Jump Right in the Rotation with Former Marine/Veteran & Creative Director, Casey Reinholtz & Kirsten Brownrigg, Director of Marketing at HOTBOX!

HOTBOX dominates both the apparel game & the Premium Flower Game. HOTBOX is taking the cannabis space by storm by cultivating cannabis from seed to sale check out their website at www.smokehotbox.com & www.wearhotbox.com to get geared up.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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
on one with Blue and Joe. Hello, Welcome to Cannabis
Talk one on one, the world's number one stories for
everything cannabis. My name is Blue. Alongside of me is
mister Joe Grande and you annout tune into the greatest
cannabis show on the planet. That's right you guys. Thank
you mister Christopher right, good to have you back. Brother.

(00:22):
Thank you guys all for listening to our podcasts all
around the world. Check out the website Cannabis Talk one
on one dot com is. We've got so many great
articles and blogs on the site for you guys to read,
and you can click the link right there to go
check out the Cannabis Talk magazine as it's right there
on the website for you to go enjoy some great
stories from the mag as well. Call us up anytime.
One twenty nineteen eighty. Check out the IG pages. Cannabis

(00:43):
Talk one on one is the IG handle and of
course YouTube and all the other social media outlets. Blue
is at the number one. Christopher writes, Hello and I
am at Joe Grand Day fifty two and make sure
you train your typical into something special. Folks, when it
comes to infuse products, the flavor you take should be
just as enjoyable as the feeling you experience. Visit the
website Lorente Oils dot com. They are so great. Today's

(01:04):
special guests, I am so excited looking at all this
dope gear on this show set. Today we got the
guests from hot Box, where they care about where your
cannabis comes from, how it's grown, and how it's treated.
That's why they maintain control over the process. They are
the growers, not the showers, and no sourcing out here.
You like that, I'm glad you're giggling already. And now

(01:25):
we have two brilliant minds that have re emitted themselves
as well as their brands that make one of the
leading competitors in the cannabis space. You guys, that dominates
both the apparel game and if you're listening on the podcast,
go to the YouTube or check out the ig because
the stuff that we have on the table, their stuff
is really like high end field. Like I didn't know
your guys, was like, seriously, I'm not just gassing you.

(01:48):
I would just say, oh, it looks cool. It's cool,
but high end cool, like the field the quality. So
go check that out and I'll give you the websites
and all that stuff right now. But you know they
have so many good apparel and the premium flower game
is ridiculous and we have Kristen brown rig Did I
say that right, Kirsten? But the brown Rigg was right, Kirston.
I I did the R before the eye. It's the

(02:11):
opposite eye before the R. It doesn't happen all the time,
all the time. I don't even notice that. You still
call it Christen, right, Kirsten. Kirsten Kirston, the director of marketing,
and Casey Reinholtz. That's it perfect right, It's nice and easy. Casey,

(02:31):
the creative director over at hot Box and former marine
combat veteran, thank you so much for your service. Brother.
Always greatly appreciated for what you do and how you
served and keep us safe out here on these streets.
He has rebranded their in house cannabis brand and also
launched a hot Box apparel brand. Hot Box has taken
the cannabis base by storm by cultivating cannabis from the

(02:52):
seed to sale, providing consumers that fire that they're all
looking for that everyday cannabis connoisseur pursues. Check out their
website smoke hotbox dot com. That's s m O K
E h O t box dot com and where hot
box w e A R h O T b o
X because you got to really check out this dear

(03:14):
to get the funky stuff that's out there and get
some funky y ask give everybody. Give a warm welcome
Christen and Casey to the building. And you know, first off,
you guys, before we get into all this great stuff,
where are you guys from? Exactly are you guys Southern
California born and raise or where are you guys from? So, yeah,
I was born and raised in LA. I actually just
had an incredibly nostalgic walk with Chris. We went to

(03:36):
the same un junior high, he said, junior high. That's right,
you said, you guys both kissed the same girl or
something like that. Oh, I could have taken that first
yea they did without you, I would never Yeah, it
was really great also to have my past um kind

(03:56):
of solidified with with her. She's heard all the crazy
stories that came out of La during the night nineties
from me, but didn't have somebody repeat them back to
me that way. It's kind of like, oh, now I
really get what that world was like back then. But yeah,
born and raised in Los Angeles. So did you get
more PTSD from LA or Afghanistan? I don't think anybody

(04:16):
like actually was cared about who I was in Afghanistan, right,
But in LA, they know who you are. You kind
of have it take it personal after a little bit, right,
Like why do you keep chasing me down? Why do
you keep stealing my rebox? Yeah? I just got that
starter jacket. You know, Hey, the streets are tough back then.
Sometimes you ain't joking. Fools are checking for your starter,
you know what I I mean? Give me. I got a
little kid I was sponsor Mentory. They took his watch.

(04:38):
It's like, you know, I mean, hey, where'd you get
that watch? Homeboy? Let me see that that's my watch? Now?
Bill got to come out with the King's jacket on. Yeah, right,
those type of things were crazy back then. I want
to I don't think it goes down like that no more, though, right,
I'm sure it does. Yeah, at a certain age level,
you're not living there anymore. And we're just at at
that age where we have to deal with that and Kirsha,
where are you from Ohio? Chamber experience so big Lebron saying,

(05:03):
I mean like Ohio like that, I feel like he's
following me. Actually everywhere you go there is Yeah, that
is exactly what it feels like. I actually made a
documentary about him leaving Cleveland. Did you really? Yeah? It
was a form of catharsis for sure. Did that bother
you as being a Cleveland, Ohio person? Like like a
lot of people were burning his jersey and he was

(05:24):
so big, like he was your guys claim to fame.
Let's just faces And I wasn't burning jerseys. I was
filming the burning of the jersey. Really, I wanted to
tell that story, and I knew that he would very
likely leave, but my hope was that he would return
to the city as a philanthropist, which he absolutely did.
So he's given back quite all. Oh dude, the things

(05:44):
I see and read about that guy are unbelievable. To
school that he built out there, to give back, the fund,
the scholarships that he gives to so many kids, I
think he's just an abundance. And then to go back
and win a championship for them. Exactly, he's done his due.
He can lie away. In my opinion, if if I
was from there, i'd feel like, Okay, dude, you've done so.
That's how you feel too, That's exactly how I feel

(06:06):
about it. That's good because I like that. Yes, I
did well college. Well, it's interesting because I did briefly
go to University of Colorado Boulder, but ultimately my kicked
out of Colorado. I just I just knew too many
six year seniors there. So but I ended up at

(06:27):
Ohio University and I graduated from there. And now you're
getting your masters. If I'm not mistaken from Harvard, right,
I am. I've been working in the evenings on my
masters through their Continuing Education program Harvard. Excuse me, my
name Kirsten Kten gets the name right, and it's doctor Kirsten.

(06:51):
That'll that'll be another degree. But someday maybe PhD in Cannabis.
Maybe we'll see. And then you guys are a couple
data how long? Oh? Really, I didn't know that. The
way he was looking at me, I thought he was
trying to hit on me. I didn't know she's okay
with that cool. And I was getting excited because I
was looked at that promo picture you said, he who's
this good looking chop right here them? Yeah, I do,

(07:14):
but all bullshit aside. I looked at your picture that
you said him, and I was like, oh my god,
only that blue you're gonna look at Look at this picture.
I literally saved it right here. Where's it that? No,
I'm not even kidding, I'll go, oh my god, this
is such a good looking man. Look at him. Look
at that picture. He's got his hand behind his head. Yeah,
he got his hand behind his head. He got this
orange shirt on when he walked up. And then I've
seen this dude, I go, whe's the dude from the picture? Yeah?

(07:39):
I felt like I got catfish in this. Like, how
long have you guys been dating? It's going in four years?
Actually you guys meet at the company or how this
go down? No? No, I worked for a partner company,
UM and he actually had a background in bioscience and
I had a background of medical devices. So they set
him up with interviewing me, feeling me some questions, and

(08:02):
you know, a few months later he became my go
to source on cannabis for more than cannabis. First, Cannabis
started with number one source for everything. I should use
the radio voice. That's right. You have a bird that
I can smoke? I sure do so. So now you
guys are married. Oh that's so. Isn't that crazy to

(08:26):
think how cannabis brought you guys together like that? That's awesome.
And we hired her on, yeah, two years ago. So
you were with the company. I've grabbed them, George, if
you want. I've been with hot Box for six years now. Um,
and then two years ago we brought her on because
we wanted to relaunch this brand and I do not
have the experience that this one does in marketing. And

(08:48):
she came in and kind of set us on a
good path. And then, um, I got to be the
creative and then she let me kind of have two
years of getting to play in a giant playground and
express my art to the brand. So it's been a
good time. And now she's going to go right back
to school and finish it up. She's a hard worder. Yeah, yeah,
I mean it's it's interesting, especially coming from a kind
of a science background and come from a dynasty of scientists,

(09:11):
and they're kind of wondering, you know, what are you doing?
I went into marketing, but the h looking at that
and seeing how the marketing and advertising in cannabis has
really outstripped the scientific research. And that's largely because of
government involvement, of course, but that is why there's so
much mythos that you see throughout the industry. So my
goal was to make sure that we ran that back in,

(09:33):
made sure everything was covered by substantive research that what
we're telling people we can put our name behind, but
also harness a lot of the good that this plant does.
You know. So, now does Hotbox have have um grows
and dispense? Are you guys just storcing out the products
or do you guys actually have them? Right after this

(09:53):
break this Cannabis Talk one of them all, move right back.
Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one O one. The Bear
Flag Group you guys as your white label partners. They
are known to be on time, accurate and do quality

(10:14):
co packaging. They have been launching brands in California since
two thy fifteen and a Bear Flag group. They do
what they say they will do. Go check out their
website Bear flaggroup dot com. We got Kristen and Casey
here from good old hot Box. And it's just so
funny because looking at this right now, I feel like
hot Box is strictly apparel, and I just see two
jars up here in another bag. But I mean, it

(10:35):
just looks like some of the dopest gear that I'm
seeing at like Northshrooms or something. Here's dope, Yeah, there's yeah,
Like I feel like this is like Norshrom's quality, you know.
But let's talk about the product, you know, for a second, right,
because that's what you guys are, right, Yeah, So let's
let's think about this for a second. So you guys
have grows dispensaries. It will tell us all the licenses
you guys carry and then what you guys have. So

(10:58):
altogether we have fifty thousand square feet of indoor growing space.
We produce about two thousand pounds a month, harvest every
five days. Wow. We have a giant R and D
facility we just opened up out in the desert where
we splice all of our jeans together. Hot Springer yep, yeah, yeah.
We were one of the first ones out there. Have
helped write the rules and the laws out there back
in it was twenty seventeen. Sure really opened up that

(11:19):
world for us. We have a grow in Northridge near
La and then we have one in Pacoima. It's also
attached to our dispensary lemonade. You've probably seen it off
the Tin Freeway next to eight one eight brands and
all of them. Yeah, and then right, yep, that lemonade
is ours, and then we help store it is right. Yeah,
I didn't know that was you guys. Yeah, yeah, we're

(11:40):
all I'm saying. I didn't know this that his passion
look at it. The owner of the company has been
round since O nine. A lot of the licenses in
La are his. We've sold stores to meadmen, to cookies,
We've sold them to all sorts of backpack boys. Took
over our store for us down in San Diego. Uh.
You know, we play well with others. You know. We

(12:01):
like to kind of just keep moving and building. We
have a couple of stores here in La one on
Melrose that is across from an Adidas store. So that's
always fun because we get a discount. We give them
a discount, you up, Yeah, it goes back. We're good neighbors. Yeah,
and then we got a store Northridge. And then we
have a Cookies in San Diego. Yeah, that's that's kind

(12:25):
of our baby, man. That's it's a beautiful store. They
came in and they cleaned it up. We really got
to know Cookies really well during that time and became
good partners. And that's kind of where some of the
designs that I came up with for them were um,
but it never got These are all just prototypes on
that end, sure. But then, yeah, the main part of
our business is growing flower. That's what we've we've always
been doing. We owned dispensaries so we could move our

(12:45):
flower back and like you know, from nine to seventeen,
and at around twenty twenty we decided to push forward
on hot Bocks and then that's kind of where it's
gone from here. And this is where you get all
of this crazy stuff that we've made. And you know,
I mean, having having a good leader inside your company
is super beneficial. You've learned, right, because he allows the

(13:06):
innovation to happen. And that's kind of what put us
on the map, was just getting to innovate our brand.
So it's hot box then, and I'm just want to
be clear, I did I hear four dispensaries, right, is
that right? So there's four dispensaries, Uh, several three or
four different grows as well throughout southern California. Three grows
at Lathinka Poema and one in north Ridge or some shit. Yeah, okay,

(13:29):
north Ridge and Diard Hot Springs, and then in what's
owner's name. I would love to tell you I'm not discussing.
He would not be happy with me. The man behind
the very old school. He likes to stay kind of
away from it. Um. But you know, there's a there's
a testament why I've been with him for six years. Yeah.
You just got to trust the leadership, and especially in

(13:49):
this industry, you know, where you're constantly a lot of
people a job hop trying to find their home. I
got really lucky to come into this business and find
my home right away. Yeah. And these stores are all
different names, so it's not like chain. You guys aren't
doing the hot box name of a dispensary, corrects them.
Is the brand right? Right? The brand right? Oh? So
the hot box is the cannabis brand that you guys
are growing from. Got it? Then? Okay? Cool? I thought

(14:12):
it was apparel, thinking only okay, but it's actually the
name of the fire that you guys are smoking, right exactly. Yeah,
So it started off as that, and we we wanted
a way to work around the cannabis advertising rules because
we couldn't really advertise anywhere, especially online. Sure, so that's
where the apparel brand came from. Trojan Horse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
it makes sense. It's how you have to in order

(14:34):
to market. He's like, oh, let's create a brand and
then build the brand while you're building there, and the
brand goes hand in hand with cannabis. I mean, if
you hear hot box, you're already known what it means.
It shout out. Actually a good clothing line too, though,
I mean you know what I mean, it's it's it
sounds great. So talk about the flower for a second.
What's like, what kind of strains are you guys running?
You know, what kind of growers do you guys have?
You know, where's the formulations come from? All that good stuff? Yeah,

(14:57):
so our our head grower again another old school kind
of guy. So I won't mention his name, but he
is very heavy into the science and that of it,
and he loves these plants. I don't think I ever
see him leave the cultivation before ten ten pm at
night like this. This guy is edicated. Yeah, he loves it.
He was an award winner in Colorado for years and

(15:17):
then six years ago he came in to work for
us cleaned up our cultivations and he I just man,
I has never met somebody who loves the flower as much.
You know, if I read a chance to drag him
out in the public and get him away from the
grow I mean, you would never hear somebody speak. So
I'm passionate about what they do. That's to day out
and it's that's again another reason why we stick around
with this company. And a lot of these genetics are ours.

(15:38):
We do a lot of cross breeding. We do a
lot of research into it. Like I said, we just
popped open to R and D facility which is strictly
built for growing new genes and in growing new strains.
And a lot of these are what you see up here.
So you have like icarus heads just drived off of
Gelerto lineages. You have buttered biscuits over on this end
over here, which is a Florida og and a it's

(16:02):
a biscotti that is crossbred with itself. So you're making that. Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, we're generally that's why we get to
we get to have fun name in the names. Man,
we get some that butter biscuits. Dog, you just got
me hungry, right that. Yeah, he's a master of that.
But yeah, it's it's and it's I think that's what
kind of lends to a little bit of like the

(16:22):
popularity of hot boxes. We're giving you things that you've
never had before. We're trying to get you new kind
of highs and not necessarily just based off THHC, but
off of the very heavy turpeene profiles that we pump
into these plants because that's what we grow for us,
for turpeenes. Okay, yeah, and the art and the artwork too,
because the latest brand, Refresh is very rooted and street art,

(16:43):
you know, which is a very subculture of our counterculture.
Just like cannabis. I think those two go hand in hand,
and that is what, you know, that's what hot box
is really about. Hot Box is about the people, because
cannabis is about the people, you know. And I feel
this hip hop flavor, street vibe to the look, the print,
the font, you know what I mean, it's and it's

(17:03):
old school hip hop too. It's not like new school
hip hop. I feel this old school hip hop flavor
to it. I just I took what I loved in
the nineties growing up as a kid out here, and
took my So then you loved me. Then you better
say that. I know you better. I mean I was
a lot bigger back then. But you know, you're cleaned up,
you're looking great, but you're still just as smooth as

(17:24):
you were back then. On power I remember I remember
being in junior high, which I'm sorry to aid you,
but shit, please for sixty five he looks good. Thank
you to tell you. Let him know, Gardie, we will
listen to you in the morning in wood shop, because
that's what in our class was. And we sit there
and just listen to you. And that's a lot of

(17:44):
good memories from them. I remember listening to you when
one guy cut off his finger on accident on the table.
So all right, yeah, all good times. How fun was that?
It was great? Yeah. The teacher refused to look at him.
He thought it was one of those fake classic fingers
from back then. We kept telling him, no, go back
to work, and we're like, no, he's bleeding up out man,
like he's really rolling down high the background narrating for us.

(18:14):
Oh that's great, man, It's just it's cool that you
bring that, ye because I can see that from the
like I say, the way it's written, I feel like
it has that hip hop flavor to it, which is cool.
And then even the look of the characters. And I'm
looking on your guys' website and I see the vapes,
the sativa's, the hybrids that endicas, the joints. So are
you guys just carrying tons of different products at your

(18:37):
dispensaries and are they at other dispensionaries as well? So
our products are in over two hundred dispensaries right now, um,
and we is mainly all smokables. How many of them
are pain to be quite honest with you, the vast
majority of good. We have a good relations because we
have retail, so we get it right. We understand the
pain and struggle. Retail is a monster. UM. So we're
we're really good support for our retail partners. Um. You know,

(19:00):
we understand payments. We understand because we have our We've
had our own issues in the past, so we work
with them on payment plans or you know, we we
let them do small orders at a time just to
get the product on the shelves. And then we're cool
with you guys reordering every week or every few days
if you need to to have ye who's doing your
distroc We're doing our district. You guys the storefront. Yeah,

(19:20):
it makes it. It makes it so much easier for you.
I mean, you know, and then you know, also you
know some of them, tell us some of the like,
you know, the difficult challenges you guys have been through,
you know, being a brand, because you guys have been
around for a long time, you know, so that you've
had to have some you know, some you know adversity, right,
So tell us about that. Plenty plenty of failures, especially
in the beginning, um, you know, as we were coming

(19:42):
from the illegal world to the legal recreational world, UM,
legacy market. Yeah, I have to adjust how I say things.
It's the same way that great Um, I guess you mean.
The best way to put it is is when I
came into the cannabis business, um, and and it went regulated,

(20:02):
It's it's like trying to build a brick wall, and um,
the government and other people are coming in and they're
not just pushing your brick wall over there, throwing the
bricks at you, and you're trying to build this company
at pace and you're expected to perform like a company
that's one hundred years of experience behind it, and then
they change it all and then they change it, right,
because that's the that's the stuff through my education platform,

(20:23):
we would teach and I would I wouldn't say the
brick well, you know, but i'd i'd say, imagine, you know,
you have a plane and you take off and the
plane but the plane's not built yet, but you have
to get it off the ground and you're in the
middle of the air. And then all of a sudden,
you know, you're actually trying to build this plane in
the middle of the air because it's not and you
can't land it until you know, and then and then
there's no and there's no there's new regulations every month,

(20:44):
the taxes are changing, the the uh you know what
is it like he uh, the acs and the filtration
systems and all this new stuff. There has to be
an implement that you're like, wait a minute, and hundreds
of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, yeah, millions of
dollars to change it. You know, every stuff you've take
in this business cost to cost a pretty penny. Yeah.

(21:06):
Someone made a comment to me the other day, they're like, look,
you know, once people get in this industry, they can't
get out because they're all they're so pot committed, you know,
and they get they get you know, you start getting
involved in all a sudden You're like, okay, I'm a
million dollars, Like oh, okay, I'm two hundred. Like fuck,
I'm three and a half million into this. I'm seven
million into this. You're like, oh shit, Like what do
you do? You just gotta keep rolling. This is your
life now. You Yeah, you're you're stuck. That's saying the

(21:30):
plant is not you know, is not addictive, but the
work is. Yeah. Yeah, and the works look so great
that you guys are doing the flowers seems great. What
is the best selling products that are people loving out there? Oh,
we have a strain called Scotty's Mom. It was a
really fun It's a DRIVD of a Scottie's cake. Um.
And you know, again, I come from that era of

(21:51):
time with Stacy's Mom and euro Trip. Yeah, and you
know I tried the weed I got high, and then
the name kind of was like, oh, Scotty's Mom would
be kind of a sick name for that. And it
just we got lucky with the fact that there's just
a really really top in flour. I mean it was
it's it tested it forty two percow and we we
all had to step back because we're not that brand
and we're like, man, do we want to release a

(22:11):
forty two percent because that's a that's taking you to
another level? Yeah. Um, And so we went and had
it tested again just to make sure, because we get
nervous about releasing something that potent and be able to
back it up and do it again. Yeah, someone will
snatch it off the counter and try to, oh yeah,
debunk you. And it does. Yeah. And it's a lot
of like you know, hey man, like we'll we'll hand

(22:32):
over coas, we'll show you the process. You know. I
come from a bioscience lab background, so she so we
we take it serious when we when we have a
company testing our products for us, um can I shout
out two Rivers Lab. Yeah, man, two Rivers Lab. I
mean they're they're accredited where they're up north. So and
but if they come down. Yeah, I believe so. And

(22:53):
they come down to pick up our flour every single
week whenever we need to. And they really honed in
our testing process. I mean there was sens where you're
jumping ship all the time. We've been with these guys
for almost two years. Never leave. You've probably tried everybody.
Oh yeah, yeah, the whole gamut. Man, it's been everybody,
And I mean we've made good friends throughout the years
and a lot of them moved and gone to other
states by now. But um, this Two Rivers Lab, I

(23:13):
mean they just they came in and they came in
with a lot of very good old bioscience knowledge and
applied that to cannabis. And now we feel like we're
getting more true results coming out of them, especially for
our terropines. And what's you guys best store like the Yeah,
I would say this Baby Cookies in Mission Valley. Man.
People if people just love that brand and you can't
hate on them, It's it's hard. You want to sometimes

(23:34):
you're like, oh, I want to be doing that, you know,
I want that kind of money? Um, because the best
but it does it does really really really well. Yeah,
they'll have their selling point. They do. Yeah, Well, Melrose
is a funny store. I could only imagine Melrose because
traffic that comes. What's that one called One's called Rose? Well,

(23:57):
so my name was high and then she was the
on mel Rows. So sorry, I liked I liked the play. Yeah,
it's it's you know, it's it's a team effort. I mean,
like you get to talk to us, and we're just
we're kind of like at the bottom of getting the
weed to you guys. Um, but we like to focus
a lot on our growers, you know, like we'll pump

(24:18):
out interviews on our on our Instagram to kind of
have our growers talk about the flower because they live
with it every single day and we want to really
hear from them what they're growing, you know, and I
know that there's people other than just a bunch of
flash behind the flowers that they're buying. And not only that,
we're gonna take a break real quick. But when we
come back, as you mentioned your Instagram, I noticed that
you guys were the first cannabis brand could do a

(24:39):
photo shoot with transgender models. I want to hear about that.
Talk about that. Commend you guys for that. We'll be
right back after this break, it's Cannabis Talk for one.
We'll be cannabis talk, you know one. Welcome back to
Cannabis Talk one O one. Calli Effects is full and

(25:01):
broad spectrum hip. Extracted products contained cbeed, CBG, and some
thirteen hundred other elements naturally derived from the hamp of
the plant. You guys do feel the effects at Callie Effects.
Chris did in case something I noticed Kirston, I mean, geez,
correct myself, like beer that usually helps here here here, Kirsten, Uh,

(25:29):
I noticed that you guys did that a transgender model,
you know photo shoot? What inspired that for you guys
to do something different like that? And you know that's
just kind of cool and a little bit about it. Yeah,
but that was a lot your baby too. But um
so I mentioned previously, cannabis is inherently counterculture, about inclusion,

(25:55):
about fighting stigmas. It seemed like a very natural point
when we launched our apparel brand and the model for
which was Apparel for Humankind, to create a platform as
well for transgender models. In fact, that photoshoot was the
very first photo shoot for a young trans model named Austin.
We were very honored to be part of that she

(26:15):
had just won a model Search talent event, and it
just it seemed like a very natural opportunity because with cannabis,
it's it's so it's been stigmatized, it has such a
political history. You can't get away from any of those things.
I think it's really important to acknowledge those things, especially
the relationship it has with the LGBT plus community, how

(26:39):
much it's factored into healthcare for LGBT people there. It's
really difficult to separate the two. And since we were
already were about trying to make sure that we reflect
our community and that we are again very inclusive, approachable brand,
it made sense to do this. I think it's beautiful
for you guys to do that. I mean, you know,
there's a lot of you know, lgp what you say

(27:02):
plus yeah, LGBT plus yeah yeah, uh, because there's there's
always plus that plus size all a plus I think,
and incompasses all plus size. It could be no, but
I think it's it's good to include everybody and and

(27:23):
and just give you know, those a shot because I
think sometimes you know, those communities get missed, you know,
and a lot of people just don't consider that, you know,
because you know, you might have an operator that is
UM just doesn't think about it, or or maybe as
a negative towards it. UM, Let's be honest. It's out there.
So for you guys to make a stance and and
and put that, how did that those articles and those

(27:45):
pictures come out? And how where can people see them? Yeah,
work with a No. One spectrum one. They did a
brief news story on us that day and then a
lot of the photographs you can see on the war
hot Bucks website or on the Instagram. UM. Again, so
the way we approach it as it wasn't like a
call out. We weren't trying to run around with the
giant flag saying hey we've got transgender models. We're just

(28:06):
using those models because they deserve to work as well.
You know. And we were good friends with the guy
who owned Slaves Models, which is the first transgender modeling agency,
and he's gone on to do big and great things
inside that community. And I mean he's got shows coming
out on like HBO and Netflix for like America's Next
Top Model type content, and uh, we talked about it,
and you know, Bravo. I think he's also been in

(28:28):
Bravo as well, he's got he's, he's he's he's a mover.
This guy makes things happen all over the world. You
should get him on too and have him hang out
with us. Bring oh, bring some runner on the show
our events. You want to hear some good stories. Oh yeah,
he's got him. Yeah, he's. When I worked at San Francisco,
I used to do a lot of things with a
bunch of transgender theory models and that guys that would
go and do things on stage. And since I've been

(28:49):
in contact with people in the Bay Area so much recently,
I just made me remember so many of these people
that I used to hang out with. It I loved
because their makeup was flawless. Like my dude was do
his makeup like, swear to god, the dudes would do
the makeup way better than the chicks. I mean, I
just in my opinion, like when you looked at him,
they're like, wait a minute, shit, so on point, like

(29:11):
oh yeah, hey, what's up, Larry. There's there's definitely a
part of that too, is that you know, we look
at things very artistically inside the brand, and you know,
beauty is beauty, it doesn't matter where it's coming from.
And these people deserve to be seen because they are
beautiful in their own right. Um, and a lot of them,
you know, we knew because they used cannabis for depression

(29:31):
and for frustrations and stuff that they go through in
their lives. Being this way right because you're you're a
group who's getting attacked on all sides. And the goal
is just to kind of bring it out and if
people wanted to talk about it, great, and if they
didn't like again, we didn't. We didn't try to promote
it as that. We just let it kind of be. Um.
And my son also got to be in that photo
shoot as well, so he got to get introduced twenty one. Wow,

(29:56):
he's transgender. No no, no, no, But I I've always
tried to keep him in fluted in the things that
I do, and I want him to kind of understand
those worlds because as you know, as kids get older,
their minds start to change. You worry about other outside influences.
So I always want to make sure that he's remaining
as inclusive as possible by kind of involved getting involved
with these people so he understands what they're going through.

(30:17):
A good stuff. He's a good looking kid too, I mean,
the point was we cast the best people for the job,
irrespective of how they identified. We also had a differently abled,
a deaf model who was fantastic deaf as you can't hear. Yeah, deaf,
exactly good. I just want to sure I heard the
right word. Okay, that's awesome too. Yeah, I just inclusive.
It's funny because I just was watching the commercial the

(30:39):
other day at random commercial and it had this big
girl on. They're dancing her way and she makes me
smile and goes, I just get so happy watching. I
forget what company it is, maybe it's like Target or something,
but I was like, yes, it just made me happy
just to see more inclusive rather than the super hot,
skinny model whatever, and I stay hot because you know
that it is. I mean, but this other go that

(31:00):
was the bigger plus. I've been bigger plus my whole life,
you know what I mean. So it's not like I'm
sitting there going I loved it, and it just it's
good to see more inclusive of like everyday, real people
of real communities that are really out there in the world,
rather than your stereotypic sex cells. This is what we're
going to advertise with. Right, there's a lot of beauty
in the world, and until you start looking, you're never

(31:22):
going to see it. And being this inclusive, you get
to see all sorts of amazing human beings that you
just never would get to meet anywhere else. Right, And
and it runs parallel to to weed because weed's mainstream
now or at least, and it feels more mainstream. It's
much cooler now. But there was a time, of course,
when there was all kinds of stigma, and so we

(31:42):
just want to stop cannabis from becoming something that's too
corpora tize, that is unfriendly, that's only for beautiful people,
you know, or a specific definition of what beautiful might be.
I like it. Daniel Smokes, look at him and Chris Frankino, geez,
those guys. So so you guys, actually, you guys are
pretty much the uh, the ones that design everything. You

(32:06):
design everything as well, everything packaging, and then you also
work directly with a lot of the dispensaries. Sounds like yes,
so you guys are pretty much manlifting this the majority
of the company. I mean, I mean there's are how
big is the company? Unless so the company is the
copy to say that. But yeah, the company's pretty big,
and I think we just we get to do the
fun parts of the job. You know, there's a lot

(32:28):
of backbreaking work in cannabis man, a lot of it,
and that's why we always try to make sure we
pay respect to them without our salesman out there not
just being cannabis salesman, but also they embody the brand naturally.
That's that's why they work so well for us. I
mean they push that flower and people love them and
then they end up loving the brand. I mean it's
always the guy that puts his first foot through that door, right,

(32:50):
you got to fall in love with that guy before
they even touch anything that you're trying to sell them. So, yeah,
we do a lot of heavy lifting. But I mean
it's fun. Yeah, this is it's enjoyed. Yeah, it's career.
Not only is it fun, it's just so cool and
like I said, the old school hip hop feel. The
hot box reminds me of beatbox hotoxing, you know what

(33:11):
I mean, but like the hot boxing, hot boxing in
the car, that real style hot box. But like even
though I look at it, though, I feel like it's
so hip hop that I feel like my eyes can
be twist like right now, I looked at it and
I felt like I seen Beatbox and I wanted to out,
you know, think of the Fat Boys or something, you
know what I mean. And it's just that's something that
I just literally mentally went there looking down right here

(33:32):
on this logo. So it's just there's a lot of
things that I find or like wheels exactly. No, you're
you're right, but I mean, it's just it's just a
cool look, a pool feel, and it's just great to
know that you guys are growing at all here. Are
you guys looking to do something out of state and
be a multi state operator. We have aspirations definitely, um,

(33:52):
But I think right now we like playing in our own,
our own backyard. Um. And you know, because we're all
from California and we want to we want to kind
of cement our roots here first, um and and really
kind of get our flower out there to everybody who
deserves it, because the way we look at it is
this is top shelf flower. But you're not You're not
gonna pay top shelf prices for Can I open this? Yeah?
Please do which one you want to smell? Something to

(34:15):
know that you said top shelf flower. Let me get
let me well, I mean, let me get yeah, right here,
I'm gonna grab the first one. Oh, I know you do.
And now you said top shelf. It made me go,
I need to smell this. Now I'm gonna pick this.
So this is Indie Goog, Indigog Indie Goog. That's our
one of our newer strains. It's a number two seller.

(34:36):
Number two, you have the number one seller? No, because
it's all sold out? Yeah, wow, I smell that from here?
Can you really? Yes? I can't. I can't even lie.
This smells like fire, Welcome back Godie. And it's little
nugs too, to be honest, so it's not even like
a big nug. Yeah, we have to we have to
break them down so we can fit them inside the

(34:58):
bags in the jars a big boy nugs. And it's
pretty sticky. It's pretty sticky icky. It's definitely something you
want to take a bite out of. Seriously, blue right,
like I want to? Yeah, it's like, oh, I want one?
Why don't you wants some? Daniel? You smell Frank, you know, Ordey?

(35:23):
I want you to smell this and tell me what
do you think? What's that mean? What was I mean
it's hor approved. Hey, call us up and leave us
a voicemail on it. We need to have him critique
Kings on a voicemail. I need his Instagram. We're gonna

(35:43):
hook him up. You have an Instagram Instagram. You actually
need to make voicemail messages though to to break the
weed though, So we really should have him do that
for real. You got he got the cab. We need
to make him Daniel, get him to do smoke, join
up something to do a review on it. Yeah, and
then we played the review English and in Spanish. We
would love you know what I mean, that'd be hilarious

(36:05):
with all the brands that come in and they're tor
Hair proved. You're not approved. It's tor Hair approved. Yeah.
So that's the number two cellar. And by the way,
I mean, I would have really exactly want to eat it. Yeah. Yeah,
it's so fruity zesty. What was that called again? This
one is indie googa? And what was that a mix of? Oh,

(36:28):
let me find that for you? And is that an
indica or sativa? Because it smells like it would be
more leaning towards the sativa from here really because of
the turpeene Yes, lemonade. So yeah, yeah, it gives it
that's Sativa field to it, um, but it ends up
being an Indica from that right called indie Yeah yeah
maybe yeah, No, no, it is. I named it. That's

(36:50):
why it's called you. You know what it really was,
is your sativa guy. I say, you're like, yeah, well
they said they needed to take all this because they
got another show. Anyways, after you stop asking, Okay, hey,

(37:11):
I'm embarrassing listening. You want to go to the wear
hot box as well, because all your guys is gear
on here. That's not even on the table. It's like
so sick these sweaters, t shirts, backpacks, like everything on here.
It's just the T shirts are are really cool. This basketball,
I didn't know that was a real basketball for you guys.
I just said it was a basketball in front of me,
and then I see it's hot box on the website,

(37:32):
the real you know what I mean. I didn't know
it was a labeled basketball. So many of those during
Hall of Flowers and uh and Palm Springs was it
two years? I just popped them around everywhere else. Oh
you know, we just kind of give them out like candy.
And then throughout the entire hall. All you could hear
was gorilla marketing. Hey, we got to do the cannabis
talk one on one and hot box collap Oh yeah yeah,

(37:55):
I so enjoy doing that stuff. To the basketball, we'll
do the football during football. Is what we really want
to do is the high five with you guys. Everybody
that comes on the show, we'd like to ask them
five questions and we're gonna go ladies first. With Kirston.
You know what I'm saying. They see I got that
right that time. Gold You gotta curi. You gotta cur

(38:15):
because you gotta put the eye before the r. Yeah,
how we get down in the town. So I'm gonna
ask you guys five questions. You'll answer first. You'll answer
the same question following your lovely queen to be sounds good.
Question number one with the engaged couple over here from
a hot box? How old are you the first time
he smoked cannabis? And where did you get it from?

(38:35):
I was a sophomore at See You Boulder making the
pilgrimage for four twenty to folsom Field. So I don't
think it gets more credible than that. Yeah, oh boy,
they yeah, they don't do it as much anymore. But
it was good when that bloom that came from a

(38:57):
very very safe little town in Ohio. IM not very
exposed to many things. Sure, yeah, I was twenty years old. Wow,
twenty years old, it's pretty it's pretty. No, that's actually
it's pretty old. Actually, if it's very old, people like fourteen, twelve,
twenty five years later, and no, that's that's that's good.
That's good. Impressure. Hey, at least it's more right setting smart.

(39:20):
I'm not judging it's good because I think that that,
you know, kids should be wait till they're twenty one,
you know, twenty five years old to experiment with anything,
because you know, I think you're such at such a
fragile age and you risk what could happen to your
brain at that's well, the brain doesn't stop growing and
development until twenty five, so whatever you do before then
it kind of stap. Look at me, I started smoking

(39:42):
at six, go figure, see what I'm saying. And I
was I was two exactly. I mean they were getting
you high, and I remember it was either romantin or
in the couch. What about you, Casey Cason, I was twelve,
I was that one. Yeah, Um, it was a big
part of my part of yeah, a big part of

(40:03):
my family. My mom came from the flower child world.
Mom smoke. Yeah, so it was all part of just
our family. You know. I smoked at once. I don't
want to tell you where I got it from, but
it was a family member. And yeah, yeah, Larry, you
have to trade anything for the joint. Just got it,
um And then uh, yeah, that was it. I went
out in the I was in Westminster and I got

(40:25):
a joint and I went out back and hit it.
In the kind of a whole new world opened up
to me and U, I mean things expanded, you know,
the whole h You get a lot more self confidence
sometimes when you when you smoke weed, and I think
that really kind of helped me kind of blossom into
what I'm doing today. That's awesome. Yeah. Question number two
of the high five, what is your favorite way to
use or smoke cannabis? Perston, It has to be flower.
I mean, we're a flower brand, that's staple. But I

(40:49):
really firmly believe that the holistic value of the plant,
just keeping it very the whole plant is seems to
be more beneficial in many cases. So yeah, I gotta
go with that class. I'm a big fun fan of
flower too. Just you know, I'm straight up. But how
about you man the same thing. I like to smoke it.
I'm a ritual guy. I want to smell it. I
want to feel it. I want to break it down,

(41:11):
pack it into a joint, pack it into a bog,
and then just get that full flavor effect out of it.
It's it's yeah, it's just a ritual for me at
This't've been doing it for so long. Question number three
of the high five Craziest place you ever used or
smoked cannabis with your pretty hair? Your hair looks good,
by the way, I really liked it. I was looking
at you were talking about him when he walked in.
He was like me, oh, thank you. He's got real

(41:33):
pretty hair, and I've seen that little layer cut and
I was like, looking at her hair looking good. I
like it, and I am hitting on your right. You're good,
thank you. I don't know if it's a crazy place,
but you know, when I first joined the industry, nobody

(41:54):
warned you that you could accidentally self medicate at a
work event. So you know that has happened to me,
and I may have given my business card to people
multiple times. They're like, bro, you just gave me this.
You're like high, how many edibles are? But yeah, it's
a hazard. It's a workplace, a crazy place. You're right,
because it's like, damn, I could have ruined myself here. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(42:17):
I want to remember the people you networked with. Yeah,
what about charge? Sometimes you've made a lot. Northern California,
up by green View, they used to grow weed in
the middle of alf alpha fields up there, and me
and my cousins would go up there and I would
smoke a joint in the middle of alf alpha field.
So that was just kind of those days, you know,
and get into fights and and get a little high
and then hug it out and call it a night. Yeah,

(42:37):
come back tomorrow. It's a fun day. Smoke an element.
You're hurting. Question number four the high five. What did
your go to Munchie after you get high? Gotta be pizza.
I know it's not very creative, but no, that's good.
You gotta no anchovies. I'm a child of the nineties,
the Ninja Turtles, a time of gal Yeah, pizza, right,

(42:59):
really don't like I mean, that's you know, every time
we get pizza. I'm like, hey, just get cheese. Yeah,
well yeah, you don't eat you don't eat porks. So yeah,
I love it. Oh no, classic, You're not wrong. You
know that. You know that when you say that, they
don't get porked though, right, you know that most of
the time they make the sauce with you know, cut out,
don't ruin, don't fall for the old hope dope? What

(43:22):
about Casey? What about you? Question was munchies? Yeah, go
too much gummy? What kinds there? Man? Yeah, you can
get into it. Yeah, you ever get killers? Please te gummy?
Drown back hit it'srebro. Yeah. And my favorite one right
now is the Star Mix where it's a little bit
of everything, you know, some sour snakes, some cherries, some bears.

(43:44):
Get funny when you can get a good quality, you know,
like we just opened up, but it's not the best
quality of ever, but we just opened up a big store.
Fresh that fresh gummy, but a fresh pizza, liquorice, fresh
pizza or whatever. We literally just got some liquorice. We
all had one PC each, me, you and Chris Frank,
you know, okay, we just need one We just need

(44:05):
one out of the Fresh one. Right, I watched Willy
Wonka so much as a kid. I think that's where
a lot of this kind of come I wanted now
running in my head. Oh dude, it's one of those
I just pop that out of my ass or not
all that from that era. I don't know if you've seen,
but History of the World Part two is coming up?
Did you see that so on Hulu? Which is I think? Dude,

(44:28):
I just seen that the other day. I've seen the
promo on it for on it Jimmy Kimmel last night
he had somebody on. Oh you had one of the
actors on it, and it's that same era of people,
and so you know, I just want to share that
with you. That's exciting. Yeah. For those that are Lazing Saddles,
Oh yeah, good movie. All those funny classics that are
you know, Oh you're gonna get you know, say Blazing
Saddles too many times? Right? Yeah, you know what is
that movie? I got the We're Gonna Get canceled. I've

(44:52):
got the poster with the beans in it. Have you
ever seen that poster in the office. Yeah, we're the
two beans, but yeah, you have beans and it's that's
the poster, and that's how they actually put the posters out.
They had like poster and like almost like a what's
called box what they call him, like a shadow box,
sattle box beans at the bottom. By the way, it

(45:15):
was the most racist movie in the world, but well
there's a few others, but yeah, it's up there. It's
one of the But funny at the time, you gotta
look at it and know what it is, and it's
it's still class. You had to be a part of
that error to know the you know, it wasn't meant
to be. Well, movies are for your liking. You don't
like it, don't go see If you're not a chick
flick movie, don't go watch chick flick. You don't like
cartoon movies, don't go watch a cartoon one. You want

(45:36):
to see a racist fucking movie, there is. I think
mill Brooks did a good job putting out the stupidity
of racism exactly. It's more stupidity of it. It's not
like hard. Yeah, and that's why he could still do it.
And he's ninety seven years old and he's still beloved. Yeah, dude,
I just see this thing yesterday. He was still moving yeah,
and then I thought he was up there making fun
of things and doing things, and you know he did

(45:59):
it to make fun of it like this, How stupid
white folks are? I mean, I can agree. Yeah, so
it's great. Question number five with the high fives, thank you,
hot talks. Love him so much, Kirsten and Casey soon
to be married. But if you could smoke cannabis with
anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?

(46:22):
First my gut was gonna be Uncle Snoop because you know,
child of the nineties, and but the things about canvas,
you can you have so many opportunities to actually smoke
with some of these greats like Whiz Khalifa and Snoop
Dogg and an exhibit. Well wait a second, ladies and gentlemen,
Snoop dog look at it, look at it, look at it.

(46:44):
Look at her readies like ready, She's like, what smart?
I had to be more casual about it, like I'm
just looking. She was like, no way, okay, but my
next time, the next answer was going to be Obama.
Can you bring out Obama number forty four? Last week?

(47:07):
Last week? Uncle yeah, only because he's the only president's
ever met that he also Inhaled. Yeah, so it would
be Snoop and then of course Obama. Yeah, nice, those
are classic, great ones. I mean, I think he could
probably get away with getting Snoop on and smoke, you know,
but probably a bit more difficult, you know, unless you

(47:28):
guys had my fear what do they call it? The
who knows the circle? Go to Chicago and see if
you run into him over there, you might be casey?
What about you? So I was high when I was
reading these questions, and the first thing that came to
mind was was a panda. I know it's not a person,
a panda, and she was asking me on the way
he answer, yeah, hold on, first off, you're the first

(47:51):
step panda. I like pandas because you know, Panda Express
and those are nice and lovely and beautiful, and you
go to San Diego Zoo and you could feel a
lot of different ways. But I like pandas. What's your reason?
When when you watch it, they're always they're always rolling
around and having a good time, you know, they're just
falling off of things, go belly. Yeah, so they're naturally
kind of high. So I thought it would be kind
of fun to get high with one and then you know,

(48:12):
I don't cuddle up with it and maybe play its
games trying to ward off any creepy vibes or anything.
But you're a sweet dude. I like that because I
think Sanda bears are sweet cute. I can't wait to
watch Cocaine Bear. That really, and then I think the
same thing of that movie. Watch Sunday. We're gonna watch
it with night Mabe. I go, oh, yeah, we got
to check that that movie. It remind me of what

(48:33):
you're saying, though, Like you know, instead of that would
be called what we're doing a movie called The High Panda. Yeah,
gonna be good ideas like that. I will definitely credit.
We need to make a panda a panda hot box,
a panda hotbox because you're my animal animal backpacks. Pandas
are one of those cute animals that will kill you,
you know. Yeah, they hug around you. I mean when

(48:53):
you think about them, they always got a tree and
a stick in name out. It's a baboo stick, but
it could be a joint, you know what I mean.
And they're just big, cuddly. Maybe they're getting high on
Mommy or your brother Pitt. Yeah, yeah, maybe someone could
just dress up like a panda and get high with
let's do it. We got another one right here, Daniel, Daniel,

(49:15):
come out here and get him a hug and give
him get high whatever. So listen, guys, anything that we
forgot before we let you guys get on how to
hear as far as you know the brand or the
clothing line that the company at all, that you want
to bring up or that we might have lift out
for me. The main thing I want to say is
the biggest part of this brand and why we why

(49:35):
we pushed so hard on it, is because we wanted
to get a lot of good flower into good people's hands,
and we wanted everybody to be able to enjoy top
shelf flower at an affordable price because it's it's hard,
you know it is. Yeah, And I just wanted to
give you guys props for your Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund
and what you guys did there because were you there,
I know I couldn't we get we wanted so desperately
to come. I have to tell you that's a passion

(49:55):
project for me, destigmatizing that. Um. You know, we had
Lamar Odom launch his brand Odom Cannabis at our artist
Spenser and Arlita Lemonate Pacoima, and just you know, his
brand was built around the fact that he had this
journey with cannabis and recovery and the fact that he
wasn't allowed to self medicate openly with that when he
was when yeah, yeah, just I mean when you you

(50:17):
look at that and veterans like Casey, the fact that
there has been such a legal log jam that's gotten
in the way of the end that the antiquated sports
regulations that have created that kind of environment. I really
appreciate what you guys were doing there and I advocate
for that. Thank you. Well, we're going to do it
again next year in Vegas during the Super Bowl, so yeah,
we will be the next Super Bowls. Actually, no, we'll

(50:40):
make it out to this zo. Yeah, it'll be great man.
And then do we have a date yet for the wedding, Yo,
nidiat we will after I get the degree here here
the cannabis. Cannabis wedding here, I will cannas. Yeah. I
had my fifties birthday here. It was awesome. Off the hook,

(51:01):
first one broke it in. You're going to be high. Yeah,
he's a cannabis friendly private event. You know, we'll change
the whole place, all of the locals that have you guys'
names and pictures and videos of you guys beating. I
honestly expected that today, but yeah, oh we didn't get
it in time. You know, it puts you the head
shows this fault he was he was late. Yeah, yeah,
Daniels gigging. Third segment he showed up. But you know,

(51:22):
I mean lose here it happens. Surprised and then he
we were all wondering where the guy was in the
photo shooting. You said, like, where is this guy at?
You kept walking by USAT and switch what's you guys website?
It's smoke hotbox dot com, sml K hot Box and
then where hotbox dot com for the apparel w E
A R hot Box. Yeah, not where are you? Yeah,

(51:45):
it's aware, I got it. Man. Well, thank you guys
so much. Man, Make sure you guys check out hot
box online at where hot Box because the clothings dope.
Make sure you go down to their stores and all
the different locations. It's Cannabis Talk one on one, and
remember this if no one else loves you, we thank
you for listening to Cannabis Talk one on one on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.