Today we’d like to introduce you to Fawn Weaver.
Hi Fawn, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story began in Pasadena as the daughter of Frank and Philomina Wilson. My father was one of the original hitmakers for Motown and was chosen by Berry Gordy to open the second Motown in Los Angeles prior to the Detroit Riots. Around 1975, my father decided not to sign a new contract with Motown but to instead go into ministry. So, although I was always surrounded with Motown stars like Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, it wasn’t because my father was a big-deal writer and producer, it was because they became a part of his ministry.
The life of a PK (short for “preacher’s kid”) can be difficult for most children. But for me, a natural-born leader who sought to challenge everything, the PK life didn’t phase me. I left home at 15 and moved in with friends from school who lived in Jordan Downs, the projects in Watts. I lived there for a bit but eventually found myself living in three different homeless shelters, the last one being Covenant House in Hollywood (a really great organization, by the way).
Just before my 19th birthday, I started my first company, FEW Entertainment. This company specialized in PR and special events, two things that came quite naturally to me. I picked up two corporate clients very early on in the lifespan of my company, which allowed me to grow. In the late 90s, I received a call from a much-lauded chef in Beverly Hills named Gerry Garvin, who had been referred to me for my special events prowess and asked if I’d consider handling the launch of the new Beverly Hills restaurant, Reign. Even though the restaurant was still under construction, I knew it would undoubtedly become a celebrity hot spot the moment the doors opened. At that time in my life, I didn’t have the bandwidth to take on that event, but I told Gerry that I’d come back, walk the space, and give him my suggestion for how an events producer should proceed. As soon as Reign opened, you could have found me there with my own clients on a weekly basis.
After a year of being at the helm of that restaurant and just when I was about to move out of the PR and special events business, Gerry told me he wanted to start his own restaurant. I was honored to be able to provide my help and end up writing the entire business plan, which raised the initial $500,000 needed to open the restaurant. I began as a minority owner in the business but eventually made my way up and took over as business manager. And it’s true when they say anyone who has ever been in the restaurant and bar business knows, you must LOVE it, or you won’t last as it is one of the most exhausting industries that never sleeps.
After four years, I decided to look for something else. But I did something quite orthodox for an entrepreneur; I realized I’d never been an employee and the thought of not employing people and being able to turn my phone off when I went to bed and just sleep like what I’d always imagine employees did, was what led me to try my hand at not being the one in charge. The only challenge was that out of all the businesses I could have chosen, I chose hospitality. It was the industry with which I was most familiar, and I became the Director of Events at the Viceroy Hotel. But little did I know that working at the Viceroy Hotel to fulfill my dream of turning my phone off at night and ‘just going to sleep’ became a joke.
I don’t think I could have chosen a worse first job for my ultimate goal of not wanting to be in charge and being able to go to sleep at night without work on my brain. With all its celebrity clients and events, my job was nonstop. This was not the “easy” employee-type job I had in mind, so I moved to one of the Viceroy’s sister hotels. Again, I found myself working around the clock. I went from being an entrepreneur to an intrapreneur and put in the exact same amount of effort. I tried my hand in hotels one more time, as the Director of Sales and Marketing for a Hilton family hotel but was only in that position for a year before one of the VPs in the company noticed how hard I worked and asked me to take over as the General Manager of the hotel. Let’s just say that is definitely not a job that allows you to turn your phone off at night and forget about work.
After six years of attempting to work as an employee, I returned to entrepreneurialism. Between beginning Uncle Nearest, Inc. and building our 323-acre $50 million distillery dubbed “Malt Disney World” in Shelbyville, Tennessee, I became a USA Today and New York Times bestselling author. When I came across the story of Nearest Green, the world’s first known Black American master distiller, and learned he was the teacher and mentor to a young Jack Daniel, as well as the first master distiller for Jack Daniel’s, I wanted to tell the story in a book and movie form. But after traveling to Lynchburg, Tennessee, conducting research, and interviewing scores of Nearest Green and Jack Daniel descendants, it became clear the best way to honor Nearest Green was with his own bottle.
In 2017, the first bottles of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey hit the shelves, and my team and I crisscrossed the country every week to share the story of Nearest Green and the incredible whiskey in our bottles. Through a lot of hard work—blood, sweat and tears, as folks like to say—we became the fastest-growing American whiskey in U.S. history, and when we crossed $100 million in sales, we cemented our company as the most successful Black-owned distillery in the world. With an average critic score of 92 and more than 600 award-winnings including nearly 400 that are gold media or higher, Uncle Nearest has been the most-awarded Bourbon and American whiskey of 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
You will never meet an entrepreneur that has had a smooth road to success. There are challenges and struggles that happen every day, but it is my philosophy that I don’t put my lips on those. Whatever a person focuses on is what grows, so I choose to focus on all that I want to see grow, and struggles and challenges are the two things I don’t want to see grow. What I can tell you is the global supply crisis of 2021 and 2022 nearly took us out, and if it weren’t for pure grit, determination, a whole lot of faith, and focusing on what I wanted to see grow, the company may not have survived. Instead and as a result, we are continuing to build a brand and a company so large for the next generation.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am known for being completely transparent, perfectly comfortable with saying no, and marching to the beat of my own ‘business’ drum. But even more than that, I’m probably most known for sharing my business growth in real-time, with the world, and holding nothing back. Those who follow me on Instagram are encouraged, inspired, and challenged. I do what I say and I say what I do.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Fawn Weaver at 46 years old is a fully realized version of my seven-year-old self. I was a strong-willed girl from the very start, believing I could do anything while questioning everything. I was a natural-born leader who loved to help others.
I took a Myers-Briggs personality test at the age of 21 and was INFJ, known as the “Counselor or the Advocate,” the rarest of any personality type, occurring in less than 2% of people in the world. More than 20 years later, I took the test for the second time and noticed the results had altered a bit to INTJ, the “Mastermind.” Not surprising, this personality type represents less than 0.8% of the world’s women, which quickly made me realize I had gone through my entire life being misunderstood, as I am so unlike more than 99% of women and more than 97% of men.
As I look back on my early life, I can see how the misunderstandings really took a toll on me. Now, they generally roll off my back because I’d rather be me, not entirely understood, than someone I’m not, just to please other people. I’m fully comfortable and confident in who I am, the 46-year-old version of my fully realized seven-year-old self.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://unclenearest.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fawn.weaver/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fawnweaver/
Image Credits
Courtesy of Uncle Nearest
