Welcome to cannabis school. I'm your host Jessie Angeles and I'm Brandon Elder and we're here to talk to you about everything pertaining to cannabis from bait, flower Edibles, strains and everything in between. Thanks for everyone for tuning in today. We actually have Dean Schwartz, he is the creator of Bud club and he's actually been branding advertising and broadcasting. So he's worked with Brands like a leave Crest and NyQuil and has created a but Club.
Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about I'm curious right now about broadcasting. Honestly, do you still do broadcasting? Yeah, I still. Well, I have up until this past year, you know, we do still make commercials for, you know, for health care products, and pharmaceutical products and build websites for them. And, you know, all sorts of different kinds of things and do corporate videos for big companies. But I'm trying to leave that behind me to be honest with you guys.
Call turning over a new Leaf. I Greenleaf agreed leave. Yeah, because part of what, I, you know, what I figured out is, you know, I mean, I've never really been a big pharmaceutical person first personally, you know, and I've always kind of believed in going natural, you know, unless you got something serious. I mean, if you got something serious, I'm I'm bombs away, you know, bringing the Heavy Hitters. But you know, generally, you know, I'm trying to go low and slow and go natural.
So, and that's kind of what I've always done and I felt, you know, gee, wouldn't it be great if I could kind of align what I do with every day, and how I make a living with who I am, and what I really enjoy. And, you know, that's really what I'm trying to do it. But Club has, you know, get my heart and my, and my brain sort of, you know, coordinated.
Yeah. And with your journey with Bud Club when we talked last you were telling me, you know, you started with a grow And you bought it grow tent and you end up growing in your bathroom. Where's your Grow Tent today? It's still in the box, I never opened it, you know?
And but I'll tell you, I'm really glad that I ordered it because it was out of that experience that I got really got the insight into this business and really what the what the real need and opportunity was, you know, because I realized that people like me. I can't be bothered with grow tents, right? It's too much work. It's intimidating. You know, I'm just not that into it. I wanted to grow, but I wanted to, you know, I didn't want it to be work.
I wanted it to be fun and I wanted it to be easy, you know, and growing tomatoes, right? Or like a Chia Pet. I just spotted like a cheese. Your girl. Yeah, just get it wet. You smooth it over with your mom's peanut butter knife. And you go animal and why Should Blossom right? Watch it grow, right? Yeah. So did you do the Bob Ross cannabis pet? Then first be pretty cool. Or how do you tell us about your first growth at what I changed with the introduction to but Club from your first tent
purchase to where you're at? Well, I just I got in touch with some people that kind of were into growing. I developed a relationship. Relationship with some really, really top Growers and I read and I learned, and what I learned, is that good growing actually an organic growing. It ain't that hard. You know, if you know how to do it, I had a friend of mine when I was in, when I was in college
who was an audio file? I don't know if you've ever known anybody like that, but he at the time, you know, he I guess turntables are back now, right? So, you know, he had this like five hundred dollars, Turntable and he would like take it apart and put it back together and had these big speakers. And he had these charts, you know, to show me, you know, how it had perfect sound balance and all that kind of stuff. And you know what I mean?
It's funny because most people just want to hear good sound good music that into that into that stuff. And, you know, I think growing is really much the same way. Yeah, people really enjoy the experience when they do it, but they're intimidated by it, you know. And they don't know how to do it.
They're worried that I messed it up and, you know, frankly they don't want to put too much time into it and I felt, but as a marketing guy, most of the market was really ignoring that sort of I call them newbies or we call it, you know, growing cannabis for dopes. Yeah and you know so I really felt there was an opportunity to go out and really help people like me learn how to grow and And get them growing because, you know, there's an expression you guys have probably heard it.
You know that using cannabis is not addictive but growing cannabis is. And once you really have that experience, you haven't heard that one. No, I've heard that what it is. It's great XP laughs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, so I want to be an apostle. I want to spread the word, I want to help people understand the virtues of growing and why it's so great and then Empower them and Demystify the grow process and and and and teach them to grow, so they never have
to buy buy. But again, that's my goal. Yeah. How now your crosses, you pretty, simplified down. It's like a three step process I think I read. Yeah, one of the big things I work for the last couple of years. So, again, you know, my Mantra is the easy, the better, the easier, it is the better it is and, you know, and that doesn't mean that. And it can be easy, but you can
still grow great quality. If you work with great seeds and you work with, you know, really good components and really good nutrients and just take care of your plant and so we got it down
to the group. Process has three steps you know you pack your bag and you pack it with layers of soil and different different types of nutrients, you know, for veg and for and for Bloom. So you pack your bag, you plant your And we help people understand how to germinate a seat and get it going and then you water it and let it grow and that's it. Yeah, and the kids is a lot simpler process than having a grow ten. Yeah, I doing all the indoor grow staff, seen those at
conventions and everything. I mean, they, it does it exactly what you said, B, it makes you intimidated. Just looking at the setup. It's like holy shit. That's a lot of time. It looks like I'm going to put that in. Like Don't know if I want to make this a full-time thing, that's where I start thinking just like you happy. I'm a marketer as well. I love consumerism and then probably where you're trying to be able to get into the mind of that individual going.
Alright, how easy is it to be able to do? I mean, of course, the logistics and everything and looking at a tent looks like so much. You need to it almost at the point where you're just like, am I in over my head? Yeah yeah and I think that the people that are actually super into it You know, the real growing Enthusiast.
They love the complexity, right? Yeah, you know the it energizes them and they love to tell them all the complicated stuff they're doing and show them their carbon filters and stuff like that. But it doesn't have to be that
way. You know, it really doesn't and I think that the other thing for me in doing this was also starting to, I took a course at a place called CCI which is Canada's coaching Institute and I Really started to understand the science side of men of cannabis, which is important to me because I can, I understood as a healthcare marketer, the science on how asthma products work, right? The inhalers work and how diabetes medicine works.
But I didn't really understand the science behind cannabis and taking this course really helped me make that connection to kind of the left side of my brain. The science side of my brain and particularly for people that are using cannabis as medicine, right? Right. Yes expensive. You know oh yeah those people you know they're using it not one of them you know every day many times a day you know a lot of them.
I think I saw some data from New Frontier that's like over 50% of medical users are using over and a half an ounce, a month. A third of them are using credit analysis a month. Okay. I always like maybe it's lower. Yeah, I think it was like, well, these are not swear that guy. It's a little bit lower. Yeah. Like yeah. Like announcing a month is like not very much. I feel like because you have an entire month that would be somebody like me.
But you wouldn't use an ounce in a month and I feel like, but for me and my mom is pretty regular. There's a medical user and it's like Everyone has their dossier level, but like some people I know patients who are spending $800 a month, right on cannabis, just because of their do something that they have to do. So guess what? It's better for them than Pharmaceuticals. It's less invasive. It doesn't have the side effects but it's not covered by their
medical insurance right now. So if they went and took oxycodone, you know, or other not Products for their pain. You know, the their insurance to pay for it but if they're using cannabis to treat their pain they're on their own. So for those people in particular, you know, empowering them to grow and teaching them to grow. I think there's a real virtue and something that I'm is a big
part of my personal mission. Yeah, that's a great way of looking at people who are getting, you know, as you get into cannabis. I mean you start realizing things that you were told. We were lies a lot. In the lies, you know? Like you're going to be stupid, you're not going to be able to retain much, you know. There there are so many studies saying that long-term memory can actually be enhanced with it. I know it's helped me a ton.
My memory has blown up. Well, their science into the creation of new memories and exact and people who have Alzheimers that plaque that builds up in their brain and cannabis helping reduce that plaque that can cause exhaust timers. And it's like, okay, so there's a difference between what has been preached Hurley from media
government. Write a general story to what the actual effects of this plant are and yeah giving that ability to grow your own medicine at home and even understanding that every like there's so many studies now that are even out where cannabis they can see there's every ailment or every What is like autism cancer? Everything has specific markers that they can trace and their specific levels.
And cannabis has been found to reduce those markers in to normal levels, just depending on the strain that dose the cannabinoid, like there's research and studies out there showing that. So having the ability to truly craft or grow a strain that suits, those markers are specifically what it is, that your body is needing is because if you can take out the cost of eight hundred dollars a month, like you're well over what 10 grand a year. Yeah. So yeah.
But yet growing at home, how much work does that? Take with your simple three-step process? Well, like I said, once you set up the bag and plant your seed, it's basically just watering it and really really careful water. I mean one of the things that I've learned and and guys, this has been a journey for me. I don't profess to be, you know, the expert on growing. I'm learning every day.
A and I talk to people, I have a relationship with a guy that, you know, Jeff low in Fells Jeff is a great guy to tap into. He's written some of the best books on organic growing. He's actually he check them out. Yeah. He's the He is, he's a lawyer and he's also been the gardening columnist for the Anchorage news for the last 25 years.
And that's like an organic going to and he's written some of the best books on like teaming with microbes and how to use microbes to help you grow better weed, things like that, so yeah, yeah, yeah. So have you read any of Ed Rosenthal stuff? I have I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean it's great. The The challenge for people is is not that information, is it available? There's great information available. It's feeding them that information in a way that they can understand just exactly
makes it simple. But as I was thinking about me with the process being so simplified, we're all you got to do is just careful. Watch carefully water your plant, right? As you start to being able develop, I think of it like anything else that we would grow in our garden. I mean, if you grow some kickass tomatoes one year, right? Like these are the best. I carry Tomatoes. I always think of cherry tomatoes because it almost seemed super easy to be able to
grow those as well. But now, man, when they come in your, so if there's an appreciation with the plant that you have, because you grew it and it's the same thing. When they're so connected to the plant, they've gone through your process and being able to simplify it where now they have, you know. Yeah. They don't need to know every single little like, you know, Measuring every bit of you know the CO2 levels within the soil
like those are important. Yes but you know for for a lay man they don't want to spend that much time into it because again it becomes overwhelming but now they can learn about the plant that they are. Growing learning were all of the the terpenes and cannabinoids that are in there. And there's a reason why they chose that plant you know they were looking for. Something is not like somebody gave him a Johnny Appleseed flicking indica and sativa It's
everywhere. He goes like, yeah, cool, I don't know what this is but it's really awesome. When you have a connection to the planet, I would imagine that each time that you're consuming it. It's it's a labor of love if you will. Well, you know, I think that's a great point. It's interesting. This new frontier research that's been done. That's been the research has been executed. One of the things that they did is they asked people why they grow being cannabis.
And you know, there were here Back you know in the study a lot of things that you would expect like 53 percent of people say they do it because it saves them money for it's more convenient or they don't have to worry about if pesticides and other contaminants or another big one is because they get better quality, which is true. But the number one reason that people the people are home grow. Do it is because they love it.
They love the process. They love it as a hobby and And you're thinking energy with that plant. Oh yeah, that when you're growing it it's like it's a whole different feeling. And yeah, if you're growing it, personally you're going to have like this live in this energy for this plant, as just going to resonate and, you know, oh, and it's such a, it's such a cool Plant than it does.
Smell is great and it changes colors and you get to strain it and take care of it. And there's a gentleman that I've done some work with who Is a medical cannabis educator and he does a lot of work with people who are hooked on oxycontin, in getting them off them and and and there's a lot of good research that's happening there as well. And I having tremendous success getting those people off the
hard drugs. One of the things that we've talked about doing is actually doing a study where we introduce home growing into to a one of these halfway houses and give people the opportunity to not just use the cannabis for pain but also to grow their own medicine. And we think that it's going to be something that's really important for people's recovery. Not only because the process is so much fun but the the notion of actually having something that you can nurture and take care of right?
And look forward to seeing every day and hanging out. You know, and smell an experience. We think that there's a real psychological benefit to that as well, you know, and something that we'd like to learn more about in the future. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, totally does. I mean I think about I had somebody close to me struggling with alcoholism and after they went through a detox, they were kind of left at this, like, well now, what like, what do I fill this this Gap in, how do I taper away from it because they're still that that need in their head once? They become so addicted to something that there's got to be some other type of stimulant in there. And what better one?
I mean, I, I went through with them, I went through like, an edible cycle of, like, you know, here are some things that you can take. This is the doses. Want you to stack them throughout the day and see how it works out for you based upon what they told me about their, what their preferences with cannabis.
And they haven't had a drink in over a year now and they don't use cannabis all the time, but for a while they were using it and then they go. Okay, I'm They've got some supplies acai and, and that's what's awesome about being able to understand and grow your own. Because then you appreciate not only the dosage at your being able to get, but you you, that's when you can get more involved into the science of it going. If I did dip, I just added this little step here.
Now, I can add complexity after the Simplicity has been established are correct. As you get more experience, you can do cooler stuff for a hundred percent, you know, and you know, I've been doing that too. I mean, I started out doing Doing mainly Auto flowers and now I've been using the kit to, you know, grow photos as well, you know, it's and I, yeah, I just did a great, great harvest with a strain of called Violetta and is a wonderful hybrid.
It's from Ace. And if it was like a work of art, how about I wouldn't you get from that grow? I probably got like, I would say, three quarters of a pound. Nice. And that was an indoor grow. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, really good. Come with the seeds already like Auto flower or or zip. Yeah, typically are finding afterwards. So yeah, I mean, again that's part of simplifying the process. I mean, you know, back to my early days and what it was like to do my first grow.
The other thing that was really difficult after seeing that tent was Finding seeds. And honestly it was a horrible process. Yes, you know, first of all, looking at these seed banks like overseas and going one is it okay to order from them or not? And can I use a credit card? I actually ordered from one and I ended up getting it in a getting stopped by the customs and I got a letter from Custom saying that I would not be receiving my package, you know. So that was crucified. Messiah.
T. Yeah. The other part of it is you go on a seed site and you know you literally see like, you know, 50 60, 70 seeds, gives you a headache trying to figure out, you know, what to do, you know which one's right? And that kind of stuff. So we wanted to simplify that process to. So we call it seeds Made Simple, we sell kits without seeds, but we also give we also have bundles that includes these. We have really high quality seeds right now from a company
called Janome automatics. And we've got three different strains that we offer. So people healthy Flowers at this point right now, we have Autos, but we will expect good to start with though, your say, yes, because I do flower. I mean, it's and for those who don't know what an auto flower is, it's it's being able to scientifically give you a shorter growth cycle, well, because they automatically kick into flowering at a specific time.
Versus most Growers, you can manipulate win, it'll go into flowering just depending on how large or what you want to put in and how you on that plan Pro. So, Correct. Correct. But the thing that people don't know about Auto flowers is in many ways, they're easier than photos. Right. Right. But you also have to be really careful with them because because the growth cycle is so short. Yeah, right. That if you have any, they have to be an ideal conditions.
Like, for example, you don't want to start an auto flower in a pod, right? Because you know and put that in dirt because you know you want to start it right in dirt because as you want to make it as easy as possible for the seed to get started and get going. And if the seed has to work work too hard, during that short group here at you're going to end up with less of a plan, all right? And so that's another reason for this kit, right?
This kid is really designed, you know, especially the the way the, you know, the initial nutrients that were using, it's designed to really work well with auto flowers so that you have your very best chance of success because you know, the With auto flowers is that you it's easy to grow but you know your bud could be a dud and that's not fun for, you know. Yeah. You don't want a dud, you teach them in your kit. How did identify like
hermaphrodites or male plants? We don't get into that because all of our all of our team at all of our events are Femmes. They're all fem seeds. Yeah. But again, you know, we have grow classes for people that we put on. We also So have 24/7 email support as well. So we're there for you, people have questions and that kind of question happy to send in the information and what? I don't know, I'll go find out
for them. So with that what what is what is a person looking to invest into a civil process? So we have kits that start out as low as twenty-nine ninety-nine a kit. Wow. And that's just a grow kit. But that has what you need to grow a really nice. Plan and then you can have seeds on top of that. And then we have what we call grow and harvest bundles. So that's just not those. Not only gives you the stuff that you need for growing the
plant. But it also comes with a trimmer and a curing bag and a Jeweler's loupe. So you know when it's time to take your plant down and you know and it gives you what you need to trim it. Dry it and cure it. So cool. And then we have right now, we've got some special Holiday bundles that were running, you know, over the over, the holiday period. So I have a kit that I'm selling, its 3999, right. And that's with seeds. So you get a kit with seeds for under $40.
It's hard to buy just seeds alone, quality seeds alone for under $40. You know, I have another kit bundle that we're doing for the holidays which is a gift one. Get one grow together. Promotion, right? So the idea is that, you know, that you give a kid to somebody as a gift for the holidays, you get one for yourself and you guys can grow together and yeah. And that's like 400 bucks with seeds. It's, you know, people were young business. Exactly. Exactly. And then you could be one of our
butt buddies. That's, you know, that's what we call our loyal. Customer happy customers. I'd say that's fantastic. Yeah but we're a young business and we want to you know we want to get people going and develop relationships with people so we're trying to make it as inexpensive and as easy as possible for them to get started. Yeah, that's cool. What's been the most surprising thing for you in starting a cannabis business? Surprising. Well, I'll tell you for me as a marketer.
One of the most surprising thing is been how hard it is to Market a cabin. Yeah, yeah. It's so hard getting flagged on every level. Well, not only that, but I mean, just the amount of a Brit. I mean, you know, that's one of the things that I love about that's some of the reasons why we created this cannabis podcast, was we created it, just for consumers. We wanted to be a platform for people to come on. Going. Okay, cool.
I'm learning a little bit more about this plant and the differences of each strain that affect me there. There terpenes are cannabinoid profiles, but as they start being able to get more into it, they need to still learn more stuff up for the consumer and that's why Brandon was like man. We got to get him on here because this is such an amazing thing for individual Growers at a way where it's not as well, like what we talked about intimidating.
Yeah, I mean, Brandon Brandon will science that A lot of whatever he's going to do. And yeah, you'll grow it out there. But for me, I'm just like I told the seeds in the ground. I'm going to keep looking out there. I wanted to grow like those cherry tomatoes. Yeah, I made a mistake of reading or of investing in a grow out in Oklahoma. And when I did, I became a research or for everything growing cannabis and I read, like The oaksterdam University handbook. Like it was.
Yeah. Rybak just, you know, everything I could find anything. I could find about growing because I wanted to know everything there was to know about him because I wanted to ensure that it was going to be the most successful thing possible. Mmm. That's how it works. Let's do it. No, I mean, we're both involved in that. You know, I was brought on later I as a quasi CEO. And that's, you know, that's what I found out this was fraudulent cuz I kept digging
into the actual business itself. Yeah. When we talk about the marketing side, like that is Super difficult because the Brant, I look at you must look at the exact same way, like I wish there was the Coca-Cola of cannabis Brands. I wish there was that, you know, the crest does because the name that brand is solidified into individuals, heads for decades, and decades and decades.
And it's because of that love of the being able to tell the story of the brand and I feel that cannabis has its so so difficult because it's all seen as Stoner culture of. You know, I mean if you remember the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the early 80s, right? Stevens Piccoli over there. Hi bro. What's going on right now? That's the way the Cannabis consumers are perceived. So it's it's, it's unfortunate. But the cool part about it is now it's coming more mainstream.
And now I, this is where I'm hoping to start. Seeing some amazing cannabis Brands, come out of this Looming recession, because that's really going to put the screws to these Brands. Saying, how do we differentiate ourselves? It can't just be out, I'll take whatever's on sale. Yeah, right. You're right. You're right.
But, you know, the thing is that Coach just didn't become coat because it's a great product, it became Coke because of all the marketing that went behind it. And those great commercials that I grew up with the Pepsi commercials like me show Green, you know and and so you need to have access to people and be able to promote it and that's the biggest challenge with cannabis. I mean one originally when I first developed the bug club, you know I figured out this is
going to be easy. I'm going to go make, you know, I know, How to do TV commercials, I've done them for, you know, pharmaceutical products, done a lot of Facebook advertising. I'm just going to go work with my buddies and develop some Facebook ads. And from into Facebook, I figured it was easy. But, you know, and I didn't show cannabis, I didn't talk about cannabis. I was very, very generic in the way I did it. Three days later, Facebook. Threw me off. Yeah, right.
Why? Because I violated the policies and it was only only because of the name. I had class. So, what's up? Yeah, but it is, but Bo, it's been really hard to even like certain platforms putting cannabis school on, has been a struggle. And even though, like thumbnail, that is used across our platforms for our podcast. Cannot be utilized across every platform and so, it's just even knowing specific things that have to be changed. And even certain platforms, I have to have hole.
Different content because I cannot utilize any of the content and we're not selling, we're not know any educator. It's just the education side, but still it is very particular on everything within a. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's, I think it's going to change. I think it's going to get a lot better.
And I've also seen in other industries that the, the early innovators, if you get in early and you start to do the hard work, Things when Industries open up the guys that are in the that are there first you know, end up really, you know, at the head of the pack. So it's hard work now but I think it's worth it. I think it's going to pay off in the long term and I get to meet great guys like you to so well we get to meet guys like you and your pretty good.
Pretty cool. Seriously that I mean just the background you have being able to see everything you have especially with an advertising World advertising. Is you know what? People don't realize, it's not just sad. Any stuff. It's psychologically trying to enhance your your ability to be able to make a purchase, right? We want you, we want you to be infatuated with what about it, where you can't wait to get over there and exchange your dollars for it because the value is been
achieved. But it's it's really cool to see what you've done from that area and now by being able to tap into what is it that consumers want? Well, they want ease and access. And what better way than what you're doing right now with your company? Yeah, you feel that way? Yeah, I feel that way and that's why I'm doing it. So thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, man, okay, well, I really pretty stoked.
I love the idea, the concept, the like Bud for dopes, you know, our families, you know, basically you build your grow and taking out all of that. I'll have that noise of growing and just simplifying it down to what it is plant, you know, and bringing it back to those Basics and just allowing them to have it almost like a tabletop plant, you know, you water it once it's in there and watch it grow, just don't overwater it because yeah, yeah, the owner screw it up. But yeah, I think that's
fantastic. We will have the links Down Below in the show notes. Okay, great. You guys have questions? Go ahead and check there. Is there a way they can reach out to you if or your company specifically yo well if our website is Bud Club usa.com and there's a contact form on there and I think the email is there too and I think they can also call like always email us. I think it's I should probably know this guy's I'm sorry, but I think it's no you're good. We're okay.
Show notes. Yeah, it'll be down below in the show notes. So yeah, if you guys have questions, are definitely learning how to grow or wanting to grow. Check out bud Club. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. Thanks again, Dean for joining us today, man, we can't wait to get this out to our community. We are. We've been continuously growing and I mean, we where we're all over the place, and we want to make sure that people like, you are being able to help out the Cannabis Community, everybody
can be able to Part of that. Well, thank you guys. I really personally had a lot of fun. So I want to thank you. It was a great time and I really appreciate your interest in what I'm doing and your support. And yeah let's Teach the World how to grow. So people can get really top quality stuff and you know and save a lot of money to and and have a great time. Most important thing Catman. I've been growing more than you do smoking it, and there you go. Hey man.
Thanks so much for being on the show. Brother, take care, guys, take care. Bye bye.