Speaker 1: Afro Tech twenty nineteen, Oakland, California. News personality and social
Speaker 1: justice activists Angela riots on the mainstage speaking with Jason
Speaker 1: White and Kareem Webtation is at the time chief marketing
Speaker 1: officer a cure Lee cannabis label, and Kareem is an
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial activists and CEO at Fourth Movement in l a
Speaker 1: based social equity initiative. Angela position is a question to
Speaker 1: the guys about the impact of legislation and the black
Speaker 1: opportunity in the cannabis industry. When you think about the
Speaker 1: other barriers of entry, because there's not policy right that
Speaker 1: would allow this uh space to exist for us in
Speaker 1: a way that I think it makes it one, makes
Speaker 1: it sustainable and to makes people engage. Whether we're talking
Speaker 1: about raising capital, we know there are folks that won't
Speaker 1: fund um these ventures because it's not federally legal. What
Speaker 1: are the other barriers of entry that exists from a
Speaker 1: political standpoint? Well, I think to your point about capital,
Speaker 1: even though even when you can raise couple of the
Speaker 1: cost of that capital is it's extraordinary high and and
Speaker 1: and higher. So that's an issue. UH, it's still a
Speaker 1: Schedule one drug, which means there's basically no way to
Speaker 1: research it, no way to to kind of put it
Speaker 1: on the docket as a as a political discussion. And
Speaker 1: in addition to that, I think if you look at,
Speaker 1: for example, the More Act, which was which is the
Speaker 1: most aggressive bill out there, that's when you get to
Speaker 1: real true expungement putting money in my money, aside from
Speaker 1: research and looking at um even surveys and opportunities to
Speaker 1: truly get a measurement of like what is the state
Speaker 1: of the industry in the communities, what are the real
Speaker 1: numbers behind this? And without that legislation, none of that exists.
Speaker 1: This is just companies making money and you need that
Speaker 1: governance to make sure that some of those other steps
Speaker 1: are taken around this industry. Will Lucas and this is
Speaker 1: black tech, green money. I'm gonna interrouce you to some
Speaker 1: of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds and
Speaker 1: brilliant ideas. I feel black and building are simply using
Speaker 1: tech to secure your bag. This podcast is for you.
Speaker 1: Al Harrington and Wilson Chandler are both former NBA players
Speaker 1: term businessmen. John Monopoly is Kanye who has manager. The
Speaker 1: partners have joined forces to work together on expanding the
Speaker 1: current three percent market share of the cannabis industry that
Speaker 1: is currently held by black people. As Al Harrington the
Speaker 1: sixteen season NBA veteran and leading black cannabis entrepreneur about
Speaker 1: business success as a former pro athlete, what's your unique
Speaker 1: about business moves like his and those of other successful
Speaker 1: former pros like Magic Johnson and others that leads them
Speaker 1: to the promised land with so many others have ventured
Speaker 1: into business that have ultimately gone belly up or one.
Speaker 1: I want to say that's a compliment to put you
Speaker 1: in with Matt you it's I got a lot of
Speaker 1: to do, but um, you know, I think the main
Speaker 1: thing was just um being able to you know, create
Speaker 1: a foundation of like of just of educating yourself, educating myself,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Towards the end of my career,
Speaker 1: when I started to realize that, you know, I wasn't
Speaker 1: jumping as high, I wasn't as fast, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I wasn't as important to the organizations like
Speaker 1: I used to be, and I had to figure out
Speaker 1: what was gonna be next. And you know I always say,
Speaker 1: I give my financial advisor a lot of credit because
Speaker 1: you know, throughout my career and you know Wilson and whoever, like,
Speaker 1: you know, we get so many opportunities throne at as
Speaker 1: business deals all day, right, and they all sound great, right,
Speaker 1: I mean what business deal have you ever heard? It
Speaker 1: didn't sound like a great opportunity. But what he did
Speaker 1: was they made me, you know, do my own research
Speaker 1: and come to them and tell them why was a
Speaker 1: good idea? You know what I'm saying. So because I
Speaker 1: got into that practice, it allowed me, too, I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, become a better entrepreneur that you know, I
Speaker 1: was done playing that I was able to put myself
Speaker 1: in the position that I am and I'm in today.
Speaker 1: And I also want to just say too, I think
Speaker 1: that passion right, being able to do something that you're
Speaker 1: passionate about is you know, you you'll never work another
Speaker 1: day in your life, right, So you think about like
Speaker 1: you know, John Monopoly and like all that he's been
Speaker 1: able to do. You know what I'm saying, these are
Speaker 1: you know, these are professional We're professionals that actually you know,
Speaker 1: love what we do. You know what I'm saying. We
Speaker 1: can't wake up to act, wake up the next day
Speaker 1: to actually get right back to the ground and do
Speaker 1: what we're doing. So you know, um, just trying to
Speaker 1: just continue to just you know, build on you know,
Speaker 1: just build, uh, you know, have a solid foundation and
Speaker 1: just build on top of it. And you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to you know, get into the
Speaker 1: cannabis space, you know, almost eleven years ago now when
Speaker 1: it wasn't as popular as it is today. And you know,
Speaker 1: now we have you know, first mover's advantage, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So it's really um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: I always say I was blessed, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying to be in this position, and you know, the
Speaker 1: goal is to obviously be at that Magic Johnson type
Speaker 1: of level. N you know, he mentioned this a few
Speaker 1: times in his comments there about you know, really being
Speaker 1: in the right position to take advantage of these opportunities
Speaker 1: is a large part of finding the continue success having
Speaker 1: it one place. You know, success be get success and
Speaker 1: a lot of uh instances, and I would imagine that
Speaker 1: you get calls to do partnerships like these because you
Speaker 1: have obviously showing a lot of showing a lot of
Speaker 1: depth and expertise at managing incredible talent, and what can
Speaker 1: we learn from journeys like yours to be intentional about
Speaker 1: you know, our journey to finding ourselves in rooms, uh,
Speaker 1: like the ones you find yourself in, so that we
Speaker 1: can you know, have that success that we gets more success.
Speaker 1: Like what can we do intentionally when we're not managing
Speaker 1: you know, superstars and etcetera, but in our everyday lives,
Speaker 1: what can we do to make sure that we're positioning
Speaker 1: ourselves to take advantage of opportunity. I let's say, you
Speaker 1: gotta keep your eyes and ears open at all times
Speaker 1: and always just be in search of the right opportunity.
Speaker 1: You know, Because I've been in music and entertainment for
Speaker 1: you know, almost thirty years now, I have been exposed
Speaker 1: to a lot of different opportunities, um just in business
Speaker 1: and in this you know, helping to build artists brands.
Speaker 1: But it's all about finding the right situation. And luckily, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, with with this particular deal you know that
Speaker 1: I've been working with with with Dan and Al. I've
Speaker 1: been knowing these guys for you know, twenty plus years,
Speaker 1: and I've always seen them, um, you know, moving the
Speaker 1: right way. So I was just really honored to join
Speaker 1: the team. Yeah, and I think about you know, the
Speaker 1: black sauce, you know, when when we bring something to
Speaker 1: an industry, the sauce that black people specifically add value
Speaker 1: um to whether it be sports, where there'd be music,
Speaker 1: where they'd be food, and now we're talking about cannabis,
Speaker 1: the black perspective on things as a whole other layer
Speaker 1: of value. And Wilson, I'm interested in your perspective on
Speaker 1: because when you're launching this, uh, your new dispensary, you're
Speaker 1: launching it with a shower festival, free festival, and you know,
Speaker 1: how can we leverage more than just having the license
Speaker 1: to sell, but bring our perspective to an industry that
Speaker 1: has so much opportunity to ensure our success. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, piggybacking off what Alice done, you know, as
Speaker 1: being a lifestyle, bringing in space, you know, just bringing
Speaker 1: that aesthetic, you know, that coolness, like you said, like
Speaker 1: our culture you know brains, you know, whether it's music,
Speaker 1: fashion or whatever it is. I think bringing the extra
Speaker 1: push to the space, you know is everything you know,
Speaker 1: um and the culture. You know, we pretty much determined thing,
Speaker 1: you know in every space we've been and I think
Speaker 1: that's the same cannabis, you know, just bringing that style
Speaker 1: and that flavor to the space and they also having
Speaker 1: a good business practices. So do you do you think
Speaker 1: that there is a unique value Wilson on partnering with
Speaker 1: artists who have maybe a marijuana stick about them or
Speaker 1: think about them people um who you know obviously in
Speaker 1: the music is already prevalent. What do you think of
Speaker 1: of than just partnering with artists, because when when we
Speaker 1: talk a lot about these things, and I read a
Speaker 1: lot of stories on you guys, you also leveraging the
Speaker 1: part of it it's medical benefit, right, and so it's
Speaker 1: not just about the entertainment value of it, but it
Speaker 1: is also over the recreational use of it, but also
Speaker 1: but additionally the medical benefits. How do you think about
Speaker 1: using entertainment as well as you know the medical benefit
Speaker 1: A branding part of this to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: building a valuable business. Um, I think going forward on
Speaker 1: the basically get more maturity, you know, and people start
Speaker 1: thinking more so about the medical benefits. So I think
Speaker 1: just bringing awareness using everybody's platform and bring awareness to
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know, whether there's artists that's touring
Speaker 1: any you know, certain benefits you know, the condown or
Speaker 1: stress lea, whatever it is, pain management. So I think, um,
Speaker 1: using it, you know, those those different platforms, whether it's athletes,
Speaker 1: artists or you know, um, people in fashion, whether there's
Speaker 1: people that's in uh that's in the art scene. I
Speaker 1: think marijuana kind of bring a lot of those communities,
Speaker 1: communities together. Uh. So I think using those different platforms,
Speaker 1: bringing awareness to the medical benefits of it would be uge.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of universities are starting to
Speaker 1: get into it, and I think they start doing more
Speaker 1: research on different possibilities. So yeah, and now, and to
Speaker 1: piggyback on that, I was reading you know, up on
Speaker 1: you guys and other interviews that you've done, and you
Speaker 1: you talk, you guys talk a lot about wanting VMO
Speaker 1: to really be a model business that communities will appreciate
Speaker 1: that you were doing great work. And how soon or
Speaker 1: what would it take even for communities to see cannabis
Speaker 1: dispensaries and others as businesses that are really contributory to community.
Speaker 1: I think that will already happened. Man. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that during the pandemic, you know the fact that
Speaker 1: cannabis was deemed essential, Um, I think it definitely put
Speaker 1: cannabis in a different light right now when you talk
Speaker 1: about our community, you know, there's some work to be
Speaker 1: done there, right, because people don't realize is that our
Speaker 1: people from our community really suffer from PTSD of the
Speaker 1: cannabis prohibition essentially, right. You know, we've seen so many
Speaker 1: people locked up, We've seen so many lives destroyed. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen uh, you know, people get access to product
Speaker 1: that was not safe and you know, have negative effects
Speaker 1: and different things like that. So our community have seen
Speaker 1: so much negative is really hard for them to wrap
Speaker 1: their head around, like, oh, we're about to sell drugs.
Speaker 1: They still call it legally you know in our community,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's bigger than that, right because you
Speaker 1: know what what we've seen now is that one uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they use cannabis as a way to lock
Speaker 1: us up. You know what I'm saying, that they use
Speaker 1: it as a tool. Right. But now that we see
Speaker 1: with testing and you know, with legalization and regulation and
Speaker 1: all these things happening, we see that cannabis is actually
Speaker 1: medicine for real, right, it actually can uh, you know,
Speaker 1: help a lot of the issues that we deal with
Speaker 1: in our community. Depression, anxiety, all those different things. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, PTSD. You know, these are things
Speaker 1: that we suffer from every day. And you know the
Speaker 1: things that we have to turn to is usually prescription
Speaker 1: drugs alcohol, right because once again and people from our community,
Speaker 1: we don't go to doctors like we should, right, you know,
Speaker 1: that whole process is all that stuff. So you know,
Speaker 1: for me, it's about you know, one breaking the ice
Speaker 1: with a lot of people in our community. Telling my
Speaker 1: grandmother's story. You know, for a seventy nine year old
Speaker 1: woman that definitely saw all the ill effects of cannabis
Speaker 1: and for her to be open minded enough to try
Speaker 1: it and then it actually worked. And you know now
Speaker 1: you know, she'll be ninety years old, uh next next month,
Speaker 1: on the twenty six, and she still uses cannabis every day,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And you know, and have
Speaker 1: people from her church that now use cannabis and my
Speaker 1: mom's church, you know what I'm saying, Like my mom,
Speaker 1: my mom used to kick my dad. My mom used
Speaker 1: to kick my dad out of the house for smokes,
Speaker 1: for smelling like weed when he came home. And now
Speaker 1: she smoked more weed than you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: but it's just because of the education, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, She knows that she can benefit from using
Speaker 1: cannabis compared to the things that she had been using
Speaker 1: in the past. So, you know, it's it's a journey
Speaker 1: that we're on and I think that one of the
Speaker 1: ways that will be able to continue to break that
Speaker 1: stigma is for when we go to these meetings with
Speaker 1: the people in our community, for us to show up,
Speaker 1: not the other people that have been showing up, because
Speaker 1: they definitely are trying to take advantage of people in
Speaker 1: our community, you know what I'm saying. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where you know, we just
Speaker 1: got a lot of work ahead of us. And I
Speaker 1: think that you know, with Wilson's gesture for his community
Speaker 1: to throw a free festival, and I mean, you see
Speaker 1: those names, don't think for one second those guys moving
Speaker 1: around for free. You know what I'm saying, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like this man is putting
Speaker 1: his money out is that that store is not even
Speaker 1: open yet, you know what I'm saying. But he's doing
Speaker 1: it as a gesture for his community to understand that
Speaker 1: what he's doing He's doing it for them, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He's doing it to create opportunities, create jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, with a lot of the money that he'll
Speaker 1: be making. You know, he's gonna rebuild parks and all
Speaker 1: these different things in this community. So he's gonna take
Speaker 1: something that was very negative and turned into something very positive.
Speaker 1: And you know that's something that you know, obviously, I'm
Speaker 1: super excited about being a part of John, our partner's
Speaker 1: Viola Village. You know, we're all in with supporting and
Speaker 1: doing whatever it takes to make sure that Wilson is
Speaker 1: successful in his community. I love I love that and John,
Speaker 1: you know, I think about like you, you mentioned you've
Speaker 1: been in the music business, entertainment business for thirty plus years,
Speaker 1: and I would imagine you've been pitched everything under the sun.
Speaker 1: Like you, You've probably had more businesses pitch you on.
Speaker 1: You know, I got the next hottest thing, you know,
Speaker 1: I got this thing that you should invest in. I
Speaker 1: would love to partner with you on X, Y and Z.
Speaker 1: When you talk, when you started hearing that cannabis were
Speaker 1: the walls were going to start coming down with regards
Speaker 1: to legalization of cannabis, was this something that you were
Speaker 1: automatically like, yo, I gotta find my way into this,
Speaker 1: or it was like opportunities hard to come in to you,
Speaker 1: and it was you chose one versus the hundreds of
Speaker 1: other things that came to you that day. Sure. So
Speaker 1: I personally used cannabis every day, right, and it helps
Speaker 1: me with my anxiety and just dealing with just life pressure.
Speaker 1: So I've been looking for the right opportunity um for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. So when I, uh, finally you know,
Speaker 1: God with Dan and Out, it was it was a
Speaker 1: great thing because they had so much traction in the
Speaker 1: space already. So yeah, I mean I have been been
Speaker 1: approached by many brands, by many companies, but it was
Speaker 1: just never the right fit. Um. And you know me,
Speaker 1: me knowing uh Dan since I was a kid and
Speaker 1: out for the last fifteen plus maybe even twenty years,
Speaker 1: it just made the decision very easy to make for me.
Speaker 1: And you just said a word there. I hear a
Speaker 1: lot of venture capitalists and even angel investors talk about
Speaker 1: and that's attraction when people when people are coming to you,
Speaker 1: um with ideas and you you work around artists a
Speaker 1: lot and a lot of artists ideas don't have traction.
Speaker 1: They are because that's why their artists, because they're improving,
Speaker 1: they're trying to convince the world that their ideas are
Speaker 1: having have merit. When you how do you transition from
Speaker 1: I'm gonna trust that I believe instinctively that this artist
Speaker 1: has something, versus from a business perspective, I want to
Speaker 1: see the moves you've been making before you even got
Speaker 1: to me. Well, it's all about really having the right
Speaker 1: instinct right and making sure that you know whoever you
Speaker 1: want to move around with and build a brand with.
Speaker 1: You guys are are aligned uh in concept and as
Speaker 1: far as you know how you execute um. You know again,
Speaker 1: you know, being that I've been able to manage some
Speaker 1: of the biggest artists in hip hop, you know you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean I get approached all the time with different
Speaker 1: companies and brands and opportunities you know, to to to
Speaker 1: to build brand extensions for artists. But again, you've got
Speaker 1: to really make sure that you're getting in bed with
Speaker 1: the right people and that you uh, that you've done
Speaker 1: your research and that and that it's the right kind
Speaker 1: of partnership, you know. And in case of me starting
Speaker 1: to work with Dan and Allen at Village. You know,
Speaker 1: everything was aligned. You know, I've known them both for
Speaker 1: for many years. They built a very strong brand with Viola,
Speaker 1: and it just all made sense. So I'm really I'm
Speaker 1: really blessed to be involved now. Wilson, I asked out
Speaker 1: this question. I kind of want to ask it to
Speaker 1: you in a different way, however, and we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about how one of OL's missions is to make
Speaker 1: sure that his businesses are seen as a model business
Speaker 1: in community. And I'm interested in you know, when we
Speaker 1: take our families two shows in the park or whatever,
Speaker 1: and this may be sponsored by a beer company or
Speaker 1: you know, a liquor company, we don't think anything of it.
Speaker 1: We got kids there and you know, the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and we have we think nothing of it. Are we
Speaker 1: out of place yet in your perspective that we could
Speaker 1: take our kids to the park and go to this
Speaker 1: free concert like you're putting on and instead of a
Speaker 1: beer company being there, it's it's a cannabis label putting
Speaker 1: this on. Are we there yet in our communities or
Speaker 1: what will it take to get there to destigmatize that? Um?
Speaker 1: I don't think we're there yet, you know, just from
Speaker 1: experience with doing this festival. But I think it's heading
Speaker 1: in that that direction. I think the more education we uh
Speaker 1: we promote you know, to the masses, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the quickly we get there. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: you guys efforts are to change the statistic that's as
Speaker 1: three percent, only three percent of companies in the cannabis
Speaker 1: space are black owned. And starting with you out with this,
Speaker 1: I would love to get all of you guys input.
Speaker 1: Starting with you out, there may be an opportunity for
Speaker 1: Village specifically to be supportive formally, you know, to be
Speaker 1: like the Amazon for other businesses who want to you know,
Speaker 1: ride on those train tracks. Right, and so, how how
Speaker 1: can black owned businesses across the country or how can
Speaker 1: you guys leverage the work that you're doing to be
Speaker 1: formally supportive even and economically involved in other black dispensaries
Speaker 1: across the country to where you're not just you know,
Speaker 1: championing championing in as a mission to make sure that
Speaker 1: other people are in, but also maybe providing some of
Speaker 1: the back office support, Maybe you assist with branding, maybe
Speaker 1: you're integrated in some other way to where you become
Speaker 1: integral to black dispensaries and perhaps manufacturers all across the country,
Speaker 1: even though they're not wearing your label on the only outside. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like we're doing that already. We
Speaker 1: have you know, definitely put our money where our mouth is.
Speaker 1: We've definitely helped incubate certain businesses people, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to win retail locations here in California. But I think
Speaker 1: that you know, with Village moving forward, you know, we
Speaker 1: are a platform. You know, we're a platform that we
Speaker 1: can actually be able to bring in other brands. And
Speaker 1: then when you talk about retailers, you know, with these brands,
Speaker 1: we'll be able to stock their shelves right, be able
Speaker 1: to do strategic partnerships to be able to bring Viola Greenstone,
Speaker 1: you know, with other new designer drugs, with other new
Speaker 1: brands that we're gonna start, because you know, that's what
Speaker 1: drives traffic into dispensaries. People like variety and they want
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're going to get to you know,
Speaker 1: we have access to the best product on the market,
Speaker 1: and that's something that we feel like we're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to accomplish. And I think that that's one of
Speaker 1: the one of the ways that we can help some
Speaker 1: of the younger entrepreneurs and some of the younger retail owners.
Speaker 1: And then from an economic side, you know, we have
Speaker 1: to just continue to be successful on what we're doing.
Speaker 1: We gotta sell more products, we gotta make more money.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the only way that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to you know, be able to have that effect
Speaker 1: and be able to make these strategic investments into the
Speaker 1: companies that will need it as well. So so, John,
Speaker 1: when you hear something like that that you know, there's
Speaker 1: an opportunity here, not just for this particular these particular dispensaries,
Speaker 1: but we want to be you know, across the whole
Speaker 1: spectrum of black owned cannabis dispensaries and manufacturers. How does
Speaker 1: your brain think about, you know, what the real opportunity
Speaker 1: is as far as us being integrated um into these
Speaker 1: other opportunities. Well, you know, I just think it's important
Speaker 1: that as business people in this space were aggressive because
Speaker 1: you know, quite honestly, our white counterparts are moving fast.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's really unfortunate that we only
Speaker 1: make up three percent of the space as far as
Speaker 1: being black owned, you know, in cannabis, and we just
Speaker 1: gotta be you know, uh, aggressive and intelligent around you know,
Speaker 1: how we grow and who we are, who we align
Speaker 1: ourselves with. You've got this festival to nobody's home festival
Speaker 1: that is I wanted. Is it it the official launch
Speaker 1: of the dispensary or is it's just uh know, it's
Speaker 1: just uh it's in celebration of the dispensory, but not
Speaker 1: the official launch, okay, because I'm interested because I think
Speaker 1: about how after things like woodstock, that was when cannabis
Speaker 1: in the United States got its stigma. Um, but woodstock
Speaker 1: is something that you know, you walk past a white
Speaker 1: person and grocery store, a white hair, you know, it
Speaker 1: was probably in that era and they were probably handling
Speaker 1: some of those things in that era. Do you believe
Speaker 1: or is it your effort that your festival could be
Speaker 1: you know, one in in alignment with what that meant
Speaker 1: to that culture or is that is that your effort
Speaker 1: at all? You know? Definitely, Um, I think this is
Speaker 1: something we want to do every year, you know, and
Speaker 1: make it better every year and just kind of break
Speaker 1: that stigma and have everybody there free flowing, having fun,
Speaker 1: enjoying uh, different products, enjoying different brands, you know, enjoying
Speaker 1: one another and just you know, all about positivity and
Speaker 1: the future of this space. John, you came on UM
Speaker 1: to make sure that you know, the entertainment part of this,
Speaker 1: those partnerships were in place, and this this industry is
Speaker 1: the sixty one billion dollar industry today with projections to
Speaker 1: be like seventy plus by UM. And again you came
Speaker 1: on to help the company companies, you know, build these
Speaker 1: entertainment partnerships. You talk about how your involvement here is
Speaker 1: not specifically just to get entertainments involved because you know,
Speaker 1: just a market brands, but if at all how to
Speaker 1: ensure equity for communities of color to be able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of these opportunities. I'll let out answer the
Speaker 1: question around equity, but I will tell you, UM, as
Speaker 1: far as you know, making sure that we have the
Speaker 1: right entertainers involved to to build brands with them and
Speaker 1: just to be a part of our initiatives. You know,
Speaker 1: I always try to consider myself on the at least
Speaker 1: trying to be on the pulse of what's happening within
Speaker 1: our culture and UM, you know, I just try to
Speaker 1: bring on the right people that that are that are
Speaker 1: like minded and that can help to you know, build
Speaker 1: our brand as a whole. How are you in chiming there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: from from a from any from an equity standpoint, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's the main thing. At this point. We represent,
Speaker 1: like you said, less than three and we were all
Speaker 1: the ones that were locked up for eight five percent
Speaker 1: and drug arrest in our communities, all cannabis related. I
Speaker 1: think we're uh five times more uh stuff that would
Speaker 1: be arrested for cannabis than our counterparts. So you can't
Speaker 1: tell me that now that this space is legal, that
Speaker 1: we were were no good to it. Now there's no
Speaker 1: place for us. So for us and you know, Wilson
Speaker 1: and John and just our team, you know, as much
Speaker 1: as we want to talk about job creation and how
Speaker 1: important that is, but we're really here trying to represent
Speaker 1: ownership and that's the only conversation that we want to
Speaker 1: have when we're in when we're at sitting at the table,
Speaker 1: you know, having these conversations. And until we get that,
Speaker 1: we gotta keep fighting for it. I feel like if
Speaker 1: we don't do it, it won't happen. So you know,
Speaker 1: this is just something that you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: it's you know, gonna be my job for the next
Speaker 1: ten years, right until we get a significant piece of
Speaker 1: this of this pie. And it's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of hard work because you know a lot of the
Speaker 1: companies say that there about it. You know, I think
Speaker 1: it's more about checking up box now, especially at the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matters. It was just like, now everybody loves
Speaker 1: black people. All this funding is now available for black people,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, why you didn't love us before that? Right?
Speaker 1: And it just seems like right now because it's a
Speaker 1: way for them to come once again capitalize. That's why
Speaker 1: they love us, right, And we were just tired of it,
Speaker 1: and you know we were gonna have to be the
Speaker 1: ones that stand up against it out Like, what would
Speaker 1: you say are the strategic moves you make because the
Speaker 1: largest national conglomerate for black owned cannabis brants today? Was
Speaker 1: that a happy sense of timing or there were specific
Speaker 1: strategic moves you made that helped you find this type
Speaker 1: of success. Now I came down the line, man, like
Speaker 1: you know we first started. You know, there wasn't too
Speaker 1: many people that I can go for extual advice, right,
Speaker 1: most people were afraid of it. I bring it up,
Speaker 1: they go the other way and trying to change a subject.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that limited licenses was so relevant
Speaker 1: at the time, and that you know, mostly all the
Speaker 1: big multi state operating companies out of public, they were
Speaker 1: able to go public offer these limited licenses because they
Speaker 1: were only once they were one licensees in Illinois out
Speaker 1: the gate, and next you know, they had a business
Speaker 1: doing thirty five million hours just because they were the
Speaker 1: only ones there. So we kind of got brought to
Speaker 1: that a little later, you know, Uh, I will be honest,
Speaker 1: you know, even though that I played in the NBA
Speaker 1: and have you know, resources and friends like you know,
Speaker 1: Wilson and whoever, like, it wasn't easy for us to
Speaker 1: raise money, you know, especially in the beginning. You know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine trying to go to somebody eight years
Speaker 1: ago saying I need twenty five million hollars to go
Speaker 1: at the three or four states. People have looked at
Speaker 1: me like I was crazy. You know. Once again, that's
Speaker 1: once again one of the issues that we have in
Speaker 1: our community. We just don't have access to the resources
Speaker 1: to be able to really take advantage of opportunities in
Speaker 1: real time. Right. We started Village two years ago, you know,
Speaker 1: and look at the success that we've hassed. So just
Speaker 1: imagine if we would have tried to do this five
Speaker 1: years ago potentially where we would be at today. You know.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's just it's just it's just been
Speaker 1: a grind, and you know, I just feel like with
Speaker 1: Village now we have established ourselves as being a company
Speaker 1: that people better pay attention to, you know, and if
Speaker 1: we continue to win more licenses, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: it will be one of those you know, seven to
Speaker 1: ten companies that you know, can really dictate what's going
Speaker 1: on in this space. I'm so glad you said that,
Speaker 1: because you know there are still states where licenses are
Speaker 1: not you know, well we is not legal. Marijuana is
Speaker 1: not legal yet. And so for I would love to
Speaker 1: get both of your Wilson and our's comments on this.
Speaker 1: Is like I'm from Ohio, and Ohio there's just now
Speaker 1: talking again about you know, putting uh marijuana use up
Speaker 1: for legal debate, and so for those states that are
Speaker 1: still having the conversation but have not made a move yet,
Speaker 1: knowing what you know, and I'll start with you Wilson,
Speaker 1: then with I want to ask this our as well,
Speaker 1: what would you advise people who um want to be
Speaker 1: in how to position themselves or at this stage is
Speaker 1: it too late. We'll just say start educating and educating themselves,
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to read as much as possible
Speaker 1: about the space, you know, and just be progressive about it,
Speaker 1: you know, and try to build as many relationships as possible.
Speaker 1: What would you say our if if if marijuana is
Speaker 1: not yet legal, how do I get in position? Start reading?
Speaker 1: You know what the legislation is gonna look like in
Speaker 1: your state, your city, depending, you know, every state is different,
Speaker 1: some rules, you know, the state governs it, something like
Speaker 1: the cities government. So just find out, you know what
Speaker 1: what do will actually take. Then start putting your team
Speaker 1: together because you know, obviously you're gonna have to raise
Speaker 1: some money. You know, what is that team gonna look like?
Speaker 1: What does that business plan look like? And then you know,
Speaker 1: you have to believe in that business plan when you
Speaker 1: go out and pitch it, you know, because without the
Speaker 1: passion behind it, you know, most people aren't gonna invest.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to really know your business plan inside
Speaker 1: and out. You're to answer all the questions that are
Speaker 1: gonna come your weight and just try to figure out
Speaker 1: how you're gonna be able to run a cash for
Speaker 1: positive business, How you're gonna actually be able to get there.
Speaker 1: And Uh'm not gonna make it seem like it's easy,
Speaker 1: you know, as a challenge is gonna be definitely hard.
Speaker 1: But I think that if you can try to put
Speaker 1: strategic people together in your organization, I think you'll put
Speaker 1: yourself in position to hopefully be successful. And if people
Speaker 1: is their opportunity to partner with you pre license or
Speaker 1: like let's say if I Ohio went on hand and
Speaker 1: passed it and I got a license, what opportunities are
Speaker 1: there for those black entrepreneurs to work with Viola. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us. You know, you can
Speaker 1: reach out to us online. Uh. You know we also
Speaker 1: some states require you to have local participation, so you
Speaker 1: know in Missouri and Maryland, we definitely partnered up with
Speaker 1: called entrepreneurs there and you know, because of us winning,
Speaker 1: you know, we've been able to you know, create millionaires
Speaker 1: you know on paper, you know, because of its opportunity.
Speaker 1: So yes, as these new states come online, if you
Speaker 1: feel like you have something that's differently the differentiator, Uh,
Speaker 1: if you think that you could be a good partner
Speaker 1: to us. Yeah, I would say definitely reach out. Black
Speaker 1: Tag Green Money is the production of Black and the
Speaker 1: Afro Tech, Black Effect podcast Network and iHeart Media and
Speaker 1: it's produced by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas, with
Speaker 1: additional production support by Love Beach and Marissa Lewis. Special
Speaker 1: thank you to Michael Davis and Sakara savon Jan you
Speaker 1: know like the Wine. Yes that's his real name. Learn
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