The Ledger
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Suppliers ignored Weaver's female team but answered her husband immediately
“Keith called every single person on our collective list, and he got through either immediately when calling, or they called him back by the end of the day. He didn't have to wait 24 hours to get in touch with any of those people that we had been trying to reac…”
Before Uncle Nearest, 100% of American whiskey brands represented white males
“White males represent 30% of this country and a hundred percent Of the whiskeys up until uncle nearest, 100%.”
Suppliers immediately called Weaver's husband after ignoring her all-female team
“Keith called every single person on our collective list, and he got through either immediately when calling, or they called him back by the end of the day. He didn't have to wait 24 hours to get in touch with any of those people that we had been trying to reac…”
Weaver secured Uncle Nearest trademarks before informing Jack Daniel's
“I had already, I already had the trademarks. So by the time I shared with them what I would be doing, I made sure I had the trademarks.”
Uncle Nearest spent $1M on ads while completely sold out nationwide
“I spent a million dollars in commercial ads when we were out of stock everywhere in the country.”
Major liquor conglomerates squeezed craft distillers' shelf space in 2020
“No independent saw big years last year because the big guys, once the pandemic happened, they've got to keep those shares up. Right. And so they took over the shelf space. There was very little shelf space that remained for craft distillers.”
'Jack Daniel's Legacy' mentions Nearest Green's family more than Jack's own
“Jack Daniels Legacy. It was a biography by a local journalist out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who goes to Lynchburg, Tennessee, to write the authoritative biography on the most famous whiskey maker in the world. And very early on into the book, It introduces this …”
Weaver: Jack Daniel did not steal Nearest Green's whiskey recipe
“So all around the internet at that time was that they very quickly determined that Jack was the slave owner, that he stole the recipe, hid nearest, and all these other things. Well, I'm reading this biography and going, not a chance, because I believed that it…”
White men founded 100% of commercial whiskey brands before Uncle Nearest
“White males represent 30% of this country and a hundred percent of the whiskeys up until Uncle Nearest.
100%.”
Weaver spent $1 million on commercial ads while completely out of stock
“Last September. We were out of stock in the entire country, meaning we were selling much faster than we could bottle. I spent a million dollars in commercial ads when we were out of stock everywhere in the country.”
Weaver: Founder confidence should not rely on early product success
“If the confidence is coming from a product, that's a flawed strategy, because you might have a product that fails, and you might start another product, that product may fail, it may not be until you're on your fourth product, but you have to believe in yoursel…”
Weaver: Nearest Green Distillery is the seventh most visited distillery globally
“I've talked about how our distillery, now the seventh most visited distillery in the world.”
Weaver: Founders should divide brand narratives into modular, audience-specific stories
“You can write out your entire story, literally every element in it, and then break it into sections. So for instance, when you hear me talking about the story of nearest green and the press all the time, I'm usually talking about a particular section of the st…”
Weaver: Uncle Nearest was the world's most awarded bourbon from 2019-2023
“What you will see is we're the most awarded bourbon in the world for 2019, 20 20, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Every year we update those ads, and all we do is add a new year on it every time we're the most awarded.”
Jack Daniel and Nearest Green's descendants grew up as friends
“They all grew up together. They were friends. They ate around the same dinner table.”
Sourcing whiskey to scale an American brand is structurally harder than Scotch
“In Scotland, the distilleries produce enough for themselves, but they also produce enough for a ton of others to be able to purchase from them. It's a part of their overall business model. That's not our business model in America. There's basically not enough …”
Five major conglomerates own essentially all American whiskey brands
“You can kind of go down the list of every major American whiskey brand, and I can tell you who owns them. So like all the- ... The Diageos, the Sazeracs, LVMH, absolutely. They, you have essentially five that own everything.”
Uncle Nearest avoids using Jack Daniel's name on branding or website
“The only time that Jack's name has ever been associated with our brand is if the story is being told historically in the press, or it was told historically in the short film that we did with Jeffrey Wright”
Uncle Nearest achieved 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth
“We just celebrated our 11th quarter in a row of triple digit gains. So we've been a hundred percent year over year for 11 quarters.”
Five major multinational conglomerates own nearly all major American whiskey brands
“The Diageos, the Sazeracs, LVMH. Absolutely. They, you have essentially five that own Everything.”
Weaver secured Uncle Nearest trademarks before notifying Jack Daniel's leadership
“Yeah, but it wasn't their IP. I had already, I already had the trademarks. So by the time I shared with them what I would be doing, I made sure I had the trademarks.”
Tennessee whiskey is straight bourbon filtered through sugar maple charcoal
“Bourbon can be made anywhere in America. It's not like champagne, where it has to be made in a region, or tequila that has to be made in Jalisco. It can be made anywhere in America, although I think ninety-something percent of it comes out of Kentucky. However…”
Uncle Nearest won best-in-class in 13 major spirits competitions in 2021
“There's been, I think, 16 major competitions this year, and we've received 13 best in class.
We have swept all of the major competitions this year with the exception of a few. And even in those we got gold and double gold.”
Major liquor conglomerates squeezed craft distillers off retail shelves during 2020
“No independent saw big years last year because the big guys, once the pandemic happened, they've got to keep those shares up. Right. And so they took over the shelf space. There was very little shelf space that remained for craft distillers.”
Uncle Nearest achieved 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit year-over-year revenue growth
“We just celebrated our 11th quarter in a row of triple digit gains. So we've been a hundred percent year over year for 11 quarters.”
Uncle Nearest is profitable and reinvests all earnings into its distillery
“So yes, we are in the black, but at the same time, everything that we earn, all profitability goes into building of the distillery.”
Weaver: 20 historians and archivists helped research Uncle Nearest for free
“In the beginning, there were 20 different historians, archivists, archaeologists, genealogists, who all got together and none ever charged me.”
Weaver: Uncle Nearest averages five to eight major global press hits daily
“So if you look at Uncle Nearest, on any given day, there might be between five and eight press hits around the world, major publications, and they're all telling different stories about the brand.”
Weaver: Uncle Nearest averages five to eight major global press hits daily
“So if you look at uncle nearest on any given day, there's between five and eight press hits around the world, major publications, and they're all telling different stories about the brand.”
Weaver: Uncle Nearest has maintained an all-female leadership team since launch
“I've now told the story of my all female leadership team that I've had from day one.”
Jack Daniel's biography mentions Nearest Green more than Daniel's own family
“And then every page, it was either Nearest Green or his sons, Eli Green and George Green. I mean, they were very, very prominent in terms of mentions in this book, and they were mentioned more times than Jack's own family.”
Weaver decided to buy the Dan Call farm within five minutes
“I will say that Keith and I were not through the door for longer than five minutes before we looked at each other and said, we're buying this place.”
Dan Call yielded his still to Nearest Green under church pressure
“And so the reason why nearest green is credited as the first known African-American master distiller is because he fully turned over the steel to nearest. But I think that had everything to do with the fact that his church and his wife were really pushing agai…”
Weaver's realtor was former Jack Daniel's head of whiskey operations
“Well, she was in the family business for 31 years. When she left Jack Daniel Distillery, she was their head of whiskey operations.”
What legally distinguishes Tennessee whiskey from bourbon
“Tennessee whiskey can only be made in Tennessee, and the only difference other than geography, the only significant difference is the process that came in with the enslaved people, and that is taking a traditional bourbon distillate and filtering it through su…”
Uncle Nearest achieved profitability and is building a $50M distillery
“So yes, we're, we have achieved profitability, but at the same time, we're building out a fifty million dollar distillery that we've already put more than 25 into.”
Weaver's first PR firm failed after overhiring to project a larger persona
“Where I got in trouble was this whole larger persona than what it was, and so I hired far too many people for what was needed at that time and ran out of money.”
Nearest Green was the first known African American master distiller
“The reason why nearest green is credited as the first known African-American master distiller is because he fully turned over the steel to nearest.”
Weaver recruited Jack Daniel's former head of whiskey operations
“Well, she was in the family business for 31 years. When she left Jack Daniel Distillery, she was their head of whiskey operations.”
Direct-to-consumer club shipping allowed for wine remains illegal for spirits
“I could be a winery in Napa and have a, you know, a club in which I've got thousands and thousands of people that get wine. That's not legal for spirits.”
Weaver hired the former Disney Store worldwide president for retail merchandising
“I hired the former president of Disney store worldwide to merchandise.”
Weaver's father was an early hitmaker and producer for Motown
“So he was one of the very first hit makers for Motown. He was there from the beginning. So he's credited with Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Temptations and the Four Tops and Michael Jackson and just really from the beginning, Smokey Robinson, then when S…”
Weaver left home permanently at age 15 with just a backpack
“I actually left home at 15. And my mom said she still remembers the day I walked down the driveway and she watched me leaving with a backpack and a lunch pail in hand. And that was basically all I had was a backpack and a lunch pail. And I was like, I'm out of…”
Weaver launched a PR firm at 18 with $5,000 monthly retainers
“So I began at 18 with two clients paying me 5000 dollars a month, which that's not a lot of money now, but you know, for an 18 year old, that was pretty significant, right?”