Cannabis Executive, Co-Founder, & Former CEO of MedMen™, Adam Bierman!

In his decade of leading MedMen, Adam Bierman grew the business to five states, 33 retail stores, and more than 1,500 employees. Prior to founding MedMen, he owned a marketing/branding agency representing wellness brands. Today, Bierman is working with cannabis companies and investors to expand consumer access on a global scale in his continued effort to lead the industry into the mainstream and end cannabis prohibition. He has appeared on several news outlets including CNBC, Bloomberg News, Forbes, CNN, Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and many others. He lives with his young family between Los Angeles and Costa Rica. Check out his website at www.theadambierman.com or visit his IG @adamnbierman to bring your Cannabis business to the forefront of success on a global scale.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heard around the world on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast
or wherever you get your podcast. It's Cannabis Talk one
oh one with Blue and Joe.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello, Welcome to Cannabis Talk one oh one, the world's
number one source for everything cannabis.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
My name is Blue.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Alongside of me is mister Joe Grande, and you are
now tuned into the greatest.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Cannabis show on the planet. Let's charge you, guys. Thank
you for listening to our podcasts all around the world.
Check out the website cannabis Talk one on one dot
com as we are the world's number one source for
everything cannabis. For so many great articles and blogs on
the website free to read and feel free to give
us a call anytime one eight hundred and four twenty
nineteen eighty or check out the ig pages at Cannabis
Talk one oh one. My brother from another mother right here,

(00:36):
Blue is at the number one Christopher Wright and I
am at Joe Grande fifty two. I gotta remind you,
guys about the Bear Flag group at your White Label Partners.
They are known to be on time, accurate and do
quality code packaging. They have been launching brands in California
since twenty fifteen and at the Bear Flag Group they
do what they say they're gonna do. Check them out
online at bearflaggroup dot com. Today on the podcast, we

(01:00):
have a very special guest, folks. He's an alumni of
the CT one on On campus. He's been around here before.
He's also considered one of the few unicorns in the
legal cannabis industry. This guy not only is he as
good looking as he sounds, Adam Bierman is in the
building is a cannabis executive that works with companies or
investors to expand consumers access on a global scale. Matter

(01:23):
of fact, I'm over there hooking him up with clients
and trying to hook him up with different people from
New York and everywhere else. As this man is a
genius in my book. You might have seen him on
a TV show near you are, in an article or
something like that. As he's appeared on several news outlets
including CNBC, Bloomberg News, Forbes, CNN, Time Magazine, The Los
Angeles Times, US News and World Reports, as well as

(01:47):
many others. And he is also so well known throughout
the industry for being the co founder and former CEO
of a little company that's known by medmen. And now
you guys be sure to have been at his website,
the Adam Bierman dot com. Are his ig Adam Bierman
to bring you all your cannabis business to the forefront
of success in global scale. He is such a good

(02:10):
looking chap and we're very grateful to have him back
on the show today. You guys, give it up for
our guy. Adam Berman's in the building, the modest one, right,
I mean, Adam, You know, not only do people every
time say we look alike. You know, as I get
the little facial I see that I started doing this.
Not only are you the good looking guy doing your thing,
but the gag order is off. And that's why you're

(02:32):
really here. And it's so good that we've been able
to communicate with you. And when I say gag order
is off, you know those who look him up and
do the research we've seen. We've heard. You've had a
lot of stuff go on with you, man, a lot
of stuff. And the last time we had you here
you're able to talk pretty openly. You did a lot.

(02:52):
But now you have a book coming out, possibly a movie.
Everything else that I could see coming, as we talked
in the last show, because there's so much stuff about you,
as as we say unicorn in the cannabis industry. You
brought cannabis, in my opinion, to the forefront. Blue and
I were the advocates of you when people were running

(03:12):
their mouths about you, and it goes down as proof
because we have the earlier podcasts to prove it when
we were going, no, dude, this guy's killing it. And
this is when I didn't meet you, but helped your
company to do things. Met you. Yeah, we knew of you,
and I had your idea and was helping with the
processing back in the day. But it's like we've been
fans without knowing you, and then all this craziness comes out.

(03:35):
You get bombarded with bad, bad publicity, and you come
out here and cleared it up some of it on
the last podcasts. But this last run around with the
courts rewarding you a substantial amount of money for the
hypocrisy that they've caused for you, the bashing of your name.

(03:58):
I mean, now, can you talk about every thing that's
went down that you can freely talk about that we're
going to hear about in this book that you got
going on?

Speaker 4 (04:05):
All right, what's the Guinness Book of World Records for
longest podcasts?

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Are we ready for it?

Speaker 4 (04:15):
By the way, forty eight hours to talk here. We
got to read the book.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, exactly, we definitely got to read the book. But
give us the clip notes of why they should get
it and all these great things and and by the way,
thanks for bringing the family here. Yeah, let's get okay,
coming up for the family, the boys and the best
friend from the bay representing and his wife and kids too.
That's what they recognize, these guys from where he's in
the cannabis industry.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
Chat.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
How do I know them? Yeah, gotta know. I reco
him and his wife. He's like, well, his wife's family
from Milbray. Watch watch out, Haroldsborough Streets, watch out. I
love it.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
I'm happy everybody's here. Yeah. I think the biggest update
from the last time we spoke is that from the
time that I left med Men until recently, you know,
I didn't really I wasn't in a position to speak
about how I left, why I left, what really went
on around me leaving, even in the face of whatever

(05:14):
kind of crazy, you know, cartoonish kind of you know,
media or propaganda might just might have been out there,
you know.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
And that happens a lot, by the way, because we
never got Adam's side.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
And you know, I think that was one of these,
you know, moments where you don't always make the best decisions.
But that's a moment where I made a decision to
be mature and I think, you know, and it worked
out right because it wasn't It wasn't always easy to
not respond. It wasn't always easy to not pick up
the phone or respond to an email or a question
of you know, is this true or whatever, as ludicrous

(05:47):
as it might have been, because you know, I was
in the process of suing the company. So now, like
you mentioned, that ruling and judgment came back, I prevailed,
you know, the the judge found that they fraudulently induced
me to resigning. Wow, and you know they owe me

(06:10):
money as a result of it.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Can we share how much money they owe you?

Speaker 4 (06:13):
I mean, it's all it's all out there.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's millions of dollars, folks.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Yeah, it's and and it's you know, it's it's so
it's so great to be here with you guys talking
about what's next with that. In my rear view mirror
if I may.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
You know, it's.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Like, like I call it mature, but you know that's
me rewarding myself for going through some hard shit, you know.
But it's like it's really hard to sit there and
get smacked around and play dead for a long time.
But the last piece was you know, I just I
just couldn't speak on anything. I needed to win that
It was important for me and my family to get
that money and also to finish that chapter of my

(06:49):
story so that I could move forward. Right, what really
did happen? How did that go down? With all this craziness?
So now I don't have to speak about it. It's
in the public record, you know, and it was me,
you know, making crazy statements. It's you know, a judge
who sat there through to you know, through weeks of testimony. Right,
so it's there. It's final, and you know, as unfortunate

(07:11):
as it was how it ended with me and my
tenure there at medmen like I do just firmly believe
the inevitability of that end, right, And it didn't matter
how I walked away, it would have been bittersweet. I mean,
that was my child. I have a six and eight
year old here, and you know, until a couple of
years ago, I knew that company. I didn't know my
own kids. That was my kid. And so whether I

(07:32):
left on good terms, bad terms, in the middle of
the night, in broad daylight, it was still going to
be bittersweet.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
The fact that I was tricked out and pushed out
and played games without as people tried to, you know,
extract value and play all the games that they were
playing at that time, you know, unfortunate. But you know,
it doesn't happen unless you've created something massively value. And
it's not just about medmen being massively value. It's about
this industry being permanent now in massively value. So now

(07:59):
let's go what's so, what is next?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Right, let's talk about that. I mean, I'm excited to
hear it. I think the world wants to hear what
it is, So tell us what's on the planet.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
I think it's time to shake things up. I think that,
you know, I think that it makes perfect sense as
to why we are where we are. It makes perfect
sense as to why the masters of the cannabis universe
have been making the decisions they've been making, acting the
way they have been right you're in a situation where
we've made no regulatory real regulatory promise, zero federal progress.

(08:31):
You know, the industry has evolved, you know, not a bit,
and as a result of it, you see retreat, you
see no capital availability, and you see excuses. And you know,
I think that that's fine as we look at ourselves
maybe a decade into this industry, look at where tech
was a decade into tech, Right, It's fine that there's
a bubble that burst. It's fine that the non real

(08:54):
players get you know, flushed out. But on the other
side of that, there's innovation. And I think we're sitting
here completely devoid of innovation. But you know, not unlike tech.
I love the technologies and I hate them like any analogy. Right,
But here was the deal with tech. Tech was the
promise or the belief that people would change their habit,

(09:18):
change the way they live their lives. They would one
day put a credit card on the Internet and trust
that their money would not be stolen.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Right.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
That was the belief that efficiency and evolution would take place,
and a bet on an industry for that. Right now,
as we all live today, in twenty twenty three, tomorrow,
we will wake up and I know something is a
fact without a belief, without a promise, without a hope,
more people will use cannabis around this planet for their

(09:48):
overall wellness on a regular basis than they did today,
and the day after and the day after that. On
top of that, it's indisputable that tomorrow will all wake
up and there will be more place where you can
legally access and consume cannabis around the world. So this
is tech in that we went through the initial you know,

(10:08):
boom and bust, and now you have to have the
settling of the playing field. But it's not tech in
that tech was a promise that people would evolve in
their habits. People are using cannabis, But you know what
we're talking about now, We're talking about why California is
not a good marketplace because the illicit market is so strong.

(10:29):
I'm talking about California being worth eleven billion dollars a
year and growing. If people want to talk about the
distribution of that demand right now, well then that's an
indictment on those that are running the legal businesses. I
don't know what else to say. Sure, but nobody's disputing
demand is growing. So what's next? It's time to innovate rights.

(10:52):
It's time to go ahead and dream up what is next.
When we were doing Medmen, we were being compared to
the apple of this and the.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
And you were of that, well you were on a
Jerry I mean every talk show had you, guys. I
remember Jimmy Kimmel had you dog, and I went, what
is they doing? Amendmen and Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
I appreciate it, I think as I look back on it,
what I didn't recognize was at the time it wasn't
you know, they're going to be the canopy of the
United States. Right We weren't being compared to weed companies.
We weren't being compared to weed brands. We were being
compared to global mainstream brands. And so because we had
nothing to chase yet, nothing had been established yet, that

(11:34):
allowed us all the investors, that allowed the employees, that
allowed the founders, entrepreneurs all to dream. But now look
at what's happening. What's happening is everybody's comparing themselves to
other weed people. Right, Hey, this is this new up
and coming brand. They're like the cookies of this. Hey,
this is this new retail concept. They've got MEDMN like this. Wait,
we're comparing ourselves and we're chasing models that are V one.

(11:59):
It's V one, right, nobody wants version one of the Internet.
We all agree that version one's necessary and not going
to be efficient.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
Right in the painting. No one has been like yours.
No one in my opinion, has been like Medmen compared
to that higher standard. Yet think about it, as you
say that, you're right, people are comparing it to a Cookies.
Cookies is probably the next Medmen in comparison to using
that analogy of a big brand that's making a lot
of noise. Burner has done a damn good job at

(12:27):
marketing themselves and doing that. And as you mentioned those two,
I'm even thinking, as I'm talking to you, in my
head going what other big brand that has a coastal
because Burners there, but Medmen had that coastal and still
no shots at that Cookies. But it's still compared to
you in the cannabis space only where Medmen was that
first company.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
In my opinion, it's almost two different, like you know,
two different worlds completely though, because Medmen was more just
storefront storefront, storefront storefront, which is Cookies is more brand storefront,
you know, and it's it's a little more, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
But they do have a heavy foot. I mean, there
are denying that part of it. They're just two different
kind of verticals. But they're not getting that style.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
I'm not just disagreeing, but nobody's comparing cookies to LVMH
or cookies whatever to you know, sunglass hut or to
or whoever. Right, it's it's all it's all stuff in
the similar category. Right, It's time to innovate. Right, It's
time to go ahead and have conversations about how, as

(13:31):
a result of the fact that more people will use
cannabis tomorrow, we have evolved how we're delivering that. We
we have evolved how we're doing business so that those
people can access this product. Where is the innovation, where
is the you know, what's next next?

Speaker 3 (13:45):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (13:45):
You know.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
We were having a conversation with uh the founder and
CEO of Bear Flag, who was quite a gentleman. Thank
you for introducing me to him earlier, you know, and
he said, there isn't the Google of pot yet, but
there will be. And it really is something boom in
my mind. It's like, well, that's one of the most
recent times somebody said the bigger mainstream company and compared
it to weed. That's because we are lacking that spark.

(14:09):
Our industry is lacking it. And what happens as a result,
we have no progress from a regulatory standpoint, and we
stop completely talking about kids that need medicine accessing it
without their parents fearing, fearing going to jail. Right, we're
not talking about what started all this? Why this world?
You know what is the most important paramount piece of

(14:30):
all of this. We stopped talking about it because you
were talking about, well, the industry is no good. We
can't make money.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
We got to sell those regulations, taxes, everything else that's
turning it right, the good big things. And I so
agree with you. You forgot their why. I had a conversation
today with this girl. It's so funny as you say
the whys and thinking about this and for lint. She goes,
she I called her on my way to work and
it was like, you know, nine o'clock. She's like, oh,
I'm just waking up. Like what do you mean you're
just waking up? She goes, I gave up gummies for lint,

(14:56):
And I go, why would you do that? That is
medicine for you. I'm like, why would you give up
your medicine if your alcohol is not like if you're
just drinking at night and this that, but you take
your gummies at night to put you to bed. Now,
you told me you woke up in the middle of
the night last night to where you're messing up your
work day because you don't want to take this medicine.
And it's funny. She goes, Wow, Joe, you're really speaking

(15:17):
to me, and I think I want to change what
I'm going to do for Linz. And I'm like it
it's funny. And it goes back to this is medicine,
and if you treat it as medicine, it's not something
you need to give up. You wouldn't give up taking
vitamin C. You wouldn't take up given your diabetic medicine.
You want to take up this stuff, you know. I mean,
it's not a leisure for some people. It is a
medicine for some people. As you mentioned these kids and

(15:39):
these kids and anybody from a child to older who
blues Dad on his deathbed smoking, like, if this is
what you need to help you a little bit, then
you should take it and use it. And I believe
and agree with you as the next days, more and
more people are going to be using it and doing
it well. I think you hit it on the nose.
Is that they forgot their why, they forgot what really

(16:01):
brought us here.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
And and now that the money is getting a little tight,
because you know, they're they're the R and D period's
over right, and everybody's kind of just going, holy shit.
You're gonna see a lot of people run in hide
in the hills, and and and and because they can't
afford to pay back their notes.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
And unfortunately a lot of people are gonna lose their
their assets.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
And this and that whatever which is is minute. Really
what we really need is the great operators that have
the forward thinking that your discussion now and so I
know you have something that's there.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Are you going to share it with us? After this break,
it's Cannabis Talk one on one. We'd break back.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, yay, you'll be right back with Cannabis Talk one
on one. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one O one.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Typicalt accept special folks. When it comes infused products, the
flavor you take should be just as enjoyable as the experience.
Visit the website loranoils dot com. We're sitting here with
the man, the myth, the legend, Adam Bierman, formerly of Medmen.
So many great topics that we talk about, Adam, as
we talk about all these things that are going down
in your book that's coming out and your forefront thinking

(17:16):
which can get me going in so many directions. As
we were talking about how I love the reason why
we got to all remember of like you know, even
me as a kid thinking when I grew up with
the out with rubbing alcohol and having cannabis and the
rubbing alcohol as a kid, my first time seeing it,
they're thinking it was just a Mexican myth. But now
they have this thing is called CBD creams and rubs.
They're like made medically for people rather than just a

(17:38):
Mexican myth that I thought was a myth. But no, folks,
there's real medicine in this the Native American Indians that
were using it as the plant, the Asian community that
was using it before they had the taboo and the
guy got two stone and was like banding it. I mean,
you look at this history of this plant and what
it's really done and how it's medicine like that, Adam,
when you mentioned that, as you start off saying for

(17:59):
the children, you know, that's the part that really gets
a lot of us right because here on this show,
we like to look at this plant as medicine. And
there's nothing more important in my book than our families
and children. And if children can benefit it, let alone
your grandmother as well. But let's just face it, if
you're an adult listening and you have kids, you're gonna
do anything you can for these kids, and you want

(18:19):
to see your kids take up something else that's not
a pill so much that they can get possibly addicted
to and let's just face it, Oh, they might be
able to get addicted to cannabis. Nothing that proves that yet.
There's no real anecdotal evidence that salutes that. There's a
lot of mothers against drugs, drivers or whatever else that
may have some literature on this, but there's nothing that's

(18:40):
hardcore evidence. So as you say doing these things, I
love that that's part of your passion and everything to
move forward. And you say that as we go and
continue to talk about that, I just want to backtrack
a little bit because as I sit here and talk
with you and you're on the show set again, now
that you've won millions of dollars that's out there from medmen,

(19:00):
and you say they pushed you out. Do you ever
want to sit there and call these idiots that were
on the board and be like I told you guys?
Or is there like anything that like that makes you
go I thought we were boys, you see, I was right.
I can't believe you said this about me. I can't, like,
how do you deal with that on a personal level

(19:21):
of not like if it was me? I don't I'd
be real hard not to write a book, Joe. I mean,
I'm gonna read the book, but I'm just asking you
everybody else, how about this? And let me get to
a better question about that. What are some of the
chapters going to be titled in this book? There we go,
You don't have to break them down, but what are
some of the titles where we could be like, oh,

(19:42):
he's gonna go there?

Speaker 1 (19:44):
No?

Speaker 4 (19:44):
I mean, look, this was like cathartic, you know, to
to sit there and work on putting putting these chapters together.
Book's done, just just the book is being pitched to
try to be sold, and then it'll be done. Working
on but with us talking about it this much, you're
helping thank you. Uh, I'm here to help you, brother,

(20:06):
thanks man saying so like. But going through that, right,
that process, it allowed me to really understand things better.
And actually, as I understood them more, the less I
was angry. And the truth is, you know, the more
I understood them, I was just sad. You know, there's
a sadness there, and the sadness you're just like, yeah,
going through the reality that, like I even I myself

(20:28):
allowed myself to be tricked, you know, because I was
living that was me, you know, I was I believed that,
you know, legalizing marijuana, creating safe access, mainstreaming the you know,
destigmatizing I believed that that was my life mission. And
I believe that, you know, I was building a company

(20:49):
that was massively valuable at the same time, but it
was all, you know, to the same end. And I
believe that the people around me were in it for
the same reasons and that they believed in it the
same way I believed in it. And there's the sadness
of the reality that I was in business and the
more success I had, the bigger the business I was in,
and the bigger the business I was in, the less

(21:11):
any of what I just said mattered, and the less
true it became. Although there was this lie, this facade,
and as you see it today with these companies that
are in control of this industry, that are lacking the innovation,
the passion, the belief. Right, let's put the CEOs of
these companies on this stage here, and let's all go
smoke blunts, and let's talk about weed. Won't happen? Yeah, right,

(21:32):
why won't it happen? That's that is insane that that
is still true? Right, But you know they don't smoke
in public, right because because the same reason right now
to bring this back to the common early, the same
reason that for lent, your friend is giving it up,
because this stigma is still attached to it, and we're

(21:54):
now nobody's talking about what we need to be speaking
on to keep this moving, stigmatizing mainstreaming and ultimately legally accessing. Right,
we just talked about Oklahoma. Oklahoma just shot down legalization,
and I remember reading the articles and seeing the Fox
commentary about it, and the commentary, one of the quotes

(22:15):
from some government official, some very astute individual, was right,
we will not allow them to come California, our our
stag statement, right, that was the quote, and there's nobody then,
you know, commenting saying, wait, that's ridiculous. Where cannabis is legal, actually,
communities are safer. Do you see this FBI report?

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Now?

Speaker 4 (22:36):
Can you show me or can you dispute this? So
can we talk about facts versus your conjecture, please, mister
a stute pology. Nobody's standing up talking that way. Nobody's
talking about state's opioid overdose percentage rates, you know that
are legal versus non legal, and cannabis like, nobody's having
that conversation. There is no retort. Where is that voice?

(22:57):
Where is that leadership? Right? And the reason we're lacking
that and we're not innovating today is because we don't
have that belief. Bring somebody on this show that runs
a billion dollar company that believes the way you guys believe, right,
the way I believe. It's not just about kids having access.
It's not just about me being able to smoke all
day to keep myself calm, you know, and like being

(23:18):
able to look at the world. It's not just going
to bed or not just some old person. It's wellness, right,
And it's like quality of life people.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yet people will focus on the minority because it's just
face it and I call it what it is. There
are some people that smoke it, that give it a
bad little rep and I'll admit that too. You know,
there's the people that, oh, and they'll point at that person, Well,
look at that person. It's just like the person that's
you know, shot up a school. It's is it the person?
Is it the gun? It's that person. It's not the gun,

(23:48):
it's that person.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
Yeah, but not with weed man'ry point. Sorry, I'm gonna
take the side that like, you know, there's always that
girl or guy in the group that when the group
goes to you know, Friday night at the place to
watch the game, drinks more beers than everybody else and
act silly exactly, And that person isn't stigmatized and alcohol
as a result isn't looked at as more demonic than

(24:09):
it was before that. Yet at the same time, that
person is poisoning their body, they are poisoning their liver,
they are acting aggressively. They are you know, going home
and beating you know, spouses. Who knows what's happening, right, Like,
show me the police reports of the stoner that walks
in and does any of that stuff. So again, but
nobody's willing to step up and talk, right, and so

(24:31):
you know, I guess it was six seven years ago
or whatever where we happen to have this opportunity to say, hey,
this is what it is and we're willing to stand
up for it. And that's been absent. So what's next is,
let's go stand up for it. Let's go make some noise,
let's go call for some change, and let's call some
people out and let's get some momentum back. Let's start innovating, right.
I want to stay in a hotel where I have

(24:52):
the option because I don't drink. So where is my
option when I stay at a hotel and I have
my alcohol minibar, my weed mini bar. Now we're talking
about making progress.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
You have elevations nations, there's there are a proud sponsor
the show.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Yeah yeah, yeah, right, Well, let's go execute. I want them.
I cannot wait until they sign their j W. Marriott
Global partnership.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Right, Well yeah, we have him too.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
We did, we did get we did get Hilton Global
to come in and sit with us and and and
talk to us about working on a uh anti counterfeiting
solution for the industry, you know, and they want to
partner with us. Phillips is now one of our proud sponsors.
So some of these major companies are starting to cross over.
But you know what, what the I think the difference

(25:36):
is is that you know, these are like, you know,
television companies, right, Hilton's, you know, hotel chain. But when
is it that these guys are going to allow it
in their in their facilities, right?

Speaker 3 (25:46):
When is it that they're going.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
To actively stand up for it versus getting behind it
because they want the views and I and I recognize
that too, Like I I know that they're just you know,
they're hooking us up with TVs because they want to
put monitors in all the cool spots that we're at,
you know, But if they actually say, hey, we stand
behind this, it'll change the face of millions, you know.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Are they say we're not testing to work here or yeah,
you know Phillips is no, Yeah, there's things like that
that they can do.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
And I get that part of it, And I think
that that there's a lot of people hiding behind the
are still in the green closet that are are, you know,
for God's says, doing cocaine and partying and drinking and
doing all these other things.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
But they smoke.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
They smoke a little weed, and they're like, oh no,
I can't do that in front of people.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
I can't do that around people.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
You know, there's a huge demographic of people that will
shame all the cannabis guys in the world and yet
do everything on the side and ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
It's still ridiculous because it is a medical benefit.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
And I know that the quality of my own father
on his deathbed was much much better than the opioids
he was on on his way out, and and and
when he stopped the opioids and went straight to cannabis,
his life.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Was like literally he was he was more comford, more comfortable.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
I mean, he was taking a lot of a lot
of TFC, but fortunately we were able to get.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
It to him. You know. So I do agree with
you fully on that.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Listen. Look, I want to jump up and down and
scream from the highest rooftops that the fact that this
isn't just mainstreamed as a wellness product, that adults should
be at least trying to integrate into their life to
see if it can better them. Like the fact that
that's not the message, right is just it's it's insane

(27:32):
to me. But you know, back to like not being
mad when you say, how do you feel about this
or that? Like not being mad, being sad or understanding it.
More like I think I'm aut a place now where
I'm not mad that a hotel chain may behind the
scenes be trying to, you know, make money off of
the industry without standing up for it. But now it's like,
I'm more sad that we don't have entrepreneurial, pioneering, innovative

(27:56):
enough thought in our industry to have made it worth
their time from a money standpoint, right, Because it's one
thing for Hyatt or Marriott or any of these people, right,
but it's another thing for somebody to come up with
a program that's innovative enough to show them how they
can make billions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars,
you know, partner and be the first to do something

(28:18):
with cannabis in this way and give it to them
on a silver platter. Right, that person now has tied
themselves at the hip to someone who forget anything else
about standing up loud and proud. We just want their lobbyists. Like,
let's be real, if you can show them away where
this is going to make them a lot of money
and you know, benefit their shareholders, then you get the

(28:39):
benefit of their lobbyist. And what are we missing right now?
We're at a place where cannabis has completely retreated from
federal lobbying, Like hey, pack it up and we're gone
ineffective and we got to look elsewhere, right, that's what's next?

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Is that where we're seeing next for Adam Bierman. I mean,
you go from running a company that gets compared to Apple,
that's the first cannabis business to do that. And now
you've mentioned this twice so far that I've heard come
out of your mouth, fish, and I hear your passion,
and I hear and see where you're standing with I mean,
we're gonna find out if this is where he's going.
It's Cannabis talk one on one. Do we see a

(29:13):
new president coming up that used to work for the
wedding red and White medman, It's cannabis talk one on one.
We'll be right back after this to get his answers.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Let's go, We'll be right back with Cannabis Talk one
O one. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one O one.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Y'all know what time it is? Right, that's right, Dime time.
Think higher with Dime Industries. Find them in California, Arizona, Oklahoma.
Check them out online Dime Industries dot com, on Instagram,
Dime dot Industries. I want to thank Portey, Marcus Mondo,
Teddy the Show Dog, Isaiah, Cassie, Daniel Diego, Jessica, cam Beats,
Barcelara Ally, Goldie Brother, Pitt, Mark Carnes, Chris, Frank Keno,

(29:56):
Jennifer Erica, and Elvis all for making our show happen. Lead.
We got the former CEO and man making money still
off Medman here, Adam Vierman. I think he should have
his own show, not only his own show, but and
I say man still making money because he finally won
his lawsuit against them, and that's millions well deserved for
them trashing you like they do. That's a good question.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
They're absolutely kind of payment. I haven't been this patient
and mature for nothing.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, exactly so, Adam, before I went to break, like
I said, during this podcast, you've been mentioning a few
things and saying words like lobbyists and carrying and speaking
to your congressmen and doing this and doing that, and
hearing the passion and knowing the knowledge that you have
because like you were saying, you want to look at
this as a plant in medicine, not only for children

(30:46):
but for everyone. And knowing your background of what you've
done with a company that got compared to so high,
is it back to the straight company standpoint or being
the speaker standpoint for a company that's out there advocating
and I joke saying running for president, But I can
see you doing some type of office where you're being

(31:07):
funded by the city, by the government, by by by
the states, by people are helping raise money to fund
this Adam Bierman project, because you speak with so much compassion,
knowledge and sense, and you have experience of running a
major company corporation that besides a few like bad mousees.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
Oh look what he did with the plane here and
look what he did? What the fuck what he did
with that? He was running a freaking business. Every other
CEO does the same damn thing. You don't hear them
saying that about him. That's what remembers stinking up for
him saying that before we even met him.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Like when they were saying crap like that dog, I
was sticking up. You're like, what do you mean? You guys,
they're reading a story about you, and I'm like, he
does the same thing any other CEO does. So my
point to that is in my book in Our Heads,
I'm gonna say Blues too. You are that guy that
could be a forefront dude for this whole industry. You're
a guy that already is well not it can, but
yet you are. But my point is, there's god be

(32:00):
some type of role or something in life that you
got to foresee where you're like the guy wearing the
green tie, Like you got Trump wearing that red one.
You got these other guys wearing the blue ones, and
you're wearing that green one. Oh that's crazy. I could
see that, can you.

Speaker 6 (32:14):
I can see the green tie.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
I could see him up there in his green.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
Because I actually have one, So I might be able
to be on his own.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
It might be his VP your record. I don't think so,
but maybe listen, it's okay, hold on, smile real quick
with those pearly whites. I mean, you definitely got the smile.

Speaker 6 (32:32):
We're talking adversity and conforming to a better way.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
But Adam, I mean, if the politics involved coming up soon,
is it an aspiration you have?

Speaker 4 (32:41):
I mean, I I I'm flattered. For me. I think
that I am having maximum impact when I'm involved with
what I would call conscious capitalism, right, And I think
that marijuana as an industry has an opportunity to demonstrate

(33:03):
or define, even in twenty twenty three going forward, what
that could mean. Right, that's a term that's loosely losed
and used, and you know people would all define it differently.
But for cannabis industry, what does it mean? And I
know something for a fact, I know that right now
the industry can't define what that means. I also know
the industry doesn't know why it does what it does
when it comes to giving back, when it comes to

(33:25):
the philanthropic stuff, when it comes to their social activism stuff.
They don't know why they're doing because they think they should,
because that's how they get in a newspaper. Right, they
lost the wise Blue said earlier. And so you know,
I think conscious capitalism is saying, hey, I know exactly
why I'm doing all of this, and it's to make
a lot of money, and in the process of making
a lot of money, this is how we're using that

(33:47):
money to make the world a better place, right with
no apologies. And you know, I'm interested and I'm excited
to bring that back to the game because I would
hope that if I can get on enough soapboxes preaching
that that I will inspire others and that there I
know for a fact that there are other people and
other companies and other investors and people that are thinking

(34:07):
about are already in it, that are saying, you know what,
it's time to press you know what, it's time to
wake up, it's time to open our eyes, you know.
And hopefully I can spark that. And if I can
spark that, and then you know, you talk about politics.
It's definitely commercial. There's companies now that I'm so excited
that I'm helping and I am acting to these companies

(34:28):
in a way that I wish I had someone to
act for me when I was going through what I
went through, And obviously that didn't exist because no one
had been through what I ultimately.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Want pioneered like you, there was no playbook were yours correct?

Speaker 4 (34:43):
So as a result, now I have this playbook, right
I have this experience set and I'm getting these amazing
opportunities at helping businesses and helping you know, what I
think is the cannabis businesses of the future, right say, hey,
here's the playbook. You know where you're going to start.
You're going to start where I left off. You're not
allowed to make any of the same mistakes. Go make
your new mistakes and let's learn from those together. And

(35:05):
there's a couple of brands I'm helping, you know, as
you know in that capacity, a couple of businesses out
of California. It's all out of California right now, you know,
back to my belief right back home, it all starts
in California, man, Like, this is where brands are born,
and this is where brands are built, and this is
where brands emanate around the globe. And so, you know,

(35:25):
for all the people out there that want to talk
shit about this industry, that want to talk about you know,
this plant, you know, it's fine that it got beat
up over the last couple of years, but you guys
have been holding it down and I'm coming back, so
let's go.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
You know, I thank you for that. Man.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
I'm excited to see what you do, and I will
stand behind what you do. I've got that opportunity to
actually work with you and sit with you and and
and you know, I know your intentions like I could
generally know your heart. I could generally read, you know,
people's intentions of what they're here for, why they're here,
and through the process of it. Like I said, from outside,

(35:59):
I was like, why are the people banging on this dude?
You know, because there was a point where people were,
you know, and it sucks. And I've been that guy before.
I've been, you know, the first to do something. You know,
I built an education platform in the cannabis space in
twenty fifteen, and you know, I was first to.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
The I had the news on his ass, the news
at my house. I mean, they showed up at my house.
I had.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now, your wife knows that feeling, you know, she's like,
oh my god. I mean my wife at the time.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, I'm sure she does, right, you damn it had him, Yeah,
shut your mouth, we have kids here. What about our sons?

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Well, you know he listen. I got the calls from
my neighbors. I mean, hey, man, there's the news stations
are in front of your house. And this and that,
and I'm just like, God for what you know, and
I look back and it was like, you know, it's
over one hundred and seventy nine dollars of eighty thousand
dollars and fifty you know, it's like so minute, you know.
And at the end of the day, you know, it's

(36:56):
just like I know what my intentions were, right, and
and what I didn't know, you know, in the beginning
was how.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
To keep my mouth shut, you know.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
And then I got some great mentors that were like, look, dude,
you know, like the elephant keys marching as the dogs
keep barking, you know if you've ever heard that, but
you know, it's like the elephant just keeps marching as
the dogs keep barking, and and and they were like, look,
just don't say nothing to these guys. And I'm like,
how do you not say nothing when the news is
running up on you with cameras and they're like, so
did you. It's just like, you know, and your wife's

(37:26):
calling you at the time saying hey, you know, it's hard.
Neighbors are like, hey, bro, I don't know if you
should come home.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
But I pulled the prank on Blue during that one
I wrote him a note on his.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Car, say a note on my car. We're at another
radio station. I'm on my way to stad I mean.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'm gonna see you at four o'clock at the radio stage.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
And he got all the nervous I'm going to the
station and I'm calling them like, bro, there's news. They're
writing letters on my on my windshield and they're like, you.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Know, you're just vulnerable at that time, as you know,
and I was so vulnerable and as you went do
that Adam too. And we mentioned your beautiful wife who
seems like the one of the greatest mothers out there
with their two little boys, checking them to keep them
quiet right now, which is awesome? How was that for you?
Do'd on a personal vulnerable level, Like you're knowing that
your wife your life gets totally turned around and is

(38:18):
looking at you like yeah, like and yours is obviously
still here with you now, Like how hard was that?
And what did you go through personally like that? Because
she's reading hearing things and asking you did you do this?
What's going on here? And you're and you have to
speak to your wife obviously, So how hard was that
to deal with? Then? What went on in that personal situation.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
He said, no, well, first of all, I didn't have to,
you know, answer any questions did you do this or that?
I mean, she knows, she knows what I what I
do all day. And also, you know, all the in
the media, the clickbait stuff like is just so was
so far off base of reality. There was never a

(39:05):
conversation about how close it was to truth. You know,
so that really wasn't what it was. I think, you know,
this concept of the need for validation or this concept,
whether we willing to admit it to ourselves or not,
that you know, at least I was programmed in a
way at that point in time where success was validation.
Those two things are the same thing, Right, I am
successful when people see me as successful. I am successful

(39:28):
when people look up to me, when people listen to me,
when people pay me money, when all the things that
we living in this society, right, what we equate with
success in my opinion, right, you can go ahead and
replace with this concept of validation other people giving me
what I need to feel good or bad and going
through something like this right the way that I experienced

(39:50):
it was, you know, this is the ultimate in the
middle of the night in the dark, butt naked, freezing
your ass off, you know, and someone you know blasting
you with cold water, a saying are you gonna be you?
Or are you? Are you living for other people? Right?
Are you?

Speaker 3 (40:05):
You?

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Can you figure out what this? You know, what happiness is?
Just if I strip this all the way down? Or
do I need to go ahead and clothe you and
put you inside and give you a bunch of blankets
and have a bunch of people you know tell you
how great you are, serve your food and put on
television right, like can you? Is this you? Or is
that you? What's real? What do you want?

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Right?

Speaker 4 (40:22):
And I went through that because when it came to validation,
think about extremes. Right, on one hand, nobody in the world
who knows me says or thinks of me on some
pedestal based on a business that I created. And then
on the other hand, nobody that knows me or ever
met me, you know, wants to go ahead and use
me as like a you know, as like a whipping

(40:43):
boy because an interesting a new industry exists that's disrupted shit, right,
and somebody has to pay for disruption, Like I'm none
of that's real. The love's not real, the hate'es not real.
So you know, am I gonna be emotionally you know?
Am I gonna be determined? Am I gonna determine my
motional state based on validation? Am I gonna read these articles?

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Right?

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Just think about that?

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Right? Fuck?

Speaker 4 (41:06):
No? Yeah, not a single article. I've never read an
article really.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Fuck no.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
That's that's like, that's like, you know, one oh one
from me, you know, and that's something in the beginning.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's, uh, you know, there's
a there's a I'm gonna hack this, but you know,
there's basically you know, it's it's basically says that, like,
you know, somebody is talking bad about you.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
That's their story, not yours.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
You know, you choose to either let it in or
you don't, you know, and and and that's exactly what.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
But it's got to be so hard at him, Like
you say that, you go from being the guy on
you know, CNN, CNBC, fuck every reporting. You could imagine
Room being this top exec of an industry that's never
done something.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Right.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Let's just face it, there's never been a dispensary before
that was legal, and now there's one and it opens
in this state, that state, that state, that state. Who's
the head of this Adam Berman, who's the man running there?
So you get your get you get stroked, Doug, You're
getting stroked, like you know what I mean? And I
was stroking you without knowing you. I'm like, this guy's

(42:09):
the next best thing to slice bread. And then I
had to defend a guy I don't even know either,
going I don't believe that. I don't believe I'm we're
defending you on these clicks, are going, No, that doesn't
make sense. Why would he do that? That doesn't even
make Because people.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Were reading articles and we would be like, it's gonna
be so hard for you and your family, your friends,
and then your coworkers, your coos.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
You're this, You're that, everybody you work with, your moistes
that I met under you that worked there, that seemed
like he was riding you and being your supporter. You
know who moist this is, and that's who I met
that I got all your information about from you. And
it's like dudes and women rode for you, and then
some of them had to do the whether they turned
their back. They actually didn't have to they didn't have to,

(42:53):
but you know, but then they just kind of did
the I can't really fully support man like like Chris,
Chris is still here with me, right, you know, Pitt
and and Goldie were with me, you know, some of
these these men that you've been with me, you know,
through through these things. But a lot of knew you
got fifty eight employees that that that you know, COVID

(43:13):
comes and and and I've got some press at my
house and and and all of a sudden, you know,
and Jennifer, and Jennifer is still with us, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
But but out of those fifty eight, it's been now,
you know, five years or whatever, and and like all
fifty eight of or all fifty of them.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Are trying to come back to work for me, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
And and but through that five years though ever, you like,
I got we're gonna class ash and lawsuit you.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
We're gonna come after you this and that family.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
And they're they're calling me yesterday begging me can we
come in and work with you? I I you know,
I see you guys are doing some amazing things. You're
the same guy. You're the same guy that was trying
to sue me. You know, and and and and so
I'm sure you had to be going through those same emotions, right,
but the same scenarios. Yeah, people leave you that you think,

(44:03):
I think again back to just the honesty of it all, right,
Like people never really were with me.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
And that's the sadness, right, because it seems like people
might have been with me, But if I look at it,
look at what I was creating for those people, right,
And so.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
With you, it's in business, in business, right, but.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
Right, those are what I call transactional relationships. So those
are relationships whether it's an employee, a partner, a vendor,
or whatever. You can say you're my friend, but that's
a transactional relationship. So it starts with a transaction that
benefits us both.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Right.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
And so the minute that I don't believe that I'm
getting the benefit of that transaction, how do you think
I'm going to act inside of that relationship? Well, the
rest of it comes after that. So if that's not there,
then the rest kind of falls apart. And so you know,
I didn't necessarily experience again this anger because people that
I thought were in my corner turned to me and said,
we're out, fuck you. We don't like you anymore, and

(44:57):
I'm like, oh, that sucks. Right, it was just like
nobody called, right, nobody called hey, man, how you doing?

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Hey?

Speaker 4 (45:04):
You know what's going on? While I read this shit? Man? Hey,
you know what? I called this newspaper and I got
shit and I got on the record. It's like, you know,
I had some of the most famous people on planet
Earth that I was making fortunes for, and when I
was making fortunes for them, they were super happy about
somebody mentioning their involvement and mentioning how smart they were
to be associated with us. But then all this you know,

(45:25):
mud gets slung. Where are those most famous people in
the world saying, well, hold on one second, we just
want to tell you about my experience with Adam. Where
did that? Where was that?

Speaker 3 (45:34):
Nowhere?

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Right? And so there's the sadness there that oh right,
I made, right, I didn't make But as a result
of their involvement with what we had going on, this
is how much money they took home last year and
right now it's not happening. So yeah, they didn't call
because they're not my friend, right, And that's there. There's
a sadness there, But that's also the reality.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
It is a reality, and so it's well said reality.

Speaker 6 (45:56):
Actually and an immense amount of acceptance, you know, because
that thing in life anything like with acceptance, you can
like move forward. I think that's why you're saying there.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
And you can handle it better. And it's best for
Adam to feel that way, because the way he says
it makes me feel less mad for people like I'm
feeling You're like you're calming me down.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
I just look past it now, like I know, like,
like I said, it just bounces off me, and I
think it's it's it's healthy, and this clearly does off
of you, you know, you know.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
And if I may just finish on the on the
topic of like employees and like you know, being there
and standing up, and then back to validation for me, right,
Like when it's just me dark, all alone, right, where's
my validation going to come from? And and ultimately it's
got to come from myself, right, And so it's going
to come for myself. And you say, well, employee this
and partners that. It's like, look at the marijuana industry today.

(46:45):
We can talk good about it, we can talk shit
about it, but like, look at the executives at all
of the companies, you know, like somewhere through one degree
of separation, they were there. They were in that office
on Jefferson Boulevard, right, like that seeded the industry and.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Beautiful Culver City.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
In beautiful Culver City, I remember going to that audible office.
So like that's seated at the CFOs of today's companies,
the coos of today's companies, the head of this that whatever,
like they came from that place. And so you know,
article this or person texting me or not that, Like
this is an industry bigger than coal in the United
States today that when I started, you couldn't have said

(47:25):
that about it. And the people to a large extent
driving and operating this industry started as a result of
what I was able to create. So if I'm going
to think about how I, you know, judge my performance
in business, I validate myself.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Well and so and you know, and you know you
get it from us because using that comparison that CNN
all the major networks did a when Jimmy Campbell, you
guys were and are still the apple of the cannabis industry.
And now other dispensaries like to try to use the
they won't even use the apple. Those we like the
medmen of dispensaries, right, instead of going to Apple, They'll say,

(48:04):
we're the medmen of dispensaries. We're kind of like a
medman style, you know, kind of like Apple. But medmen
will come out of their mind. And you were the
one that started that, dude. And it's like funny when
you say that and think that, because was it something
that was was it hard to get that bar set
for you guys? Where people going. I don't know, Adam,
we don't think people are gonna buy to this. It

(48:26):
doesn't need to be that. It could be a trap shop.
Like all you need to do is put some flour up.
They're gonna come buy and smoke it. Wispread all this
money on a nice glass and nice wood.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Of course, of course that happened. And you know, I think,
like we look at the state of the industry today
versus back then. Back then, you know, you had this
cavalier young, you know, brash, naive me, you know, jumping
up and down saying this is the future, right, and
there was nothing to dispute it. Like you could say,

(48:58):
I don't believe that. I do believe that, but like
like nobody's gonna like say like, oh, let that guy
go run his mouth and see what can happen.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
You know.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
I remember when the Profit you know, one of these
one of these seminal moments I think for the industry
but also for me a medmen when the Profit TV
show came in and did a thing on medmen and
we had opened up at like five point thirty or
six in the morning because he came into the store
in West Hollywood before regular hours, so it's just he
and I and he walks into the store, and it's

(49:27):
all unscripted, you know, and he goes, you know, what
is this place? Do I call it a pot shop?
Do I call it a head shop? What? Or do
I call it? And I say call it whatever you want.
I call it the future, you know. And it wasn't rehearsed.
It was just bam, that's where it was. And who
is going to sit here and contradict that this is
the future.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Right?

Speaker 4 (49:44):
So I think we're in a place now where because
there is an industry that we've just all forgotten how
to dream like that. And so you are comparing yourself
to what already exists or what already somebody done or
I did this at the last company and it worked,
and like we don't have that freedom right. That naive
take that I had is the reason in part that
there is a three hundred billion dollar potential industry that

(50:06):
exists today.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Right.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
It was we needed someone naive enough right to actually
push everything through, because if you were experienced or knowledgeable,
you know, or smart enough on these subject matters, these topics,
you would have never started. I would have never started
the concept of trying to raise private equity for a
federally illegal business, Like that's ridiculous. But I was too

(50:29):
naivet right, But I didn't know any better.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Wealthy people are very unrelated.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
And I say that I literally, I say, wealthy people
are very unrealistic, you know, and they have unrealistic houses
on realistic cars, and they do.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Say it all the time, and I say, I say,
you forgot one, what is it?

Speaker 6 (50:50):
Unrealistic women?

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Oh yeah, they also have they have the best And
I was trying to keep it PG for the kids
and the wives. But yeah, that was.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
But there's also you know, like we have core values
that that I set in standard as a standard here
for our staff. It's like the bear of life. Believe energy,
action results. If you believe in something, there's energy. With energy,
there's actions. With action, there's results. Right, care and communication. Right,
if you don't care and you don't communicate, then we
don't want to work with your period. You know, be

(51:21):
unrealistic because wealthy people are unrealistic, and we have unrealistic
And then use your imagination, right, because when we're young,
we have this amazing imagination about everything that we believe.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
And then some way, somewhere along the.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Lines, we lose that, you know, imagination, We lose that
that that unrealisticness, and and then all of a sudden
we get conformed into I got a job, I gotta work,
I gotta do this, and they don't know how to expand.
And so you know, once your mind expands from its
original form, it will never come back, right. And I
teach that people to people, and I only you know,
hope to allow people to you know, influence others to

(51:58):
be so unrealistic and so you know, just outrageously you know,
loal oriented.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
What's your thoughts process that you know you could win?

Speaker 2 (52:09):
And my whole team knows every one of those, you know,
and I preach it to them all year long, all
year long, and I do it in front of other
people and then I make them rehearse it so that
they know it.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
You know.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
It's one of the things that I've looked at in
the last year is like this concept of a child's mind. Obviously,
I got two boys, and we've talked a lot about
their education and their development, and like thinking about it,
consciously thinking about it. And when you're a little kid,
I mean exactly what you said, man, when you're a
little kid, like why can't you follow your parents around?

(52:40):
Because every little thing on the floor, every little butterfly,
every little whatever takes your attention. Right, your imagination is
as wide as the as the universe.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
And then as you grow up, as you get more focused.
Which is interesting that the human brain actually is built
in a very specific way that allows it, as it
grows up, to get at more narrow right. And I'm
sure this is a survival thing from however many you know, caveman,
whatever ago, But that still applies to us today. So
when we talk about when we teach our kids, like,

(53:10):
you know, that's a grown up thing. When we narrow
our minds as grown ups so that we can be
effective and get from point A to point B without
getting lost because there's a purple butterfly we want to chase. Sure, right,
this is what happens. And I don't think I love that.
I just thank you for bringing that up. Because this
industry is like a child, right, And that's the stage
we're at is this child is a teenager now, and

(53:32):
the teenager is wrestling with I want to be a
grown up. I don't want to be told what to do.
I know what to do. I'm a grown up. And
it's like, well, on one hand, we want you to
grow up, right right. We want you to grow up
so you can be the best version of yourself to
contribute to the world. But you're also a seventeen year
old punk a, so you know you're not grown up yet.
Take advantage of being a seventeen year old puff Go

(53:53):
see the world, Go have an imagination, you know, bigger
than anybody before you go travel. Go. We say that
stuff right to kids, but like, how many kids do it?
That's where the industry is. It's like, yeah, you're a teenager,
but you don't know what you're doing yet. You still
have so much to figure out. Let's get naive again.
Let's go play You ever ever heard.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
The story of of of the Chinese Bumboo Tree.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
I'm about two.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
So there's this guy, right, and he's and this is
a true story, right, that he waters is he's out
front watering like at you know, six thirty in the
morning every morning, and the kids are walking by the
school and his name's Jimmy, and they're like, hey, Jimmy,
and he's like hey, and he's watering this big patch
of dirt, you know. And the kids are like in
seventh or eighth grade and they're they're walking by, and

(54:40):
you know, they love them, you know, like it's Jimmy
on the block.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
You know, they're like, what's up, Jimmy.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
And every day they're walking by and he's just watering
this huge patch of dirt. And then the second the
second year comes around and he's still watering it every
single morning. At the same time, he's watering this same
patch of dirt. Year two, kids are getting a little
older and they're like, hey, you know, Jimmy, you know
there's nothing growing there. But you know, there's no weeds,
there's nothing, it's just dirt.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
You know. They're kind of talking to him all year long.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
He's like, oh, no problem, kids, you don't have a
good day and blah blah blah. So then they go
through year three, they're like, cuckoo, Jimmy, you're crazy Jimmy.
And he Jimmy's like, oh hey, kids, you know how
you guys doing. And he's watering the same patch of dirt.
Year four, they're throwing stuff at him, you know, and
he's just out there and he's dodging stuff. But he's

(55:29):
out there every single morning the whole time watering that
that's patch dirt. Year five goes around and the kids
are just making the worst fun of him. Now at
this point, they're really they're almost trying to attack him,
and he's just out there just trying to spray his
batch of dirt. Then all of a sudden, in six weeks,
ninety feet of bamboo grows up into the sky in

(55:50):
six weeks and six weeks, ninety feet of bamboo tree
grows out of that same patch. And it's the most
expensive bamboo trees you can get in the world, and
it's the.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Most precious bam. It's very it's very expensive.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
And so now everybody's going, wow, you're amazing. I can't
believe you. It grew out of the ground in six weeks.
So half the kids think that the stories did in
six weeks. He made a fortune, but the rest of
them don't realize that it took him five years.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Ain't a water bill for five years to water that, right?

Speaker 2 (56:21):
And so what happens is is like again, I think
there's you know, like I often see people come in
here and they're just go, oh, you know, we're gonna
throw a concert too. You know, I'm gonna go throw
a you know, burning trees festival, and I'm gonna go
hire these artists. And how much did you guys pay
half a million dollars? How much do you guys make
a little over a million?

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Perfect? I'm gonna do it too, you know.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
And they think that that it's just about a few
little moves to do that. But they don't understand that, like,
you know, we had a street team that hit the
block and and and hit every single poster in every
neighborhood from here to sam Bordino. You know, they didn't
they don't know that we have friends in radio that
are you know, on you know, giving us you know,
fifty seventy eighty thousand dollars worth of you know, of airtime.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
For half that cost.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
They don't know that, you know, we have relationships like
they don't understand the.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
Years of the hard work of putting into it.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
And I think that that that our industry is so
naive in a lot of places. And a lot of
these guys come in and they do have history in
growing and maybe not in business like I, Like, I
knew how to grow grow cannabis and sell weed before
I knew how to you know, work a regular job.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Like I did.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
It's it was, It's been in my blood my whole life, dude,
And I still I still don't.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
I don't sell weed anymore. I haven't sold wed in
twelve years.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
Ish.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
You know is you know the most growing is done
under the dirt. Yeah, the most growing life is water
under the dirt.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Well, I mean they don't see the roots. They don't
see what has to happen in your story.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Yeah, like all those years of watering, there was growth.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
But but but and this is this is not my story,
it's yours. And and what I'm saying is is this
is exactly you know what what you've had to go
through in order for you to get to be med men, right,
to be adam, to.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
To go from a marketing to find to find yourself right,
to find yourself and not let these things affect you,
to be to grow in such a way that that
you know, you're comfortable, right, because it doesn't matter what
we think, It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks other
than you know, your wife and your kids and and you. Right.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
But but if you're comfortable and you have a mission,
you know, I feel confident that wherever you do, whatever
you you'll be fine, you know. And I know like
you know that that you know. I I love talking
with you. I'm you know, blessed to have you on
our show, and I really really appreciate, you know, the
knowledge that you're giving not us, but but all of

(58:48):
our listeners, dude, because that's the that's the the again,
the core value of what my whole company here stands for, dude,
is like, you know, we don't have enough people going
for the for the for the of the goal, you know.
And I start talking about the things that I tell
people and they're just like, you know, it's unrealistic to them,
and it's funny to me, you know, I'm like, yeah, dude,

(59:09):
I remember I was gonna throw this huge concert in
the middle of the desert and twelve thousand people are
gonna show up, and everybody was like, dude, this is
gonna be three thousand people. It's gonna be a firefest.
Say that again, you're fired.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
You know. I said, you say that again, you're fired.
You know.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
I had to say it three times, and so two
times I said, if you say it again, you're out
of here, dude. And then and then all of a
sudden they show up and they they're like the same
person's crying in my arms, going, this is unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
You've made my dreams.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
And they saw the bamboo They saw the bamboo.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Yeah, they saw the bamboo tree. So thank you man,
you know, and continue, you know, using your imagination and
being unrealistic because that's exactly what we need in this
space and that's exactly who you are.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
So anything that we forgot before we let you get
down out of.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
Here, oh oh, I'm whatever. Whatever else we forgot, I'm
I'm I'm always elated to be chatting it up with
you fine gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
So it's you know, and it's funny Adam, because when
I look at you and I think of the multi
state operator, the guy that damn near is one of
the pioneers to do that. I don't know if you
were the first to do that on a retail level.
Were you the first to do it on a retail level.
You were the first to do it on a retail level,
I believe around thirty three stores in multiple states, and
you know, over a couple thousand employees, and you're the

(01:00:24):
CEO of all these guys. And to think that people
don't realize after the first interview you did here, we
had a gentleman that cried here you and him both
shed tears because he thanked you after the show cash
like money who was here and said thank you for
your company hiring me, which led me to get my home,

(01:00:45):
my car, my this and that, and how many people
that you helped that way that were working in the
cannabis industry, an industry that people would think, hahu, But
you did this in multiple states and this and that.
It just goes down as set one of the biggest accomplishments,
in my opinion, of one of the biggest pioneers in
this industry has done. And then to see you get

(01:01:10):
beat up. Like I'm gonna say it, I'm not comparing
you to him, but like a Jesus, did you know
throwing rocks and everything else and everything else about him?
You know what I mean, Like this guy, they screw
him and you're like, dude, look what I've done though,
you know what I mean? You turn the regular story
into weed like he turned water into wine. And it's

(01:01:30):
like you've done all these things for people, and then
you get ridiculed, then you go in hiding and now
you return right around Easter to hear that almost And
that's the reason why I think it's around Eastern type
for us right now. And it's like, that's how I
feel about you, dude. You're like hiding in Costa Mesa
on or Costa Rica, whatever it is. And then I

(01:01:51):
talked to you on the phone outside. You know what
I mean. But I mean, it's just you gotta go.
You had to go through so much and then to
find out that it was all bullshit and you're making
millions off the bullshit that was said about you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
I think that you know, one of these big lessons
that the naive version of me, the kid, the punk
kid that thought that everything was possible, like could never
have understood. Is that experience is king right, So as
we think about these these these individuals in history that
whatever we're interested in, that we look at that say

(01:02:28):
that for that group or that those people built this thing,
and we look at them and we learned from them,
and you know, we're impressed by them. For me, it
was the gaming guys, because casinos and gaming and how
that went from illegitimate to legitimate, and the licensing and
the and the federal versus state hypocrisy was very similar
and the way that you know will very similar to

(01:02:49):
weed and and those are the guys that my whole
life I look to.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
So whether it's.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
Krekorian or Win or Adelson or those guys that you know,
if those guys for me taught me, fuck, I lost
my train of thought. It's a good thing. We're not
live experience. Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, all right, all right,
all right, I'm sorry. So yeah, yeah, So so for me,
you know, whether I look at a Steve Win, right

(01:03:16):
or you talk about Jesus, you talk about Steve Jobs,
you talk about anybody that you know, are a lot
of these people that you know have a long life
in business because life is long. We forget that. Right.
There's this concept of you know, gaining experience and then
like really getting to integrate in that experience before some

(01:03:37):
redemption story. And I used to look at it like,
you know, people that had success were hated on until
such a point where you know, the hate ended up
overwhelming them and then they had to make it again.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
But what I think it really is is like this
experience that you don't have until you go through something. Right,
Once you go through it, the real question is can
you integra what you learn to go do it again?
And if you do it again, having integrated in, for sure,
you're gonna do it bigger and better. And so when
you talk about some of these people in history, like
a Job's you know, or you talk about someone like

(01:04:11):
Steve Wynn right who then had to go regroup, And
I never understood that until I was in that position myself.
They must have been sitting there saying, I now know
so much, how do I build that into my DNA
and then apply that to what I'm gonna go do next?

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
You're valuable, right, And then that's.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
All we saw was like, Hey, they waited around and
they got a second chance, you know, but at least
for me and my experience, that's not what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
You're seeing it differently now because you're going through it.
You're the guy now going through it, rather than hearing
about the guys that have gone through it and they're like, shit,
this is my life now. Listen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
You always want to go back to to somebody that
knows right how to get there, you know, like it's like,
you know, you want to get there faster, right, Take
someone that's already been there, that knows how to get
there right, and if they and if you know how
to get there, and you also.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
Know how not to step in the wrong the wrong holes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
You know, there's things that you've seen now that there's
no way you've done everything right right, but but there's
but but you can see things that there was things
that were like, oh, I could have done this a
little better, This could have been done a little better,
and this would have helped us a little bit more.
And and and so anybody that doesn't see that as
an asset, you know, they're they're sleeping. Well.

Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
I think for me, it's just about decisions, you know,
I talk a lot about decisions as opposed to you know, outcomes,
and so you know, so many of these decisions that
I was making were as a lot of decisions are
being made with incomplete information, but so many of these
decisions were being made with incomplete information for the very
first time in history in America. And this you know

(01:05:40):
all these first first verse and so then to make
a decision in the face of that you have such
an incomplete data set, you're making a call that's so
into it intuition based. Right now, as we have more experience,
I have more experience, I've made so many more decisions,
I have a bigger role index of to pull from.

(01:06:01):
And as an industry, we have so much more information
that we would hope going forward, we need to require
going forward, right that these marijuana businesses, entrepreneurs, companies, billion public,
private or whatever, that at least that's their starting place.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Sure you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
Like that, we have to tighten that up and we
have to be able to move forward to what's next
and better, because we're not there yet. This isn't done forever,
we're not even close.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Well, Adam, anything you could do for us is greatly appreciated.
If you want to use that forward thinking to help
us out. Hey man, we're here. We're here at chest think.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
I think you guys push the industry forward. I think
that something is legitimate as mainstream as the way you
produce this show. And then unapologetically, unshamefully, you know, say
right there, it's cannabis talk. We're not pretending. This is
what it is. This is the images you're showing like
you know, we're not We're not shy. They're people smoking weed.
That's what this is. We love weed. We think weed

(01:06:57):
makes a world a better place. And you know Joe,
who could be you know, talking about anything with his sexy,
you know baritonei ish radio voice. He's decided to do this,
which is gives us credibility because you put that together, right.
So anything I can do for you, you guys are
doing this for everybody, right, and everybody needs to appreciate that.
And so what you can do for me is keep

(01:07:18):
doing what you're doing. And what I'll do for you
is I'm back. What's next, Let's go work.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
We love him, Madam Bierman. Folks, give it up a
game for the Man the mid the Legends his book
coming out soon in the movie that we're gonna all
put together. I want to be a part of it
or the book. You don't know yet.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
You forget Stoner a working title.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
Yeah yeah, he's still working on it, but you know
we're all going to be in it. Imaginarium. Well, there
it is, guys. This is Cannabis Talk one one. Remember this.
If no one else loves you, we do.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Thank you for listening to Cannabis Talk one on one
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.