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Speaker 1: Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at

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Speaker 1: the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal

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Speaker 1: the common threads that bind them all.

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Speaker 2: So what's happening in women's basketball right now is what

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Speaker 2: we've been trying to get to for almost thirty years.

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Speaker 1: From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records.

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Speaker 2: Kamen Quark broke the all time single game assists record.

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Speaker 2: This is crazy for rookies to be doing.

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Speaker 3: To the polls where history is written, and now we

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Speaker 3: have Kamala Harrison, it feels more like women are sort

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Speaker 3: of taking what they've always deserved, as opposed to waiting

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Speaker 3: on somebody to give them what they deserved.

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Speaker 1: Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms

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Speaker 1: and the community we create. In each episode, we'll sit

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Speaker 1: down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics, because at

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Speaker 1: the core of it all, how we see one issue

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Speaker 1: shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm your Home Carry Champion. A few years ago I

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Speaker 1: had the incredible opportunity to meet Fawn Weaver, the visionary

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Speaker 1: behind Uncle Nearest Whiskey. She welcomed me to her distillery

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Speaker 1: in Shelbyville, Tennessee, about forty five minutes south of Nashville.

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Speaker 1: I was there to do a story on the whiskey

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Speaker 1: that seemed to line the shelves at bars, restaurants, and

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Speaker 1: more importantly, every house party I attended. This distillery is

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Speaker 1: nestled on four hundred and thirty five acres of stunning land,

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Speaker 1: and while words can't fully capture its beauty, let me

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Speaker 1: just say it's a place that you all must see

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Speaker 1: for yourself. It's open to the public, so if you

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Speaker 1: are ever in the area and make sure you stop by. Well.

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Speaker 1: Today we are unpacking who is the woman behind Uncle

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Speaker 1: Nearest Whiskey, what's the origin story of this iconic brand.

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Speaker 1: And as a special treat for our listeners, Bonn has

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Speaker 1: given away some gems. That's right, free jewelry folks, for

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Speaker 1: life and for business. So stay tuned because today's podcast

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Speaker 1: is not just about whiskey. It's about legacy, empowerment and

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Speaker 1: the ability to think differently in a world that follows

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Speaker 1: norms and trends. Welcome to Naked Sports.

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Speaker 2: I am Fawn Weaver, CEO and founder of Uncle NAR's

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Speaker 2: Premium Whiskey and New York Times best best selling author

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Speaker 2: of Love and Whiskey. Uncle Nearest is the first known

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Speaker 2: African American master distiller. And how I learned about it

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Speaker 2: is it was on the cover of the New York

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Speaker 2: Times International edition. I was in sync for just for

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Speaker 2: a few days, and on the cover of it. It's

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Speaker 2: actually on the cover of my book, Love and Whiskey

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Speaker 2: is it's this photo of Jack Daniel and to his

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Speaker 2: immediate right as an African American man. Now I didn't

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Speaker 2: drink Jack then, I don't drink it now, but I

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Speaker 2: knew what he looked like. His company has done a

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Speaker 2: brilliant job at making his face ubiquitous around the world.

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Speaker 2: And so the moment I saw him, and then I

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Speaker 2: see this African America and next to them, and I

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Speaker 2: place it. I guessed that the image was taken sometime

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Speaker 2: in the nineteenth century, which would make it pretty astounding

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Speaker 2: that Jack, in the only known photo that he ever took,

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Speaker 2: would have had an African American man to his right.

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Speaker 2: The headline on that New York Times story was Jack

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Speaker 2: Daniels embraces a hidden ingredient help from a slave. So somehow,

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Speaker 2: with that photo and that headline, the Internet went wild

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Speaker 2: and decided Jack Daniel was a slave owner, he stole

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Speaker 2: the recipe, he hid the slave. That's the story that

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Speaker 2: went all over the world. And I'm looking at this

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Speaker 2: and just as a person who loves history and especially

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Speaker 2: African American history, I'm looking at this and going, Yo,

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Speaker 2: if Jack Daniel wanted to hide this man, he wouldn't

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Speaker 2: taken hure yet, right. And so the question that The

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Speaker 2: New York Times was really bringing forth was they weren't

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Speaker 2: giving the answer as much as they were asking a question.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why they were doing that is because

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Speaker 2: the story had been reported for quite some time and

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Speaker 2: it was a part of Jack Daniel's actual history that

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Speaker 2: there was a white preacher and distiller by the name

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Speaker 2: of Dan Cole who was the teacher and mentor of

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Speaker 2: Jack Daniel. But the town of Lynchberg was saying it

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Speaker 2: wasn't actually Dan Cole, it was an enslaved man on

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Speaker 2: his property. And so what The New York Times was

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Speaker 2: doing was essentially putting up a lob to see if

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Speaker 2: there was a way for someone to prove this Clay rise.

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Speaker 2: And the journalist he described it as a lob because

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Speaker 2: he said Listen didn't have all of the resources that

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Speaker 2: it would take in order to really dive into this

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Speaker 2: story to prove it. And so I lobbed it up

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Speaker 2: and hoped that someone else would do it, and sure enough,

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Speaker 2: I was the one who went ahead and took the

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Speaker 2: ball and finished the play. But when you look at

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Speaker 2: that story, when the entire world was looking at and saying,

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Speaker 2: you know, Jack Daniel stole it, and it's another one

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Speaker 2: of these instances where African Americans had been stolen from

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Speaker 2: I'm looking at it. I ordered Jack Daniel's legacy. His

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Speaker 2: biography nears green, and his boys are mentioned more times

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Speaker 2: than Jack's own family. And to understand the significance of

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Speaker 2: that is to know the reporter. The journalist who wrote

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Speaker 2: the biography was essentially hired by Jack's family to write

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Speaker 2: this biography, even though he had autonomy as to what

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Speaker 2: got included and they were not to influence it. They

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Speaker 2: wanted a story of Jack's life to be told, and

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Speaker 2: so this journalist came from Alabama to Lynchburg, Tennessee, interviewed

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Speaker 2: all the people who knew Jack best, all the people

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Speaker 2: who knew his nephew who took over the distillery before

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Speaker 2: Jack died, and his great nephews who were overseeing the

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Speaker 2: distillery at that time, the number of times they would

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Speaker 2: have had to mention Nearest and his boys for them

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Speaker 2: to be listed in this book many times. And then

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Speaker 2: you take that and you couple with the photo. I

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Speaker 2: pretty quickly concluded that not only was Jack not trying

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Speaker 2: to hide who it was that was his teacher, he

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Speaker 2: was trying to make sure America would not be able

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Speaker 2: to wipe him out.

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Speaker 1: Amazing. I'm really curious when you did the research. And yes,

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Speaker 1: everyone thought because there is the story of a rasure

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Speaker 1: of African Americans being a rased in history, and it's true,

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Speaker 1: it's not wrong. It's actually very true. You found something

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Speaker 1: totally different just with the research. He wasn't trying to

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Speaker 1: erase him. In fact, he was. It sounds to me,

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Speaker 1: and you tell me if I'm incorrect, it sounds to

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Speaker 1: me that he was honoring a man who really was

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Speaker 1: was a huge contribution to what he was able to create,

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Speaker 1: but only what he could do during that time.

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Speaker 2: It's absolutely accurate, and I believe that Jack and then

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Speaker 2: his descendants continued this to make sure that no one

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Speaker 2: would ever be able to erase Nearest Green and George

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Speaker 2: Green and Eli Green from their story. So when you

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Speaker 2: look at what ended up happening is Jack passed away

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eleven. However, he turned over his distillery in

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Speaker 2: nineteen oh seven to his nephew Limb, and lim continued

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Speaker 2: to tell the story of Nears Green and his boys.

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Speaker 2: He went on record every single time it was asked

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Speaker 2: what is the difference between Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky bourbon.

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Speaker 2: There's only one thing that distinguishes that other than location,

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Speaker 2: and that's just taking this traditional bourbon distillate, running it

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Speaker 2: through sugar maple charcoal to filter it before it goes

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Speaker 2: into the barrels. Well, Jack's descendants were always very clear

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Speaker 2: and giving the credit for that process to the Africans

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Speaker 2: that were living there, to the enslaved people. That's also

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Speaker 2: something they didn't have to do because we have. What

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Speaker 2: has happened historically over our four hundred plus years in

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Speaker 2: this country is because we weren't able to patent, because

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Speaker 2: we weren't able to trademark. We're really just now figuring

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Speaker 2: out the things that we invented correct and we're just

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Speaker 2: now figuring out where we were involved in, who we

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Speaker 2: helped with and So what's interesting is that when Jack's

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Speaker 2: great nephews took over the distillery, there was four of them.

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Speaker 2: They made sure that when they opened up the distillery

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Speaker 2: for tours for the public, Nears Green's legacy, George Green's

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Speaker 2: legacy was always a part of those tours, so much

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Speaker 2: so that Nearest says, descendants that went away to college

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Speaker 2: would bring their college friends back take them on tours

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Speaker 2: of Jack Daniel so that they could talk about their ancestor.

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Speaker 2: It was never hidden. Then, in seventy eight, the last

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Speaker 2: of Jack's descendants to pass away, Regor Motlow. When he died,

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Speaker 2: It's almost like the story died with him, because between

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Speaker 2: seventy eight and seventy nine, the story disappeared. So one

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Speaker 2: of his descendants came back with friends from college and

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Speaker 2: called her daughter and said, they whitewashed my great great

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Speaker 2: grandfather out of this story. And so we know the

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Speaker 2: exact timeframe that had happened, And it happened right after

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Speaker 2: Jack's descendants stopped having watch over the distillery, Okay, And

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Speaker 2: so I believe that Jack knew without them overseeing this,

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Speaker 2: that there was a really good chance that Naris's legacy

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Speaker 2: would be erased and he wasn't wrong, because if he

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Speaker 2: hadn't taken the photo the photo, we wouldn't have been

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Speaker 2: able to prove it.

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Speaker 1: Do me a favor, do me a favorite. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about this photo, because I feel like people might and

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Speaker 1: I just want to focus in on this photograph, that

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Speaker 1: photograph that you saw in the International section of the

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Speaker 1: New York Times that day in Singapore. What what year

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Speaker 1: was that?

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Speaker 2: That was twenty.

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Speaker 1: Sixteen, What was the year the photo was taken?

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Speaker 2: That nineteen oh four?

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Speaker 1: Nineteen oh four. The conditions of America in nineteen you know,

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Speaker 1: for would not suggest that a white man who is

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Speaker 1: as profitable and or as lucrative or well established as

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Speaker 1: Jack Daniels would take a photo with Uncle Nerest correct.

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Speaker 2: Well, more importantly so that the African American in the

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Speaker 2: photo we've been able to positively identify as Nearest's son,

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Speaker 2: George Green. Okay, because Nearest retired and his sons George

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Speaker 2: and Eli, continued to work alongside Jack.

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Speaker 1: So George Green, it wasn't Nearest city.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't nearest. Neares was passed away by the time

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Speaker 2: that photo was taken. But the thing that I found

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Speaker 2: I still find most significant about the photo. It's not

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Speaker 2: just that George Green is to the right of Jack Daniel.

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Speaker 2: It's that if you look at the full photo, and

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Speaker 2: it's why I began Love and Whiskey with that photo

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Speaker 2: so people could see not the crop version that was

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Speaker 2: in the New York Times or even the crop version

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Speaker 2: I have on the cover. When you look at the

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Speaker 2: full photo, what you will notice is is the center

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Speaker 2: of the entire photo is around the African American man.

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Speaker 2: So Jack didn't just have him to his right. He

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Speaker 2: actually seeded the center position of the entire photograph to

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Speaker 2: George Green. And the other reason that's important is is

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Speaker 2: Jack never took another photo with other people his entire life.

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Speaker 2: There is exactly one photo with Jack Daniel with other

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Speaker 2: people in it, and he seeded the center position to

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Speaker 2: an African American man.

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Speaker 1: That is powerful. Do you know, Can you tell me

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Speaker 1: what happened to near screen? How did he pass away?

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Speaker 2: We have no idea. So that the US Census is

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Speaker 2: so interesting and the reason why the archives exist now

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Speaker 2: why it was created. So in eighteen ninety a portion

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Speaker 2: of the census in America was burned in a fire.

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Speaker 2: It was just an accidental fire, you know, buildings would

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Speaker 2: burn all the time. Then someone in our government made

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Speaker 2: the decision that if one portion of the census was

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Speaker 2: burned and destroyed, that all of the census should be

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Speaker 2: burned and destroyed. So we don't have an eighteen ninety census.

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Speaker 2: So we know that he was alive in eighteen eighty.

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Speaker 2: We know he was no longer alive in the census

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Speaker 2: in nineteen hundred, but we have no way of knowing

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Speaker 2: if he was still alive in eighteen ninety. And as

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Speaker 2: I began doing my research, I have him paying pull taxes,

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Speaker 2: which is, you know, the poll tax thing every time

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Speaker 2: black people don't vote. I'm like, are you kidding me?

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Speaker 2: They the poll tax is two dollars at that time

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Speaker 2: that nearest green and I have him paying poll taxes

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Speaker 2: every year that he was free up until eighteen eighty four,

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Speaker 2: And so it is possible he passed away in eighteen

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Speaker 2: eighty four. It's also possible that he no longer had

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Speaker 2: to pay the taxes because of how old you would

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Speaker 2: have been. We don't have any way of knowing, but

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Speaker 2: eighteen eighty four is the last time we have a

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Speaker 2: record of him. So that's why the brand Uncle Near's

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Speaker 2: eighteen eighty four. We look at that and say that's

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Speaker 2: the last year that we believe that he put whiskey

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Speaker 2: into a barrel for Jack. And we say that because

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Speaker 2: that's the year Jack moved to the current location for

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Speaker 2: Jack Daniel Distillery. Nears Green is the only known master

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Speaker 2: distiller for Jack Daniel Distillery number seven. But that was

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Speaker 2: a different property than where it is now, Okay, And

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Speaker 2: so when he moved, that would have been the last

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Speaker 2: time that Nerros put whiskey in the barrel for Jack

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Speaker 2: would have been at eighteen eighty four. And that's also

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Speaker 2: the last year that I show records that he paid.

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Speaker 2: The poll tax.

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Speaker 1: Pull tax is when you want to vote, you have

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Speaker 1: to pay a tax. That was also a deterrent for

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Speaker 1: many African Americans who were free an attacks.

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Speaker 2: Well absolutely, because white people didn't have to pay the

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Speaker 2: poll tax. Yeah, we had to pay the poll tax

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Speaker 2: in two dollars at that time. That meant you made

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Speaker 2: a decision between putting food on the table for an

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Speaker 2: entire week. That was a decision you had to make.

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Speaker 2: And it was so amazing to me because every black person,

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Speaker 2: every single black person in Lynchburg, Tennessee, paid that poll

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Speaker 2: tax and they voted. All of Mirris's boys, every single

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Speaker 2: one paid that poll tax and voted. Of course, women,

250
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Speaker 2: his daughters weren't allowed to vote. That's the whole other conversation.

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Speaker 2: But the boys all paid the poll taxes and made

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Speaker 2: sure they voted.

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Speaker 1: When we return, we'll talk about how Fond revived the

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Speaker 1: legacy of Nearest Green and made Uncle Nears a billion

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Speaker 1: dollar brand back in a moment, welcome back to naked sports.

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Speaker 1: As far as records go, some historians estimate that Nearest

257
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Speaker 1: Green passed away in eighteen ninety. Also, Wikipedia says that

258
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Speaker 1: but when he passed away, his son, George took over

259
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Speaker 1: the business.

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Speaker 2: Yep, So his son continued the businessm Master Distiller. We

261
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Speaker 2: don't have. It's interesting because Jack Daniels has no record,

262
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Speaker 2: so so much of what I've had to discover is

263
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Speaker 2: outside of their record. And a part of that is

264
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Speaker 2: because a lot of people don't understand prohibition. It essentially

265
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Speaker 2: killed Jack Daniel Distillery. So prohibition began in Tennessee ten

266
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Speaker 2: years before federal prohibition. So Jack Daniel Distillery as we

267
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Speaker 2: know it that was here, moved to Saint Louis. They

268
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Speaker 2: moved to Saint Louis they start up operated his nephew

269
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Speaker 2: Limbs set up operation there that entire building burned down.

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Speaker 2: Who had to build a new Jack Daniel distillery across

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Speaker 2: the way in Saint Louis. And so the fact that

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Speaker 2: there's Guinea records, the fact that this photo exists is

273
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Speaker 2: because it was about a forty year window of time

274
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Speaker 2: that Jack Daniel Distillery did not exist in Lynchburg.

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Speaker 1: Prohibition please explain Master Distillery please?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. Prohibition was an experiment in America that

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Speaker 2: failed greatly. You you had the government trying to regulate

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Speaker 2: people drinking alcohol, and they had determined that the only

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Speaker 2: way that you could drink bourbon because we didn't have

280
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Speaker 2: all the alcohols at that time, it was basically like

281
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Speaker 2: it was basically whiskey, bourbon rye whisky in the East Coast.

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Speaker 2: And they determined that the only way that you should

283
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Speaker 2: be able to get bourbon is what a prescription. And

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Speaker 2: so the only Burke people that were still making bourbon

285
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Speaker 2: were the ones that were doing it for the pharmacies.

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Speaker 2: And I'm like, let me get this straight. So you

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Speaker 2: knew what was healthy enough to make it a prescription? Yeah,

288
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Speaker 2: But and so what ended up happening during prohibition is

289
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Speaker 2: alcohol didn't go away, just went in to speak easies.

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Speaker 2: The mob ran all the alcohol, so they made all

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Speaker 2: the money and then they paid off the government officials

292
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Speaker 2: to keep prohibition going.

293
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Speaker 1: In a movie with al Capone or anything about ulture,

294
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Speaker 1: so you know what prohibition was. And also the advent

295
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Speaker 1: of moonshine, people were making their own.

296
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Speaker 2: Well absolutely a lot of people don't even know that's

297
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Speaker 2: how NASCAR began. So when you talk about sporting events,

298
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Speaker 2: most people have no idea that NASCAR began in Tennessee.

299
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Speaker 2: And the reason it was created was to outrun the

300
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Speaker 2: revenuers that were chasing after the moonshiners. So the moonshiners

301
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Speaker 2: created these soaked up vehicles that would outrun the police

302
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Speaker 2: and the revenuers and they would basically had these back

303
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Speaker 2: routes through the smoky mountains into North Carolina. So they

304
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Speaker 2: would run moonshine between Tennessee and North Carolina with these

305
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Speaker 2: really fast cars. That's what became NASCAR.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I had no idea. A lot of people including me,

307
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Speaker 1: thank you, I know, thank you for this education. Okay, yeah, yeah, wow,

308
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Speaker 1: that's so powerful, Master Distiller. So and the only reason

309
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Speaker 1: why I ask is because these questions are people will

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Speaker 1: want to know about Uncle Nears So the next time

311
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Speaker 1: they buy Uncle Near's eighteen eighty four, they know why

312
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Speaker 1: it's eighteen eighty four.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely and a master distiller. To answer your question, what

314
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,879
Speaker 2: that essentially means is that person was over the stillhouse.

315
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Speaker 2: It was they were over the entire production of whiskey

316
00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:02,800
Speaker 2: making at that particular distillery. And so nears Green we

317
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:07,320
Speaker 2: knew to be the master distiller because Jack's Jack and

318
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Speaker 2: his nephew and his great nephews all made sure that

319
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 2: was documented that nears Green was the first master distiller. However,

320
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Speaker 2: between that time frame and when Jackie Summers started Surrell

321
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Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, New York and became a master distiller, I

322
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,439
Speaker 2: believe in twenty twelve, Between that time, we don't know

323
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Speaker 2: of a single other African American master distiller, wow or

324
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Speaker 2: Black master distiller because Jackie is Caribbean, so we don't

325
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Speaker 2: know of a saint year to what year. From eighteen

326
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Speaker 2: eighty four until twenty twelve, we don't have record of

327
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Speaker 2: another master distiller, not because they didn't exist, but because

328
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Speaker 2: they weren't given credit.

329
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Speaker 1: So what do you think the relationship was from your

330
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,439
Speaker 1: research which you've been able to ascertain what you've been

331
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:08,359
Speaker 1: able to discover, what was the relationship between Jack Daniels

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Speaker 1: and your screen I.

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Speaker 2: Still confident that I know what it was because I've

334
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:18,359
Speaker 2: interviewed about one hundred of Nears' descendants. I've spent time

335
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:23,120
Speaker 2: with them. I've gone and pulled documents from six different states,

336
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,679
Speaker 2: all the states where he has branches, but also Jack's family.

337
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Speaker 2: And when you look at the descendants and how their

338
00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 2: descendants were so close and continued throughout the years, it's

339
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,240
Speaker 2: very clear that began somewhere, and it makes the most

340
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:43,359
Speaker 2: sense that it predated his son and Jack's nephews and

341
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,679
Speaker 2: those relationships that it began with Ners and Jack. And

342
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:49,719
Speaker 2: so you have just to give a little bit of background.

343
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Speaker 2: Nears and Jack worked for the same man. They worked

344
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Speaker 2: for the same preacher on the same property. I own

345
00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:58,359
Speaker 2: that property now, so I have an intimate understanding and

346
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:00,960
Speaker 2: knowledge of it. It was it's three hundred and thirty

347
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,240
Speaker 2: eight acres. It's now three thirteen because they've put roads

348
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:06,000
Speaker 2: through and all that stuff, But it's that three hundred

349
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,760
Speaker 2: and thirty eight acre property. You had this preacher in

350
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Speaker 2: this distiller who had his home. He married a teetotaler

351
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Speaker 2: at a very young age. She was only eighteen years old,

352
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Speaker 2: So you have that home on the property. They had,

353
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,200
Speaker 2: what's really amazing, they had eighteen kids. I think eleven survived,

354
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,880
Speaker 2: but that woman was always pregnant. So you have good lord,

355
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:28,359
Speaker 2: and so you have their home. And then if you

356
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 2: were to walk through what was essentially forest area, if

357
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,719
Speaker 2: you were to walk through the property for about twenty

358
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,640
Speaker 2: five thirty minutes, you would arrive at where his distillery

359
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,280
Speaker 2: was on the property. But then if you went about

360
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 2: the same amount of time in the other direction, it's

361
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:49,560
Speaker 2: been like a triangle, you would arrive at his church.

362
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,880
Speaker 2: And so you had a man who was keeping these

363
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,560
Speaker 2: three worlds essentially separate from one another. His wife didn't

364
00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 2: want to have any parts of the distillery whatsoever, the

365
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:03,920
Speaker 2: church didn't I And so you have this distillery that's

366
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:07,560
Speaker 2: being run by an African American man because the white

367
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,439
Speaker 2: man who actually owns it can't put his hands on

368
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,680
Speaker 2: it because of his wife and because of his church.

369
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Speaker 1: Interesting, and so I think.

370
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,159
Speaker 2: That's a part of where the dynamic was different, is

371
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:23,240
Speaker 2: he was essentially an absentee owner, right because his church

372
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:25,119
Speaker 2: and his wife didn't want him to have any parts

373
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:27,399
Speaker 2: of that distillery, so he just kind of pretended like

374
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 2: it wasn't there. But then nearest Green was making the whiskey. Well,

375
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,400
Speaker 2: Jack Daniel comes as a young kid, about seven years old,

376
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 2: as a chore boy. He's the tenth child. His mother

377
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,120
Speaker 2: dies of typhus fever seven days after she contracts it,

378
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,679
Speaker 2: and he was only four months old. So imagine, in

379
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 2: those days, men didn't know how to take care of kids.

380
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,119
Speaker 2: This man is left now with ten kids, one that

381
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,440
Speaker 2: needs to be wet nurse breastfed by nextdoor neighbor who

382
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,560
Speaker 2: has an infant around the same age. And so you

383
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 2: have this man who now has two ten children, including

384
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,359
Speaker 2: a four month old. Well, back in those days, the

385
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 2: way that you dealt with that, it wasn't babysitters and nannies.

386
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 2: You went and found somebody else to marry who would

387
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 2: take care of you'll take kids, correct. And so Jack's

388
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,720
Speaker 2: father brought in a woman pretty early on, and by

389
00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,320
Speaker 2: all accounts, she just wasn't fond of Jack. And so

390
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 2: Jack left home at a very early age and began

391
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,199
Speaker 2: working as a chore boy for this preacher and distiller

392
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 2: Dan Call and So when we look at Jack, because

393
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 2: of who he became, we automatically assumed that he came

394
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 2: from privilege. But as I began diving into, what I

395
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 2: discovered is he's seven years old. He's living and working

396
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 2: for this family. He's going and fetching water from them

397
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 2: for the well. He's feeding slot to the pigs, he's

398
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 2: milking cows. He's living in the barn a good portion

399
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,119
Speaker 2: of the time because they had so many kids, so

400
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:57,720
Speaker 2: many babies, that it was more peaceful to sleep in

401
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 2: the barn with the animals. It's hard for a person

402
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 2: of any color to believe that they are of any

403
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 2: privilege if that's your situation, if that's your circumstance. So

404
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 2: I don't believe that Nearest and Jack ever really saw

405
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,400
Speaker 2: each other based on race. I certainly don't think Jack did,

406
00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:20,320
Speaker 2: and I don't believe it because he had such a

407
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,560
Speaker 2: tough upbringing that there would be no way for him

408
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,960
Speaker 2: to feel as though he was above anybody.

409
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,639
Speaker 1: Else because of where he was in life, his station

410
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:29,360
Speaker 1: in life.

411
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 2: His station in life did not allow him to have

412
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 2: any kind of privilege.

413
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,719
Speaker 1: So you believe that they were, what would you how

414
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 1: would you categorize that relationship mentor, mentee, teacher, student teacher,

415
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 1: being nearest, teacher, being nearest, mentor being nearest and over

416
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 1: the years, based on the relationship with Jack and nearest

417
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: his son George. And it was interesting because George Green

418
00:23:58,640 --> 00:23:59,560
Speaker 1: his granddaughter.

419
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 2: He raised her. She lived with him until he passed away.

420
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:05,880
Speaker 2: And one of the stories that she shared that's in

421
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 2: Love and Whiskey, is Jack's nephew, Lim, who ran the distillery.

422
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 2: He would get drunk and this isn't you know everybody

423
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 2: in town knows this. Lim would get drunk, he'd get

424
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 2: a little bulligern and Miss Helen, George's granddaughter, she would

425
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 2: remember the phone ringing and someone saying, George, can you

426
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,400
Speaker 2: please come talk to Lim. Lim didn't respect a single

427
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 2: person when he was drunk, except near his son. So

428
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:35,919
Speaker 2: George would have to go down to the house and

429
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,400
Speaker 2: go Lim, you know you can't talk to people like that. Lim,

430
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 2: you know you can't throw stuff like that. The level

431
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:45,719
Speaker 2: of respect you have to have gained for the only

432
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,360
Speaker 2: person to be able to talk down the wealthiest man

433
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 2: in town is a black man.

434
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, because he knew he respected him as what

435
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 1: he came from and what the work ethic in which

436
00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,919
Speaker 1: obviously they displayed and how talented they were were and

437
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: did hear you? Decades later, hundreds of years later, you

438
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,880
Speaker 1: come along and you find this story and for whatever reasons,

439
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,160
Speaker 1: you're intrigued, and I know the reasons, you just get

440
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,719
Speaker 1: this black man is centered. Tell me more about this story.

441
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 2: Listen, I was about to turn forty. You couldn't tell

442
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 2: me a single story up until that point where we

443
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 2: would we could prove that we were there at the

444
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 2: beginning of a ubiquitous American brand. None, you couldn't tell

445
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 2: me a story where we were there at the beginning

446
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 2: of something that had been invented, where where it was proven,

447
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,920
Speaker 2: not that it's said. So you go to Houston, Texas.

448
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:43,160
Speaker 2: You have lu Sille's restaurant. Her descendants have been very

449
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 2: clear in saying Pillsbury stole our recipe of instant biscuits

450
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 2: for her. They kept trying to buy it from her,

451
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,880
Speaker 2: she kept saying no, they reverse engineered it, and all

452
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 2: of a sudden they have it. However, they can't prove it. Yeah, right,

453
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 2: So what we've had over the years is a history

454
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 2: of stories that we can't prove. And with this photo

455
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:11,399
Speaker 2: and with the accompanying documentation his biography, Jack's biography, and

456
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 2: a few other things. I'm looking at this and going, wait,

457
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: we could we actually have a story we can.

458
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: Prove h And that was new for us and your

459
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 1: idea when you knew that you could prove this story,

460
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 1: its origin, it's history in African American culture. Your idea

461
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:28,400
Speaker 1: was to do what then?

462
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 2: A book in a movie. So Love and Whiskey was

463
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 2: the first chapters of Love and Whiskey I wrote back

464
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:39,800
Speaker 2: in twenty and sixteen. Now, mind you, my editor, co writer,

465
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 2: all the rest of that I did. So she brought

466
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 2: in her own researchers. They went back and reinterviewed every

467
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 2: person who I interviewed that was still alive. And so

468
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,359
Speaker 2: the structure of it is not what I originally wrote.

469
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 2: But the content is in that I originally wrote back

470
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 2: in October twenty sixteen. It is throughout the book. It's basis,

471
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,119
Speaker 2: the formation of the book itself. And so it was

472
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 2: always meant to be a book. But as I began

473
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 2: meeting with Nearess's family and Jack's family, what became clear

474
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 2: is that Nearess's story had been erased once before, and

475
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 2: there was a book, and there was newspaper articles and

476
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 2: magazines that made it clear who he was. So the

477
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 2: fact that it could happen once means it could happen again,

478
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,360
Speaker 2: and a book wasn't going to prevent it from happening.

479
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 2: And so the question became, why are we all still

480
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 2: talking about Jack Daniel and Johnny Walker and Jim Bean

481
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 2: to this day? Very simple, we see their bottles everywhere, yep.

482
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 2: So to cement the legacy of Nearest Green, that was

483
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 2: imperative that we made sure that not only did he

484
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 2: have his own bottle to sit alongside Jim, Johnny and Jack,

485
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 2: but it was important that it become very early on

486
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 2: the most awarded bourbon in the world, because we were

487
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,400
Speaker 2: saying the level of excellence in which Nearest operated, we're

488
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:00,119
Speaker 2: going to mirror that all these years later. I mean,

489
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 2: this is the sixth year in a row that Uncle

490
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 2: Ners is the most awarded bourbon in the world. That's

491
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 2: not by accident, that's very intentional. I should also clarify

492
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 2: why we refer to him as Uncle Nears for the brand,

493
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:15,959
Speaker 2: but I don't refer to him as Uncle Nears as

494
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,399
Speaker 2: a person, as a person. I refer to him as

495
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 2: Nearest Green. That's what he referred to himself as, but

496
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 2: his legal name was Nathan Green. And enslaved people on

497
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 2: the other side of being freed, many of them chose

498
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,200
Speaker 2: to abandon the names that were given to them because

499
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 2: so many of them those names were tied to either

500
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 2: their slave owners or children of the slave owners. And

501
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 2: so what you see a lot with enslaved people is

502
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,480
Speaker 2: after the Civil War, they no longer use those names anymore.

503
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 2: That was the case with Neares Green. He completely abandoned

504
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 2: using Nathan Green. But more importantly, every legal document from

505
00:28:54,480 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 2: his children and his grandchildren never said Nathan. Every single

506
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 2: one was Nearest, felled phonetically, so many different ways, but

507
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 2: every single one of them used Nearest, And so I

508
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 2: had to begin looking at it to figure out, well,

509
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 2: why would he possibly have abandoned Nathan. And there's two reasons. One,

510
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 2: the largest land, the largest slave owner in the Lynchburg

511
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 2: area was named Nathan Green. That's one reason. The other

512
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:27,680
Speaker 2: reason is the most successful, well known Confederate general in

513
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 2: this area is a man by the name of Nathan

514
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:33,360
Speaker 2: Bedford Forest. And by in this area, I mean he

515
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 2: literally came through here recruiting men for Forrest escorts. Well,

516
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 2: he also just happens to be the first Grand Wizard

517
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 2: of the kou Klux Plan. So in this area, the

518
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 2: name Nathan is not great Nathan, it's not awesome. And

519
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 2: so when we were creating the brand, we had a

520
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 2: pretty big challenge because we couldn't name it Nearest Green

521
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 2: because before we identified him as Neares Green and made

522
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 2: him a household name, if you or I had seen

523
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 2: Nearest Green on a whiskey label, it basically is like

524
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 2: the nearest golf the closest golf course. It's not a human,

525
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 2: it's a thing. Nearest Green, correct, It's a thing. And

526
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 2: so we couldn't use Nearest Green until such time as

527
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 2: we identified him as a human being. And so we

528
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 2: really only had one choice of what name to use,

529
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 2: and it was a name that everybody in Lynchberg, white

530
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,959
Speaker 2: and black, referred to him as, which is Uncle Nearest.

531
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 2: And we struggled with that one because historically, when you

532
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 2: would call someone an aunt or an uncle and their

533
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 2: African American, it was really to distinguish good Negro house Negro.

534
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 2: That type of thing is aunt and uncle. In Lynchburg.

535
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 2: In that instance, the most well respected people that were

536
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 2: there were Uncle Nearest Uncle Jack and Uncle Felix. Two

537
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 2: of the three were white. Okay, So it wasn't a

538
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 2: matter of good negro. It was a matter It was

539
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 2: a term of endearment. It was more importantly a term

540
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 2: of respect. And so even though we knew we would

541
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 2: have to explain that, we decided we would go with

542
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 2: Uncle Nears. But if you look at the name of

543
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 2: the distillery we announced it in twenty eighteen, before we

544
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 2: started building it. All the rest of that that was

545
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 2: always named Nears Green Distillery. It has never been named

546
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 2: Uncle Neris because we were confident that at some point

547
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 2: we would make Nearest Green's name known around the world

548
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 2: where when people see it on a bottle, they know

549
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 2: who it is. So about a month and a half

550
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 2: ago we released nears Green, Tennessee and whiskey. Because now

551
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 2: when people see that name on a bottle, they know

552
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 2: it's all.

553
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: Now, that's right. You've built the name. You've built the

554
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 1: Uncle Nearest name in a way in which people are

555
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: very familiar and it is a part of our world

556
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 1: in which we live. Congratulations to you on that business model.

557
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 1: So smart, but so divine, but almost just it was appointed.

558
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: It was God knew that you needed. It happened in

559
00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: every It feels to me very divine. If today, in

560
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: this moment, God says, look at this article while you're

561
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: in Singapore, have this vision. You want a book, you

562
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,520
Speaker 1: want a movie, but then there's just so much more

563
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 1: to it. If everyone listening, I had that wonderful opportunity

564
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 1: to visit and it is a beautiful property that you have,

565
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: a beautiful You've created such a beautiful living legacy to

566
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: Nearest Green, and it is for the world to see.

567
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: But you've also done not even on the business aspect,

568
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: because we're going to get into that, because that's phenomenal,

569
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: but you, to me, did the unnecessary step that most

570
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 1: people forget to do, and you brought in his descendants

571
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:40,959
Speaker 1: and you said, I want you also to be a

572
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: part of this. Now, that to me is another divine

573
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 1: appointment and why I believe there is so much success

574
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: because of the intention behind the product. Can you talk

575
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 1: to us about how you were able to find some

576
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 1: of Green's descendants and incorporate a relationship, a work relationship,

577
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: a mentorship if you will, to make sure that they

578
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: can understand who he is and also benefit from it

579
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: in many ways, and perhaps come back and work for

580
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: their uncle in there.

581
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So before we ever sold a bottle of

582
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,239
Speaker 2: Uncle Nears, before any were in the marketplace, we had

583
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 2: already begun paying for the college for college scholarships for

584
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 2: every single one of Nearest Green's descendants. We were paying

585
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 2: for all of them to go to college. And so

586
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 2: Nearest Green's great great granddaughter, our Master Blinder, Victoria Adye Butler,

587
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 2: who was phenomenal. I met her attending the graduation of

588
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 2: her niece, who we had just put through college at

589
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 2: the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and she was graduating with honors.

590
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 2: She invited us out, we came out. That's how Victoria

591
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 2: and I met. And so the interesting thing is my

592
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 2: dream was always to have the company full of Green descendants.

593
00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 2: But I didn't think through this very well, because if

594
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 2: I had, I wouldn't have paid for them all to

595
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 2: go to college. Because now they're looking at me like,

596
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:08,759
Speaker 2: let me get this straight. So I now I have

597
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,359
Speaker 2: my JD, I have my masters, I have my and

598
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 2: you want us to come work in Shelbyville, Tennessee, into

599
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 2: New York and California and Texas. And I've had zero luck, zero,

600
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 2: So this is really just Victoria and I and the

601
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 2: rest of the Green family members. They come, they support,

602
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 2: they bring their friends to the distillery, but they are like, yo,

603
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 2: were not come. We're not coming to the middle of Shelbyville, Tennessee.

604
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 2: When we have so many choices, yeah, to do whatever

605
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 2: we want. However, that being said, I have not given

606
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 2: up hope that over most time years that we're going

607
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 2: to have so many Green family members working at the

608
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,440
Speaker 2: distillery and a part of the family business. I look

609
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:56,800
Speaker 2: at this as them out there sewing their royal oaths.

610
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 1: Right.

611
00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 2: You know, you got one working at a PR firm,

612
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 2: and and diego, you got one down A few of

613
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 2: them actually down in Texas, and it's just really special

614
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:10,200
Speaker 2: to be connected. The head of security for the leadership

615
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 2: at Meta is actually one of Nearest's descendants.

616
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: Von Weaver has written a New York Times bestselling book,

617
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: Love and Whiskey, and she continues this great legacy of

618
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: near a screen. But when we come back, she will

619
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: explain how playing offense has kept her head and shoulders

620
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 1: above the rest in this liquor game. But more importantly,

621
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: she's given out those gems back in a moment. How

622
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 1: do you create this business model that is now a

623
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,959
Speaker 1: billion dollar valuation. Congratulations to you and all your hard work,

624
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 1: and your husband and your family members and your employees

625
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: and your investors and everyone who believes in the vision.

626
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,399
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you. You deserve to be celebrated. So when

627
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: I see you celebrated, it warms my heart because you

628
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: deserve that. So thank you for showing us it can

629
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,399
Speaker 1: be done. But then now tell us how it was done.

630
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,280
Speaker 2: You know, it's so hard to condense because we did

631
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 2: so much so fast. So I think the easiest way

632
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 2: to say it is is that most of the time

633
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 2: when people start a business and they go out, they're

634
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 2: focused on their marketing, their sales, their pr They're playing offense, right,

635
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,280
Speaker 2: It's about telling the story of their brand. It's about

636
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 2: getting it out there to the public. In our instance,

637
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 2: because our story was smack dab in the middle of

638
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 2: Jack Daniels, which is now owned by another company, we

639
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,759
Speaker 2: didn't have any way of knowing if whether or not

640
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 2: they were going to point every rocket, every grenade, and

641
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 2: so we came into the business playing both offense and defense,

642
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 2: and a part of our defense strategy was a little

643
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 2: Tasmanian like, meaning we were going to do so many

644
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 2: things simultaneously that if they threw a grenade over here,

645
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 2: it's cool. We already moved to over here. If they

646
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 2: pointed their rockets to us over there, it's all right,

647
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,400
Speaker 2: we already moved over here. And so we went peddled

648
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 2: to the metal in a way that no one has

649
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 2: ever come into this industry of any race, of any gender,

650
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 2: No one has ever come into this industry as hard

651
00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 2: as we did. But we did it out of survival.

652
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 2: We did it out of a necessity to both defend

653
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 2: and to play offense at the same time.

654
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: I love it. And so when you say play offense,

655
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,919
Speaker 1: what did that look like just giving them these Yeah?

656
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,959
Speaker 2: No, that part of it playing offense is getting out

657
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 2: there and talking about the brand, being in the press

658
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 2: every single day, going out and pitching the distributors. And

659
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:48,240
Speaker 2: because every single market you can't sell to a consumer

660
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 2: if you're in the alcohol business, you have to pick

661
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 2: sell to a distributor. That means the distributor is actually

662
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,720
Speaker 2: your buyer. They're the ones who you have to convince.

663
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 2: And so every day my chief brand officer, Kate, we

664
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 2: had one other team member, Steven and I. We would

665
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 2: be on planes every day going and pitching distributors across

666
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 2: this country, and so there was no outside of the sabbath.

667
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 2: This has been I have worked six days a week

668
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 2: easily sixteen eighteen hours adays since the beginning, and we

669
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 2: look back on it and realize if we hadn't did that,

670
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 2: if we hadn't done that, we would be dead. Not

671
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 2: because Jack Daniel's parent company would have killed us, but

672
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,680
Speaker 2: because this business has a ninety nine point nine to

673
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 2: nine percent failure rate that I mean, they didn't have

674
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 2: to do anything but sit back and do nothing. In

675
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 2: the likelihood that we would have failed was really, really high,

676
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,360
Speaker 2: and so for us, we had to do so much

677
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,719
Speaker 2: to represent, to build this brand, and to build it

678
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 2: with a coalition of everyone. People looking at this would think, okay,

679
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 2: well it was an African American story. It was built

680
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 2: by an African American woman, so surely the consumers African Americans.

681
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,600
Speaker 2: But that's absolutely not true. In twenty sixteen, we weren't

682
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 2: drinking bourbon. Yeah, like you could, you know, you could

683
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 2: count on a few hands the number of.

684
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:14,760
Speaker 1: People, and so everybody was drinking Jack though, yeah yeah, yeah.

685
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 2: I mean but actually, but when you looked at even

686
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 2: Jack stats. African Americans didn't even represent a full percentage.

687
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 1: Oh really, why it was just the marketing of it. Then,

688
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:27,200
Speaker 1: just the.

689
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 2: Marketing of it, Jack damn African Americans black people as

690
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 2: the Black Americans did not represent a full percentage. Wow

691
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,280
Speaker 2: that it was just and so a lot of people

692
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,960
Speaker 2: don't understand how difficult it was to build this brand

693
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 2: because we didn't have us as a base.

694
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 1: Wow wow wow wow wow wow.

695
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,040
Speaker 2: So we have to build it to everybody who already

696
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 2: were bourbon consumers?

697
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: Were the black folks drinking fun.

698
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 2: Not that you have crowd and kognyak.

699
00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,799
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, where a purple bag at? Because

700
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 1: the dominoes. We put the dominoes in the purple bag.

701
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:04,800
Speaker 1: This is what you know.

702
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 2: You don't know why.

703
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: It's just in the house.

704
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 2: It's so the crown, it's so funny. Because Nerost's descendants

705
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:14,359
Speaker 2: were all drinking crown. I was like, I had never

706
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 2: had crown. And so I said one day because one

707
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 2: of his eldest descendant in Saint Louis, she would hide

708
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 2: the crown when I came over because he felt guilty.

709
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 2: I meant, Antie, just let me taste the crown since

710
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:29,760
Speaker 2: I know you hit it. She had it under the sink.

711
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:31,399
Speaker 2: I was like, you don't have to hide it. When

712
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 2: I come around, I tasted it was terrible. I was like, no, wonder,

713
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,360
Speaker 2: we have a hard time drinking bourbon. We've been drinking

714
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 2: trash for so long, so we don't know what quality

715
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 2: tastes like. And so we really had to train the

716
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:53,080
Speaker 2: palettes of a lot of women and people of color

717
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 2: to really be able to enjoy the quality of a

718
00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 2: pure bourbon.

719
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 1: Do you tell me, I'm just gonna mirror back what

720
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:03,759
Speaker 1: I think I hear and what I've noticed. What a

721
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 1: lot of successful brands, even with individuals you made it.

722
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: Your story was so very niche not your audience, but

723
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: the story of Nearest Green was so very particular, and

724
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: it was the story of this this master de sailer

725
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:24,080
Speaker 1: who created a hand in hand taught Jack Daniels in

726
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,799
Speaker 1: many ways, right, would you? Is that fair?

727
00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 2: It absolutely is, I would say the way when we

728
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,480
Speaker 2: began this, we were always very clear in saying we

729
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:34,839
Speaker 2: weren't just building a bourbon brand, a whiskey brand. We

730
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 2: were building the next great American brand. Hard stop. Yeah,

731
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,560
Speaker 2: we believe that we were creating the great the next

732
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:45,120
Speaker 2: great American brand that would be embraced by every American

733
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 2: because it's in every brands and it's American story. You

734
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 2: have an African American and a white man walking working

735
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 2: side by side. You have the process that is being

736
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 2: utilized that makes it special as being credit with having

737
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 2: come in with the enslaved people, having been perfected by

738
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 2: Nearest Green and the folks that are there. And so

739
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 2: you're looking at this and saying, what story is more

740
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 2: American than this?

741
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,880
Speaker 1: But fine? In a very polarized world. The reason what

742
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 1: I say about you just in casual, I'm like, she

743
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: has been able to create a brand, and most people

744
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:24,799
Speaker 1: will think black woman, black brand. But there is the

745
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: way in which you tell the story, how you carry yourself,

746
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:28,840
Speaker 1: the way you move, the way you conduct business. It

747
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 1: is something for everyone. But it's also the brand. You

748
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 1: talk about a relationship, Jack and Nearest our friends. They

749
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 1: are mental as you said, mentor mentee, that is something

750
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,799
Speaker 1: everybody can get behind because there is the unification in

751
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: the world where we are so polarized, especially in a

752
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,920
Speaker 1: time when during that time that we're all the same.

753
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:50,080
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, I think.

754
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:53,719
Speaker 2: Okay, And when you look at so white people are

755
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:57,279
Speaker 2: still about sixty percent of this country. African Americans Black

756
00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 2: Americans thirteen point nine percent. Right, So the two of

757
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:04,799
Speaker 2: us combined are about seventy five percent of the population

758
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,920
Speaker 2: of this country. And I'm telling a story that is

759
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 2: uniquely credited with those two people, with those two groups.

760
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 2: So this story even before it reaches Latinos and Asians

761
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 2: and Native Americans and all the rest of this well,

762
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 2: it's still seventy five percent of this country that it

763
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:24,760
Speaker 2: already covers.

764
00:43:25,239 --> 00:43:29,320
Speaker 1: But I think also it's a story of a white

765
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: man embracing a black man in a time when that

766
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:37,240
Speaker 1: was not considered appropriate and or legal and or kosher,

767
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,560
Speaker 1: whatever word you want to use. And when you see that,

768
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: that to me is hopeful. It's a hopeful story.

769
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:46,799
Speaker 2: It's a hopeful story. We're looking at someone who was

770
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:51,799
Speaker 2: potentially the first known ally for us, and not just

771
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:55,719
Speaker 2: an ally of nearest and of his son George and

772
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 2: his son Eli, but you're talking about a man who

773
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 2: built a companympany in the nineteenth century in which he

774
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:07,719
Speaker 2: paid people on tenure, not race. That was unheard of,

775
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,160
Speaker 2: and so there were I was really fortunate that when

776
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:15,120
Speaker 2: I arrived in Lynchburg Tennessee. Nears's granddaughter was one hundred

777
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:18,520
Speaker 2: and six. She was still alive. But you also had

778
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 2: all these African American men who had spent their entire

779
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,439
Speaker 2: careers working at Jack Daniel Distillery. And when I tell

780
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:29,800
Speaker 2: you, you're talking about men who were working there in the forties,

781
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 2: in the fifties and the sixties, and every memory they

782
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 2: had was found. How was that even possible? And they

783
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 2: would talk about how if they were doing a particular

784
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 2: job and they were paid a certain wage and a

785
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:46,720
Speaker 2: white person came in after them to do that same job,

786
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 2: they were paid more than the white person. That is

787
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 2: unheard of in that day and age. And that continued

788
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 2: throughout the legacy of this distillery, of Jack's des Sendens continue,

789
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:02,320
Speaker 2: they continue to be allies.

790
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: It would be nice to find more of those allies.

791
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: It would be nice to tell more of those stories.

792
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:10,440
Speaker 1: It would be nice to have those allies at the forefront.

793
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:14,959
Speaker 1: And in today's America I'm talking is in twenty twenty four,

794
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 1: telling those stories, finding them, highlighting them, celebrating the people

795
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 1: that they mentor and mentee with, work with teacher, student,

796
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,359
Speaker 1: whatever that relationship is, We could use so much of that.

797
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: Do you ultimately know, because there's so much more than

798
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: just for you. I already know that you haven't shared

799
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 1: that with me, But there's so much more than just

800
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:35,560
Speaker 1: the whiskey I know that you bought. You guys are

801
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: working on a Cognak for my understand.

802
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,720
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're the largest Cognac vineyard, the largest vineyard owner

803
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:44,919
Speaker 2: of Grand Champagne grapes, which is the Kreme dela Crome

804
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 2: of Cognac grapes in the city of Cognac, France. It

805
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,399
Speaker 2: is absolutely the first time an African American has bought

806
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 2: vineyards there. But I also believe it maybe the first

807
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 2: time an American hass period because the process there. You

808
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,439
Speaker 2: can't just go into Cognac and buys It doesn't work

809
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 2: that way. If you buy a property and it has

810
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 2: only if you try to buy a property, and this

811
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,240
Speaker 2: could be a you know, a twenty million dollar property,

812
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 2: if it has even a half of an acre of vineyards,

813
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 2: the city controls it. The city controls the purchase process.

814
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 2: So you could go in, you could you could actually

815
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,680
Speaker 2: place an offer, you could have that offer received and

816
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 2: go into escrow, which by the way, happened with us.

817
00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 2: You get into escrow, it gets printed publicly in the

818
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 2: newspapers for people to bid against you, and there is

819
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 2: a single person who oversees the process that makes the

820
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 2: determination of who in that bidding process gets to buy

821
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 2: those vineyards.

822
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:48,439
Speaker 1: Wow, it's no joke and so and understandably so because

823
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: they want to keep it. Krem day la krem if

824
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:53,399
Speaker 1: you will. I'm assuming or well generational.

825
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 2: So the difference between Cognac and other spirits is that

826
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:01,720
Speaker 2: in Cognac, the majority of is not made by the house.

827
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 2: As we know, Hennessy only makes about two percent of

828
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,840
Speaker 2: their own product. You have all of these generational farmers

829
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 2: and distillers, small family businesses that have been doing this

830
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 2: for twenty generations, for all the big guys for Remy,

831
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:20,800
Speaker 2: for Martel, for Crevasier, and for Hennessy. So when they're

832
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 2: looking at it, they are looking at it and saying,

833
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:25,880
Speaker 2: who is going to take care of these vineyards the

834
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 2: best and who is going to protect this for generations

835
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:33,719
Speaker 2: to come? So smart and my mindset is so focused

836
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:38,279
Speaker 2: on generations to come that they were comfortable and when

837
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,600
Speaker 2: you think about it, Americans in general, that's usually not

838
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 2: how we think, which is why I think Americans have

839
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:47,279
Speaker 2: not been able to buy there before because we come

840
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 2: in there and we're thinking about this generation, what we

841
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 2: can build in this generation. And I came in and

842
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 2: I shared the story, and I was focused on how

843
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep those farmers and those distillers working

844
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 2: for the next twenty generations. My pitch was completely different,

845
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 2: but my pitch was from the heart, and they approved

846
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:09,120
Speaker 2: it and we bought that property. So it's not named

847
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 2: Uncle Ners, but Uncle Neares Inc. Does own now that

848
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,560
Speaker 2: French company and the name of the company not sharing it.

849
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 1: Get it? When do we get this year?

850
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:23,920
Speaker 2: In a wait, you'll begin hearing about it toward the

851
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 2: end of spring. Okay, here, all right.

852
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:28,239
Speaker 1: I'm fine, I'm patient, I'm fine. I'm here. I'm here

853
00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:30,800
Speaker 1: to support and talk about all the time. Yes, okay.

854
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 1: So then I also, though believe on that there is

855
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 1: still more beyond that.

856
00:48:37,320 --> 00:48:40,279
Speaker 2: Oh well, we already bought a vodka company that releases

857
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 2: We completely have completed the rebranding of that that goes

858
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 2: back into the market next year as well. So Uncle

859
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 2: Near's Inc. Will go from being a single whiskey brand

860
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:55,040
Speaker 2: to being a portfolio company that owns a whiskey company,

861
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 2: a bourbon company that owns a vodka company and that

862
00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 2: owns a cognac company. The only we'll be missing as tequila.

863
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:02,480
Speaker 2: And I'm not mad about that.

864
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 1: I'm not mad about that we got enough.

865
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 2: What do you feel, Sally?

866
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 1: I also feel not that it wouldn't matter, if it

867
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,240
Speaker 1: would be wonderful to embrace, but how do you feel?

868
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 1: And I do know that there was some pushback when

869
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 1: you talked about other brands or stars or celebrities aligning

870
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:21,040
Speaker 1: and creating their own, you know, their own version of

871
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: a kognak and or a bourbon or tequila. What was

872
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 1: your philosophy on that? You said you weren't necessarily worried

873
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 1: about that space because it was a different brand philosophy.

874
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:36,960
Speaker 2: I don't worry about anybody, so this thing so I So,

875
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 2: if you've ever spent any time around Greg Popovich, I

876
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 2: am the school of Greg Popovich. And players would always

877
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 2: come to the Spurs and they, you know, come to

878
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:48,280
Speaker 2: and if they weren't a part of the Spurs poultry

879
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 2: yet and they got traded in or whatever, and they

880
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:52,799
Speaker 2: look at these scouting reports and they're like, where's the

881
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:56,960
Speaker 2: scouting report? It's a page long. And Pop's philosophy was

882
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,200
Speaker 2: always if you do your job, you don't have to

883
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 2: worry about what they do. You do your job with excellence,

884
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 2: and so I don't care if it's a celebrity and

885
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:08,799
Speaker 2: not a celebrity have. I come from a school of

886
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 2: thought where if we do our job, it doesn't matter

887
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 2: who else is in the industry. So I have every

888
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 2: celebrity that has come in, if they've reached into me

889
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 2: and asked for advice, I've given it to them. The

890
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,359
Speaker 2: number of celebrities and they're people who have reached into

891
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 2: me over the years, but they reach into me wanting

892
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 2: to do some type of partnership, and every time it's

893
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:34,560
Speaker 2: a no for me. And the reason it's a no

894
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:38,439
Speaker 2: for me is my focus is Nearest. I don't want

895
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 2: a single distraction and I want Nearest to be that star. Well,

896
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,400
Speaker 2: the moment a celebrity comes in, even if they're just

897
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,640
Speaker 2: an investor, and their name is attached. So if you

898
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 2: look at it, Sincora right, Sincoro has always had five owners,

899
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,160
Speaker 2: the husband and wife couple that own the Boston Celtics,

900
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 2: and the husband and wife owners that own another basketball team,

901
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,319
Speaker 2: and then you had Jordan right. Jordan has never run it.

902
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 2: Jordan has never really been involved in it other than

903
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 2: he's one of five. That's why it's called Sinkoro. There

904
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 2: were always five equal partners. Who do we know from Cincoro? Jordan, right,

905
00:51:18,560 --> 00:51:22,800
Speaker 2: And so it rises and falls on Jordan Lobos tequila

906
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:27,759
Speaker 2: that came out and the person who founded it. I

907
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:33,320
Speaker 2: believe this Diego his grandfather I think created Lobos in Mexico,

908
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 2: and it's got this amazing story to it. None of

909
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:41,759
Speaker 2: us know that story. We know it's Lebron's to kill it.

910
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:45,640
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. Lebron drinks red wine all the time.

911
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:50,760
Speaker 2: Barn lies the problem, right, Yeah, Lebron wins a championship,

912
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 2: he's going and he's drinking a bottle of red wine.

913
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,360
Speaker 2: If he wins a big game, he's drinking a bottle

914
00:51:56,400 --> 00:52:00,160
Speaker 2: of red wine. And so the challenge with celebrities being

915
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 2: connected to spirit brands is that if that is not

916
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:09,160
Speaker 2: what they are investing their time and energy into, not

917
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,480
Speaker 2: just posting a social media post every six weeks or

918
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:16,120
Speaker 2: eight weeks or whatever the agreement says, but they're really

919
00:52:16,280 --> 00:52:20,720
Speaker 2: in there creatively helping to run the business. The very

920
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:26,080
Speaker 2: few spirit brands that have worked that had celebrity faces

921
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,560
Speaker 2: when you look at them, every single one of them

922
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 2: put their own careers on hold and began working for

923
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:36,600
Speaker 2: that company. If you look at Ryan Reynolds, he did

924
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 2: aviation and deadpoole, and he used deadpoole to sell aviation

925
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:44,480
Speaker 2: products and he used aviation to selll But you couldn't

926
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 2: go around this country and not see Ryan Reynolds on

927
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:50,400
Speaker 2: the side of a billboard. But he was truly the

928
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,320
Speaker 2: chief creative officer those commercials, all that social media stuff

929
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 2: Ryan was doing that you had. George Crony just went

930
00:52:57,920 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 2: back to the red carpet in Venice, right, it was

931
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:02,360
Speaker 2: a whole big deal. It's his first time at the

932
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 2: Venice Film Festival in the last decade, all this fanfare, Well,

933
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:09,560
Speaker 2: what happened the last decade? It was building gotta migos

934
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:14,279
Speaker 2: and so you take the rock with Tearamana. He was

935
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:18,480
Speaker 2: selling tequila before he had a brand, meaning he had

936
00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:21,280
Speaker 2: been building it up on his social media. He was

937
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 2: using tequila instead of milk for his corn flakes.

938
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 1: Like right, every one of his cheat mails, he'd always

939
00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 1: have Teamana right there. We'd sit there and watch always.

940
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 2: And so what most of the celebrities that are coming

941
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:37,480
Speaker 2: into the Spirit's industry don't understand is you actually have

942
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 2: to be a part of the business. You can't just

943
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:44,280
Speaker 2: take a few photos and do some you know, social

944
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:47,920
Speaker 2: media posts and a commercial or billboard here or there.

945
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:52,160
Speaker 2: The Spirits consumer is not moved by that, not for

946
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:53,319
Speaker 2: any real period of time.

947
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:59,480
Speaker 1: Was your intention, and obviously I mean initially because it changes, right,

948
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:01,719
Speaker 1: It's almost like a TV show what it starts out

949
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:04,560
Speaker 1: to be and ends up being something totally different. What

950
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:07,839
Speaker 1: was your intention to create a brand that would sit

951
00:54:07,880 --> 00:54:10,520
Speaker 1: in the culture, and I'm talking about the black culture specifically,

952
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 1: that would sit and represent something for the culture.

953
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,680
Speaker 2: No, there's no way for that to be a plan.

954
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:22,799
Speaker 2: The culture wasn't drinking bourbon. So I created it it

955
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:27,719
Speaker 2: for me. I wanted to create the next great American brand, Hardstock,

956
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:32,759
Speaker 2: and you cannot look at America and not see the

957
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:36,920
Speaker 2: influence of the culture. It's impossible for something to be

958
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,360
Speaker 2: a great American brand and the culture not be a

959
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 2: huge part of that.

960
00:54:42,200 --> 00:54:44,319
Speaker 1: And that isn't clear. When you say the culture, you

961
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,040
Speaker 1: mean the African American culture. Everything I mean what you

962
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 1: mean culture. So it's really funny.

963
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:53,399
Speaker 2: I was speaking at Jordan and Jordan Brands and they said,

964
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:55,240
Speaker 2: you know, we keep hearing about the culture of the culture.

965
00:54:55,280 --> 00:54:58,400
Speaker 2: We know the culture assumes a lot. Can you define

966
00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:00,239
Speaker 2: for me the culture. It was the first time I

967
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:03,799
Speaker 2: ever had the question asked, and the best way I

968
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:07,480
Speaker 2: could describe the culture. I can't say it's Black Americans

969
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 2: are African American because I don't think there's anybody in

970
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,280
Speaker 2: this world that would not say that Jlo and Eminem

971
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:16,359
Speaker 2: are a part of the culture, very absolutely a part

972
00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 2: of the culture. I define the culture is everybody who

973
00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:25,760
Speaker 2: is moved and influenced by hip hop and afrobeats, meaning

974
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:29,359
Speaker 2: they're on two and four. So this is the best

975
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:33,399
Speaker 2: way to explain this. When Barry Gordy, what made him

976
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 2: so successful in Motown is he realized that the culture

977
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 2: this is Black America and everybody we hang around. Everybody

978
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 2: that hangs around us dances on two and four, claps

979
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:49,440
Speaker 2: on two and four, all of ours. You have friends

980
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 2: on shore that are not black, but they have a

981
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:54,759
Speaker 2: similar rhythm to you because they've been around you a

982
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:59,399
Speaker 2: long time. Sure those people, Barry Gordy understood, they're all

983
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:02,000
Speaker 2: on two and four. Okay, now you've got American bandstand

984
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 2: over here. They're all clapping and dancing all one in three.

985
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 2: So what Barry Gordy figured out is if I can

986
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:11,400
Speaker 2: create music that hits one, two, three, and four, I

987
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:13,879
Speaker 2: bring black people and white people to the dance floor.

988
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 2: But everybody that's on that two and four, that's our culture.

989
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:22,160
Speaker 2: It's all been influenced by us. It's all afrobeat. It

990
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 2: started with our music. It's I think Sidney Poitier has

991
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:29,320
Speaker 2: the best line ever in Guest Who's Coming to Dinner,

992
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 2: where the Tracy Spencer is trying to understand why black

993
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:38,560
Speaker 2: people have more rhythm than white people, and Sidney Poitier's

994
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:41,719
Speaker 2: response was, you do the watch to see. We are

995
00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:45,200
Speaker 2: the watch two see. So every person who's a part

996
00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:48,040
Speaker 2: of that I consider a part of the culture. I

997
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 2: don't think we can limit the culture to just us

998
00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:56,200
Speaker 2: as African Americans are Black Americans, because you go into

999
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,280
Speaker 2: any hip hop concert, any hip hop.

1000
00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 1: Concert, everybody's there. But you're saying the culture is to

1001
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to understand is the answer. So you're

1002
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,879
Speaker 1: saying we are the culture, but everyone is a part

1003
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 1: of the culture. We create the culture.

1004
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:13,880
Speaker 2: I am saying that African Americans, as a general rule

1005
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:16,960
Speaker 2: those of us and not just African Americans, Black Americans.

1006
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 2: We have created the culture, but we are no longer

1007
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,680
Speaker 2: the full entirety of the culture because you're influenced so

1008
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 2: many that they've come into it. So when we look

1009
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:31,000
Speaker 2: at the culture now, we will look at all these

1010
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,640
Speaker 2: people and absolutely say they are part of the culture

1011
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 2: that aren't necessarily African American. I'll look at DJ Khalt.

1012
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:41,800
Speaker 2: You cannot pay me to believe DJ Khalid at a

1013
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:42,560
Speaker 2: part of the culture.

1014
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 1: Well, he's influenced by the culture. His music is influenced

1015
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: by the culture, and now he is a part of

1016
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:47,720
Speaker 1: the culture.

1017
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:50,640
Speaker 2: J Kalid is a part of the culture. He's a

1018
00:57:50,760 --> 00:57:55,000
Speaker 2: part of what moves the culture. And he's not African American,

1019
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:58,840
Speaker 2: he's not Black American, but he was so influenced by

1020
00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:01,280
Speaker 2: it that he's now part of it. So my whole

1021
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:04,640
Speaker 2: my point here is is that the culture has expanded

1022
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:09,360
Speaker 2: to include people that have been moved by.

1023
00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 1: Us, and you've created something that incorporates them as well.

1024
00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:19,680
Speaker 2: Everybody, like literally everybody. You come to Nears Green Distillery

1025
00:58:19,680 --> 00:58:24,000
Speaker 2: on any given day, you go see everybody under the sun.

1026
00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna tell you, you will see a group

1027
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 2: of people on one side we have a bar. We

1028
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:33,600
Speaker 2: have the world's longest bars at nears Green Distillery and onside.

1029
00:58:33,680 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 2: Saturdays on any given that Saturday, we'll have a DJ.

1030
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:42,720
Speaker 2: The DJ will be playing Wobble. You will have one

1031
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:46,760
Speaker 2: group of people on the dance floor wobbling. You will

1032
00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 2: have another group of people, same song line dancing. They're

1033
00:58:52,080 --> 00:58:57,520
Speaker 2: being influenced by the culture. And so I don't look

1034
00:58:57,560 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 2: at those people and say they're part of the culture.

1035
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:02,840
Speaker 2: Absolutely not, But they are now influenced by it. They

1036
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 2: do have a curiosity about it and they want to

1037
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:08,920
Speaker 2: embrace it. And so for us, when I look at

1038
00:59:08,920 --> 00:59:11,480
Speaker 2: the culture, I want to make sure that the culture

1039
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:15,680
Speaker 2: is not so exclusive that we actually make the culture

1040
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 2: go away, because over time we haven't included it. But

1041
00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:23,320
Speaker 2: if again, let's go back to our population thirteen point

1042
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:26,200
Speaker 2: nine percent. Are we saying the culture is limited to

1043
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:29,880
Speaker 2: thirteen point nine percent of the not absolutely not. So

1044
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:33,120
Speaker 2: then the question who else is included in the CU culture?

1045
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 2: So the way I define it is the people that

1046
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 2: are onto a floor.

1047
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:41,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's why you define it.

1048
00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:41,680
Speaker 2: People who are.

1049
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 1: Onto enforcement, people are on I think that the through line, though,

1050
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:47,720
Speaker 1: is not too far off. The through line is that

1051
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:51,080
Speaker 1: we have. We are always a part of the culture.

1052
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:54,080
Speaker 1: We create the culture, and we are inclusive of the culture.

1053
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:56,600
Speaker 1: We are the wat to see, we are the what

1054
00:59:56,960 --> 00:59:58,240
Speaker 1: we are the wa to We.

1055
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,840
Speaker 2: Are the way to sea, so Lo where it all begins. Yes,

1056
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 2: so it all even though we now have so many

1057
01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:09,480
Speaker 2: people that we have influenced from. And that's not just

1058
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:13,840
Speaker 2: in America, that's around the world. You go everywhere. You

1059
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:19,120
Speaker 2: have reinfluenced the Backstreet Boys and n C who then country.

1060
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:22,440
Speaker 1: All that rock and roll, you go down the lit absolutely, but.

1061
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 2: When you think of some of the biggest music now

1062
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 2: is K pop. K pop directly influenced by Backstreet Boys,

1063
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:32,520
Speaker 2: in sync, that whole boy band thing, and those boy

1064
01:00:32,600 --> 01:00:35,640
Speaker 2: bands were directly influenced by the culture.

1065
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:39,000
Speaker 1: Yes, correct, I absolutely agree with that. Okay, sorry, Before

1066
01:00:39,040 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 1: I let you go, I want to talk about the

1067
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:42,680
Speaker 1: book because I know that you just said. I feel

1068
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:45,360
Speaker 1: that there's a movie coming. But this book, people, it's

1069
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:48,120
Speaker 1: a great Christmas gift. You can buy a package. You

1070
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:50,880
Speaker 1: can buy a book as well as I get some

1071
01:00:51,040 --> 01:00:54,920
Speaker 1: Uncle Nearest whiskey. That's a great package. That's a perfect package.

1072
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:57,840
Speaker 1: To have this whiskey and then understand the history behind it.

1073
01:00:58,080 --> 01:01:01,240
Speaker 1: Love and whiskey is what fond for people who will

1074
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 1: purchase it. You can get it anywhere on Amazon, wherever

1075
01:01:03,440 --> 01:01:05,080
Speaker 1: you buy your books. Go out and get it. Please

1076
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 1: to what is it? What is the goal? When people

1077
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,600
Speaker 1: read that? What would you like them to walk away with?

1078
01:01:11,240 --> 01:01:14,800
Speaker 2: I think the subtitle almost tells it all, which is

1079
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:18,960
Speaker 2: the remarkable true story of Jack Daniel, his master Distiller

1080
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:23,160
Speaker 2: nears Green, and the improbable rise of Uncle Nears This story,

1081
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:26,920
Speaker 2: this book, it tells all those things. So people who

1082
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 2: read it and they're looking for an incredible business book,

1083
01:01:31,200 --> 01:01:33,640
Speaker 2: This thing sat on the New York Times bestseller list

1084
01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:38,200
Speaker 2: on the business side for thirteen weeks and on the

1085
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:42,520
Speaker 2: nonfiction side hardcover for five weeks. And so when you

1086
01:01:42,560 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 2: look at who it's appealing to, one of the things

1087
01:01:45,240 --> 01:01:48,880
Speaker 2: I've been so fascinated with is most men read it

1088
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 2: in two days. It's been and I kept seeing it

1089
01:01:52,880 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 2: on social media so much that I finally DMed one

1090
01:01:56,560 --> 01:01:59,120
Speaker 2: person who had posted it, and I said, can you

1091
01:01:59,160 --> 01:02:01,360
Speaker 2: tell me what it is? The two day thing? And

1092
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:06,120
Speaker 2: he said, because what you're doing is so unbelievable. We

1093
01:02:06,200 --> 01:02:08,240
Speaker 2: know you're still living, so we know nobody killed you

1094
01:02:08,320 --> 01:02:11,200
Speaker 2: in this process, but we can't put it down till

1095
01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:13,120
Speaker 2: we get to the end to figure out how did

1096
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:17,040
Speaker 2: you get to that goatlet? And so you get the

1097
01:02:17,520 --> 01:02:21,480
Speaker 2: unfiltered version of how this company was built, but you

1098
01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:26,760
Speaker 2: also get the unfiltered version of how Jack Daniel became

1099
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:30,400
Speaker 2: who he was, how Nearest Green became who he was,

1100
01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:35,520
Speaker 2: and why we're still talking about both of them.

1101
01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:37,560
Speaker 1: And that is it, and it is so shall it

1102
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:39,640
Speaker 1: be done? What a great gift. That's a gift we

1103
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:41,360
Speaker 1: need to give for everybody for the holidays. Like I

1104
01:02:41,360 --> 01:02:44,000
Speaker 1: feel like that's that's it makes no perfect sense. It's

1105
01:02:44,000 --> 01:02:46,000
Speaker 1: the only thing to give up. It's the only thing

1106
01:02:46,040 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 1: to I agree.

1107
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 2: Women are devouring it, and I knew that women would

1108
01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:53,080
Speaker 2: devour it. But I'm especially proud that men are reading

1109
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:55,960
Speaker 2: it as quickly as women are, because it's it's very

1110
01:02:56,040 --> 01:02:58,040
Speaker 2: rare for there to be a book that men and

1111
01:02:58,120 --> 01:03:00,400
Speaker 2: women are equally touched by.

1112
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:02,520
Speaker 1: What keeps you up at night?

1113
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:05,880
Speaker 2: Nothing? I sleep real, Well, what are.

1114
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:09,960
Speaker 1: Your goals after you finish creating this huge dynasty that

1115
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:12,800
Speaker 1: you've already created and are continuing to pour into. Is

1116
01:03:12,800 --> 01:03:14,840
Speaker 1: there another industry you'd like to delve into?

1117
01:03:15,200 --> 01:03:17,960
Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I'll spend all of my days building in

1118
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 2: this industry, because when you look at the spirit conglomerates

1119
01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:25,400
Speaker 2: around the world, they've been doing this for generations, and

1120
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:28,560
Speaker 2: so it will take me an entire generation just to

1121
01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:32,720
Speaker 2: get this to a place that can even really truly

1122
01:03:32,800 --> 01:03:35,080
Speaker 2: compete with these spirit conglomerates that have been doing this

1123
01:03:35,120 --> 01:03:38,760
Speaker 2: for generations. So no, the spirits industry has me for

1124
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:42,880
Speaker 2: every breath that I'm here. But you will see the

1125
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:47,040
Speaker 2: Cognac Company rise to be something extraordinary and go toe

1126
01:03:47,040 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 2: to toe with all the other big cognac houses that

1127
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:52,000
Speaker 2: are out there. You will see the same thing from

1128
01:03:52,080 --> 01:03:55,440
Speaker 2: the vodka company across the board. You will begin to

1129
01:03:55,560 --> 01:03:59,640
Speaker 2: see my fingerprint in every single part of this spirit's

1130
01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:02,240
Speaker 2: industry street. And that'll take for me the better part

1131
01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:04,160
Speaker 2: of the next twenty five years. And after that, I

1132
01:04:04,240 --> 01:04:05,920
Speaker 2: just want to be chairman of the board and just

1133
01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:07,960
Speaker 2: kind of chill. I don't know, chill.

1134
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:12,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, you deserve that. You deserve that when you are

1135
01:04:12,160 --> 01:04:14,960
Speaker 1: presented with the problem. How's what's the first thing you

1136
01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 1: do when you when you begin to turn to solution,

1137
01:04:17,800 --> 01:04:22,720
Speaker 1: orient positively, pray say it again, pause and pray, pause

1138
01:04:22,760 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 1: and pray, pause and pray.

1139
01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:28,960
Speaker 2: And it's probably. The order is probably pause, bring my

1140
01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:37,000
Speaker 2: breath to a control place of calm, pray, because I'm

1141
01:04:37,040 --> 01:04:41,000
Speaker 2: always looking for solutions when problems, when challenges come to me.

1142
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 2: I am a believer that every problem, every challenge, is

1143
01:04:45,440 --> 01:04:49,360
Speaker 2: essentially the shell of an opportunity. But you've got to

1144
01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 2: get through the shell to get to the opportunity. The

1145
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:54,959
Speaker 2: question becomes how long do you spend on the shell,

1146
01:04:56,160 --> 01:04:59,120
Speaker 2: And so for me, I'm always trying to get to

1147
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,040
Speaker 2: the opportunity at the middle of it as quickly as

1148
01:05:03,080 --> 01:05:06,240
Speaker 2: I possibly can, so I do not waste my time

1149
01:05:06,480 --> 01:05:07,560
Speaker 2: or breadth on the shell.

1150
01:05:08,840 --> 01:05:10,919
Speaker 1: And when you say you pause and praise the prayer, God,

1151
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 1: lead me, show me, give me the solution.

1152
01:05:13,280 --> 01:05:16,120
Speaker 2: What is it. No, it's no particular prayer. It's just

1153
01:05:16,160 --> 01:05:21,080
Speaker 2: a continual conversation. And it's usually I will pause, and

1154
01:05:21,120 --> 01:05:23,960
Speaker 2: it's whatever the conversation is, because the thing is that

1155
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:27,080
Speaker 2: I'm talking to God all day long, and so the

1156
01:05:27,200 --> 01:05:30,320
Speaker 2: pause is more so for him to be able to

1157
01:05:30,360 --> 01:05:33,960
Speaker 2: share with me what direction to go in next than

1158
01:05:34,040 --> 01:05:40,280
Speaker 2: it is for anything else. I like shortcuts, Yeah, who saying,

1159
01:05:40,720 --> 01:05:42,640
Speaker 2: So if he don't give me a shortcut, I want

1160
01:05:42,680 --> 01:05:44,200
Speaker 2: to hear it quick fasten in a hurry.

1161
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:51,280
Speaker 1: When you look back over your life and from the

1162
01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:53,720
Speaker 1: moment you read the article to where you are today,

1163
01:05:54,440 --> 01:05:58,240
Speaker 1: obviously you're in continual praise and gratefulness, but you also

1164
01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:00,920
Speaker 1: know that he gave this to you. It is so

1165
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:06,240
Speaker 1: beautiful to watch the celebration of black women, and I

1166
01:06:06,320 --> 01:06:12,440
Speaker 1: think that oftentimes there is this narrative that we aren't celebrated.

1167
01:06:12,520 --> 01:06:15,240
Speaker 1: But if we take a moment to pause and pray

1168
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:17,480
Speaker 1: and to acknowledge, we see more of it than we

1169
01:06:17,520 --> 01:06:22,000
Speaker 1: really think we do. And so I thank you today

1170
01:06:22,680 --> 01:06:26,840
Speaker 1: for me for one giving me encouragement, but two reminded

1171
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:29,680
Speaker 1: me that we are celebrated and we are winning in

1172
01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:32,240
Speaker 1: a world that may make us feel some times, especially

1173
01:06:32,680 --> 01:06:35,440
Speaker 1: after the election. You put a post up, and I

1174
01:06:35,440 --> 01:06:37,680
Speaker 1: think that people may not have received it the way

1175
01:06:37,680 --> 01:06:40,040
Speaker 1: in which your intention was. And I understood, Oh.

1176
01:06:39,960 --> 01:06:43,040
Speaker 2: They did ninety nine percent? Did I didn't get I

1177
01:06:43,040 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 2: didn't get negative.

1178
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:47,120
Speaker 1: Responsibley. I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad because I felt

1179
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:49,920
Speaker 1: like people were pushing back. Maybe that was a private conversation,

1180
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:52,280
Speaker 1: but I was like, I understand what she's saying, and

1181
01:06:52,400 --> 01:06:55,760
Speaker 1: I love that. I love what you said because You're like, look,

1182
01:06:55,800 --> 01:06:58,960
Speaker 1: no matter what, he's still in the throne, y'all.

1183
01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:02,520
Speaker 2: This is gonna happen every four years, our every three. Yes,

1184
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:06,240
Speaker 2: you have a country in which people have different world views.

1185
01:07:06,320 --> 01:07:11,000
Speaker 2: People got so upset after that election, like Jesus died again. Okay,

1186
01:07:11,080 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 2: so we need to start there at understanding that she

1187
01:07:16,800 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 2: got further to the White House than any person. When

1188
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:26,280
Speaker 2: you look at side by side how her performance was

1189
01:07:26,360 --> 01:07:30,840
Speaker 2: compared to Trump in twenty six in twenty twenty, wipe

1190
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 2: the floor with them. If you look at her performance

1191
01:07:33,160 --> 01:07:37,800
Speaker 2: compared to Hillary Clinton's performance, she I think she got

1192
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:40,760
Speaker 2: four million more votes? Mean she Hillary or she no,

1193
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:44,320
Speaker 2: Kamala got four I think it's four million more votes

1194
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:48,480
Speaker 2: than Hillary did. And she got like six million more

1195
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:50,920
Speaker 2: votes than Trump did on the last election.

1196
01:07:50,680 --> 01:07:53,280
Speaker 1: And Hillary won the popular vote, more people voted for her.

1197
01:07:53,360 --> 01:07:56,520
Speaker 1: It was the electoral college that stopped the wind. I

1198
01:07:57,240 --> 01:08:00,680
Speaker 1: hear what you're saying. What I took from your message

1199
01:08:00,720 --> 01:08:02,920
Speaker 1: was and everyone could receive it because there was so

1200
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:05,800
Speaker 1: much pain, and it reminded us, many of us, I'm

1201
01:08:05,800 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 1: not speaking for all black women, but it reminded them

1202
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:10,920
Speaker 1: of their personal experience, primarily at work. I would think,

1203
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:15,640
Speaker 1: but the reality was, we have to dust ourselves off,

1204
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 1: figure this out and get back to not focusing on

1205
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:21,040
Speaker 1: the shell. Let's get back to figuring out the solution.

1206
01:08:21,400 --> 01:08:24,599
Speaker 1: But most importantly, what did our ancestors go through. I'm

1207
01:08:24,640 --> 01:08:27,559
Speaker 1: speaking from somebody who was broken. I'm like, my ancestors

1208
01:08:27,560 --> 01:08:28,880
Speaker 1: would be embarrassed.

1209
01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:33,400
Speaker 2: Listen, they would, they would beat our tails, yes, over

1210
01:08:33,520 --> 01:08:37,439
Speaker 2: these that going on. They're like, you do realize we

1211
01:08:37,560 --> 01:08:41,280
Speaker 2: came here in change. Well, even if we just go back,

1212
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:44,000
Speaker 2: even if we just go back to the sixties, y'all,

1213
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:48,280
Speaker 2: we could be legally fire hoes. So we have to

1214
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:53,000
Speaker 2: understand Number one, the progress has been that has been

1215
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:56,120
Speaker 2: made has been great, and you cannot ripe and a

1216
01:08:56,200 --> 01:09:00,320
Speaker 2: peach with a blowtorch. Every four years, we keep trying

1217
01:09:00,360 --> 01:09:04,000
Speaker 2: to take a blow torch to this peach called America.

1218
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:07,479
Speaker 2: We are still in our infancy. You try. I mean,

1219
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:10,679
Speaker 2: you travel the world like I do. There's literally bottles

1220
01:09:10,680 --> 01:09:14,200
Speaker 2: of cognac older than our entire country. Correct, So we

1221
01:09:14,280 --> 01:09:18,400
Speaker 2: have to remember every four years. Democracy is working as

1222
01:09:18,439 --> 01:09:21,519
Speaker 2: it's supposed to. But that means that you have people

1223
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:25,920
Speaker 2: from different plate backgrounds, different worldviews that are not going

1224
01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 2: to agree with your worldview. It's going to happen every

1225
01:09:29,320 --> 01:09:32,479
Speaker 2: four years. And if we allow ourselves to be rocked

1226
01:09:33,040 --> 01:09:36,559
Speaker 2: every four years like people were rocked in this election,

1227
01:09:37,280 --> 01:09:37,680
Speaker 2: come on.

1228
01:09:37,720 --> 01:09:41,160
Speaker 1: Now, we'd be we would be exhausted, we couldn't continue.

1229
01:09:41,200 --> 01:09:42,840
Speaker 1: And that's not what we're built from. It's not in

1230
01:09:42,880 --> 01:09:45,559
Speaker 1: our DNA and it's not our cellular memory. And I

1231
01:09:45,600 --> 01:09:48,680
Speaker 1: am aware of that. And I listened when you said that.

1232
01:09:49,240 --> 01:09:51,600
Speaker 1: I was like, get I get it. Listen, but you know,

1233
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:55,639
Speaker 1: I think and I'll be fair because I understand the hurt,

1234
01:09:55,760 --> 01:09:58,160
Speaker 1: like we've all been heard before. But the reality is,

1235
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:01,120
Speaker 1: what do we do? Give this pain some per and remember.

1236
01:10:00,800 --> 01:10:04,400
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And it's here's the thing. It's okay to be hurt.

1237
01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:08,599
Speaker 2: It's from pay to grief, but move move like what

1238
01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 2: our ancestors did to get us to this place. It

1239
01:10:13,960 --> 01:10:15,800
Speaker 2: is disrespectful for them.

1240
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:16,720
Speaker 1: It is this.

1241
01:10:18,400 --> 01:10:22,080
Speaker 2: Ground. It is just they. I mean, every when an

1242
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:24,680
Speaker 2: African American doesn't show up to vote, if it is

1243
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:29,200
Speaker 2: so annoying to me, because knowing what our ancestors went

1244
01:10:29,280 --> 01:10:33,439
Speaker 2: through to get us the right to vote, not voting

1245
01:10:33,520 --> 01:10:38,120
Speaker 2: to me is absolutely absurd because this was not something

1246
01:10:38,200 --> 01:10:41,160
Speaker 2: that was given to us. Yes, this is something that

1247
01:10:41,439 --> 01:10:44,000
Speaker 2: was fought for with blood.

1248
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:47,920
Speaker 1: You talked about poll tax at the very beginning of

1249
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:51,280
Speaker 1: this podcast, and it's just a reminder as we wrap

1250
01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:55,400
Speaker 1: this podcast. It's disrespectful. It really truly is if we

1251
01:10:55,439 --> 01:10:57,559
Speaker 1: don't go out there and vote and continue to fight

1252
01:10:57,720 --> 01:11:00,479
Speaker 1: in whatever way that looks for you, for me, whatever

1253
01:11:00,520 --> 01:11:05,280
Speaker 1: the mission is. I when I think about how successful

1254
01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:07,400
Speaker 1: you've been in business, which is why I wanted to

1255
01:11:07,439 --> 01:11:12,519
Speaker 1: talk to you, your mindset is different. This is why

1256
01:11:12,520 --> 01:11:17,400
Speaker 1: everybody doesn't have a billion dollar corporation, right so as

1257
01:11:17,439 --> 01:11:21,120
Speaker 1: I everyone doesn't have it. But if we could incorporate that,

1258
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:24,879
Speaker 1: if we could incorporate that mindset, what is your message?

1259
01:11:25,360 --> 01:11:27,280
Speaker 1: What is your message not just to black women, but

1260
01:11:27,320 --> 01:11:31,320
Speaker 1: what is your message when you go into any process.

1261
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:35,160
Speaker 1: Your business philosophy is what it is. There an elevator

1262
01:11:35,200 --> 01:11:36,720
Speaker 1: pitch to your business philosophy.

1263
01:11:36,840 --> 01:11:41,080
Speaker 2: No, but stop getting stuck on the challenges. Stop focusing

1264
01:11:41,160 --> 01:11:43,800
Speaker 2: on the challenges the way that I describe it. Because

1265
01:11:43,800 --> 01:11:47,280
Speaker 2: people love to ask me the same question, what has

1266
01:11:47,360 --> 01:11:50,720
Speaker 2: been your biggest challenge? And I always respond to them

1267
01:11:50,760 --> 01:11:53,960
Speaker 2: that's like asking you Sidney with Laughlin, which hurdle is

1268
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:57,559
Speaker 2: the most challenging hurdle? What the hell. You're a hurdler,

1269
01:11:58,120 --> 01:12:02,799
Speaker 2: So every hurdle is My job is to keep the pace,

1270
01:12:02,880 --> 01:12:06,280
Speaker 2: to know the rhythm in between those hurdles. That is

1271
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:11,240
Speaker 2: my job. So as an entrepreneur, you can't get stuck

1272
01:12:11,520 --> 01:12:15,040
Speaker 2: on the challenges. Those are simply hurdles. They're supposed to

1273
01:12:15,080 --> 01:12:18,200
Speaker 2: be there. If you want to be if you want

1274
01:12:18,200 --> 01:12:21,040
Speaker 2: to be a Shakatte Carrie Richardson or a Noah Alliles

1275
01:12:21,479 --> 01:12:24,680
Speaker 2: or any of those folks, don't be an entrepreneur.

1276
01:12:25,120 --> 01:12:29,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, your track will not be clear. It won't, but

1277
01:12:29,800 --> 01:12:32,759
Speaker 1: that's in life. You know, I needed this in my spirit.

1278
01:12:33,439 --> 01:12:35,879
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Don't get stuck on the challenge.

1279
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,160
Speaker 1: Don't don't look at the shell. Let's get to the

1280
01:12:38,200 --> 01:12:40,080
Speaker 1: middle of it. Let's get to the solution. Let's figure

1281
01:12:40,080 --> 01:12:43,559
Speaker 1: it out quick. It changes your whole philosophy. Not fine.

1282
01:12:43,560 --> 01:12:45,400
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. I don't know about anybody else, but

1283
01:12:45,479 --> 01:12:48,160
Speaker 1: this is for me. This word was for me. You

1284
01:12:48,200 --> 01:12:51,000
Speaker 1: always have a word, but this was for me. And

1285
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Speaker 1: we so need to hear that. We need to hear

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01:12:53,720 --> 01:12:56,200
Speaker 1: that we need not when people were you know, we

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01:12:56,479 --> 01:12:58,680
Speaker 1: we have different people in our lives and it's a

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01:12:58,840 --> 01:13:01,800
Speaker 1: mindset that's some people can't adopt. But once you show

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01:13:01,840 --> 01:13:03,520
Speaker 1: them it can be done.

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01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:06,360
Speaker 2: It can be done. I tell people all the time,

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01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:11,480
Speaker 2: I deal with challenges every day that have taken entrepreneurs

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01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:13,120
Speaker 2: out if they had to deal with it one time

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01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:16,000
Speaker 2: and a five year window, and I deal with them

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01:13:16,120 --> 01:13:20,640
Speaker 2: every day. And for me, when I look at something

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01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:23,880
Speaker 2: and there's a challenge that comes at me, I don't

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01:13:23,920 --> 01:13:26,360
Speaker 2: have time to sit there and focus on that challenge.

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01:13:26,560 --> 01:13:30,520
Speaker 2: I've got to find the solution as quickly as possible.

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01:13:30,800 --> 01:13:33,680
Speaker 2: And if I feel stalemate in that solution, guess what.

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Speaker 2: I'm working on something else that I already know the

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01:13:36,160 --> 01:13:39,040
Speaker 2: solution for. Because when that happens, it's a little bit

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01:13:39,080 --> 01:13:42,120
Speaker 2: like if you're looking for if you're looking for keys,

1302
01:13:42,479 --> 01:13:44,280
Speaker 2: you can't find the keys, you can't find the keys,

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01:13:44,520 --> 01:13:46,960
Speaker 2: you finally stop looking for the keys, and all of

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01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:49,760
Speaker 2: a sudden, keys are right in front of you. That's

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01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:52,759
Speaker 2: the same way it is with challenges. If you keep

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01:13:52,880 --> 01:13:56,320
Speaker 2: looking at the challenges, you missed the solution.

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01:13:56,880 --> 01:13:58,800
Speaker 1: I want to thank Fann Weaver for being our guest

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01:13:58,880 --> 01:14:02,719
Speaker 1: this week on Naked sport Words. Truly appreciate how candid

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01:14:02,720 --> 01:14:05,400
Speaker 1: she is, and more importantly, the way in which she

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Speaker 1: only looks for solutions. I hope you all enjoyed this

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Speaker 1: edition of Naked Sports. Talk to y'all later. Naked Sports

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Speaker 1: written and executive produced by me Kerry Champion, produced by

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01:14:19,320 --> 01:14:22,839
Speaker 1: Jock Vice Thomas Sound Design, and mastered by Dwayne Crawford.

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01:14:22,920 --> 01:14:26,840
Speaker 1: Associate producer Olubusayl Shabby. Naked Sports is a part of

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Speaker 1: the Black Effect podcast Network in iHeartMedia