Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Coli Witt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guests entrepreneur in the building, Tucky Blunt, and just
Speaker 1: like the name, we are gonna talk cannabis. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking cannabis today all the way from
Speaker 1: the Bay.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm a fan, so I appreciate y'all sharing your
Speaker 2: you personally share your platform with me and just overall
Speaker 2: the whole platform. So I appreciate what y'all doing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, and we appreciate you coming and
Speaker 1: really sharing the transparency behind behind the cannabis industry what
Speaker 1: it took to get to own your own display, entry,
Speaker 1: lounge and events business. So before we get into all
Speaker 1: the tea on the business side, I want to know
Speaker 1: what you were eating while you were broken. What you're
Speaker 1: going to be having me eat today?
Speaker 2: Oh man, this is scary. So what we're eating today
Speaker 2: is basically play on bacon, egg and cheese with spam.
Speaker 2: So we're doing a spam egg and cheese saying wich,
Speaker 2: something I ate a lot of when I was younger,
Speaker 2: but I haven't eaten about thirty plus years. So this
Speaker 2: is interesting. Spam is interesting. We used to call it
Speaker 2: a spare parts and meat, so hopefully that's not what
Speaker 2: it is anymore.
Speaker 1: There's some I forgot which guest of ours like genuinely
Speaker 1: was at Miguel Newness. Yes he loved spam.
Speaker 2: Yes, when I was younger, I didn't know no reason
Speaker 2: not to love spam. It was great. But about eighth
Speaker 2: ninth grade, on the field trip, I had thick uncooked
Speaker 2: just and one of the homies on the field trip
Speaker 2: was like, bro, you eating that. I'm like, yeah, what
Speaker 2: is that? What's wrong with He like, you know, we
Speaker 2: don't eat that? And ever since then, I've never read
Speaker 2: it again. Leave it to it.
Speaker 1: I got you the wonderbread, and usually I don't do it,
Speaker 1: but we did have an elected official come on the
Speaker 1: show and he really like expressed the importance of keeping
Speaker 1: it like all the way one hundred. So today I
Speaker 1: decided to torture you, okay, with wonderbread because we all
Speaker 1: know wonderbread is a very delicate bread. And I wasn't
Speaker 1: get you a nice bread, but I said, you know,
Speaker 1: why not make your life harder since you're gonna give
Speaker 1: me spam.
Speaker 2: I ain't mad at all. You see how this butter
Speaker 2: trying to do me?
Speaker 1: So yeah, for people, I don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Was this a little drop of butter in the middle
Speaker 1: of the brand? But here we go cook it up.
Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on in
Speaker 1: the spam air of life.
Speaker 2: So I was ninety three ninety four, So I was
Speaker 2: fourteen thirteen when in junior high school at a place
Speaker 2: called freaking Oapron, California. Like I said, we didn't know
Speaker 2: we was poor. I lived in the shelter before and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, but we didn't know we was poor.
Speaker 1: I think someone stabs the back or something to get
Speaker 1: it out.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I do remember that, remember that. But we
Speaker 2: just you know, we were just eating. You know, we
Speaker 2: didn't think nothing of it. I was going to school
Speaker 2: straight at student living in Oakland. It was different back
Speaker 2: than than it is now. That's pretty much it. I
Speaker 2: was a nerd. I was a nerd in school and
Speaker 2: just really I really enjoyed school. But we just didn't
Speaker 2: have a lot of money and we didn't you know,
Speaker 2: both my parents had been on drugs before. I lived
Speaker 2: with my grandmother, like I said, lived in the shelter before.
Speaker 2: So we were just you know, trying to get back.
Speaker 2: Used to think my mom had just got custody of us,
Speaker 2: so she was doing what she could do to fetus,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And that's how spam came about.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I never knew nothing was wrong with
Speaker 2: spam until ninth grade.
Speaker 1: Damn. Does this look like reminiscent to you?
Speaker 2: It's like it is bringing back a lot, not in
Speaker 2: a bad way, but just bringing back a lot because
Speaker 2: this is how we used to eat, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Okay, So your mom gets you back and you leave
Speaker 1: your Grandma's back to your mom. Where's your poppy at?
Speaker 2: My pap was around and we were talking about that
Speaker 2: recently too. My mom and dad lived in the same city,
Speaker 2: still live in the same city now, but they can't
Speaker 2: stand each other day to this day, to this day,
Speaker 2: like to the point like right now currently, if I
Speaker 2: call my mom and tell her that my dad's at
Speaker 2: my house or vice versa, they're going to be mad
Speaker 2: at me.
Speaker 1: They're going to be mad at you.
Speaker 2: Yes, wow, So I'm going through that as a child then,
Speaker 2: because they was going back and forth to court. So
Speaker 2: dad was around, but Dad would rather us love him
Speaker 2: to death, but he would rather us live with his
Speaker 2: mom instead of him. So it was it was interesting.
Speaker 2: But why that we have no I still to this
Speaker 2: day don't know. I have no clue. But he had
Speaker 2: a house, but we never went to it. We would
Speaker 2: go out, hang out on weekends, go do stuff, and
Speaker 2: then he drop us back off at my granny house.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if it was something to spite
Speaker 2: my mom.
Speaker 1: Wait, so you never saw his house.
Speaker 2: No, we would see it, but would never stay in it.
Speaker 2: No overnight.
Speaker 1: Oh, but you can hang out in it.
Speaker 2: Hang out and when on time to go home and
Speaker 2: go to sleep. I spent the night in my daddy
Speaker 2: ho maybe once when I was younger, outside of him
Speaker 2: my mom being together.
Speaker 1: And you never asked them, not until I.
Speaker 2: Got older, because when I was younger, I didn't even
Speaker 2: nothing know it. We just looked as we were going
Speaker 2: back to granny house. We didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 1: So do you when you ask them now?
Speaker 2: What is? He turned to an argument, Oh.
Speaker 1: You really can't okay, Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, you really, it's okay. It's it's funky, okay.
Speaker 1: But they still don't get along.
Speaker 2: Dabor. Were they married, they were never married childish sweethearts,
Speaker 2: met when they was twelve, had me when they were
Speaker 2: seventeen and sixteen.
Speaker 1: Okay, so, and they both got into drugs. Yes, heavy drugs,
Speaker 1: like drugs. I'm sorry, I don't like a hell a
Speaker 1: nosy person.
Speaker 2: No, heavy, Both of them were users. My dad started first.
Speaker 2: Mom would stay at home. Mom dad paid all the bills.
Speaker 2: So once he stopped paying the bills, Mom was kind
Speaker 2: of like all over the place, didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2: She we moved with her mom and that got kind
Speaker 2: of funky because she's her baby daughter moving home with
Speaker 2: three kids. That wasn't a good look. Cussed her out
Speaker 2: every day we end up in the shelter. Moms was like,
Speaker 2: I was a nerd, so I was like really smart
Speaker 2: as a kid. She would have to take me from
Speaker 2: let's just say Burdbank to Lax every day in a
Speaker 2: broke down car. She couldn't afford it. So she was like, man,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you with your daddy. He said, to
Speaker 2: be getting this stuff together. I'm gonna send you with him.
Speaker 2: And when I get myself together, I'm gonna come back
Speaker 2: and get y'all. That was like eighty nine and my
Speaker 2: Mama came and got us back in ninety two. Wow,
Speaker 2: And she hates she don't like me talking about her
Speaker 2: own podcasts or nothing. But I love my mama. Mama
Speaker 2: did a whole lot for us to get back and
Speaker 2: she just she just she did not she see this interview.
Speaker 2: She's gonna cuts me.
Speaker 1: Out over why because she doesn't like that.
Speaker 2: She don't like to be talked about. She's she's one
Speaker 2: of them people who still how can I put it,
Speaker 2: My Mom's gonna die without friends. I put it like that.
Speaker 2: She's one of the people that's just everything is a conspiracy,
Speaker 2: and I hate that for her, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 2: you need to get out of mom. You need to
Speaker 2: have some friends, Like you need to go. She just
Speaker 2: sits in her house. So that's a whole nother story.
Speaker 2: But this was one of her favorite meals.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you are a straight A student at some point,
Speaker 1: so she decides to send you back because she couldn't care.
Speaker 1: So she was she putting you in a really good
Speaker 1: school at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was in a school called Peter Pan which
Speaker 2: was one of the higher end like private schools, and
Speaker 2: I got in because of my brains because we couldn't
Speaker 2: afford to go there, and then my sisters, all of
Speaker 2: them went loved us. I graduated. I skipped the grade there.
Speaker 2: I graduated from there. I think you sposed to graduate
Speaker 2: fifth grade, like twelve or something. I was done at ten.
Speaker 2: So everything was great on that and she didn't want
Speaker 2: me to miss that. She's like, no, I want you
Speaker 2: to go to that school because she taught us. While
Speaker 2: Pop was at work, Mom was at home teaching us
Speaker 2: how to count, how to add all that. Yeah, she
Speaker 2: had a whole chart like that, had the days of
Speaker 2: the week, the months of the year, the five times tables,
Speaker 2: ten times tables. I'm learning that at one and two
Speaker 2: years old. So I went to school ready. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: when Pops wasn't doing his end, it kind of messed
Speaker 2: up the whole family dynamic overall. So you know, and
Speaker 2: that's no hat shade on him, It just thingings happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then what happens get.
Speaker 2: With moms mom's is both my parents sold whed for
Speaker 2: a very long time, and we and my family never
Speaker 2: looked at weed as like a bad thing. I never
Speaker 2: knew that cannabis was bad ever, because it was part
Speaker 2: of my family Domino's food weed. And when I got
Speaker 2: about I mean it was literally that order. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like you can always peep through the
Speaker 2: kitchen and they smoking they weed and they playing their bones.
Speaker 2: That's just what we knew. And about thirteen I started smoking.
Speaker 2: I was like, all right, it's cool. You know, weed
Speaker 2: is cool, but it wasn't really my thing. By a sixteen,
Speaker 2: it was my thing, and I knew I could sell it.
Speaker 2: And I was like, if I'm going to sell it,
Speaker 2: where am I going to sell it? Everybody I knew
Speaker 2: it was going to jail for selling drugs on the street.
Speaker 2: So I was like, man, I got to figure out
Speaker 2: a better way to sell weed. And it was at work.
Speaker 2: I've always had a job since I was thirteen, So
Speaker 2: at sixteen, I'm working at the grocery store. All my
Speaker 2: coworkers smoked, so I'm like, oh shit, I don't need
Speaker 2: to be on the corner, I guess, so all my
Speaker 2: whet this is my corner. So everywhere I worked, I
Speaker 2: sold everything I've ever sold in my life. I sold
Speaker 2: the coworkers, so I was selling weed. I detailed cars,
Speaker 2: detailed bikes. I threw parties just or you.
Speaker 1: Were a hustler.
Speaker 2: I was a hustler.
Speaker 1: You're I don't want to see you're a hustler because
Speaker 1: it sounds like you. You know, yeah, I think hustlers
Speaker 1: sometimes people, But I think you are an entrepreneur, a
Speaker 1: young entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: I take that. I will take that, and I just
Speaker 2: applied that to being at work. I'm like, if I'm
Speaker 2: going to be here, I was making more money at work,
Speaker 2: and I made.
Speaker 1: At work, and I that's hilarious.
Speaker 2: Continued that all my life and kind of fast forward.
Speaker 2: Sold We for about eight years, no issues, and then
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five when the guys I was
Speaker 2: buying weed from snitched on me and the police came.
Speaker 2: They arrested me whatever whatever I built out the same night.
Speaker 2: But that arrest led to me qualifying for the program
Speaker 2: that allowed me to get my store.
Speaker 1: And what was that program?
Speaker 2: That program is called the Social Equity Program that originated
Speaker 2: in Oakland, which gave people who was convicted of CA
Speaker 2: one of his charges chances that ownership in the cannabis space.
Speaker 2: And I'm the first person to open a cannabis store
Speaker 2: out of that program.
Speaker 1: And now it was two thousand and five.
Speaker 2: No, it's crazy as I caught the case in O five.
Speaker 2: None of this happened until twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Wait, you didn't get to open legally till twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Because legalization just started in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was gonna take. So wait, you
Speaker 1: go to jail for it, and then how do you
Speaker 1: hear about the program?
Speaker 2: So I go to jail, get out. I continue working,
Speaker 2: continue doing everything I was doing, selling weed. All this
Speaker 2: stuff never stopped all these years later.
Speaker 1: Oh so you get an the restidents stop you?
Speaker 2: No oh no, no, no no, it just what happened was
Speaker 2: and I left that out. Remember I told you, I
Speaker 2: said all my week at work that particular time, I
Speaker 2: wasn't at work because I was in between jobs and
Speaker 2: my son was fin to be born. So with him
Speaker 2: fin to be born and we have an extra time
Speaker 2: on my hand, I'm like, I'm gonna go to my street,
Speaker 2: go to my turf and sell some weed. I'm out there.
Speaker 2: It was a great time. I seen why people was
Speaker 2: outside selling weed. I'm like, this is fun. But that's
Speaker 2: when I got knichtng them snitching on me is how
Speaker 2: I qualified for that program. So fifteen sixteen years later,
Speaker 2: I get a phone call from one of my homeboys,
Speaker 2: Mike Marshall. You're familiar with the song I got five
Speaker 2: on it. Yeah, so the guy that's singing I got
Speaker 2: five on his name is Mike Marshall. He called me
Speaker 2: and was like, hey, Tucky, you ever called a week
Speaker 2: case in open. I'm like, yeah, that's hell of random,
Speaker 2: but I have why. He was like, man, I know
Speaker 2: two people out of Atlanta that's trying to open a
Speaker 2: store through this program called Social Equity, but they need
Speaker 2: someone that qualified. It was met. I'm like, well, what
Speaker 2: do they mean for me? They was like, they just
Speaker 2: want to meet you and talk to you. I'm like,
Speaker 2: all right, we met. I thought we was on on board,
Speaker 2: on point. They was good people. Next thing I know,
Speaker 2: we applied. I got this phone call in September. We
Speaker 2: applied for the license in December of seventeen. January thirty
Speaker 2: person of eighteen. We won a license in a lottery.
Speaker 2: Two people I never met. Now we got a license
Speaker 2: in a billion dollar industry and have to work together
Speaker 2: from there. Oh MG, exactly, So you do the math.
Speaker 1: Who created the Social Apple program? Was it a government thing?
Speaker 2: It was a government thing? Yep. City of Oakland government
Speaker 2: did it. One lady Destiny Brooks has something to do
Speaker 2: with it. Another guy named Keith Stevenson who owned the
Speaker 2: cannabis club up there called Purple Heart, he was a
Speaker 2: part of it. It was just a way for them
Speaker 2: to if y'all gonna legalize, y'all need to give these
Speaker 2: people who's been adversely affected a chance to own in
Speaker 2: this space. Period.
Speaker 1: I didn't know there was a such thing because my
Speaker 1: dad used to get really upset about, like, Yo, they
Speaker 1: got all these people in jail that know the industry
Speaker 1: in and out and they can't get in. And there
Speaker 1: was a whole program.
Speaker 2: Yes, it came out in twenty.
Speaker 1: But it was it only in Oakland or is it.
Speaker 2: One in LA right now? It's been going on.
Speaker 1: It's one in LA right now, right now currently. So
Speaker 1: if you have a history, big.
Speaker 2: Kika, I don't know if you meant with Kika, but
Speaker 2: Kika has a store called Gorilla Wellness. It's I want
Speaker 2: to say, it's on Crenshaw Social Equity owned. She's the
Speaker 2: first social equity in LA.
Speaker 1: It's a female owned.
Speaker 2: Female owned Black people. A big keepers. You share wrong?
Speaker 2: You a good lady, super good lady. But yeah, that's
Speaker 2: that's that's how it became famous in the legal cannabis space.
Speaker 2: But from ninety six, I've been the celebrities weed man
Speaker 2: since ninety six, Like all my friends, like we were
Speaker 2: talking off on camera of my friends are celebrities because
Speaker 2: I pick and choose my clients, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I didn't want just you know, I don't know. It
Speaker 2: was different.
Speaker 1: I saw that after you went to jail, you got
Speaker 1: real selective for your clustomer.
Speaker 2: No, it was creat No, before I was already selecting
Speaker 2: selling to celebrities before, I just was selective about how
Speaker 2: I sold my weed. I never went back to staying outside.
Speaker 2: It was always at work. You had to call me
Speaker 2: and you had to know me. Outside attracting different kind
Speaker 2: of attention. Police is all in your face thing, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. And I didn't want that, Like
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to jail, so I'm doing
Speaker 2: something legal. The best way for me to do it
Speaker 2: is at work.
Speaker 1: Why did you say that when you were outside it
Speaker 1: was fun.
Speaker 2: Though, because like the outside life back then in two
Speaker 2: thousand and five, selling weed was like a movie outside
Speaker 2: like my.
Speaker 1: Spot wash your fires up really too high?
Speaker 2: This one the egg. Yeah, that's why I moved it
Speaker 2: over here. That's why I moved it over here.
Speaker 1: This one is that one down?
Speaker 2: This one?
Speaker 1: No, you're good cooking like that one?
Speaker 2: Yes, you all good seat cooking. O five. Back then,
Speaker 2: outside my turf where I'm from was a dope spot.
Speaker 2: They so dope they didn't sell weed. So with us
Speaker 2: bringing weed to the table, it brought a different type
Speaker 2: of people over there. Like back then, prior to my wife,
Speaker 2: I was a ladies man, so all my lady clients,
Speaker 2: they coming over there to different people. Getting to see that.
Speaker 2: They're like, man, you know, cause they clients are do
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, not dressing right, you know,
Speaker 2: typical dope and stuff. So it changed the dynamic and
Speaker 2: I got to just see how fun being outside was.
Speaker 2: We having block parties, bringing the dirt bikes out. We're
Speaker 2: just kicking it. But I'm like, nah, this ain't really
Speaker 2: me because the police driving by all that, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. I got touch stuff, I got to
Speaker 2: hide stuff I'm not used to that, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So it was fun, but it wasn't nothing
Speaker 2: that I could like. It was just temporary. It was
Speaker 2: until I got hired at my job and the guy
Speaker 2: who snitched on me, I start to work Monday. He
Speaker 2: snitched on me on a Thursday, so he knew I
Speaker 2: started work that Monday, and we're trying to have me
Speaker 2: in jail to miss my first day at working. Wow,
Speaker 2: called a piece of work.
Speaker 1: How long did you spend time in jail for?
Speaker 2: I built out the same night because I had no priority.
Speaker 1: Oh but did you ever go back? Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: so you mean to tell me that you served.
Speaker 2: Like four hours built out equity as long as lottery.
Speaker 2: Caught a charge in cannabis and I called a felony
Speaker 2: when they called me. I had eighty dollars worth of
Speaker 2: weeed on me and I got ten years of felony
Speaker 2: probation with a four way search clause. That mean anytime
Speaker 2: for ten years, anybody I'm riding with, anywhere I'm at,
Speaker 2: I can get searched felony for eight dollars worth a week.
Speaker 2: My first defense never been to jail, never have no
Speaker 2: Really glad.
Speaker 1: That you got the equity program, because honestly, to have
Speaker 1: a felony for such.
Speaker 2: A low it's a lot. It's a lot, and it
Speaker 2: kind of for lack of better words. It fucked off
Speaker 2: my life, but I didn't realize it. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what it was doing to my life because I did.
Speaker 2: I'm a likely how can I put I'm a positive person.
Speaker 2: I don't let nothing keep me down longer than need to.
Speaker 2: So when it happened, I'm like, all right, I can't
Speaker 2: do this, but I can do this, And that's just
Speaker 2: what I did. I just I never let it stop me,
Speaker 2: because if I did, I wouldn't be talking to you.
Speaker 1: But how did you get How did you when you
Speaker 1: found out you got a felony? It would affect your
Speaker 1: ability to sell well obviously have a job, which was
Speaker 1: your main place to sell the weed? So how did
Speaker 1: that affect your emotional So.
Speaker 2: What's crazy is when he snitched on me. The place
Speaker 2: that I started working for Alameda County. At the time,
Speaker 2: I was working to be a probation officer. Me and
Speaker 2: the guy used to go to the shooting range every
Speaker 2: Tuesday and Thursday to practice shooting at a registered firearm.
Speaker 2: So I want to go practice my shooting. Whatever we do,
Speaker 2: our transactional park line, go about our business. He knew
Speaker 2: like I said that, I started work that Monday. So
Speaker 2: when I go to work that Monday to work at probation.
Speaker 2: I already have the case. You can't work at probation
Speaker 2: on probation, So they sent me somewhere else to work
Speaker 2: for the county. They couldn't fire me because I was
Speaker 2: already hired, So it worked out everything have a Had
Speaker 2: I not already had that job, I wouldn't have been
Speaker 2: able to get a job. I would have had to
Speaker 2: been forced to the streets. Yeah, so I called heaven
Speaker 2: Father the yeahweah yahweh set it up to where now
Speaker 2: we're gonna go ahead and get you this job. We're
Speaker 2: gonna also get you stitched on so it can come
Speaker 2: back and help you let it down the line. I
Speaker 2: don't know that, Colleen, Like, how do you walk that?
Speaker 2: And don't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Of course, But now, what was the learning curve for
Speaker 1: the equity license? Like what was some of the things
Speaker 1: that you had to learn to do it to where
Speaker 1: it's a lasting business.
Speaker 2: I'm still learning now. I closed my store in March.
Speaker 2: I still got other businesses, but I closed my store
Speaker 2: in March because I'm still learning. I have Remember I
Speaker 2: told you the people I partnered with I never met before.
Speaker 2: So they robbed me blind. After about two years, they
Speaker 2: took the money and when opened the store in another state,
Speaker 2: I'd have had no clue.
Speaker 1: Can they do that? Is the license non based on
Speaker 1: the area.
Speaker 2: They didn't have the license for the store. They used
Speaker 2: the name the notoriety from the store to go out
Speaker 2: there and have somebody else get them a license. And
Speaker 2: I had no clue end of finding out because people
Speaker 2: was coming up on me in the streets like, hey, Tuckie,
Speaker 2: w ain't been paid. W ain been paid? War are money?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what do you mean? Because when I
Speaker 2: opened the business, I was more like a face of
Speaker 2: the brand. I wasn't. I didn't know nothing about the
Speaker 2: legal side of the business. They were supposed to teach me.
Speaker 2: They didn't teach me. They just stole from me.
Speaker 1: So I'm current, how are you getting paid?
Speaker 2: So I was getting paid as a employee at first,
Speaker 2: which was totally wrong. Fixed that now I'm getting paid
Speaker 2: as a consultant. So that happened after I got ribbed twice.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I didn't know. I had
Speaker 2: to learn. So it's like the equity program was great.
Speaker 2: I love what it did for me allow me to
Speaker 2: be in this space, but it's just still a learning
Speaker 2: curve now because legalization just happened twenty sixteen. How are
Speaker 2: you posing to know everything by now? Now?
Speaker 1: When they give you the equity program, they don't hold
Speaker 1: your hand through it. They just hand you a.
Speaker 2: License basically at that time, yes, they.
Speaker 1: Put you through any type of classes.
Speaker 2: No, they didn't have none set up at the time,
Speaker 2: So how.
Speaker 1: Did they not expect you to mess up? Not mess up?
Speaker 1: So it's like a slippery it's almost like a setup.
Speaker 2: It's a set up. Yes, yes, and again I respect
Speaker 2: what they did, but it's just like anything when you
Speaker 2: start something off, you have to fine tuning after a while.
Speaker 2: It's time for the fine tuning. Right now, currently it's
Speaker 2: time for the fine tuning in it's happening now. But
Speaker 2: for me to have to be open five years six years,
Speaker 2: I was open six years. I have five break ins
Speaker 2: in six years.
Speaker 1: I had and it's all cash business.
Speaker 2: All cash business, what's what's.
Speaker 1: The rules with the Because I've had talked to multiple
Speaker 1: people about this because I thought with the cannabis business,
Speaker 1: legally you can't have the money in banks because then
Speaker 1: it would be a federal.
Speaker 2: So you're not supposed to have money in banks, but
Speaker 2: yet and still there's cannabis banks. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So it's like, how do we do it if it's
Speaker 2: federally illegal? But you're telling me you holding my money,
Speaker 2: And then most of the banks are charging fees that are.
Speaker 1: Reap Well, wait, what do you mean a cannabis bank.
Speaker 1: You don't have to educate us.
Speaker 2: So they have banks that take cannabis money that you
Speaker 2: know that are actual legal banks, but they're set up
Speaker 2: under the bank, not under like figuratively, but under the bank,
Speaker 2: under like another LLC. So they'll take your money and
Speaker 2: everything will be cool. You can have debit card purchases
Speaker 2: and everything. But overall, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: if a bank wants to come in and shut you down,
Speaker 2: they can come shut you down. Bank.
Speaker 1: Why would a bank shut you down?
Speaker 2: They can come because you're funneling funds illegally. Technically we're
Speaker 2: still a Schedule one drug. So technically every day that
Speaker 2: I'm open, I'm selling weed illegally to the FEDES. But
Speaker 2: because the checks and balances within the state, I can
Speaker 2: do a state legally, so the fedesers leave you alone.
Speaker 2: But every day that we sell, we we can go
Speaker 2: to jail. But it's supposed to be legal, and it's
Speaker 2: still people in jail for it.
Speaker 1: That's a whole another Well, my brain is very slow.
Speaker 1: So what you're saying is is that but that's only
Speaker 1: illegal if you have a bank account, right, No.
Speaker 2: It's illegal every every day that we're open. It's fetially illegal.
Speaker 2: Any cannabis business right now that's open right now as
Speaker 2: we talk, is illegal because to the fes. But the
Speaker 2: fares aren't bothering you because of checks and balances that
Speaker 2: the state controls it. So they're like, go ahead, you
Speaker 2: can do whatever you do as long as you ain't
Speaker 2: doing too much. We're gonna come boy you because it
Speaker 2: is legal by the state, but by the fares. No,
Speaker 2: I'm illegal every day. I shouldn't be selling weak at all.
Speaker 1: Okay. So but oh there's so much unpack. So do
Speaker 1: you still have the license?
Speaker 2: Yes? I do?
Speaker 1: Okay, So in the.
Speaker 2: Bay, yes I do in the Bay.
Speaker 1: But you don't have the cannabis store right now, no,
Speaker 1: honestare nope?
Speaker 2: Close?
Speaker 1: So do you have people hounding hounding you twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven as far.
Speaker 2: As to get back opening store? Yeah, they missed me.
Speaker 2: They're like, dude, like what are you doing? Like when
Speaker 2: you open and when you open, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: I need to, you know, make it more convenient inaccessible.
Speaker 1: This looks good.
Speaker 2: I need to make it more convenient accessible. So that's
Speaker 2: why I pivoted and doing what I'm doing now done?
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
Speaker 2: So? I do events and I do pop ups. I'm
Speaker 2: basically a store without being a brick and mortar.
Speaker 1: Okay, and are you allowed to sell well, this is
Speaker 1: kind of dumb question, but are you allowed to sell online?
Speaker 1: Do you need to cut it? Sorry, So let's just
Speaker 1: do a quick taste test, ma'am. This looks really good.
Speaker 1: I love I love the Friday I love how you
Speaker 1: did the Friday egg cool, the way you did the
Speaker 1: spam had a little crest on it. I just have
Speaker 1: to acknowledge all this because it actually looks really deuicious. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we gotcha.
Speaker 2: It's that really does not taste bad.
Speaker 1: I can't even refront that just tastes amazing.
Speaker 2: If she was talking about the spam all day, it's
Speaker 2: actually not bad.
Speaker 1: It's really good. Wow, the of this because some kids
Speaker 1: talk smack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 1: M h call your homeboy back and be like it
Speaker 1: was really good.
Speaker 2: This is pretty good, all right.
Speaker 1: Jared was talking smack guys back there about the strawberry jelly.
Speaker 1: Strawberry jelly is definitely necessarily that's.
Speaker 2: The you got to and couldn't do it wrong. Can't
Speaker 2: put on mail or nothing. It has to be to jelly.
Speaker 2: She took three bites. I'm happy. This is one of
Speaker 2: my main meals as a youngster.
Speaker 1: This is a great man meal.
Speaker 2: I love that lady to death. Boy, But dear mom,
Speaker 2: this is that So yes, you can sell online, but
Speaker 2: he run at that same risk with the dealing with
Speaker 2: cards and dealing with the federal government because you're not
Speaker 2: supposed to do that because if we're selling drugs technically,
Speaker 2: So what I do? I throw events the same way
Speaker 2: I threw events back when I got arrested. I throw
Speaker 2: an event at a venue. Let's just say an art show.
Speaker 2: You want weed at the event, I'll be outside with
Speaker 2: delivery truck. You text your order, we'll bring it right in.
Speaker 2: So the event is not a weed event. It's an
Speaker 2: event that just so happens to have weed. So now
Speaker 2: I don't have to have a brick and mortar. So
Speaker 2: a lot of people follow me to figure out how
Speaker 2: to move around in the space. And for the longest time,
Speaker 2: I was like, get a brick and mortar, Get a
Speaker 2: brick and mortar. I'm not pushing that really no more.
Speaker 2: Unless you own the land that the brick and mortar
Speaker 2: is on. It's no point.
Speaker 1: Why do you say unless you own it?
Speaker 2: Because so what I'm going through with the store the
Speaker 2: second time around, I got new partners. The new partners
Speaker 2: I got were my original landlords, so they've been around
Speaker 2: the whole time. I'm thinking that, oh we're good, y'all
Speaker 2: seen what happened these people that came to my wedding.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be good. They were stealing from me too,
Speaker 2: the landlord. Yes, so because they were hired by me
Speaker 2: to handle the store. Mind you, I don't know how
Speaker 2: to run the story yet because I was never told.
Speaker 2: So when I don't know how to do something, I'm
Speaker 2: going to employ somebody that knows how to do it.
Speaker 2: So they said they didn't know how to do it.
Speaker 2: They was doing it, but they were stealing. And same thing.
Speaker 2: I'm in the streets. People are like, Tuckie, we ain't
Speaker 2: being paid. People I've never met, but they know me
Speaker 2: from the store. Long story short, I ended up figuring
Speaker 2: out that they were stealing. Confronting the moment, got it
Speaker 2: proof that they you know that they were stealing. But
Speaker 2: they are my landlord. So if I caught you stilling,
Speaker 2: think they're gonna let me stay in their building? No,
Speaker 2: I'm kicked out. So what am I supposed to do?
Speaker 2: You have to own the land. If I'm just renting
Speaker 2: from you, you can not like me. One month they cut
Speaker 2: my least. Now my business is gone. What A'm I
Speaker 2: supposed to do with that? And the city you know,
Speaker 2: they know that this is going on, but what can
Speaker 2: they do. You sign a least agreement with a place
Speaker 2: they don't have to. The city can't make them keep
Speaker 2: you there.
Speaker 1: You can just fire them and just be like you're fired.
Speaker 2: I could have in normal circumstances, but being at there
Speaker 2: with my landlord, they felt like they had that over me.
Speaker 2: So if you don't want us here, then you can't
Speaker 2: be here either.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the how does the event's distribution go? Again?
Speaker 2: So it's pretty pretty simple. You have an event, you
Speaker 2: have someone attached to the event that has a license
Speaker 2: that can sell and you can have smoke. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can sell them smoke there. That person can be
Speaker 2: in the same building or they can be outside, And
Speaker 2: I just choose to do it outside because that way,
Speaker 2: I don't When you label something as a weed event,
Speaker 2: it tends to get overly scrutinized for no reason. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. We're just chilling with just smoking.
Speaker 2: But if I labeled as an art event, I probably
Speaker 2: wouldn't have no police set to show up, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So for me, it was about pivoting
Speaker 2: to be able to still sell weed to the community,
Speaker 2: but then do it to where I don't have to
Speaker 2: be in a brick and mortar. I missed my staff, right,
Speaker 2: But between staff, rent, utilities, and security, I spend like
Speaker 2: fifty thousand a month just on that. Wow, just on
Speaker 2: that nothing else. I was literally opened my doors to
Speaker 2: pay taxes and pay my staff. And that's something else
Speaker 2: people don't know about the taxes on the weed. It's
Speaker 2: way different. We don't get no rite offs, Like how
Speaker 2: we sitting here and it's office and you get right
Speaker 2: off of the life electricity closing everything. I don't get
Speaker 2: none of that. Why because we're selling dope because we're
Speaker 2: scheduled one. If they reschedule, not if they deschedule, not rescheduleed,
Speaker 2: they deschedule cannabis, we can get those right offs as
Speaker 2: long as to the federal government, we are selling drugs.
Speaker 2: There's no right off for selling drugs.
Speaker 1: Is it because it's a cash based business.
Speaker 2: No, it's because it's a drug. It's a one drug. Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm saying this because I'm just trying to get an understanding.
Speaker 1: Maybe from the government's perspective. They're like, Yo, they're gonna
Speaker 1: figure out a way to hide some of the cash,
Speaker 1: because you know that's what entrepreneurs we do. So I'm saying,
Speaker 1: are they do you think that they're doing that? Because
Speaker 1: they're like, look, man, they're already gonna pocket some we
Speaker 1: don't need to add right offs.
Speaker 2: So One, there's something called two eighty e to AD
Speaker 2: is a tax code that effects cannabis. Two EDD just
Speaker 2: basically says you're selling drugs, so you don't get no
Speaker 2: right offs, and as long as cannabis is in that
Speaker 2: schedule one, we'll never be able to get right All
Speaker 2: I get right off is calls costs of goods. So
Speaker 2: that's the only thing I can.
Speaker 1: But now how do they track like how much money
Speaker 1: you make?
Speaker 2: So we had to report everything. There's something called what
Speaker 2: is the database metric? So everything that you get from
Speaker 2: seed to sales tracked. So now there are people who
Speaker 2: doing stuff back door. We know that that's just what happens.
Speaker 2: But I never I never did. I did everything above
Speaker 2: board and got screwed twice. I don't want to say fuck,
Speaker 2: but got screwed twice. It's a lot, and people don't
Speaker 2: People aren't giving the game. People aren't sharing what they're
Speaker 2: going through, so we don't all bump our head, Like
Speaker 2: I went through a lot, and I think other people
Speaker 2: should know what I was going through so they don't
Speaker 2: have to go through that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So is there a way to make the money and
Speaker 1: kind of hide the money? Like how are they knowing
Speaker 1: how much weed you're purchasing and how much profit you're
Speaker 1: supposed to make?
Speaker 2: So they don't it's not about profit for them. They
Speaker 2: don't care.
Speaker 1: Like no, I'm just saying, like how when it comes
Speaker 1: to the taxes, the taxes that every entrepreneurs, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it can actually make it a business quite profitable if
Speaker 1: you know how to work taxes, right. So I'm saying,
Speaker 1: if you don't get any tax right off, the next
Speaker 1: thing I would do is just an entrepreneur would be
Speaker 1: done to have the money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what the people are doing.
Speaker 1: And how but how are they able to do it?
Speaker 2: Because because I'm thinking so, the way that they're able
Speaker 2: to do it is because we're not federally legal. So
Speaker 2: you can steal and I can say, hey, I'm going
Speaker 2: to sue you. Where is that really going to go?
Speaker 2: Because we're not fairly legal. You're gonna take me to
Speaker 2: a federal court to sue me for money that you
Speaker 2: claiming I stole from you. You got to prove it.
Speaker 2: And then once you do prove it, we're still in
Speaker 2: federal it's illegal. Like I've had people threatened lawsuits on
Speaker 2: me that I was able to get null and void
Speaker 2: just because it was fairly illegal. You got to know
Speaker 2: your LLC. Right.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying, like, if I have a license to
Speaker 1: sell weed, right and I don't get any tax right off,
Speaker 1: can I just buy the weed, sell the weed, keep
Speaker 1: the cash, and report like ten percent?
Speaker 2: Not legally you can do it. Illegally, you can do it.
Speaker 1: Can I get caught. Oh yeah, how would they catch me?
Speaker 1: M Now do they have a check and balance? Like
Speaker 1: you buy weed from a federal spot. I don't know
Speaker 1: where you buy the weak? Is there like a No,
Speaker 1: that's the metric.
Speaker 2: That's the metric. Thing I'm telling you talking about metric
Speaker 2: is how everything is tracked. So if you buy it
Speaker 2: from a legal place, it has to go through metric.
Speaker 2: If you're not buying it through legal, it don't matter.
Speaker 2: It's not on the radar. So you can do whatever
Speaker 2: you want.
Speaker 1: So why wouldn't a person that has a license not
Speaker 1: by legal, Why wouldn't we buy it illegal because.
Speaker 2: They had a license and they're trying to do it right.
Speaker 2: But it hasn't worked for anybody, not like not like
Speaker 2: it should because the overtaxation and we're overly regulated too,
Speaker 2: like we like it's a lot.
Speaker 1: I see a lot of dispensaries in Los Angeles. They'll
Speaker 1: open and then within a year or two they shut down.
Speaker 1: And then I just also see like when I do
Speaker 1: because I do engage in edibles just for everyone that's curious.
Speaker 1: I take edibles to go to sleep, and when I
Speaker 1: hang out with a lot of mommies and we are
Speaker 1: hanging out with our kids. I like to I like
Speaker 1: to pass around edibles, Star Wars for you, Star Wars
Speaker 1: for You. But when I do go into dispensaries, there's
Speaker 1: like all these rules about you know, paying cash, there's
Speaker 1: cameras everywhere, and then they're always getting shut down. But
Speaker 1: I guess it's very tempting if they're putting all these
Speaker 1: rules up, so even though you're doing it legally, to
Speaker 1: kind of go back to doing it illegally right to survive.
Speaker 2: And it's forced a lot of people to do that.
Speaker 2: But people like us who want to do illegally and
Speaker 2: want to show other people that we can do illegally,
Speaker 2: it makes it hard because they're, like, like you said,
Speaker 2: every time one opens, one closes. So what I've been
Speaker 2: telling people is quit coming in the game to just
Speaker 2: grow and sell weed. Growing and selling weed is what
Speaker 2: you get taxed. You know, well, you can't get no
Speaker 2: tax ride offs on. So how brought you them? Shirts? Merch?
Speaker 2: Use merch to make your money, build brands with the merch,
Speaker 2: sell candles, sell lighters, that type of stuff you can
Speaker 2: get a regular tax ride off on, and you can
Speaker 2: use that money to help your business. But just trying
Speaker 2: to use the money from your cannabis business is going
Speaker 2: to be hard to really make money unless you have
Speaker 2: like fifteen twenty stores. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Is that why Like when you go onto cannabis stores,
Speaker 1: they sell like the little pipes and the little you.
Speaker 2: Gotta have sundryes. You have to because that your.
Speaker 1: But you can get you can get all right off
Speaker 1: from that.
Speaker 2: Yes you can, because it's not a cannabis product. It's
Speaker 2: a necessary so you don't get taxed like that the
Speaker 2: only way you're getting taxed.
Speaker 1: You don't think all the places are onto that game
Speaker 1: or yeah, everyone knows it, but not everyone's doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cause it's it's it's you got to have money
Speaker 2: to do with. People are so focused on buying the
Speaker 2: weed and buying other type of stuff for the stores
Speaker 2: that kind of like slips their mind. I know the
Speaker 2: value of having other things to sell. So it's like
Speaker 2: now you can't. You gotta figure out other stuff to sell.
Speaker 1: Now, Like when I go to some of these places
Speaker 1: in LA which are phenomenally built, like you know, they
Speaker 1: got the dog products and you know, now is that
Speaker 1: considered that's considered legal? It's non federal federally problemly.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, that's illegal, so a lot of people tend
Speaker 2: to forget My kids. We talked about it too. My
Speaker 2: oldest is twenty five, my youngest daughter is sixteen. They're
Speaker 2: not really taught about checks and balances anymore in school.
Speaker 2: California made cannabis legal like other states think it's thirty eight.
Speaker 2: What California does is California business. The Feds could come
Speaker 2: in and shut us down because we're not legal on
Speaker 2: the Feds, but they're allowing the checks and balances to win,
Speaker 2: so California can do whatever they want, So it's not
Speaker 2: like the it would be the Feds have to be
Speaker 2: being total assholes to come shut down everybody. You understand
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. But as long as California approves it,
Speaker 2: the Fedes kind of like are their hands are tied.
Speaker 2: As long as you, I guess, ain't doing too much.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Stay off that radar, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. And for me, it was just
Speaker 2: like I said, it wasn't even the FED thing. It
Speaker 2: was just within the city. It made no sense to
Speaker 2: stay open. My store was located across from where the
Speaker 2: A's and the Raiders and the Warriors used to play
Speaker 2: all three of them teams are gone. What am I
Speaker 2: open for? I lost fifty percent of my business just
Speaker 2: when that happened. And that was before getting ribbed by
Speaker 2: two sets of groups.
Speaker 1: So between when you say robbed, like, oh, well, you're
Speaker 1: not like robbed with guns, I mean these are your partners.
Speaker 2: No, I have five of those robberies with guns. I
Speaker 2: had a car through my store the last time they
Speaker 2: robbed it. They rode a car through my store. And
Speaker 2: then I got robbed by my partners twice. So I've
Speaker 2: been robbed seven times total in six years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not that's me excited about that. That industry
Speaker 1: is sounds stressful.
Speaker 2: It's very stressful.
Speaker 1: And do you have to find different ways of like
Speaker 1: hiding your money in these robberies.
Speaker 2: Yes, And because they don't even get any money, that's
Speaker 2: the thing. The money is in the safe or already
Speaker 2: been dropped. Most of the money is spent on me rebuilding,
Speaker 2: and then when you apply for like your insurance claim,
Speaker 2: you don't get nothing. So I'm basically the last two
Speaker 2: times I broke I broke into I didn't even file
Speaker 2: a claim. It didn't make no sense, and I think
Speaker 2: I had like about forty thousand dollars worth of damage,
Speaker 2: but it made no sense because the stuff that they
Speaker 2: damaged is covered. But it's like so much you gotta
Speaker 2: go through with it. And then my landlord, it's his bill.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, the landlord. If anybody's making a
Speaker 1: profit off these damages, is the landlord?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, shoot, you better talk to celebrities gets you
Speaker 1: a building? How hard is it to get a commercial building?
Speaker 2: It's not hard. But I didn't know what I know now.
Speaker 2: Had I known what I'm you know, going into this,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even partner with them. But everything happens for
Speaker 2: a reason and how it's supposed to happen. I needed
Speaker 2: to go through that to learn what to do now.
Speaker 2: Like I don't like, I don't hate the people that
Speaker 2: did that, both parties. I don't have no negative ill
Speaker 2: will toward them. They taught me a lot. They taught
Speaker 2: me how to move like they move. I know more
Speaker 2: about LLCs now, how to walk away from an LLC
Speaker 2: or let an LLC bankrupt and what that looks like.
Speaker 2: I understand that now. I know why they had fifteen
Speaker 2: sixteen LLCs. I couldn't understand, like, why y'all got me
Speaker 2: paying rent to this LLC and this LLC and this LLC.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, Now, what do you know from that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Tell me.
Speaker 2: When you have LLCs that literally stands for a limited
Speaker 2: liability company, that means your liability to whatever debt or
Speaker 2: whatever's going on with that business is limited based on
Speaker 2: how you structured it. So when I came in with
Speaker 2: my previous partners, that LLC and all that debt that
Speaker 2: came along with it shouldn't have to travel with me
Speaker 2: because it's limited liability. I had no clue that was stealing.
Speaker 2: I can prove that I didn't know they were taking
Speaker 2: the money. Why a y'all coming after me to truck
Speaker 2: people were trying to come up to me and sue
Speaker 2: me personally take my house off. I had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with that. That's the purpose having a limit liability company.
Speaker 2: It limits your liability. So once you know that, then
Speaker 2: you start the bankruptcy process you go through that. That's
Speaker 2: most of these people that don't look like us have
Speaker 2: fifteen LLCs and they just left. Something goes on with one.
Speaker 2: They watch it coming to me and.
Speaker 1: Here I am my favorite corporation is an es court.
Speaker 2: I love man. I love escort too.
Speaker 1: I love now that's my favorite. People talk at LLC,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I've never had an LLC, but I like
Speaker 1: an escort.
Speaker 2: I do my LLC, but then with my other businesses
Speaker 2: I found my escort. You know what I'm saying, but
Speaker 2: that I can't do that with cannabis.
Speaker 1: Can you share for everybody the difference between an LLC
Speaker 1: and an escort. Okay, come on, educate us.
Speaker 2: I know the difference. But for me, how I equated it.
Speaker 2: It's all with tax filing. That's how I equated the
Speaker 2: LLC you filed one way, the ESCORP you filed another way.
Speaker 2: And it all depends on the money you made within
Speaker 2: that year. But as far as like the definitions of
Speaker 2: the es corp, I only have one comepan that's es Corporate.
Speaker 2: My CPA handles it all. Get y'all a CPA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a really good account and shout outs
Speaker 1: to Robert Robert Hill. I like es corpse because I
Speaker 1: can pull a salary yep, and then the profit from
Speaker 1: the business can be added as an extra income, so
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to basically have the benefits of write off
Speaker 1: employment and profitability all in one scoop. So like when
Speaker 1: it comes to buying an asset, it benefits me more,
Speaker 1: Yes and LLCs. I just know that my accountants, whenever
Speaker 1: my company's gross a certain amount of money, they're like, yo,
Speaker 1: you're getting taxed at a higher rate versus the escorp.
Speaker 1: You get taxed, you save a lot more money. So
Speaker 1: but I never really understood the benefits. I just know
Speaker 1: that every time, like maybe the first year, they'll be like,
Speaker 1: you can, you can slide out the sea corp. But
Speaker 1: as that company grows and revenues, do I get the
Speaker 1: fork out of here and switch the escort. And it's
Speaker 1: so crazy because I remember fighting my account on one
Speaker 1: of my business for years because I thought it would
Speaker 1: cost more money or it'd be like a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of work. And all I had to do was say okay,
Speaker 1: and he will just click a box and that's it.
Speaker 1: And when I say, I lost a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and I preach it to everyone that works for me
Speaker 1: to turn into corporation, I can preach it. So I
Speaker 1: turned purple. These guys will never do it. The day
Speaker 1: they do it, though, I will be so happy. It's
Speaker 1: a good thing. But but that's interesting, so hum.
Speaker 2: And I'm not trying to I'm not trying to drag
Speaker 2: on industry and tell y'all not to get in. It's
Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's a new industry, so it's gonna
Speaker 2: go through bumps.
Speaker 1: Do you with the license? Can you grow your own weed?
Speaker 2: So I don't have a grow license on purpose, but
Speaker 2: I can get a grow license, Yes I can. I
Speaker 2: can do that.
Speaker 1: Why don't you have one on purpose? You're gonna get
Speaker 1: a lot of people hitting you up, like, yo, let's
Speaker 1: get into business together.
Speaker 2: Because I'd rather I've grown weed for a long time,
Speaker 2: but I don't have the desire to grow with anymore.
Speaker 2: I'd rather, well, before I came out, I just went
Speaker 2: and visit the farm. I'd rather buy weed from farms
Speaker 2: that I trust and let them deal with that. They
Speaker 2: gotta deal with the overhead, the maintenance, the growing. I
Speaker 2: don't want to deal with that. No more. People don't
Speaker 2: realize growing weed is a process and it takes a
Speaker 2: lot of money and a lot of time, and if
Speaker 2: you don't have neither, your product's not gonna be good.
Speaker 2: So I just don't. I don't have the time or
Speaker 2: the money to do it. I'm not a different place
Speaker 2: in my life. I got grandkids. I don't want to
Speaker 2: grow eat.
Speaker 1: What's the profitability margins is when you buy it?
Speaker 2: So for me, I'm speaking for for me. When I
Speaker 2: buy weed, I try. I think of weed buying as
Speaker 2: a cousinsumer as well as a you know owner. I
Speaker 2: want to buy a good weed for a good price.
Speaker 2: So when I buy weed, whatever you sell it to
Speaker 2: me for. Some companies do like a two to three
Speaker 2: hundred percent markup. I may do like a thirty percent markup.
Speaker 2: So if I get it for fifteen, some companies will
Speaker 2: sell it for forty five. That's enough for them to
Speaker 2: buy another one, you know, make some money. Me personally,
Speaker 2: I may do it for let's just say thirty thirty five,
Speaker 2: as long as I got enough to rebuy and make
Speaker 2: five dollars.
Speaker 1: Why do you do that for me?
Speaker 2: I want you to come back and buy more. So
Speaker 2: if I'm cheaper, you're gonna come back and buy more.
Speaker 2: Then if you just come back that one time, Okay,
Speaker 2: Tucky gave me some weed. It was good. I spent
Speaker 2: the high for it. But maybe I come back to
Speaker 2: him just when I'm in town, just on the flute.
Speaker 2: But if I'm giving to you that same good weed
Speaker 2: for maybe four dollars cheaper, you're gonna come by it
Speaker 2: from me, and it's not hurting me profit wise.
Speaker 1: To me, you just remind me of that clip of
Speaker 1: DC Young Clan eating while broke, where he's like this
Speaker 1: somebody's step using this step on bo.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, like in that shout out, DC, that's
Speaker 2: family too, praise y'all. That's my guy. But like, no,
Speaker 2: it's it's I approached legal like I did in the streets.
Speaker 2: Everybody sells weed. What's going to make me different than you?
Speaker 2: My price?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I like that. I like that. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what he That was. Literally, there's a clip they're talking
Speaker 1: about I washed it. Yeah, it was a funny clip.
Speaker 1: But he was like, yeah, man, that's rice.
Speaker 2: That comes from the hustle's mentality. A lot of the
Speaker 2: people that's in the space now never saw weed before ever,
Speaker 2: so they don't get that. That's something I've been trying
Speaker 2: to tell the city for the longest time. It's like, y'all,
Speaker 2: if y'all will lower the taxes, we would sell more
Speaker 2: product because the customers are coming in they seeing as
Speaker 2: high tax it limits how much they want to buy.
Speaker 2: But if the taxes is lowered, they would buy more
Speaker 2: and y'all would get more tax money. But they don't.
Speaker 2: They don't understand that. They don't they don't get it.
Speaker 1: How do you choose your vendors as far as like edibles.
Speaker 2: Testing them, Bring them in, let us test them, give
Speaker 2: them to my staff, excuse me, let them test them,
Speaker 2: make sure they're good, and then go from there.
Speaker 1: It's pretty simple, like how do I qualify to be
Speaker 1: a test?
Speaker 2: What you want? What you need? I'll be selling home,
Speaker 2: but you can't mail it.
Speaker 1: You can't mail it to me?
Speaker 2: Huh? I can mail you don't tell nobody.
Speaker 1: It's okay because I mailed my mom edle.
Speaker 2: I can mail a lot of stuff. You know, we'll
Speaker 2: talk off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, is that bad though? Can you mail edibles?
Speaker 2: You can edibles, just don't tell nobody e mailing edibles.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna mail.
Speaker 1: Edibles, is it illegal to me?
Speaker 2: You're not supposed to mail anything with T A C
Speaker 2: in across state lines.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Cross state line. If you're in California and you're sending
Speaker 2: somebody some edibles, put something else in it, like maybe
Speaker 2: a candle or a lighter or a T shirt. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, mix it up. But if you're
Speaker 2: you cannot ship t ac across state lines. It's illegal.
Speaker 1: Just so you know everyone that when Tucky came, he
Speaker 1: game gifts. I love gifts gifts. He gave me an edible,
Speaker 1: he gave me a lighter, and he gave me a
Speaker 1: really cool T shirt the evolution of the blunts, which
Speaker 1: was really cool, which I'm going to ask for it
Speaker 1: in black and white, probably gonna send them. You did
Speaker 1: not know this, but God works so funny with me.
Speaker 1: I needed a lighter for my house. This sounds really crazy,
Speaker 1: and I don't know why.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 1: I was like, I have these like matches that are
Speaker 1: busted at home and I keep going to my stove
Speaker 1: and like relighting them to light the candles in my house.
Speaker 1: And I was like, why is it that I just
Speaker 1: can't remember to buy a lighter even know where to
Speaker 1: buy a lighter from, But you handed me a lighter?
Speaker 1: Is that crazy? Like that, just the most random things
Speaker 1: will make somebody be like Yes, I needed.
Speaker 2: This, I believe wholeheartedly. And like I said, I called
Speaker 2: Hemley father yeahwah yahweh makes things happen when it's supposed
Speaker 2: to happen. Even with just us, we've been talking for
Speaker 2: a year. I could have been out here. It was
Speaker 2: meant for me to come to day. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, And I'm fine with that. Like everything that's
Speaker 2: happened in my life, it's happened because it's supposed to
Speaker 2: and I don't know that it's supposed to happen. I'm
Speaker 2: just walking the path. Like I never thought getting called
Speaker 2: for selling we was gonna leave me to open the store.
Speaker 2: Like all the people I've met since then met you
Speaker 2: because of that, you know what I'm saying, So I
Speaker 2: take it for what it is. It's just like I'm
Speaker 2: walking my path and I got to do whatever I
Speaker 2: can while I'm here to keep that path straight. That's
Speaker 2: why I don't believe in like negative like all that
Speaker 2: arguing and all that I don't live there. Me and
Speaker 2: my wife could argue and I'm hugging her five minutes later.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I love that, I don't
Speaker 2: I'd rather visit Anger, but I don't want to live there.
Speaker 1: And then have you considered being a week consultant. Well
Speaker 1: you are. I was emailing your consultants. So how do
Speaker 1: people go about reaching you for that? And what services
Speaker 1: do you provide as a we consult I.
Speaker 2: Tell everybody to hit me on ig to start first,
Speaker 2: just because it's a lot of weird though. I don't
Speaker 2: want to give you my email on my phone numbers.
Speaker 2: I want to know kind of people call me. But
Speaker 2: I offer everything. I do a full course where I
Speaker 2: do an intro to cannabis where it's like just the
Speaker 2: business of cannabis, but then I also do an intro
Speaker 2: to like growing techniques, and I do all the way
Speaker 2: up to advance shout out our hearing and our hearings.
Speaker 2: That is how I started teaching. He had a company
Speaker 2: called the Herington Institute and he hired me as a
Speaker 2: teacher and I was like, all right, cool, let me
Speaker 2: do it. And I loved it. I was like, man,
Speaker 2: it's amazing. So I just took my curriculum that I
Speaker 2: had with them, made it for me and now I
Speaker 2: teach students with it.
Speaker 1: And you teach people with a license or without, with or.
Speaker 2: Without, and I do it too. I'm probably different than
Speaker 2: anybody else because I allowed them to tell me what
Speaker 2: they want. So I have maybe I take four students
Speaker 2: at the time, and I'll have them tell me what
Speaker 2: it is you want to know about cannibis, what is
Speaker 2: it that you're trying to do, what you're trying to achieve,
Speaker 2: and then I guide my teaching for those six weeks
Speaker 2: for that and after that they give full access to me,
Speaker 2: full access to my black book. Any connections that I have,
Speaker 2: I share with them. All of my students are still
Speaker 2: my friends, Like I see myt different conferences, two of them,
Speaker 2: three of my I've had eight students total. Three of
Speaker 2: them are gms at dispensaries now, three of them are
Speaker 2: budtenders at dispensaries. One of them is even the cannabis
Speaker 2: field at all. He realized that it wasn't what he
Speaker 2: wanted to do, so he's doing ancillary stuff for cannabis
Speaker 2: businesses and he's eating. He called me all the time, like, man,
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you changed because he went to open
Speaker 2: the store like and I wasn't trying to change his mind.
Speaker 2: But I want to be real educated. If you don't
Speaker 2: know about to adye, there's no reason for you to
Speaker 2: jump into this trying to grow and sell eating.
Speaker 1: Now do you assist people in the paperwork to get
Speaker 1: a license or how hard is it to get a license?
Speaker 2: So getting a license is pretty easy. The city now
Speaker 2: has stuff set up to help people with applying for it.
Speaker 2: So if people want to have me help them do that,
Speaker 2: I will, but I would prefer them to go through
Speaker 2: the city that they're in because every city has different requirements.
Speaker 2: So if you come to me you're from Oakland, I
Speaker 2: can help you with the requirements, but I can't help
Speaker 2: them from LA because I don't know their requirements. You'd
Speaker 2: have to do the research on.
Speaker 1: That, because now are you able to do those? City nonprofit?
Speaker 1: Because I know every so I know in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: we have like economic development centers, we have business source centers.
Speaker 1: If you're in Los Angeles and you are not familiar,
Speaker 1: but the city of Los Angeles really supports entrepreneurs. They
Speaker 1: have right now. We have a legacy grant. If you've
Speaker 1: been in business for over twenty years, there's a twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars grant being clear and the city business source
Speaker 1: centers locally will help you put together that paperwork. You
Speaker 1: don't even have to struggle on your own. It will
Speaker 1: probably help you actually get it. Will They also help
Speaker 1: you with your DBAs, your escorps. They even have grants
Speaker 1: for immigrants out right now in LA where if you
Speaker 1: are an immigrant or you have various to entry and employment,
Speaker 1: you can get ten thousand dollars grant for us a
Speaker 1: legalized streetcart. They help you with your permits and everything.
Speaker 1: LA definitely does it.
Speaker 2: Just Oakland, Oakland things they have those type of things.
Speaker 2: That was crazy, is most of my money last year
Speaker 2: I made was from grant's. Ninety nine percent of money
Speaker 2: I made last year is from grants, just from knowing
Speaker 2: how to apply for them. But that's something I've learned.
Speaker 2: Those are things that we we tend not to know
Speaker 2: where the money is. It's a grand fund everything. You
Speaker 2: just got to know where to find them.
Speaker 1: Now do you get help to apply for your grants?
Speaker 1: So you just do it on your own?
Speaker 2: So I have I have a grant writer on my team.
Speaker 1: Give a grant writer on your team. That's interesting.
Speaker 2: I have a grand writer on my team. But then
Speaker 2: cheat code is what's that thing called the AI theme
Speaker 2: chat GBT. That's the best grant writer you're gonna find. Really,
Speaker 2: what get the pay that twenty dollars a month and
Speaker 2: get that in this game I got from somebody else
Speaker 2: within the last six months. When I say my proposals
Speaker 2: have been amazing, you just tell it what you wanted
Speaker 2: to do and how you're trying to propose it. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to tell you, I damnifire, my grand writer. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what am I using you for? He talking about, Well,
Speaker 2: that's what I use you chat GBT, I said, you bastards.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Let me tell you something. Chat GBT
Speaker 1: is a great investment. I if you it's weird. I
Speaker 1: have like a love hate personality. Like you, you love me,
Speaker 1: but you also can hate me easily because some people
Speaker 1: consider me me mean because I'm like my homie says,
Speaker 1: I'm mean with the eyes. That's what it is.
Speaker 2: Everybody. She's the sweetest person on earth, so I know.
Speaker 1: But but what I do is sometimes when I'm sending
Speaker 1: an email and I need something important, of course my
Speaker 1: original email will be like yo, where is it at?
Speaker 1: Or give it to me, like why are you late? Whatever?
Speaker 1: I'll literally type that and say make it nice and
Speaker 1: chatchy be what. I literally will write, what my email
Speaker 1: is this EBT and make this like I was, edit
Speaker 1: this and I'll be going off like my and I'll
Speaker 1: be ready to press in, and I go, oh, don't pressent.
Speaker 1: Take everything you wrote, put it in chat GPT and
Speaker 1: I'll be like making business professional. Make it nice, make
Speaker 1: it warm, man, and it'll say exactly what I wanted
Speaker 1: to say, but with like a cheerry and a smile.
Speaker 2: Yes, very nice. Is that crazy man that thing? When
Speaker 2: he told me that, I said, man, that's some free game.
Speaker 2: I spent that twenty every month. It don't bother me.
Speaker 1: It is great. But it's also free game for everyone
Speaker 1: out there. We did not know that applying for grants
Speaker 1: you could totally use chat gypt. That is the best
Speaker 1: kept secret there. And it's cool because you could take
Speaker 1: what the grant requirement is and probably just.
Speaker 2: Copy aja it literally, It's like it makes it so
Speaker 2: like and chat GPT.
Speaker 1: What I noticed is it keeps a log of your
Speaker 1: stuff because sometimes cheat code. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people people have different theories on how I get guests
Speaker 1: on the show, but every once in a while I
Speaker 1: will have to redraft an email for requesting a guest.
Speaker 1: And chat GBT knows so much about eating while broke
Speaker 1: that I don't even have to like retype all stuff.
Speaker 1: Chat GBT will like do my whole request and know
Speaker 1: everything about eating while broke. I don't know how, and
Speaker 1: I could be like, well, just send this request to
Speaker 1: you know whoever, and they'll do the whole thing and
Speaker 1: I'll tweak it.
Speaker 2: Of course, you know, because you know it. Chat GBT
Speaker 2: will also send you down the the rabbit hole too
Speaker 2: if you ain't paying attention, Like if you ask it
Speaker 2: too much and get too technical with it, it it
Speaker 2: special stuff out you'll be like what, But if you
Speaker 2: just give it the key.
Speaker 1: Point, it's good. And a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: this about chat EPT. I don't know why we sound
Speaker 1: like a damn chat g EPT commercial, but it works.
Speaker 1: Giving game images, Oh man, let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: I did my daughter' birthday party invitation. I did the
Speaker 1: basic invitation, and of course it's still jinky because it
Speaker 1: won't have like the letters right for the words right,
Speaker 1: and then I'll go over and photoshop and just re
Speaker 1: edit it so like even for logos, like I did
Speaker 1: another company recently and I was I did like thirty
Speaker 1: you know prompts, and I finally got the logo I wanted.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, and people like I love that lugo.
Speaker 1: I'm like, thank you cost me twenty dollars. Did you
Speaker 1: know that?
Speaker 2: Yes, my people that put me on a chat GPT
Speaker 2: because I was still like AI whatever. We was in
Speaker 2: the process of writing some grants and applying for some money,
Speaker 2: and my proposal was a one. It was this stuff
Speaker 2: I typed up myself and he was like, take that
Speaker 2: same proposal and run through chat chyit beteam, watch what happens.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what's wrong with this? Like it's nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with it, but watch what happens, man, I said, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm stuck. Instantly paid that twenty dollars. It would write there, I.
Speaker 1: Have it, definitely, and I do it for like I said,
Speaker 1: just because my tone, as my friends would say, have
Speaker 1: me not. But my tone could come off a little
Speaker 1: like crack, like cold, and so it sounds crazy. But
Speaker 1: I take that extra minute to like just soft soften
Speaker 1: my so I sound like a human being that doesn't
Speaker 1: want to kill you.
Speaker 2: I tell my wife that all the time, like babe,
Speaker 2: retype that you cannot because I see her she fuman,
Speaker 2: watch she tip. That's how I'm babe, You're typing to
Speaker 2: the owner like of your company, of your whole. You
Speaker 2: can't do that, like redo that. So, yeah, it's been
Speaker 2: a great one.
Speaker 1: Hundred percent in that person. And I'm like, right before
Speaker 1: I present, because I have mentors. I am a strong person.
Speaker 1: I love I love mentors, even though I will say
Speaker 1: the older I get, the more I fight with them,
Speaker 1: the more I'm like, I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: And then they check me and I'll be like, I
Speaker 1: know an hour from now, a week from now, the
Speaker 1: answer is going to be you're right and I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: And I've bumped my head enough times to know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I may have that quick clap back with my mentor
Speaker 1: and they may even have a quick clap back with me, right,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, I'm gonna sit
Speaker 1: for an hour in that heat and I got to
Speaker 1: kiss the pinky ring. That's you know, That's it.
Speaker 2: That's growth though too, that's being a mature, a dope,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Like, I love to learn.
Speaker 2: I feel like I can learn from anybody older, younger,
Speaker 2: in between. It don't matter if you got something that's
Speaker 2: a value. I need to listen. Listen, listen.
Speaker 1: When you pivot and your business. Do you look at
Speaker 1: it as a pivot or do you sometimes look at
Speaker 1: it as you're settling.
Speaker 2: So for me, I look at it as pivots because
Speaker 2: for me, I don't settle for shit because I know
Speaker 2: that like I got bills, like all my bills on
Speaker 2: auto pay, so I gotta.
Speaker 1: Figure out it's not like me we could be friends, that's.
Speaker 2: That's perfectly fine, Like like you had. I have to
Speaker 2: be able to make my money for my lifestyle, for
Speaker 2: my kids, my grandkids, my wife. So now I don't
Speaker 2: look at for me a pivot, especially in just life
Speaker 2: in general. Pivots for me is like how can I
Speaker 2: put it all my losses, I take a lessons, so
Speaker 2: I don't look at it as a loss, as a
Speaker 2: bad thing. I had to learn something from it, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? So where you learn from it?
Speaker 2: How do you apply that to the next thing you're
Speaker 2: finna do. I never thought cannabis was gonna last five
Speaker 2: three years. On the legal side, I was able to
Speaker 2: be in it six years running a good store, doing
Speaker 2: a lot of good stuff for the community, like fuck
Speaker 2: just selling weed. I had expudgement clinics at my store
Speaker 2: for people who had case I've had what expensive bungement
Speaker 2: clining like where they come in and help you get
Speaker 2: your record clear. So I've had three those at my
Speaker 2: store before I've had open Like I have multiple food
Speaker 2: trucks come to my store and just set up and
Speaker 2: just do food for the for the community. Like I'm
Speaker 2: a big community person. That doesn't bother me. So it's like,
Speaker 2: let me figure out ways to move around and do
Speaker 2: what I need to do. But I don't. My pivots
Speaker 2: have always been about growing, So it's just like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's not working, let me find out what do work
Speaker 2: and get on it, Like I just do you.
Speaker 1: Think that's like the secret behind being a great entrepreneur
Speaker 1: is that pivot versus an l Like I feel what
Speaker 1: the most the entrepreneurs that I respect the most are
Speaker 1: the ones that pivot the best. For me, It's like
Speaker 1: watching a sport, like it's not that I shut down
Speaker 1: the company, it's that I pivoted into something that looked
Speaker 1: like it was producing better results. Yes, that's all I
Speaker 1: was wondering from your perspective, because to say like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know I got into this industry. You know, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason I got I got I got the license
Speaker 1: everything worked in my favor. But I was able to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: my store was getting robbed six times, this was happening.
Speaker 1: Let me relook at the playing board, let me replay
Speaker 1: the numbers. I'm losing fifty thousand dollars a month doing this, Well,
Speaker 1: this makes the business more profitable. Yes, and it's I think.
Speaker 1: On your first business, I know, at least for me,
Speaker 1: I would be very emotional about it. Yeah, I'll be
Speaker 1: crying and stuff. Like I told you that I don't
Speaker 1: live it long. But my first company, it took me
Speaker 1: about I would say, four years to do the full breakup.
Speaker 1: But that's how I am. I guess in all because.
Speaker 2: You got to. You think, for me, I could have
Speaker 2: when the first partner did what they did and left,
Speaker 2: I should have been done then, but I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I'm still trying. I'm like, let's figure let's pivot, let's
Speaker 2: figure something out. Because for me, I'm like, I see
Speaker 2: what we're doing in the community, Okay, can get better.
Speaker 2: We'll figure something out. I got back with them and
Speaker 2: it was kind of it's the same thing all over again.
Speaker 2: That tarnished me on working with other people. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, it can't those are just two bad humans.
Speaker 2: Everybody else not bad. Yeah, so I have to look
Speaker 2: at it like they're like, no, you're gonna You're gonna
Speaker 2: have to work with people along whatever journey you're on.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. That's just it is what
Speaker 2: it is. But I just took like I said, I
Speaker 2: took that loss as a lesson and use that lesson
Speaker 2: to help me pivot to where I'm man now. Because
Speaker 2: for the longest time, I was telling everybody at Mama,
Speaker 2: get you a store, get you a store. It's it's
Speaker 2: it's money and ownership in the space. But it was
Speaker 2: the wrong type of ownership. I was telling him to
Speaker 2: get that store ownership ain't always cracked up to be.
Speaker 2: There's other ways to own in the space, and I'm
Speaker 2: realizing that now and making sure I share that.
Speaker 1: What are your top three favorite books as an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2: Ooh, that is a good question. Rich Man poor Man
Speaker 2: is when I always read and I haven't read a
Speaker 2: long time to read again.
Speaker 1: Rich Man poor Man?
Speaker 2: Or rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That's
Speaker 2: the one.
Speaker 1: I was like, rich Man poor Man, I wonder what
Speaker 1: is that?
Speaker 2: Okay, that's the one that's it's been a minute.
Speaker 1: That's a long time.
Speaker 2: Okay, let me see. Let me see books as an entrepreneur, what.
Speaker 1: Books that really helped carry you through? Are you a
Speaker 1: big readers?
Speaker 2: I used to be a big reader, but now I'm
Speaker 2: more of like a go, sit and ask type person,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like, let me meet with you,
Speaker 2: let me pick your brain. If that's gonna cost me
Speaker 2: your feed, let me pay that feed on one of
Speaker 2: them kind of people Like I used to have time
Speaker 2: to read, but now I need to actually do more reading.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you actually brought that up. I talked about WFE.
Speaker 2: I don't need to read some more. Not that I
Speaker 2: don't read, but I don't really like I used to.
Speaker 2: So I know the rich the rich dad poor dad
Speaker 2: for sure, But other than that, I can't really think
Speaker 2: of him because my entrepreneur game come from me being
Speaker 2: around people and soaking up and taking notes and being
Speaker 2: in the rooms with people and asking questions. That's why
Speaker 2: I got a lot of my game.
Speaker 1: Friend, I like that, but I I have to say,
Speaker 1: I love to read. I love to read. There are
Speaker 1: some books I'll definitely sidebar you and like send you
Speaker 1: some books that I think really change the way I
Speaker 1: do business, and like genuinely enjoyed reading please do. I
Speaker 1: was just genuinely curious because I was like, maybe he
Speaker 1: knows something that I don't know.
Speaker 2: But it's a trip that the book learning and the
Speaker 2: people learning it still is, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because somebody had to write the book, A person had
Speaker 2: to write it. So it's just I'm just big on learning,
Speaker 2: and I can learn from let's just sitting here. I've
Speaker 2: already learned stuff from you. I don't even know about it.
Speaker 2: That's making me want to do more, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. I just made a post maybe about two
Speaker 2: three weeks ago that I want to be around people
Speaker 2: that make me better, that's making more money than me,
Speaker 2: that's hustling harder than me, that's doing better than me. Like,
Speaker 2: I want that because it's going to make me want
Speaker 2: to do better hanging around people who's doing less. Not
Speaker 2: that they're bad or anything, but we're not in the
Speaker 2: same space, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Eating while broke would not exist if at that period
Speaker 1: in my life, I wasn't hanging out more with my
Speaker 1: more successful friends. I noticed personally, for myself, I'm more
Speaker 1: comfortable with the friends that aren't doing as well. But
Speaker 1: when I get around my friends that are extremely successful,
Speaker 1: I mean millionaires one, they don't treat me different at all.
Speaker 1: But the conversation is different. The conversation is constantly about creating,
Speaker 1: building the world that hasn't been seen yet, whether it's
Speaker 1: planning a tree, building this building that. Like, the conversation
Speaker 1: is different. And then the people at this other level,
Speaker 1: the conversation is more sad to say, but like I
Speaker 1: call it like trailer talk, like you know what girl
Speaker 1: you're sleeping with, who's getting cheated on? Who who has this?
Speaker 1: And who's doing that? And it's more gossipy versus like
Speaker 1: we're trying. And then it's more like last minute content creation,
Speaker 1: like oh I see social a YouTube page and I
Speaker 1: heard they did that, so they'll do three poles and
Speaker 1: for like three seconds. But the ones that are really successful,
Speaker 1: you hang around them enough, it is damn well impossible
Speaker 1: not to dream big. Yeah, and they dream big. They
Speaker 1: dream like they been dreaming and all they dreams came true.
Speaker 1: But in reality, you hang out with successful people enough,
Speaker 1: we realize that they cry alone, they failed alone, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. They go through all that but
Speaker 1: that that that consistency of I'm gonna keep throwing stuff
Speaker 1: at the board and we'll see what sticks really works
Speaker 1: with them. But I will say this, my best moments
Speaker 1: are hanging around now that my other friends aren't fun times.
Speaker 1: But my best like get up is if I'm surrounding
Speaker 1: myself by people that are straight winners, like thoroughbreds. I
Speaker 1: remember one time I had a low patch. This was
Speaker 1: like a couple of years ago. One of my successful
Speaker 1: friends sent me this like Instagram thing and it was
Speaker 1: like a pack of dogs will walk running together and
Speaker 1: one dog was weak, and it was like keep running
Speaker 1: with us, You'll you'll catch up and you know, but
Speaker 1: it was it was kind of like, yo, run with us,
Speaker 1: like you know, don't We don't give a fuck where
Speaker 1: you at. We don't care if you fall, you broke
Speaker 1: your leg, continue to run with us, Wenn you're gonna
Speaker 1: catch the speed or whatever.
Speaker 2: In the circles I want to be in, Like it's
Speaker 2: nothing wrong. You got people grew up with that, you
Speaker 2: grew apart from there's nothing wrong with that, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like I'm and I'm realizing that I'm
Speaker 2: forty four. I finally realized that about thirty six thirty seven,
Speaker 2: it's okay to have new friends, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: like a lot of like for example, Neo, I mean
Speaker 2: Neo five years ago. That's my Pattner. Like we talked
Speaker 2: just about regular can and stuff. Same thing with Slink.
Speaker 2: A bunch of people who I've seen come on here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's he is one of the most viral. That is
Speaker 2: the homes. Niggas know that. Niggas know your mama, come
Speaker 2: on now.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Slink sleep brother sleep Man talking about
Speaker 1: how he had been up and down and up and down,
Speaker 1: but he was the most impressive on the show with vulnerability.
Speaker 1: I think he had like forty dollars in his pocket
Speaker 1: at the time. But he had put out this We
Speaker 1: had put out this clip of him saying like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I took my wife to Maldives or my girl's mouth
Speaker 1: beves and then I came home and was eating chili dogs.
Speaker 1: Every day. I promise you that clip is shared. We
Speaker 1: get the alerts on how many times it is shared consistently.
Speaker 2: Back to Bank, He's not lying. I don't know, because
Speaker 2: I know in personally he ain't lying. He literally went
Speaker 2: I know her, know the old lady, know the kids.
Speaker 2: They win, had a great time. He got back like
Speaker 2: bro broken shit. She would funny. He SLINKs to cook
Speaker 2: pies and stuff and like like you know, like we're hustlers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he shared his story. It was really great. What
Speaker 1: advice would you give to someone that doesn't have a license,
Speaker 1: that does do that is in the business illegally and
Speaker 1: wants to go legal or what advice would you give
Speaker 1: him them? Period if they are doing it illegally and
Speaker 1: that's what they feel they only.
Speaker 2: Know right, most of us are like that, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, because that's so we know a lot
Speaker 2: of people even know that this legal stuff is going on.
Speaker 2: If you're interested in getting in the legal space, my
Speaker 2: advice is find a me and suck up game. Do
Speaker 2: a lot of research. Do as much research as you
Speaker 2: can on your own, but find people in the space
Speaker 2: that's in the space that's actually doing the work. Don't
Speaker 2: get coined. Find somebody that's in the space doing the
Speaker 2: work and work with them. Talk to them, ask them questions.
Speaker 2: Getting these rooms, be willing to spend money to go
Speaker 2: to some of these events, Like a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't realize when I did eighty five sold, when I
Speaker 2: did sway On, I'm doing eating while Bro, I'm paying
Speaker 2: for myself to get here. That's money. That's like marketing
Speaker 2: money to me. Be willing to spend money on yourself.
Speaker 2: A lot of people in rap and just whatever don't
Speaker 2: want to spend money on themselves, But you want somebody
Speaker 2: to spend money on you, but you're not want to
Speaker 2: spend no money in yourself. Be won't spend some money
Speaker 2: on yourself. Be willing to put yourself in their rooms
Speaker 2: and set yourself a budget to be able to go
Speaker 2: do that. That's what would be my advice is getting
Speaker 2: these rooms and talk to these people. So you got
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Tucky Blunt. You could find him on Instagram.
Speaker 1: You are very nice, very approachable, So you guys don't
Speaker 1: have to be out there all like well, I need
Speaker 1: to address myself in a suit and approach me. He's
Speaker 1: very approachable. We've been talking back and forth for like
Speaker 1: a year about doing this episode, and so I'm saying
Speaker 1: this sidebar, like, hey, you can literally reach out to him,
Speaker 1: ask these questions on like what the next steps are,
Speaker 1: full transparency. If he does have a consulting fee, that's great.
Speaker 1: I would definitely recommend it. I mean, you want to
Speaker 1: hire someone that's been in your shoes and that you
Speaker 1: can feel comfortable being transparent with, you know, Like I
Speaker 1: have a pastor, which I want to bring him on
Speaker 1: the show. He doesn't know yet, but like I say
Speaker 1: the craziest stuff in front of my pastor. But I
Speaker 1: like that because I'm like, you know what, it's someone
Speaker 1: that I can relate to. But that's walking the direction
Speaker 1: that I want to go in. And that's the same
Speaker 1: thing I would say to you guys, like if you're
Speaker 1: interested in this business, you know, and then have you
Speaker 1: made like millions of dollars doing this business or like, oh.
Speaker 2: Well the business had made millions of dollars, but you
Speaker 2: don't get to see it because you're paying all the
Speaker 2: money in taxis and the staff and all the overhead.
Speaker 2: So no, I never for six years, I never made
Speaker 2: a profit. But also keep in mind I was being
Speaker 2: stolen from so once I took over control September of
Speaker 2: twenty three till March or twenty four when I closed,
Speaker 2: I got to see actual, real numbers. Blunsymore could have
Speaker 2: made money if we weren't being stolen from. I could
Speaker 2: have made money, but I was being stolen from. It
Speaker 2: was no way to get out from under it. They
Speaker 2: were stealing money and then not paying the vendors. That's
Speaker 2: a double whammy. So it's no way to come up
Speaker 2: from under that. But it's definitely you can make money.
Speaker 2: But the way to make the money in the legal
Speaker 2: space is doing everything but selling weed. You got to
Speaker 2: do everything else. You got to use that money from
Speaker 2: the merch, from the parties, from whatever it is that
Speaker 2: you do to make money. You need to I tell
Speaker 2: people all the time, what can I do in the
Speaker 2: weed space? Whatever you do in your normal nine to five,
Speaker 2: whatever you do in your everyday space, bring that to weed.
Speaker 2: There's a need for it. But everyone is just focused
Speaker 2: on selling the weed. No one is focused on like
Speaker 2: how you just said a lighter. Them ltders you can
Speaker 2: get I don't know, I think it's like three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty of them. You can just sell those and
Speaker 2: make money just off lighters. You can make trades, you
Speaker 2: can make as trays, what ever, whatever you can use
Speaker 2: that money to help facilitate And what.
Speaker 1: About the vendors that are trying to get into the stores.
Speaker 1: Like if say there's a pipe vendor or an ashtray vendor, Like,
Speaker 1: how hard is it to get into these stores? Do
Speaker 1: they just go into the store.
Speaker 2: They need to go to the store, hollow the store
Speaker 2: stores need that type of stuff. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You just got to you gotta so they need us
Speaker 1: and we just got to go. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: I just choose to do my own stuff branded because
Speaker 2: it's a brand recognition, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 2: if you have a perfect example, Neo's Moms makes our
Speaker 2: ass trays, I could have went and bought my own
Speaker 2: blunts and more ass trays. She's making some, all right,
Speaker 2: let me get them from you and put blunts some
Speaker 2: more on them. So now I'm supporting a whole nother
Speaker 2: business that's a black owned business that's putting stuff in
Speaker 2: my black owned business, and I'm selling to my people
Speaker 2: easy peasy, like it just just I don't know, it
Speaker 2: just seems natural and it's easy to do. And she's
Speaker 2: not touching the plant, so she don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about the taxation. Wow, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So do you hear it here? First, guys, can you
Speaker 1: spell it out for everyone, all our listeners on how
Speaker 1: to keep up with you, how to reach out with
Speaker 1: reach out to you, Cameron, the center is all yours.
Speaker 2: I am Tucky Blunt on everything. T U c K
Speaker 2: Y B l U n T. Just be respectful when
Speaker 2: you reach out. I'm super, super transparent and I'm Tucky
Speaker 2: Bunt everywhere. Cybar. I appreciate you and what you're doing
Speaker 2: for entrepreneurs. Because you wanted a rare podcasts where you'll
Speaker 2: see stars, but you'll see a meet You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. You don't really get that a lot. So
Speaker 2: I appreciate you and what you're doing for people like me.
Speaker 1: Thank you, well, it's all love. It's an honor to
Speaker 1: have you. And like I said, my favorite guest, my
Speaker 1: team knows, it's always gonna be a entrepreneur, always right
Speaker 1: or died for y'all. Spam y'all, and I love the
Speaker 1: spam Sam. I'm just genuinely curious. I'm hoping that is.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's in spam. I just hope it's
Speaker 1: not red meat.
Speaker 2: I think it's special parts and oh my.
Speaker 1: God, sick assitation. Thank you guys for tuning in to
Speaker 1: another episode of Eating While Broke. He's out