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Last weekend, Florida A&M University’s Spring 2025 commencement featured several well-known guest speakers, but the speech from billionaire and founder of Uncle Nearest, Inc., Fawn Weaver, brought attendees to their feet. Weaver delivered the keynote speech during the ceremony for the graduates of the College of Science and Technology, College of Law, School of Business and Industry, School of Journalism & Graphic Communication, and School of Nursing.
Together with businessman and co-founder of the Kinsey African American Art and History Collection Bernard W. Kinsey and group vice president and head of corporate business development Adrienne Brown of Eli Lilly and Company, Weaver contributed to the weekend's conclusion with a deeply spiritual and personal speech based on power, purpose, and legacy.
“For the first time ever, God had me write down five points,” she said. Before diving into them, she shared the story of her father, Motown songwriter and producer Frank Wilson. “My father, born and raised in Houston, Texas… he picked cotton,” she said. He later attended Southern University on a scholarship, which he lost after joining a civil rights demonstration. A one-way train ticket took him to Los Angeles, where he pursued music and became one of Motown’s original hitmakers. “I share that,” she said, “because he started picking cotton.”
Weaver gave five messages during her speech to encourage Florida A&M students on their new journey.
Message number one:
“You are not the minority.” She urged graduates to reject limiting labels. “People of color and women are 70% of this country and 92% of the world,” she said. “You are not the minority. You are the majority.”
Message number two:
“You come from good stock,” she said, echoing what her father used to tell her. Weaver unpacked the data of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the resilience of its survivors. “Only 388,000 made it to America. That means those who made it onto these shores were the strongest of the strong. Mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally.” She reminded students, “That blood that runs through your body came from people that refused to give up.”
Message number three:
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“You are your only limitation.” She shared the story of “fleas in a jar”—an” experiment where insects stopped jumping after hitting the lid. Even when the lid was removed, they and their offspring continued limiting themselves. “We believe that there is a ceiling,” she said. “But if there is a glass ceiling, it’s got a crack the size of Hades because I got through it.”
Message number four:
“You belong wherever God places you,” she said. “I sit in rooms with the most powerful people in the world… And their question is, ‘How do we find our purpose?'” Weaver rejected the concept of imposter syndrome, saying it was invented to hold back women and people of color. “How do you have imposter syndrome when God puts you there?”
Message number five:
“If God be for you, then who can be against you?” Weaver made it clear that her belief doesn’t waver with the political climate. “I am never bothered about who’s in the White House,” she said. “They may have been voted in, but nobody gets anywhere without God deciding.” Her closing call was simple but profound: “Are you running this, or is God running this? And if God’s running this, you should have no concerns.” The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
Weaver stated that her message reflected her personal experience. She founded the whiskey brand Uncle Nearest in 2016 and is one of only five Black women in the United States to have founded and run a billion-dollar business. According to Forbes, she is the best-selling Black-founded spirit brand of all time and the fastest-growing American whiskey brand in history. In addition, Weaver is a board member of Endeavor Group Holdings, a TED speaker, and a two-time New York Times bestselling author.
