The second annual Shef Food + Wine Festival returned to DFW October 23 – 26, to welcome over 30 culinary powerhouses, immersive food and drink experiences, and more to Grand Prairie’s Epic Central. Curated by Master Chef Tiffany Derry and Tom Foley of T2D Concepts, the annual event gathered the best-of-the-best in the hospitality industry in a 4-day extravaganza across multiple destinations.
One of the highly anticipated gatherings was the Wine & Whiskey Talk on October 24, that featured Robin McBride of McBride Sisters, and CEO of Uncle Nearest, Fawn Weaver. Moderated by veteran media personality Lady Jade, the conversation sparked insightful discussions on adversity within the spirits industry, resilience and rising to the top, and love.
As Weaver took the stage, the audience waited eagerly to see what the Uncle Nearest owner would say or reveal. In the wake of a recent lawsuit filed against Nearest Green Distillery this past August, Weaver stood strong, faith unwavering, and addressed the audience with poise and transparency. Here are 10 powerful takeaways from the 49-year-old’s candid discussion.
ON WHAT GOD WANTS FOR HER IN THIS SEASON
“In this moment, He wants steadiness, and for me not to waiver.”
ON REMAINING UNBOTHERED
“There are arrows at me right now, and there will be more. The longer I build this, the bigger that I get, the arrows will keep coming. I am so unbothered by it, because when you know, that you know, that you know, that you were chosen to do something…I’m so unbothered by it.”
ON ADVERSITY
“When people sit across a table from me – in a moment when they think I’d be weakened…they’re like ‘How the [heck] is she still stronger than me?’ It’s not that I feel that I’m bulletproof, I just don’t believe anybody but God can take me out. So I not only don’t have a fear of people, I don’t have a need to impress people. I have an audience of one.”
ON MOVING FORWARD AND LEAVING THE JUNK BEHIND
“I played Super Mario Brothers. The nature of video games…to get to the next level, you must collect all of the gems on the prior level. So every single business, every single thing that I’ve ever done, every challenge that I’ve had – I’m always looking for the gem in everything. I look at it as, the faster that I can get to that gem [in the middle of the challenge], the better. I built this business on my first failure. I don’t carry [failure] with me. I took the gems with me. I leave the junk [behind].”
ON LEARNING FROM THE BOOK OF JOB
“Job’s life was enormously blessed for 40 to 60 years before the trial we all focus on [in the Bible]. God doubled his blessings on the other side [of the trial], and he was enormously blessed for 140 years – so, a total of 180 to 200 years of extreme blessing. How long was the trial? Months. The entire trial happens in the first three chapters of the book of Job. The rest of the entire book is Job going back and forth with three so-called friends trying to defend himself. It isn’t until we get to the very end – the last chapter, when God steps in and says ‘Enough of this!’
Job’s trial lasted months, but is it possible that it would have only lasted days if he didn’t try to defend himself? So when people watch me have no desire whatsoever to defend my name, it’s because while Job was talking, God was silent.”
ON GOD PREPARING HER FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGES 28 YEARS AGO
“Every situation we go through, God already gave us the answers to the tests beforehand. I literally wrote one sermon in my life when I was either 21 or 22 years old – and that sermon was on the book of Job. He was preparing me to know how to respond to this situation 28 years ago, and it stayed with me. So the moment [the lawsuit] happened I was like ‘I got this. No problem.’ Steady. Don’t try to defend. Grow my company. In the midst of it all, let everybody watch me prevail on the other side.”
ON BECOMING “THE PEOPLE’S CEO”
“When we had to pull back on sales and marketing, I began going into the marketplace everyday. I turned myself into ‘The People’s CEO’ on social media and let that fly. I became a one-person marketing machine so that my sales people could still continue to be in the marketplace and do their jobs and do their jobs well. I had to become a one-stop shop for marketing – doing everything.”
ON HONORING HER HUSBAND KEITH WEAVER’S CONTRIBUTIONS
“I could only [become The People’s CEO] because my husband is at Nearest Green Distillery every single day, holding it down – making sure that we as the 7th most visited distillery in the world out of 4,000, remain the #1 ranked distillery in the world out of 4,000. He’s holding down that part so that I can be out here [as the People’s CEO]. The only way that we’ve been able to do [this] is because that man holds me down.”
ON NOT HAVING CIARA’S PRAYER, BUT FAWN’S PRAYER
“This love ain’t for the ‘gram. I love that man. My prayer to this day [when we first met] was ‘Lord, if this is your will for my life, open the door in a manner that no man can close, including myself. If it is your will for my life, open the door in a manner that no man can close, including myself. So when [my husband] called me back [after our first 3-hour call], we were married 9 months later.”
ON BRAVING UNCLE NEAREST CHALLENGES PUBLICLY
“The reality is that we [Black people] start more businesses than anybody else. We fail more than anybody else, because we give up in the in-between. You’re watching what it looks like to not give up in the in-between. I would not put this on anybody, but I’m so grateful that God put it on me. God is allowing me to be his vessel to wreck this situation that is called ‘failure’ in Black business. Every single American titan that has ever existed [in business]…has had a pivotal moment like the one that I’m in. The difference is that they didn’t give up in the in-between, and we tend to. The world is watching me work the in-between – and I pray everybody pays attention.”
