Start a Seed-to-Sale CBD Store/Franchise in 90 Days! (Rick Martinez, Think Botanicals)

Learn how to start a brick & mortar CBD store and extraction lab from veteran Cannabis Entrepreneur (Rick Martinez). 

Rick is founder of the Green Seed Accelerator, one of the six Cannabis Incubators in the US and successful serial entrepreneur who grew one of his companies to 600+ employees before successfully exiting with a sale. Rick is founder of 3 brick and mortar CBD stores and extraction lab in Texas. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Gee, it's episode number one of the real cannabis entrepreneur show. Heres what's coming up.

Speaker 2: 0:06

We're a company that scales compassion. We're a company that started a movement. So think botanicals is we are on track to unleashing a global phenomenon which will impact wellness and we do that with CBD products and to get a little more granular, one of the cool things we did is rather than just, um, nothing wrong with this rather than just private labeling or white labeling or any of those. We are as close to a vertically integrated CBD company as can be. So we manufacturer, we produce, we distribute, have our own distribution line and that of course we have a rapidly growing retail footprint as as of 2019.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Welcome to the real cannabis entrepreneur show. This is the place to learn the exact blueprint on breaking into their cannabis industry. Thanks so much for tuning in guys to the real cannabis entrepreneur podcast show where real season cannabis entrepreneurs share some of their most coveted hard to find secret information on how to break into the cannabis industry anymore. I am your host Gary George, and I'm excited today to be joined by the man, the myth, the legend Rick Martinez. That's right. As a veteran registered nurse writer and a successful cannabis entrepreneur, Rick brings a wealth of information and tremendous passion for impacting lives. His story begin in the U s army where Rick enlisted from 88 to 1990 he earned his BSN degrees, become a registered nurse. He's had several years in nursing and after that his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in in 2001 he bootstrapped his first business med trust, where you serve as several federal contracts. He scale and grew the business. The company grew to several hundred employees before he successfully exited the business with this sale. He is now the CEO of think both tentacles, which is a CBD company is when we're going to talk a bunch about that, but let me tell you a little bit more. He's also got some awards from San Antonio's 40 under 40 award. Recipient is recognized as the country's top 100 by the US small business administration. He's a three times Amazon best selling author and get this people ease an iron man triathlon. Finish your aim crossfit. Xtrordinair that's right. Give it up ladies and gentlemen for my man Rick Martin.

Speaker 3: 2:31

Thank you man. I appreciate you coming on the show today. Hey

Speaker 1: 2:34

Rick. I know you're super busy doing a whole bunch of big things, but I wanted to grab you for five, you know, a little bit more than five minutes, but I want to grab you and pick your brain, gets some really great stuff for our audience. I know you have a ton to offer, so I'm going to dive right in. I'm not going to waste too much time. I want to really make sure that everybody gets maximum benefit from this conversation. So my first question to you, Rick, is how did you get started in cannabis industry?

Speaker 2: 3:00

How would I get started in the cannabis industry? So, great question. And I'm probably, in my opinion, one of the most impactful ones cause you learn a lot about where people's intentions are. So here's how I got my start. It's been, it's been a few years. Uh, it's been a few years, but it was about two years ago after we exited our firm, after we sold our company. Uh, actually we sold our company in 2014 and we were a large federal contractor, so we sold it. At that point. I was, I got into some angel investing and startups, uh, mentoring and advising companies. And it was a few years ago, a few years ago today, but a few years ago into that path that a good buddy of mine who's a marine, he needed some help and he needed some help with his startup. And let me just be clear. So my friend and Marines spent 10 years in the Marine Corps. Uh, we'd been friends for well over about a decade. And he's, he's currently an engineer for large multinational oil company, so no longer in the marine corps, but he's super intelligent. And he says, Rick, I need help with my startup. And I'm like, sure, anything you need, you know, what, you know, as a former army nurse, uh, you know, veterans have an affinity to, um, well we just, cause he's a buddy, he's a vet. And I said, I said, who do you want to help? And he said, I want to help veterans with PTSD. And right, right then and there, I knew I was going to be in whatever he was going to do. And I said, how? And he said, CBD and Gary, I had no idea what that was. And I told him that. I said, right. I said to be, his name is grant. I said, grant, I have no idea what the heck CVD is, but if it's going to help veterans with PTSD, Iman. And that started my journey and my journey literally started not knowing anything about, um, good modern day cannabis and knowing everything about what I was told it was. And probably like a lot of, a lot of Americans, I was told it was, well, obviously it was illegal. It's not good for you. There's no medicinal value. It's the devil's lettuce stay away and my mind to begin to shift. But that's how I got my initial entry into the industry.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Wow. Wow. Wow. So it came out from a buddy and the necessity. And that's one of the core things that we're seeing in terms of commonalities between a lot of the guests and people asking them how they got into business. And you can see a lot of times it is coming from a situation that, uh, is mission critical calling for something that either happens in their lives, the buddy's life, something where people really put their guards down and start to look for alternative great, um, measures. And I think that's a really great story that you were able to, um, get out of the mindset of this is a bad thing to adjusting and saying, let me help a friend, let me help some other veterans and move into the business that way. So that was good that you are able to break. Was it hard to break that mindset, Rick? Cause I know, you know, a lot of people have those initially and when you do, it's, it's kind of difficult to turn them around. So how'd you do it?

Speaker 2: 6:02

It was, you know, Gary, I, it's, so the answer to your question, the short answer is yes, but there's, there's so much more to that then I'm going to expound just a second. So, uh, it, it was difficult. It was difficult because, uh, there was a moral aspect to it. There's an ethical aspect. Um, and then I'm a licensed builder. I'm an RN. So there's the medical aspect. You know, I have been a practitioner and believer in western medicine and suddenly, uh, I'm, I, I'm faced with this, this plant that is supposedly illegal, has good things for you and your body. And so there was a lot of things, but even beyond that, um, if I'm just being really open, transparent with you and with your listeners is, um, it was polarizing because I then had to let it be known at some point that this is the industry I'm in, cannabis, whether it's CBD or marijuana, let's just call it all candidates. And the polarization came from, you know, I'm using air quotes, friends who suddenly, literally and figuratively unfriended my wife and I, so, uh, yeah, it was hard to say the least. It's, it wasn't easy. It's, it's not just pull the trigger, jump in. It's, there's so many other considerations that I think a lot of people maybe don't think about.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let me, let me ask you another question. How did you transition, because you were a registered nurse, you were in the, in the service and then you moved on to the cannabis industry becoming a cannabis entrepreneur, consulting other companies, doing other things. How did you transition from what you were doing as a registered nurse into the cannabis industry?

Speaker 2: 7:40

So, um, I guess another point that I should share that I haven't actually done, I still hold the license. I'm an RN as of today, the end of 2018 but I have not practiced as a registered nurse in well over a decade. So, um, the, the transition from practitioner, uh, wasn't an issue because I was not hands on practitioner. I, I'm a, I'm a license holder, but the transition, you know, um, I was, I was in the Canada's closet for, for many, many months. Um, and I mean, no disrespect for anybody, but I was in the closet about this, about what I was doing for a long, long time. And, um, as you know, Gary, I'm, I'm pretty, I'm pretty social on social media. I put myself out there and, uh, if, you know, the truth is, is that I didn't put that out there. So there was a part of my, if one was to really analyze maybe my Facebook post and there was a part of my, in the last few years where I posted nothing about cannabis, but I was heavily into the industry, you know, cofounder of a CBD for him. So, um, the transition was, uh, it was, I remember the very distinctly the day where I drew my line in the sand. And that was when, um, a friend of mine, I mean a good, I know his wife, his kids, and we've had dinner with him and he's, um, he's, uh, he's known, he's a person of the community. When he made several very derogatory comments on one of my social profiles and my wife's as to our choice of industry and it hurt. My feet hurt. I mean, it hurt my feelings. It hurt my soul, get hurt, my heart. And it was that moment, that day, that night when I read it, I thought, I thought to myself, Rick, you have a choice. You can continue to remain in the cannabis closet and left this bug you or you can draw your line and crushed that door, fling that door open. And I chose to fling the door open, Gary. And I said, yes, I am in the cannabis industry. And I drew my line in the sand. And that was it. It was hard. Don't get me wrong. It was hard. But, um, it's just like anything in life, Morse doing, you've got to do it

Speaker 1: 9:53

right. Absolutely. That. And that's a great thing that you stepped up to the plate because a lot of people really, you know, don't have the heart to do what you did and, uh, withstand the criticisms from family, friends, um, all this kind of thing with people with misinformation, not understanding, but quickly making judgement about this industry, not realizing that this is, uh, something that, um, is really going to change the way people perceive a overall health and wellness and that kind of thing. So I think this is a great thing that these things are getting exposed. A lot of people are changing positions and understanding more about it. I think it's just a lack of education where people have a stigma placed on it because that's what their mom's taught them. That's what the, you know, everybody taught him and down the line and, and, and they failed to do their own research. So I think where the industry is headed now, we're really seeing, um, some things changed around, uh, specifically with CBD, leading a forces. Um, it's, you know, without the psychoactive, um, properties. Uh, I think that really helped us open the door. So I want to get your opinion about him. And how do you, how do you see CBD, like really transforming how people think about health and wellness?

Speaker 2: 11:05

Man, I love that you chose the word think. Um, you know, how, how is it changing the way we think and perceive cannabis? And, and I actually believe, Gary, that it's a much bigger question. Uh, I believe it's how, how do we think and believe this plant is going to impact, um, wellness on a global level, not just us as individuals or a vet with PTSD or an overworked, you know, hi, it's an executive mom or those people that, how, how is this going to impact society on a global level? So I think the biggest thing is that this isn't a Canada's problem. This isn't a legal problem. This isn't a congressional issue. This isn't a municipal issue. This isn't a matter of does your city have a cite and release program or this isn't of those, this is a human issue. And it's my contention that we're missing the boat that worst we are. So, um, and there is so many people out there leading a great fight in Congress and legislation and you know, beating the drum and, and um, and, and the citizens and to walk out from these things. But the thing is, is that's not the problem. The problem is that leak the core of what cannabis and CBD and medical marijuana and um, I'll even stretch this and save, you know, recreational marijuana is, this is a human issue. This hasn't been withheld from us as human beings, um, for, for too long. And how would this impact the world? Well, you know, we can easily point to our health and wellbeing. Uh, you know, I, as a consumer of CBD myself, I have, I have experienced the, the physical impact that has had on my day to day existence. But think about the economies. It's going to impact, think about the roads that will get fixed, the schools. Um, the other issues that we have been fighting for, how the legalization and of marijuana and just the expansion of CBD, it's going to impact the economies. And so it's a massive issue and we can't ignore it anymore. We just, we cannot logically ignore this, this cannabis movement any longer at all.

Speaker 1: 13:13

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and, and like I said, I think that, um, a lot of people are really truly waking up as more and more states become legal. A lot of um, celebrity endorsement, people who have a testimonies like yourself, um, who have used it successfully to cure many things and specifically with the FDA just approve in the first, um, CBD based, a pharmaceutical prescription drug, I think it's called flx where people with epilepsy. Uh, there's a lot of, lot of, lot of great things happening in the space. So I'm really looking forward to 2019 specifically with the farm bill just passed a for all of you who don't know last week, December 18th or something like that, they pass the farm bill Trump signed off and pretty much legalize a all hemp, um, agricultural growing as well as hemp derivatives products, which CBD is of course that, so there is some huge stuff coming down the pipe. So I'm really looking forward to 2019. Um, I'm going to switch gears a little bit. Rick, I want to jump into some of your business background because I know you're doing some super exciting things right now, particularly with thankful tentacles, your company, your CBD company. I want you to talk to me a little bit. Tell us a little bit about what that is, what you're doing with it. What's the vision for that company?

Speaker 2: 14:28

Yes. I appreciate that Gary. So, and um, you know, think botanicals is, is, it's our answer. It's, that's what it is. And I'm going to, I'm going to challenge the listeners out there who think that they want to get into the CBD industry or the marijuana industry, uh, to reframe that to that thought and really consider the reasons why. So what we're doing,

Speaker 1: 14:52

I think botanicals is, we are, we are, we started a movement. Uh, we, we started a movement and we call it on the movement towards global wellness or super wellness. And it just so happens that the product we sell is a, Canada is a derivative of cannabis. So, in other words, if we're flipping the script, we're not saying we're CBD company, we're saying we are a wellness movement and it just so happens we have a fantastic line of, um, premium, high quality CBD offerings on our website. So I want to challenge all the listeners know if it's ever something you considered or thought about to flip the script and start with the reason why you're doing what you do. And, um, Gary, the essence of what we do is we're scaling compassion. So, um, and it has nothing to do with me being a nurse and nothing to do with me being a compassionate human being or that diamond Spanic. And I have, you know, I'm, I'm naturally a passion to guide my thing when it has to do with, is how we want to impact the world and how can we do that in such a way that it matters. And so we're a company that scales compassion. We're a company that started a movement. So think botanicals is, we are on track to unleashing a global phenomenon, which will impact wellness. And we do that with CBD products. And, um, to get a little more granular, one of the cool things we did is rather than just, um, um, nothing wrong with this rather than just private labeling or white labeling or any of those. We are as close to a vertically integrated CBD company as can be. So we manufacturer, we produce, we distribute, have our own distribution line and then of course we have a rapidly growing retail footprint as, as of 2019 that will be an even bigger footprint. But I'm very close to a seed to sale. Um, CVD operation. Not Quite but close. Right. That's excellent. That is excellent. I mean, get it, I mean for the listeners and there's a lot of people who want to get into the CVD space and I love the way that you phrased that by saying, you know, let's put the result a head, um, and, and build a movement of why, you know, you want to leverage the power of, of cannabis for your personal benefit. So I really liked the fact that you're, you, you done that. I think there's definitely a need for people to change the way that they are approaching this whole thing. So I love that. But, uh, you had mentioned that, um, you were building out the, uh, building out your company and by doing this you said you were, you started the whole fully integrated aspect. A lot of people want to get into the business. They don't really know how, how did you start? What did, what made you think of all of that and how did you put the pieces of the puzzle together to say, Oh, I'm going to do this from seed to sale? You know, how did you start there?

Speaker 2: 17:33

Yeah, that's, that's another great question, man. I'm, I'm, I'm digging your, uh, your Q and a because you're, you're making me think about a lot of things. I think this lesson, what I'm about to share, it works. It's, it's valid for any type of entrepreneur. Um, in fact, you don't even have to be an entrepreneur to consider what I'm about to say. Uh, many, especially not in the cannabis world, but simply put, begin with the end in mind, whatever. And to reframe it or make it found more sensical to the everyday listener is when, whenever, when you plan for when one plants for a trip, say from Jersey to Texas, I'm saying if you were going to plan for a trip, Gary, to come to Texas next week, you would, um, you begin with the end in mind. I want to go to Texas and then you re one reverse engineers, everything that has to happen. What's the weather like? What hotel am I going to see? Rick, are we going to have a beer? What kind of beer? How much will it be your cost? And I think my family, in other words, we have all these micro steps. So now apply that same theory to a startup or to an idea. You have begin with the end in mind. So good. We have just launched a CBD company with an ecommerce site. Sure. Ease easily and, and, and you know, as well as I do it, it can be easily done. Um, but that wasn't enough. It's not, it didn't fit what, um, what we want. I say we, my wife and I, um, what we as the couple wanted to do in this industry and then we thought, well, do we want to maybe move to Oregon as an example and you know, become farmers and it's like, wow, that's still wouldn't do it. So we, we began with the end in mind, Gary. It's like what do we really see ourselves as having accomplished in 2030 and then with, and then here's what I've really compel people to do. Put, turn everything off, sit down with yourself, um, or your spouse or however you process best, crack a beer or wine or seltzer water or whatever, going a cigar or get a joint whenever and then reverse engineer it. Like actually consider if 2030 is, um, if in 2013 you are at the destination, what is the destination? And then what is it going to take to do, to start doing today so that in 10 years or whatever, that timeframe is huge. And so we thought I kind of would love to have like a seed to sale operation. And it sounds like a very big thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a very, very big thing. And, and that alone will scare in 99% of the people away. Right? But here's what we did Gary, and again, this is, I know I'm no different than anybody else out there. We thought, okay, it's a very big thing and no, I can't do that by myself, but what resources are at my disposal or our disposal so that we can accomplish that? And as we started putting each little block in place, no figuratively put each block in place. What we realized is we were really one degree of separation away from a seed to sale operation. And it was not magic, but the pieces fell into place logically. And uh, it's, it's been months, don't get me wrong, it didn't happen overnight. It's been a very, it's been months and months of planning, of learning, of doing, of lawyers or attorneys of all these things have teams of structure. But I can say today, because we just did a photo shoot that we have a manufacturing facility, we have a distribution network and we have four locations as I'm talking that are open for business in San Antonio right now with three more on the way. So it came to life. In other words,

Speaker 1: 21:15

right Dad, that his dad is impressive. Rick. I mean, to pull all of those pieces together, like you said, to not just go the common route, uh, throw up any commerce site and you know, resell other products but actually go towards producing your own, overseeing the entire process. Um, that's really where it's at and that's where I really think that the industry is going a more so is the ability for people to take these things, put their spins on a, make it the way that they want to see it be a happened and, and fill some of the gaps within the industry. So I really commend you guys for doing that. Um, and a valuable lesson that you just mentioned to the listeners as well as utilizing your resources. As Rick just said, he said, it wasn't just me just doing it, it wasn't me just coming up with it. I realized that I had a network of individuals that I could depend on. Um, that's something that we preach consistently. Utilize your resources. Don't become an island. If you put yourself out there and you really start to search them and you put your mind towards it, you realize that many things are in uh, like you said, an arm's length and you can accomplish these things. Don't look at it as one big overwhelming task, but break it down into small sub tasks so that you can knock it out. So it has great. Rick, do you guys have done that? Man, that's an impressive thing. Three locations open already more coming on the way. Owned a manufacturing facility. And I want to talk to you about that because I know you were doing the photo shoot yesterday. You had a lot going on in there. I'm getting things together. What made you say that I'm going to do a lab versus farming it out to a third party now that still building your own product. But most people would, you know, the easier step rather would be, well let me, uh, go to a third party white label something or you know, get a formulator to take a base and then maybe add a couple things. You chose the dive right into the most challenging I would say. Um, angle. So what made you do that and what do you see the benefit of doing that for your company?

Speaker 2: 23:13

Yeah, that's, um, that was actually a big consideration of ours Gary is, is why, why, why the heck do we want to put the, this amount of resources into a manufacturing facility and everything that goes into it from employees to equipment too. I mean, you name it and um, again, uh, I'm, I'm going to go back to what I said is, is then we broke down each piece of our operation, you know, production, distribution and retail and we realize that, you know, can we, can we support our mission of global wellness, of think in every household and still maintain a high level of quality with a simple retail operation? And the answer is yes, we could absolutely do that. Okay. Then it's like, can we adhere to the think of vision, mission and our values if we did retail and a distribution? And the answer was, yeah, we could do that. And then we thought, Ken, if we decided to build a manufacturing facility and to outfit an end to bring on staff and chemists, can we still adhere to our mission, vision, values, and our longterm vision of the Beehag, the big hairy audacious goal of think, botanicals doing all three? And we realize that, yes, we could, we can. And when we kind of started putting the pieces together, uh, we realized that what it offered us was an unprecedented level of Qa, QC control, quality control, uh, because even though we're not growing our own product, we import from, we currently sourced from Oregon and from Colorado. Uh, we, we still have an extremely high level of, um, of quality that we expect. And of course, all the traditional lab testing. But that was the reason. The reason was, is one of those can we do and still adhere to our mission, vision, values and the longterm goal. But more than that is, is um, we were looking for a competitive advantage and it's becoming more difficult to find in the industry as it's becoming more popular. And so, um, that's just, that's just the frank truth. Can we do it and adhere to our vision values and will this give us a distinct competitive advantage? And both answers were green light, green light, and we thought, we can't then go back. We have to do this because it will put us in a whole different, uh, if I'm, again, honestly, there's not many people who are doing what we're doing there. There's not a lot, there's not a lot of people that are doing this. And so we have a very, very distinct advantage. And I just gave away. There's like a huge trade secret there is. Um, um, it's one of the big reasons why is it's winning. This is business and it's definitely, it's winning and doing things that the other person cannot do or, or is afraid to do. So those mission, vision values and can we do it and adhere to them and will this give us a distinct advantage and yes and yes. So it was full steam ahead.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Yeah, exactly. And that's also something that I'm always preaching to the ton of our clients is build out something where you uh, where it's difficult yes. On purpose because that creates the barrier to entry. We want that to be difficult and looked at as something that most people won't try to tackle that builds a fence around you. What you are building as an entity so that you know, that mindset is, is a, is the perfect way to um, you know, go about. Um, and, and, and being able to control and being able to put that quality control and make something exactly the way you want it. Again, huge distinct advantage that you have over competition because they can't pivot now you can adjust things even if you start one thing, see something, get client feedback, customer feedback, patient feedback, and then you can make the adjustment because you have the control. So I commend you guys for doing that as well. Rick, that was super smart business move, man. I want to ask you another question. What did you from building that lab, and I know you're still like at the latter part of it, I guess you guys are almost done, right? Are you done? Are you still got a couple little things left to pump it out?

Speaker 2: 27:23

Oh No. So we, we were manufacturing. We are, we are pumping, um, products off the line like as, as we speak right now there. Oh Wow. Wow. It is full blown production right now we have, um, I want to say 10,000 bottle a day capacity if all we did was tinctures. And so, um, no, we're blowing and going.

Speaker 1: 27:43

That is beautiful. What would you say is the biggest lesson that you learned from in building the lab? So, you know, some people who want to go into it, maybe they want to, they're scared. What would you say? What you don't want to do? The lessons that you learned? We say, Nah, this was bad. I won't do that again. Do you know, Amy, anything that you learned along the way?

Speaker 2: 28:01

That's a good question. Um, there's a few things so that something comes to mind. It's not necessarily bad or a lesson learned, but it was a realization. And um, and now that we've established kind of this, this pseudo seed, the sale operation and we're, we are producing product, we're a distributed across the country and now we sell it or retail locations. The biggest thing I realized was I have nobody to blame. Um, and what I mean by what I mean by that is this is, is if is the fun, is if I had chosen to do a private label or white label route and there was a model that was mislabeled or product that didn't look the right color, I couldn't go and blame somebody. I could say, you know, let me, let me get back to my manufacturer and if figured this out and I can't do that now. And not that I would, but now because we've put our line in the sand and are planted our flag, it's, it's all us. Like, uh, I, and as the CEO of this organization, truly, it's not just the organization, it's me like the buck stops with me. So if somebody says, Rick, why does this tincture look at different shade than this tincture? And you guys are the, the, the seed to sale people. Uh, I better have an answer. And so the realization was that holy Guacamole, Gary, I like, I have nobody. It is like all on us. And as the face of the organization, um, it's become a, it's become a bigger, um, responsibility and privilege than I ever imagined, honestly. And that was a huge realization for me.

Speaker 1: 29:38

Hi. Right. And I know that had to feel good and scary at the same time cause you know, like, you know, like you said, it's all on your shoulders at this point, but at the same time you're saying it puts the fire under your pants to make sure that all the ducks are in the row because you don't have anybody to blame but yourself and you are, um, you know, everything from the sea to the sale is all dependent on what you have, uh, orchestrating. So I think that that's a really great thing. I again, I commend you for attacking that in such a way. Like you said, there's very few who are probably, uh, who are doing it the way you are doing it and changing the game with controlling all of the parts. Now how was it very costly. Let's, let's talk about the expense of going and building a lab versus a using third party white labeling, this kind of thing where there's a huge difference between cost. And was that a factor in your decision making process when you started to go down this route?

Speaker 2: 30:32

It was. Um, and I'm actually taking notes cause your questions are really, really good. Thank you man. These are really, really good questions. The questions are each its own episode if you're asking me. Right, exactly. No. So the things we considered where we're well beyond finances, it was, well don't get me wrong. You know, financial implications are without a doubt, a huge piece. I mean in order to, to buy equipment in a hire staff, I mean you get, you got to have money. You can't do that on a promise. Essentially, you can't. So we have to consider that. But beyond the actual financial piece was all the other things that go into creating, uh, starting a business. And the most important is, is your energy. Uh, you know, it's not just about time and money, it's about energy. And we realize that, okay, so if we can line up the finances, you know, and there's a lot of money out there by the way through and if there is a lot of angel investments and private money, and I'm not necessarily venture capital right now, but because it's still a lot of federally illegal status, but there are a lot of private investors at angel groups out there that will, that are ready, willing and able to stroke checks for, um, uh, wealth thought, um, organization thought through organization. But it wasn't just about the money. And, and I say this to be just very transparent and, um, I don't say, I don't say things to, um, uh, to impress people, but really to impress upon them that this is the truth. But raising the money was, we didn't think was going to be an issue for us. We would go out and we would do a pitch deck and if we need it to go out and raise the funds, but it was more the energy, you know, knowing we were knowing that we were going to be able to meet the financial requirements. It was like, are we going to be able to physically do this? You know, there's a small, there's only a small team and there's, there's like if I told you that there's only a handful of like not even a handful of partners running this organization, you probably, um, um, you don't have to go change your shorts right now. I mean, we do have like a buy, I think currently 10 employees when in our shops, but it was beyond just the money part. So, but it should be considered because, you know, once you buy the equipment or hire the staff and do these things, um, you're, you're all in, you know, there, there are now people who are dependent upon you to live up to the promise you made when you said, this is the vision that we've set. Let's go get it.

Speaker 1: 32:58

Right. Right. That that is, that is a profound man and that, that's such a lesson. I mean, I love doing these interviews, not just for the listeners, but I'm like a kid in the candy store as well, learning from all of the greater information that, uh, Rick is sharing with us today. Um, and that's just really great. Now let me ask you a little, uh, a question about investment dollars and about putting together a plan. And that's a big thing that a lot of people also, uh, the intimidates them. It creates this analysis paralysis. They can't move and do once they know they got to put this plan together. How difficult was it putting the plan together? And what would you say were the most important components that made it successful in terms of you getting, uh, acquiring partners, investors and everybody else is buying it?

Speaker 2: 33:43

Probably a good question. So, um, if by planning one is referring to a business plan, I'm just going to just, we did not do that. Uh, I'm not a believer in these long, lengthy business plans. And there's a few reasons. So one of the things I shared was that I had been involved in, in some angel investments and I'm, I've heard, I've been privy to hearing a lot of pitches from a lot of startups and entrepreneurs and not just in cannabis but in a variety of industries. And um, folks who are looking for to raise a series a or looking for an angel investment. Some of them are 30,000 to 50,000. Some of them are looking for millions and you know, to raise, and one of the things I've learned, you know, becoming an investor and part of it, I'm actually part of an angel group here in San Antonio was that there are essentially two types of investors. And, and um, there's, there's one type who they want to see forecast. They want to see performers, they want to see projections, they want to see the paperwork and the things because maybe they're more the analytical type. And then there's the other ones who invest in between and the vision. And I'm, I'm on that side of the fence. I've always been the type of person who I'm, I can cast the vision, I can paint the vision, I can step up and, and I can compel folks to believe in the vision. And so the only missing piece for me was beyond believing is then I had to compel them again to break out a checkbook. And, um, it's something that can be learned, but it's something, Gary, that I've always had a natural tendency to do, get up and speak and cast a vision. And, um, and then we did it before when we had, when we had our first company years and years ago, is I had to go raise money and I had nothing. I literally, I mean, I'm, I'm not being self deprecating per say for the sake of the story, but you know, I was, I was born in east Los Angeles. Um, Hispanic grandparents were immigrants. So, you know, and we all have a story per se, but the story didn't define me. Where to find me was my belief that there's more out there. So when we were looking to raise money years ago for our first operation, um, I didn't have all the things that investor a was going to be looking for. I didn't, all I had was guts and drive and determination and the gift of being able to paint a compelling vision. And we received investments and we scaled that company to well over eight figures, 600 employees, 19 offices. And that's the company that we sold, you know, four years ago. So it's, it's a big question and I hate to leave it kind of hanging, but um, that's, I guess that's

Speaker 1: 36:22

story, right? But you hear what he said guys. Again, listeners, you hear business plans, right? It's not about a plan all the time. Sometimes, like you said, it is a, it is about the specifics and you have different types of investors who demand that type of stuff. But nowadays it's more about a pitch deck. It's more about the vision, it's more about the team. And I think everybody's getting a lot more familiar with it since the shark tank has become a household installation and, and people are seeing it more from a perspective of pitching your vision. Um, but, uh, yeah, we've all felt like that's all of us entrepreneurs over the past decade or so. We like who's got a business plan and we all look at each other saying, I never really, I never wrote a business plan. We just kinda started the business. You put together a structure, a framework. Um, but things change so rapidly being an entrepreneur that you have to be prepared to pivot and these business plans are kind of old school for bigger type entities of your bigger entity. You might need that. But, uh, you know, uh, being an entrepreneur and in today's age requires flexibility, requires you to be able to change on a dime. So, uh, that's a great lesson that you put out there as well. Rick. Um, I guess my next question for you is, uh, once you were able to, uh, get the investor buying and get everything set up with what you were going to do, um, how long did it take you to go from that part to getting everything ready and rock and enrollment where you have it right now? What, what was the timeframe look like?

Speaker 2: 37:56

Okay, let's see. Um, to, to the extent that we are net, we now have retail locations and, and I, I will be, I will also share that my, initially our plan was not to have a national footprint retail footprint. Our plan with the just have one or two retail outlets here. Um, so that was our initial thought because we thought, well, if everybody else is having successes and we already have this vertical kind of build out, we're doing. Um, so our plan initially was not to get to where we are today. It's actually, our vision today is actually morphed. It's grown. If I could say, if I can be honest, a birth, if I was to put a timeframe on it from getting the lab up and running to s to tooling up a gable to produce our CBD and then um, purchasing the raw thing. If I was to put a timeframe, even though it sounds rather quick, um, it probably, if I, if we had been working nonstop 24, seven three 65, it probably took us the equivalent of maybe 10 people working for 90 days straight. And I know that may not make a lot of sense, but it's, it's hard to say because the lab was up, we were already distributing and producing some products and then we realized we should have our own distribution. So the distribution piece actually came into, came to life within, within the last, what's today? Today's the end of December. Then the last few weeks, honestly, and we are about to close several six figure deals on that alone. And the retail part kind of went hand in hand when we were considering distribution and one of our team members, um, actually one of our partners is, his job was to go out and find, find the leases, find the prime real estate, find, do the demographic searches, signed the leases and get them going, do the build outs. And we did, we opened up four stores all within one week. I sh I shit you not, I kid you not. And part of, again, part of when I came on board as CEO, my vision was this. And I, and I'm very open with this is our theme for the next 12 months is shocking off. And, and we are living shock and everything we do, we're doing school so that when people look at, think botanicals, they're going to go, what the heck just happened? So rabbi, um, so when I say we opened up the stores pretty rapidly, we already had our, um, our interior designs done. We already knew or what our bill that was going to look like. We already knew where our shelves are going to go. So it was a matter of Lisa signed, um, furniture was shipped, the point of sales dropped in internet set up this and there was another words, it was already preplanned step by step by step. So when we pulled the trigger and it was like check signed, lease signed to build it out, go check sign leases, that would go. And then of course Gary, there's all, then it's like, well how the hell did you hire all these people that was also moving at the same time, the whole hiring process, onboarding. So there was a lot of moving parts like, oh yeah, a lot

Speaker 1: 41:04

a machine that is a lot Rick for sure. For you to do it and open them all at the same time. We didn't the same week. That is amazing. And it comes with some pretty, um, I guess, uh, your background in the service, uh, helps you with the organizational skills as well as your wife because we all know that the females always Trump us guys when it comes to the organization and putting things together. But that was crazy impressive man, that you were able do all of that. I got another question for you. Now you doing this again, thinking about all of this and what you've done and people thinking about getting into it, um, the CBD arena has a dizzying amount of product types. It gets insane sometimes when I look at it and I say, what's this? What's that? What's this? Oh, you've got to learn a whole new language. How were you able to, um, get your hands around it? I know you have more experience because you were using it personally, read into it, but when it comes to putting together your store and you have to make decisions about not just what you like, but what is going to be sold or what people want or what people want to buy or what their preferences are, there's a lot of consideration. So talk to us a little bit about how you guys went through that process. What went into that

Speaker 2: 42:18

good one? I'm writing that down too. If I understood the question. The essences is basically, so we have four locations with more, with more the, the ground here soon is how do we determine the kind of the product mix that goes into each store or,

Speaker 1: 42:33

right. Absolutely. How do you determine the product mix? How do you determine what's a, you know, is it based off of what you know is going to sell? Is it based off of what you want? Is it based off of, you know, there's a lot of things. It's different types of products. There's soaps, there's lotions, there's this, there's that, you know, where do you, where does someone who's looking to start this holiday go into eight away? But I would just, I guess, tell us your process of what you guys did to make that product selection.

Speaker 2: 42:58

Gotcha. Yeah. Now this, this is where it gets interesting because, uh, you know, if we were opening up a seven 11 or opening up a target or, or whatever, there's, there's, um, nurse historical data. Like you'd be able to point to other retail centers like those or even, uh, you know, uh, even the traditional franchise model you would have right. Things ready, they'd say, okay, and this type of demographic, here's your product matrix that doesn't exist in CBD. That doesn't exist in cannabis because there has never been cannabis or CBD shops ever before, let alone CBD this available. So the truth is is we're testing, we're literally testing because we have no historical data to choose from. We have no, if there had been a slew of CBD shops over the last decade, then we could pick and choose. We can go stop them, we can go see what they're doing. So some of the things we're doing now, Gary is a, is I'm involved in a lot of groups, um, both in the cannabis world and not, and I tap into them and um, other, I have friends in the industry, right? I have friends in the industry and so I'll ask them, what's, what's the hot seller retro store or what's the hottest seller is actually on your retail, your, I'm sorry, your ecommerce site. And I started to see trends. Um, like right now there is some of the hottest sellers are on prerolls, hemp prerolls and the flower, the flower. I mean these are hot sellers. So we're like, okay, so if they're moving, uh, you know, generally around the, you know, pretty much everywhere and let's drop them in our stores because of this silly and sure enough, they are our hottest sellers. Um, another part is, is I look towards our demographics. So our four locations here in San Antonio are in different parts of town. One of them is in near a military base, um, Lackland air force base. And in fact it's right outside the gates. And one of another one is, as you know, on the flip side is in a very wealthy demographic. It's in a wealthy zip code here in San Antonio and they have a lot of disposable income. So that plays a role as well. Um, for instance, uh, out by the base we have a lot less full spectrum broad spectrum products because we just, I don't want to jeopardize any military member of law enforcement by a full spectrum. So we have a lot more isolet stock there. And we do say at our, what we call our o nine location, which is Alamo Heights, Alamo Heights. It also happens to be across the university. So we suck extra flour and prerolls there because it's actually my alma mater. It gets flooded with university students and it's, there's the whole hemp cool factor. So they're buying prerolls so cheap. This is, we're learning as we go what's selling? But the truth behind the truth, Gary, is that almost everything is selling why? It's the truth. Wow

Speaker 1: 45:52

gracious Phoebe ds on the move. Thank botanicals leading the forces. That's what I'm talking about, right? I mean, you said some important stuff, man, about, you know, not knowing and out. For the listeners, I want you to take note of what he said in terms of, um, what do I know? I'm testing it. I have to test. That's the marketer in me. I'm, I'm a marketer by trade and that's something that we do as marketing. It doesn't matter what we're doing, even when we think we know, even when we're following another model, he had no model to follow. We're still going to test everything. We're still going to break every rule. We're going to try everything outlandish to see if we can beat our conversion ratio for the last thing we did. And that's what we constantly do. A B split tastes of multivariate split testing, and that's what Rick's doing on the fly in a physical location. I'm testing these products to see what's what, but he's just telling us he's in a great position where everything is moving. I mean, the second thing that he really said, well it was really a great takeaway was how he adjusted his product mix based off of the surrounding demographics. That's something that we use consistently online. We are always looking and basing things off of our personas or avatars that we build out that we know that these are the type of people who were buying the demographics in the area, but when you're doing it in a physical location, he's changing the product based off of what he knows about his area. So that is again, a really great way of applying a lot of what we do online, taking it offline. So again, Rick, you're doing a tremendous job, man. I just got so much. Actually, we, we're going to have to break this up into like four parts, man. But I, I'm going to let you go in a minute because I, it's so much good information. Um, I wanted to ask you about what you're doing now, uh, with the phrase, are you franchising these APIs? Are you giving these opportunities because you're doing all the testing, you figured all this stuff out, you got the car, may manufacturing facility going, you're producing better product. Can other people get an opportunity if they want to get in business with you? Some capacity, maybe it's contract manufacturer and maybe it's a franchise. Tell us more about how other people can get involved with what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 47:56

Yeah, so, um, uh, I'm very, I'm very open door, open book, open a lot of things and I, I'm also super accessible via a lot of channels, whether it's on our site, think botanicals.com I'm currently all of the information. Most of the email inquiries come directly to me, especially the franchise portion. So there's a variety of ways that we're looking to involve other interest in people, whether they're a manufacturer, whether they're, they have a cool CBD product or whether they're interested in opening up the brick and mortar location. So variety of ways. So the simple way is, um, they can reach out to the website. That's just the easiest way. So here's, let me just break it down even further. Somebody who's looking to open up to retail location, um, at As we record this scary, we have not twined tuned, um, put the cross the t's and dotted i's on our franchise model. Um, we, we may, we made, uh, decide to roll forward with the corporate owned structure. Right now what I'm saying is it, our franchise model has not been solidified yet. Right? We are opening up corporate owned locations pretty rapidly. Now on the flip side is if somebody is interested in, I mean we are, we are going to have a lot of shelf space. I mean, that's just the truth. We have retail locations. And as such, we do, we do entertain other companies who are interested in having, putting, you know, selling the products. They get an outlet. And so if somebody has a CBD product and they have a great marketing plan and they have, um, they have chops behind their product, then by all means, and we've already been approached by a lot of companies who are saying, Hey, we see you guys are growing. How do we get on your shelves? And that's one where I, um, the other way is, um, you know, if somebody's interested, they're kind of curious. I'm always open to talk to people as long as, honestly, as long as they've done some home. Right. And, and what I mean by that is, as you're probably aware of this as well, Gary, is people want to have coffee or pick your brain. And then when you sit down with them, they say, so what is CBD? And it's like, oh my, all I'm saying this with love and respect is if that's your first question, um, you need to do things. Exactly. Yeah. So what, what is he looking like? I look at him,

Speaker 1: 50:16

should I go back to the drawing board? First Day they'd come back with what you waste all this time. Yeah. I was like, Oh my God, tell you. And that's a life lesson. That's something else that I would've shared it. I learned from the entertainment industry. I was an audio engineer, right. And for many years coming out of college and I wanted to learn of course how to engineer and we were engineered some of the biggest hip hop albums and records back then and stuff like that. But I was an intern at the time trying to get up to the point of assistant engineer and that kind of thing. And I would ask the engineers questions and when you first come in, you're all green. And I would ask them basic questions. Whenever I asked them basic questions, they were brushed me off, say, get out of here and go, go to the store, buy me some beer, get me some cigarettes and come back. But then after I started to do the research and I started digging to the manuals and then I started presenting questions where they, it made them think at that point they drop all their guards. They had a new found respect for, uh, for me. And they started to tell me and open up and tell me everything because they say, this guy's learning, he's a seller. He's going to do it. Whether I tell them I, so let me help somebody who's really motivated to learn. And so that's a great lesson. Whenever you have a mentor, whenever you have anybody else that you're getting information from, make sure you do your due diligence, study that thing well before you go in because making them think is something that they'll have a greater respect for you and that will be much more open and to helping you a much more passionate and helping. It's fun for them to make them, uh, you know, think just like you said, Rick, he said, some of my questions I'm making you think and we're in all makes us think. It makes us go into another component and say, I just learned something about my own self. I didn't even know, you know, so it's good. It's good thing. So that's really great. I'm not going to hold you too much longer. Rick, I'm going to pop one more question on you, one or two more on you and then I'm going to let you go. Uh, you mentioned the distribution channel. Many people might not know what that is. Talk about what that is. What do you mean by distribution channel?

Speaker 2: 52:14

So, um, I'll give you a real time example. So today, literally today, this afternoon, actually late this morning, we had a meeting and this is worth an entrepreneur who is looking to start his own line of, of CBD products. And so, um, he, he was, he was about to go to I think Colorado or somewhere and he was going to be set up at the private label and then they were going to help them with fulfillment and all that. Um, so, so one part of what we do with, with the distribution is we will help somebody with their private labeling. In our manufacturing facility. We have our own printers, our own, um, each printer was like 10,$15,000. So we have our own artists, we have our own printers so we can help somebody get from, um, into, um, product to retail or door wholesale pretty rapidly. But at the arrest, the distribution it is, is we also, um, since we do some private labeling for some companies and we also have our own product line, think botanicals. Uh, we, we not only want to have our own retail footprint, but we would love for other people to carry our products. So our distribution folks, simply what they do is they will help people get private labeled and we will use our products, our lines, our facility to push out their product. And we also actively go out and solicit, um, brick and mortar or other operations who want to carry our line. So, right when I say distribution, that's kind of a, it's a really big, broad word. But basically what that means is we want to get more of our product under more shelves and quality, quality shelves and like we like we won't, we will not go look for'em head shops or the traditional um, smoke shops. It's just not, it's not our demographic. It's not, it's not where we want to be positioned, right. But we have active sales channels out there that are looking for shelf space, quality shelf space and um, we will also entertain people who want to come in and private label, um, with some of our products.

Speaker 1: 54:17

Excellent. Excellent. That's great news for you guys out there looking to get your CBD products and going, um, with a very low overhead. Rick, uh, he's got you man with a, a phenomenal facility. Um, we had experience with superior ingredients and all that good stuff. So definitely reach out to them. We're going to get your content. There's one question I did forget that you had mentioned that you said you were also open to putting other products on your shelves and I noticed tons of people out there looking to build out a CBD product. What would you say, like what are you looking for? What types of products would really catch your eye right now that you would say, if somebody came to me and they had this, I would probably catch my attention a little bit more than some of the other stuff. Is there anything in particular that, uh, that stands out right now

Speaker 2: 55:03

that's, that's not a good question. So I, I think, um, what, what we're looking for, if I, if I'm just saying, what am I looking for? I'm looking for first of business. Uh, and what I mean by that, what I mean by that is that mine, sorry about that. I think I heard a ringing, maybe it was when I mean by that is there's a lot of CBD products popping up. There are people who are creating their own bonds or own rubs and their own things. And I'm not saying we're going to exclude those folks, but what I'm really looking for somebody who has the business. In other words, I may have a marketing plan. They have a plan to scale and sell and that they can handle, especially potential, um, large orders. You know, we're right. You know, we might order for one of our stores, 200 units that then, you know, a week and that's it could mean 800 then you multiply that times four and then potentially times 10. So that's the first thing I look for is are they a business and all that goes into that. The second thing, and as important is, um, I tried the product like I actually use it and it's got to taste good, smell good, feel good, it's gotta be something good and it's got it's gotta work. And then obviously beyond that, the tertiary things are, you know, just have those certificates of analysis hasn't been verified as it been vetted. There's quality in those things. But, um, first thing is, is the, is the entrepreneur who's approaching us for the or the business isn't actually a business or is it somebody who's producing something in their garage? Nothing wrong with that. And second, is the product something that, um, is, does it tastes good field good smell good? And the third thing is, is that a hot mover? Like I think one of the things I'm seeing right now, at least from my perspective, um, I just, I asked him friends is, um, hemp or CBD and fruit infused protein powders. And that's, that seems to be a hot commodity right now.

Speaker 1: 57:00

Right, right. Wow, that's a, that's a golden nugget again, for all you guys, all you listeners, brick is giving you some golden nuggets. I mean, on a platter telling you what's hot and what's working and what's out there. I want to ask another quick question. How much have you seen, and I know you guys are just getting going with the retail operation, but you're also learning, I know you're very attended to, to these details. How much have you seen that packaging has an impact? How much impact does packaging design have? Which some of these products?

Speaker 2: 57:29

Oh man, that's another good one for me. Um, it's has a lot to do with it. Um, and I say that because where we positioned ourselves that think is, you know, our, our, our, our layouts are wood and metal and we have, um, artwork on the walls. And so it has a very, um, it's, it's a place you would not be embarrassed to bring your mom into, for instance, our shops. So that being said is, um, I, I will not bring in a product that has a very bold marijuana leaf on the cover. That's just not a, that's, unless it's, it's gotta. Like it would have to be something that very is that was so unique that I can't avoid it, but we're trying to avoid is this, I heard somebody say this, I heard this phrase say, so I'm just going to repeat this and I don't want to offend anybody, but we don't want to be this shop that has bongs and dogs. That's it. If I could summarize it, we are not the bongs and Dong shop and exactly. Yeah. I want somebody whose mom to feel comfortable and I want them. We literally had a mom bring her mom in, um, and to the shop and they sat down and we have it. We have TV screens with advertisements going on and there's, you know, there's useful information and she was comfortable. Now again, if it was a bong and Dong shop, it would probably not, I would not be doing what I'm doing if this was that type of organization. Nothing wrong with it. It's just not our model. So I'm looking for classes, writing classes, I guess the word.

Speaker 1: 59:03

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is great. Rick, I'm going to ask you one more man, and I'm gonna let you go. Listen, this is a really good one and I'm going to really make you think on this one for someone looking to get into the business,

Speaker 2: 59:17

right?

Speaker 1: 59:18

What would you say is some of the lowest hanging fruit? The gaps in the industry? What have you seen? Because you've done a lot of consulting, you deal with a lot of different companies. I'm always looking for this. As a marketer, we're always trying to find that one thing that, um, is being ignored. That's a huge problem. We're always trying to find problems as marketers because we know that's where the money yet where the money's hat when we can solve a problem, a big problem. What problem have you seen in the industry through all your experiences or anything else out there? Any other, um, anciliary types of companies, services, something that's being overlooked that you feel is some low hanging fruit that nobody's really tapped into yet?

Speaker 2: 59:59

God is good. That is a provocative question. Um, uh, let me see. Here's, here's kind of what I believe is I believe as anybody who has considered getting into the industry, whether it's marijuana, hemp, CBD, whatever, just in the cannabis industry, I think that I am my experience that feel, I feel like there's been this, um, this drive towards either being a grower or retail operator and the traditional things and, uh, in fact, people always say, how do you do that in Texas? Because there we're assuming we're growing marijuana or selling marijuana and we're doing none of that. And the first thing I'll ask, I'll ask people is when they're say there's an interest is I'll ask them about their background. Like what are you, what are you really good at? What are you good at? What do, what do people come to you for? And, and further, what have you been good at? People come to you for and you've made money doing. And if somebody says, well, had been a real good, I've been at one of the best business coaches around and I'm, I'm a well paid one, but I want to get into cannabis. And I'm like, there's a natural bridge there. In other words, you don't have to go learn to be a farmer. You can be the best cannabis business coach out there with just a slight pivot. So the low hanging fruit isn't necessarily what I believe, something in the industry. The low hanging fruit is already in that person, you know what I mean? So I got into the industry because a friend called me, he called me because I was an advisor or mentor. And I've run, I've launched, um, um, coaching programs for entrepreneurs all over the world. Accelerated for, I've done that. He called me because he was looking for that kind of advice and that was my epiphany. I'm like, so I'm going to get into this industry helping somebody build their company. It just happens to be in cannabis. Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. That was my low hanging fruit is I didn't want to go be a grower. I don't want to open a dispensary. I didn't want to do the things. Um, the low hanging fruit was to tap into what I'm already good at, knowledgeable at, and I've been paid for in the past. And I would just propose that to folks is maybe you're a great graphic artists and this industry really, really interests you. Um, try to reply. I would say start with what, you know, what you're good at, what you've been paid to do, and see, you can overlap that, um, or meld that into this industry. And I bet the answer is yes. I bet it's, yes.

Speaker 1: 1:02:25

Right. Wow. What a gym, what a gym listeners too. I mean, that is definitely something that we preach is utilizing your skill sets. How can you apply what you already know, what you're already great at to this industry. And that's what we're seeing a lot of these other um, uh, you know, business people do, you know, the accountants are now getting into it and they're learning the, the variances. But the core of accounting is still core accounting, whether you're applying it to the cannabis industry or not. But then there's some other new things you have to learn to just, you know, kinda ratchet on top of it. But it's a lot easier than say, a mechanic trying to now become a cannabis accountant and flip to an entirely different skillset. If you already have a skill set, then why not take that, ratchet it on top, learn a little bit of a, you know, the Lingo and the specialty stuff that goes along with this particular industry and apply it. So that's a great, really, really great tip, Rick. Man, this was a interview full of Jim's man. We have to really, really give it up for you on this one. Man. Rick, I really appreciate you being with us. I need to get one other thing for you. I want you to tell everybody, how can they get in contact with you and are you available for hire for consulting and anything else that, uh, that you may be able to help that people who want your help us, are you available for that?

Speaker 2: 1:03:44

So, um, so two questions you asked. So the first place is the easiest way is they can go to think, botanicals.com and um, at this moment, whenever somebody sends an email through the system, uh, I get, I get notified of every single correspondence. Um, uh, the second place, if it's easier, they can hit me up on Instagram. It's my personal page. It's the at sign planet boy. So planet boy, that's my personal page. Think botanicals.com is our business page. And the second part of that is for consulting is, um, that's, that's a tricky one, Gary. And the truth is, is that I, I never, I never closed my door. In other words, I won't say yes by all means. Everybody who needs consulting help, please call me. Um, but I, I got to think at this point in time because of what we're doing with think and the vastness and speed at which we're growing is I am open for that and I'm open to the right type of group or person who's seeking consulting. That being said, that being said, if anybody hears this and they're like, well, I wonder if I should send them an email, send the email and, and let's, let's determine if this is going to be a viable avenue or if I can direct you towards somebody who can better help you and serve you. So, um, my door is always open. That's the truth.

Speaker 1: 1:05:01

Hey, that's what's up, Rick Das. What's up, man, thanks so much for joining us today. Really appreciate you. Stop it through to give us such a great interview. Oh, also guys, Rick is doing a phenomenal giveaway. A, he is giving away an ebook that he put together. Um, and this one's titled the Step Step Guide to launching your cannabis business today. It's an exact blueprint on what you're going to need to really get in there. He goes over testing, pricing, how to find your niche market. A lot of other great things that you heard him talk about today on the podcast is covered there. Make sure you go to Breo cannabis entrepreneur.com forward slash Rick to pick up that ebook and once again, thanks so much Rick for stopping by man. Do you have any other closing remarks for the day? And Gary, I really appreciate it. Mandate your questions were so honestly so provocative. I literally wrote all of them down and I really appreciate your time and the ability to interact with your listeners and your audience. Thank you so much my brother. Thank you Rick. Give it up

Speaker 3: 1:05:58

guys. Give it up for Rick Martinez once they talk to you soon. Man. Have a good word. I do, yes.

Speaker 4: 1:06:10

Wow. Wow. Wow. What a great interview with my man Greg. Martina is man. I'm here with my cohost, they co founded or real cannabis entrepreneur, Marine George, where? B, what's up? Thank goodness that was such a compelling interview with Reiki. Really gave us a one two, three blueprint on how to get into the CVD world and I think that we're going to run with that inflammation and I hope all of you listening to the pocket. That's right. And we just wanted to thank you all for tuning in and as we mentioned to go pick up a copy of rigs ebook. Man, this is a serious ebook, not a small report, not at the end report dating Maggie plus pages. It's called step by step guide to launching your cannabis business today, man. And if you guys are interested in listening to the show notes and listening on the line, go to www.realcannabisentrepreneur.com forward slash podcast and all of the links mentioned and all the information will be on iron. And that's right. If you guys haven't heard, we've also built one of the largest, most influential masterminds in the business. Guys, if you are interested in breaking into the cannabis industry, whether you're a new beat, whether your dad would experience and come check us out. Real Cannabis, entrepreneur.com forward slash mass they're mine. And if you guys know or are a row cannabis entrepreneur doing something great for the community or unique and revolutionary that you want to be featured on the show, so go to grow cannabis, entreprenuer.com forward slash guests and all the information will be there as well. That's right guys, and don't forget to subscribe and if you're on an iPhone, open up that podcast and subscribe. Hit that blue button, subscribe if you're on Android, go to Google, play music use did stitcher. You can use Spotify to ne I heart or soundcloud guys, so make sure you go check us out. Thanks so much for tuning in and we'll see you soon.