In the military you're taught to do more with less so within business model. and within my business model, I pretty much did the same thing. And I believe that's what kind of made me successful within My first couple of years is because we really did more with less I'm your host, the moderator, Rob Richardson, my special guest here is Kern Alexander, but before I get to him, I want to do a little bit of housekeeping. If you're watching this on YouTube, please hit the like button.
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We appreciate reviews on Apple, iTunes or if you're listening to us on Google, wherever, you might be listening to us. We really appreciate your support. We've had a really, really good year. We plan on having a really good 2022 as well. So. All right. So Kern Alexander is with the higher collection. He is also he's also served our country. So he's a businessman. He's a serviceman and it's an honor to have him on the show. Kern, how are you doing, man? Awe man I'm doing good.
Thank you so much for having me today, man. No problem. No problem A pleasure to have you. And you're out of Oakland, California, right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. My business is based out of Oakland, California. All right. So how does one go from serving our country? And thank you for that to jumping into owning a dispensary? And like, how does that? How does that happen? How did that happen, though? Those, you know, those seem to be very different fields. How did they get to collide?
Yeah, I'm just curious how we started. Just jump right in. How does one do that. How do you get there. How this path looked Well, what happened was, um, I was based in California a lot of my career. I started my career in 2007, and my first duty station was in Travis Air Force Base, which is in Northern California. So I kind of had roots there since about 2007. Now throughout my time being in the military.
Of course, you know, you get deployed all over the place, but I've always seem to come back to California. It was like always my place where I would come back to. So even when I got stationed overseas, I would come back. I got stationed elsewhere and I still came back. So, you know, I got out and my path wasn't really paved. You know, at first I I knew that I didn't want to go back to doing what I was doing before, which is pretty much overworking myself for the government.
I knew I wanted to kind of take that leap of faith and get out there on my own. So one of my buddies, he had a cannabis dispensary back in the day in 2015. This was more like the medicinal model. Back in the day 2015. That's now back in the day. But go ahead, right? Well, I don't. I'll tell you this so much has changed. I know, right? Right. I tell people like we got like COVID has changed like time. You know, there used to be AC BC and now it's like.
And now it's like a a AC BC after COVID, before COVID. And like, before Covid Right? I. And that's real life thing I feel like two years of my life has just been missing. I don't even know what really. It just went so fast. You know what I mean? Doesn't seem like two years I tell people, the last two years it felt like 15. Like it's like feels like a time warp, bro. But anyway, I digress. Go ahead. Yeah, but but yeah.
So essentially back in 2015, it was more like a medicinal model in the cannabis space where you could have like collectives. So my buddy kind of did his thing and he started his collectives, so he kind of hit me up. He was like, Yo bro, what you doing? Now that you out. You know you should hop into the cannabis hop in the cannabis space. At first, I was against it because my job in the military I was I worked intelligence.
So for me, you know, we kind of we I try to do things the right way, right? So for me, a lot of times. So you got a lot of stuff you can't discuss with us Oh, sure. Yeah. But but, you know, getting into the cannabis space, it was just it was it was a learning curve. So at first, I didn't jump right in, you know, I was a student. I became a student to my boy, learned the ways of how it actually worked. And then, um, I became a patient. That's really what won me over to the space itself.
I went into the VA as I said, I'm 100% disabled and I walked out with a bag full of medicine. Maybe maybe two bags full of medicine. A lot of it was Motrin, but a lot of it was upper and downer, kind of like psychotics, you know, or psychoactive. So I didn't really want to put myself through that after having to put myself through taking pills throughout my whole career already.
So I actually sat down with a cannabis doctor and they gave me alternatives for PTSD, alternatives for anxiety, lack of sleep. I wasn't sleeping my sleep schedules, all jacked up. So so that that's really what won me over. I decided to just become an advocate for it in a positive manner, you know, because in 2015 it was, you know, everybody was looking at it like a. My God, you're you know, you're a drug dealer. but for real Yeah, I know it's how. They were looking at it, I remember. Yeah, yeah.
But you know, for me, I had to like, put a positive spin on it and actually show that this drug can actually help me, and it can actually wean people off of the things that people were stuck on. So spoke with that cannabis doctor changed my life. Pretty much. I'm of the belief. You know, so sorry to interrupt you. I'm of the belief that as controversial opinion. But I believe it. Like, I think most drugs should be legalized and regulated because it's when it goes underground.
That's when we create a new criminal element. It helps that thrive. I mean, there obviously be some debates about other types of drugs. Certainly, marijuana has been has put more black and brown people in jail unnecessarily unnecessarily than any other substance, and it's been used as a reason. Exactly. And so what I like about you being involved is at least now some of us are participating in the opportunity to make a return because unfortunately, you are the exception to the rule.
Most of the time, we're not we're not involved in the process. We don't have an opportunity to be involved in the process unless we're in jail with some of us are still in jail for crimes related to marijuana, while mostly everyone else is benefiting from it. So I do applaud you for doing that. And then you know what we do too, is we try to help with education, you know, because what I learned being within a space is you don't know what you don't know.
You know, like, you don't know those opportunities when those licenses open up. You don't know when those cities become legal. Or like how much the actual cost is. If people know the actual cost of things, sometimes they probably wouldn't. They probably wouldn't run away from it, you know, cost. In the beginning, it cost me about 2500. But now, you know, the cost has like almost tripled quadrupled in certain places to get within the space.
So we try to push the education of getting in the medical space while we have the opportunity. While we have the opportunity exactly, because the medical space for me was the lowest point of entry and the easiest point of entry to get in when it became recreational. It was overpriced and then the barrier of entry became super high. Yeah, no doubt. I'll tell you, it's really when we talk about educating our community and entering at the point of where the opportunity is.
Like you said, it's really, really important for a lot of things because that's where the that's where wealth opportunities are created. And if we're ever going to really address the racial wealth gap, we have to move on these opportunities as they present themselves. So that that's an example that you mentioned. I'm big in the space of Web3, I don't know if you know much about Web3. But yeah, yeah. And that's yeah, yeah, I've been checking on it. Yeah, yeah.
So we had the first black owned and NFT marketplace on the globe is built on flow blockchain called Disrupt Art. But I say that to say like, I'm working to onboard people because I don't want them to be excluded from this opportunity right now is a great time to get in. And just the opportunity is just ample, right? But it won't necessarily be that way in three to five years, you know, had you been an.
No the barriers of entry are going to be Way too high like this show And then that and then even if not the barrier entry, the misconceptions to entry will be so rampant. Well, that's it. That's a really good point. The biggest misconception to entry, and I want to get back to your point of view very quickly here. But you know, the problem that people are stopping people a lot is two things is this block in their mind.
It's either it's a I'm not a technical person, so I can't do that, which is not you don't have to be a technical person. I mean, you know how email works, you're not technical person. All you need to understand is how to think basic work one or two, everybody saying iIt's a fraud. Well I said all right? Listen, it's not a fraud, but it's 17 billion dollar has been created this year, so the best performing asset right now across the entire country, so right, if it's a fraud.
You at least need to see what's going on where. People are going. Wow, right? Right. Like why? And it's not a fraud. But like getting people. I think that's also a trap we have in our minds Yeah that fear You know, we. It's fear We mentally block ourselves from opportunities before we even try them. You know, like a lot of times I like, I used to be in these clubhouse rooms and I would hear people like this discouraging people so much on entry into the cannabis space.
And I'm like, Yes, people are like, Oh, you won't ever be able to get into the New York space is going to be too expensive. There's not even any rules. There's no rules to this space. What do you mean it's going to be too expensive? You know what I mean? Like, there are no legislation saying what that price tag is, but it's all a mental psyche out It's all a mental cycle. I think it's a lot of trauma passed down to so from. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, like so like this fear has been ingrained.
Someone told me, OK, you've got to think even with my, my parents, you know, like. And like even on the successful with them, I feel there's still like like you, sure you want to deal with that, you know what I mean? Like, it's like a mental block, and I'm like, if they come for me, then they got to come. Everybody that's doing the same thing. That's a lot of people. I heard Gary B say this.
Like he said, our parents have been great and they teach you a lot of great things and I'll take your values. But I'll apply my work approach and ethics like because we need to evolve, right? Like we got to. We take a lot of the values about being a good person about working hard. Yes, but we also can't take their mindset with us. We'll take our. Mindset, we'll take that. We'll have our value, we'll take their values and apply our mindset. And work mindset.
Right. Right. Because their mindset is. Based upon a world that they know that it probably was an accurate mindset to have when they were growing up. It makes sense, right? Just the government said the same thing about the government. I don't understand why our government is ran by 80 year olds. They don't even understand the technology era. Like what? Well, it's because we allow it. The quick answer to that is that when people can become more involved, we'll see a change.
But the answer to that is that 80 year old and 60 year olds vote and participate all the time, and. We participate. Sometimes and sometimes we get a power. Sometimes we don't I mean that's the answer I mean it's like we have. But you know, back to the point of that mindset, I do think that's very, very important for us to challenge the mindsets of some things that were passed. Again, values have been great in terms of working hard, taking care of your family, right?
But the mindset, I'll give one example that I've said before. one of the mindsets that black community is passed down again and again and again is to work twice as hard. You've heard it to get what half as much? I'm like, No, half as much. No I;m like I work twice as hard and I expect twice as much. I mean, I won't be like this. I mean, llet me talk to white guys. They work twice as hard to expect ten times as much. That's what I want And then out, man, I got in the Air Force.
Air Force taught me a whole new mantra. They said, Work harder, work smarter, not harder. So essentially, if you can make your mind, do it and put it together, there's no reason why you should be physically in the space doing it yourself, you know. Amen Yeah. Using that mind work smarter, not harder as well. Yeah, I'm definitely not going back to that. Old mindset you know You got everybody. Out here and running up the check. I can't do it.
So tell me about transitioning from serving in the military to being an entrepreneur. It sounds like you did learn some good lessons about your mindset, but I imagine it had to be a little bit of a challenge, especially moving from a military schedule where you have essentially things mapped out in a very structured way. Then having to go out and you didn't, you didn't. You didn't just go get a job. You went to be an entrepreneur, which is really the diametrically opposite to having a structure.
It's like you, you figure out. What you're structure is trying to create that structure. What was the challenge with that? Or was it or was it not a challenge because you had that structure kind of talk to you in the military, right? And that's exactly what I was going to say. So for me, I feel like the challenge came more on, like figuring out the business aspect of it.
I think the discipline in putting in the hours, I already kind of learned that from the military in the military, you're taught to do more with less so within business model and within my business model, I pretty much did the same thing. And I believe that's what kind of made me successful within My first couple of years is because we really did more with less like I would be the dispatcher, the packer, the driver that dropped it off.
I'm everything in the beginning, at least for the first year, year and a half it was on me, you know, and it would be so funny because people would call in and they're like, you know, Hey, I may have an issue with this product. I'm like, Hold on, let me get you to the manager and then I'm picking back up the phone. Hello. Did you change. Your voice like.
oh of course of course Had to switch it up every now and then and change the voice or pass the phone to my shorty, and have my shorty talk But you know, like in the beginning, you got to do those different things because I'm like, for me, I didn't know how to create a payroll. I didn't know how to create budgets and things like that yet.
So I had to really learn each aspect of the industry that I was in, just so that when it was time for me to put people in place, couldn't nobody tell me nothing crazy, you know? So that transitional part was that was the. I don't want say. That's a challenge Yeah. And you know, I said it on IG the other day. I said, you know, sometimes as entrepreneurs, we make it look too easy. I wish I could have like taking out through that piece too You know what I mean ten times harder than it looks on.
Yeah. People out here, most people are. Perfect about the entrepreneurial lifestyle and lied about it. Yeah, it is not. It is not. And I don't say that to turn people away from it. Because I feel like it's a very freeing, freeing thing, but you got to know how to control it and understand those freedoms and know that yes, you may have freedoms, but you still need some sort of structure.
You still got to wake up every day, you still got to answer the phone calls and you still got to do things to actually make that entrepreneur lifestyle work You have to be the hunter. I mean, I think that's the difference between being because you still often have to work when you have a job, you have a certain time, but like nobody is not no one else is going to figure out how Nobody, nobody's. Giving you that opportunity yet. You know what I mean? And you got to go out there and call.
Call, call. Call pick up them phones. And don't make it to where you have a staff of people who depend on you and people you have to take care of, then the stress is even more because now you're the last person to eat an entrepreneur. Yep, I think I think people forget that piece like I don't get my checks until everybody on my team eats you know, until everybody on my team eats because I know and I understand that that's my work force.
That's the people who who keep me in place and keep me sane and make sure the operation moves the way it needs to. So you always want to make sure your team eat first and then, you know, you know, in the back end, sometimes that that plate ain't that big. Yep, sometimes it's huge. Exactly. You got it. You got to roll with the punches as they come. Yeah. What's a story or moment that you can disclose? Because I know you were also intelligence in the military that really stuck out with you.
Like that was a maybe a transformational moment that applied that you've applied that through life or you apply that through your business if you can think of one. Oh, yeah, no. You know, there's a time that stands out to me. I went to a commander's call one time and my commander brought a little rubber ducky out. He brought a little rubber ducky out.
He put it on the podium and his speech was, he said, You know, some people may look at this and try to call it a woodpecker or a bird or a, you know, I call it a duck. It's a rubber ducky, you know? So his mantra was, you call it what it is. You call a duck a duck, you call a spade a spade. And I feel like that's helped me out throughout my business and personal life because you cut a lot of the minutia out.
You know, a lot of times things can be handled when you go direct and you have those direct conversations. And in business, sometimes those are those conversations that are the hardest that people don't like to have. But you call a duck a duck, you know, as the boss, sometimes even if his family like I've had family work for me, my sisters probably hate me right now. They love me but at the beginning, like one of my, my very close sister was working with me. She was like, my, you know.
My right hand. Yeah you know I don't do family in business too much My mother works there, My mother works only because she's like my accountant, but like, she's helped me but like. Right? My but but that's only because she's my accountant for support, really. She she's just doing it to help. But like beyond that. I don't know if you it's tough tough and and you got to do that as the boss, you got to call a duck a duck if it doesn't work. You can't. You can't keep. So you had to fire family.
Oh, for sure. For sure. Yes, for sure. I've had to fire family Like I love you, but you got to she going to see this interview and be like, Oh my God, I love you, but we can't love you. But like you. That's how businesses end up failing, though, right? If you can't like you can support your family like this is the reason why I could support you. But like, what you can't do is have someone. Nobody's above the business No yeah, nobody's above the business.
And that's a mantra that we have on our walls. Like, nobody's not even me. You know, even the person who created it, like, if I'm in the way somebody's going to need to tell me I need to step out the way to make sure that the process moves to that next level . And that's what I built my team on.
That's what I built the company on is we call a duck a duck that nobody's bigger than the business, you know, because this is how we plan on feeding generations and generations and generations and creating that generational wealth. So we want to make sure that we keep that intact. So you I'm not the CEO, you know, Miss Ayana Young