I'm Brandon. And I'm Jesse. We're. Cannabis school having cannabis infused conversations. With everyday. People, Cannabis companies. Celebrities. And your mom. Welcome to the sash. So this is Utah flower. This is that white fire that's grown from Piraplan. Yeah. This bong here, it's really. Nice and it's so smooth. I didn't expect it. I was. That's exactly what our dude that sat in my closet for six
months. Before we even tried it and that just sat there for the longest time and finally he's like, oh, we need to do it, we need to review it. So he brought brought it down and we checked it out and it was like we have used that for almost every episode that is flower since then. That thing is bitching. Yeah, right. That flower is good. Too, and it's indestructible. They do tests where they go up on ladders and shit and throw it on the ground. So you can kill somebody with that.
Yeah, right. For reals. I mean, the base is really heavy on it, like about. The size of a Stanley. Could be a weapon. Like. It's just crazy. So, yeah, Welcome to the sash. Yeah. It's a it. It was a longer intro than we expected, but. We have a chill day. It's such a chill day. Real quick shout out before we get started. High Rise Beverage Company These guys sent us these amazing CBDTN Delta 9 seltzers. For CBD and CBG Seltzer. Yeah, this I will tell you right
now like this one. I have grapefruit CBD seltzer, 20 milligrams of CBD, 10 milligrams of CBG. It's tasty. This is this tastes like grapefruit, right? It's like a kick of grapefruit. I like that you get way more of those, like tart grapefruitty tones. Well, you use the right word tart 'cause it's like you can taste. Well, I did lime so you can taste. I was worried about lime cause Lime's one of those flavors that it's like a shitty flavor you can.
Kind of. Just like this is not lime and this one actually is like the tartness of it. It's like I'm taking a bite of a lime, like I wanna, I wanna chase some tequila with this. Dude, that's like that strain. Key Lime Pie. Remember when we smoked that? Fucking love that. Because it when you take that first even like up to your third hit. And the flour. Oh man, dude.
Miguel, if you've never, I'm sure you've tried it, but it's lemon, just goes through lime, goes through your mouth like a Key Lime Pie, like when you eat a Key Lime Pie. And I'm not a citrus guy when it comes to pies. What do you think, dude, that that that bong is? I want one. I know right? It is because like. Did they give us a coupon code? So it took. Me. Oh, we're gonna need it. Yeah, I think he did. Yeah, we're gonna. You know what? It doesn't matter. We're we're gonna be good
partners with these guys. We wanna help them grow. We really do. Because it's, you know, there's there's other ones that are have like percolators and all that stuff and they're glass. But honestly, the design of this has been so amazing. I I get really jealous, 'cause it sits here. Brandon gets this. Like Brandon, uses this all the time. He leaves it on his mantle like it's a decoration piece.
I mean, you know, I've got that nice walnut wood box up there full of stuff, the volcano over there. I've got the. Volcano. The marble stash box over on my one over there like. You know he uses cannabis. The last time I hit a volcano was right after college and it I plugged it in in my Suburban and we did it in the car and we ate so many garnisala fries and it was insane. That sounds fantastic though. It was with my wife. It was a long time ago.
So it sounds like your wife's a big Is she still a partaker of cannabis? She is, She is. She medicates with it. So it's. She likes the edibles, yeah. So she likes to eat it. That's. Right. Yeah, I remember that. Has that been really hard to find now that you guys are in Texas? Well, it's just me in Texas right now. Oh. OK. Yeah. Yeah, they're coming. They're coming up as soon as school's over.
So she she's been partaking in the I guess they sell them now at some smoke shops, some of the Delta 9 edibles. Oh yeah, they're the ones made from hemp derived ones. Yeah, like the oh what is it? Not the shroom ones. The cubes. Yeah. Who are the Kush? Cubes. Kush Cubes. I'm not sure what kind she uses, but she's she's wanting to get her medical card so she can medicate correctly and. That's a huge difference.
Yeah. And it's funny because she's just like, I just want to take my medicine and I'm it's ridiculous that I feel like I'm doing something illegal, right. So she's she's we're about to get her card so she can get some true. We just went and got my girlfriend her card on Tuesday. Yeah, go to. Utah grown on Tuesdays, It's How much is it? Right across from Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake. And it's $70.00 for their cost. And then it's the $15 state
licensing fee. And. It's it lasts for a year, so. Are they actually giving her this, the prescription or? Yeah, you get a card. So you take that and you go to the dispensary and then you choose your card. Before after you go there, Before you can shop at any pharmacy in Utah, you have to go
and talk to the pharmacist. Now the pharmacist is at the dispensary or the pharmacy, so you just have to make sure, call ahead and make sure that they have the pharmacist there available that you can talk to first. Once you have that first one, you can go to any pharmacy here and you don't have to have it again. But then they used to renew every six months, but now your first card, it goes for the full year. So oh. Rad. Yeah. So I remember hearing about the
six months thing. I'm yeah, it is insanity, right? Especially when it's $250, you're like 500 bucks in a year in the balls like. Even though there there is another competitor to Utah Grown. There are a lot, but a lot of them are just jokes, like the experience out and and I mean I'm not going to shit on any of the dispensaries around here. They're decent for what they have. Like Cure Leaf's not bad.
It's a national brand. It's great, but you don't get the same experience with bud tenders as you do at Dragonfly. Well, it and it depends on the bud tender like there are. Yeah, I've had some really cool bud tenders at Cura, like that one, but she's like, oh, I'm leaving this. I'm like, what a loss. And my bud tender at Kira yesterday was like garbage. It was just like she is having a horrible day or something, didn't care to be there and stuff. And I'm like.
How can you right? And it's fine. Like everyone has horrible days, like people are human. But at the same time, like if you're doing customer service, there's certain levels of just you suck it up and push through it. It's part of the job. Like, I've done it, he's done it. I'm sure you've done it. Like it's all just part of the job. And it's like, all right, well, it might not be the best moment of your life at that moment,
but. And you can't understate the importance of a bud tender, especially with it coming into emerging into a new market where you're going to have a lot more older people who've never even considered doing this before, but now they're more open to it. So they're going in there not knowing anything. We're not even just older people, just anybody who's not experienced.
Yeah, and the the one thing, you know, I wanted to kind of touch on real quick is like kind of take us through your journey, man, 'cause you are a canisseur by many means, you know, I mean, you're a sativa whore like me. Sativa the better, right? Well, like Jesse said, or he the first introduction I had because you were heard about. Courtesy right, right. Right. Was that Miguel always had his stizzy around his neck, like he was walking around and his
cannabis was like right there. And I was like he was at that. Networking event in Salt Lake. Yeah, it was fucking funny, dude. Like, you had that right there. And I was like, what the fuck This guy's like ready to go? Like you. Just can't leave home without. You're like a Batman. See, mine's always in a pocket or something, and I've got a pen or two or I. Think the problem with the pocket is it's getting better now with the type of batteries that they're offering?
Yeah, less clogs. Well, not even the clog. It's just when you had the stick battery with the tank on top, Yeah, I've had so many break in my pocket. Yeah, it's like it was crazy. And on top of it, it's like having that stick in your pocket is obnoxious.
Yeah. It really is like, you know, we've had it. I'm sure it's like a very similar, if not identical to Stizzy, but they have the Nova batteries here, the cart seat a little deeper, so it's a little bit nicer as far as that's concerned, like the size. You never have to reseat them. They're perfect like. Yeah, like I had a problem with stizzies. I had to keep receiving this one. You don't. And the cool thing too is that you they have this cool little built in feature.
Like you just click it in, it'll just snap in, let just like a stizzy, but then if you do it twice it'll Preheat. That's rad. Yeah. That's. What I mean that these batteries are advancing so much but the stizzy was long and. And it was flat. That's what I loved about it. And it held the charge pretty decent.
Like, it's it's one of those things, like when when you're looking at cannabis, probably like, I like 5/10 just 'cause I'm used to em, but now, dude, I've got like a whole medicine cabinet of different disties and I don't use them as often. Yeah, I have a ton of cart ones and they're all just like sitting in bags and stuff. And I'm like, I need to review that one on the show. I need to review that one on the show. But like, I love flower. Flowers. Flower's my mistress, I Flower
is king, yeah. It's the the pins and carts are for convenience and that's because I mean I I do self medicate. I'm a very high strung individual and I when I'm talking, when I'm sober, I find myself talking a lot faster and my brain and mouth don't communicate as well together. Where When I'm smoking or not even smoking, just under the I don't even want to say under the influence when I medicate with THC. When I'm elevated. Let's go with elevated.
When I'm elevated, it's yes and it it gives my brain time to pause to where I can actually connect things better. And then speaking on pause, how do you feel? Amazing. This stuff is fire. Super clear I. Feel it in my toes. Yeah. That's cool. Now that you're saying that I do too, I. Can feel it in my toes. We we just did a full review on it. And but I didn't. Even fucking think about my toes. Yeah, I wasn't. Even thinking about them at all?
No, it's crazy, but. Exactly what you said, Like you know, it's one of the things like I coach, that's what I do. I do performance and communication coaching now and dude, I I love it. But I'll tell you what I'm the best at what I do when I'm medicated, because I'm so much more focused, I'm able to do what I do best. I connect. I had one of the I work with this company and one of their staff is this like, and you use cannabis. I'm like, yeah, like when like
all the time. You mean you're on it right now. And I'm like, mm hmm, I'm on tropical. I'm on. I'm on Tropicana cherries right now. Great. Great work strain. It is and it and it's it's so creative. And this one is very close to that. Yeah, like, see, look at that.
It's still it. Was like we were watching Modern Family the other night and there's a scene where Phil's like talking about his kid and his kid has ADHD or the the mom is. And and it goes into showing the dad doing all this shit as they're talking about how the son has ADHD and it's just showing how the dad has ADHD and all the shit that he was struggling with. My girlfriend turns to me and looks at me and she's like, Oh
my God, it's you. I was like, fuck 'cause and I think about it when I sit down to edit or do something. If I don't utilize cannabis, I am going doing this. I'm coming back like I am not fucking focused. I'm not sitting down. I'm not there. I'm what's this? What's this? My mind's here. I'm like and I'm not finishing something, I'm like going and doing. A contact high for me. Yeah, that's.
What it is, dude, 'cause I mean, you notice when you're around other ADHD people, like you can just talk forever. Oh yeah, like there's there's no, no lull in the conversation going, fuck, I ran out of things to talk about. No. And it's. And nothing will be uninteresting either. Yeah, exactly. You'll cover, like, actually good topics. Oh well. That's why my girlfriend will be like, hey, how come you talk to Jesse all the time? You can talk for hours.
You guys are on the phone for like hours. That's like the third time. You talk today. How come you don't talk to me like that? I'm like I We don't talk the same. We're different people. I don't know, like Jesse has a very vibrant conversation, like he will drive an entire conversation. She won't. So it's very different when I'm like, OK, I can ask Jesse a question and I get a 10 minute response. I can ask you a question and I get a two to three word response. So it's difficult.
I mean, it's it is. But you know, one of the things, like I put a lot of study into ADHD, 'cause I'm really into people science and I wanna understand, like, how I how we influence and motivate other people. You know? And I feel that people with ADHD have that power, that superpower to influence and motivate. Like with what you do, you you work within this field where a lot of people, it's so commoditized that it always comes with fuck whatever pens, some hats with some shitty
silkscreen. Like dude, like, I've talked to so many of those over the years. I have no love for him. Brandon knows. I'm like, you know what I mean? Fucking whatever. Like, But when you know somebody like you, a lot of that comes from your superpower of cannabis and ADHD. Oh, 100%. So kind of take, I mean, I I want to learn more about it, 'cause I mean, we've never really sat down and and got to know, but why the fuck do you do what you do?
Honestly, I I don't even know. 'Cause you like it. I mean, I love it, yeah. I mean, when I I've never met a guy in your world that goes, fuck yeah. They're doing it wrong. Yeah, so why are they doing it wrong? So, I mean, it's one I appreciate the people that I work with. I'm a communicator. I like to connect with people anyway, and then everyone I work with ends up being friends. So it's like seeing them win is me winning as well.
And there's nothing worse than seeing someone give out trinkets and trash and swag. I hate swag. So I mean it's just that whenever anyone he says, oh, I can't wait to give it to my kid, I'm like and you you swung in a miss and it's so simple to do branding correctly. It just takes time to learning your client and what they're trying to accomplish with their branding.
I mean, they spend thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars into establishing a brand that they have employees and people that represent the brand out in public and then to throw their logo on a fidget spinner, it's like. What are you? A. Little BIC pen or something? I mean the pen. The pen's a pen. Everyone uses a pen but the. Pen is still 60% of a promo market, so you can't. Yeah bro, it's probably #2 behind the T-shirt. And it's just what happens in branding is people in my
position. They become order takers. Everyone's becoming lazy. They just sit behind a computer. They sit behind a computer and wait for your client to reach out to you to tell you exactly what they want. Well, it's not even just a relationship. It's like you're waiting for them to tell you exactly what they want and then you just provide that.
You're you're adding no value. And then with where the relationship comes in is all these other branding companies think that we're competing with each other. When it's all said and done, we're competing with the Internet. Anyone can sit down, upload a logo, get fidgets, printers, journals, T-shirts, yeah. But it's it's garbage though because most of the time like you know it it's like our merch whenever we get like we we just set up like an Etsy store you know Brandon's gone through
designed all the shirts and. Random shit on printful. Yeah, something and it's like. We'll we'll come up with an idea and he'll create it. But The thing is it's the quality of product that we get. Like once in a while like I got, I got my sativa days into Kenite shirt I had We have like a cheetah with with this, with a joint hanging out of his mouth and on on the back it has a sloth. That's red. With the joint coming out of his mouth and it's in purple, it's fucking rad.
The quality of it's really good. But then we got another hood, we got T-shirts, and he got a really nice T-shirt and I got like this shitty cotton one. Was like really terrible quality. He was like, hard, almost fabric and like. But you were talking about it before it's treated, and so you know it's always. Treated it's when it comes to with a scratchy tease. In a league of its own, you can't even buy that in retail anymore, and people that are selling it are just being cheap
as fuck. Yeah, their their margins are insane. Well, it's just like, again, you're spending all this money on your brand. But my sector, which is brand like branded products emerge is like it's it's been commoditized where it's like you're expecting trinkets and trash. Yeah. And it's because of that buyer for that company. That's not their job. They their job is putting together the events that they're going to and they're they end up
three weeks out from the event. They're like, oh fuck, I need to order giveaways. I'm gonna throw this on a journal, a pen and a stress. No thought. Well, they it's not their just not their job. Yeah. Where it's Yeah, that's a good point. It's not their job. Yeah, they they want stuff, but they just don't know what they want. They they're not educated. Where do they need to be? So that's where you come in. Exactly where I I can tell you that that T-shirt, that scratchy
T-shirt, it's 100% cotton. It's called Acoe cotton, which means carted opened end. So we real quick, we're switching gears on this just so you know. Oh, this is Ice Queen. This is another sativa. Sounds dramatic. I know, right? It's good, but anyways, please continue. So when they harvest the cotton, all they do is they harvest it, they throw in these vats, they stretch it out into yarn, and then they weave your shirt whether whether skipping is
they're leaving. Just like weed they're leaving the sticks, the stems, the seeds, the waste in the actual fabric. So when that when that fabric lays or that what is it called the fabric? No, not the the the yarn lays. There's fibers that are standing up. Now, I already told you screen printing, sure. It's like it doesn't naturally adhere. So when you screen print on a surface with fiber standing up, have you ever had a shirt that has like really thick screen print on it?
The reason why they do that is they're trying to get those fibers to lay down. Fucking Disney. They do that shit all the time. It's cheap cotton and what you need is a combed in ringspun cotton.
So when they harvest the cotton, they come out all the sticks and stems and impurities, then they ring spin it, which is like literally is a process like this which gets all the fibers to lay down and then they weave it. And then typically when you do the combed and ring spun cotton, if you're doing 100% cotton, it's going to be a super soft shirt, but it's going to shrink like a motherfucker. Dude, nobody would fucking tell me this if I went over to like name a fi and I'm going to shit
on him right now. I don't give a fuck. Namify does that, dude. They don't give a shit. They just throw it right in there. Whatever your order is will hit it. How many you need, by what date will hit it? But that's not going into those steps. Like, you know, it's like Under Armour. You brought up Under Armour. You've worked with those guys. Before, well, so I used to be the supplier for Under Armour and Namify because of that was one of my clients.
I mean yeah I I was on that side of the industry for a lot of so starting the beginning when I I got into the industry is making headwear. I made hats and I got hired by a company So if you wore a a tailor made golf hat between 2000 what is it 2006 and 2008 or 9. I made it. So I was working with a lot of the golfers and. Stuff like that. My brother had definitely some of those then. Yeah, well, I mean, it's it's a great brand.
So I was just making hats and and then it just kind of then I morphed from there and then I just started joining other suppliers. I would travel the country just selling and selling and selling. And then I just learned so much over the time of my career working on both sides as a buyer for the other product as well as the seller of the product.
And what I've done is married the two sales Rep techniques of selling to the end user which would be the people buying from Namefi and and the supplier side who was then selling to them.
Because as a sales Rep when I was selling Under Armour and and stuff like and Adidas and all the other brands that I was selling, I would get full line presentations explaining what I just told you on why they you need to educate your clients and tell them hey for pennies to dollar more you can get something that's not going to shrink, fade or peel.
It'll last years and still look good and and it'll be a great piece that people continue to wear and not end up in the drawer and end up being used to dry your car with because it shrinks up and fades and is a piece of shit. Dude, for sure. I mean, and that you just explained it perfectly and and Brandon, I'm sure you got something you want to be able to ask as well, because I'm just like, I'm just thinking about that. Like why are guys in this field not doing that more?
But. Oh, it's cost. It's cheap. It's always margins and I. Think it's just the level of cost It's it's education. It's not. Cost at all. If you tell anyone who is buying, if you're a small company, you're still spending five, ten, $15,000 on this stuff. And if you tell somebody, hey dude, how about we buy a little less and I'll buy something that lasts and people would wear it, They'll jump on that in a
second. It's the people that are taking the orders and not educating them to make the right, better decision. Dude, that's like, but tenders and not educating them on like hey, here, you want the highest THC? No I don't. You want the best fucking experience. You want the entourage effect, You want it's education. And it's knowing who their client bases, who's going to be receiving these products, who's going to be using these products, how is your branding going to look on it?
Now people give their branded product to other people and they'll put blasted left chest, the big old logo right there on your left chest and I'm like, yo dude, they don't work for you bro. Like why you going to give them something with a billboard on there? They're never wear that. Like they're not going to represent you like they love you, but they don't. That's that left chest is it screams and screams McDonald's
employee. Like, it's just like I'm an employee where if you have like a nice jacket and switch out the zipper pulls and that's the branding and just that branding is on there. It's a lot smaller, but the person you give it to will see that branding more, know where it came from. Well, I I like that a lot more because I've had cool watches, I've gotten Ray Bans and other things from companies and I'm like, either their land, their
brand is just fine. It's simple, it's small, it's not taking over the entire thing. Or again, like you said, now I'm a fucking employee. I don't work for your company. And they do that because again, the person buying the stuff doesn't know any better. They just say, here's the logo, put it on it, get us some stuff. And the easiest place to decorate are these like left chest. I'm not thinking about it.
Where is like, instead of getting to know the branding line like, yo dude, like, let's this is going to clients, let's let's brand this with a woven Taco tag on the sleeve and just that's it, they'll wear it. It's like the alligator on Lacoste. Yeah, like it's very different. It's small. Exactly. But yet it's still their brand. Well, it's prevalent. It's it's branding. It's treating a business as if they are a clothing brand rather than. Dude, what a great one line. Right, Yeah.
What a great line. Yeah, it's just treating them like or not even just clothing. It's just as if they are a brand. Yeah, but that's the thing though. And I don't wear even though like I I don't care about brands, which is funny because I'm I was so deep into marketing for a very long time, very much still so, but. Sorry, I realized I had that in my lap for a long time. No.
Dude, who gives a shit? Dude, we're good, you're chatting, But The thing is like when you're when you have these brands that you wear, it's exactly that. Like if I'm wearing a shitty shirt that just has their company name all over it, I'm going to use that for the gym and I might not. That's like giving it good. Yeah, seriously. Like.
If you wore it to the gym. Like honestly, like the cannabis brands we've worked with and they send us T-shirts, like I wear that shit to the to the gym and there's like only one that I like, really like wearing. And it's just because they've taken that time to find good material utilizing their brand on there. Their brand feels like, I mean, even though it's like a little. No. Who's the one that you like cycling? Frog. Oh yeah. Like cannabis is OK. I like their fabric on on
cannabis, their fabric is soft. It is soft, but still it's like, it's just like what you said. I'm your fucking billboard and it's I'm not, I'm not a I'm not a super big fan of the cannabis as far as how they've done business and all these other things, but it's a good looking brand. It's done poorly. It's clean, but yeah, again, it's the. It's not a mixed. If you're a big old walking billboard like. I would rather look like a brand.
Yeah, it's. Cool. If you have like a nice soft dope tea or something and it's, you know, Tiny Brand, it's. Give your clients a brand, not a billboard. And then the people that are also uneducated that they're selling to the buyer, their their, the buyer, all they know we want something high quality. I hear that every time I need something high quality, I need something high quality, which is obviously makes sense.
Obviously the person hearing that most of those people selling a branded product to them, that just means, OK, a more expensive brand. Travis Matthews. It's like, fuck dude, how much technology can really go into a
Polo? It's like, yeah, Travis Matthews is a Gray Polo. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to discredit that Polo whatsoever, but it's going to be like a $7580 polo where you can get a comparable polo as long as you take your time and find one at a fraction of that cost without the Travis Matthew Brand and. Because then you're paying for the name, not just the quality, but then the. Buyer is going to because you believe that the name brand makes it a better brand.
The buyer then feels that same fucking way too. So then like, yeah, more Travis Matthews, more Travis Matthews in it. And then you can just like everyone's wearing Travis Matthews because that's like the best shirt and it's like, no, it's like get to get to know your brand. We can if you give them time and it's also getting your getting your buyer on a schedule. It's like if you're not selling Christmas now, you're missing out because that inventory ain't gonna be there in the fourth
quarter. Yeah, damn dude. Like the way you're explaining it, like this. This line keeps popping in my head. Like, treat your clients like a give your clients a brand, not a billboard. Like it's taking your time and scheduling it out and. 'Cause you wear nice shit if you like it and if it's like just got somebody's company name on there and you just love it? Fuck it. Let's take a step back. Let's not even say people who give the apparel late your employees.
Yeah, if you want your employees to wear this. Look at Sharp 100. Percent, 'cause I'm like every company, They're like here, here's our swag and then I'm like or do you see not wearing this shit? Yeah, this is literally 99% of swag becomes my kids pajamas. I mean, you guys want this T-shirt? Ohh fuck yeah, I love free T-shirt. I'm gonna put it on like. If it if it's I'm giving this to my kid. What the fuck? Your kids not gonna buy from me? No, that's. 99% of the swag that
I get goes to my kids. I I used to run an agency with this guy and he had this brand called site Smash and it was a web development company and it it was a cool looking, fun brand. It kind of reminded me like what was that 80s game? It was like after the running man. Do you remember this game? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it was this game that was kind of like that and it had this, like computer, 1980s big letter brand. It was it's cool looking, right?
But it made no sense because somebody asked Site smash. Like what's that? Oh, we break websites. Do you produce websites? Part of it, And we're mostly a marketing agency now, but we used to be a web dev agency, so that made sense. So there's disconnect. But the brand was so ambiguous. I was about to say I drew someone's attention that they asked. Yeah, but even then it was, but it was, it was just, I wanted to
see it in different ways. Because The thing is that anytime another person had that shirt, they never wore it. They just never, they didn't even wear it to the gym, just like you said. And it was high quality. And we did it in some trade with another guy who all he does is like, oh, you need a ball and pen. You need a bowling trophy. I got them. And you want a backpack. I'll put it on anything. And you're just like, fuck, I don't. I and I don't wear. I didn't, I didn't even want to
wear. I only wore it to the gym. I didn't wear it out. And hundreds of thousands of dollars is getting dumped into this. I mean, I had clients spending all the time, millions of dollars in their branding, 'cause they're such a big company and it's like you got to do it to where you're not this stuff. You can't have this stuff ending up in the trash. Yeah, and it's like if. You have this, That's all exactly where it goes.
It's like, cool, We just spent $100,000, couple $1,000,000 and it's just throwing it away, yeah. It's like you look at these like you know, even taking like fast food chains, right? You can tell the ones, the big ones, they invest that money into their into their apparel, because it needs to be consistent. No matter where you go. If you're in a Chick-fil-A in Utah or in California or somewhere in the Midwest, same fucking shirt. It's like in and out.
They all have the exact same uniform. You have to. And. And that consistency is so strong. Yeah, exactly. That's their brand. And people want, like when you have a sense of pride about your brand, other people want to wear that because it's this weird tribalism that's ingrained in us. But that's just part of tribalism. It's who do you belong to? What tribe? Like, like, you know, Eric Dahl. No, I don't. You gotta meet him. He's a cool guy, but that guy is
a Nike fanatic. Everything is fucking Nike, dude. Dress shoes, Nike jacket. Nike shirt. Nike pants. Nike underwear. Motherfucking Nike. More than likely, right? But I'll tell you this The funny thing you know the the shoe company, Kizik. Oh yeah, for sure, right? It's OK. I'm not. Not my, not my I've. Never worn a pair. It's all right, but Eric was given a pair calling out. Eric probably didn't even listen to this. Fuck. Yeah, no, no, I don't know. He's not a he's not a cannabis
consumer right now, but. Here's You don't need to be a cannabis. You just listen. Listen, bro. But the the cool part is that he gets this. This just talks to like your clients and and why they would be. They want that A presence is he loves the Nike brand so much he was given a really nice pair of Kizzix, great pair and from their CMO. He takes them home, he puts them on, he goes, well it's nice, OK, takes them off, puts them in a box, puts his Nike shoes back on.
Next morning he goes to the gym. There's this old guy there and he goes, hey, I got you something. He wouldn't wear them. Yeah, he gave him the shoes. He wouldn't wear them because I said why? And he goes it's not Nike. They're not Nike. Like when you have such a strong, like you got to think about it. All these clothing brands may have started as something else and your company could be in apparel blank 'cause you take those.
I mean, same fabrics, you know, different designs, but you know what? There's a different intent and it's what you feel when you wear it. Creates that coat following. It's like Apple. Yep, and. Then it's like, I mean what you're saying when you're feeling it and it's clothing is like that specifically. And then also people in my shoes that I compete with and stuff, it's they get so tainted because they're surrounded by it all the time. They forget on how personal clothing really is.
I mean when you give it to somebody, it's on their body, it's touching their skin. They chances are they will not wear it if they don't feel good in it. And yeah, I mean it's and that's it's a big connector. It's like if you feel good you'll you'll work good too. And it's just, I just don't understand. Well, I mean, I do understand. I mean, the whole market turned into swag and shit because people got lazy. I love that, man. I have totally converted.
I mean, I I would never ever tell anybody that you do swag. And until this conversation, I would have, because that's just a nomenclature that's been placed into the society. Trash dude. And it's funny because everyone I work with client wise, I say the same thing to every time. And I always say we're not gonna make swag and shit and they'll slip sometimes. Hey, we go, I need to order some swag. I mean, I mean Brandon Mertz. I'm like, no, no, no, no, it's OK.
Yeah, it's what you know. But at the same time, like there's a difference because, you know, you talk about these events and I got to give shit away. I don't want to give things away that I I I don't want to feel like I'm giving something away. I'm giving them value. 100%, Well, it's representing your business, especially as a business owner, I mean. That would be cool. Like you're on the golf course, you're wearing like a slick Polo
T that's been branded correctly. And that guy, every time you see him out there on the green, you're like, dude, you're wearing my company shirt. Like I wouldn't even fucking say anything. I wouldn't have to the. Guy who's wearing it knows where he got it from, right? Guy or woman? And honestly? How many times did you see someone wearing a dope shirt? A dope pants. Like you. Ask them about it. You're never seeing someone wearing, like, work merch that you're like, fuck bro, where'd
you get that? You got to hook me up, dude. Like no one says that. I'll tell you right now, dude, I got this. I got these little hats from Amazon, right? And and because I'm just cheap fuck. And I need to just get a scally, but, but I'll let you get one. I've got like a bunch of them. They're hanging on my wall. Spent $100 on a hoodie. I mean, you can just fork out. For sure. But yeah, well, I mean, these ones are like 20 bucks.
But I'll tell you what, the one I get compliments on all the time is the one I got from Team Oh. Oh my God, it's probably like 5 bucks. 7 bucks. I can't buy anything off a team. No, I just don't get ripped. Off. No, dude. Like I've I've I've got one time it was like what the fuck. But that's this little hat. I got it and I was just like because I I didn't know if I I would this would look good on me or anything. And so I was like, all right I'll, I'll give it a shot $5 team Moo.
And I get it and I wear it and the guys are like, dude, cool hat and I'm like. It's got the more of these. It's got this like weird little metal eagle type thing right here and people go, what is that? And I just make up a story all the time. I'm like, oh, it's for my Aztec culture. And they go oh really? And I'm like, yeah, you know, you know, Montezuma, like it all goes the way back to that. My family, like up there and they go, they are like really?
I'm like, no, dude, this is just on the hat. I don't fucking know. But. Dude, that's super funny. So with you traveling for work all the time, are you like, has been finding cannabis been a real struggle around everywhere? So it never really has been. So I I've lived all over the country since since high school. I played football in Louisiana. That's where I went to school. I stayed out there for a while. I lived in Nashville.
I'm toying with the idea of moving to Texas and staying in Texas. I'm probably going to be there. And Northern California Now, Utah and everywhere I've gone, I've always found a connection. Immediately. I mean true stoners find each. Other Oh yeah, they really like Jedis. They really feel the Force. They really eat in their eyes. I mean, I had connects just because I would fly to Chicago every year for a trade show do
with work. I mean shout out to my boy Darian. I'm sure you're not while listening to this, but I'll send it to you. But it's funny, he was skating down the street and I was walking down the street and I and this is downtown Chicago and I stopped him And straight up I'm like, yo, dude, First off I'm not a cop but you look like a dude who would smoke. Yeah. Can you make a connection? And he's like, bro, I got you. And yeah, he gave me his number.
I hit him up when I was in the trade shows finishing up. He's like, all right bro, I'll pick you up outside. And he rolled up in a fucking car that looked like the car from training day but with like 30 inch rims. System just blaring and I'm walking out of like at this time. This is when you still dress up nice with trade shows, 'cause I'm fucking that old. But I walked out and I'm like, I'm about to jump in this car. Sure, sure. Where are we going? Right, dude, that's. So funny that.
What a random ass encounter, dude. And then all of a sudden, fucking Batman rolls. Up knowing Homie now for like 16 years. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's why he's a rapper now, dude. He's killing. What? Oh yeah. That's so cool. And he's from, he was actually from Nashville and that I was living in Tennessee at the time, so. What? What? What's his name? Darian. Darian. Yeah, OK, dude, you got have to share with us. We got it. We got to put that on on the notes down there.
Go listen to Darian music. Or something. Yeah, dude, he puts out videos all the time. Dude. He's a good dude. Hell yeah, dude. We'll we'll blow them up because we got we're all over, dude. We're in 86 different countries and fucking all over the US and all North America. So yeah, and South America. Holy shit, we're everywhere. But yeah, dude, that's so cool. What a that's such a cool thing too, man. Like you meet people like that all. Over the country.
You imagine what celebrities you can meet and if you just met chance encounter and didn't be like a a fucking weirdo around them, go oh, what's it like pretending all the time like, I don't know, ask any guy who cheats on his wife all the time. Same fucking thing, right. It's just like, Oh yeah, well, you know what it's like to be an actor? Just cheat on your spouse. Yeah, you read it right. That's. Crazy. But you would you would chill with them.
Like honestly, if you just, you know, you pick almost any celebrity and we're doing something like this right now, how chill do you get with somebody else, like and the connection you get? Oh yeah, but that's oh, going back to your question about finding weed, it's always, it's always been good. But Texas recently has been fucking difficult, right? Yeah, you're saying you're doing like. Thca and so I I self medicated. I started smoking weed heavily when I kicked my Xanax.
So yeah yeah I I well I've always smoked. I've been smoking since I was 14 and I remember like I had a highlighter I used to hide my hide my weed in the inside of my highlighter. And keep. Right. And but I didn't get really heavy into it until, like I was like on Xanax and it just wasn't good for me at all. And then I just started smoking.
And again, like I said earlier, just one of those things that it really makes me normal, like I don't have trouble carrying conversations, I don't have trouble working, presenting, remembering what I know. It actually helps me articulate it so I can get it out and explain it better to my clients. So if any of the clients are listening, just know I'm stoned every time we spoke to each other. But it's just that's how I get creative and that's that's how I I. That's how I connect.
Yeah and and you connect somebody with about their brand cause again dude, the brand is so important that is that is the identity of your business. Yeah, it's it's what I used to say a lot when I talk with my clients like you don't have, you don't have a brand until your customer tells you you do. And so you need to put in that time to when you present your brand to do so in the most thoughtful manner as possible. And the best way to be able to do that is not rely upon
yourself. You need to seek outside counsel. Is he all out? But I just didn't have the lungs for it. You're. Good. I'm good. I'm so good right now. Solid now too. Yeah, the ice queen hits a little harder. Not as much in the toes, it's in my head. Yeah. Yep, it's a oh dude, It's a really nice sativa strain. If you guys haven't listened to that episode, go listen to that one. But yeah man, it's it's gotta. It's like a fine wine, bro. Listen to us. It's, you know, it's got an oaky flavor.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really like Ice Queen. Surprisingly, that one's been a really good, like daytime one or even end of night one. In higher doses. I found that I really enjoy that one too. Yeah, I'm just so nice. It's been a nice blend having both of them because it's now really grounded. I mean, I've been, I've been drinking this thing. I am really impressed with this. Divine's toasted. It was. Good. So I love the flavor on that this blueberry's been.
Super tasty. I love their flavor profiles 100% and it's a nice. Kind of combination to tell you saucers can taste like. Shit. Fuck yeah, I would say 99% of them taste like shit cannabis. Seltzers or seltzers? OK, yeah, I'm not. A big seltzer person. Shitty. Have you ever had a press? Yeah, I think those. Are fucking delicious. Don't give me that look. Is that is that is that? The alcohol ones judgment, I'm not a big. Seltzer person with. Alcohol. I like some beers.
Scotch. Basically, he's saying he doesn't like bitch. Drinks. So I can't. Drink beer. I I drink. I used to drink beer by like 20 KS, and now that I'm fucking old, it's just like, I have one beer. I'm destroyed. If I have six. I'm in the shower naked, throwing up all over myself. Dude, I would. That sounds like a great. I've been found that way. Shit just off of. Beer. Bro, beer just destroys me. But give me a bottle of vodka.
I'll drink the whole thing down to the ground and I'll talk to you. Or tequila too. I don't drink like I used to. It's like that hard alcohol. Is exactly. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to drink the whole bottle. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, no. But exactly. That it's just it it it processes differently. That's why he he doesn't just eat when he does drink. He's not drinking shitty stuff. He wants high end Scotch. He he's developed a taste for Scotch. I can't fucking say you can't.
Bust out a nice glass and make your little ice cube circle sphere. There's times where that's not available and you're on the river and or something like that. I know, but then you get like a. Good Devastator. Like 8 or 9%? It's by Wasatch Brewery. But what kind is it? What? Kind of. It's Amber. Bock. No, no, it's not an amber Bock. It's thick as it's a it's a dark beer, that one. So you need a fork and a like. Like 1/2 advising. You ever had a heff?
Heff's OK, but it's just like. Those beers I like Ipas. I'm a weird. Fucker. Yeah. Did you need to like you need a? Fork and knife, but I drink that. I only have those like. Once it's heavy, every blue moon. It's thick, that's what. I'm seeing it destroys like. Blue moons are Heff and Visin. But the best Heff and Visin. Why do you say everything like that? Are you German? No, no. Then knock it off. Well, I It just comes out that way, dude.
I I I totally agree though, because I mean, it's like, you know with your last name. Is that Martinez? Yeah, since I. Sound so Spanish Angeles, right? It's Angeles. Angeles. Yeah, right. It's just like. Look. You heard my voice fucking. What? I hate that every time. Just see Angeles and it's like, dude, you're like, bro, I'm over here. Yeah, I get in the quell like I. Don't even wow quell I get QS as. Geez dude, people really have a hard time.
Let's say writing no. Let's just say yeah. Like people have a hard time reading. They're like, oh fuck, what does that say? I mean, proper pronunciation's pretty simple if you learned using it that far, like. Are we really getting that far where people are struggling to read like that? No, dude, it's been going forever, dude. When I. Was in the Navy to read. I didn't. I didn't report to my duty section for two weeks because they'd call over the the
intercom system over there. Fireman Angeles report to the corner deck. That just doesn't even sound. Right. No. And so this guy goes, hey, that's. You and I'm like, no, I'm Angeles. That's Angeles. I don't know who that guy is, but he's probably in trouble and they're like, you're going to get so much shit. And I'm like, I don't fucking care And that they just just because I go over there and you have to, you hold out your card, go permission to go ashore and
they go, permission granted. Nobody looked at my card. They just saw that I had a green military card until like 2 weeks later and this non commissioned officer was waiting for me at the at the. He was waiting for me to get off the brow from the quarter deck and I walk over there and I said permission to go to shore and he goes, what's that sailor's name? And he goes, it's Fireman Angeles and I said. No, I'm fireman. Angeles not fireman Angeles.
I don't know who that guy is and they go and and the senior chief, he goes, Are you telling me that you haven't reported the duty in two weeks because we can't pronounce your last name? I said it's not my fault. Navy's full of a bunch of illiterates. Come with me, dude. I bought the fucking. Deck from the front of the ship all the way to the aft, like it from the. Forward to. The AFT I I I I was. I was in so much shit. But it was fucking worth support people's brand. Just care.
About their brand. Don't let them actually having a brand, yeah. Say no, because. You would never just say no to merch, just. I mean just. Swag Say no to swag I mean. And you can call, You can call. It swag, it's just care about other people's brands and if you just do that in the product that you give and then going back, we were talking cost if you do it correctly due to scheduling. If you start early, it tends to be cheaper than going that cheap swag and trash way.
Because again, like I was telling you, you get that swag and trash when the event, the event marketer or the marketing person is putting the entire event together, they're now three weeks away from the event and I'm using, I'm using three weeks, 'cause it's fucking consistent. They're three weeks away from that phone call. Yeah, you got bro. That's why you smoke so much. It's fucking he's. Like, oh fucking clients call it again. Well. No, I don't even have to be that, he just.
He he reads their mind and it's in three weeks, right? What? How did you know? Well, if they're working with me now, I have an event. Calendar. I've reached out to them four months before the event. Oh, so you know. Yes, 'cause I'm going to reach out to. Them 'cause. I'm adding value 'cause I want to I need to beat that computer. I need to make sure what I can do that computer can't well and if you were ahead of time going. Hey, I know you have this event coming up.
Let's get you some, like, really quality shit instead of some actual shit. Yeah, And now we have time to. Get a sample in your hands to see if it's something that you really want. Now we have time to like create a decoration method that's fucking bitching or custom
packaging, that's fucking bitch. And we have time to go back and forth with your artwork to make it look good because we started early and we're fucking cruising like it and then doing it that way it's ends up again being cheaper because now we're not rushing product. Now I can't. I'm not struggling to find somewhere to find this shit from to get it here in time to decorate it for you and get it because you're giving me 3 fucking weeks and you want it to
look amazing. But. But. Again, it's not that person's. Fault they're they've been. Busy putting this entire. Event together. Which I'm sure, and I'm just using events as an example, but and I'm sure it's beautiful, but they're not. Swag is the last thing on their mind which is why we're three weeks out. Oh shit man. I need to give something away. And then if they order it themselves, which they probably will, or reach out and tell somebody who said OK, what do
you want? Well that's why I'm calling you. OK, what do you want? Yeah, they have no idea. They. Haven't given it thought because it's not, like you said, it's not their job, so now I'm putting it back on. You that you're already stressed out three weeks from your event. I mean, what do you want instead of like, OK, dude, your events. If we're three weeks out, what's our budget? How many people? What are we trying to accomplish? Just know we don't have time for a sample.
We might not even have time for art approval because we're three weeks out. But this event's every year. Perfect. This isn't going to happen next year, yeah, but at the same. Time being able to trust you on that one. Like, hey, look like all the things that you may be used to, like all the proof and all that. And like, that's a big scary thing too, 'cause you don't want to get something that comes back looking like ass, but that's how it have time. But that's how it happens when.
You don't have time. But at the same time like you. You giving them that preface of saying, like, look, I'm going to just, we're going to get this ship signed and delivered, 'cause we just need to make sure that it's on top. But you need to trust me on that one. I'm going to make the best decision for you so you don't need to go through all this cycle. Was it going to look good? It needs to be like this. Great. You should have called me months ago. Yeah, well, that's the thing.
No, they shouldn't have called you months ago. You should have called them months ago. If you're their person, yes. Dude, Because again, the Internet. 'S not going to call them months ago. Yeah. No. And that's where I. Mean. That's why I'm saying like they they need to understand that person who's being able to help them if they're working and then brand Merck and when they when they realize. That and it connects and I and I see the clients that do it when they trust me.
I mean, I sold Christmas in January, bro. We just hit. We just said happy New Year and I'm going to have you fork out another hundred or another. Well, I think it was $400,000 right now for Christmas, even though it just happened. Because who want to have that time and who? This shit we went through. The year before and I told them it wasn't going to happen. It didn't happen because you can't get 3000 DeWalt drills delivered in a month. I don't give a fuck who you are.
You can't get that done. And I told them that I'm good right now. Yeah, I'm pretty good. And I told them. That and. So when it came to the next year, they're like, OK, all right, dude, let's buy this early Christmas comes every fucking year, guy. Yeah, it's not going to change your budget's. There every year for Christmas. What does it matter if you spend it in January or in? Fucking October. When you're already stressed and going to get what you want. Now, Yeah, now we're all up
late. Stressing that it's going to be delivered now we're all like as soon as you have approved budget. It's already allotted for the year. Why the fuck not just allocate it and go cool here? Let's get this done and it's educating them. On why they should do that and letting them know that that's even an option. Most people don't start talking Christmas to their clients until July, which is cool. That's that's enough time. But you're still going to be stressed the fuck out.
Oh yeah, I mean, 'cause that's five months, you know? It's really cool. I love that. This. Has been an awesome conversation. I mean, what's been so great about this is cannabis has been this great unifier of being able to take this and make like meow. Honestly, I've never talked about brand merchandise in a very entertaining educating way, ever. And we, I mean, I got to do it while smoking. I mean this was.
Definitely what I'm saying. And this was the first session that I've ever had with Miguel. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Same here. And I mean. We've known each other for years and now it's just been so cool. But I mean we we wanted to bring you on the pod cause one, you were in town and two, you just have great energy about you, man. And we want you guys, we want everybody to know about you, everybody to know about you. So our, you know, our audience, your audience truly, man.
I mean, yeah, if you guys are looking for more than just. Swag like an actual brand branded merge that doesn't get. Passed on to your kids? Or sent on to like savers or some shit. Spend your money wisely. Like, yeah, like stop throwing it. Away well. Miguel, you give us a link, we're going to be able to put that down. Where can people reach out to you? We'll have everything in the show notes below. Yeah, Where can they reach out to you? VA LinkedIn. Social media, anyway, I answer.
Smoke signals. OK, just hit. The links and the contact. Information signals. Learn those. We'll get all of his links and they'll be in the show notes, Yeah, And. Just remember you know you cannabis is here to be able to help you open up those options for communication and connection, so just makes life better. Yeah, makes life better. It really if if you wanna solve world. Problems get everyone high. It's like increasing is your quality. Of life. Why not live a better quality of
life And it's not synthetic. Right. I mean, you can. There are, I mean, if you're. Comparing it to like Xanax? Oh no, I I just meant there's like. Synthetic cannabinoids that are actually sold on the market that are produced by pharma. So this is the THC, Aaron, CBD. We didn't get into it, but the Texas. THCA stuff this Delta 9. I am so lost with all of it. I see all the science getting
put into to jump through hoops. I think it's so insane that we're going through this nonsense making shit that's not needed. Well, THCA. Technically is the exact same thing, but it should be if they are actually growing at the same. But it's the thing that we're finding is, and they're just harvesting early, right? No, their COA. Is not typically what it actually is. Bullshit because. THCA. Companies took is what. Is naturally occurring.
In flower that I get from California, Colorado, Washington, or it's the everywhere, it's the unactivated. It's THC acidic form. Which is what you get on any cannabis plant that is grown. So if you eat it, you're not going to get. High necessarily 'cause it needs to be has to be activated. Needs to be heated. Needs to be lit on fire and when you do that, it takes and drops the acidic form and it becomes just THC or delta 9 and that is what's illegal is delta 9.
So they can sell THCA flower. So it should be should be the exact same thing. But that doesn't mean it is because even we find everywhere else the Co as aren't always what's in the thing and it doesn't necessarily mean that what's tested or shown on there is even what's in there.
So I would be very curious and I don't know you'd have to find a like a a reliable source to actually test that you know, But like I'd be curious to test the THCA flower that's down there and go what is this actually is this just hemp flower that's been sprayed with concentrates That's what it feels like to me when I even. When I break it up, like feels weird. Yeah. And. And I even said that.
To them. But then every once in a while, I'll grab a strain where I'm like, OK, dude, this one's actually a lot. This one, it it feels like a normal nug. It looks like a normal nug, but then the experience is it filled. More like a normal nug, or is it still just I've gone back to that? They are calling themselves dispensaries, but I've gone back to that because I've found a strain there at Light where I was getting one that was giving me headaches from the other place.
But here's the thing, they're so constricted. They only typically offer like one strain at a time. So by the time I'm there, it's a different strain because they only have such small. Growers, I would guess that it's only and they don't have the scalability that they're growing tons of strains. At the same time, it's probably still a relatively new program of whatever things they're doing, so it's like you only get like one or two.
Options that disappear so they're rotating flowers so much that it's just super inconsistent. So it doesn't even matter where you go, it's just it's always different. You have no. Idea 100%. That's horrible. Yeah bro, that's why. When? You helped me out like it's is. I didn't finish telling you like I felt it in my head. My brain thanked you. I text that to you. My brain. Thanks. You because it's just I was.
Getting tons of headaches out there and stuff and and I self medicate with it because I'm still doing my job out there. So it's like, yeah, you gotta have something good for it, but. No, man. Hey, again, thank you so much for being out here willing to come on to the show. I mean I know people would be like Corsa come on your show, but at the same time like you know we're, we're really picky about who we want on our show. And well, thank you guys. Appreciate it. I had a great.
Time. Yeah, this was awesome. Alright, everybody. Go down to the show notes. Check everything out about Miguel we. We'll see you guys next Thursday. See you guys later.