How to Dominate the Cannabis Industry

if you play it right for yourself it could be the most remarkable thing but as a collective these very early days are super important this is inevitable at scale this is watching this makes me laugh because this is exactly what the rooms look and this is actually way more this is more even though it's just these days for me a small group you know this is way more faces than the ones that I saw in the tech space and a lot of these faces went on to become the founders of uber and succs and the founders of Instagram and things that nature so couple things number one you got your perspective in 2006 and seven when I went to South by Southwest people were there to be part of tech for the sake of tech to change the world the the aspirations and the ideology were remarkable the far majority of this room today 20 18 right here together is in it for it they've been in it they're not flying in from Wall Street or Silicon Valley there's people in here but the majority of this room is in it now this is super important as I hear that wonderful thank you and I get it and I respect that this is a very important conversation I'll tell you why the OGIS in this room that have been through it that been you know it's funny I was spending some time and looking at an article being rated and I was telling some of the people on my team who don't even hear this story the amount of times the ABC came to wine library because I was navigating and doing things early that nobody ever did before and when your biggest you get picked on because you can pay the fine don't get it twisted it's very simple it's called winners tax they don't tell you that a b-school but that's what it is I'll say it this way it's unfortunate for me unlike when I got into tech or many other things I've done in my life because of the profiles my business career it's harder for me to kind of go into new spaces and do what I naturally want to do to be very frank I don't know if I've ever felt the combination of gratitude and feeling humble and at the same token a sense of responsibility of giving this talk today because much like the way I entered into the tech space sort of wide space for other things that I've done I just want to learn right there's a lot you know I'm doing a lot of listening the reason I teamed up with Josh ROM and the rest of Green Street is I didn't want to come into this space and think that I knew everything or things that nature I want to take it nice and slow and pay attention being underestimated and misunderstood is a massive business advantage there's a lot of people in this room that are so desperate for acceptance of like this is real and all these kind of things like this is gonna be in it spending so much time trying to convince somebody of the legitimacy or the seniority or the sophistication of the space without realizing that they should be spending 100% of their time on the end consumer and building their advantage their leverage and preference of the majority of the people in this room would actually be for people coming into the space to dramatically slow down not speed up for all the good that dollars and all these other things come out the more time that you have planting your flag and establishing your brand and building a relationship with the end consumer the more leverage you have trying to convince people that are no people is a waste of time and I think that's just something some of you need to hear because that no person for a lot of you is your [ __ ] mom that no person is that your brother that you respect or your homie or your silic so just be very thoughtful of who you try to convince this is real because I think that's a lot of wasted energy in early times number two you need to be thoughtful of all the new people that are coming in if you play it right for yourself it can be the most remarkable thing but as a collective these very early days are super important this is inevitable at scale this is watching this makes me laugh because this is exactly what the rooms look and this is actually way more this is more even though it's just these days for me a small room you know this is way more faces than the ones that I saw in the tech space and a lot of these faces went on to become the founders of uber and sucks and the founders of Instagram and things that nature so couple things number one if you are fortunate enough to be smart enough and that's the only word I can think of if you are fortunate enough to be smart enough to be in this [ __ ] room right now please do not do what so many of my homies from tech in 2006 7 & 8 to me which is reminisce and are sad that they did not take full advantage of their pole position and

where the world was going the biggest mistake that so many of you will do today is not network with other people at this place what I really am passionate about is for people in this room to understand how many options we do have if you're in this space even if you're a brand or if you're a grower your permission to be the media company of this space is there aka every [ __ ] person this room needs to start thinking about their podcast yesterday every single person this room needs to be thinking about writing a white paper and putting it on LinkedIn yesterday everybody here has to shift from crying and that's what a lot of you are doing Wow Instagram and Facebook and Google aren't taking my money nobody gives a [ __ ] about your tears stop crying about what you can't do and start figuring out what you can do you can be dominating Instagram spend the [ __ ] 900 hours building out an influencer network so that can [ __ ] do posts and give you cosines you could start a YouTube vlog and document the journey of building your business in a space along the way I wish I could watch suckss [ __ ] blog and how he built Facebook you know if he was doing this ten years ago god forbid a que God willing your company explodes that vlog of how you made it is gonna be watched for the next 50 [ __ ] years in perpetuity you can do a ton of [ __ ] but we have to shift our marketing mindset in this space from being advertisers to being media companies we have to produce content you so I implore you to take advantage of this remarkable moment in your industry where it's not a baby but it hasn't even started and I highly recommend you understand how early platforms an industry start the ROI is in the [ __ ] people I promise you right now everybody is watching how you're navigating and there's a lot of you and I'm [ __ ] was in the hall for four minutes there's a lot of you unfortunately getting seduced by the short term ROI and finances in the system and everybody knows it and you will lose three of you will get through and make that trade that's fine we'll never see you again but most of you will have a scarlet letter for trying to take from it instead of giving to it look if you make a podcast called 43 year old mom that's literally the name of it and you're targeting housewives and high-net-worth individuals who are gonna be in the edible space because that's who you're targeting you've got to really just go after your con your target audience with content that they'll consume that's always been the case but the reason I said 1 2 & 3 is patience is because that's what it's gonna take there's still a [ __ ] massive stigma go [ __ ] read the first 15 years of prohibition you know what the biggest scariest things in the world are having too little and having too much when you're poor is [ __ ] on welfare you don't think the trust fund baby who's got a hundred mils got it bad you think that's the greatest well you don't realize that kid is always gonna be told that he never made it and he's got a drug problem and [ __ ] up and I'm meds and at the psychiatrist cuz his game is broken before he even started the bottom line is my dear everybody's got [ __ ] problems too because when it's yours and so I navigate happy because I'm just grateful for what I have and other people have more other people have less when I had a whole lot less I was happy with the [ __ ] I had and I just every day recognize that if I'm in my own head and realize that everybody's got their own [ __ ] too then I don't spend time complaining and dwelling I spend time on doing this is forever you have made a decision to be an industry that will be over regulated for the rest of your life I promise you that and that's super okay either the first 20 years of my business life in a super regulated business but it still sucks compared to not regulated businesses like I don't know that's to tell you and so much like the admiration I have for Travis I could have never built uber because Travis had a DNA that was good at fighting City Hall I'm scared of City Hall that's just my DNA so I think everybody here has to make a decision for them if they have the must you know the muscles memory and the stomach to deal with the ebbs and flows of things the toughest thing and anybody will know this the number one toughest thing to me in life is not having little cuz you don't know it's having little getting something getting a lot and then losing it people going backwards just struggle and I think the toughest thing in a regulated business is cool they open up Illinois a couple people here to have Chicago routes or they move they go and they crush it they saw what happened in Cali they want to deal in like they [ __ ] kill it and for some reason

seven years later they reregulate it and it's gone tough that is what you're signing up for and I think the better kind of like nobody gives a [ __ ] about your feelings right the quicker you understand this is going to be regulated in perpetuity then you can start really starting to think about how you navigate and how you go about it so I wish you guys the best I'm so grateful that I was able to give this talk at this time it means a lot to me I'm super excited to get to know the majority of you over the next two or three decades and I wish you great health and great success thank you so much everybody thank you guys