January 17, 2023 • 53 mins
A NEW LANDMARK BOUTIQUE HOTEL IN LAS VEGAS SET TO BECOME THE DESTINATIONS FIRST CANNABIS-FRIENDLY PROPERTY. 64 Room Boutique Hotel Undergoes a Multi-Million Dollar Rebrand and Redesign with Debut set for Spring 2023 Find them on IG @elevationsnation or the website www.elevationsnation.com
CANNABIS TALK 101, THE WORLDS #1 SOURCE FOR EVERYTHING CANNABIS.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heard around the world on the I Heart Radio act
Apple podcast over every you get your podcast, It's Cannabis
Talk one oh one with Blue and Joe Grandad. Hello,
welcome to Cannaba's Talk one on one of the world's
number one source for every big cannabis. My name is Grew,
alongside is Mr Joe Grande and you are now to
into the greatest cannabi show on the planet. That is
true you guys, Thank you for listening to our podcast
(00:22):
all around the world, Cannabis Talk one oh one. Man
check out our website Cannada's Talk one on one dot
com as we are the world number one source for
everything cannabis, tucking in the articles and blogs on the
site for you to check out and call us up anytime.
Go check out our I g pages at Cannabi's Talk
one oh one. My brother right here, Blue was at
the number one Christopher right Hello, Well, I'm at Joe
(00:42):
Brande fifty two and I gotta remind you guys, if
you want to tig your typical into seven special when
it comes in fuse products, the playwor un case should
be just as enjoyable as the filling you experience. Make
sure you visit the website lorand oils dot com. On
the show today, these guys, you see the logos on
the screen. You hear us talk about Elevation Nations and
(01:02):
now we have two extraordinary people from the organization. Alex Risk.
Is that how you say the last name? Is it
just r I v K A R I z K Risk? Yeah? Okay, Risk, Okay.
He's the CEO of Elevations Hotels and Resorts, Elevations Nations
and Pro Hospitality Group and after being a leader in
hotel brokerage for seventeen years, Alex is known for his
(01:24):
creative strategic capabilities and financing and managing all the intrictees
of Brokern and owning hotel properties. But what I found
really interesting after doing a little research about about you
is your bachelor's and military strategies that I want to
touch on a little bit right there, because that's pretty
intriguing right there, young man. I want to hear more
(01:45):
about that. And we also have Mary Catherine Shamazzi Shamisi.
What is that Hungarian? Canadian and Hungarian over here? It's
like my ex wife. Oh wow, well say that one
more time. Does it mean anything? Doesn't really see. I
(02:11):
had a feeling because it's like, what does that mean you?
I've never heard it in my life. I mean, I'm thirsty,
so I'm gonna take a drink of water. Now I
feel like I'm saying your last name. Well, and this
is interesting. She's the VP of business Development. She's also
an industry leader of over eighteen years, specializing in education
and formulations, compliance and wellness. Mary is an international lecturer
(02:32):
on the particular appliances of cannabis and all market areas
of success. Co founder of AIMS Right, a I M
S Institute in Seattle, co founder of Cannabis Canvas Therapeutics,
and as a chief clinical officer, she traveled to Thailand
and landed the deal to become the first company to
(02:53):
legally extract CBD and Thailand, which is huge right there
when I've seen that and read that after consulting from
members of the Thai governments and now she works with
Siam Herbal Tech there. She is also the founder of
s m J Consulting, a global consulting and medical lecture
on cannabis and the human system. Like everything I read
(03:14):
about your your mind, your NFL experience, all this stuff.
Both of you guys are so intriguing to me. Her
primary focus is in oncology, pediatrics, and neuro neurology, which
is just like I said up at Alley of football
and everything else, and I can't wait that we're doing
so much with the NFL, and I want to pick
your your brain on on everything that we're doing there
and your experience there. Plus she wrote one of the
(03:37):
first chapters on cannabis and oncology in the mainstream textbook
p I of National Institute of Health Study on Cannabis
and Impairment. Congratulations on that. Welcome you guys to the show.
Give him a warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen everybody, because
you can find them on I G at Elevation Nations
uh and on the website Elevations Nations dot com. Teddy,
(04:01):
get over here and sit down, boy E L E
V A t I O N s n A t
I O n dot com. And it's just amazing because
alex As I see that you created this company and
helped formulate this as Blue was the first one to
mention it to me and Chris Frankina, going, dude, look
who we're meeting up with this hotel. You know is
(04:24):
allowing people to smoke cannabis there. And it's like, I mean,
that's as simple as that you can say it. It's like,
and as we say it on the show, if you
want to go somewhere and not get kicked out for
smoking weed, period, go get your membership to Elevations Nations
and become a member. Where is this out of the
box thinking come from Alex Because military that is like,
(04:46):
you know, this military strategy of if I put this
there that they're they're gonna smoke, They're gonna stay more
people are gonna come and smoke. I don't care who
we piste off. Give me the history, brother, because this
is the first of its kind that I've ever heard of.
I feel like I'm an Amsterdam wherever this hotel is
because you just brought that out of the box thinking. Well, well,
but first of all, it's it's not just me. I mean,
(05:09):
my background in the hotel industry comes from the brokerage industry.
So I've been a broker for seventeen years and uh
that's and we still own Pro Hospitality Group. I still
owns a hotel brokerage firm and that's we do quite
a bit of that I personally still broker hotels uh.
And then over about eight years in I started to
(05:30):
create an investment platform to own and operate the hotels.
So that's how we got into the ownership of hotels,
and now we own and operate ten hotels. Not all
ten hotels are part of the Elevations nations. So one
of the hotels that we purchased in two thousand nineteen,
even before um Cannabis was you know, legally legally recreational
(05:52):
in Arizona, was the Clarindon Hotel, which the Clarinet Hotel
was always this funky, loving community based very close to
the LGBTQ community hotel that had a roofed up bar,
roofed up deck and had some crazy events there all
the time, right it was. And the goal was to
(06:12):
purchase this hotel and it was the first true full
service boutique hotel that my company was buying, and the
goal was to turn it around, um uh, improve the operations,
refinance and renovate the whole thing. Well then just like
you guys know, uh come around uh we we we
(06:36):
purchased it in genu nineteen and the goal to refi
was a year after so when the time was to
REFI full fletch, COVID hits word on we're not refinancying.
We buck her down. We lose fift of the revenue.
Uh we got Yeah, it was fun. Uh So we
(06:57):
uh basically went into that two year long extended period
where um lender at the time to work to do
a workout and they really helped us. Great leader. Actually,
looking back, they were the best choice we could do. However,
coming out of in November, recreational cannabis came came to
(07:20):
light that came came legal in Arizona, and that kind
of changed a lot of things for the Clinton specifically
because we were already this funky, you know, boutique hotel
and before it was legal, there was a company called
Vapan and out of uh Arizona that had done a
few buyouts cannabis buyouts uh in uh in at that hotel.
(07:43):
So they would buy the whole hotel out for from
us for like a two day event, and the the
the somehow finningle their way legally to make sure that
everything was okay. So the fact that we already had
a connection with this hotel in the cannabis industry starting
made us think okay, well maybe we've got something here.
And everybody was approaching us to put a dispensary in
(08:04):
the you know, the bottom of it, or all sorts
of crazy stuff that, you know, when two seconds talking
with our lawyers, we knew we couldn't do and the
and the truth is we're a hotel company so we
didn't want to really touch the flower either, but we
knew we had something there. So um, we met uh
(08:25):
slew of different people. Chef Derek Up Derek was with
us before to as well. He started to do a
series of infused dinners on the rooftop that got really popular.
You know, twenty people two hundred dollars high end French
cuisine infused with cannabis. Are you kidding me? People were
you know coming to us for that. And then we
(08:47):
started to think, okay, well how can we work on this.
And for us, it was more of a way to
bring back the Clarendon you know, post COVID to where
it used to be because you know, we still had
to refinance, We still had uh you know obligation. Yeah,
you still have the baby bill. So we thought maybe
we have something here. So surrounding myself with a bunch
of other people, Uh, Bob, you know at the time, Darren, Mary,
(09:11):
all sorts of a whole team that that that was created,
and we started to have this idea about the hotel chain,
and Bob just nick was it was really an intricate
partner of mine helping me crafting this idea. Bob said,
he was all his idea. By the way, you know,
I don't want to bring that. Don't even let Alex
fool you. This was all my idea. I just so
(09:33):
when it when it comes down to the hotel, you know,
I know, I know what I was doing, but creating
an entire company from scratch that has nothing attached to
it is a different ballgame. And I won't you know,
take that credit. So once we decided to we were
going to move forward with the brand, it took us
a while to actually, you know, uh craft how it
(09:54):
would look. And one thing was was guaranteed that we
didn't want to have just one hotel, and it makes
sense us to just have one club, right. Uh. The
legalities of it too. If you're going to have a
smoking guns you have to have a private membership that
and it changes from states to states, from city of
CDs even so must have been fun figuring that all
out too, Yeah, more costly than fun. But so that's uh,
(10:20):
that's so we start to formulate, decide, and from Elevations
Hotels and resort came Elevations Nations, which is basically a
membership based uh platform. You don't have to be a
member to come to our hotel. We're open to the public,
but if you become a member, you have a lot
more perks. You have more perks when you're off our
(10:40):
property as well. Our whole goal was to create a
franchise that was more than just or brand. I should
say not neverword franchise. I shouldn't be using franchises at
brand that actually is uh, it wasn't more. I'm looking
for that it's actually uh important for for guess when
they're at the property, but also off the property, right,
(11:03):
so there's relevant for them in their daily lives. That's
what they're where I was looking for. What what do
they get when they're not on the property. Then Elevation
Nation member, So so they have access to private lounges
at the hotel that they can come back to the
butcher awesome, I mean, and let me cut in for
a second. Is because I visit them. You know, they
greet you, they go through all the services that they
(11:24):
offer there. They let you smoke in the facility. You
could sit there and and relax and and it's just
it's inside the hotel, but it's just its own lounge.
So it's like a you know, like a cigar lounge.
That feel exactly like a cigar lounge. That's how what
I'm envisioning because I haven't been there because Blue and
they didn't. They don't take me places like that. You're
gonna get there. I'll take your February maybe maybe for
(11:48):
the super Bowl out there. But I've heard and seen
and feel that and what I do hear about that,
it's just and I'm a big cigar smoker and I'm
here are you? Oh yeah? So I've had a walker
and this and that, and I could just imagine that's
that feeling, that vibe that you guys are creating. So
so depending and every lounge, every property is going to
have a different field. Right. Uh, some some places it's
(12:09):
not legal to to do that. In Phoenix, we were
in good shape. But for for what the way we're
going to be doing in Vegas until the the the
the infrastructure, the legalities are catching up to us. We
may have you know, uh more of a cigar lounge
feel where you can smoke uh cbd, you know, uh
and and cigar normal to back as well. So depending
(12:32):
on what the local laws are, we gotta circulate around this.
But it's going to be still a private membership. Now
you get all sorts of perks on traveling. All of
our other hotels are also on the platform, even though
they're not elevations hotels. All of our members get uh,
you know, discounts and different activities. We we have, uh
(12:55):
we have infused dinners, we have wine paying dinners that
we have uh uh small private um uh concerts, all
sorts of different activities that are you know, but tenders,
balls and butt end of appreciation night that all of
our members have access to. Uh. You know, we just
had a pretty big Your's Eve party uh over there
(13:18):
and you know most of our members would probably come
in the raft rice or free depending on the on
the event. So there's all sorts of things like this
and a lot of products we're we're trying to have
a on online commerce platform where quality vetted products that Mary,
you know, part of the team will make sure that
we're getting them the top quality quality. So when when CBD,
(13:42):
it's real good stuff, you know, the vet ended. So
we we have that our members are gonna have access
to uh some them exclusively it's on their platform, and
some of them just that they're really much reduced produce.
Same thing for wine, something for cigars, something for spirits.
Uh yeah, Alex, there was there was something that we
were talking about that I want you to kind of
explain where the hotel is actually letting some of these
(14:05):
brands go ahead and take over rooms. Right correct, when
we come back after this break, it's Cannabis Talk, we'll
be right back. We'll be right back with Cannabis Talk
one oh one. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one oh one.
(14:27):
Tell you guys about Bear Flag Group. You guys, the
Bear Flag Group. When it comes to manufacturing, there is
whether they meet the quality products and they meet that
expert team work. They can create all types of abstraction products.
Can custing in through two old cartagis patures, live blogs
and cartagiess. This is what cartage is an all side
flower packaging to our co packaging to the best brands
(14:49):
in cannabis. Get your white label and started today. Check
them out online at bear Flag group dot com. Now, Alex,
we're just talking about these organizations and groups that can
come in there and from brands. I've heard about this.
If you were saying blue, Yeah, we're getting ready to build. Yeah,
I hear we got the cannabis talk one oh one room.
I can't wait to have this right to talk about this.
Alex so so lucky part part of our they're fluffy fellas. Probably, Um,
(15:16):
it looks like both of us at the at the
Clarendon and the new until that we're opening up in
March in um in Vegas, we have cannabis uh friendly rooms,
so not the whole the whole property is not necessarily
(15:36):
cannabis friendly in the sense that not all the rooms
are going to be allowed to smoke cannabis in, but
for premium and for now, for now, depending on how
popular they get. Right. So, in Phoenix we have a
hundred five rooms. Sixteen of our rooms are actually cannabis friendly,
so we renovate them with all heart surface, equipped them
with special ventilations and scrubbers. So even for a non
(15:57):
kindabis smoker, wouldn't be offensive to go and sleep in
them if they if they didn't want to. But that's
part of the of the complexity of having a cannabis hotel.
It's not just easy. You just don't allow people to
smoke in your rooms. That may I mean it's every
hotel nowadays. Everybody's smoking in him now anyways, news for you. Yeah,
I put the towel on the bottom. Not necessary, not
(16:18):
necessarily me, but a lot of goldie the guys, I know.
I mean, I'd never I'd never get caught. Yeah, exactly, Well,
you do the steam right, the steam that I do.
I have a couple of the scheme thing and don't
smoke cigars. Yeah, keep the tobacco. Now we still we
(16:40):
actually will charge you and we'll make you sign a
waiver and something that says that you're not going to
use the back in your rooms because that that smell
doesn't go away. Can we can you know, cope with
and the scrubbers are good to go, and we have
some special you know cleaning uh sprays and everything that
works well. But these cannabis rooms are open to being
sponsored by cannabis companies who can come in and basically
(17:04):
designed their own room with all of the you know,
uh whatever you're you're you know, I like the field
that you want to bring for rooms. Most of these
rooms at the Clarendon or sweets to they're like a
kind of a two room sweets if you wanted to.
They're not too there's no closure between the two rooms,
(17:25):
but it's kind of a small lobby when you come in,
and then uh type living room and then you have
the main bedroom after that. So there's a plenty of
space for you guys to advertise your brand. And it's
almost like they're sweets all the rooms up the because
I've only stayed in the cannabis friendly rooms. Are they
all Do they all have the double No, we have
we have thirty six and forty rooms that are exactly
(17:47):
like that, and then uh then we have much larger
rooms on the interior corridor side of the of the
courtyard there, and then we have another probably sixteen that
are much smaller. So uh, we we kind of keep
them separately. We are thinking if if this continues, um,
We're actually there's a lot of complexity to open this up.
(18:09):
You know, how you advertise this online all you know,
a third party like Expedia and whatnot. You know, there's
a lot of things to navigate. Yeah, because some of
these guys won't let you actually advertise that. So the
first year and a half we even are our own
PMS system then allow us to put these one So
we're we're we're a lot a lot of uh you know, uh,
(18:34):
mostly because we just we just advertise it. But it's
people have to actually call the property in order to
book a specific cannabis room. We're about to change that
in the next note, even the next dirty days. We
have a new PMS system coming up. So if those
sixteen rooms keep being as popular as we as they are,
we'll put forty of them, right so, and we'll move
(18:54):
forward with with more. In Vegas, we have an entire
floor that's going to be the four twenty floor, actually
the fourth floor, the fourth or perfect is that? And
there should be twenty rooms. Yeah, and there is twenty
rooms on the floors, and dope is that. And I'm
going to break a little secret here is going to
be four a four. They're all gonna love it. And
(19:19):
that's an idea from one of the other Bob did
it again Bob's idea there is that one's nicky. Oh
my god, it's it's and there's something to talk about.
You know, it makes you feel good, especially for the
cannabis community. I mean, you know, as much as we
(19:39):
you know, want to think that the industry has uh
has grown up, it's still novelty to go, oh it's
for twenty room, you know. So that'll bring a lot
of vibe and funclusive. Yeah. I mean that's kind of
what got me in with these guys, is that just
making it be something that's part of normal, everyday life.
And I know we hear that word normalization all the time,
(20:00):
but it's still happening, right. So, well, tell us about
your background and what exactly you're doing for the company. Um. Well,
funny story and thank you for the very kind introduction. No,
it's so intriguing what you I could just talk to
you for about an hour about everything you're doing. And
like Alex said, you know, it's it's never just one person, right,
I Mean, there's teams behind us and with us in
(20:20):
all of this. But really what connected me with Elevations
Nations and the Clarendon was UM in Seattle. I was
working with patients and I'm a former elementary school administrator
and was looking working on a PhD on how pharmaceuticals
were impacting kids in the classroom. Um, when I was
studying Japanese, Canada's got me through it without any medication
(20:40):
back in Montana and um so you're in the closet smoking,
there's no way, right, So you're real happy about this
game that just happened the other day. That bugs that
that was a blowout. I know, I know, but it
was going to happen back to back, maybe back to back.
So um so, you know, So moving of Seattle and
(21:00):
being in education and really seeing what was happening. Nobody
knew that they were studying cannabis and neurology at U
DUB and being a teacher, I wanted to go and
kind of educate. I had parents eighteen years ago who
were giving cannabis to their kids. That's a long time
a right, and it spent medically approved there but not
for children, and so they would say, please, don't send
us to jail. But I wanted to know, you know,
I knew it worked for me. I knew it could
(21:21):
work for these kids. So then I started knocking on
doctor's doors and saying do you know, right, My background
is an education curriculum development. So long story short, when
you're doing that and you're educating adoptors and you have
to understand what products are out there in the market, right,
and this was a legacy market back then, so getting
involved with that and then it became recreational and then
we opened UM with Dr snow Agrawell and Dr Leanna
(21:42):
Standish and Integrative Medical Clinic because just like we're trying
to do in hospitality, we wanted to make sure that
your doctor could talk to your natural path could talk
to your cannabis consultant. I had no medical background, right,
so I sat at the kitchen table with medical books
and cannabis and just started putting the dots together. And
then had the opportunity to work with them to write
the curriculum for the oncology textbook, which was very cool
(22:03):
because now doctors are being able to talk about it
and are getting on board. Um. So I was in
Arizona and I was lecturing to a pediatric neurology group
and on my way out, I saw that there was
a cannabis friendly hotel and I was like, huh, that's
cool because we don't have open consumption. And one of
the issues when parents from all over the world come
to Seattle's, they had no place to engage with their children.
(22:24):
Right they're still afraid of even bringing it into a
hotel or into an air and b thinking or Airbnb
thinking that you know, the SWAT team's gonna come. Um,
and they have enough on their plate to think about.
So whether you are a parent of a patient or
a friend of a patient, it doesn't matter. And you
know that you know people are using cannabis for this,
but it's just not being openly spoken about. So UM
(22:44):
knocked on the door and Darren the gm happened to
be there, and I just said, hey, what do you
guys do? And I would love to, uh, you know,
have our patients be able to know that this is
a safe space. And they said, well, you know, we
obviously can't do it with kids, and understandably everything has
to be compliant, but at least place where people know
that they can safely come down and find products and
(23:04):
you know, just just eliminate that one step of issue
that they might run into. The barriers when you're dealing with,
you know, such a life changing diagnosis. So UM, and
then I learned what they had the opportunity to do
with the lounges and with the sky deck. And for me,
I love that sky It's beautiful, beautiful, and I had
a beautiful, you know, three sixty degrees view of the
(23:26):
city and it's just it's just nice. It's and it
sounds beautiful just to open, you know, a facility up
for our our industry and our community. It's and it's
dear to my heart because it needs to happen more
and and well normalize using a nice place because everything
you've described and when you were there, I've seen some video.
It's like, that's beautiful. There's nothing wrong with having a
(23:47):
beautiful atmosphere that now can you can use cannabis acts
And we're catering to the the alcohol industry, we're catering
to all all different industries, but this one's been like,
we can't yet. It's legal in our state, it's federally illegal,
and then some cities are it's illegal, you know, and
it's just kind of like, what is going on. But
(24:08):
as we move forward and it gets more progressive, it's happening,
you know, we're seeing it happen. And and again, please
continue though well, that's to your point. You know, we
wanted to be able to put cannabis in the light
in functions. You know, we have fundraisers, you know, at
children's hospitals that are all centered online and alcohol. Why
can't we do that in cannabis, And there's not a
(24:29):
place to do that, right, So working with these guys
to say, hey, you have an opportunity and I'm gonna
stick my head out and say and an obligation, right,
because we need cannabis to be presented in the light
that it deserves to be presented in. All of these
people that are out fighting for it. You know, we
have Last Prisoner Project, you know, who have put truly
their lives on stay or on stake for this are
(24:51):
now depending on people like us to be the voice.
Right because let's be real, I grew up in Georgia.
You know you have certain people that are going to
listen to certain other people. You have the opportunity to
be that voice and articulate you know the benefits of
cannabis both recreationally and medicinally, and do it with groups
like this. Why not? So I pitched myself to them.
(25:11):
I called Bob and said, hey, I'd love to come
work with you guys. You know, I think there's a
lot that we could do together for everybody. Well, your
professional background, your whole look, your vibe, being a mother
as well, you know what I mean, all those things.
In my opinion, when I hear you and what I've
read about you is check mark, check mark, check mark,
check mark, Like, wow, she's not just your hippie woman
(25:34):
who's a white lady. But you mean yeah, and you
may be inside, which is fine, But my point is
it's a professional but which is good. But I think
but what I think is is that we all are
in our own way, and yet it's hard to express
that because of the professional right. I mean, you know,
when when we were dealing with real estate, you know,
(25:55):
we were always in suits, and it wasn't like, hey,
let's go smoke a joint, but yeah, you knew everybody
smoked the joint. And two and it was a too
you know what does he call it? A to um lunch?
To drink martini lunch? And you know, it's all those
things and and it just hasn't been accepted, but it's
starting to. And so that's the beauty of it. And professionals.
(26:17):
And I always say this, professionals like yourselves. Um, you know,
it's nice to have you guys come into this industry
and help normalize it, right because you bring a level
of expertise from the hotel industry, from you know, your industry,
and and and I've always welcomed that because we need
more operators because there are a lot of you know,
(26:38):
operators that are really intelligent growers and and um, you
really intelligent you know retail operators that are coming into
the space and that have been in this industry before
they came out of the closet themselves. You know. It's
like for me, you know, I could never you know,
as soon as I went on radio and I started
talking about you know, hey we're we're you know, I'm
(26:58):
in the cannabis industry. You know, all of a sudden,
it was like, hey, you can't really do both. Now.
You can't go sell weed in the in the closet
at the closet, you know. And and I did for
many years. It was it was part of my life.
You know, I can go work at a union and
move three hundred pounds and boom, make money and work
in my union and and now it's like, Okay, I can't.
I can't go out and do that. That coal is
(27:22):
like you all the radio, it's like rights you have
read on you. But but again, but but the union workers,
the teamsters, I mean I dealt with you know, um,
all the trade show installers, people coming in and out,
real estate professionals, all smoked cannabis through that whole period
of time. Yet again, we never talked about it, but
(27:44):
we Hey, let's go grab a bud lighter, let's go
take a shot. All the time. Teachers, doctors, I know,
doctors that don't that don't smoke as much, and they
do other recreational drugs you know that are probably but
further popping. Yeah, bill probbing lines of drugs and all
that other stuff, and and their their doctors and I'm
and I'm calling gosh, you know, I literally he was
(28:05):
with my doctor m at a and he was like, hey,
you got an E d M event. You know, I'm like,
E d M. What are you doing at that? He's like, oh, dude,
we were on so much ecstacy and this other stuff.
And I'm looking at like, duck, are you kidding me?
That's not going to talk to their patient about cannabis. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah,
and and but we have a cool relationship. I don't know.
I'm pretty open with him. Yeah, but but but the
(28:29):
majority of them would never come out and say that.
But he's like, I don't even He's like, I wish
I could smoke, he said. The reason I don't smoke
is because if I get tested, he says, But if
I do these other drugs, they're only in my system
for three days, I can get away with it, you know.
So again that just normalizing it will help a lot
of those professionals and things of that nature. So so
as you met them a few years back, when was
(28:50):
this that when you walked in there and knocked on
that doors like two thousand, about a year early early,
and you were were you living? You you're from Seattle,
from Seattle. I was just lecturing at a neurology group
and I was on my way out to the airport,
and I can't remember if I saw a billboard or something. Now,
we make products in Seattle, so we also have products
(29:12):
in the market in Arizona and Seattle as well. In
the Rex stores. There this little brand called Polite, which
you know, functional cannabis use um. And so it was
really just you know, how can we again continue to
just build this muscle? Um And I'm always thinking of
what is beyond what I'm doing right now, right, and
again for the opportunity that they had at Elevation Station
(29:34):
with Clarendon to really get people talking about cannabis in
a different type of situation, not when they're walking and
getting a diagnosis. Right, they should be able to go
to an infused dinner and we should be able to
talk about cannabis. And then god forbid, if they get
that diagnosis, they say, oh, you know, I did hear
about that, and it is something that we should look into.
It's not getting all that information at once. So and
(29:55):
they were completely open to it, and but I did
want to also offer, you know, the potential opportunity to
protection because if you're not in the cannabis industry, and
we were talking about this before, you have people that
are coming to you and we all know smoking mirrors. Right,
we have to talk. You're gonna have eight meetings and
we're going to sign these papers. Nine months later, nothing
(30:15):
has happened, right, And I you know, you you want
you want to be progressive, you want to move things along,
but you want to do it again in a professional
manner and actually get done. You know, that's just it.
And even investors. I've had numerous investors come across my
path over the past, you know, twenty years, and they
think they're going to come in and change the game.
Cannabis is so different than you know, traditional business acumen,
(30:38):
and you have to understand how to bridge that. Gay
Alex for you would say something, well, I was going
to say that that you know, we brought me around.
So for the education piece, you know, like your normalization,
you wanted a big push to normalize anything is education,
understanding it, you know, and what it, what it's good for,
and either recreational or medical medically speaking. So, uh, Mary's
(30:59):
are you know, Cannabi's expert in our and our educator?
How hard I want to hear some of these difficulties
because I could only imagine the neighbor of one of
your guys hotels. Are people going, what are you guys
doing there? My kids walk by this hotel? You know,
(31:21):
how do you guys deal with that? When I, of
course work here on the show, I get it, But
what is your approach to that? When and I'm sure
it's happened, right, I mean, I can the dice and
like Alex. After this break, it's Cannabis Talk one on one.
We were right back after this break. We'll be right
back with Cannabis Talk one oh Oneaday, Welcome back to
(31:47):
Cannabis Talk one oh one. Advanced New Treats you guys
has a complete growing system for cannabis and optimizes all
phases recycles to be your proctor, changing their comparatio. This
couple more in Advanced greet kids dot Com before we
went to break Alack, Alex, you're talking about, you know,
some of the people that may have a different pot
on to think of this Ray Hotels that you've created.
(32:09):
Is it you yourself that this is all you were?
He was the partnership nas I mentioned before that we're
a big team. I've talked about some of the key
players like Bob, but I also wanted to talk about Darren.
Darren Brotherton is actually a partner in the hotel and
in the innovations, and he's a partner on the hotel
in Vegas as well, and he's the operator. He basically
(32:29):
takes Scarify all of the day to day. He's not
the general manager, Joan Andres, has his own role, but
he's basically overseeing all this and when this idea of
going candis friendly for the for the Clarendon specifically in Phoenix.
I leaned on him a lot because he was, like,
you know, one of the main guy who wanted to
push this. He thought we had something here, So I
just wanted to make sure that he was well. No,
(32:50):
and not only that because as I mentioned this, he's
probably the one that had to convince you to do it,
because I could only imagine, like, we've never heard of
this being able to like we've always we say, we
those who smoke cannabis at a hotel, put the towel
on the floor, put the you know, I mean, we
we all done it, but it's we've never gotten to
(33:11):
the one of the sixteen rooms that like, I'm still
in awe with it. I feel like it's um Willie
walking on the chocolate factory when I go there, Like
I mean, I haven't been there yet, but I feel
like it's one of those types of scenarios. Wait a minute,
I could really smoke in here. It's how I felt
when I went to my first cigar lounge like I
could smoke inside here and just really puff away. So
for you to get that quote unquote green light, you know,
(33:35):
that's great from your partner for him to do that
and encourage you to do that. But I'm so curious
on how you deal with because I'm sure there's the
mothers against drunk driver so to speak, you know what
I mean, the mad families out there that go or
maybe not well, so for for the too hotels that
are going to be online right now, I don't think
(33:56):
we're gonna run into that problem. First In Vegas, the
Cation it's just off the strip, right in the middle
of everything, but it's not really a residential type of place,
right and it used to be a crazy hotel to
the artisan hotel, is has any portation? Being a you know,
naughty place to be, I feel like I was, or
the place to be depending yea, I know naughty Isola
(34:23):
to be very very naughty. Yeah, I think I've ranted
that place naked twice. Literally here's the video. I counted four.
But people there too with you don't try that like
you weren't with me. And in the Phoenix, I mean
that it wasn't a different vibe than the one in Vegas,
(34:44):
for sure, but it was It's also a hotel that
had a lot of crazy parties and everything, but you know,
cannabis or not. When we do a rooftop event, we
always have is a does a condo building a higher
mid rise, you know, across the street from us. It's
maybe a ten story higher than us. There's always that
same lady calls on us for anything, you know, the
(35:07):
tops comes four times and we have the permits and
she's just she's just looking one. I wish I could
be there. I'm gonna call on them. Mary has to
go talk to her again. Mary, can you go talk
to Karen please? Well everybody else was to but that's
pretty much it. We didn't we didn't run into that
(35:28):
many that many troubles. And you know, the most every
hotels that we're going to be adding to this connection.
We really want to get into l A, probably two
or three in l A and and San Diego, Palm Springs.
This is going to be the kind of the box
that we want to go and attack. Right. Um, they're
gonna have different vibes, so maybe we will encounter this.
But I think that it's also my job as a hotel,
(35:49):
you know, specialist to broker to find those spots that
where we're gonna be able to build this out effectively
without having those problems. Right, how is that with the loan?
Like I'm curious, Alex's that's something you had to pre
explain as that's a new you know, format of a hotel, going, oh,
we're gonna lean that way or or is it the
gray area. We'll talk about it later that before we
(36:11):
say this is what we're gonna do. We believe that
part out Yeah, well, well you know, well, you know,
I'm just saying that. That's because you're doing it already.
Elevations Nations is a membership now, I mean, it's out there.
It's not like your name is not associated with this,
you know what I mean. So it's like when you
go for the loan, is that a whole different elements.
I don't touch the flower at all exactly. That's but
(36:32):
we don't either, but we have the worst time getting
anything for it. Well, the changes, you know, the changes
are happening, right, I mean, you know when you look
at loans for you know, commercial real estate and and
those things. I mean, ultimately it's a hotel first. You know,
and so that's a sector of the and I'm I'm
(36:52):
rolling the dice and saying their separate corporations and in there,
you know, separate, but you're you're absolutely right, I'm not.
I'll never buy a hotel based on the success that
the cannabis friendliness or cannabis includes clusivity will bring to
this hotel. I'm buying a hotel that with or without
correct that my brand on it is going to be successful. Uh.
(37:14):
I would say even furthermore that if my brand for
specific reason on that location is not working, I still
have a piece of real estate that I know how
to manage. I know how to turn it around, and
I can rend it with Marriott, Best Western, something anything
else that I want. So the loan is attached to
the performances of the hotel pre becoming an elevations hotel,
(37:36):
so I can just improve it, right And UH, there's
personal guarantees that goes with this and all that. So
that uh And and as you mentioned, you know, for
seventeen years of hotel brokering, the financing part of it
is something that we're very well versed in. UH. And
it's not an issue so far. What I was just
gonna say, you know, cannabis and hospitality industry is growing
(37:57):
exponentially and you know people are wanting to get into it.
So staying in compliance dount in your eyes crossings. You're
always gonna have somebody who has some kind of a problem,
but you're also going to have people that as long
as you're doing that and doing it in ways other
people aren't doing it, you're going to get that engagement
and they're going to be willing to take risk on
you and walk me through the process. I want to
become a member. I want to get my Elevations Nations membership.
(38:20):
What how does that work? Well, you either go online
or show up to one of our places and you
get signed up. It's very it's a fairly us simple process,
very easy, you know, step by step. It's like for
you signing up for itune right. You know, it's it's
pretty much what it is and it wouldn't take it
(38:40):
wouldn't take long at all. Uh, pricing is changing right now,
but you know it's very affordable. There's different levels, like
you can become a Diamond member. You can we're working
on deficient right now. It's gonna be it's it's all
one membership. We are making some strategic partnerships with other
uh private member clubs right now that would allow us
(39:02):
to combine to private member clubs, for example, and you'd
pay less than with if you were their members, and
you'd pay less than if you're just our members, but
combine it's gonna be a little bit more expensive because
you don't have access to even more. So we're looking
at a few associations right now and not not not merger,
just truly pure associations where they stay there as we
(39:23):
stay ours, but we can combine benefits and they can
offer more to their members and we can offer more
to ours. Right So that's uh, that's that's that's being
dealt with as as we speak. I can see like
the country clubs getting more involved with you guys as well,
because I feel like every country club I've golfed at,
there's like the x amount of people that act like,
(39:44):
you know, they don't smoke cannabis, and what do you
mean every country club they're smoking weed at they've been
doing that right of cannabis. Boom boom, got elevation nations
exactly coming to counter, Gonna go and do another like
you know, a lot of members at country clubs will
go to another country club somewhere else. And if you
(40:05):
can associate a hotel like your guys stayed at that
hotel and be a part of the country club, I
feel like it's a hand in hand marriage for you guys. Yeah, absolutely,
and we're open to growing that way as well, um
and helping you know, their name being out there also,
you know, an attached to our hotel. So UM, our
(40:26):
demographic and our target audience is so wide, you know,
it's it's it's uh everybody, Yeah, it's the world. Yeah.
So so you know, we we have a special launch
happening in Um in March, right, correct? And what is
the date you want to talk about that? And then
in the name of the change of the Artisan, are
(40:47):
we bringing that up? Sure, we'll do. We'll do it today.
So UM, as long as this doesn't error before that day,
we are we don't make it happen, don't press that. Yes, yes,
so we at the end of March, we're going to
be opening, uh the new hotel. So the Artisan Hotel
(41:08):
that we bought last March has been going through a
full blown renovations right now. It's going to be a
step up over the Clarendon Ibilie because we had, you know,
the money upfront to do it all at once and
in Vegas. And so the Artistan Hotel is going to
become the Lexei Las Vegas. The Lexei Las Vegas is
(41:28):
going to be our new hotel. Alexei and Alexei came
up with that name. Uh that's a girlfriend. Is that
she was a hot one, Alexei Alexei. Yeah, that there
was the goal. You know, we're gonna make it. We
(41:49):
gonna keep that same uh sexess coming from the Artisan.
The Artisan has such an ingrained uh reputation in history
in Vegas. The we actually kept the signage and we
named our lounge the Artist Lounge. So the after parties
are coming back. Everything about the you know, the this
(42:11):
hotel is coming back as well with with a full force,
and we rejuminated that hotel with everything that we're doing
to it. But the Artist and Lounge is still going
to be a part of it. So that's part of that.
And then we're we're deciding right now in a new
name for our our Cajuns Cajun inspired steakhouse with Jordan's
Valve chef or chef over there. She's um uh one
(42:34):
of the finalists of Health Kitchen. So we uh really
proud of this. We really probably this. We want to
make a big punch on the for the for the locals.
This this, this is going to be you know, what
the locals are are wishing and to come back as well,
and hopefully everybody that's gonna you know, travel through that
Vegas will stop by us. What's the whole story hotel? Yeah,
(42:56):
you know, especially for you know people that are in
the trade show industry, um that travel and and look
for you know, fun, you know, opportunity to have a
great time, let their let their hair down, if you will.
And it's been that for for many years. I've thrown
parties there. I've I've previous to knowing you guys, um
I've been to many parties. There's been kicked out of there.
(43:17):
I'm sure, no, no, no, no, no, no, I just don't.
It's a unique property and it's got a beautiful pull outdoor,
outdoor indoor you know activity location, and the way it's
it's designed. It it's well and if you're doing you know,
remodeling to it, it's gonna even be better. I'm excited
to see. And then there's the four twenty rooms, which
we talked the whole fort twenty floor and there's gonna
(43:38):
be four twenty A forwenty B thing that's right, that's
gonna be. It's gonna be a lot of fun. It's
open for sponsorship and the rooms. Yeah, how do they
find out about that? Mary, say, someone's listening that has
a brand in Oklahoma? Can they do it as well?
They're absolutely And how do they inquire? So you can
go to our website Elevations Nation dot com and there
(44:00):
is a contact sheet that you just fill it out
and someone will get back with you and we'll talk
about what's the best fit for your brand, you know,
whether it might be the Artisan, whether it might be
the Clarendon, you know, all of them exactly. Some companies
are you know, looking to go mso right and so
they want to find that and with what we do
right now at the Clarendon, we've got our lovely events
(44:20):
team over here that throws something shout out to Liz
and Stephanie that have really really elevated no pun intended,
or maybe the game over there. Um, so we'll have uh,
you know bud Tender Appreciation Nights on Mondays where bud
tenders from all overcome they talk about new brands. You know,
what better way to introduce your brand than at a
(44:41):
one of the properties and get the bud tenders talking
about it because we all know, you know, there their
brothers and sisters, right and they want to share the
love a little bit um and then uh, and then
we do bud tender balls right now, and I know
the names are changing or we at bud tender balls,
but bud Lovers balls that lovers so much more right
(45:01):
and so again being able to host at our properties
and and share new products coming out, you know it
really and educate the community like you guys are doing.
Everything I'm hearing you guys are saying is education for
the communities that are coming out there, and not only that,
educating the bud tenders that are learning from other bud tenders,
which then still helps the community in a fun atmosphere.
That's that's really where my passion is is. Hey, when
(45:23):
I get you know, I've been doing this skin for
years and years, but somebody comes in and says, oh,
you know, I can't get anything off my high You
want me to tell you why, you know, let's get
a little bit of science and here in a place
where it's fun and they want to learn. And you know,
it's it's it's so needed. So many people don't understand
how to use the plant but want to and and
and I'll tell you it's it's a scary proposition for
someone because the moment they take too much and then
(45:45):
they go, gosh, this is horrible. I hate this experience.
And it's like, yeah, because whoever gave it to you
didn't give you the proper education. And it sucks, you know.
And it happened. It happened my mom, I mean, my
my nephew. Uh you know boder A. You know, it
took her to get some edibles and had some drinks
and and everything else, and so it's just it just
(46:06):
it just ruined it, you know. And she she she
took too much. You know. Well that was mining with
them and wanting to do the infusion dinners, right, you know.
The chefs are amazing. And my question was, have you
guys talked about what milligrams you're going to put in
the dishes? You know? And and it wasn't the chefs
that they had on staff. But I've seen it before
(46:28):
they'd say, oh, you know, we'll do you know, ten
milligrams pour a dirve. Well wait a minute, you know
you're not even going to get through the first course
if if you're passing around all these origins, right, So
looking at the pharmacokinetics of cannabis and what you're using
and again being in compliance, right, do this right so
we can continue it and not give a bad name
to and maybe even start with the CBD apptisers. It
(46:50):
just CG right, I mean when there are different compounds
you can utilize. So that's that's really something that I
was so appreciative of this group willing to embrace right
and again doing it right, giving a good name, and
just expanding everything about the industry. Well, listen, guys, it's
been it's been amazing having you guys on the show.
And I just want to, you know, ask you guys
before we let you guys get out of here. There
(47:11):
anything that we forgot um that you may or may
not have one to bring up or discuss with it,
I don't think. So I just want to say thank
you for you know, including us in your show and
all the great stuff that you guys are doing to
touch every part of the industry. Yeah, absolutely, same thing here. Um.
The only thing I would add is that you know,
this is obviously a kind of a centric show. Can
(47:32):
misstock one on one the greatest kind of a show
in in the in the world. Um, we you know,
our brand is to really the word inclusive is really
what our brand is. There not necessarily a cannabis centric hotel,
it's a cannabis inclusive hotel. So we really want to
just like we talked about it, normalize it. But it's
(47:52):
all about the lifestyle, the the the the well being
of everybody that goes there. And that's why we're really
that your partaker Nott part taking cannabis. You know, you
got your place and your fun and your special experiences
that are at our hotels. Well it just to add
that us. I was there, you know, and I'm not
a huge smoker, but I'll smoke here and there. Um,
(48:14):
you generally want to buy myself for at home watching
TV or something. But um, you know, I didn't get
the impression and I want people to know this that
are listening, is that you know I didn't get the
impression that it was some stoner hotel that people are
just getting high at and having fun. It was a
very it's a very professional hotel. And and and your
staff is is is amazingly you know, um, respectful and
(48:38):
fun to deal with. And and they pay attention to detail.
The place is very clean. Uh there there's the professionals there.
It's not you know, like I said, I think I've
seen a whole you know, um, I want to say,
a college soccer team there the other day. You know.
There it's a normal hotel. It's just inclusive to the
cannabis industry. And and and they've done that very well.
(48:58):
And the separated consumption areas right again, it's about compliance right.
And and people don't smell even when I'm in the
bar and it's not too far from the from the lounge,
I'm not smelling cannabis fly through the whole place. It's
not it's not it's not a kid's you know. You know,
but you do that at Planet, Hollywood and Vegas, no
(49:18):
matter what, feel like you're wherever else. It happens everywhere. Yeah,
But but I think sometimes people's you know, thought process though,
is oh my god, I'm gonna go to this cannabis hotel,
they provide this and they have that that but they
exactly but that safe person will go to the planet
New York, you know, and it's it's yeah, it's different. Yeah,
(49:43):
it's no different. And it's it's it's very ancial areas
for this consumption. Yeah, I think that might be the
difference in ventilation. Ventilations are focused on. It's actually it's
actually smart because again, if not, people are going to
be outside doing it or anyone and every I mean times, yeah,
they're doing it any So you know, I have a
quick one though for you, Alex As I talked about
(50:04):
this at the beginning of the show, the military background
that you come from in college, Yeah, was there a
taboo so to speak for you mentally as you jumped
into this, because most cats that come from the military format,
you know, have this militant image of cannabis and it's
not where I started this fully at PARTI and that
(50:25):
you know, I had use cannabis maybe five times in
my life before I started this, you know. Um, so
I had a big education in a in a very
short period of time about you know, the benefits and
your partner saying let's do this. I couldn't imagine he
was not somebody who used cannabis either. My partner wasn't.
He was just he had this idea and he knew
he was gonna work, and he thought that the hotel
(50:46):
was the best fit for it. So we embraced it. Um.
You know, I'm not I'm not a big consumpture consumer neither,
but I still now I do it more often than
I did before. I enjoy it. Um And uh yeah,
I I was a military officer for eight and a
half years. I had nothing to do with cannabis stan Den,
And when I left the military, I think it took
(51:09):
another like six or seven years for me to take
a trip to Jamaica and tried for the first time then,
you know, on the beach. But a great trip my world,
by the way. You know, for me, it was it
was nothing relaxing. It was the opposite. I felt like
it was back in the military. I had to clean
my room four times, you know, I don't know, but
(51:30):
so I did it. That was it. But I had
no to answer your question. I didn't have any I
have brothers that that used it, you know frequently, almost
daily back in Canada, and I didn't have any true Uh,
anything against it, I didn't have. I wasn't judgmental about it. Uh,
(51:52):
most people at the Clarinton were already using it and
it was we were charging them, you know, for extra
fees and whatnot. But that was happening like you mentioned,
you know, so it's not the thing that I was
against it. That would just need to be indicated though.
So yeah, you're were glad, you're you're you're with it.
Thank you. Well, like I said, it's bringing your professional
(52:12):
you know, background into our space. It helps us solve
It really does. And it's it's it's it really does.
And I think that that's one of the key components
there is that we have, you know, professionals like yourself,
great operators that understand how to and when you have that,
you know, you you and and and you embrace our community.
It's if you become part of the community, and then
(52:34):
now the community gets bigger, stronger and better. And so
that you know, for that, we we and everybody listen.
Should you know, we all appreciate you. So thank you
guys so much for joining us. Thanks thanks for having
this is when this is a super well there it is, guys,
it's cannabis Talk one on one and remember this. If
no one else loves you, we do. Thank you for
listening to Cannabis Talk one on one on the I
(52:54):
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Heard around the world on the I Heart Radio act
Apple podcast over every you get your podcast, It's Cannabis
Talk one oh one with Blue and Joe Grandad. Hello,
welcome to Cannaba's Talk one on one of the world's
number one source for every big cannabis. My name is Grew,
alongside is Mr Joe Grande and you are now to
into the greatest cannabi show on the planet. That is
true you guys, Thank you for listening to our podcast
(00:22):
all around the world, Cannabis Talk one oh one. Man
check out our website Cannada's Talk one on one dot
com as we are the world number one source for
everything cannabis, tucking in the articles and blogs on the
site for you to check out and call us up anytime.
Go check out our I g pages at Cannabi's Talk
one oh one. My brother right here, Blue was at
the number one Christopher right Hello, Well, I'm at Joe
(00:42):
Brande fifty two and I gotta remind you guys, if
you want to tig your typical into seven special when
it comes in fuse products, the playwor un case should
be just as enjoyable as the filling you experience. Make
sure you visit the website lorand oils dot com. On
the show today, these guys, you see the logos on
the screen. You hear us talk about Elevation Nations and
(01:02):
now we have two extraordinary people from the organization. Alex Risk.
Is that how you say the last name? Is it
just r I v K A R I z K Risk? Yeah? Okay, Risk, Okay.
He's the CEO of Elevations Hotels and Resorts, Elevations Nations
and Pro Hospitality Group and after being a leader in
hotel brokerage for seventeen years, Alex is known for his
(01:24):
creative strategic capabilities and financing and managing all the intrictees
of Brokern and owning hotel properties. But what I found
really interesting after doing a little research about about you
is your bachelor's and military strategies that I want to
touch on a little bit right there, because that's pretty
intriguing right there, young man. I want to hear more
(01:45):
about that. And we also have Mary Catherine Shamazzi Shamisi.
What is that Hungarian? Canadian and Hungarian over here? It's
like my ex wife. Oh wow, well say that one
more time. Does it mean anything? Doesn't really see. I
(02:11):
had a feeling because it's like, what does that mean you?
I've never heard it in my life. I mean, I'm thirsty,
so I'm gonna take a drink of water. Now I
feel like I'm saying your last name. Well, and this
is interesting. She's the VP of business Development. She's also
an industry leader of over eighteen years, specializing in education
and formulations, compliance and wellness. Mary is an international lecturer
(02:32):
on the particular appliances of cannabis and all market areas
of success. Co founder of AIMS Right, a I M
S Institute in Seattle, co founder of Cannabis Canvas Therapeutics,
and as a chief clinical officer, she traveled to Thailand
and landed the deal to become the first company to
(02:53):
legally extract CBD and Thailand, which is huge right there
when I've seen that and read that after consulting from
members of the Thai governments and now she works with
Siam Herbal Tech there. She is also the founder of
s m J Consulting, a global consulting and medical lecture
on cannabis and the human system. Like everything I read
(03:14):
about your your mind, your NFL experience, all this stuff.
Both of you guys are so intriguing to me. Her
primary focus is in oncology, pediatrics, and neuro neurology, which
is just like I said up at Alley of football
and everything else, and I can't wait that we're doing
so much with the NFL, and I want to pick
your your brain on on everything that we're doing there
and your experience there. Plus she wrote one of the
(03:37):
first chapters on cannabis and oncology in the mainstream textbook
p I of National Institute of Health Study on Cannabis
and Impairment. Congratulations on that. Welcome you guys to the show.
Give him a warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen everybody, because
you can find them on I G at Elevation Nations
uh and on the website Elevations Nations dot com. Teddy,
(04:01):
get over here and sit down, boy E L E
V A t I O N s n A t
I O n dot com. And it's just amazing because
alex As I see that you created this company and
helped formulate this as Blue was the first one to
mention it to me and Chris Frankina, going, dude, look
who we're meeting up with this hotel. You know is
(04:24):
allowing people to smoke cannabis there. And it's like, I mean,
that's as simple as that you can say it. It's like,
and as we say it on the show, if you
want to go somewhere and not get kicked out for
smoking weed, period, go get your membership to Elevations Nations
and become a member. Where is this out of the
box thinking come from Alex Because military that is like,
(04:46):
you know, this military strategy of if I put this
there that they're they're gonna smoke, They're gonna stay more
people are gonna come and smoke. I don't care who
we piste off. Give me the history, brother, because this
is the first of its kind that I've ever heard of.
I feel like I'm an Amsterdam wherever this hotel is
because you just brought that out of the box thinking. Well, well,
but first of all, it's it's not just me. I mean,
(05:09):
my background in the hotel industry comes from the brokerage industry.
So I've been a broker for seventeen years and uh
that's and we still own Pro Hospitality Group. I still
owns a hotel brokerage firm and that's we do quite
a bit of that I personally still broker hotels uh.
And then over about eight years in I started to
(05:30):
create an investment platform to own and operate the hotels.
So that's how we got into the ownership of hotels,
and now we own and operate ten hotels. Not all
ten hotels are part of the Elevations nations. So one
of the hotels that we purchased in two thousand nineteen,
even before um Cannabis was you know, legally legally recreational
(05:52):
in Arizona, was the Clarindon Hotel, which the Clarinet Hotel
was always this funky, loving community based very close to
the LGBTQ community hotel that had a roofed up bar,
roofed up deck and had some crazy events there all
the time, right it was. And the goal was to
(06:12):
purchase this hotel and it was the first true full
service boutique hotel that my company was buying, and the
goal was to turn it around, um uh, improve the operations,
refinance and renovate the whole thing. Well then just like
you guys know, uh come around uh we we we
(06:36):
purchased it in genu nineteen and the goal to refi
was a year after so when the time was to
REFI full fletch, COVID hits word on we're not refinancying.
We buck her down. We lose fift of the revenue.
Uh we got Yeah, it was fun. Uh So we
(06:57):
uh basically went into that two year long extended period
where um lender at the time to work to do
a workout and they really helped us. Great leader. Actually,
looking back, they were the best choice we could do. However,
coming out of in November, recreational cannabis came came to
(07:20):
light that came came legal in Arizona, and that kind
of changed a lot of things for the Clinton specifically
because we were already this funky, you know, boutique hotel
and before it was legal, there was a company called
Vapan and out of uh Arizona that had done a
few buyouts cannabis buyouts uh in uh in at that hotel.
(07:43):
So they would buy the whole hotel out for from
us for like a two day event, and the the
the somehow finningle their way legally to make sure that
everything was okay. So the fact that we already had
a connection with this hotel in the cannabis industry starting
made us think okay, well maybe we've got something here.
And everybody was approaching us to put a dispensary in
(08:04):
the you know, the bottom of it, or all sorts
of crazy stuff that, you know, when two seconds talking
with our lawyers, we knew we couldn't do and the
and the truth is we're a hotel company so we
didn't want to really touch the flower either, but we
knew we had something there. So um, we met uh
(08:25):
slew of different people. Chef Derek Up Derek was with
us before to as well. He started to do a
series of infused dinners on the rooftop that got really popular.
You know, twenty people two hundred dollars high end French
cuisine infused with cannabis. Are you kidding me? People were
you know coming to us for that. And then we
(08:47):
started to think, okay, well how can we work on this.
And for us, it was more of a way to
bring back the Clarendon you know, post COVID to where
it used to be because you know, we still had
to refinance, We still had uh you know obligation. Yeah,
you still have the baby bill. So we thought maybe
we have something here. So surrounding myself with a bunch
of other people, Uh, Bob, you know at the time, Darren, Mary,
(09:11):
all sorts of a whole team that that that was created,
and we started to have this idea about the hotel chain,
and Bob just nick was it was really an intricate
partner of mine helping me crafting this idea. Bob said,
he was all his idea. By the way, you know,
I don't want to bring that. Don't even let Alex
fool you. This was all my idea. I just so
(09:33):
when it when it comes down to the hotel, you know,
I know, I know what I was doing, but creating
an entire company from scratch that has nothing attached to
it is a different ballgame. And I won't you know,
take that credit. So once we decided to we were
going to move forward with the brand, it took us
a while to actually, you know, uh craft how it
(09:54):
would look. And one thing was was guaranteed that we
didn't want to have just one hotel, and it makes
sense us to just have one club, right. Uh. The
legalities of it too. If you're going to have a
smoking guns you have to have a private membership that
and it changes from states to states, from city of
CDs even so must have been fun figuring that all
out too, Yeah, more costly than fun. But so that's uh,
(10:20):
that's so we start to formulate, decide, and from Elevations
Hotels and resort came Elevations Nations, which is basically a
membership based uh platform. You don't have to be a
member to come to our hotel. We're open to the public,
but if you become a member, you have a lot
more perks. You have more perks when you're off our
(10:40):
property as well. Our whole goal was to create a
franchise that was more than just or brand. I should
say not neverword franchise. I shouldn't be using franchises at
brand that actually is uh, it wasn't more. I'm looking
for that it's actually uh important for for guess when
they're at the property, but also off the property, right,
(11:03):
so there's relevant for them in their daily lives. That's
what they're where I was looking for. What what do
they get when they're not on the property. Then Elevation
Nation member, So so they have access to private lounges
at the hotel that they can come back to the
butcher awesome, I mean, and let me cut in for
a second. Is because I visit them. You know, they
greet you, they go through all the services that they
(11:24):
offer there. They let you smoke in the facility. You
could sit there and and relax and and it's just
it's inside the hotel, but it's just its own lounge.
So it's like a you know, like a cigar lounge.
That feel exactly like a cigar lounge. That's how what
I'm envisioning because I haven't been there because Blue and
they didn't. They don't take me places like that. You're
gonna get there. I'll take your February maybe maybe for
(11:48):
the super Bowl out there. But I've heard and seen
and feel that and what I do hear about that,
it's just and I'm a big cigar smoker and I'm
here are you? Oh yeah? So I've had a walker
and this and that, and I could just imagine that's
that feeling, that vibe that you guys are creating. So
so depending and every lounge, every property is going to
have a different field. Right. Uh, some some places it's
(12:09):
not legal to to do that. In Phoenix, we were
in good shape. But for for what the way we're
going to be doing in Vegas until the the the
the infrastructure, the legalities are catching up to us. We
may have you know, uh more of a cigar lounge
feel where you can smoke uh cbd, you know, uh
and and cigar normal to back as well. So depending
(12:32):
on what the local laws are, we gotta circulate around this.
But it's going to be still a private membership. Now
you get all sorts of perks on traveling. All of
our other hotels are also on the platform, even though
they're not elevations hotels. All of our members get uh,
you know, discounts and different activities. We we have, uh
(12:55):
we have infused dinners, we have wine paying dinners that
we have uh uh small private um uh concerts, all
sorts of different activities that are you know, but tenders,
balls and butt end of appreciation night that all of
our members have access to. Uh. You know, we just
had a pretty big Your's Eve party uh over there
(13:18):
and you know most of our members would probably come
in the raft rice or free depending on the on
the event. So there's all sorts of things like this
and a lot of products we're we're trying to have
a on online commerce platform where quality vetted products that Mary,
you know, part of the team will make sure that
we're getting them the top quality quality. So when when CBD,
(13:42):
it's real good stuff, you know, the vet ended. So
we we have that our members are gonna have access
to uh some them exclusively it's on their platform, and
some of them just that they're really much reduced produce.
Same thing for wine, something for cigars, something for spirits.
Uh yeah, Alex, there was there was something that we
were talking about that I want you to kind of
explain where the hotel is actually letting some of these
(14:05):
brands go ahead and take over rooms. Right correct, when
we come back after this break, it's Cannabis Talk, we'll
be right back. We'll be right back with Cannabis Talk
one oh one. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one oh one.
(14:27):
Tell you guys about Bear Flag Group. You guys, the
Bear Flag Group. When it comes to manufacturing, there is
whether they meet the quality products and they meet that
expert team work. They can create all types of abstraction products.
Can custing in through two old cartagis patures, live blogs
and cartagiess. This is what cartage is an all side
flower packaging to our co packaging to the best brands
(14:49):
in cannabis. Get your white label and started today. Check
them out online at bear Flag group dot com. Now, Alex,
we're just talking about these organizations and groups that can
come in there and from brands. I've heard about this.
If you were saying blue, Yeah, we're getting ready to build. Yeah,
I hear we got the cannabis talk one oh one room.
I can't wait to have this right to talk about this.
Alex so so lucky part part of our they're fluffy fellas. Probably, Um,
(15:16):
it looks like both of us at the at the
Clarendon and the new until that we're opening up in
March in um in Vegas, we have cannabis uh friendly rooms,
so not the whole the whole property is not necessarily
(15:36):
cannabis friendly in the sense that not all the rooms
are going to be allowed to smoke cannabis in, but
for premium and for now, for now, depending on how
popular they get. Right. So, in Phoenix we have a
hundred five rooms. Sixteen of our rooms are actually cannabis friendly,
so we renovate them with all heart surface, equipped them
with special ventilations and scrubbers. So even for a non
(15:57):
kindabis smoker, wouldn't be offensive to go and sleep in
them if they if they didn't want to. But that's
part of the of the complexity of having a cannabis hotel.
It's not just easy. You just don't allow people to
smoke in your rooms. That may I mean it's every
hotel nowadays. Everybody's smoking in him now anyways, news for you. Yeah,
I put the towel on the bottom. Not necessary, not
(16:18):
necessarily me, but a lot of goldie the guys, I know.
I mean, I'd never I'd never get caught. Yeah, exactly, Well,
you do the steam right, the steam that I do.
I have a couple of the scheme thing and don't
smoke cigars. Yeah, keep the tobacco. Now we still we
(16:40):
actually will charge you and we'll make you sign a
waiver and something that says that you're not going to
use the back in your rooms because that that smell
doesn't go away. Can we can you know, cope with
and the scrubbers are good to go, and we have
some special you know cleaning uh sprays and everything that
works well. But these cannabis rooms are open to being
sponsored by cannabis companies who can come in and basically
(17:04):
designed their own room with all of the you know,
uh whatever you're you're you know, I like the field
that you want to bring for rooms. Most of these
rooms at the Clarendon or sweets to they're like a
kind of a two room sweets if you wanted to.
They're not too there's no closure between the two rooms,
(17:25):
but it's kind of a small lobby when you come in,
and then uh type living room and then you have
the main bedroom after that. So there's a plenty of
space for you guys to advertise your brand. And it's
almost like they're sweets all the rooms up the because
I've only stayed in the cannabis friendly rooms. Are they
all Do they all have the double No, we have
we have thirty six and forty rooms that are exactly
(17:47):
like that, and then uh then we have much larger
rooms on the interior corridor side of the of the
courtyard there, and then we have another probably sixteen that
are much smaller. So uh, we we kind of keep
them separately. We are thinking if if this continues, um,
We're actually there's a lot of complexity to open this up.
(18:09):
You know, how you advertise this online all you know,
a third party like Expedia and whatnot. You know, there's
a lot of things to navigate. Yeah, because some of
these guys won't let you actually advertise that. So the
first year and a half we even are our own
PMS system then allow us to put these one So
we're we're we're a lot a lot of uh you know, uh,
(18:34):
mostly because we just we just advertise it. But it's
people have to actually call the property in order to
book a specific cannabis room. We're about to change that
in the next note, even the next dirty days. We
have a new PMS system coming up. So if those
sixteen rooms keep being as popular as we as they are,
we'll put forty of them, right so, and we'll move
(18:54):
forward with with more. In Vegas, we have an entire
floor that's going to be the four twenty floor, actually
the fourth floor, the fourth or perfect is that? And
there should be twenty rooms. Yeah, and there is twenty
rooms on the floors, and dope is that. And I'm
going to break a little secret here is going to
be four a four. They're all gonna love it. And
(19:19):
that's an idea from one of the other Bob did
it again Bob's idea there is that one's nicky. Oh
my god, it's it's and there's something to talk about.
You know, it makes you feel good, especially for the
cannabis community. I mean, you know, as much as we
(19:39):
you know, want to think that the industry has uh
has grown up, it's still novelty to go, oh it's
for twenty room, you know. So that'll bring a lot
of vibe and funclusive. Yeah. I mean that's kind of
what got me in with these guys, is that just
making it be something that's part of normal, everyday life.
And I know we hear that word normalization all the time,
(20:00):
but it's still happening, right. So, well, tell us about
your background and what exactly you're doing for the company. Um. Well,
funny story and thank you for the very kind introduction. No,
it's so intriguing what you I could just talk to
you for about an hour about everything you're doing. And
like Alex said, you know, it's it's never just one person, right,
I Mean, there's teams behind us and with us in
(20:20):
all of this. But really what connected me with Elevations
Nations and the Clarendon was UM in Seattle. I was
working with patients and I'm a former elementary school administrator
and was looking working on a PhD on how pharmaceuticals
were impacting kids in the classroom. Um, when I was
studying Japanese, Canada's got me through it without any medication
(20:40):
back in Montana and um so you're in the closet smoking,
there's no way, right, So you're real happy about this
game that just happened the other day. That bugs that
that was a blowout. I know, I know, but it
was going to happen back to back, maybe back to back.
So um so, you know, So moving of Seattle and
(21:00):
being in education and really seeing what was happening. Nobody
knew that they were studying cannabis and neurology at U
DUB and being a teacher, I wanted to go and
kind of educate. I had parents eighteen years ago who
were giving cannabis to their kids. That's a long time
a right, and it spent medically approved there but not
for children, and so they would say, please, don't send
us to jail. But I wanted to know, you know,
I knew it worked for me. I knew it could
(21:21):
work for these kids. So then I started knocking on
doctor's doors and saying do you know, right, My background
is an education curriculum development. So long story short, when
you're doing that and you're educating adoptors and you have
to understand what products are out there in the market, right,
and this was a legacy market back then, so getting
involved with that and then it became recreational and then
we opened UM with Dr snow Agrawell and Dr Leanna
(21:42):
Standish and Integrative Medical Clinic because just like we're trying
to do in hospitality, we wanted to make sure that
your doctor could talk to your natural path could talk
to your cannabis consultant. I had no medical background, right,
so I sat at the kitchen table with medical books
and cannabis and just started putting the dots together. And
then had the opportunity to work with them to write
the curriculum for the oncology textbook, which was very cool
(22:03):
because now doctors are being able to talk about it
and are getting on board. Um. So I was in
Arizona and I was lecturing to a pediatric neurology group
and on my way out, I saw that there was
a cannabis friendly hotel and I was like, huh, that's
cool because we don't have open consumption. And one of
the issues when parents from all over the world come
to Seattle's, they had no place to engage with their children.
(22:24):
Right they're still afraid of even bringing it into a
hotel or into an air and b thinking or Airbnb
thinking that you know, the SWAT team's gonna come. Um,
and they have enough on their plate to think about.
So whether you are a parent of a patient or
a friend of a patient, it doesn't matter. And you
know that you know people are using cannabis for this,
but it's just not being openly spoken about. So UM
(22:44):
knocked on the door and Darren the gm happened to
be there, and I just said, hey, what do you
guys do? And I would love to, uh, you know,
have our patients be able to know that this is
a safe space. And they said, well, you know, we
obviously can't do it with kids, and understandably everything has
to be compliant, but at least place where people know
that they can safely come down and find products and
(23:04):
you know, just just eliminate that one step of issue
that they might run into. The barriers when you're dealing with,
you know, such a life changing diagnosis. So UM, and
then I learned what they had the opportunity to do
with the lounges and with the sky deck. And for me,
I love that sky It's beautiful, beautiful, and I had
a beautiful, you know, three sixty degrees view of the
(23:26):
city and it's just it's just nice. It's and it
sounds beautiful just to open, you know, a facility up
for our our industry and our community. It's and it's
dear to my heart because it needs to happen more
and and well normalize using a nice place because everything
you've described and when you were there, I've seen some video.
It's like, that's beautiful. There's nothing wrong with having a
(23:47):
beautiful atmosphere that now can you can use cannabis acts
And we're catering to the the alcohol industry, we're catering
to all all different industries, but this one's been like,
we can't yet. It's legal in our state, it's federally illegal,
and then some cities are it's illegal, you know, and
it's just kind of like, what is going on. But
(24:08):
as we move forward and it gets more progressive, it's happening,
you know, we're seeing it happen. And and again, please
continue though well, that's to your point. You know, we
wanted to be able to put cannabis in the light
in functions. You know, we have fundraisers, you know, at
children's hospitals that are all centered online and alcohol. Why
can't we do that in cannabis, And there's not a
(24:29):
place to do that, right, So working with these guys
to say, hey, you have an opportunity and I'm gonna
stick my head out and say and an obligation, right,
because we need cannabis to be presented in the light
that it deserves to be presented in. All of these
people that are out fighting for it. You know, we
have Last Prisoner Project, you know, who have put truly
their lives on stay or on stake for this are
(24:51):
now depending on people like us to be the voice.
Right because let's be real, I grew up in Georgia.
You know you have certain people that are going to
listen to certain other people. You have the opportunity to
be that voice and articulate you know the benefits of
cannabis both recreationally and medicinally, and do it with groups
like this. Why not? So I pitched myself to them.
(25:11):
I called Bob and said, hey, I'd love to come
work with you guys. You know, I think there's a
lot that we could do together for everybody. Well, your
professional background, your whole look, your vibe, being a mother
as well, you know what I mean, all those things.
In my opinion, when I hear you and what I've
read about you is check mark, check mark, check mark,
check mark, Like, wow, she's not just your hippie woman
(25:34):
who's a white lady. But you mean yeah, and you
may be inside, which is fine, But my point is
it's a professional but which is good. But I think
but what I think is is that we all are
in our own way, and yet it's hard to express
that because of the professional right. I mean, you know,
when when we were dealing with real estate, you know,
(25:55):
we were always in suits, and it wasn't like, hey,
let's go smoke a joint, but yeah, you knew everybody
smoked the joint. And two and it was a too
you know what does he call it? A to um lunch?
To drink martini lunch? And you know, it's all those
things and and it just hasn't been accepted, but it's
starting to. And so that's the beauty of it. And professionals.
(26:17):
And I always say this, professionals like yourselves. Um, you know,
it's nice to have you guys come into this industry
and help normalize it, right because you bring a level
of expertise from the hotel industry, from you know, your industry,
and and and I've always welcomed that because we need
more operators because there are a lot of you know,
(26:38):
operators that are really intelligent growers and and um, you
really intelligent you know retail operators that are coming into
the space and that have been in this industry before
they came out of the closet themselves. You know. It's
like for me, you know, I could never you know,
as soon as I went on radio and I started
talking about you know, hey we're we're you know, I'm
(26:58):
in the cannabis industry. You know, all of a sudden,
it was like, hey, you can't really do both. Now.
You can't go sell weed in the in the closet
at the closet, you know. And and I did for
many years. It was it was part of my life.
You know, I can go work at a union and
move three hundred pounds and boom, make money and work
in my union and and now it's like, Okay, I can't.
I can't go out and do that. That coal is
(27:22):
like you all the radio, it's like rights you have
read on you. But but again, but but the union workers,
the teamsters, I mean I dealt with you know, um,
all the trade show installers, people coming in and out,
real estate professionals, all smoked cannabis through that whole period
of time. Yet again, we never talked about it, but
(27:44):
we Hey, let's go grab a bud lighter, let's go
take a shot. All the time. Teachers, doctors, I know,
doctors that don't that don't smoke as much, and they
do other recreational drugs you know that are probably but
further popping. Yeah, bill probbing lines of drugs and all
that other stuff, and and their their doctors and I'm
and I'm calling gosh, you know, I literally he was
(28:05):
with my doctor m at a and he was like, hey,
you got an E d M event. You know, I'm like,
E d M. What are you doing at that? He's like, oh, dude,
we were on so much ecstacy and this other stuff.
And I'm looking at like, duck, are you kidding me?
That's not going to talk to their patient about cannabis. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah,
and and but we have a cool relationship. I don't know.
I'm pretty open with him. Yeah, but but but the
(28:29):
majority of them would never come out and say that.
But he's like, I don't even He's like, I wish
I could smoke, he said. The reason I don't smoke
is because if I get tested, he says, But if
I do these other drugs, they're only in my system
for three days, I can get away with it, you know.
So again that just normalizing it will help a lot
of those professionals and things of that nature. So so
as you met them a few years back, when was
(28:50):
this that when you walked in there and knocked on
that doors like two thousand, about a year early early,
and you were were you living? You you're from Seattle,
from Seattle. I was just lecturing at a neurology group
and I was on my way out to the airport,
and I can't remember if I saw a billboard or something. Now,
we make products in Seattle, so we also have products
(29:12):
in the market in Arizona and Seattle as well. In
the Rex stores. There this little brand called Polite, which
you know, functional cannabis use um. And so it was
really just you know, how can we again continue to
just build this muscle? Um And I'm always thinking of
what is beyond what I'm doing right now, right, and
again for the opportunity that they had at Elevation Station
(29:34):
with Clarendon to really get people talking about cannabis in
a different type of situation, not when they're walking and
getting a diagnosis. Right, they should be able to go
to an infused dinner and we should be able to
talk about cannabis. And then god forbid, if they get
that diagnosis, they say, oh, you know, I did hear
about that, and it is something that we should look into.
It's not getting all that information at once. So and
(29:55):
they were completely open to it, and but I did
want to also offer, you know, the potential opportunity to
protection because if you're not in the cannabis industry, and
we were talking about this before, you have people that
are coming to you and we all know smoking mirrors. Right,
we have to talk. You're gonna have eight meetings and
we're going to sign these papers. Nine months later, nothing
(30:15):
has happened, right, And I you know, you you want
you want to be progressive, you want to move things along,
but you want to do it again in a professional
manner and actually get done. You know, that's just it.
And even investors. I've had numerous investors come across my
path over the past, you know, twenty years, and they
think they're going to come in and change the game.
Cannabis is so different than you know, traditional business acumen,
(30:38):
and you have to understand how to bridge that. Gay
Alex for you would say something, well, I was going
to say that that you know, we brought me around.
So for the education piece, you know, like your normalization,
you wanted a big push to normalize anything is education,
understanding it, you know, and what it, what it's good for,
and either recreational or medical medically speaking. So, uh, Mary's
(30:59):
are you know, Cannabi's expert in our and our educator?
How hard I want to hear some of these difficulties
because I could only imagine the neighbor of one of
your guys hotels. Are people going, what are you guys
doing there? My kids walk by this hotel? You know,
(31:21):
how do you guys deal with that? When I, of
course work here on the show, I get it, But
what is your approach to that? When and I'm sure
it's happened, right, I mean, I can the dice and
like Alex. After this break, it's Cannabis Talk one on one.
We were right back after this break. We'll be right
back with Cannabis Talk one oh Oneaday, Welcome back to
(31:47):
Cannabis Talk one oh one. Advanced New Treats you guys
has a complete growing system for cannabis and optimizes all
phases recycles to be your proctor, changing their comparatio. This
couple more in Advanced greet kids dot Com before we
went to break Alack, Alex, you're talking about, you know,
some of the people that may have a different pot
on to think of this Ray Hotels that you've created.
(32:09):
Is it you yourself that this is all you were?
He was the partnership nas I mentioned before that we're
a big team. I've talked about some of the key
players like Bob, but I also wanted to talk about Darren.
Darren Brotherton is actually a partner in the hotel and
in the innovations, and he's a partner on the hotel
in Vegas as well, and he's the operator. He basically
(32:29):
takes Scarify all of the day to day. He's not
the general manager, Joan Andres, has his own role, but
he's basically overseeing all this and when this idea of
going candis friendly for the for the Clarendon specifically in Phoenix.
I leaned on him a lot because he was, like,
you know, one of the main guy who wanted to
push this. He thought we had something here, So I
just wanted to make sure that he was well. No,
(32:50):
and not only that because as I mentioned this, he's
probably the one that had to convince you to do it,
because I could only imagine, like, we've never heard of
this being able to like we've always we say, we
those who smoke cannabis at a hotel, put the towel
on the floor, put the you know, I mean, we
we all done it, but it's we've never gotten to
(33:11):
the one of the sixteen rooms that like, I'm still
in awe with it. I feel like it's um Willie
walking on the chocolate factory when I go there, Like
I mean, I haven't been there yet, but I feel
like it's one of those types of scenarios. Wait a minute,
I could really smoke in here. It's how I felt
when I went to my first cigar lounge like I
could smoke inside here and just really puff away. So
for you to get that quote unquote green light, you know,
(33:35):
that's great from your partner for him to do that
and encourage you to do that. But I'm so curious
on how you deal with because I'm sure there's the
mothers against drunk driver so to speak, you know what
I mean, the mad families out there that go or
maybe not well, so for for the too hotels that
are going to be online right now, I don't think
(33:56):
we're gonna run into that problem. First In Vegas, the
Cation it's just off the strip, right in the middle
of everything, but it's not really a residential type of place,
right and it used to be a crazy hotel to
the artisan hotel, is has any portation? Being a you know,
naughty place to be, I feel like I was, or
the place to be depending yea, I know naughty Isola
(34:23):
to be very very naughty. Yeah, I think I've ranted
that place naked twice. Literally here's the video. I counted four.
But people there too with you don't try that like
you weren't with me. And in the Phoenix, I mean
that it wasn't a different vibe than the one in Vegas,
(34:44):
for sure, but it was It's also a hotel that
had a lot of crazy parties and everything, but you know,
cannabis or not. When we do a rooftop event, we
always have is a does a condo building a higher
mid rise, you know, across the street from us. It's
maybe a ten story higher than us. There's always that
same lady calls on us for anything, you know, the
(35:07):
tops comes four times and we have the permits and
she's just she's just looking one. I wish I could
be there. I'm gonna call on them. Mary has to
go talk to her again. Mary, can you go talk
to Karen please? Well everybody else was to but that's
pretty much it. We didn't we didn't run into that
(35:28):
many that many troubles. And you know, the most every
hotels that we're going to be adding to this connection.
We really want to get into l A, probably two
or three in l A and and San Diego, Palm Springs.
This is going to be the kind of the box
that we want to go and attack. Right. Um, they're
gonna have different vibes, so maybe we will encounter this.
But I think that it's also my job as a hotel,
(35:49):
you know, specialist to broker to find those spots that
where we're gonna be able to build this out effectively
without having those problems. Right, how is that with the loan?
Like I'm curious, Alex's that's something you had to pre
explain as that's a new you know, format of a hotel, going, oh,
we're gonna lean that way or or is it the
gray area. We'll talk about it later that before we
(36:11):
say this is what we're gonna do. We believe that
part out Yeah, well, well you know, well, you know,
I'm just saying that. That's because you're doing it already.
Elevations Nations is a membership now, I mean, it's out there.
It's not like your name is not associated with this,
you know what I mean. So it's like when you
go for the loan, is that a whole different elements.
I don't touch the flower at all exactly. That's but
(36:32):
we don't either, but we have the worst time getting
anything for it. Well, the changes, you know, the changes
are happening, right, I mean, you know when you look
at loans for you know, commercial real estate and and
those things. I mean, ultimately it's a hotel first. You know,
and so that's a sector of the and I'm I'm
(36:52):
rolling the dice and saying their separate corporations and in there,
you know, separate, but you're you're absolutely right, I'm not.
I'll never buy a hotel based on the success that
the cannabis friendliness or cannabis includes clusivity will bring to
this hotel. I'm buying a hotel that with or without
correct that my brand on it is going to be successful. Uh.
(37:14):
I would say even furthermore that if my brand for
specific reason on that location is not working, I still
have a piece of real estate that I know how
to manage. I know how to turn it around, and
I can rend it with Marriott, Best Western, something anything
else that I want. So the loan is attached to
the performances of the hotel pre becoming an elevations hotel,
(37:36):
so I can just improve it, right And UH, there's
personal guarantees that goes with this and all that. So
that uh And and as you mentioned, you know, for
seventeen years of hotel brokering, the financing part of it
is something that we're very well versed in. UH. And
it's not an issue so far. What I was just
gonna say, you know, cannabis and hospitality industry is growing
(37:57):
exponentially and you know people are wanting to get into it.
So staying in compliance dount in your eyes crossings. You're
always gonna have somebody who has some kind of a problem,
but you're also going to have people that as long
as you're doing that and doing it in ways other
people aren't doing it, you're going to get that engagement
and they're going to be willing to take risk on
you and walk me through the process. I want to
become a member. I want to get my Elevations Nations membership.
(38:20):
What how does that work? Well, you either go online
or show up to one of our places and you
get signed up. It's very it's a fairly us simple process,
very easy, you know, step by step. It's like for
you signing up for itune right. You know, it's it's
pretty much what it is and it wouldn't take it
(38:40):
wouldn't take long at all. Uh, pricing is changing right now,
but you know it's very affordable. There's different levels, like
you can become a Diamond member. You can we're working
on deficient right now. It's gonna be it's it's all
one membership. We are making some strategic partnerships with other
uh private member clubs right now that would allow us
(39:02):
to combine to private member clubs, for example, and you'd
pay less than with if you were their members, and
you'd pay less than if you're just our members, but
combine it's gonna be a little bit more expensive because
you don't have access to even more. So we're looking
at a few associations right now and not not not merger,
just truly pure associations where they stay there as we
(39:23):
stay ours, but we can combine benefits and they can
offer more to their members and we can offer more
to ours. Right So that's uh, that's that's that's being
dealt with as as we speak. I can see like
the country clubs getting more involved with you guys as well,
because I feel like every country club I've golfed at,
there's like the x amount of people that act like,
(39:44):
you know, they don't smoke cannabis, and what do you
mean every country club they're smoking weed at they've been
doing that right of cannabis. Boom boom, got elevation nations
exactly coming to counter, Gonna go and do another like
you know, a lot of members at country clubs will
go to another country club somewhere else. And if you
(40:05):
can associate a hotel like your guys stayed at that
hotel and be a part of the country club, I
feel like it's a hand in hand marriage for you guys. Yeah, absolutely,
and we're open to growing that way as well, um
and helping you know, their name being out there also,
you know, an attached to our hotel. So UM, our
(40:26):
demographic and our target audience is so wide, you know,
it's it's it's uh everybody, Yeah, it's the world. Yeah.
So so you know, we we have a special launch
happening in Um in March, right, correct? And what is
the date you want to talk about that? And then
in the name of the change of the Artisan, are
(40:47):
we bringing that up? Sure, we'll do. We'll do it today.
So UM, as long as this doesn't error before that day,
we are we don't make it happen, don't press that. Yes, yes,
so we at the end of March, we're going to
be opening, uh the new hotel. So the Artisan Hotel
(41:08):
that we bought last March has been going through a
full blown renovations right now. It's going to be a
step up over the Clarendon Ibilie because we had, you know,
the money upfront to do it all at once and
in Vegas. And so the Artistan Hotel is going to
become the Lexei Las Vegas. The Lexei Las Vegas is
(41:28):
going to be our new hotel. Alexei and Alexei came
up with that name. Uh that's a girlfriend. Is that
she was a hot one, Alexei Alexei. Yeah, that there
was the goal. You know, we're gonna make it. We
(41:49):
gonna keep that same uh sexess coming from the Artisan.
The Artisan has such an ingrained uh reputation in history
in Vegas. The we actually kept the signage and we
named our lounge the Artist Lounge. So the after parties
are coming back. Everything about the you know, the this
(42:11):
hotel is coming back as well with with a full force,
and we rejuminated that hotel with everything that we're doing
to it. But the Artist and Lounge is still going
to be a part of it. So that's part of that.
And then we're we're deciding right now in a new
name for our our Cajuns Cajun inspired steakhouse with Jordan's
Valve chef or chef over there. She's um uh one
(42:34):
of the finalists of Health Kitchen. So we uh really
proud of this. We really probably this. We want to
make a big punch on the for the for the locals.
This this, this is going to be you know, what
the locals are are wishing and to come back as well,
and hopefully everybody that's gonna you know, travel through that
Vegas will stop by us. What's the whole story hotel? Yeah,
(42:56):
you know, especially for you know people that are in
the trade show industry, um that travel and and look
for you know, fun, you know, opportunity to have a
great time, let their let their hair down, if you will.
And it's been that for for many years. I've thrown
parties there. I've I've previous to knowing you guys, um
I've been to many parties. There's been kicked out of there.
(43:17):
I'm sure, no, no, no, no, no, no, I just don't.
It's a unique property and it's got a beautiful pull outdoor,
outdoor indoor you know activity location, and the way it's
it's designed. It it's well and if you're doing you know,
remodeling to it, it's gonna even be better. I'm excited
to see. And then there's the four twenty rooms, which
we talked the whole fort twenty floor and there's gonna
(43:38):
be four twenty A forwenty B thing that's right, that's
gonna be. It's gonna be a lot of fun. It's
open for sponsorship and the rooms. Yeah, how do they
find out about that? Mary, say, someone's listening that has
a brand in Oklahoma? Can they do it as well?
They're absolutely And how do they inquire? So you can
go to our website Elevations Nation dot com and there
(44:00):
is a contact sheet that you just fill it out
and someone will get back with you and we'll talk
about what's the best fit for your brand, you know,
whether it might be the Artisan, whether it might be
the Clarendon, you know, all of them exactly. Some companies
are you know, looking to go mso right and so
they want to find that and with what we do
right now at the Clarendon, we've got our lovely events
(44:20):
team over here that throws something shout out to Liz
and Stephanie that have really really elevated no pun intended,
or maybe the game over there. Um, so we'll have uh,
you know bud Tender Appreciation Nights on Mondays where bud
tenders from all overcome they talk about new brands. You know,
what better way to introduce your brand than at a
(44:41):
one of the properties and get the bud tenders talking
about it because we all know, you know, there their
brothers and sisters, right and they want to share the
love a little bit um and then uh, and then
we do bud tender balls right now, and I know
the names are changing or we at bud tender balls,
but bud Lovers balls that lovers so much more right
(45:01):
and so again being able to host at our properties
and and share new products coming out, you know it
really and educate the community like you guys are doing.
Everything I'm hearing you guys are saying is education for
the communities that are coming out there, and not only that,
educating the bud tenders that are learning from other bud tenders,
which then still helps the community in a fun atmosphere.
That's that's really where my passion is is. Hey, when
(45:23):
I get you know, I've been doing this skin for
years and years, but somebody comes in and says, oh,
you know, I can't get anything off my high You
want me to tell you why, you know, let's get
a little bit of science and here in a place
where it's fun and they want to learn. And you know,
it's it's it's so needed. So many people don't understand
how to use the plant but want to and and
and I'll tell you it's it's a scary proposition for
someone because the moment they take too much and then
(45:45):
they go, gosh, this is horrible. I hate this experience.
And it's like, yeah, because whoever gave it to you
didn't give you the proper education. And it sucks, you know.
And it happened. It happened my mom, I mean, my
my nephew. Uh you know boder A. You know, it
took her to get some edibles and had some drinks
and and everything else, and so it's just it just
(46:06):
it just ruined it, you know. And she she she
took too much. You know. Well that was mining with
them and wanting to do the infusion dinners, right, you know.
The chefs are amazing. And my question was, have you
guys talked about what milligrams you're going to put in
the dishes? You know? And and it wasn't the chefs
that they had on staff. But I've seen it before
(46:28):
they'd say, oh, you know, we'll do you know, ten
milligrams pour a dirve. Well wait a minute, you know
you're not even going to get through the first course
if if you're passing around all these origins, right, So
looking at the pharmacokinetics of cannabis and what you're using
and again being in compliance, right, do this right so
we can continue it and not give a bad name
to and maybe even start with the CBD apptisers. It
(46:50):
just CG right, I mean when there are different compounds
you can utilize. So that's that's really something that I
was so appreciative of this group willing to embrace right
and again doing it right, giving a good name, and
just expanding everything about the industry. Well, listen, guys, it's
been it's been amazing having you guys on the show.
And I just want to, you know, ask you guys
before we let you guys get out of here. There
(47:11):
anything that we forgot um that you may or may
not have one to bring up or discuss with it,
I don't think. So I just want to say thank
you for you know, including us in your show and
all the great stuff that you guys are doing to
touch every part of the industry. Yeah, absolutely, same thing here. Um.
The only thing I would add is that you know,
this is obviously a kind of a centric show. Can
(47:32):
misstock one on one the greatest kind of a show
in in the in the world. Um, we you know,
our brand is to really the word inclusive is really
what our brand is. There not necessarily a cannabis centric hotel,
it's a cannabis inclusive hotel. So we really want to
just like we talked about it, normalize it. But it's
(47:52):
all about the lifestyle, the the the the well being
of everybody that goes there. And that's why we're really
that your partaker Nott part taking cannabis. You know, you
got your place and your fun and your special experiences
that are at our hotels. Well it just to add
that us. I was there, you know, and I'm not
a huge smoker, but I'll smoke here and there. Um,
(48:14):
you generally want to buy myself for at home watching
TV or something. But um, you know, I didn't get
the impression and I want people to know this that
are listening, is that you know I didn't get the
impression that it was some stoner hotel that people are
just getting high at and having fun. It was a
very it's a very professional hotel. And and and your
staff is is is amazingly you know, um, respectful and
(48:38):
fun to deal with. And and they pay attention to detail.
The place is very clean. Uh there there's the professionals there.
It's not you know, like I said, I think I've
seen a whole you know, um, I want to say,
a college soccer team there the other day. You know.
There it's a normal hotel. It's just inclusive to the
cannabis industry. And and and they've done that very well.
(48:58):
And the separated consumption areas right again, it's about compliance right.
And and people don't smell even when I'm in the
bar and it's not too far from the from the lounge,
I'm not smelling cannabis fly through the whole place. It's
not it's not it's not a kid's you know. You know,
but you do that at Planet, Hollywood and Vegas, no
(49:18):
matter what, feel like you're wherever else. It happens everywhere. Yeah,
But but I think sometimes people's you know, thought process though,
is oh my god, I'm gonna go to this cannabis hotel,
they provide this and they have that that but they
exactly but that safe person will go to the planet
New York, you know, and it's it's yeah, it's different. Yeah,
(49:43):
it's no different. And it's it's it's very ancial areas
for this consumption. Yeah, I think that might be the
difference in ventilation. Ventilations are focused on. It's actually it's
actually smart because again, if not, people are going to
be outside doing it or anyone and every I mean times, yeah,
they're doing it any So you know, I have a
quick one though for you, Alex As I talked about
(50:04):
this at the beginning of the show, the military background
that you come from in college, Yeah, was there a
taboo so to speak for you mentally as you jumped
into this, because most cats that come from the military format,
you know, have this militant image of cannabis and it's
not where I started this fully at PARTI and that
(50:25):
you know, I had use cannabis maybe five times in
my life before I started this, you know. Um, so
I had a big education in a in a very
short period of time about you know, the benefits and
your partner saying let's do this. I couldn't imagine he
was not somebody who used cannabis either. My partner wasn't.
He was just he had this idea and he knew
he was gonna work, and he thought that the hotel
(50:46):
was the best fit for it. So we embraced it. Um.
You know, I'm not I'm not a big consumpture consumer neither,
but I still now I do it more often than
I did before. I enjoy it. Um And uh yeah,
I I was a military officer for eight and a
half years. I had nothing to do with cannabis stan Den,
And when I left the military, I think it took
(51:09):
another like six or seven years for me to take
a trip to Jamaica and tried for the first time then,
you know, on the beach. But a great trip my world,
by the way. You know, for me, it was it
was nothing relaxing. It was the opposite. I felt like
it was back in the military. I had to clean
my room four times, you know, I don't know, but
(51:30):
so I did it. That was it. But I had
no to answer your question. I didn't have any I
have brothers that that used it, you know frequently, almost
daily back in Canada, and I didn't have any true Uh,
anything against it, I didn't have. I wasn't judgmental about it. Uh,
(51:52):
most people at the Clarinton were already using it and
it was we were charging them, you know, for extra
fees and whatnot. But that was happening like you mentioned,
you know, so it's not the thing that I was
against it. That would just need to be indicated though.
So yeah, you're were glad, you're you're you're with it.
Thank you. Well, like I said, it's bringing your professional
(52:12):
you know, background into our space. It helps us solve
It really does. And it's it's it's it really does.
And I think that that's one of the key components
there is that we have, you know, professionals like yourself,
great operators that understand how to and when you have that,
you know, you you and and and you embrace our community.
It's if you become part of the community, and then
(52:34):
now the community gets bigger, stronger and better. And so
that you know, for that, we we and everybody listen.
Should you know, we all appreciate you. So thank you
guys so much for joining us. Thanks thanks for having
this is when this is a super well there it is, guys,
it's cannabis Talk one on one and remember this. If
no one else loves you, we do. Thank you for
listening to Cannabis Talk one on one on the I
(52:54):
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Grande
Marc Wasserman
Craig Wasserman
Christopher Wright (Blue)
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.