Advice Line with Fawn Weaver of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey (April 2024)

Hey, it's Guy here. This week we're rerunning our first episode of the How I Built This Advice Line just in case you missed it the first time. Each week on the Advice Line, we're bringing back one of your favorite guests on the show to join me in answering questions from early stage entrepreneurs. In this first episode from April, I was joined by Fawn Weaver, the founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, and she gave some awesome advice on business storytelling to our callers, so Stick around. Oh, and by the way, if you're looking for great business advice and wisdom from some of the world's most accomplished entrepreneurs, sign up for my free newsletter. You can do that at guy.com. Okay. On with the show.

Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab. I'm Guy Roz. So, on this show, as you know, we talk with founders behind some of the best known brands in the world. And the thing is, A lot of founders come onto the show because they want to share their knowledge, their mistakes, their fumbles, their failures, and the lessons they learned along the way.

So today on How I Built This Lab, we're starting a new project, a kind of mentors edition of the show. And on the lab for the next few months, we'll invite a former guest, someone who built an iconic brand, Back onto the show to give advice to people Like you, and by the way, if you are building something and you need advice. give us a call and you might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298, and it's also in the podcast description if you missed it. Okay.

Let's go. So, today our guest mentor is Fawn Weaver, the founder of one of the fastest growing whiskey brands in the world, Uncle Nearist. Fawn. Welcome back to the show. Thank you for having me, guy. So we first had you on the show in 2021.

To tell us the uh the incredible story behind your whiskey brand. It's actually a story of a guy named Nerest Green, he was a formerly enslaved man. Who actually taught Jack Daniel, yes that. Jack Daniel How to Distill Tennessee Whiskey You were so inspired by the story that

with no distilling experience. you took a massive leap. You built a whiskey brand in his name in his honor. And so Fon, one of the reasons why We asked you to come on to be our our First mentor is because Aside from of course being a great whiskey maker.

you are an awesome storyteller as well. And and all the startup founders who are gonna call in today Um I think they need some help. refining the story. of their brand. So you know, in in general, when you think about storytelling around a brand, where do you start? Yeah, I think it has to come from the heart.

A lot of times Founders will go outside of themselves to build a story. And you can't replicate heart if it hasn't really touched your own soul. You're not going to be able to make that resonate. With other people. I don't care.

How many? people you go to or how much money you spend. It really has to start from your own heart. So the storytelling, the art of storytelling from me is is it touched your own soul. and you're able to share it with other people in such a way that it touches theirs. There's a word that I use, um and I've written about this in my book, um, when thinking about story and it's why.

Why did I make this? Why does the world need to hear about it? why does it add value to your life? You know, and those are questions, right, you have to answer when you're starting to think about the product, the brand that you're putting out into the world. Absolutely. And why does it matter to anyone else? Exactly. Because some something can matter to you.

And and if you don't cause it to resonate with other people. It doesn't matter that it resonates with you. That's not going to help you with whatever it is that you're trying to sell or give or it has to be something that you have connected to the heart, mind, soul, body of other people. Yeah. Well F I think we've got uh some callers who are waiting, um excited to talk about the brands that that they're building and and here's here's how this is gonna work. We're gonna we're gonna take three calls from early stage founders.

We're gonna get a little background on each of them and then um and then they'll ask a specific question about their business. So let's uh let's bring on our first caller, uh who is on the line. I think it's Kevin. Is that is Kevin there? Hello guy, hello me Swan, how's it going today? Hi Kevin. Kevin, um please introduce yourself. Tell us uh what where you live, what your business is. Yes, hello, my name's Kevin Arita. I'm the co-founder of Puente Coffee Co. a s a small coffee trailer here in Southwest Austin. uh puente actually means bridge and our goal is to be the bridge between the actual farmers and

And consumers. I actually grew up on a coffee farm in Honduras, and I have all these wonderful memories. From You know the For my the start of my of my life being around a coffee farm getting ready for

For market. going and picking the cherries, extracting the beans from the cherries, drying the cherries. putting the sacks uh in the back of a pickup truck and driving these you know dirt roads mean You we lived in the mountains in the western side of Hondera. So you went to this huge warehouse and they bought your coffee. It was just like those I don't know, that's the memories that I have as a as a kid, so I mean w fine, talk about a story.

That's exactly what I was thinking as he was talking about it. You keep referencing cherries and and forgive me, I I I do enjoy coffee. My husband is a massive coffee connoisseur. But what do cherries have to do with coffee beans? So Coffee the plant. Produces cherries.

So there's two beans per cherry. The actual cherries are picked once they're ripe enough, and usually it's when they're very red, like very ripe red. You have a machine which is called a despurpuladora. You have the skin that kinda gets them out to the back and the actual beans come to the front. The beans themselves

honey texture to it. So I keep saying uh cherries because the actual coffee beans are harvested it or grown in an actual cherry.

Huh. And yeah, and fun. It's so cool. If you go to a coffee farm, you just see these berries on these bushes and basically if you squeeze them The the beans pop out and they're obviously they're unroasted, they're green, but that's coffee, and then you roast those and you have coffee. Who knows this other than y'all? This is amazing. Yeah.

So just to clarify, it's a so you actually sell brewed coffee and you roast coffee. Yes, so um there's two parts of the actual business. So Puente is our customer facing Right now we have one Coffee truck, we're in the process of building a second one. We have a small micro rooster, which is called A Twe Koffi Cow.

And right now we're actually working with importers uh to get the beans from them and we roast the actual beans. And and and so A to A What exactly does that mean? Because I wanna hear more of this story, and I'm not getting that from the name. Absolutely. So A2A is the enzyme that allows your brain to take in the caffeine. So it's what facilitates the caffeine to enter your body. My business partner, Patrick, his A nerd about biology and He came up with a name, like there's the that's the acronym for the enzyme specifically.

And it wasn't taken, so I was like, hey, let's just get the name A to A and kinda go from there. So I I I actually really like the name A to A. I think the story of the enzyme is really cool, but I wonder why I mean I'm looking at your website, Puente Coffee. Why not um Puente roasting too. Why why is it is it just'cause you guys have two separate companies? Honestly, that's one of the things that we're actually in conversation at the moment. to rebrand the actual roosing part.

So A two A is the roaster, puente is the coffee stuff, but they may merge them. Okay. Let's go to your question, because it is about storytelling, of course. So Kevin. What's your question for fun? I had the hardest time in terms of

storytelling uh That is not my strength by any means. I know that we have a story and we're trying to build on it. But I just Don't know the best way to say okay. This is who we are.

What we're trying to build. I mean any type of guidance in terms of how to best tell our story and what Our mission is. First of all, you are a great storyteller. Yes. So whoever told you you're not a good storyteller, i if including yourself, if that's who told you that, you need to just go back to that person. Yes, you are a fantastic storyteller, so much so that I could do this for the next hour easily just listening to you talk about the farmers and the farm and the cherries. So you are a fantastic storyteller. What I think you're probably saying is that you don't know how to articulate your story quickly.

Yes. Right. And and to be able to distill it down into bite size pieces. But here's the thing, you don't really have to do that. You can write out your entire story, literally every element in it. And then break it into sections.

So for instance, when you hear me talking about the story of Nears Green. And the press all the time. I'm usually talking about a particular section. of the story. Because once you bring my story into it, my team member story into it, or distillery into it.

I've got Twenty five stories And no one has time for all of that, right? So the question is is who is the audience that you're talking to at any given moment, and what is the section of your story that relates to that. So if you can

really hone in On learning each aspect of your story separately. Yes, they're all intertwined. But the ability to give every section of your story a start.

A middle and an ending. So that you're touching people's hearts and minds at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of every Section. I l I love that advice. I'm gonna build on what Fon said and give you some practical suggestions. The story you just told us about being Yeah.

On a coffee farm in Honduras. None of that is on your website. None of that's on your coffee bags, I imagine. I mean I would start by just putting a little letter, a love letter to your customers, you know, starting with My name is Kevin, I grew up on a co a coffee farm in in Honduras, and I would watch as you know we harvested whatever story you want to tell, just a brief paragraph paste that on the back of every coffee bag that you sell. Maybe you even print that on the cup of coffee that you serve to people, just three or four lines about You and your connection to this world because that is so powerful. So I would just start.

Very simply By getting your story. On your product. And I would add to to what Guy is saying, p the the consumer, especially when you come to Gen Z and millennials, They love

A give back. And you are giving back to those farmers simply by acknowledging Who they are. and and putting a spotlight on them. So even if with every bag you're spotlighting specific farmers. Where it came from, you're actually giving people a face and a name.

So that it's not just coffee beans that are coming in, it's the people who are actually taking The time And and doing the hard work. of picking these cherries and getting these coffee beans out. And so you tell this incredible story about you, but you also add a line or two. About where that coffee is coming from and put faces

And names. With the product. Kevin Arita, Puente Coffee. Thanks so much. Good luck. Congrats. This is amazing. We we're gonna be following you. Yes, we are.

Thank you, guys. I sincerely appreciate from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for everything you guys who do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Fon I cannot believe he didn't think he was a good storyteller. Oh my gosh, I could listen to him for hours. Th this is something that I would have so much fun picking up this story and just sharing it with the world'cause it is so such so cool. Yeah, it is.

Fine, we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna be back with another caller in just a few moments. Stay with us, you're listening to how I built this lab. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This Lab. I'm here with Vaughn Weaver, the founder of Uncle Nearest Whiskey. Um finally just talked with Kevin, whose coffee company has a an awesome natural story, right? Because he grew up on a coffee farm in Honduras. Uh, and of course your company had a natural story, but what about brands that you know that don't have a natural story or or a clear story? Like w where d where do they start? Every brand has a story because every human has a story and every brand is founded by a human. Yeah. And so if your brand itself does not have a story,

There's a story behind why you are doing it. So if you look at Uncle Nearest. On any given day, there's between five and eight press hits around the world, major publications. And they're all telling different stories about the brand. And a lot of those stories are not the story of Nir's Green.

and Jack Daniel. I'd venture to say that most of them aren't because I've now told the story of my upbringing, how I came to the story. I've now told the story of my all female leadership team that I've had from day one. I've now told the story of the importance of this not only being black owned, but remaining black owned and passing to the next generation so that we can begin to decrease the wealth gap. And I tell that story on a daily basis. So you also have to figure out

What are elements of your story? That are interesting to people. Yeah. Well, Fun.

Let's let's get to our next Collar. Um, I think it's Elizabeth on the line. Elizabeth are you there? Yes, I'm here. Hi. Hello, Elizabeth. Please introduce yourself, what you do, yeah.

My name is Elizabeth Crossy Wright and I'm the founder of a jewelry brand called With Love Darling. And we produce in developing countries, creating income for vulnerable communities such as Messiah Tribes Women. And we plant a tree for each order. Wow, so you do so you're jewelry maker. So let's let's break this down, Elizabeth. You and and where are you based, by the way? I'm based in Monaco, but the business is in Denmark. And you are Danish by I'm Danish, yes. Okay so tell first of all, tell us about the jewelry. What is it

What does it look like? What is it made from? So the jewellery is made from either recycled silver that's gold plated or brass that's gold plated depending on where we produce it. So we either produce it in Kenya or we produce it in India. where we know it creates income for these communities. Tell me how you started this'cause I've from what I understand, you were actually In in the military for like f five years you were captain in the in in

In uh the in the Danish army? Yes, that's right. I was the captain of the Danish army and I was I served in two NATO missions um one in Bosnia and one in Kosovo when it was my early twenties and it was a really impressionable time of my life. I mean when you saw how really difficult life is just two hours by plane from where I grew up And uh that really inspired me to try and make a difference. Um and that's why I started the jewellery brand.

Try to tell a story about a better future. Literally wear the change you want. Close to your heart. Was my idea. So how did you start it? How did you get it off the ground?

You know, I've always been pretty creative, so I started drawing designs and then I I started researching where I could uh produce these uh pieces. I uh went to India and I visited a lot of workshops and found one that was really what I wanted, sustainable, recycled, fair trade, really treated their people well and I went to Kenya and visited the Masai tribes women who do these beautiful beads. And because we're wearing these things anyway, so why not just help a person for whom you can really make a difference? Like I think e the more jewelry we sell, the more people we help, the more people we empower And so that's really my my mission.

Yeah. I'm looking at your Website. First thing I did When you began to do it.

Talking is to type in with love darling. And I love that you came up first. Because in a space Where we are being inundated. with paid ads and paid everything, right? And so if you're going to tell your story and get your story out there of a small brand,

You don't wanna have the hurdle of it being difficult for people to find you. And so you chose a name with Love Darling that you could pop up first. So kudos to you. Absolutely brilliant. I love your story. I love your purpose. I love that when I'm on your website and I scroll down, there is a section of Kenyan women that have those beautiful beads that we have all seen in photographs. You put their faces on here. And it says, These women made your bracelet. So now I am automatically drawn to your bracelet over another bracelet because you've just shown me the women. Who made my bracelet?

What's so cool about this is every single piece of jewelry has a story, right? And some of them are connected to the I guess the UN sustainability goals, right? And but now here this is gonna be I'm gonna p push back a little bit and and Fawn, this is important because As you know Most people they but be interested in or they might learn about Uncle Neris because of the story. They might want to try it.

But that's not enough. It has to be a good product. You have to make a good whiskey. So ultimately, people are gonna buy Uncle Neerest. Not even because they care all that that much about the story, but because they like the product. They like the bre you have to so you could the story can bring them in, but you've got to make something that's gonna keep them coming back. And so my question is Ultimately Is the story about You know, how these are made.

Who they benefit. enough, right? Because I'm looking at the pieces and they're beautiful. They're great. And I think that's what ultimately has to Emphasize. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Absolutely. I agree with you. The first thing that I saw when I came onto this website was that she had a thousand plus five star reviews. Now to Guy's point. I would figure out a way to weave that in as a part of the story. So one of the things you will see if you see a billboard or an ad from Uncle Nearest anywhere.

It's not actually telling the story. There's not enough time in any type of ad. What you will see is we're the most awarded bourbon in the world for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Every year we update those ads and all we do is add a new year on it every time we're the most awarded. So people know from the beginning, even before they learn of the story. That the product is one of the best bourbons in the world. That's where they start. And then they hear the story and go woo woo wo.

So the story becomes the surprise element when it comes to Uncle Neris, and that's intentional because to Guy's point The story may get someone to buy something or to be interested in something, but it will not make them a consumer. Yeah. Before we dive A little further into that. Elizabeth, you have a s very specific question.

For fun. Yes. So for what I really want to do I'm on a scale, we're direct to consumer because that way I can control the narrative. And I intend to to scale through advertising and storytelling. And my issue is that there are so many great messages could to communicate. Do I focus on the symbolism of clean water and peace? Do I focus on the tribes, women, and their story? Do I focus on the fact that we could plant a tree, that we're all recycled, I feel, you know.

That there's too much and I need a really crystal clear narrative. where I can just retell that story again and again in all my ads and and communications to my customers. Right. So the the the tree planting I would not because there are number one a number of different types of companies that do tree planting and it doesn't have a natural tie because your jewelry is not made of wood. And so there is not a natural tie to that story. When I am looking at your brand, if I am going to scale and I'm trying to reach beyond this sort of going directly to the consumers and go beyond that.

I am looking at number one, what are people saying about your jewelry? What makes your jewelry special? But I am looking at not only what are they saying about the quality of it. Why are they buying it? What is the story behind it? Because you have something that a lot of of companies a lot of founders don't have at this stage

You actually have other people to tell your story for you. Those are the best people to tell your stories. If you can let other people tell your story. That is more authentic and you are more likely to land a sale. from another person who was a consumer than you are from you as the founder.

I I I would also add that if you are looking to do something around some initiative, right? I'm assuming that I think that a lot of the jewelry is made by women in the developing world. I mean maybe for every order, you know, you you work with a group that that focuses on maternal health in the developing world, right? Something that's more connected to to the women who are making this and probably to your customers who are probably I would venture to guess more women than than than others. So maybe something around that.

So actually I went and visited the women in Kenya and one thing that that really shocked me was that they don't even have period products. So we start an initiative where every time you buy two bracelets from them, we donate. these these products to them. So but but again that's not to do with the jewellery but it's something that helps the women And and also it's It's also still also part of the story, too. Um I I think that there is a great balance here because between design, a design focus, and just beautiful things. And then the

Other side to it. the sort of bonus you get is a story that you can tell. I I think I think that's the story of Uncle Nearest Fon, is that you get great whiskey, a great product, and then when you're sitting around with your friends, you're like, Do you guys know about this brand no and then you tell the story and everyone's like, Oh, that's so cool. And they might move on, but still enjoy the whiskey. Absolutely. And you will have bartenders and and uh restaurateurs, they will share this whiskey with people, and they'll share it just on the strength that it is a great Bourbon.

But then after th the folks have tasted it, that's when they usually will will share the story and say, Now do you know the background behind what you're having that's so fantastic? And so you have that depth to your story, Elizabeth, to be able to do that. The the customers who buy your products obviously love those products. So Absolutely. The way that you scale How do you have the consumer tell that story? Yeah. Um Elizabeth

Thank you for calling in. Congrats on launching this business. Um, and good luck. We're gonna be we're gonna be Keeping tabs on you. Thank you so much. Thank you, guy. Thank you, phone. Thank you, Elizabeth. Alright, Fawn, we're gonna take another quick break. We're gonna be right back with our third and final caller. Stay with us, you're listening to how I built this lab.

Be back in a sec. Hey, welcome back to how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. Alright, we've got one more caller. Um and Fon, let's let's get right to it. I think Joanne Bang is on the line. Joanne, hello? Hi guy. Joanne, tell us um tell us where where you live and uh and what your business is. Um, I'm Joanne and my small business is called Eat Joe Pie. Eat Joe Pie. Yes. Okay

And I'm based in Orange County. Orange County, got it. Okay, so in Southern California and what Uh tell me about the pie. Like how what kind of pies do you make? My main is a pecan pie, but throughout the years, um people have been wanting pumpkin, and so those are the two pies that I make. And I am a seasonal business, so I only uh bake from like October to January ish.

And and where do you sell the pies? I sell them from my home. I take orders from Google Forms or Instagram direct messages. And I've been doing this since twenty fourteen. It'll be my tenth year baking. So all right, so right now you're getting most of your orders through like Instagram and Google uh just direct messages. So you don't have a web I don't think you have a website, right? No, I don't. Okay. But everybody sort of who follows and how many followers do you have on Instagram? I have five hundred twenty, I think. All right. That's o by the way. There's no shame there. We we did a story about Mael Organics, one of the most incredible stories we've had on the show in the last seven years. I mean, Monique Rodriguez started out with like two hundred followers on Instagram talking about hair care products and she scaled it to a business that she sold for, you know, four or five hundred million dollars.

Many years later. So No shame in having I mean that's how you start. What were you doing? I mean, is is this what you're doing full time now? No, I'm actually an art teacher. I work out uh in um LA USD. In the LA public schools system.

Um I'm actually doing a pivot though in my career. Um Yeah, I do want to pursue this full time now, this pie business. And I thought this um opportunity was such a great timing too to um get this started. And and what is it about Your pies that I don't know that Differentiates them from something that people can buy somewhere else.

So Little bit of story time. Um this goes all the way back when I first tried my First pecan pie. It was when I was six. And my dad he comes through the door and he brings This pie.

And he's like Do you want a slice? And I was like, no thank you. I take a look at it. It looks pretty gross to me. Like the custard, it's really it looked like a bugger almost. And then once too. I was like, ew, what is that? Like cockroaches? And Um my dad was like this is my favorite uh pie and I feel like you should Try it, Joanne. You might like it, you know? It's really sweet. Has like a nutty flavor.

Booger cockroach pie. And so I was like, okay, reluctantly just loaded up the fork and put it in my mouth. I'm thinking Oh my gosh, what is this? This is delicious. Like the flakiness of the crust with the gooey custard and like the crisp pecans. I really enjoyed it, and so that's when I first had uh pecan pie.

Fast forward to 2014, I'm in college, I went to UCLA, um, and I went to a local pie shop and I look at the menu. And I was like, Oh, pecan pie. I used to love that. So I took it back to my dorm room. So excited to eat this. Take the first bite and I'm like

Wait. Is this the same pie that I've tried before? It was just so coilyly sweet that I could not taste anything else. And so I decided to take it into my own hands and I was like, you know what, I wanna recreate

This pie. I first started with a standard recipe from like foodnetware.com. Yeah. And then from there, it was still too sweet for me, and not enough of that like nutty flavor coming through. And so I tweaked the recipe. Um, I think it took about like I don't know, seven to ten pies. And then that year twenty fourteen, um, I brought it to my family gathering for Thanksgiving.

They were like, what the heck is this? Like where did you buy this? And I was like, Oh, I baked it. And then Year after year they were like, Oh, can you bake me a pie? Can you bake me a pie? And I was like, Okay, you know what? I'm gonna start selling this as like a side hustle. And ever since twenty fourteen I have about more or less hundred to one hundred twenty pies that I'm selling to um people. Per season. Per season. And how much is each pie?

Uh a pecan pie right now is forty five. So this is a really good pecan pie. This is next level. Yes. Yeah. And then uh my pumpkin is twenty five. Okay. So I mean, presumably Fine.

Joanne needs to start thinking sort of broadly about how to structure this, right? Because now you can't build a business just on an Instagram I mean you can, but it's hard to build a business on just one Instagram profile and Yeah. Mm-hmm. It is. It your story reminds me a lot of I was just with Tito Beverage, who is built easily in America, the most successful

uh beverage maker of a of a single bottle. Just with his one vodka flavored vodka. But uh but he began by making flavored vodka for all of his friends. And which is the irony is is now he refuses, under no circumstances will he make a flavored vodka. But how it began is he was making all these flavored vodka. And so he became known as the flavor vodka guy that show up at all the parties. It's like where's Tito? And you know so so your story reminds me of that, which which I love because you have a a great story. You do have to figure out how to Pull out the The best gyms Of that story.

And to also not make people think about boogers when you're about to tell them a story about your pot. No. So you do you do wanna you do wanna figure out how to share that story in such a way that you don't gross people out. leading up to you talking about your pie. But what I love about the time that you are calling in right now. is we don't have to undo anything. Yeah. Meaning you have not gone down the road of having a name that is very difficult to find. So eat Joe Pie. Terrible. I'm gonna tell you that now. It's terrible. And I'm gonna tell you why it's terrible is you can't own it.

You cannot own the online real estate, so that is the the your your URLs. w once that's gone, that's gone. And so you always want to start with what can I own online? And work my way backwards from it. The reason why we called Uncle Nearest Uncle Nearest and not nearest green. Is there was no way to own Naris Green. until we defined him as a human being directly tied to Uncle Nears and built that into this huge name that if you Google it, I own

twenty pages of Google easily, if not more than that, right? You the only way that you can build and not pay out of the wazoo. is you have to own the online real estate. When people go to your company. So I literally I took the time, by the way, while we were sitting here to go on go daddy. And Your name is Joe Bang is It's a good name. Perfect for a brand. Just literally just Joe Bang.

Joe Bang Pies. Are you kidding me right now? It is so it's the play. Yeah. Yes. The food network show. Bang. Exactly. Here it is. You can literally see Joe Bang, Joe Bang, Joe Bang, and you can Own. that. And so what I love about that you being here right now is we can help you to change your name before you go out there. Because if you can't own the real estate, if you cannot own the trademark in s in a way that ties to the online real estate.

Come up with another name. I see so many founders out there with incredible Brands. And it's falling flat.

Because no one can find them. Because they chose a name that wasn't ownable. Yeah. Joanne, we may have already answered your question partially, but I know you've come with a specific question. Right. So

Let's hear it. Yeah, so my question I wanted to ask today was how I can generate more demand. Through social media. Uh first of all own the online real estate. Be because keep in mind social media you will never own.

You are renting. At any given moment, they can kick you off of the platform. They can change the platform, they can change the algorithm so that they're only, you know, showing people who hop on one foot. Like literally, you cannot. Rely on social media to build your business because you don't own it. Okay. You have to start with what you can own. And look at social media as an additive.

to what you already own. And so your home base. Your real estate is where everything needs to be pointing to. That is where your story needs to be told. So when you get out there and you start telling your story in the press, you are not sending them to your social media pages. You are sending them to what you own.

Right. And so that for you I would take Joe Bang and run with it all day. You can be Joe Bang Perfect Pie, Joe Bang, you can do whatever you want. But you want to own what it is that you are doing. And refer everyone back to that. So yes, social media is important. And I started off, I tell you when I posted my first thing on Instagram.

I really had Probably a a couple hundred followers and it was literally a mug. That said love. It with a it was and I just said hey y'all, I'm testing this out. Like this is I'm not kidding you. And now

I have more engagement. on my social media pages than influencers with millions of followers. Mm. And I built my separate profile separate from Uncle Nair. So Uncle Nairs at one point had way more social media followers than I did. And I just kept on at it on my own page, letting people get to know me. the person behind the brand. And it's always been organic. Do not pay.

Build it organically. Or you will not have the engagement that will actually allow you to sell product. Joanne, I would also add to that that I think that you uh as you Put up. posts of of making pies and different ideas around pies.

Identify people start with people in Orange, LA County who are influential. Maybe they write blogs or they write for culture blogs or they post on Instagram about the best places to get food. I mean we're We're about to do the story of Dave's hot chicken. I mean that that brand really blew up because a writer from Eater LA went to their pop up and was like, This is the best Nashville fried chicken sandwich in America, and the next day there was a two hour wait. So something like that can really crack it open for you. So so try to identify some of those people and just reach out and say, Can I send you a pie?

And just send them pies. All right. And and tell'em it is the most perfect pie they've ever had. Because then you are challenging them. To taste your pie and to compare it to every other pecan pie they've ever had. Yep.

Joanne, thanks so much for coming on the show. Best of luck to you, wesh. We're gonna look out for your Instagram. Joe Bang. Thank you. All right, thanks. Um, Fon

Wow, we just Amazing. I hope I think I hope this gonna be help I think it's gonna be helpful for for for everyone. I mean, wow. I love this. I love that you're doing this. This is going to help so many entrepreneurs as they're starting out.

Because we have to pivot so much. We make decisions. And we fall in love with those decisions and they don't work. Yeah and so you have to pivot. So you're helping people to pivot. earlier. And that is that's amazing. This is going to be so helpful for people. Well thank you for for joining me uh on on the ride. You're awesome. Thank you. I I appreciate being on this ride. I am so grateful to be able to help these entrepreneurs. This is awesome. And by the way, if you haven't heard Fon's episode, you should go back.

Just scroll down our podcast queue, check it out. It's an incredible story, the story of Uncle Nere's Whiskey and the way Fon tells it. Um, thank you, everybody, for listening to the show this week. If you are working on a business and you would like to be on this show, Send us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or the questions that you'd like help with. and make sure to tell us how to reach you. Uh you can send us a voice memo at hibt at id.wondery dot com, or you can call The number is 1-800-433.

one two nine eight and leave a message there and we'll put all that info. in the podcast description. So thanks again and we'll see you back here next week. This episode was produced by Chris Massini with music composed by Sam Paulsen and Ramteen Arabli. It was edited by John Isabella, our audio engineer was Neil Rausch. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung, Carla Esteves, Casey Herman, JC Howard, Catherine Cypher, Carrie Thompson, Malia Agadello, and Neva Grant. I'm Guy Raz and you've been listening To how I built this lab.

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