Show Don't Tell

In 1875 the Jack Daniel Distillery was created in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

It is the oldest registered distillery in the United States, producing a well-recognised brand of one of the smoothest tasting whisky’s, if you are partial to it.

The brand is easily recognisable by its distinctive black-and-white label. The label design, featuring a bold, serif typeface and the Old No. 7 logo, is iconic. The story behind the "Old No. 7" on the label is surrounded by mystery. There are several theories about its meaning: some say it was Jack's lucky number, others suggest it was the number assigned to his distillery for government registration. The true meaning has never been confirmed, adding an element of intrigue to the brand.

Jack Daniel was taught from an early age how to distill whisky in a distillery owned by a preacher named Dan Call. He subsequently bought it from him to establish the Jack Daniel Distillery. History would teach us that Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved African American man who worked on Dan Call's farm and distillery, was also responsible for teaching Jack how to distil great whisky. His son George Green would go on to work alongside Jack when Nearest retired.

The distillery had a complex relationship with African Americans but a positive part of that narrative was that they employed Black staff at a time when others didn’t in the post civil war south. I learned even more about this when I heard from Fawn Weaver.

OK let me go back a bit.

Last week I was invited to a fireside chat featuring Fawn Weaver , the co-founder of Uncle Nearest Inc the fastest-growing whisky brand in the US. Having followed her for a while this was a real pinch me moment as she got to share the story that brought her to this space. (For those asking we shared a hug, and she and her husband love my name!)

This fireside chat was held on September 4th, the day before the launch of her new book Love & Whiskey both in print in the UK and on audible. There was a significance to this launch date of September 5th as this is her birthday. Oh, but there is so much more.

• Jack Daniel’s birthday is September 5th. He was born on that day in 1846.
• Annie Bell“Mammie” Green, was born September 5, 1901. She was Nearest Green’s granddaughter.
• Ben A Green who wrote the book “Jack Daniel’s Legacy” in 1967, and featured a lot about Nearest Green, was born on September 5th 1902
• In 2016, Clay Risen wrote a NY Times piece about Nearest Green’s involvement in Jack Daniel’s history called "Jack Daniels Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave." He was born on September 5th, 1976, the same day as Fawn Weaver.

Throughout the fireside chat, we learned about the coincidences of those who were born on that day. We also learned about how Jack Daniel’s bucked a trend in the Confederate South of hiring Black workers and even when he passed how he had forgiven loans to those who worked with him.

Jack Daniel's demonstrated inclusive leadership before it was even a term. He showed what it looked like to intentionally go out of your way to attract, hire and retain talent from different backgrounds. No extraordinary policies, just a clear vision of where they wanted to go and what power such leadership could wield. A lesson indeed for so much of the binary arguments happening around DEI at present. It was clear to see Jack was driven by this even in the face of clear opposition from terrorist organisations like the Klu Klux Klan amongst others.

I first started writing this article over a week ago before I was invited to this event. Primarily because I was thinking about how a company like Jack Daniel’s had moved the needle forward. How they showed rather than told. And yet the parent company, Brown Forman, was in the news as an antithesis to this thinking and legacy.

Brown Forman has joined a growing trend of companies under pressure from “anti-woke” activists like Robby Starbuck and has parked workplace and supplier diversity. Like so many others who not so long ago were making promises to correct inequalities in the workplace they have parked policies to yet again, ride a populist wave of the moment. They joined other organisations like Harley Davidson, Lowes, Ford, John Deere, Tractor Supply and more recently drinks company Molson Coors and scrapped their diversity and inclusion policies and ended their participation in an LGBTQ corporate equality index.

And yet Jack Daniel’s history was about show and don’t tell. A conscious effort was made to ensure that individuals were hired and employed based on merit, regardless of protected characteristics.

The beauty of witnessing a company like Uncle Nearest Inc. demonstrates how inclusion can be done while building an amazing brand gives hope. You can tell the story of how in the face of dominant discrimination people can live and work together and respect each other as humans first.

I had no idea this meeting with such a legend would happen, but it did and was a reminder to me of the importance of the work I do around inclusive leadership.

This week I went back to some of the notes of several clients I worked with in 2020 and 2021. Those who I advised that the momentum of a campaign like Black Lives Matter would pass and long after the virtue signalling ended would they be able to live up to promises made. Leaders, existing hires, potential hires and other stakeholders would be looking at not how they reacted but rather how they responded to make their staff feel and know they truly belonged. Not some reactive supply chain campaign or race action plan but rather a culture where people were consciously aware of the goodness your values and leadership you live up to.

When Frank Sinatra died, he was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s his favourite tipple. To this day you can still buy a premium Jack Daniel's Sinatra Select.

Amongst his many accomplishments, Frank was well known for providing equal pay and treatment for Black musicians and for refusing to perform in venues in Las Vegas and beyond that were segregated. The refusal to play the strip and other venues paved the way for performers like his friends Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. One of my favourite quotes of his “Ella Fitzgerald is the only performer with whom I’ve ever worked who made me nervous. Because I try to work up to what she does....I believe she is the greatest popular singer in the world. Barring none, male or female.” Like way before it was a done thing.

Show don’t tell.

Maybe Brown Forman could learn a thing or two.

Further Reading

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Love & Whiskey Book : Amazon

Jack Daniels Knew the Values of Inclusion

A Former Slave Taught Jack Daniels to Make Whiskey

Jack Daniel's Embraces a Hidden Ingredient

Who is Robby Starbuck