Hello & welcome to today’s episode of Weed Budz Radio!  We welcome back our friend, Franny Tacy of Franny’s Farmacy.  From seed to retail, Franny has been a long-time leader in the industry of hemp and hemp production.

Join us today to hear from Franny on what gives her staying power in the industry and why so many businesses fail.  Franny also shares how she found new love and a new love for pasta which is now about to launch as a new product platform for the Franny’s Farmacy franchise.

Guest: Franny Tacy
Franny’s Farmacy


Host: Ry Russell
BUDZ EMPORIUM
WeedBudz Radio


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TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, budz.

Welcome back to another episode of WeedBudz Radio.

I’m really excited today because it has been 2

years and a week or so since we last

had had Franny Tacy on the show.

And as you all remember, Franny has an

incredible brand from seed to retail, just an

absolutely gorgeous product, and we got to see

some of it in our trip to Connecticut.

And those of you that follow us on Instagram saw how

amazing that visit was when we got to meet our friend

Mike and Griff and just had an incredible experience.

And now, as an operator of a retail

establishment in the cannabis industry, I need help.

And there’s only one person that I could

think of to go to for some help.

So joining us back on WeedBudz Radio is Franny.

Franny, thank you so much.

You know, I’m loving this.

I am loving this.

It is so much fun to reconnect.

It’s been incredible.

I can’t believe that the first time I saw you,

you were speaking virtually at a conference because the pandemic

had hit and we couldn’t do anything anymore.

And you just really brought it down.

And I’ve never seen anybody so

captivating in a virtual format.

And I was lucky enough to know your PR

partner, and we were able to connect and get

talking, and it’s just been a great relationship since

following your journey and vice versa, and just seeing

how the stores have grown from a couple of

company owned stores to some franchises to some other

exciting things that we’re going to talk about today.

So there’s a lot of glamour in what we do.

And I think often when people find out, Franny, that I

own an adult use cannabis establishment, that there’s some sort of

badge of honor there that I was unaware of.

And so I would just like to hear from you.

Is it truly glamorous being in this side of

the industry and being in this industry because you

make it look such. You are so sweet.

You see, I’m, like, absolutely cracking up.

There is a perception of that, and I think

it’s because neat like you, we’re digging and talking.

We’re like, oh, yeah, we’ve got a podcast to do.

I think part of the illusion that it’s

glamorous is because we’re living our passion.

I mean, I’m living my passion, and I live on a farm

that was the first farm in North Carolina to plant hemp.

This is passion.

I work for a plant.

I cannot not do what I do.

So I love what I do.

I mean, I do a lot of it

between manufacturing and distribution, we’re in 6 states,

expanding in 7 states, with CBD and hemp.

And now we’ve done applied for retail licenses

in recreational and Connecticut now really getting back

to people are seeing these new things that

I’m launching, which are the textiles and the

foods, and they’re like, girl, what’s up?

I work for a plant.

I work for a plant.

I cannot stop, but it’s not glamorous.

My home has like 4 pieces of furniture in it.

But granted, I have 14 different lodging options

on my farm that are fully furnished.

They all have toilet paper, soap, and

every type of dish you could want.

My own home I’m like I’m a visitor in sometimes,

so we may make it look a little glamorous.

I like to think that’s not the real thing.

No, if you’re grinding I mean, I live as simple of

a life that I can because objects just kind of get

in the way and they accumulate and they slow you down.

I have a nice roof over my head.

I sleep comfortably, but I pretty much sit on the

floor when I’m home because I’m not there often enough

to go to the retail store and buy a lawn chair.

Just not worth it to me.

Well, we laugh because I have lodging.

So in my house, who knows what could be in there?

But I always have the backup, extra refrigerators and beds, so

there’s no such thing as a sofa in my house.

There’s mattresses on the floor, which is

that’s where we’re going to sit. There you go.

If we sit.

And I have 2 air mattresses

here at the store, so we’ve got, like, the store and

then our little studio space and then the warehouse.

And there’s definitely been times, especially in the

winter, where it’s just not worth it to

go home after it’s been snowing all day.

And you’ll have to shovel to get in and

then you’ll have to shovel to get out.

It’s sometimes more worth it to just blow

up that air mattress and take a power

nap and get right back to work.

I mean, whether you’ve been in the business 15 years

or 5 years or 5 months, this changes every day.

And a good store is going to face lift their

store and re merchandise every day and every week.

Anyway, this business, you have to do all

that while learning new laws, while the laws

completely change the next week, and then they

might change back or change into something else.

And you always have to stay on top of it.

And so there’s not a lot of

free time when you’re doing it right.

I’ve definitely seen some people that make it

look very glamorous, but their retail shops don’t

seem to stay open too, too long.

So I think right now we’re all just kind of trying

to ride into the wave, maybe, and see what happens.

And there’s nobody that I know that’s ridden into

the wave faster or stronger than you have.

And so when we last talked, like I mentioned,

you had a couple of company owned stores.

I think you had just got

into your first franchise store.

So where are we now?

Because I’m seeing a lot

of growth in Franny’s Farmacy.

Well, and I appreciate the fact

that you said strong and fast.

I say strong and one foot in front of the other.

It doesn’t feel fast because it’s all always

done about long term and building the brand

and being built to last and growing a

business like a plant with strong roots.

So we got our 3

corporate stores rocking and rolling.

We figured out the system.

And while it’s doing that, it took 2 years and

hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to franchise.

Because I was consulting for people, they

were like, how are you doing this?

It’s not banking as usual.

It’s not marketing, credit card processing, website.

Nothing is business as usual.

I have had 11 businesses before

this while working in pharmaceuticals.

So that’s what inspired me to do franchising.

And so we’ve got 4 dispensaries

in Georgia, all different franchise owners.

South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut

opening New York next.

So we just keep expanding all in

very strategic ways in states, in Connecticut.

I don’t know if I said that.

So giving people a path to success.

Because even when you give people a plan, we

send kids to school every day and we have

a plan how everybody’s going to succeed.

But we still have 30% of kids that don’t graduate

from high school and they can’t follow that plan.

So if you set somebody up as

an entrepreneur, that’s never been that before,

we’ve had 90% of businesses that have opened in

cannabis in the space we’re in, Ry, have closed.

They don’t make it.

They don’t make it.

And so that is part of what the inspiration is for me.

I feel like as I’m getting older, I’m

going to have a birthday next week.

I’ll be 53.

They say it happens to these women when they get older.

It’s like, what is my role now?

My kid has grown, he’s

self sufficient, all these things.

I was like, what is this?

This is my service.

My team is my family.

I can’t do this without them.

To see what has happened to make all these

and you’re talking about keeping up the laws.

We just had D-8 outlawed

in Virginia and in Connecticut.

And now how we have to pivot to be

in all these states and really doing business.

That’s part of the reason we stayed small.

There’s franchises out there that went and opened 600 stores

in 2 years and they’ve closed 80% of them.

Because it was about making money.

It wasn’t about cannabis.

I work for a plant.

The longevity and the story.

The industry needs me.

The community, our country, history needs us, Ry.

To be successful and keep telling the story.

Because I will be doing this in another 40

years or as long as I walk this planet.

I will be working this plant

in some way, shape or form.

So destigmatizing, educating while remaining profitable in business,

and making money while developing and offering a

service is the greatest gift that I could

do to wake up every day too.

Sometimes people like, how do you wake up?

I’m like, oh, I’ll wake up.

Oh, your body wakes you up.

Ever since we got the store going,

I don’t even have an alarm anymore.

I’m excited to get to the store.

And you mentioned running these businesses

profitably because that’s the biggest challenge.

It’s really easy to throw up a cannabis store and have

people come in and appreciate what you have to sell.

Running a profitable business in this space is the

hardest thing I have personally had to do.

And you know, I have run profitable

businesses in other industries multiple times.

And it’s not like this.

And the margins have never been this tight.

And the margin of error has never been this small.

So do you have any tips, be it executionally

that you’ve implemented that keeps your businesses profitable?

It is always, always keeping on top of it.

And the good thing about me is in

business is that I am so systems oriented.

System, system, system and accountability.

Accountability is the hardest thing because people love

to work in their silos so that they

can’t be scolded, reprimanded, reprimanded challenged.

We don’t do that.

We do not operate in that environment.

We cannot be successful in that environment

because the business is so dynamic.

It’s not like everything is now, to be

honest, between COVID, between recessions, between Ukraine, every

single person that is staying in business and

over 60% of businesses across the entire country

have turned over in the past 3 years.

You’ve got to be flexible, nimble, small and on point.

And it takes a team.

No individual person can do all these

things and no individual person is successful.

And that is what the cannabis

industry I call it hemp fever.

And the symptoms are egomaniac.

I’m going to get rich.

So there’s like a couple of indications, like I’m

going to do this, I’m going to do this.

No, don’t tell me what you’re going to do.

Tell me what you’ve done.

Yeah, okay.

Because people are selling everybody else

on what they’re going to do.

And that is why the industry has gotten a bad rap.

People said, oh, great, you can do it.

And everybody believes the white man is

the one to do it, right?

No, no, no, no, no.

They got hemp fever.

I have an ex husband that had hemp fever.

No, you build this with the right.

It’s new.

Any new industry is the toughest place to be.

That’s not your get rich in the new industry.

It’s when the new industry all of a sudden

hits the bell curve and everybody else caught on.

If you can make it through

there, it’s the toughest time.

And that’s where we are.

We still have not even begun to tap the market.

We’re less than 10% of

Americans that are cannabis consumers.

We have a whole world and market.

But we got to stay small and profitable and smart.

Because if you’re not profitable.

You’re not in business, and you’re not helping anybody.

You can’t help people by sacrificing yourself.

That’s the toughest thing here.

I’m not just opening a store in

some part of Maine for convenience sake.

I chose probably the hardest.

I chose where my heart is.

It is a beautiful region with mountains and lakes.

There’s no people, there’s not a huge population.

It’s very conservative.

My grandparents were ministers in this

region, and there’s a whole community

of anti-cannabis individuals and people here.

I just had a lunch meeting, and one

of the people asked me what my grandparents

would have thought of me doing this.

And I’m so blessed I got to tell 3 of my

4 grandparents what I was doing before I got to do

it, and was blessed by them to do that.

Both of my grandparents that were ministers

more than gave me their blessing.

They both utilized the plant

for different things for themselves.

And so it’s so special.

I know your family plays a

big role in your business, too.

We’re like siblings for different parents because my

dad was an ordained deacon, and I have

a whole family of Episcopal ministers.

And my dad believed three things god, family, and farm.

That’s it.

And when he passed away in a tractor accident

two weeks before, I planted my first hemp crop.

But he was there that whole time supporting me.

Everybody’s like, oh, what’s Daddy going to say?

Oh, what’s Daddy, what’s the family going to say?

And what this plant has done for my family.

They call me the gateway in my family now.

They’re like, oh, you’re the gateway to all this

stuff that we hear about, but nobody conservative.

Nashville, Tennessee, so conservative.

And it’s a similar story, how much has helped them

and how proud they were that I could stand up.

I mean, it meant everything to have my

dad, your grandparents, to say, you believe in

this, and we believe in you.

Yeah, it is special.

And it’s funny because the town we’re in is called Medway,

and there’s a sign as soon as you get off the

highway that says Medway, the gateway to the Katahdin region.

And Katahdin is the largest mountain in Maine.

And so we are right here off the highway.

So we’re your gateway to cannabis too.

So it’s a perfect little ecosystem here, but it

is it’s such a fine line to draw because

I love this community so much, and I want

a business to succeed here without me.

I want businesses to succeed here, and

I want there to be pride here. It’s a milltown.

There used to be a lot

of pride, and we’re lacking that.

And I just want to see that come back.

And so for us, I want to just give everything away.

If it was up to me everything’s free

and it’s not possible to do that.

There’s no way for me to stay here and

be the engine for entrepreneurial development in this region

if I can’t keep my own businesses afloat.

And so it’s a fine line because you have

to stay profitable in order to compete long term.

And I think a lot of companies look at this like

the tech space of just acquire more users, acquire more users,

and then you’ll be able to sell that to a degree.

But that’s not just it.

You have to have the empathy.

You have to have the understanding and

the compassion for the plant and the

community in order to be successful.

That acquire new users is what

has put everybody out of business.

Because every cannabis business for the years

has been speculating and operating at a

20% loss is standard for everything.

So if you’re a million dollar

business, you’re going to lose $200,000.

That year was the standard.

Competing for the new users.

We’re going to go capture the market.

We’ll catch up on the back end.

This is a lot of like the millennial

thing that I love Millennials, but there’s a

lot of people like, we don’t like it.

They uber eat, they get, they order in their food,

they get a ride across town, all this stuff.

But that is what was a detriment to many businesses.

Instead of getting in and building a

business, they’re like, we’re going to overspend

over market to capture the users.

And it’s all smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors.

We’re so great, we’re so good.

No, you’re not.

You’re not running a good business, and that’s

why you’re going to be out of business.

And we have seen the biggest companies, the one

that had $50,000 boost at the Expo and all

the private parties and everything, where are they now?

Right?

Because I’ve been speaking at events across this

country since 2017, and in the first 2

years, I talked to 30,000 farmers.

Where are those people now? Good business.

And pay something else if the USDA I’m

celebrating my 10 year anniversary on the farm.

So it was long before hemp was legal, and when

I got my loan, it was a USDA loan.

And I’m a shepherdist, according to the USDA.

For Katahdin sheep.

Hold on Katahdin mountain.

Yes, it’s a hair sheep of neat sheep.

We have sheep on our farm, but no kidding.

That’s so cool.

Well, you need to get up here and visit anyway.

I would love to in the summer months, please.

Well, it’s 92 right now, so I feel like that’s

probably fairly accommodating to what you want, but not me.

That is way too hot for us.

So I want to ask you because I was

talking to a mutual friend of ours and he

shared a rumor with me that you’ve got some

really cool things going on with Franny’s Farmacy.

I don’t want to say in a traditional sense

because there’s nothing traditional but what we do, but

outside of the retail and the manufacturing space and

that you were exploring an opportunity in another market

but still under Franny’s Farmacy.

So do you have any truth to this rumor?

I heard that it might be a food truck of sorts.

So freaking cool. Yes.

So Franny’s is as we’ve been evolving.

It’s really the brand.

The first year I planned was for food and fiber.

Guess what?

I keep talking about business and going back.

There’s no business in that, right?

So we explore the medicinal

path, which made perfect sense.

I was in pharmaceuticals, but my love and my passion

and we keep coming back to this, is food.

And so we have Franny’s Pasta and Prana, which prana

is breath, pasta and prana is our new food truck.

But the story is, I got divorced, never swore off

every man ever on the face of the planet.

And it’s like, as soon as you

say you swear them off, they’re everywhere.

And I’m like, gosh.

But then fell in love with my best friend, who

is also my yoga teacher and a pasta man.

And as a gift of love to me, he put hemp and pasta.

He makes pasta, and he sells it

at the market, and he teaches yoga.

And I said, honey, I love you, but I don’t like pasta.

I’ll be sitting on that all day long and wearing

it on my thighs, and it doesn’t feel good.

And I’m very gluten and tolerant.

And he put hemp in there, and I

was like, how did you do this?

It’s like, well, I spent $20 on

1 pound of hemp, and we made this.

So the past year has been this introduction

of how do we put hemp into pasta?

What’s the nutritional information?

How do we scale up?

How do we manufacture it?

I’ve been running around to all these events.

Like, when we were at NOCO, we bring our

cooler bag with us and filled with hemp pasta.

And Dan Herre and all our other

buddies are eating this hemp pasta.

They said we need to go cook some at Marijuana Mansion.

We show up there for a party,

and everyone’s like, we love this. We want this.

And I was like, that is so cool. It’s coming.

I mean, a year, it takes so long

for people to do what we do.

And so sometimes it’s a lot of pressure

because people expect a lot from me.

They’re like, oh, Franny, you’re doing it should be

5 star, and why haven’t you done this, this, this?

And I was like, hey, this takes a

lot of courage to do what I’m doing.

And this is a passion project, and

it’s 1 foot in front of the other.

And just last week, we officially launched it.

Amazing.

Love Shine Play Festival, which is a yoga festival.

So they’re all into the health and nutrition and, like,

one little serving of pasta with hemp in it.

Hemp flour, the superfood high in omegas and

has 20 to 25 grams of protein.

It’s a superfood. The gnocchi has 25 grams of protein

because it has eggs and cheese in it.

But the regular cut pasta, 20

grams of protein, it is amazing.

We’ve already I had 2 people from the press

show up today to interview me about this pasta

They’re like, what’s going on?

Why have we never heard about it?

I said, because it doesn’t exist.

It doesn’t exist.

5 years ago, it was illegal

to even grow hemp for food.

And so I was the first person in the country

to do a Ted Talk on hemp in 2018.

Hemp is a crop.

What is hemp as a crop? I’m a farmer. I love to farm.

I love food and land.

The only crop that could feed

clothe, shelter and provide medicine.

Well, as a businesswoman, I had

to take the medicinal route.

As a businesswoman, building a brand, we need to

continue to let people know how amazing hemp is.

So by introducing the superfood and now

we have other things that are infused.

You can get CBD oil on it.

You can do this infusion it is opening.

People are floored.

Educated, smart.

People are like, what do you mean hemp for food?

We see it, but they think

edibles is the biggest division.

Right before this, we were having business talks.

What’s your top sellers?

What’s the market?

There’s now stores that are opening that are only edibles,

they don’t have bags, they don’t have anything.

Just edibles.

And so the community in our society, as

we’re educating and destigmatizing cannabis, they think that

all food has THC or CBD in it.

Right. Now, we get to distinguish. No, it’s super food.

So this, I don’t know if you can see it.

That’s a little picture.

We got a little Buddha sitting on

our food truck, and it’s awesome.

And there’s our menu.

It’s super simple.

It’s build your own pasta bowls.

You can get zucchini noodles, cut pasta or gnocchi.

You pick a sauce.

I was out tiptoeing through my farm granted

It was 5:30 in the morning.

I was exhausted.

Cutting basil to make pesto to serve the people.

And I had a religious experience with

my land and with the most important

thing we do, which is feed ourselves.

Everything we put in our mouth

is either medicine or poison.

And that is also this food.

So I’m so excited.

We’ve had restaurants.

We want to order cases.

I’m like, Whoa, dude, it’s frozen fresh.

That’s how we make it.

I don’t even know how to ship it there.

We’re not there.

We just start small.

That’s amazing.

What a cool product.

Yeah.

I’m going to ship you some, though.

So when this is over, you better send me your address.

I will.

You’ll be like, oh, Franny, in a month,

you’ll be like, we’re having you back on.

We’re going to talk about it. Yeah.

Franny’s restaurant is the next obvious choice.

So, I mean, there’s got to be

a food market and all that.

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.

It’s always so amazing. What’s that?

I said, we have lemon,

lavender cookies and tahini cookies.

People are freaking out.

We’re really building a foods division.

I’m going to send you sample pack and you’re going to

I can’t wait because when we were in Connecticut,

we tried a little bit of everything, tried the gummies.

It was funny, but it wasn’t funny.

Brooke threw her neck out that morning.

And so we’re going to meet Griff and the team.

And her neck, I felt so badly, like she

could not walk without truly her whole body clenching.

And so we got some of the lotion and it helped.

And we had a nice lunch

right there with the whole team.

We definitely tried the creams and definitely

could provide a great testimonial for that.

She absolutely loved it and felt great.

But it’s just so incredible.

And I love and we’ll definitely have to not wait

2 years before we have you on next time.

But in the meantime, what’s the best way

for everyone to follow you and stay connected?

So if you look at Franny’s Farmacy

F-A-R-M obviously pharmacy anywhere on

social media, our website, frannysfarmacy.com

But in this brand stuff, please

follow our farm, Franny’s Farm.

I used to have 18,000 people.

They cut that off on Instagram.

But that’s a beautiful place where you can

come and actually stay on our farm, enjoy

our hemp garden and Franny Tacy

myself, I also have a whole bunch

of stuff that’s really fun.

Amazing. And of course, we’ll add all of

those links to our show notes.

So if you head over to weedbudzradio.com, you’ll be

able to connect with Franny right from there.

And of course

Thank you so much for joining us.

And we’ll see you on the

next episode of WeedBudz Radio.

Chirag Vyas and Kevin Chipman partnered to create the brewery, St. Johns Brewers. These beverage industry experts have decided to take their talents into the world of Cannabis. They are introducing a line of Delta 8 or D8 seltzers. D8 is a compound derived from the hemp plant and therefore falls under hemp regulations versus cannabis or marijuana depending on the state that you’re in. The creative minds behind DrinkCoolOut.com join us today to educate us on what exactly Delta 8 is and to share the origin story behind their brand.


Chirag Vyas and Kevin Chipman
https://drinkcoolout.com/

Ry Russell
BUDZ EMPORIUM
WeedBudz RadioSupport the show

Transcript from the Episode:

Hey friends.

Welcome back to another episode of Weed Budz Radio and

I’m your host Ry

And today joining me is some

new buds that I’m excited to share with all of

you that are working on some incredible projects and have

already worked on some amazing projects, so you’re going to

love the conversation that we have today.

And today joining us we have Chirag and Kevin from St.

John Brewers and gentlemen, thank

you so much for joining.

Hi, good afternoon. Good to meet you.

Good to be with you.

Yes, thanks for having us. Absolutely.

So first I want to hear where you’re

located and how you two got connected. Chirag

do you want to take this one first this time? Sure.

Yeah.

Jim and I have been friends since college.

We went to school up in the

University of Vermont back in the 90s.

So we were friends from freshman year.

We became roommates with a bunch of other guys in

the dorm and then we just drank good beer from

Vermont at that time and kept in touch after college.

So we both graduated from University of

Vermont and then went out separate ways.

I worked as a scientist for NASA and the space

program out in California for a couple of years and

Kevin was a physical therapist major and he went down

to Boston and worked in the hospital there as well.

So we were both kind of on our career

paths in the early 2000s and kind

of decided that we want to change in life.

Kevin went down to the state to visit a friend

of ours that we knew from college down in the

Virgin Islands and checked it out and he came back

and I said I was interested in moving the Caribbean

and we just thought we’d take a year off and

go down to the Caribbean for a year and then

we’ll get back into career jobs in the future.

We kind of took a leap on life at early

20s and went down to the Caribbean with no

plans, no plan to brew or anything, just to check

it out, bartender, have a good time and then maybe

come back or travel a little more.

So it’s kind of how we got started

and it’s a beautiful place down here.

We fell in love sight on scene and yeah, it was great.

We got some jobs originally just bussing and then

hosting at some restaurants, moved up to bartending.

Everything was great.

But we did realize that we missed beer that we

were drinking up in the States down here it was

just all the light lagers, Caribbean lagers, mainstream domestic beers

that were here and we really wanted some different colored

flavored beers and so just ingenuity kind of struck us

and we bought homebrew kits online and it was a

bit more of a challenge back then.

We’re talking 2001, 2002 so the

internet isn’t what it is right now.

So having to go to the local library with some dial

up for 30 minutes each and do this online research.

But we got them and that was our start and our

lead into craft beer as far as the brewing aspect.

And that was how we got into beverage the very early

stages and really caught the bug as far as brewing.

The first batches I think were pretty typical of

what you experienced, that decent, not teetering on good.

But then we just wanted to really make some good beers

and so we really got into it reading everything that we

could and just really caught that craft beer buzz.

And then finally it kind of got to

the point where we were going to stay

here and start a business within beer.

We had a couple of good recipes that we had

or go back to the States and pursue our careers.

And in particular we were brewing

with mangoes that grew on St.

John and we were talking how people enjoyed

it and we’re like, yeah, let’s give this

a go with this tropical mango beer.

And that was our foray into St. John brewers and

the beer that started us off in this direction.

That sounds delicious because my favorite beers and

my favorite flower and smoke is anything a

little bit citrusy, a little bit tangy.

So that sounds absolutely incredible to me

and I can’t wait to try that.

So I’m curious, two brewmasters, if you

will, where do you go from there?

You establish this great business, what’s next?

What’s on the horizon?

Yeah, so we’ve been brewing beer, like Kevin said, since

the early 2000s, and we started a brewing

company and we brewed different styles of beer.

We also introduced the soda lines, we’ve

done root beers and ginger beer flavors.

This is all packaged products as well as

draft and sold throughout the markets and the

bars and restaurants and throughout the islands.

And so we’ve just expanded our line over the years

and recently got into a hard seltzer that we make

we think better than the ones that are out there.

It’s called Love City.

And it’s available only in the Virgin Islands.

So Celtic was sort of our foray into a

different style of beverage versus the traditional beers like

the IPAs and the brown ales and all the

unique pale ales that we could do.

So we wanted to transition to a little bit

more of the cannabis space where we could bring

cannabis to beverages and the idea of a good

craft beer and a good craft cannabis beverage.

And so the last two years we really been

working on finding great water soluble ingredients to

use in a flavored seltzer that our flavors that

we come up with and put the two together

to make a really quality product that’s entry into

the hemp space and into the cannabis space.

That is so fascinating. Kevin.

Yeah, I was just going to add that it has been great.

All the research that we did

with creating Love City our hard seltzer.

It just really did blend in

well into infusing in Delta-8.

And we have just different flavor profiles that

we have that we’re super excited about.

Our brand’s, Cool Out is our Delta-8 infused seltzer

and we’re leading with a citrus flavor same thing.

I guess we can let you know how we

do our research is that it’s one thing if

we like it, but do other people like it?

So we spend a lot of time bench topping

out our different flavors and then giving it out

to our staff at first and then going more

into our larger audience and customers.

And citrus has got a lot of great reviews and it drinks just like a fresh, clean seltzer.

Our Delta-8 ingredient is wonderful.

We really did a lot of vetting for

suppliers for our Delta-8, and it is

just one of the cleanest ones out there.

Tastes great over ice, straight out of the can.

And we went in a little

bit lighter with the Delta-8.

As far as 10 milligrams, I feel everyone either

has had that experience or knows that someone had

experience of having edibles and having too much because

of that hour wait that takes place and having

it be just too much.

So we went with 10 milligrams.

That still gets you a nice little heavy buzz.

But we also want this to be something

that you can drink more than one of.

We’re beer guys.

We want you to be able to be social with these beverages and

be able to hang out, be in the mix at a party.

Maybe alcohol is not for you and this is just

one of those really good alternatives that can help you

relax and you’re fitting in with the party.

Or if you want to replace out that glass

of wine at the end of a work day

or that beer, this is another great option.

Zero calories.

We’re not sugar guys.

We don’t like sweeteners either.

And so we’ve just developed a flavor profile that is

clean, has a lot of robust flavor to it, but

doesn’t have a lot of added features to it.

So our tagline is Cool out. Feel good.

And there’s just a lot of different aspects about

this beverage that can help you feel good.

And a lot of that is what it doesn’t have

in it, which are the sugar, carbs, all that stuff.

So as an individual, that’s often in those social environments that

you were mentioning, I do not drink alcohol, but I love

beer, and so I’ll have a craft beer maybe three or

four times a year, but really only one, because I don’t

really like the way that I feel.

And so I’ve been waiting for that beautiful

kind of craft beer that has more of

the THC components to it than alcohol.

Obviously, I know that with fermentation

you’re going to get some alcohol.

But is there a way to make a good beer with

THC in it versus what we have right now, which seems

to be a lot of juices and sodas and seltzers?

It can be done.

It’s a little more technical.

You have to de alkalize your product

because you can’t have the two together

and sort of a consumer safety perspective.

But you could brew beer, try to get a

no out or low out down there and then

add in your ingredients and then that’s been done.

Particularly in west, we’ve seen a couple of

brands do that and I think that’s part

of where we’re at with flavor.

And we’ve been at this almost 20 years where

complexity of flavor versus simplicity of flavor and not

everyone is an IPA craft beer drinker, even though

it is the most popular style of craft beer.

We sell a lot of our IPAs but that leaves

out a big part of the segment of the population.

We like seltzers and you can see the craziness out there

just because it appeals to a lot more of an audience

that just does not overwhelmed with flavor and taste.

However, we do encourage that we want

to have taste in our beverages.

So that’s our benefit.

Our positive experience is having good flavoring

and good formulation of your product.

We think seltzer is just a great way, but yeah,

it’s been done for sure the beer side of things

and this is a good intro for us.

We feel the tip of the iceberg sort of

thing with Delta-8 and getting into beverage.

So this is our starting point.

As Chirag mentioned, Delta was just fresh with us

as far as one of the latest projects that

we are working on and so it did just

fit nicely into what we are going to do

next, which was experimenting with cannabis water soluble technology.

That leads me you had mentioned something about Chirag,

the kind of craze around seltzer right now.

And I’m curious is that a fad?

Is that a trend that’s here to stay?

If it is here to stay, what’s after that?

There’s a lot of opinions on that at the moment.

I mean, we’ve seen a pretty big skyrocketing

with the big national brands from a small

brewery perspective on an island in the Caribbean.

We’ve done great with our sales

to date and it’s growing.

So I personally don’t think seltzers

are going away by any stretch.

Craft breweries, particularly breweries in general, got into

the business because it was a way to

make a light kind of alcoholic seltzer beverage

versus the traditional beer under the regulations of

breweries versus liquor distilleries.

So there was a bit of that movement going on.

But in terms of a fad, it’s possible just

because they typically the big macro bands tend to

overdo it and it kind of turns people off.

Seltzers have been around forever I think

it’s been over 100 years of seltzer.

It’s clean, it’s refreshing, it’s not for everyone.

Some people want sweeteners and things like that.

But if you have a good

clean shelter, it’s very drinkable.

So I think you’ll be around for a while.

And I’m curious because I realized that

we haven’t really necessarily explained it to

those that have tuned in.

But if you don’t mind kind of breaking down what

the difference is between Delta-8 and Delta-9.

I think that’s something that we really

haven’t talked about on the show.

So Delta-9 would be the THC drive from marijuana.

And it’s just kind of that technical chemical structure

that is where a carbon is double bonded.

So it’s on the 9th carbon in the

molecule, Delta-8 derived from hemp, which the

federal government deemed legal in 2018 Farm Bill.

And that is, again, just where that double bond is.

So it’s a chemical difference.

And then it’s where they’re derived from within the

cannabis family, one being from marijuana, Delta-9, the

other being from hemp based Delta-8. Interesting.

And so I guess the question that I’ve been

asked a lot, I don’t have an answer to.

Is Delta-8 naturally derived or is

that something that’s synthetically formed. Delta is

present in cannabis and in hemp.

In smaller dose or percentages, it can

be derived from the hemp and then

basically converted up into Delta-9.

It’s not synthesized per se from basic chemistry.

It’s derived from the CBD and the cannabinoids

of the hemp and the hemp extract.

When I kind of think of CBD extraction or

THC extraction, if you’re looking at extracting something like

Delta-8, are you able to get the same

kind of return per plant, per hemp stock that

you would THC from a marijuana stock?

Is it a smaller number?

Do you have to kind of use more quantity to get there?

It’s not something that we’ve ever really explored.

That’s a pretty technical question, I feel.

And I’m sure it’s different based on farms

and strains and the style of what’s grown.

We rely on the expertise of the

companies that we’re getting our product from.

We feel that our expertise comes in the

beverage side, using that water soluble technology and

just getting the best beverage that we can

for the hemp that we’re using.

But I’m not sure about that kind of pound for pound.

What is the yield or how that part actually works out.

Now, if I say for myself, more of an experienced Delta-9

consumer, and let’s say beside me I have an inexperienced

Delta-9 consumer, could you kind of explain to us the

effects of Delta-8 on the mind and body?

Yeah.

As cannabis users, we’ve experienced Delta-8

Delta-9 and other cannabinoid CBD. Of course.

And so Delta-8 is referred to as sort of

a milder buzz that doesn’t say that you don’t feel

anything or it’s light, but it tends to be milder

than a cannabis THC Delta-9 high.

However, it is a cumulative

effect, a compounding effect.

If you have a couple more Delta-8s, you

will start to feel a very strong buzz.

So it’s not as if it stays mellow the whole time.

It’s just sort of the onset

and the feeling isn’t as high.

And also the less, if any, anxiety and some of

that kind of panicky that comes with it increased.

You don’t get some of that, or

at least we haven’t heard of that.

Very calming effects in many ways, but not

overwhelming and stretch and everybody’s a little bit

different too with how they get affected.

So I think that’s just where there is some plates

where you start to know your dose and then get

comfortable with it as well, which is very important.

And that’s why we like the beverage space

compared to edibles and smokeables is that you

can kind of pace yourself as you’re drinking

it, and especially the 12 ounce can versus

a shot, because the shots a bit intimidating.

But with a 12 ounce can, you’re drinking

it like you would drink any other alcoholic

beverage where you’re pacing yourself and if you

want to slow down, you can slow down.

And because the onsets within 15 to 20 minutes

due to ingestion liquid form, you feel it sooner.

So you can kind of really do it yourself out and

not feel like you’re going to have to wait an hour

and all of a sudden you’re glued to the couch.

So you kind of get that baseline much sooner

and then you can effectively make a decision on

how much more you would like to consume or

at what pace you would like to consume. Correct.

I would say that the onset is faster

than edible if we’re comparing the two.

And then also the on ramp.

I feel that sometimes when I’ve had edibles, it

hits you all of a sudden everything at once,

where with this as you’re drinking it over 15, 20

minutes and enjoying the flavor and then getting the

experience, there’s more of a gentle kind of ease

into the high compared to just that thump that

you sometimes get with other deliverables.

So gentlemen, I got to ask, being in this space,

in the beverage space for so long, what are some

similarities that you’re finding between what you’ve been doing with

the brewery versus now introducing Delta-8 from, I guess

kind of a 360 view, right?

Like how are you engaging consumers?

What is regulatory look like?

Just what parts are extremely different, but what

parts are like, yeah, we got this.

This is our prior expertise coming in.

I mean, I would start with our expertise

being in the beer and alcohol business.

And we follow all the federal regulations,

everything from labeling rules and such.

So we understand regulations state

to state sales are limited.

You have to register in all 50 states.

So we’ve always been limited in our state

access that we have sold in multiple states.

And so we’ve learned all the regulations behind that.

And of course, the rules have

been changing with hemp and cannabis.

So knowing that we want to merge those two worlds together,

because in the craft beer business, we do have cannabis users

and THC users that would want to also be having in

the same social dynamic as a craft beer party.

So we wanted to merge those two worlds together.

And I think we’re able to do that a

little bit more now based on the current regulations

of how hemp is currently federally approved.

Yeah, and being cannabis users and wanting to bring cannabis

more into the American beverage culture, this has been a

really cool project for us to be working on and

then also bringing in the quality that is craft beer.

It’s something that we always pride ourselves on and that

we’re going to continue on with this new project and

everything else that we do within the hemp space.

We feel it’s very important.

We’re trying to do things the right way, the

best way that we can, best ingredients, all those

things that make a quality brand and a quality

experience for the customer as well. Amazing.

And gentlemen, before we wrap up today, I’m really

curious, what is the cannabis culture and I guess

regulatory viewpoint right now in the US.

Virgin Islands?

How is that kind of functioning right now?

What’s that ecosystem looks like?

Surprisingly not legal yet for cannabis recreation or medicinal,

but as the Caribbean island, as you know, cannabis

has been present for generations and as part of

the culture, and it is not recently not been

legally loosened on the laws there.

So it’s been okay, but there’s definitely not the

regulations in place to have open dispensary sales yet.

Enforcement is friendlier, but fines

are still in place. Correct. Awesome.

Gentlemen, I’m so grateful that you took

the time to meet with me today.

And I’m curious for all those that are tuned in, what’s

the best way to stay connected and to follow you all?

Best way is through our website or social media.

The website is drinkcoolout.com and then our

handles are DrinkCool out as well.

So those are the best channels to follow up. Amazing.

Well, thank you both so much. Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

And of course, we’re so grateful to all of you

that have tuned in to another episode of Weebudz Radio.

Be sure to head over to our website weebudzradio.com.

We’ll have links to connect with all

these fine gentlemen and their website so

you can check out their beverages.

And can you ship, gentlemen, can you ship

to all 50 states or most states?

Most states, yeah.

We’ve got a website you can go to check

it out at drinkcoolout.com and we can ship to you. Awesome.

Well, definitely go check, drinkcoolout.com.

Those links will be in the show notes

and we’ll see you in the next episode.

Thank you so much.

Ask Us Anything!

We are incredibly grateful to all of you that have been with us from the beginning and we welcome those of you whom are just joining our journey now. Weedbudz started back in 2018 and has gone through some re-branding and development to become the show it is today. Now, members of this team have gone on to open the recreational cannabis store in northern Maine, known as BUDZ EMPORIUM, paying homage to WeedBudz and the Budz Brands eco-system.  Be sure to check out the new store in the Katahdin Region, located at 1995 Medway Rd, Medway, Maine.
Now, our humble studio has grown and we have a team of 5 incredible people, that also help others produce their very own podcasts on various topics and themes. One constant in all of our production is our Genius Audio Engineer and  artist, DJ MATT PERRY. 

Matt and his family recently took a trip to Kenya and shares that experience with us here today. I have never peen to any part of Africa and I loved watching Matt’s videos and posts while he was away. A remarkable experience that he shares with us and to do all of that traveling with a toddler can only make for some awesome stories, be sure to tune in and join us!

DJ MATT PERRY

Host: Ry Russell
BUDZ EMPORIUM
WeedBudz Radio

Transcript:

Welcome to WeedBudz Radio.

They’re going into year 4 of WeedBudz.

It’s crazy to think about.

November 2019 is when we rebranded to

WeedBudz Radio and Matt joined the team,

and it’s been craziness ever since.

Yeah.

The WeedBudz family is incredible.

It’s such an honor.

Thank you, Ry for bringing me on board.

And I’ve had a blast working, doing creative work for the

podcast and helping to write some of the music that you

hear on the show and create some of the vision.

So it’s a fun experiment.

And WeedBudz Radio is obviously owned by the RyzAbove

Media Group, which Matt does all of the

sound engineering for our clients as well.

And we’ve got a few new ones coming onboard.

And Matt is brilliant when working with clients.

He hears exactly what they’re thinking

and puts the best sound together.

So it’s been a lot of fun to obviously produce

WeedBudz Radio, and it’s great to be back, and we’ll

talk about our hiatus and everything else that’s happened in

the last year or so, but it’s been a lot

of fun and exciting to bring on new partners and

new shows into the RyzAbove network.

What is it like when a client reaches out

to you from RyzAbove and just explains to

you kind of a vision for a show?

How does that process work for you?

Because for the rest of us, it’s just magic.

Well, creating a podcast and all the cool things that

we’ve done at RyzAbove, really, it reminds me of,

like, a blank canvas, and you have to start with

the right color paper because you might want to paint

on a normal square or rectangular piece of white paper,

or maybe you want to have, like, a multicolored paper

you’re going to start the painting with.

So I try to allow whoever the client is

ultimately to create the vision, and then I’m just

translating it rather than creating it myself.

I feel more like I’m translating the vision and

helping navigate the difference between words and sounds.

I remember when Christina joined us, and

if you haven’t checked out the Christina DiArcangelo

podcast, you definitely should.

She called and said that she spoke colors to

you, and all of a sudden, you put together

this amazing sound, and I wasn’t surprised at all.

But it was just exciting to see when her

excitement as getting ready to launch a show is.

But it really is magical.

She’s like, I like blue and pink and green.

I love people, and I have a

nonprofit, and this is just my world.

And she was like, he only needed me for,

like, ten minutes, and then you send me this

sound back, and it’s like, that was it. That was it.

I just didn’t know it.

It so super cool, man.

And I appreciate what you’ve done for WeedBudz Radio

and helping us get to where we

are today, because I would have thought we

made it like 15 episodes when we started.

I never would have thought we’re coming up on 100.

So thank you.

And then, of course, thank you for the work that

we’re doing to help other people envision their own shows.

This guy.

Ry before we get into too much, tell us a

little bit about the new shop you’ve opened up,

because I am so hype on that.

And I believe we have some

excellent products downstairs as well. Oh, yes.

So it’s been a crazy year, as many of you might know.

I think last July was our last episode of last season.

We had to cut it short because

we were working on some crazy projects.

And ultimately it was time to utilize the

knowledge that we’ve learned with all of you

and talking to the incredible people that we’ve

spoken to over the last few years.

I really felt like maybe it was foolish,

but I felt like I could do it.

I felt like I could open a dispensary.

I obviously had experience in retail in that kind of community

setting with the Saco Drive-in, and I don’t know, it’s in

my bones, I felt like I needed to do it.

And we had an incredible team that if it

wasn’t for them, it never would have gotten done.

Licensing as hard as everybody tells

you it is, it’s harder.

And so I’m just super grateful for

everyone that was involved with this.

But we opened Budz Emporium in Medway, Maine.

It’s in Northern Maine.

I mean, there’s definitely more North you can

go before you hit the Canadian border.

I think we’re like 52 minutes or so from the border.

It’s pretty far up there, Bob.

It is far up there, and you can’t get there

from here, but it’s a great little humble shop.

It was definitely a labor of love, and we did it.

And it’s part of that Budz

brands ecosystem that we’ve cultivated here.

We’ve released the Budz Reserve Delta-8 products in a

couple of markets last year, and now we have Budz

Emporium and WeedBudz and potentially some other exciting Budz

brands type of things coming down the pipe.

But those will be for a later date.

So if you are ever finding yourself in

Northern Maine, specifically in the Katahdin region, which

is the largest mountain in Maine and the

peak of the Appalachian Trail, so beautiful.

Camping, hiking, rafting, skydiving, all of the recreational

activities that there is to do, you can

do it in the Katahdin region.

And we were, I think, the first recreational cannabis

store North of Bangor and the only one in

the Katahdin region, and just so excited about it.

So I definitely encourage you, if

you’re in Maine, make the trip.

We are in Portland at the Nest Matt’s and

his team’s studio space, which is different than Breakwater,

where we started back in November of ’19.

But drive on up.

And if you aren’t in Maine.

Come visit. Summer is here.

It is the most beautiful state in the summertime.

I think that’s what every Northern state says.

If you enjoy some space and peace,

there is a lot of that here.

So I think the Mainers are very cool and relaxed and

it’s just a great place to come, like spread your wings.

And we’re a service industry

state, we’re a tourist state.

And so you’re right, I think we

are well positioned to be nice.

Some of it might be commercial, especially during

the summer when it gets super busy.

But it’s lovely.

The people are great.

It’s a beautiful place to come visit.

And I know some of my friends out

in California that have come to visit.

They’ll tell you now, but Maine has some of

the best cannabis in the country by far.

Oh, yeah, Maine is a great place, man.

Come check it out.

We would love you to visit. Absolutely.

So Budz Emporium

budzemporium.com

Check it out.

But that’s really what I’ve been working on for

the last year and I’m excited to get WeedBudz

into its next season and its next evolution.

I feel like every year we learn some new

stuff, we entrepreneurially, play in some new stuff and

really explore this industry as deep as anyone can.

Really. Enough about the Emporium.

But what I really want to talk about today we

did the recap, but I want to recap what the

DJ has been doing for the last year and share

a little bit about not just the journey he’s been

on, but the journey he just came back from.

And so Matt, you’ve had a wild

year since we last took a break.

So would you share with all of our buds

what you’ve been starting up in your life?

Well, I have a beautiful family, which is amazing.

Blessing.

And we got to visit Kenya and

had the experience of a lifetime.

We got to explore the Ngong Hills

over outside Ongata Rongai

So wait, how old is your son

when he gets to go to Kenya?

Yeah, he’s a year and a half and he’s

running around just living life, making friends already.

And such a lucky guy.

Oh, yeah.

So why did you go to Kenya?

What was the purpose of the trip?

I think a lot of it has to

do with exploring and expanding your perspective as

well as exploring and expanding your business.

Because those things both together can grow

harmoniously and it doesn’t have to be

like personal growth or business growth.

They can both happen together.

And that’s how that trip felt.

And I really liked that experience.

I mean, Kenya is really beautiful.

There’s a lot of fun things to do and

beautiful wildlife and the people are so humble.

Did you have any, I suppose, preconceived notions

of what the experience would be like?

I guess take me two days.

I think I saw you was it the day before

your flight or two days before your flight either way.

Before I left?

Yeah, right before you left.

What were you expecting at that point in time?

And then we’ll talk about, like, after you landed.

I definitely expected it to be a lot

more hot and it was very comfortable weather.

I also expected maybe just a different energy, I guess.

I can’t explain it in words as much

as, like, I really miss listening to Afrobeat.

And the music is just so incredible.

And we had a bunch of dance parties with our family.

Nice, super fun, and just got to

work hard for your water, really?

For sure, man.

It’s hard to find clean water, especially

there’s a lot of hardship over there.

I think there’s a lot of beautiful things happening,

but there’s also definitely a lot of people struggling.

It’s just like any place else in the world.

There’s beautiful places and

there’s really hard places.

You know what I’m saying?

Was that a surprise to you?

Were you expecting some of those challenges for the communities,

or was it I’m just trying because when I picture

it anyway, when you mention that you’ve kind of seen

documentaries, it is hard to get water.

It’s hard to find clean water.

You just walk down the street and pay a

couple of bucks and fill up your tank.

But you can’t drink the tap

water like you can in Maine. Really?

And the well water, you probably can’t drink either.

You have to at least do more

filtering and boiling on your own end. Okay.

And the water in Mumbasa was so bad.

But Mumbasa was amazing.

We took a train from Nairobi to Mumbasa, which

is an island off the coast of Kenya.

And yeah, that place, the water

the ocean is so healing.

That’s a great place for some healing.

And it’s so warm.

And you can drink coconut water on the beach.

It’s so good.

Is it like fresh coconut water? Oh, yeah.

You see the coconut trees right there?

It’s so much fun.

And got to swim in the ocean.

So, like, warm ocean.

Was it like, green or, like, blue?

What was the water like?

It was like a darker blue, for sure.

Where I was, at least there was a lot of waves. Okay.

Like nice waves and a lot of healthy seaweed.

You know what I mean?

It was like, very healthy ocean. Yeah.

So I know you did, you went out

and I know you enjoyed the music.

So tell us about what the nightlife was like, what

the music was like, what the food was like.

So the nightlife was for me, it was spent,

like, hanging out at home with the family.

And we did a lot of our traveling during the daytime.

We went to a couple different animal sanctuaries.

We went to an animal orphanage called the Nairobi

Animal Orphanage.

And they’re, like, taking care of, like,

orphaned animals or animals with challenges that

would leave them dead in the wild.

And it’s just freaking awesome place.

Like, so cool.

And that was the beautiful lion that

you posted on your Instagram story.

Oh, yeah, the lion, man.

It’s a really fun place.

I got the pet a leopard there.

I don’t know if you’re like,

technically, but it was very enjoyable.

And our family in Kenya is like, so kind, and

they took us around anywhere we wanted to go.

Just like the traffic is rough for sure. Really?

I never would have expected that traffic, bro.

It’s super rough traffic.

And the buses or the matatus are savage over there.

They do not mess with the matatus, man.

Telling you right now.

So what’s the population?

Nairobi’s is huge.

We didn’t even really explore Nairobi that much.

We kind of explored Rongai,

which is outside of Nairobi.

And I mean, I don’t know the population.

There’s a lot of people that live there.

It’s probably maybe similar to the

size of Westbrook or something. Okay.

I don’t know. To be honest.

I could be totally wrong, but it’s pretty big.

Yeah, it’s a pretty big suburb outside of Nairobi.

And there’s only one road to get there, but it’s

like one of the main suburbs outside of the city.

And there’s a lot of Maasai.

The Maasai people live up there and they

have, like, beautiful land that they raise their

cows on and live life very, like, organically.

Yeah, it was cool, man.

There’s a big, big market there of fresh

fruits and vegetables like a mile long every

day from sun up to sun down.

But you are in heaven. Oh, yeah, man.

You can eat your watermelon, your pineapple, apples, oranges,

lemons, whatever you need, they got over there.

I promise you that it’ll be fresh.

And how does it compare? Sugar cane?

Our produce? Better. Way better. Yeah.

Like, how funny is that?

You think you live in America, you got good produce.

I don’t think so, man.

Our soil is fucked over here.

We’ve been poisoning our soil for years.

Look at the research with the DDT and everything.

They’ve been spraying for years.

And over there in Kenya, I don’t think they

have like, mass pesticide stuff sprayed like that.

So it tastes really good.

And there’s just a lot of fresh vegetables over there.

I know people can get good veggies over here too.

But seriously, guys, we fucked up our soil, okay?

We need to fix our soil in America.

Guys, we’re fucking up our soil.

You guys want to live in an arid country?

That’s where we’re going towards. Yeah.

And then we create. America is going to be the

biggest desert on the planet. Just watch.

Then we create new chemicals to fix the soil, and then

we create new chemicals to fix that after the next one.

What were some of the other meals?

What are some traditional meals that

you would find in Kenya?

In the morning, I have Kenyan tea, which is

very similar to, like, chai tea with milk and

water mixed with a bunch of black tea, spice

tea, and best sweetened with some sugar. Sugar? Yeah.

Oh, really good sugar.

Or you just have it with you,

make like, a fresh tea in the morning and have

some Mandazi and the Mandazi is kind of like fried dough.

Okay.

It’s like little fried doughs. They’re very good.

Who doesn’t want fried dough? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, and we would cut up, like, a big

watermelon and a pineapple, eat that all morning.

Awesome.

And maybe have some, like, porridge.

Oatmeal, okay. That’s so good.

All right, how about lunch?

Lunch would probably have some Nyama Choma. What’s that?

Which is just grilled meat, really.

And have it with maybe some Chabadi, which

is like a flat bread, kind of.

And it’s very delicious and savory.

Is it, like, Naan?

It’s more like a wrap. Okay.

Yeah, it’s like we call wrap.

And then maybe have some Kachumbari in there, which

is, like, chopped up tomatoes and onions and cucumbers.

That would be really good.

Like, you kind of, like, roll it up like a little wrap

or eat it with scoop it up, like chips or something.

Or, like, Angelica probably my wife probably

had just more fruit, like apples.

And I made, like, a homemade pasta sauce

one day for everybody, like, Italian style.

Shout out to all the Italians out there.

Christina is definitely happy. Yeah.

Fresh tomatoes, fresh onion, fresh zucchini.

Made a really good sauce.

How about dinner? Now I’m starving. Oh, yeah, right.

Dinner you got to have Ugali.

Everybody’s having Ugali, which is, like, corn flour, like

a big, soft bread, basically, kind of like thing.

And then you dip that in with, like, a good

stew or some more Nyama Choma, grilled meat, and add tomatoes.

Maybe make some Samosas, which I think

everybody knows what Samosa is over here.

It’s like a deep fried meat dumpling, but

it’s not like an Asian meat dumpling.

I think it’s actually from India.

I don’t think that’s a Kenyan food.

I think so too, but there’s a lot

of mixing of the Middle Eastern food with

the African food, and it’s so good.

I maybe saw one Italian shop, so maybe

I’ll go open up a pasta shop.

Just kidding. I’m not going to do that.

But it was really good, and Angelica’s family cooked us

amazing food all the time and just really made sure

there were, like, fresh food, fresh vegetables every day.

Like, avocados are in season right now, so they’re

super tasty and, like, just delicious avocados, man.

Just the delicious you’ve ever had.

I was thinking about when you were talking about that.

Just when I went to Hungary, and the family that

I stayed with there, and obviously the family you stayed

with was your family, but the family I stayed with

there, it was similar in terms of, like, every morning,

the mother or father went to the market and it

was fresh bread and fruits and yogurt and lunch.

They would almost get the items to prepare

the meal before the meal, rather than going

to the grocery store on Sunday and getting

food that’s preserved for a long time.

As you’re talking about fresh, fresh food.

Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Obviously, you are a music guy, so tell us

about what the music is like in Kenya.

Well, it’s definitely the type of vibe.

It’s the Afrobeat vibe, where it’s

just all about the one, right. In America.

And the hip hop is more about the

one, two, you know what I’m saying?

How you swing your hips. Yeah.

A little bit of dancing, but super hard.

And I love that song.

There’s just a lot of really

good music going on over there.

We listen to, like, a lot of Afrobi.

We also listen to Rumba and church

music, really, which I love church music.

Personally, I think church music is, like, so

good when it’s like you got all the

choir singing and man, I love church music.

I love choir music.

And my dad’s dad and mother, my grandfather and my

grandmother were both Episcopal ministers, and I loved growing up

in the church and listening to the choir.

There’s definitely some choirs that I won’t

name which ones that I’d prefer over

others, but a really good choir.

There’s just something so beautiful about it.

And my grandfather, his voice, his speaking voice

was powerful enough that his singing voice, it

elevates the entire church and just echoed.

So it’s beautiful.

And I can only imagine what it was like there. Oh, man.

Yeah.

Big, huge churches.

Crazy churches, man, people are getting

demons exercised out of them.

Shoo demons you run.

Is it like a theatrical type of experience, or

is it kind of traditional in terms of, like,

a sermon and a prayer and a song?

I think you’re going to get all

those variations, but there’s probably more dancing.

Okay.

And more just like kind

of like excitement and movement.

Whereas I grew up in a Catholic church, right.

And so you sit there with your legs

crossed, basically, and don’t say a word.

So that was a different experience, for sure.

But religion is the same everywhere, all over the world,

and I think we’re all praying to the same thing.

So it doesn’t matter ultimately what your religion is.

I love that.

So what would you say was your biggest takeaway?

Be grateful for the job that I have and

be grateful for the fresh water that I have. Right.

And those things are, like, a lot

of life, you know what I’m saying?

And also just be a little more happy

because of those things, of being grateful.

I heard Bradley the other day talk to some

individuals and said, if I gave you a million

dollars right now, what would you say?

And the individual said, I would be super grateful, and

if I gave you $10 million right now, but you

don’t wake up tomorrow, what would you do?

Share with my family.

I said the same damn thing.

Isn’t everybody going to do that?

That’s interesting.

So they all said, no, I wouldn’t take the money.

I want to wake up tomorrow.

I wouldn’t take the 10 Million.

I said the same damn thing.

I got people that like, $10 Million.

Take one for the team, I guess. I don’t know.

Maybe if the offer was real, I might rethink it.

But I thought the same thing you did, but I

guess most people would say, well, no, I’d like to

wake up tomorrow, so I don’t want the 10 Million.

At the end of the day, we

need to relearn gratitude every damn day. I do.

Maybe it’s a me thing, but I have to relearn it.

Every day.

I feel like I wake up with it, and I know

it, and by freaking lunchtime, I need to relearn it.

So I think that gratitude is something that we can take

away from big moments like this, and we also need to

figure out how to keep it in our brains.

So that’s definitely something I’m

working on this year.

Yeah.

The gratefulness will expand your mind, for sure, and

I’m very grateful for having a space as well,

like, being able to create content in a studio

and work with artists that you’re passionate about.

A lot of us are living in our

dreams, and we just don’t even realize it.

So it’s very easy to just be ungrateful.

So I’m working on it, you know what I’m saying?

We’re all working on it.

It’s all good.

Absolutely.

We’re living in our dreams.

How much time do we spend wanting

something different than where we are?

And we get there, and I’d go back, I could think of

plenty of times or plenty of places I’d go back to, but

I also really do appreciate where the hell I am today.

That’s why I’m saying we got to fix our soil, guys.

Okay.

I’m just saying we got to fix our soil.

It makes a big deal for the cannabis

crops, makes a big deal for spinach.

Grow indoors, tomatoes.

If you grow indoors, it still makes a big deal.

It’s going to be harder and harder

to find good soil from organic farms

or places where the products aren’t flooded. Hydroponics.

You got to get the resources from somewhere.

Are you going to fly over

to Africa and get the resources?

What are you going to do? You know what I’m saying?

Come on.

We can fix our own resources here

and then stop stealing from Africa.

We can do better.

Yeah, we can do better, guys.

Fix our soil.

Launch a campaign right now. WeedBudz.

Let’s fix the soil, man.

Well, before we wrap, I don’t know if you remember,

I think it was 2 or 3 years ago, right,

when we started investing in some of the sustainability projects.

And there was some sort of political meeting where

there was like 4 officials from the US, like

4 officials from Europe, 7 from Asia, 1 country

specifically, and one representative from Africa.

Guess where the trash was going

at the end of that meeting?

There’s no power, there was no negotiation, there was

a bully moves and basically put the representative in

a position where resources would be withheld if they

didn’t agree to build a landfill.

They had one rep and all of these other people.

Can you imagine?

And I’m sure he was a professional individual,

but can you imagine that’s intimidating for anybody,

especially when you have a community of individuals

that needs every Dollar coming in?

Yeah, I mean, man, some deep problems, but I

think we can all do something to help.

And I appreciate WeedBudz for opening my mind and

I think that’s going to just help with everybody.

If we can listen a little more

than we speak, we’ll all be good. Yeah.

And speaking of gratitude, I just want to express my

most sincere gratitude to all of you because truly, when

the WeedBudz started in 2018 or 2017 and we grew and we got

to the place, we needed to rebrand and that was

risky and scary and intimidating, and we did that together.

And I really appreciate I’ll never forget you, me and

Angelica at Sobago talking about it and having the realization

that we had worked with each other in a past

life, literally not a metaphorical past life, which we very

well may have, but in a previous career life for

both of us had worked together.

And when it was time to find the best audio

engineer in the state of Maine, the best filmmaker in

the state of Maine told me it was Matt.

And we started working out of

Breakwater Studios in South Portland, Maine.

And for me, that was such a massive step

up from my Yeti microphone in home studio and

to see where we are 4 years later of

work and cultivating a community that has been loving

and supportive and inspiring, to continue producing shows, to

continue growing the ecosystem that which we’ve cultivated here.

And I remember being like 15 episodes in and saying

to Matt, I don’t know where we go from here.

We’ve had brilliant minds already.

We started at BizCon and had Leafly and Weed

Maps and just some other really great pioneers of

different spaces and Chris Crane, just people who pioneered

different sectors of this industry to now being in

a position to pioneer some things ourselves.

So thank you all so much for joining us on

WeedBudz Radio and we are excited to launch into our

next season and we have some amazing guests coming up,

so stay tuned and be sure to follow us at

weedbudzradio.com and on Facebook, Instagram, everywhere else.

And Matt, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Man, this guy. Ry.

What an amazing human.

I love you, bro.

Love you too.

Signing off.

WeedBudz Radio. Peace.