but what makes them
effective is a person that's authentic. And most people show
up as representatives of themselves. So we can look at
all the people that we know and we could probably
(11:33):
narrow it down to one percent of the people we
know who show up as themselves right instead of a
representative of themselves. And so for me, the greatest blessing
when I walked into the room, even when I was
eighteen years old at Covenant House, walked into a place
to get a job, what they were picking up was confidence.
(11:53):
But it wasn't confidence in my knowledge. It wasn't confidence
in what I was doing. It was confidence in my
auten unique ability, my unique ability. Everybody and I leaned
into mind. So no, I didn't have the formal education
of other people that were out there getting jobs, but
I knew who I was.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Is this why you said? And this, I was like,
what that was?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Really?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You told Forbes when they ask you what you want
your legacy to be, you don't care.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I literally don't care. I think that so many people
live their lives for their obituary. Literally, they spend their
whole lives thinking about what are people going to say
after I leave? But I have a freedom that I
don't care, So I don't live any aspect of any
day of my life thinking about how people will remember me.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You know, I want to talk about some of the
other things that the other experiences that you had. I
feel like that really helped you in building this business,
because you did start your own business at eighteen PR
marketing special events, and even in that space, create your
own and doing things that were against the norm of
what was done.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And so I want you to.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Elaborate on that and then talk about how that actually
helped with your whole storytelling.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
As far as Uncle neris, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think if we go back to authenticity, any person
who is truly authentic to who they are is a
great storyteller. Because we're all born with whatever the stories
are that are in our hearts, that we experience in life,
our world views. We get tongue twisted, trying to formulate
them for other people to embrace or to love, or
(13:32):
to hear or things of that nature. So from the
very early on, I was eighteen and I interned for
the top black PR firm in LA called Tobin and Associates.
And I was interning for Pat Tobin and she had
two clients that could not she just could not get
them pressed for no matter what they tried. And I
(13:53):
looked at what they were doing. And I'm eighteen, I'm
an intern, But I looked at what they were doing
and I was like, Yeah, that ain't right, because this
isn't gonna work for this. This works for Toyota who
she represented a Lexus, but this doesn't work for this
over here. And I said, but here's the thing. There,
we're in LA. There are all these events that celebrities
go to. They're in green rooms. Your product is Thomas Blackshear,
(14:17):
he's a painter, and you know Daddy long legs, it's
a toy. It's all the rest of this stuff. And
I said, just outfit these green rooms. They're always terrible, right,
So outfit the green rooms so that every angle that
an image or a video or press is taken. It's
in the image. So now we call that product.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Placement, right right, product placement. I did that as a
living for quite right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
But now people charge for that, right now people charge.
But at that time, it was like, well, we're going
to be in a green room. That's blank anyway, go
ahead and fill it up and make it beautiful for us.
And so that's how I began. Is what we now
know is product integration. To me just made sense.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
And back to your point of Chad GPT, that's not
something that somebody could that any AI could create, because
there are certain templates that you can follow. But that's
why people are necessary, right and things working in tandem
where something that can help you, but then you can
actually formulate it into something more. It can help give
you a base. But again everything is not a plug
(15:19):
and play too. Oh, and that was something that had
never been done. And they told you if you start
your own company, they would go with me.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And I started my own company and both both of
them came with me. Both clients came with me. Now,
obviously I'm young and I wouldn't do that again right now,
But being young, I was like, wait, you won't pay
me how much money to go do that, Yeah, let's go,
let's go yesterday, Yes and so and so I did,
and I started my own company. And that is the
(15:47):
foundation of how I've built Uncle Nears because this industry
is run by essentially six spirit conglomerates that have boxed
everybody out everybody. And the way that I've been able
to cut through the noise is that taking that PR
background from when I was eighteen and constantly I've led
PR strategy for Uncle Nearest from day one. I've got
(16:11):
an amazing PR team, but they execute my vision, they
execute my strategy, and what I love about them is
they have no ego because they're like, Okay, she's different,
she's special. Let's let her do her thing, man, and
let's support her.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And even the fact that when you first went to
go purchase this land, yeah, you did not know where
the money was going to come at all at all.
And I want to say, when you tell us that story,
that is something that people would always advise against when
it comes to real estate purchases. I mean, you know,
I think that fundamentally, you don't want to put yourself
in a position. This is what we learn where how
(16:46):
am I going to come up with the money for this, Yeah,
tell us your mindset.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Absolutely. And then if you look at the top of
the Forbes list, this story I'm about to share is eight.
There's a different version of it on everybody that's on
the Forbes list that is not generational wealth, right, that's
not the Walmart family or sc Johnson family, or if
it's self made, everybody has this same type of story.
(17:11):
Elon Musk, who just hangs out at that number one spot,
Jeff Bezos has ten similar stories. But I remember being
around Elon at an event and he was sharing with
the group that when he was doing I believe it
was his series D rays that if he had not
funded on that Friday, every paycheck was bouncing on that Monday.
(17:31):
That's normal. So when you're an entrepreneur or when you're
going after a big vision, you're going to have risk,
and the risk associated with it may end up with
egg on your face. And so you have to figure
out am I going to allow what may happen to
keep me from pushing forward. So with the Land, when
(17:52):
I got to Lynchburg, Tennessee, to learn the story, to
do interviews with Nearess's family, and to learn about the
story of Jack Daniels and Nears Green and all the
rest of that stuff. Jack's second eldest descendant, now his eldest,
but at the time his second eldest descendant. She said, hey,
you know the farm where Jack grew up, where Niers
was the distiller. Yahd YadA, YadA, YadA. It's for sale
(18:14):
three hundred and thirteen acres where we now know the
original Jack Daniel Distillery Number seven is the original home
where Jack grew up. Like so much of the original
distillery elements are still there. The water that runs through
their same exact spring water that ran through and what
Naress was putting in. I mean, this is American history.
(18:36):
That property was on the market for fifteen months while
the folk's up at Jack Daniels, God bless them, the
marketing department, none of them are still there, so I
could say this now. The marketing department was arguing to
buy the property. The operation side was saying, but we
can't put warehouses there. There's too many rolling heels. And
(18:57):
so while they're going back and forth fifteen months, we
just slide in and it was like, we'll take that.
But Keith and I my husband Keith my favorite person
in the world. We had literally just lost about two
million dollars of our own money that we had saved,
that we had invested in other founders in another business,
and we were literally watching it go down. There was
(19:19):
nothing that we could do to prevent it, and we
knew we were going to lose a lot of money.
By the time we got to Lynchburg. I want to say,
if I remember correctly, Keith would have to to like
get me right on this, but I think we had
like less than twenty thousand dollars in our bank account and.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I need how Okay, okay, did you how did you
do this? Fine?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well, there's there's there's a couple of things. I mean,
we were still making money. I'm just saying that what
we were put out was greater. Yeah, because every single
payroll we were covering every So even though this business
was going down, we still were trying to keep it
afloat as to not lose everything. Finally we had to
just cut and just go we can't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Also, oh, it's when you know that it's that there's
so much loss. But at that point we were still
covering the business. So every penny almost that we had
was constantly going to pay for this other business that
we didn't even own, and we were I think we
owned I don't know, thirty percent or something like that,
but we were trying to keep it afloating. So I
want to I'm positive we had less than twenty grand
(20:27):
in our banker in our sate, like everything, savings, everything,
I don't remember the exact amount. Now we had real
estate holdings and things like that, but in terms of cash, yeah, liquid, liquid,
And so when we put in the offer for the property,
the property was on the market for one point four
and someone in the community, white dude who self proclaimed redneck,
(20:49):
who fell in love with us, like seconds after seeing
us in Lynchburg, started hanging out. He's like, hey, I
hear you're interested in the Dan Call farm. I used
to work for him, that was my very first job.
He only has it that high because he wants to
choose who the owners will be. But if you offer
it in cash, he'll take a lot less on the
mark for one point four we offer nine cash cash.
(21:12):
Now we had less than twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
We're going to figure in our bangoutu.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
We're gonna figure this out. But we offered it. And
this is what I love about God, this is how
this is just how God works. We make the offer
and we're leaving the property and Keith and I are like,
we don't know how this is going to work. We're
either going to have the egg on our face because
we can't come through, or God is gonna come through
(21:37):
and make away. And literally the owners they were really
a lot older. They had been there for forty fifty years,
more than fifty years. And so we get a call
asking could they have a four month escrow? Yeah, because
they needed time. They needed time to move. We're like, okay,
God is working the South, thank you, this is it.
(21:58):
And then the next thing they asked for was an
earnest deposit, which is normal and we come from La
Arnest deposit is like five percent is what you would
put down or something like that. I can't remember what
we didn't have five percent. They came back and asked
for an ernest deposit of nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
That was divine.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We had.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
It's like we got that, we got that part.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We can do this.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
And and then in order to do it, we literally
sold our cars sold like we just began selling stuff,
but we have four months to get it done. But
we there was something in both of us that knew
there's something big on the other side of this. We
don't know what it is, but there's something big on
the other side of it. We knew that maybe it
(22:46):
was like this, this book and every every book makes
a different amount of money or whatever, and we're just now,
I mean, we're still selling as many books a week
now as we did when we when we first came out.
But even the deal on this book, I did it
where my publisher doesn't have a cut. It's literally like
that's a whole other, that's a whole other, that's a
(23:08):
whole other, that's a whole other, that's a whole other topics.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But Whiskey is the.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Book, by the way, and it's been and it keeps
on making the New York Times.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah, it falls off, pops right back, all right, And
like we're not doing anything except for continuing to be
out there and sharing the book. But more importantly, people
are sharing the book because they're like, there is so
much hope in this book. I wrote it so that
it feels like a novel, even though it's completely nonfiction
when people, you know, all they got to do is
(23:39):
read two pages and they hooked till the end.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Listen, I feel like I could distill some whiskey.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But it's entertaining. But it also does give you a
lot of information.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And you know, there was some disappointing information in there
for me about tequila.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And you're doing a tequila take I'm doing a tequila.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Take down now. Yeah, listen, listen.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
That's my because I'm not gonna lie. I do enjoy
my tequila. I was just saying, yes, I was telling
you they don't really sell tequila like that. Everywhere I
was going, I'm like, you guys don't have and they
have a lot of whiskey though.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
But and here's the key. Almost all of the tequila
that we get here in the US, they don't drink
it in Mexico. So we've got to ask ourselves, why
is the tequila in America almost one hundred percent export?
And it's because all of our most popular brands, all
the brands that are at the top, have additives. So
this is the thing. And this is why I said
(24:33):
tequila takedown is because I had an investor send me
a text message last week and he was asking me
specifically about bourbon and the sugar content in it. I said,
Uncle Neis is sugar free and he's like, wait, but
my doctor told me I needed to cut out sugar
and I needed to cut out carbs, and so he
(24:54):
said I needed to cut out bourbon because it was
like drinking snicker eating a snicker bar. It's like, who
the hell? And his doctor told him it was better
to have tequila.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And I was like, I will say that I've always
been hell.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
And so, but the tequila industry has spent billions of
dollars getting us to believe it. And so the tequila
takedown that I did, that it went so viral, I
can't track it. Like, I think, it's so weird that
people record my page and put it on It's so weird.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
And how when you did the whole take awe their money?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
That wasn't wait super everywhere, but yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
What you're doing.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
No, I mean this is honestly the storytelling. But also
people buy into you as a person and they trust you.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
And I do my hate, I do my homework, I
do so research. Even the tequila takedown isn't like I
don't like tequila. No, I love tequila, but the fact
that I had to spend so much time trying to
peel back the layers to figure out when something says
one hundred percent blew a gave, tequila will pay eighty
dollars for it because we think that means it's pure.
(25:59):
Absolutely not what it means for most of the brands
we're buying, most of the most popular is they distilled
out all the sugar. Just like we do with Uncle Nears.
Uncle Ners is fat free, carb free, gluten free, and
sugar free because it's naturally we distill out all of
the properties. What tequila has been doing is they distill
everything out and then they'll add a gave syrup back.
(26:22):
So like you go to the grocery store. No, so
the taste that people love about tequila, they're drinking a gave. Literally,
they're drinking. You go to a grocery store, you pick
up some agave to put in your tea. That's what
you're having in your tequila. And so the fact that
a doctor would tell someone don't drink bourbon, but drink tequila,
(26:43):
and this dude was drinking cosamigos that's got sugar on
sugar on sugar that's been added. I was like, oh no, no, no,
we're taking this down.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And sugar is what gives people a headache.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, That's why normally when I drink things, a lot
of times I try not to mix it with anything.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
It's exactly right. Yeah, I tell people all the time.
If you drink Uncle nerest you you it's like there
is nothing in it that is going to give you
a headache. But if you add carbonation or if you
add sugar, all bets are off because it's no longer
the alcohol, it's what you've a you've added to it.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You are such a study in just believing and just follow,
just following it, Just just follow, follow, follow before you go.
What is our audience is full of entrepreneurs? Yeah, what
are some tips that you have for entrepreneurs. You've talked
about your marketing success, You've talked about following your vision,
being comfortable with financial stress, all of educating, educating. What
(27:37):
are some real takeaways that you want our audience to have.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
If you think you're going to build your company from
your savings, you're you're highly mistaken, meaning people entrepreneurs are
so afraid to risk you have so many that are like,
oh my gosh, I'm almost down to the end of
my savings. I better go and get a job, and
they'll quit what they've been working toward for years because
(28:05):
they're afraid of their savings going below a certain place.
And I'm like, look building, Uncle Ners, I've been broke
probably twenty five times, and by the way, I'll probably
be broke twenty five more times as I build out
the cognac company and the vodka company. But it's a
calculated risk. And so for entrepreneurs, if you were told, listen,
you gotta do this on your savings, don't take out loans.
(28:27):
Da da da da da. I want you to look
at every successful entrepreneur in America and I promise you
that's the opposite of what they did.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Case in point. Keep the success comfortable with uncertainty.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And another thing, I want to say this too, because
I thought this was important as far as leaning into
the truth and to the story right, because even with
Uncle Ners and you talked about how what is it
called again?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
The company that.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Bought it Brown Brown Foreman Brown format a kind of
time to erase the real story and not leaning into
the fact of the whole Nearest Green story and what
that brought to the table, because it's not a negative story,
and they could have leaned into it in a positive.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Way, and they would have had to have done the
research right. So there's most people, on face value, you
would look at this story as America did. When this
story first came out, the headline of New York Times said,
Jack Daniels embraces the secret hidden ingredient, helped from a slave.
And it's that photo of Jack with George Green, Nearest
the son next one. The whole world assumed that Jack
(29:27):
was a slave owner, he stole the recipe, he hid
the slave.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
They changed the picture.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
But no, no, no, the picture was right.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah. I thought I was reading that Nearest was moved
from the center.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Now what this is? This is it Nearest? This isn't Nearest.
This is George Green. He is literally the whole center
of the photo. So Jack Daniel is off center. George
Green is who's in the center.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Of the phot We've seen Jack.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
No, no, you've never seen it with Jack in the center.
Jack has always been off center. It's just when they
when they cry, the focal point was Jack. But he
was still He's always been off center and got you
and that I was trying to say, oh yeah, yeah.
So the photo itself is the only known photo Jack
has ever taken with anybody else during his entire lifetime,
(30:15):
and he's surrounded by white dudes that work for him.
But the entire photo, the person in the center is
the African American guy, George Green. So the whole world
made the determination this story was negative. I looked at
that photo and said, this photo was taken either nineteenth
century or the top of the twentieth century we now
know around nineteen oh four. If you don't want to
(30:38):
give a black man credit, you simply didn't put him
in a photo like you literally think that right. But
here's the thing going back to They could have looked
at that photo and came to the same conclusion. But
let me tell you why they didn't. They're all white.
It took an African American to look at that, to
look at that photo and say, wait a minute, I
(30:59):
know our history. We would not be a center of
any photograph unless there was an ally in that photo
who wanted to make sure we weren't erased.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
And in this.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Instance, Jack was that ally, and he understood America is
absolutely going to try to erase to you. I'm not
going to allow it.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That gave me chills, and the family did the same
for you. The family. A lot of people don't realize
that how supportive the family has been.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Oh so unbelievably supportive. Yeah, I got so many aunties
and cousins and the and nephews, and yeah, Nearess's family
has been unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Last thing I wanted to touch on tell us about
the Black Business Booster Program and the Nearest Green Foundation.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Yeah, so Near Screen Foundation. Before we ever sold a
bottle of Uncle Narras, I told Nearess's descendants, if you
get into college, you got a full ride. And so
from day one, I have paid for all of his
descendants and there's a lot of them, and to go
to listen, let me tell you there was a whole
(32:03):
subsect of Green family members or Greens in in Lynchburg
that were so highly disappointed to find out they weren't
on the family. I got a kid in college. No,
but but we but literally every no matter. I mean,
(32:24):
we've paid for them to get their jds to go
straight through and they're doing amazing. And then the Black
Business booster program essentially my company, every person in leadership
for my company where everybody's bat phone. If you are
black and you are in this business, the likelihood that
you have reached into us to get help with your distributor,
to get help with connecting on capital, figuring out how
(32:47):
to raise money, how to get barrels, how to get bottles,
how to it's a real high high likelihood of that.
And then every year we gather about two hundred of
them at Nearest Green Distillery and do a whole full
day workshop. Is a part of the Nearest and Jack
Advancement Initiative, and literally all the gatekeepers in this industry
(33:08):
come from behind the gates to come to the Nearest
Green Distillery to support all of these black founders.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I bet that's your favorite part.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
And listen, and that's a fact. That's my girl, Ingrid best,
I best. She's been talking her fun and her birthdays
also September fifth.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Yes it is, she and I share birthday.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
And that's especial to say for you any September fifth people,
it is.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
But I appreciate all the work you do.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I love the fact that you've built this from the
beginning when I first met you to see like it's
just been amazing and a great product as well. And
I think it's so important the story behind a brand.
And I think a lot of people I see maybe
tried it because of you, you know, at first, and
then they hear the story and they try it because
of that. But I think, you know, it's a testament
(33:54):
to the work that you put in, the research that
you've done, the lives that you've touched, and the continue
wing philanthropy that you keep doing as well. So it's
a combination of things.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Thank you, and everybody go to Amazon and get love
and whiskey somebody. A lot of people out there needed
to hear this message today. I know I needed to
hear it. And here so Funweaver, we love you, We
are so proud of you. Keep shining. Everybody follow at
fun dot Weaver on Instagram with everybody, please just stop
what you're doing and follow Wealth Wednesdays on instagrams. We
(34:25):
have our newsletter, we have features, we have free resources
at Teamwealth Wednesdays dot com and you will be featured
in all of them. Thank you so much, Yes all
their money, don't it all works out?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Thank you? Thank you
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Well
Host
Angela Yee
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