Leaders of the New Cannabis Industry

opportunity in the cannabis industry. When you think about the other barriers of entry, because there's not policy right that would allow this uh space to exist for us in a way that I think it makes it one, makes it sustainable and to makes people engage. Whether we're talking about raising capital, we know there are folks that won't fund um these ventures because it's not federally legal. What are the other barriers of entry that exists from a

political standpoint? Well, I think to your point about capital, even though even when you can raise couple of the cost of that capital is it's extraordinary high and and and higher. So that's an issue. UH, it's still a Schedule one drug, which means there's basically no way to research it, no way to to kind of put it

on the docket as a as a political discussion. And in addition to that, I think if you look at, for example, the More Act, which was which is the most aggressive bill out there, that's when you get to real true expungement putting money in my money, aside from research and looking at um even surveys and opportunities to truly get a measurement of like what is the state of the industry in the communities, what are the real numbers behind this? And without that legislation, none of that exists.

This is just companies making money and you need that governance to make sure that some of those other steps are taken around this industry. Will Lucas and this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna interrouce you to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building are simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast is for you. Al Harrington and Wilson Chandler are both former NBA players

term businessmen. John Monopoly is Kanye who has manager. The partners have joined forces to work together on expanding the current three percent market share of the cannabis industry that

is currently held by black people. As Al Harrington the sixteen season NBA veteran and leading black cannabis entrepreneur about business success as a former pro athlete, what's your unique about business moves like his and those of other successful former pros like Magic Johnson and others that leads them to the promised land with so many others have ventured into business that have ultimately gone belly up or one.

I want to say that's a compliment to put you in with Matt you it's I got a lot of to do, but um, you know, I think the main thing was just um being able to you know, create a foundation of like of just of educating yourself, educating myself, you know what I'm saying. Towards the end of my career, when I started to realize that, you know, I wasn't jumping as high, I wasn't as fast, you know what I'm saying, I wasn't as important to the organizations like I used to be, and I had to figure out

what was gonna be next. And you know I always say, I give my financial advisor a lot of credit because you know, throughout my career and you know Wilson and whoever, like, you know, we get so many opportunities throne at as business deals all day, right, and they all sound great, right, I mean what business deal have you ever heard? It didn't sound like a great opportunity. But what he did was they made me, you know, do my own research and come to them and tell them why was a

good idea? You know what I'm saying. So because I got into that practice, it allowed me, too, I feel like, you know, become a better entrepreneur that you know, I was done playing that I was able to put myself in the position that I am and I'm in today.

And I also want to just say too, I think that passion right, being able to do something that you're passionate about is you know, you you'll never work another day in your life, right, So you think about like you know, John Monopoly and like all that he's been able to do. You know what I'm saying, these are you know, these are professional We're professionals that actually you know,

love what we do. You know what I'm saying. We can't wake up to act, wake up the next day to actually get right back to the ground and do what we're doing. So you know, um, just trying to just continue to just you know, build on you know, just build, uh, you know, have a solid foundation and just build on top of it. And you know, for me, I was lucky enough to you know, get into the cannabis space, you know, almost eleven years ago now when

it wasn't as popular as it is today. And you know, now we have you know, first mover's advantage, you know what I'm saying. So it's really um, you know, it's I always say I was blessed, you know what I'm saying to be in this position, and you know, the goal is to obviously be at that Magic Johnson type

of level. N you know, he mentioned this a few times in his comments there about you know, really being in the right position to take advantage of these opportunities is a large part of finding the continue success having

it one place. You know, success be get success and a lot of uh instances, and I would imagine that you get calls to do partnerships like these because you have obviously showing a lot of showing a lot of depth and expertise at managing incredible talent, and what can we learn from journeys like yours to be intentional about you know, our journey to finding ourselves in rooms, uh, like the ones you find yourself in, so that we can you know, have that success that we gets more success.

Like what can we do intentionally when we're not managing you know, superstars and etcetera, but in our everyday lives, what can we do to make sure that we're positioning ourselves to take advantage of opportunity. I let's say, you gotta keep your eyes and ears open at all times and always just be in search of the right opportunity.

You know, Because I've been in music and entertainment for you know, almost thirty years now, I have been exposed to a lot of different opportunities, um just in business and in this you know, helping to build artists brands. But it's all about finding the right situation. And luckily, uh, you know, with with this particular deal you know that

I've been working with with with Dan and Al. I've been knowing these guys for you know, twenty plus years, and I've always seen them, um, you know, moving the right way. So I was just really honored to join

the team. Yeah, and I think about you know, the black sauce, you know, when when we bring something to an industry, the sauce that black people specifically add value um to whether it be sports, where there'd be music, where they'd be food, and now we're talking about cannabis, the black perspective on things as a whole other layer

of value. And Wilson, I'm interested in your perspective on because when you're launching this, uh, your new dispensary, you're launching it with a shower festival, free festival, and you know, how can we leverage more than just having the license to sell, but bring our perspective to an industry that

has so much opportunity to ensure our success. I think, you know, piggybacking off what Alice done, you know, as being a lifestyle, bringing in space, you know, just bringing that aesthetic, you know, that coolness, like you said, like our culture you know brains, you know, whether it's music, fashion or whatever it is. I think bringing the extra push to the space, you know is everything you know,

um and the culture. You know, we pretty much determined thing, you know in every space we've been and I think that's the same cannabis, you know, just bringing that style and that flavor to the space and they also having a good business practices. So do you do you think that there is a unique value Wilson on partnering with artists who have maybe a marijuana stick about them or think about them people um who you know obviously in

the music is already prevalent. What do you think of of than just partnering with artists, because when when we talk a lot about these things, and I read a lot of stories on you guys, you also leveraging the part of it it's medical benefit, right, and so it's not just about the entertainment value of it, but it is also over the recreational use of it, but also

but additionally the medical benefits. How do you think about using entertainment as well as you know the medical benefit A branding part of this to make sure that you're building a valuable business. Um, I think going forward on the basically get more maturity, you know, and people start

thinking more so about the medical benefits. So I think just bringing awareness using everybody's platform and bring awareness to you know, uh, you know, whether there's artists that's touring any you know, certain benefits you know, the condown or stress lea, whatever it is, pain management. So I think, um, using it, you know, those those different platforms, whether it's athletes, artists or you know, um, people in fashion, whether there's

people that's in uh that's in the art scene. I think marijuana kind of bring a lot of those communities, communities together. Uh. So I think using those different platforms, bringing awareness to the medical benefits of it would be uge. And I think a lot of universities are starting to get into it, and I think they start doing more

research on different possibilities. So yeah, and now, and to piggyback on that, I was reading you know, up on you guys and other interviews that you've done, and you you talk, you guys talk a lot about wanting VMO to really be a model business that communities will appreciate that you were doing great work. And how soon or what would it take even for communities to see cannabis dispensaries and others as businesses that are really contributory to community.

I think that will already happened. Man. You know, I think that during the pandemic, you know the fact that cannabis was deemed essential, Um, I think it definitely put cannabis in a different light right now when you talk about our community, you know, there's some work to be done there, right, because people don't realize is that our people from our community really suffer from PTSD of the cannabis prohibition essentially, right. You know, we've seen so many

people locked up, We've seen so many lives destroyed. You know, we've seen uh, you know, people get access to product that was not safe and you know, have negative effects and different things like that. So our community have seen so much negative is really hard for them to wrap their head around, like, oh, we're about to sell drugs.

They still call it legally you know in our community, and you know, it's bigger than that, right because you know what what we've seen now is that one uh, you know, they use cannabis as a way to lock us up. You know what I'm saying, that they use

it as a tool. Right. But now that we see with testing and you know, with legalization and regulation and all these things happening, we see that cannabis is actually medicine for real, right, it actually can uh, you know, help a lot of the issues that we deal with in our community. Depression, anxiety, all those different things. You know what I'm saying, PTSD. You know, these are things

that we suffer from every day. And you know the things that we have to turn to is usually prescription drugs alcohol, right because once again and people from our community, we don't go to doctors like we should, right, you know, that whole process is all that stuff. So you know, for me, it's about you know, one breaking the ice with a lot of people in our community. Telling my

grandmother's story. You know, for a seventy nine year old woman that definitely saw all the ill effects of cannabis and for her to be open minded enough to try it and then it actually worked. And you know now you know, she'll be ninety years old, uh next next month, on the twenty six, and she still uses cannabis every day, you know what I'm saying. And you know, and have people from her church that now use cannabis and my mom's church, you know what I'm saying, Like my mom,

my mom used to kick my dad. My mom used to kick my dad out of the house for smokes, for smelling like weed when he came home. And now she smoked more weed than you know what I'm saying, but it's just because of the education, you know what I'm saying, She knows that she can benefit from using cannabis compared to the things that she had been using

in the past. So, you know, it's it's a journey that we're on and I think that one of the ways that will be able to continue to break that stigma is for when we go to these meetings with the people in our community, for us to show up, not the other people that have been showing up, because they definitely are trying to take advantage of people in our community, you know what I'm saying. So you know, it's one of those things where you know, we just

got a lot of work ahead of us. And I think that you know, with Wilson's gesture for his community to throw a free festival, and I mean, you see those names, don't think for one second those guys moving around for free. You know what I'm saying, Like, oh, you know what I'm saying, Like this man is putting his money out is that that store is not even

open yet, you know what I'm saying. But he's doing it as a gesture for his community to understand that what he's doing He's doing it for them, you know what I'm saying. He's doing it to create opportunities, create jobs, you know, with a lot of the money that he'll be making. You know, he's gonna rebuild parks and all these different things in this community. So he's gonna take something that was very negative and turned into something very positive.

And you know that's something that you know, obviously, I'm super excited about being a part of John, our partner's Viola Village. You know, we're all in with supporting and doing whatever it takes to make sure that Wilson is successful in his community. I love I love that and John, you know, I think about like you, you mentioned you've been in the music business, entertainment business for thirty plus years, and I would imagine you've been pitched everything under the sun.

Like you, You've probably had more businesses pitch you on. You know, I got the next hottest thing, you know,

I got this thing that you should invest in. I would love to partner with you on X, Y and Z. When you talk, when you started hearing that cannabis were the walls were going to start coming down with regards to legalization of cannabis, was this something that you were automatically like, yo, I gotta find my way into this, or it was like opportunities hard to come in to you, and it was you chose one versus the hundreds of

other things that came to you that day. Sure. So I personally used cannabis every day, right, and it helps me with my anxiety and just dealing with just life pressure. So I've been looking for the right opportunity um for a couple of years. So when I, uh, finally you know, God with Dan and Out, it was it was a great thing because they had so much traction in the space already. So yeah, I mean I have been been approached by many brands, by many companies, but it was

just never the right fit. Um. And you know me, me knowing uh Dan since I was a kid and out for the last fifteen plus maybe even twenty years, it just made the decision very easy to make for me. And you just said a word there. I hear a lot of venture capitalists and even angel investors talk about and that's attraction when people when people are coming to you, um with ideas and you you work around artists a lot and a lot of artists ideas don't have traction.

They are because that's why their artists, because they're improving, they're trying to convince the world that their ideas are having have merit. When you how do you transition from I'm gonna trust that I believe instinctively that this artist has something, versus from a business perspective, I want to see the moves you've been making before you even got

to me. Well, it's all about really having the right instinct right and making sure that you know whoever you want to move around with and build a brand with. You guys are are aligned uh in concept and as far as you know how you execute um. You know again, you know, being that I've been able to manage some of the biggest artists in hip hop, you know you're right. I mean I get approached all the time with different companies and brands and opportunities you know, to to to

to build brand extensions for artists. But again, you've got to really make sure that you're getting in bed with the right people and that you uh, that you've done your research and that and that it's the right kind of partnership, you know. And in case of me starting to work with Dan and Allen at Village. You know, everything was aligned. You know, I've known them both for for many years. They built a very strong brand with Viola, and it just all made sense. So I'm really I'm

really blessed to be involved now. Wilson, I asked out this question. I kind of want to ask it to you in a different way, however, and we talked a lot about how one of OL's missions is to make sure that his businesses are seen as a model business in community. And I'm interested in you know, when we take our families two shows in the park or whatever, and this may be sponsored by a beer company or you know, a liquor company, we don't think anything of it.

We got kids there and you know, the whole thing, and we have we think nothing of it. Are we out of place yet in your perspective that we could take our kids to the park and go to this free concert like you're putting on and instead of a beer company being there, it's it's a cannabis label putting this on. Are we there yet in our communities or what will it take to get there to destigmatize that? Um? I don't think we're there yet, you know, just from

experience with doing this festival. But I think it's heading in that that direction. I think the more education we uh we promote you know, to the masses, I think, you know, the quickly we get there. You know, a lot of you guys efforts are to change the statistic that's as three percent, only three percent of companies in the cannabis space are black owned. And starting with you out with this, I would love to get all of you guys input.

Starting with you out, there may be an opportunity for Village specifically to be supportive formally, you know, to be like the Amazon for other businesses who want to you know,

ride on those train tracks. Right, and so, how how can black owned businesses across the country or how can you guys leverage the work that you're doing to be formally supportive even and economically involved in other black dispensaries across the country to where you're not just you know, championing championing in as a mission to make sure that other people are in, but also maybe providing some of the back office support, Maybe you assist with branding, maybe

you're integrated in some other way to where you become integral to black dispensaries and perhaps manufacturers all across the country, even though they're not wearing your label on the only outside. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we're doing that already. We have you know, definitely put our money where our mouth is. We've definitely helped incubate certain businesses people, you know, trying

to win retail locations here in California. But I think that you know, with Village moving forward, you know, we are a platform. You know, we're a platform that we

can actually be able to bring in other brands. And then when you talk about retailers, you know, with these brands, we'll be able to stock their shelves right, be able to do strategic partnerships to be able to bring Viola Greenstone, you know, with other new designer drugs, with other new brands that we're gonna start, because you know, that's what

drives traffic into dispensaries. People like variety and they want to make sure that they're going to get to you know, we have access to the best product on the market, and that's something that we feel like we're gonna be able to accomplish. And I think that that's one of the one of the ways that we can help some of the younger entrepreneurs and some of the younger retail owners. And then from an economic side, you know, we have to just continue to be successful on what we're doing.

We gotta sell more products, we gotta make more money. You know, that's the only way that we're gonna be able to you know, be able to have that effect and be able to make these strategic investments into the companies that will need it as well. So so, John, when you hear something like that that you know, there's an opportunity here, not just for this particular these particular dispensaries, but we want to be you know, across the whole

spectrum of black owned cannabis dispensaries and manufacturers. How does your brain think about, you know, what the real opportunity is as far as us being integrated um into these other opportunities. Well, you know, I just think it's important that as business people in this space were aggressive because you know, quite honestly, our white counterparts are moving fast.

You know, I think it's really unfortunate that we only make up three percent of the space as far as being black owned, you know, in cannabis, and we just gotta be you know, uh, aggressive and intelligent around you know, how we grow and who we are, who we align ourselves with. You've got this festival to nobody's home festival

that is I wanted. Is it it the official launch of the dispensary or is it's just uh know, it's just uh it's in celebration of the dispensory, but not the official launch, okay, because I'm interested because I think about how after things like woodstock, that was when cannabis in the United States got its stigma. Um, but woodstock is something that you know, you walk past a white person and grocery store, a white hair, you know, it was probably in that era and they were probably handling

some of those things in that era. Do you believe or is it your effort that your festival could be you know, one in in alignment with what that meant to that culture or is that is that your effort

at all? You know? Definitely, Um, I think this is something we want to do every year, you know, and make it better every year and just kind of break that stigma and have everybody there free flowing, having fun, enjoying uh, different products, enjoying different brands, you know, enjoying one another and just you know, all about positivity and

the future of this space. John, you came on UM to make sure that you know, the entertainment part of this, those partnerships were in place, and this this industry is the sixty one billion dollar industry today with projections to be like seventy plus by UM. And again you came on to help the company companies, you know, build these

entertainment partnerships. You talk about how your involvement here is not specifically just to get entertainments involved because you know, just a market brands, but if at all how to ensure equity for communities of color to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. I'll let out answer the question around equity, but I will tell you, UM, as far as you know, making sure that we have the right entertainers involved to to build brands with them and

just to be a part of our initiatives. You know, I always try to consider myself on the at least trying to be on the pulse of what's happening within our culture and UM, you know, I just try to bring on the right people that that are that are like minded and that can help to you know, build our brand as a whole. How are you in chiming there? Yeah, from from a from any from an equity standpoint, you know,

that's that's the main thing. At this point. We represent, like you said, less than three and we were all the ones that were locked up for eight five percent and drug arrest in our communities, all cannabis related. I think we're uh five times more uh stuff that would be arrested for cannabis than our counterparts. So you can't tell me that now that this space is legal, that we were were no good to it. Now there's no

place for us. So for us and you know, Wilson and John and just our team, you know, as much as we want to talk about job creation and how important that is, but we're really here trying to represent ownership and that's the only conversation that we want to have when we're in when we're at sitting at the table, you know, having these conversations. And until we get that, we gotta keep fighting for it. I feel like if

we don't do it, it won't happen. So you know, this is just something that you know, I feel like it's you know, gonna be my job for the next ten years, right until we get a significant piece of this of this pie. And it's gonna be a lot of hard work because you know a lot of the companies say that there about it. You know, I think it's more about checking up box now, especially at the Black Lives Matters. It was just like, now everybody loves

black people. All this funding is now available for black people, And I'm like, why you didn't love us before that? Right? And it just seems like right now because it's a way for them to come once again capitalize. That's why they love us, right, And we were just tired of it, and you know we were gonna have to be the ones that stand up against it out Like, what would you say are the strategic moves you make because the

largest national conglomerate for black owned cannabis brants today? Was that a happy sense of timing or there were specific strategic moves you made that helped you find this type of success. Now I came down the line, man, like you know we first started. You know, there wasn't too many people that I can go for extual advice, right, most people were afraid of it. I bring it up, they go the other way and trying to change a subject.

And I didn't know that limited licenses was so relevant at the time, and that you know, mostly all the big multi state operating companies out of public, they were able to go public offer these limited licenses because they were only once they were one licensees in Illinois out the gate, and next you know, they had a business doing thirty five million hours just because they were the

only ones there. So we kind of got brought to that a little later, you know, Uh, I will be honest, you know, even though that I played in the NBA and have you know, resources and friends like you know, Wilson and whoever, like, it wasn't easy for us to raise money, you know, especially in the beginning. You know, I couldn't imagine trying to go to somebody eight years ago saying I need twenty five million hollars to go at the three or four states. People have looked at

me like I was crazy. You know. Once again, that's once again one of the issues that we have in our community. We just don't have access to the resources to be able to really take advantage of opportunities in real time. Right. We started Village two years ago, you know, and look at the success that we've hassed. So just imagine if we would have tried to do this five years ago potentially where we would be at today. You know.

So it's just it's just it's just it's just been a grind, and you know, I just feel like with Village now we have established ourselves as being a company that people better pay attention to, you know, and if we continue to win more licenses, I feel like, you know, it will be one of those you know, seven to ten companies that you know, can really dictate what's going on in this space. I'm so glad you said that, because you know there are still states where licenses are

not you know, well we is not legal. Marijuana is not legal yet. And so for I would love to get both of your Wilson and our's comments on this.

Is like I'm from Ohio, and Ohio there's just now talking again about you know, putting uh marijuana use up for legal debate, and so for those states that are still having the conversation but have not made a move yet, knowing what you know, and I'll start with you Wilson, then with I want to ask this our as well, what would you advise people who um want to be in how to position themselves or at this stage is

it too late. We'll just say start educating and educating themselves, you know, just trying to read as much as possible about the space, you know, and just be progressive about it, you know, and try to build as many relationships as possible. What would you say our if if if marijuana is not yet legal, how do I get in position? Start reading?

You know what the legislation is gonna look like in your state, your city, depending, you know, every state is different, some rules, you know, the state governs it, something like the cities government. So just find out, you know what what do will actually take. Then start putting your team together because you know, obviously you're gonna have to raise some money. You know, what is that team gonna look like?

What does that business plan look like? And then you know, you have to believe in that business plan when you go out and pitch it, you know, because without the passion behind it, you know, most people aren't gonna invest. You're gonna have to really know your business plan inside and out. You're to answer all the questions that are gonna come your weight and just try to figure out how you're gonna be able to run a cash for positive business, How you're gonna actually be able to get there.

And Uh'm not gonna make it seem like it's easy, you know, as a challenge is gonna be definitely hard. But I think that if you can try to put strategic people together in your organization, I think you'll put yourself in position to hopefully be successful. And if people is their opportunity to partner with you pre license or like let's say if I Ohio went on hand and passed it and I got a license, what opportunities are there for those black entrepreneurs to work with Viola. Yeah, definitely,

you can reach out to us. You know, you can reach out to us online. Uh. You know we also some states require you to have local participation, so you know in Missouri and Maryland, we definitely partnered up with called entrepreneurs there and you know, because of us winning, you know, we've been able to you know, create millionaires you know on paper, you know, because of its opportunity.

So yes, as these new states come online, if you feel like you have something that's differently the differentiator, Uh, if you think that you could be a good partner to us. Yeah, I would say definitely reach out. Black Tag Green Money is the production of Black and the Afro Tech, Black Effect podcast Network and iHeart Media and it's produced by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas, with

additional production support by Love Beach and Marissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Sakara savon Jan you know like the Wine. Yes that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and other technists the innovatives afro tech dot com. The video first of this episode would drop the Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week, So I'll tap in you join your Black Tech Green Money leave. It's a five star rating on iTunes. Go get your money. Peace in love, h