How 99% Earned Media Scaled a Legacy Company with Fawn Weaver, founder Uncle Nearest
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"My end game is not to sell to one of the big guys. My end game is to BE one of the big guys." Fawn Weaver
There are 2 common and toxic misconceptions within the startup space about scale...
Misconception #1 You have to raise venture capital to scale.
Wrong! Let’s do the math...
Less than 1% of ANY entrepreneurs will ever raise venture capital (2% of that goes to women)
Venture Capital is a baby! It didn’t hit the scene until the 1960’s and didn’t get super popular until decades later. The last time I checked, many household brand names or companies were built before this and still scaled.
Misconception #2 Legacy = Lifestyle or Slow
Nothing is wrong with a lifestyle business but legacy is not synonymous with lifestyle. If you’re a founder who wants to scale a big company with impact, you don’t have to exit if YOU don’t want to. If your vision of impact includes you continuing to run it, honor that! You also don’t need to "scale fast and break shit". This is a lure of investors who know you’re building something great and want to get in on the opportunity you’re creating but do it on a timeline that yields a return for THEM.
The only path that matters, is the one you choose that's on your terms and in alignment with scaling your vision of impact.
Ready to learn how to scale a legacy business?
What we'll brief you on:
How to tell a powerful brand story
How to build a company on 99% earned media with 50+ different stories circulating/month (which means you don’t pay for 99% of those mentions)
How she raised $60M all from individuals and plans to buy out her investors
How to build a legacy business that won’t be bought by one of the "big guys" but will become one of the "big guys"
How to Become One of the Big Gals: Building & Scaling a Legacy Business
Founder: Fawn Weaver | Company: Uncle Nearest| Location: Shelbyville, Tennessee
Receipts before Uncle Nearest
Fawn started her career in special events and PR. This is where she developed her skillset for telling compelling stories through the press. Do you know those restaurants that take damn near a decade to get a reservation at? Fawn was one of the people working behind the scenes adding magic to make thangs pop. Learn how she did it.
Problem Solving
Did you know that Jack Daniels (yup! the founder of that brown liquor you’ve sipped on) learned how to be a distiller through his unlikely relationship with a slave, Nearest Green? Nearest not only became the first master distiller for Jack Daniels but also became a mentor to Jack Daniels. If you’re like me and Fawn when she learned years ago, this is a Reading Rainbow moment. Unlike most people who would get that info and keep it pushing, Fawn got drawn in because of how powerful the story was that she believed needed to be told so she set out to build The Motown of Whiskey. Fun Fact: Fawn’s father was one of the original hitmakers at Motown records back in the day.
Solution
"We are the keepers of the story of Nearest Green and charged with cementing his legacy forevermore. We are in the legacy building business at this moment." Fawn invested 2500 hours to understand the story of Nearest Green to carry out his legacy. However, to cement his legacy, they needed a product and can you guess what it was? Yup! Whiskey. Cementing Nearest Green as THE master distiller of whiskey by using his techniques that the world can enjoy. Learn how they cemented his legacy
The Story is EVERYTHING.
Uncle nearest is one of the fastest-growing whiskey brands in history and they’ve only been in business since 2017! Brand and story are one of the most powerful things that will allow you to build awareness and create longevity in a company built to last. Your brand story goes far beyond your product or service. Think of your story as a tree. The hippie in me is comin’ out, y’all! The trunk and roots are your WHY. The branches: are extensions of your why that develop into the chapters that make it whole. The leaves: are the parts of your story that are temporary but add splashes of color to the mix. The most powerful thing about the Uncle Nearest brand is the story Learn how Fawn developed the Uncle Nearest brand story to become one of the fastest-growing whiskey brands in history not only built by a woman but also a woman of color in a majority white male-dominated vertical.
How to Circulate 50 Different Stories Per Month
"Focus on everybody else. I think when people pitch a story, their whole focus is themselves or their product and they want for other people to be so in love with either them or their product and that’s not how it works. You have to take the time to figure out what’s important to that person and you become the person of service to that press person. Not the other way around" As a founder, you’re going to want people to be as excited about what you’re building as you are but that’s rarely the case. It’s the same with earned media. When you’re reaching out to media, it’s not about your "cool new product" or "vision", it's about understanding that particular outlet, what they write about, who it’s for, and aligning your brand to their goals so you help them do their job in getting more traffic, clicks, etc because at the end of the day, media is a business with KPI’s just like your company. Learn how Fawn circulates at least 50 different stories/month.
The 99% Earned Media Playbook
"There has never been a brand built on earned media...until now" This is a response Fawn received from one of the top PR people in the game UNTIL he met Fawn. Here are the SparkNotes for Fawn’s earned media playbook: 1. Research: What does that particular outlet cover and who is covering it? Don’t go wide, narrow down to the people who are actually covering areas that align with your brand 2. Identify: Who are they selling to? Who is reading them? Who is watching them? Who is important to them for them to succeed? 3. Generate Your Stories: We often advise our founders to write down and come up with as many ideas as possible for how their business aligns with current events. From there, you can start seeing themes Emerge. Ex: Woman Founded Company with 100% Female Leadership, Black Owned Business Surviving COVID, Immigrant woman founder getting to an exit, etc. The world is constantly evolving with new trends, new world events, etc. Where does your brand fit within it? Then create stories that are situated within it. Get the full 99% Earned Media Playbook here.
Why She Said NO to VC’s & PE
"I wouldn’t allow any VC or PE $ in because I understand they have a 5-year timeline. I’m not mad at them for it but when you see people who get VC $, the thing that’s consistent...that you can clock with an egg timer is that by year 3 if that company is not doing what is expected, the CEO gets ousted. By year 4 they’re trying to make changes because, by year 5, they’re trying to get their $ money." Learn more about Fawn’s thought process on how she decided NOT to raise VC or PE.
How to Raise $60M from Angel Investors
I know where each of my investors wants to exit and they know that whenever they want to exit, I want to be the one to buy them out. Ownership MATTERS. I’m sure you’ve heard the rationale that 100% of nothing is nothing and that’s correct unless you’re building something of value. Here’s the thing about predatory systems... they will convince the very people they prey upon to act in a way that’s out of alignment with their best interests by tapping into a basic human need - belonging. In this case, the need to belong is tied to wanting proximity to power. Trauma is a b***h, ain’t it?! Ownership is what generates wealth. Period. So here’s what Fawn did: 1. She brought in individual investors and learned when they wanted to exit. 2. She knows where the company needs to be at in order to buy them out. 3. She didn’t give up any board seats but treats each individual investor like a board member with full transparency. Get the Angel Investor Raise Playbook here.
Why Ownership & Legacy Matters
When people ask me about the exit and are so thrown off that I have no desire to exit, I always say to them - Who am I going to exit to? Every other company is owned by a white male so if I exit to one of them, guess what? We’re back at square one! Learn more about the ownership game here.
How to Scale a Legacy Company
"We still followed the scale quickly model. It just wasn’t scale quickly to flip or sell. It’s scale quickly to be able to raise the kind of capital that we need to make sure that this brand became so big that 200 years from now… Johnnie Walker, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Uncle Nearest will all be on a shelf side by side." Learn how legacy scales here.
Where You Can Support Fawn?
Grab yourself a bottle of Uncle Nearest, kick back, and listen to this episode.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Here are some tools that will help you gain earned media and scale your legacy <3
Did you know that media tends to prefer speaking directly to the source ie you? Check out how to master founder PR.
Do you want to become the authority in your space? Learn how to build your brand as a founder to become the authority and amplify the company's traction.
Need the Templates & Tools to do Outreach to gain earned media. Check it out!
Learn How to Craft Your Media Pitch in 2022 here.
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