Benevolent Baking with Wesley Holloway

Where are you listening from?

Wesley Holloway brings a refreshing perspective to the cannabis industry through his company, Benevolent Bakery. After leaving the profit-driven medical device world where financial incentives often overshadowed patient care, Wesley found his true calling by combining cannabis entrepreneurship with social responsibility.

The journey wasn't without challenges. Wesley openly shares how his first cannabis venture collapsed in 2022, leading to a period of deep self-reflection. Rather than blaming external factors, he took ownership of his mistakes and, with encouragement from industry friends, channeled those lessons into creating Benevolent Bakery, a company that donates portions of its proceeds to nonprofits supporting their local communities.

The product line itself offers a thoughtful alternative to standard edibles. With just-add-water brownie mixes and other baking products, Benevolent Bakery creates intentional, communal experiences rather than quick consumption. 

Try Benevolent Bakery for yourself and make a difference with your purchase. Use code BITEME20 at checkout for 20% off your order and join the movement of cannabis consumers who believe in giving back.

Continue the conversation and start connecting—head to JoinBiteMe.com right now. You'll find a private community of cannabis growers, makers and lovers who are just as obsessed or curious as you are.

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Visit the website for full show notes, free dosing calculator, recipes and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Buckle up, friends, for episode 314, where I sit
down with Wesley Holloway ofBenevolent Bakery.
Welcome to Bite Me, the showabout edibles, where I help you
take control of your high life.
I'm your host and certifiedganger, margaret, and I love
helping cooks make safe andeffective edibles at home.
I'm so glad you're here.

(00:25):
Welcome back to Bite Me, thepodcast that explores the
intersection of food culture andcannabis, and if you're just
tuning in for the first timetoday, you are about to hear a
fantastic interview that I didwith Wesley, and if you've been
here for a while, you know it'sgoing to be a good one.
I think you're really going toenjoy it because Wesley is doing
something really special in thecannabis space.
But before we get into today'sepisode, I just want to mention

(00:47):
you're going to hear thisepisode and you're going to
think, wow, this is amazing.
Who can I share this with?
So pull out your phone rightnow and text this episode to
somebody that you care about,because sharing is caring.
So you're going to hear fromWesley today, the founder of
Benevolent Bakery, and he'sgoing to share with us his story
how he got into this business,what some of his prior business

(01:10):
experience taught him and why headded a social component of
donating portions of theproceeds to local nonprofits,
why that was important to him toinclude in his mission for this
business inside the cannabiscommunity, and also how he's
actively working to fight thestigma of the lazy stoner
stereotype.
We covered that and a whole lotmore in this episode.

(01:32):
And if you listen through,wesley has a generous gift for
the listeners of Bite Me.
So be sure to stick around tothe end and with that, my
friends, please enjoy thisconversation with Wesley
Holloway of Benevolent Bakery.
Okay, everyone, I'm reallyexcited to be sitting down today

(01:54):
with Wesley of the BenevolentBakery and before we get into
today's conversation, wesley, Iwas just hoping that you could
introduce yourself to thelisteners of Bite Me and maybe
share a little bit about yourcannabis journey.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Absolutely, absolutely.
For starters, thank you forhaving me on.
I'm also excited to be herespeaking with you For those
listening, as Margaret mentioned, my name is Wesley Wesley
Holloway.
I'm the founder of BenevolentBakery, which was founded and
launched in early 2023.
But, to answer the question, Iactually got my start in the

(02:27):
cannabis journey in 2019.
So home base for me is OklahomaCity and we passed what's been
deemed one of the more liberalcannabis laws in the United
States at that time, and I thinkit was October of 2018.
And so me and one of mychildhood friends actually got
our first license in February of2019 and started off really

(02:51):
just as wholesale distributorsin the Oklahoma marketplace.
To be completely honest, wedidn't have a ton of capital to
start, so selling productsseemed like the most viable way
instead of setting up theinfrastructure to have to
manufacture and so forth and soon.
You know, lucky for us, we weremoderately successful on the

(03:11):
front end of our cannabisjourney and actually did get
into the manufacturing side aswell as the extraction business,
and at one point, evenpurchased a retail store, which
did not go well.
We found out that we are notmeant for retail, but yeah, you
know, that was kind of myjourney up until, I would say,

(03:32):
about 2022-ish, and then, youknow, for a few reasons or
another, I had to make a fewpivots, but I got started back
in 2019 and really hustled allthe way to today.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Right, and can you talk a little bit about your own
personal journey with cannabisor your relationship with the
plant?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
That started well before 2019.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, that's a good amount of yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
If I'm being completely honest, it started
before it was legalized.
No, I actually, you know,probably like a lot of people
that I've talked to, truthfullystarted the cannabis journey.
I think it was maybe my senioryear of high school.
One of my friends who had beena pretty heavy smoker at the
time, really most of high schoolwe were just hanging out one
day.
He asked me if I wanted to takea puff with a J and I said, of

(04:17):
course, and honestly, ever sincethen it was never a situation
where I just was in love,honestly, with the effects or
the psychoactive effects.
I, even as a senior in highschool, you know I felt it
reduced some of the tension andsome of the stress, I think at
the time in life, you know,making decisions on college, and
I was where am I going to goplay football?

(04:38):
Are my friends going there?
So you know, it felt like therewas a lot of heavy implicated
decisions to be made and youknow I'm sitting on the back
patio of one of my good friendssmoking weed and there was a
calming effect to that, you know.
And really, ever since then Iwas definitely a fan and a
consumer of the plant itself.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Right and I think a lot of people resonate with that
.
Just the idea, because eventhough you don't realize until
you really start adulting likehow tough life can get when
you're, you know, like you said,a senior in high school,
there's a lot of pressure.
A lot of times it feels likethere's a lot of pressure and it
is nice to get out of your headsometimes.
I think we all need that allthe time.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
It was nice, it was very nice, it was very soothing
and, yes, what felt like a reallife problem at 17 years old.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Hindsight's funny.
I would love to have that be mybiggest problem.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Right, I know right.
I want to go back to those dayswhen life was pretty simple.
But, like we say, hindsight's2020.
But I've done some reading onyou and your journey as well,
and I've read that you wereselling medical devices to
surgeons prior to getting into,you know, baking cannabis
brownies.
When was the moment that yourealized you want to leave the

(05:51):
world of like I guess I don'tknow if it'd be called
pharmaceutical sales, butmedical sales and to get into
the world of something like thecannabis business?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Absolutely Cause it is kind of a jump and really not
the same thing and I was mostlyon the medical device side of
it.
But yeah, you are correct, Ihad a medical distribution
company, also with a goodchildhood friend of mine, mostly
selling surgical devices backbraces and then we had a very
small footprint in thetoxicology or the lab testing.

(06:23):
Space is probably a simpler wayto say that To answer your
question.
I don't know if there was everone just defining moment.
But to be honest with you, youknow the American healthcare
system is it's financiallydriven, as most things are in
this country, and with thefinancials really being the
incentive behind the care.

(06:43):
We both my partner at the time,you time we both noticed it and
talked about it and discussedit.
There were just things thatwere.
You know, we were supposed tobe there to help people, provide
services, provide treatment,provide bracing, whatever it was
to truly help people.
You know, obviously, economicsis always going to be a part of
it.
That's just what capitalismdrives.

(07:04):
Obviously, economics is alwaysgoing to be a part of it.
That's just what capitalismdrives, but with that being the
sole focus over time, what wewere selling and what we were
doing, honestly, it didn't feelgood anymore and it felt like
the more success we had, themore rotten we were becoming,
truthfully, from the inside out.
So really I just needed to pivotfor my own self-esteem and

(07:25):
feeling better about myself andwith my own experiences, and
journey with the cannabis plantprovided a good segue.
As soon as Oklahoma legalizedit, it was almost a no brainer
for me, but we really never hadjust an aha moment.
It's time to get out of medicaland pivot to this.

(07:47):
It was really a culmination ofthis experience honestly, of
just experience learning moreabout the healthcare system,
learning more about ourselvesand what we were selling and why
we were selling it.
And then, you know, kind of acoffin or the nail in the coffin
was Oklahoma legalizing it andproviding the opportunity to
actually make that pivot.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Right.
That's pretty interesting,though, because I just find that
you pivoted into a prettytricky industry.
Like, I'm sure, you mentionedalready that Oklahoma had pretty
generous cannabis laws, but youknow not having federal
legalization must be prettytricky sometimes, but you've
already touched on this a littlebit that one of your first
cannabis ventures did not go asplanned, and that's probably

(08:24):
you're referring to the retailside of things.
But a lot of people after theytook like a difficult loss would
probably I don't know run awayand decide you know, maybe this
industry isn't for me, butinstead you sat with the failure
and you looked at where youwent wrong and you owned your
role and what happened and thisis a quote that I found that you
had mentioned and I love thatmindset how did this shape your

(08:49):
approach to building benevolentbakery?

Speaker 2 (08:52):
And that's actually a phenomenal question and,
honestly, while we did fail atretail, that was a very quick
failure.
Honestly, our first venturethat we started that started
with distribution and grew intomanufacturing and extraction and
logistics.
We had a transport license aswell.
I mean, we started with alicense and seventy five hundred

(09:13):
dollars and at our peak, Ithink we eclipsed a little bit
over ten million dollars in topline revenue and have five
licenses and it was in 2022.
All of that came apart.
It wasn't just the retail sideof it and there was really a
period of time where there was amarket collapse.
That definitely happened,shouldn't be ignored, but I

(09:36):
think for a long time I leanedtoo heavily into the market
collapsing as the reason as towhy our company collapsed and I
just felt that, honestly, it wasrestricting to my own personal
growth.
Luckily, I'm blessed to reallycome from a great family that
taught me the power inself-reflecting and taking
ownership in whatever it is Ifit's my successes or my faults.

(09:59):
I need to know exactly what myrole was and how I impacted
whatever that situation was.
So really blessed to havepeople that instilled that in me
.
And so when I got done, blamingthe marketplace, you know,
blaming the community around me.
It was time to self-reflect andin that self-reflection I

(10:20):
learned pretty quickly that Iwasn't done with the space.
I learned pretty quickly that Iwasn't done with the space.
I did feel like there weremistakes that I made personally
that you know now that I learnedfrom them, I'm not going to
make those mistakes again.
But while I was, you know, stillsulking and licking my wounds a
little bit, honestly, I havesome really good friends in the
industry.
One of them is the founder of abrand called Smokey's Edibles,

(10:43):
chuck Wright.
Shout out to him, I mean,honestly, he called me and he
goes Wesley, you're neverleaving this game as long as I'm
in it.
So he's got his head get overthe failure.
Everyone fails.
But he's like you are not afailure.
You know you, wesley Holloway,you can succeed.
But you got to get back, youknow, get back in the game and
keep moving.
And, honestly, having him andhis company and his

(11:06):
infrastructure as a channelpartner has been an absolute
blessing to me.
So, even that, I wish I couldtake full credit of getting back
on my feet and really gettingover the failure.
But truthfully, it was the, youknow, very close friends that
I've made in the space and thecommunity that is surrounding me
today has enabled me to kind ofstand back up on my own two

(11:28):
feet.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, that's amazing because it also shows that you
it's really tough to do a lot ofthese things on your own and,
honestly, if you hadn't gonethrough that self-reflection
process, I think in a lot ofcases people just end up
repeating the same mistakes.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
So, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, now what was one of the most surprising
things you found when youentered the world of infused
baking?
Oh, man.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
There were several things that I found out in the
world of infused baking.
Let's see the most honestly,the most surprising thing and I
get surprised probably once amonth is the the creativity of
the consumer.
When I initially developedbenevolent bakery, you know, the
very first few was that infusedbrownie mix.
I thought, you know that's asfar as my creativity took me

(12:13):
with my own product.
I've now, since we've turned itinto a coffee mug brownie that
can be, you know, a single serveitem.
People have used it as justreally a hot cocoa topping of,
topping of puddings, topping ofsomeone put it in chili.
But I would say the mostsurprising thing is the use
cases for the products that Inever even came up with.

(12:34):
The cannabis consumer is a verycreative consumer, I would say
that.
So you know, at first thrilledthat they actually the consumer,
took to the product, reallyenjoyed it.
But seeing some of the usecases come out of it, some of it
I've used for inspiration.
It's part of my marketingmaterial.
Now here's what you can do withour brownie mixes, but before

(12:57):
that I saw it as a brownie mix.
So I would say that's been mostsurprising is what people have
been able to use my product andhow they've applied it to their
own preferences in their dailylife.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
I would agree, too, that the cannabis users are a
pretty creative bunch oftentimes.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes, they are.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
This might be a good time too, because I realized
right now like I feel familiarwith the brand and, of course,
as the founder, you're veryfamiliar with the brand but
people at this point aren'treally.
They don't know what BenevolentBakery does.
Can you just talk a little bitabout the product that you're
putting out there?

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yes, absolutely.
So.
The products again are theinfused brownie mix was my first
product.
It's still the top seller, Iwould venture to say the most
favorite product, either fromthe retailers that we partner
with or the end consumers thatactually purchase it.
But the brownie mix has beennumber one.

(13:53):
We have since rolled out aconfetti cake mix that is
offered in a few markets.
We also have a hemp-derivedversion that's offered online,
and then we have a hot cocoa mixthat we are rolling out.
I actually tried to roll it outlast year, but it's a very
seasonal product, so I missedthe timing where the hot cocoa
made sense, right.

(14:13):
Actually, here in about a fewweeks we'll be going into
production and we will beofficially releasing the hot
cocoa at the very least in theOklahoma market and then as well
in the federal hemp-derivedmarketplace.
But really, to touch on theproducts themselves, I wanted
something.
The edible category in generalis, I would say, primarily I

(14:35):
won't give a percentage, butprimarily made up of gummies.
There's pectin gummies, there'sgelatin gummies.
There's probably 8 milliondifferent kinds of gummies, but
that seems to be the dominatingproduct line in the edible
category.
So when I started developingBenevolent Bakery, I knew that I
didn't want to be a gummy brand.

(14:56):
I wanted to provide somethingthat was a little more niche and
unique, but obviously somethingthat could still be successful
within that same consumer realmthat walks into really what a
dispensary at the time, becausewhen I developed Benevolent,
this hemp-derived marketplacewasn't really a thing.
But I wanted to providesomething that would still be

(15:18):
successful, consumers wouldstill resonate with, but also
something that was more communal, something that's more fun and
more experience-driven, not justI bought a bag of gummies, I
ate a gummy, or I maybe gave itto a friend.
I felt like having tointentionally bake something,

(15:42):
just really to the intentionbehind it.
You can't just open up a box ofmy product and consume it and
realize the effect.
You do have to plan and dosomething and honestly I was
concerned.
I thought that may be a hurdle,but I found that that's
actually been one of thestrongest points of my brand
with the consumers that they doenjoy not just consuming it with
friends or family, but theentire process of creating that

(16:06):
and products for themselves.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Right, and I can see why there is such an appeal,
because people really do like toget creative.
And for those listening,correct me if I'm wrong, but the
brownie mix which you mentionedis right now your most popular
product.
You basically just add water,that's it.
Everything else is in it, soit's infused, you're just adding
water in your baking.
I mean, that sounds prettysimple, but so it's great also

(16:29):
for people who are maybeintimidated by baking, because I
know a lot of people are.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
But they'll be on there and while it is a just add
water mix and you hit it on thehead, we actually did that for
what I'll say, the novice baker.
I wanted the product to beapproachable to everyone and, to
your point, not everyone iscomfortable baking baked goods,

(16:54):
whether they've tried it andfailed, or have heard that it's
difficult and never tried it.
I wanted to bring somethingthat was very unintimidating,
where someone would look at theproduct and say I had no problem
producing that.
That sounds like fun.
Let me take that, um, but Ialso realized that there is a
subset of really just not evenjust cannabis consumers,

(17:16):
consumers in general, thatabsolutely love baking and a
just add water is probablyoffensive to them.
You and so what we did to ourbest effort to appease everyone.
So we actually put analternative recipe card inside
of each box that does call forthe traditional eggs, butter,
vanilla extract.

(17:36):
So for our I guess, not sonovice bakers, they can go in
there and make an elevatedbaking mix or an elevated
brownie mix.
That's probably closer to whatthey would enjoy doing.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Right, and I think, if I recall you telling me also,
the confetti cake mix didrequire eggs and some extra
ingredients as well for thatparticular one.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
It did, it, did, it did.
We could not.
In the R&D process of that Ijust could not get a mix to work
right with the Just Add Water.
And good advice to my lifepartner she just said just go
with the regular, you know cakemix.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I think people are pretty familiar with cake mixes
anyway, because for a long timeI mean, I've been running this
podcast for six years and a lotof people.
When they're just starting out,I always suggest to them just
start with like a boxed cake mixthat you get from the store,
because it takes a lot of theguesswork, the science out of

(18:36):
baking, because baking is a realscience and, as somebody who
didn't, really bake before.
I started making edibles.
I totally understand that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
That is good advice that you gave people, though,
because it's familiar, you knowit's been done.
It's something that I won't saynecessarily plug and play, but
it's familiar and it's been done.
You know there's a roadmapthere that can get them to a
good end point.
But yeah, the confetti cake mix, not just add water, but the
hot cocoa mix that can be usedwith water and or milk.
That's just kind of a customerpreference.

(19:06):
That's what I think on that hotcocoa side.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, now just to pivot a little bit, you came up
with the name Benevolent Bakeryfor the company, and that
immediately signals that you'regiving back as part of your
identity as far as the businessgoes.
Why did you choose to makephilanthropy such a fundamental
part of your identity as far asthe business goes?
Why did you choose to makephilanthropy such a fundamental
part of your business?

Speaker 2 (19:27):
model.
I have to thank a good friendof mine, emma she actually.
So yeah, emma Butler, a goodfriend of mine that I grew up
with.
She founded a nonprofit inOklahoma City called the Hair
Initiative and at the time shereally bootstrapped herself and
put a lot of pressure on herselfand put a lot of pressure on
herself, put a lot of weight onherself to make that nonprofit
successful.

(19:48):
But she was able to get it offthe ground with one of her
friends, but some, you know,down the road I ran into her at
a wedding actually and she wastelling me about it and it was
just it resonated with me.
So not only just you know herbeing a good friend, but her
mission that she was on I wantedto help.
So, long story short, she askedme to join the board of her
nonprofit to really help herwith some of the business

(20:09):
connections.
At the time I had some good bankconnections to help with some
of the financial needs to runthe nonprofit and before that I
had zero footprint or experiencein nonprofit work.
So that was really my firstforay into it and I knew
immediately, honestly, after thefirst board meeting, that I

(20:30):
won't say immediately, I knew assoon as I found out that I had
value add and I could actuallymove the needle for someone.
It was really something I justabsolutely fell in love with.
And from a timing standpoint,that was at a time where our
very first cannabis venture wasdoing well, and so I was kind of
running those two projects inmy life in parallel, but never

(20:53):
crossed over.
And just one day I can't evencredit any particular
conversation or thought butsomething came over me that I
wanted to merge those two lanesthat I was running in my life of
working in the nonprofit spacewith the cannabis industry, and
so that was kind of the thoughtprocess of putting together a
brand that worked incollaboration, really that made

(21:16):
donations to a nonprofit, butthe one.
I guess the one sticking pointthat I had is that I found that
a lot of nonprofits would takethe money but if it came from a
cannabis brand, they wouldn'twant to, you know, cross promote
or really say they're probablyworking with a cannabis brand,
and so, while there are, youknow, several organizations that

(21:37):
I wish had taken a differentstance, that was something that
I was pretty hard and fast on.
That.
If you know, we're going tocollaborate, collaborate
together.
We're truly going tocollaborate together.
You know, I want to be able totell my customers what we're
doing with their money and sonot being able to put the
non-profit that we're workingwith on marketing collateral

(21:58):
email campaigns I saw asprohibitive to the true mission
and the impact of that mission.
So that was like.
My one stipulation was we wantto make donations, we want to
donate our time.
You know where we can.
But we also want to crosspromote and I want to be able to
tell customers, you know,here's where we're giving the
money to and here's what thisorganization does.

(22:19):
You know, all the way to thedollar amount if we can.
And some of our partners haveprovided that information and
they have provided that accessand really the opportunity to
cross promote and it has beenphenomenal ever since we've
really gotten started with thatmission.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Right, so you created a nice boundary for yourself so
you could do further work withthese organizations that you're
working with, which totallymakes sense.
I find it interesting Maybeit's not surprising at all,
actually that some nonprofitseven don't want to work with
cannabis companies because therestill is that stigma.
But hopefully you're notrunning into it too much.
And one of the first ones thatI wanted to talk about is you

(22:58):
have a partnership through theHomeless Alliance in Oklahoma
City.
What, in your mind, is theconnection between cannabis
community and housing security?

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Can I back into the answer?
Because I may tell you mypersonal connection honestly, my
personal connection to theHomeless Alliance.
Well, there's a few differentpersonal connections, some of
which came later.
But my life partner, she, um,the homeless Alliance has a uh,
a program called the curbsideChronicle where they're really
empowering people that arehomeless at the time to honestly

(23:32):
to work.
You know they have it's.
Curbside Chronicle is amagazine, um, and the people
that are homeless they getloaded up with their magazines
daily or weekly and they get togo sell magazines Um or weekly
and they get to go sellmagazines.
So you know where some homelesspeople ask for money, this
subset of people are sellingmagazines to earn their money.
Where the curbside chronicle,you know, they take a piece to

(23:55):
continue operations but the restof that money does stay with
the individual.
And I've really, you know, mylife partner is the one that
told me about it and I'm verythankful and grateful that she
did Because, as I've learnedmore, it really is a very
empowering program to put a lotof people's, I guess, put their

(24:15):
destiny back into their own hand.
You know, everyone needs helpand I just like the way that
they have gone about helpingthis subset of people or, in
other cases, ignored or writtenoff entirely.
The Homeless Alliance saidwe're not going to do that.
You know we're going to bringthem in, give them shelter, help
, nurse them to a certain pointand then also give them the

(24:35):
tools they need to succeed evenoutside the shelter.
So personally, you know, reallydue to Molly and her impact
with the Curbside Chronicle,that was my initial draw to the
Homeless Alliance and reallythat empowerment, you know I'd
kind of tie that into thecannabis industry.
You know, we're kind of acounterculture in some parts of

(24:58):
the world and really we have tolift each other up.
There are some days where thisis a very difficult industry to
find any kind of silver liningor any kind of happiness.
Kind of got to look to the guynext to you who may be suffering
as well.
But you know, in thatconnection there is some kind of

(25:23):
empowerment to really keepgoing and keep pushing through
this cannabis industry.
Because, look, there's noroadmap for us, all of us that
are professionals, whetherthat's licensed professionals or
people that are cannabisadjacent, providing whatever
services to the industry theroadmap is brand new.
There is that level ofempowerment that comes from the
community.
That is needed, in my opinion,and so I would say to tie in the
homelessness and cannabis.

(25:44):
For me, at least in myjourneying experience, it's
really been just how theyempowered the homeless people to
get back on their feet and tocontinue their journey in life
and to do better.
I really see that in thecannabis industry as well to do
better.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
I really see that in the cannabis industry as well.
Yeah, that's beautiful.
I really like that too, and Ican see why you'd want to
support them in that mission,because it's also rising tides
lift all ships.
That's kind of what I've beensaying for this past year,
because you really can't go italone.
I mean you can try, but it'salso pretty lonely.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
I don't think anyone in this world can do.
I mean, it's hard to accomplishjust about anything alone, you
know.
And those that say they can doit alone, I think they should
probably do some self-reflectionand figure out what boosted
them along the way, because I dobelieve that everyone needs
help, everyone needs a guidinglight, and without that, you

(26:36):
know, I don't know where any ofus would be.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Truthfully, yeah, exactly Now.
You're also working with ExitNow in Missouri and that that
organization focuses on socialequity and criminal justice
reform in cannabis.
How do you see the relationshipbetween the war on drugs and
the communities that you'retrying to help through your
giving?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Absolutely Well.
I do think it's widely acceptedand maybe it's not.
Maybe it's just widely acceptedin my little circle of people.
The war on drugs was a completefailure and intentionally
targeted communities of color.
Truthfully, that's not myopinion, that's just statistical
of who got arrested forcannabis offenses and who didn't

(27:18):
get arrested for cannabisoffenses.
And so you know, exit Now isfounded by two young black guys
that I met in the industry andimmediately, you know, honestly,
their energy is more contagiousthan their mission and I
absolutely love their mission.
But the two founders, demarcoand Moe of Exit Together they
actually took it.
You know, they took theirmission very far.

(27:41):
They actually partnered with StLouis University and they offer
a scholarship program thathelps individuals go through a
cannabis program and leads themultimately to a decent paying
job in the industry as well.
That was my initial draw.
You know I had a vision ofwanting to fund one of those
fellowship programs.

(28:02):
But to directly answer yourquestion, I mean the war on
drugs and how it's impacted themarginalized communities in
America, I think is very evidentwith the statistics again of
who got arrested and who didn't,and those rights still, you
know, those wrongs still haven'tbeen righted.
There are still people.
I get to go sell marijuanaevery single day in seven states

(28:25):
and I get to sell hemp driveTHC online anywhere in the
country.
And there's people today, rightnow, sitting in jail for
selling less product than I selldaily.
And so their mission not onlyis it spot on and I do think you
know widely known and accepted,but it's still a problem today,
even though it is widely knownand accepted, nothing's been

(28:47):
done about it.
But they're also dead seriousabout their mission and what
they're doing to actually impactand affect positively the
communities that have beennegatively impacted by the war
on drugs.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Right, yeah, that's yeah.
I don't know what else to addto that, really, because we are
still getting arrested today,which is crazy, it's so crazy
it's crazy today.
Which is crazy?
It's so crazy.
In one hand, you can havesomebody who's selling this
stuff legally.
In the next hand, Like you said, somebody with tiny amounts
could be thrown in jail still orare sitting in jail.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Thrown in jail by people that use the product.
That's been most mind-blowingto me.
I have friends that are policeofficers and most recently told
me that there are exemptions,medical exemptions, that they're
in a medical market where theycan utilize cannabis products
with a prescription or a medicalcard, and that one really blew
my mind because Oklahoma, aswild as it is in the marketplace

(29:47):
with the many license, we'restill a medical market Right to
use a product that they can turnaround and arrest someone for.
I don't know how often thathappens, but just the fact that
that is a potential or anopportunity is insane to me
honestly.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, it's kind of wild actually.
And then there's also peoplewho exist out there that are
doing even worse drugs andyou're like this just doesn't
make sense.
Like, make it make sense.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
You guys do real drugs.
That's what I'm always like.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
You guys are real drugs.
That's what I always say.
You guys are real drugs overthere.
Now are there other communityprojects or organizations that
you're working with, withBenevolent Bakery.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
There are and, to be honest with you, the other
groups that we work with aremostly in what I consider our
expansion markets, where we havelicensed the brand.
You know I wanted the donation.
That is the anchor of the brand, that is who Benevolent is and
what we do.
But my relationship is not asclose with some of those

(30:46):
nonprofits.
It's more of an arm's lengthrelationship where we make
donations but don't or haven't.
I won't say we don't and won't,but historically we have not
spent time.
But to answer your question, ifwe work with the Hunger
Alliance of Arkansas and makedonations to them in that market
we were in the New York marketfor a short period of time, just

(31:07):
long enough to make onedonation.
God, the name of that nonprofitis skipping me, I think it was
the Broward Foundation but alsothey touched on homelessness and
really helping kids that were,you know, in homeless families
that ended up at their shelter.
And then there's a program outof Montana that helps disabled

(31:29):
children and it's really more ofan outdoor recreational program
and honestly it was picked bymy partner out there in Montana.
It was something that I wasunfamiliar with.
Montana is a very outdoorsyplace, completely different
landscape than what I live inhere in Oklahoma, but they told
me about a program that helpeddisabled children learn how to

(31:50):
ski, or their version of skiing,and so that was very important
to them and it was somethingthat felt good for me as well.
So that's what we work with inthe Montana market as well.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
So you're working with basically nonprofits and
charities in the differentplaces where you have licenses.
Is that what I understand?
I understand that correctly.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Not where I own the license, but where I've licensed
the brands, we have partnersthat will manufacture and sell
the product.
So, yes, we'll partner withnonprofits.
My goal is to have and I'mstarting to learn.
You know what this actuallytakes and I think it's either
going to be an expansion of ateam or maybe a re-dream of the

(32:29):
vision, but I like the idea ofhaving a nonprofit partner in
every market.
Honestly, when I started thisproject, I did reach out to some
of the larger nonprofits and,honestly, when I started this
project, I did reach out to someof the larger nonprofits and
most of them take in federalmoney and for that reason, you
know they wouldn't acknowledgethat they would accept donations
from a cannabis brand.
And I'm grateful for thatexperience again because if they

(32:55):
would have said yes, then Iprobably would have never worked
with the Homeless Alliance.
I probably would have neverworked with Exit Now, because I
could have worked with UnitedWay everywhere.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Right.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
So that really shifted my vision.
Bandwidth is a thing, and Istill want to make sure we have
impact everywhere we go, and soI'm trying to measure the
bandwidth with some of theexpansion plans and finding
nonprofits in each state, but,as of today, I haven't backed
off of it.
I'd still love to have anonprofit partner that is local
to each community that we'reoperating in.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, that's incredible.
And when you approach some ofthese organizations, like the
Homeless Alliance for instance,what's the reaction to having a
cannabis company want to partnerwith them?

Speaker 2 (33:35):
The Homeless Alliance specifically, they were
phenomenal.
It was an immediate yes.
They invited me down.
They said, please come see theshelter.
They wanted me to know what Iwould be donating to and
actually they wanted me to knowthat before we even moved
forward with the partnership,which I really appreciated, you
know, because a fewconversations that I had before

(33:55):
the Homeless Alliance, theyreally and I don't think they're
wrong for this at all they werejust excited about the check,
truthfully, but they weren'tnecessarily excited about me or
the industry I came from to thepoint where they were saying,
hey, come see exactly what theimpact is.
But the Homeless Alliance wasan immediate yes, I think after

(34:18):
the initial email sent, I got aphone call the next day and then
two days later I was at theshelter with my assistant, you
know, walking through seeingtheir day shelter, seeing their
long-term facility, um, andreally discussing their vision
and their long-term goal, um, ofhow they want to eradicate
homelessness in Oklahoma City.
And it was something thatresonated with me and it felt

(34:40):
good alongside the CurbsideChronicle.
So we moved forward there.
But, truthfully, I think I hadtwo, maybe three conversations
before I spoke to the HomelessAlliance and it was three no's,
one of which was actually withUnited Way I gave that example
previously of which was actuallywith United Way.

(35:02):
I gave that example previously.
And then the others had somekind of association with
Oklahoma City's public schools,which are very challenged.
Our schools are in a bad placehere in Oklahoma City.
My mom comes from the OklahomaCity public school system as a
social worker so I was veryfamiliar with the challenges.
Public school system as asocial worker, so I was very
familiar with the challenges.
But because of you know, theirfederal funding and being

(35:23):
associated so closely withchildren, they both said no and.
But the Homeless Alliance wasmy very next call and they
welcomed me with open arms andwe haven't looked back since.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
It sounds like they had a lot of transparency too,
which is really nice, becausesometimes you wonder about the
non space like where's my moneyreally going?
And that has been not a bigissue, but sometimes you do.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
It's an issue and they actually touched on that.
The Homeless Alliance to dateis actually the only nonprofit
that has discussed that kind ofanomaly with me and why they are
so transparent.
They see that as reallyincreasing donations, because if
people even have to have thethought of what are they doing
with my money, they're lesslikely to give any kind of

(36:06):
organization their money.
So they are intentionallyproactive and that was the
reason they wanted me to comedown there.
Truthfully, right, it's becausethey feel like the more
transparent they are and themore detailed they are what
they're giving and what thedollars are actually doing they
feel like that helps raise moneyand you know I've seen it work.
At this point I would agreewith them.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, now how?
How do you?
How does your commitment togiving back shape the way you do
business on a day-to-day basis?

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I would say it's definitely changed the way that
I do business on a few differentways.
I mean on the absolute surface,just business side of it I
honestly I had to startaccounting for all of those
donations, every single.
You know, every sale we made,every time we got paid.
And when I first started Ididn't do that.
So when it came time actuallyto make my first donation I was

(37:00):
like, oh man, I just spent mydonation money on inventory.
So it actually has changed theway that I've operated
financially as a business.
But furthermore it's made mewant to find or have some kind
of I guess the words ulteriormotive or a different purpose
outside of just making money.

(37:21):
I look for things, I wantthings to feel good and then
also impact those around mepositively, and so it's really
changed the way that I've justlived my life, truthfully, but
professionally for sure.
I have not since startedBenevolent Bakery I've not
started an adventure or been apart of adventure that did not

(37:41):
have some kind of impact.
You know it's not always a cashdonation to a nonprofit
organization.
Sometimes it is donating ourtime or mentoring kids.
You know doing somethingdifferent.
But I just look for and almostyou know, need something outside
of just making money to be mymain driving motivator for me to
really any project to besustainable for me.

(38:04):
I found out about myself that Ifeel the best when I am helping
others or feeding into someoneelse.
I spent eight years coachinghigh school football, so I think
it kind of comes from that, butI just look for that in every
facet of life now, butdefinitely professionally I just
want to do something that movesthe needle for someone else.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Right, and I think we need more business owners like
you, like this in the world.
To be honest, it sounds likeyou're following the triple
bottom line.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
I'm not Educate me.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
My business degree was from a very long time ago,
but the triple bottom line is,instead of there having, like
the single, you know, focus onprofit, you're also factoring in
other things, like your humanresources, environmental impact,
in your case, the philanthropyperspective.
So you're looking at businessfrom a very different
perspective.
Instead of just being profitfirst, you're looking at people,

(38:58):
environment, all these otherthings, all of these other
components as well.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
And what I found out?
It drives sales.
Yeah, people resonate with themission and for that reason and
I've had several customers inall markets I'm never going to
bake this product, but, man,your mission is cool.
I want to support you.
I'm going going to bake thisproduct, but, man, your mission
is cool.
I want to support you.
I'm going to go buy this andgift it somewhere else because
it's not really for me, but I doagree with you there does need

(39:24):
to be more business owners.
It's hard to, especially in acapitalistic society, to not
think profit first.
But if you can truly give it atry, I think you'll learn that
really positively impacting yourcommunity will positively
impact your bottom line,probably more than just a
one-for-one, because, again,I've seen it and experienced it

(39:47):
myself.
But there are sales I neverwould have made to these
customers had I not been acommunity-focused brand.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, because I think people are looking.
They realize that every timethey buy something, they're
voting with their dollars.
And so they can support acompany that is having a
positive impact in theircommunities, then why wouldn't
they?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Now, are there any unexpected challenges that come
with running a values-drivencannabis business in?

Speaker 2 (40:15):
cannabis business.
There's been a few.
There actually has been a few,shockingly enough.
When I first started the brandand we really first saw success,
I was like, well, I may need togo raise some money.
And so I initially talked to agroup about doing a small
capital raise and I told themabout the Homeless Alliance
Partnership.
I was really excited about itand at the end of my

(40:36):
presentation I said, wes, welove everything about it, but
we're not giving money to theHomeless Alliance.
You're going to have to changethat.
Wow, and it was really thatparticular group just had a
different opinion on thehomeless, truthfully, than I do
in that specific situation, andso at that point in time I was

(41:01):
not able to raise capitalbecause that was my probably the
best terms that I had gotten,and so the other terms in the
cannabis world were not thatfriendly.
But these guys were friendly,but the value and emissions that
were near and dear to me, werean absolute, seemed to be deal
breaker for them.
So that was one challenge.
And then you know, back to justthe blunt business side of it.
We are taking profits andmaking a donation in a very

(41:24):
cash-starved industry.
You know there's not a lot ofbanking and cannabis.
The private investments haveslowed down into the space for
one reason or another, and sotaking you know any portion of
revenue and putting it outsidethe business always strains the
business.
But again, it's important to meand I've seen in some areas and

(41:44):
most areas that making thatdonation has driven a lot of our
success so far.
So we're not wavering in it,even though we've experienced
some challenges and one setback,but I still feel like we're in
the right spot, doing the rightthing isn't one step back, but I
still feel like we're in theright spot, doing the right
thing.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Well, hearing no from one person might mean hearing
yes from somebody else whenanother door opens.
Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yeah, I mean, I guess the United Way had to say no
for the Homeless Alliance to sayyes right, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
I remember you connected those dots.
That's so true.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, now you've been quoted as saying that the
cannabis community is the mostcaring and benevolent industry
in the country, and that's apretty bold statement.
So what have you witnessed thatmakes you believe this so
strongly?

Speaker 2 (42:30):
The industry.
Maybe I don't want to sounddramatic and say the industry is
depressed, but you know, withcollaboration, working together,
leaning into some of thechannel partners that are also

(43:04):
within this cannabis communityor cannabis space, is really, I
feel, the only way that any ofus will ever be successful for
the longterm is through truecollaboration and working
together.
So that's kind of just that'slike my ethos, so it's my all
encompassingcompassing ethos,honestly, since my failure
because again it it was mycommunity that happened to be
cannabis based that got me backon my feet and got me moving in

(43:27):
the right direction again.
And I know I'm not the only onethat's been there and I'm not
the only one that got rescued bytheir friends within the
cannabis community.
So I do think it's been very asan industry.
It's definitely been a verycommunal-based industry in my
experience and again, theconsumer has really taken to
this product because of thedonation aspect.

(43:50):
They've picked my product, evenif it's not a product that they
would use, just because we'remaking a donation to a
organization that feels good forthem.
So that is a bold statement tosay that the most.
I haven't compared it to verymany other industries, but in my
experience.
It is a very benevolent andcharitable and welcoming

(44:13):
community.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Well, and I, I mean I happen to agree with you, so
that helps.
I mean I wouldn't be here eitherif it wasn't for a lot of
people that helped me out alongthe way as well, like even just
that first person way back whenthat said yes to an interview
when I was like a nobody, andsomething about the cannabis
community that is inherentlycommunal and I think it's just

(44:35):
the nature of the plant.
So, yeah, that's prettybeautiful.
Now your tagline for yourcompany is no mess, no guests,
just yes, which I love.
And when it comes to socialimpact, there's often a lot of
mess and uncertainty.
So how do you measure whetheryour efforts, your philanthropic
efforts, are actually makingthe difference that you're

(44:55):
hoping to see?

Speaker 2 (44:57):
That's actually a phenomenal question and the
honest answer is I don't know.
Are actually making thedifference that you're hoping to
see?
That's actually a phenomenalquestion and the honest answer
is I don't know.
And it's still.
It doesn't weigh as heavy on mybrain as it used to Because you
know for a while, for thehomeless alliance to give you a
real life example, we'd make thequarterly donation and you know

(45:18):
, a few times a year wouldactually go down there and spend
time and serve.
You know, wherever they neededextra hands to help, but the
need still hasn't gone away.
You know homelessness is stilla thing in Oklahoma City.
The numbers of the homelesscommunity is unfortunately still
growing.
So there are times where itfeels like we're not moving the
needle.

(45:38):
But you know you go see it inperson.
You get to see your impact inperson.
You can see how you affectedrather just one person or one
family.
That does feel good, but forthe overall impact I really did
used to struggle with it becausefor a while Benevolent Bakery
financially was struggling as abusiness, because for a while

(45:58):
benevolent bakery financiallywas struggling as a business
both.
Like I'm making this donation,is this actually helping people?
Because I'm suffering, you know, my, my team is suffering.
I don't know if I'm moving theneedle for anyone, I'm just
hurting everyone.
Um, luckily, I've kind of grownout of that mindset and really
grown into and the homelessalliance has helped me with this
because they, you know, forevery four dollars you feed,

(46:21):
create seven meals or somethinglike that.
They really quantify it.
Um, but I've just kind of livedwith.
I can't help everyone, but if Ican help someone today, then
that's a win.
Um, and if that's my impact andthat's my impact, you know
there may be someone that's moresuccessful or has more money
that can have a larger impact.
I would encourage them to do so.

(46:41):
But in general, I think ifeveryone did what they could not
necessarily what they wanted,just did what they could to help
someone in their community orhelp someone in their circle I
think we'd all be better off.
You know, found solace in thatmindset of if I can help one,
two, three people, I've donemore than you know what I, I

(47:03):
guess, more than what I wasmandated to do, you know right
well, that's still an impact andmaking a difference right.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And, like you said, when they, when they quantify
the numbers, like four dollarsgoes to seven meals, I mean
that's, then you know like themoney that you're donating can
have this specific kind ofimpact.
And that's important alsobecause there are people with a
lot more money that are doing alot less than you.
Absolutely, if there are peopleout there that could maybe

(47:29):
think a little more like the wayyou are.
Then the world would look verydifferently.
Very different, not the waywe're at this moment, but you're
helping to change things, onebox mix at a time we're trying.
We're trying for sure nowyou're trying to reshape the
culture around around cannabisto make it more joyful and

(47:51):
approachable.
In your opinion, what are someof the biggest misconceptions
about cannabis users that you'rehoping to change?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
It's still.
The bad PR and the badmarketing of the 60s was very
effective because people stillassume that if you use cannabis,
you're lazy, you're this stonerhippie, and that perception of
the cannabis consumer stilllives today.
I was actually talking to mymother the other day, who is

(48:23):
more seasoned and experiencedthan myself.
Well said Well said yes, but shethrew out something.
It was just really rhetoricthat she was taught growing up
oh yeah, I've used cannabis.
She was talking about one ofher patients who used a bunch of
cannabis and she told him well,I don't know if it's good for
you because it might make youlazy Wasn't being hateful, but

(48:44):
just she inherently thought andhad been beaten to her head,
that if you use cannabis itmakes you lazy or you're not
less intelligent or lessmotivated.
And that still exists today,where people still feel like if
you're especially if you are awhat I'll call a very loud and
proud cannabis user, people willdoubt you and they'll second

(49:08):
guess you, and I think that'swrong.
I know it's wrong.
You know because I know peoplethat are loud and proud cannabis
users, that are successful.
They're literally a guidinglight in their community and
they so happen to use cannabis,whether it's for medical uses or
because they just like gettinghigh.
That part doesn't really matterto me.
Even the fact that they use ordon't use the product doesn't

(49:29):
really matter to me.
I think people should be judgedon truly their actions and
their impacts, less on if theyuse the product or not.
But that stigma still exists.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
People still think we're lazy that one just does
not want to die.
And it drives me crazy, becauseI've also interviewed a number
of people for this show and theone thing they have in common,
besides cannabis use, is thefact that none of them are lazy.
They're all doing really coolstuff in the cannabis space and
you wouldn't be doing that ifyou had.
If you're a lazy stoner,there's just no way around.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
It doesn't happen no, especially if you're a business
owner.
If you're a business owner, inthis space you can't be lazy,
otherwise you're not.
You're not a business owner.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, it's very true.
Um now, sort of uh, continuingon with that kind of train of
thought, what do you?

Speaker 2 (50:24):
think is the most misunderstood part about
crafting edibles, hmm, hmm, soedibles in general or edibles in
my product, or both.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Well, I was thinking in general, but also with your
product.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
yeah, the most difficult part about crafting
edibles, or misunderstood part,I guess.
I would say the dosing is prettymisunderstood, in my opinion,
from talking to consumers, andreally they don't have an
understanding at all of how theproducts are dosed.
There's still a lot of peoplethat think they're sprayed and

(50:55):
maybe in some places they are,or individually infused and it's
just candy that was alreadycooked.
But I'll use just because I'mvery familiar with the brand
Smokey's Edibles.
They're a very large gummybrand, personal friends of mine.
These guys are cooking realcandy and infusing real candy,
you know, in 24 states, in twodifferent countries.
Um, and I don't think thecustomers truly a understand it

(51:20):
or can really appreciate that,at least from a business
standpoint.
You know again, for thatexample, that's 24 kitchens, you
know, staffed out, that arecooking real candy every single
day and infusing it.
So I think the commercialprocess of making edibles,
whether it's our baking mixes orgummies, really, or any edible

(51:41):
product, is the commercialprocess of making those products
at scale and infusing them andcreating a safe, efficacious
product in a insanely, you know,regulatory environment.
Um, I would say it's definitelyunderappreciated but most
definitely just not understoodat all by the end consumer, you

(52:03):
know.
And why would they?
Unless they have a culinarybackground, you know why would
they know um?
but I think it'd be nice ifpeople did know.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Yeah, even from the perspective of just like making
your own edibles and trying todose them and that kind of thing
, I think there is a lack ofunderstanding.
And because it's new right Like20 years ago, you're eating
edibles and you're like, well, Ihope I don't get too high, and
that was how you approached it.
And we're more familiar withthings like alcohol, because
that's been so mainstream for solong.

(52:34):
We know how to dose ourselves.
It's more inherent, like youknow well, if I drink two drinks
, I'll start to feel this orwhatever.
And we learn that from you know,maybe as a kid consuming too
much, and you find out whathappens when you consume too
much and you have thoseexperiences and a way to
quantify it.
But the quantification of thatis so new in edibles and

(52:54):
cannabis generally that I thinkit's going to take a while for
the public to catch up.
But it's happening slowly it'shappening.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
It's happening.
This whole this hemp drivething is, I think, really jet
propelled it.
You know, I think, right, thathas made cannabis you.
You know some people say, well,it's hemp, cannabis and hemp.
I use those verysynergistically because the
inner product, the supply chain,is different.
But you know, the effects ofthe products, in my experience,

(53:22):
are very similar.
It's not the exact same, butthis hemp-derived anomaly has
really allowed for, I think,more consumers.
It's an approachable product.
Now they can order it and get atruck shipped to their house.
So, while you know, they maystill carry the same stigmas of
their parents, now they canconsume these products without
anyone knowing right, which isfine with me.

(53:45):
You know, don't be loud andproud.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Consume the product and you'll probably be loud and
proud one day, you know well,and for some people, like when,
like depending on where you'reat, what jurisdiction you're in,
if you have access to legalcannabis and you've like that
first foray into a legal store,it can be pretty intimidating
for some people, especially ifyou've grown up with all those,
all that messaging of like youknow, this is your brain, this
is your brain on drugs and allthose crazy commercials we saw

(54:10):
growing up and you know the thejust say no campaigns.
So for a lot of people, beingable to order online is is
pretty brilliant, because theydon't necessarily want to be
seen going into a dispensaryeven though that's actually
really good.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
That's that is.
That's probably the number onedriver of the success of the
direct-to-consumer model is youare spot on.
People are very intimidated bywalking into a legal dispensary,
you know, and there's otherpeople that feel like it's like
a vacation or this big event towalk into a dispensary.
It's like man, do you guys getthis excited to walk into
Walmart?
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Now, where do you see the cannabis edible space
headed in the next few years?

Speaker 2 (54:51):
I would venture to say there's got to be some level
of consolidation.
There's still gummy brandscoming out of the woodworks.
I would consider beverages aspart of the edible space and
beverages are having their dayin the sun today and I think
that really, the approachabilityand the ease of consuming a
beverage, that particularsubcategory of edibles, will

(55:15):
continue to grow.
But I would think less gummieson the shelf or less different
brands of gummies.
I think there'll be a gummyconsolidation.
Beverages will expand and Iwould like to see, honestly,
more products similar to mine.
I would like to see, honestly,more products similar to mine.
Whenever we created BenevolentBakery, we actually had a pretty
interesting discussion of isthis going to be a niche product

(55:36):
on the shelf or are wepotentially creating a new
category within the dispensary?
Verdict's still out, but I'mleaning more towards.
We might potentially becreating a new category and
that's really based on consumerfeedback.
Creating a new category andthat's really based on consumer
feedback.
Um, you know the customers mydispensary customers that
purchase our products have theirretail customers come back and

(55:58):
buy our products several timesand so they're asking me well,
what's products coming next?
You know, what can we put nextto the confetti cake mix and the
brownie mint.
So I do lean closer into, Ithink, the edible category.
May add some new, uh, some newsubcategories on the shelf over
time.
Whether that's me continue torun out front or someone else

(56:20):
comes up with something equallyor more creative, I think I
welcome it all.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Right, and I think you're onto something there,
because I do think a lot ofcustomers or consumers are
pretty gummied out, not to saythere aren't some fabulous
gummies out there on the market.
I've tried lots and they'regreat, but sometimes you want a
little variety and uh, yeah, youjust want a little variety,
which you already kind oftouched on this a little bit.

(56:44):
But are there any upcomingproducts or collaborations that
you're especially excited aboutright now?

Speaker 2 (56:51):
We do have some upcoming products that we have
R&D'd, we've done the packaging,we've done everything but
launch it.
I wish I could give you atimeline for it, but I won't
give you a timeline.
But we're going to do a wakeand bake pancake mix, which will
be we're pretty excited aboutthat one and then actually, for
the Arkansas market, my partnerout there asked about a

(57:13):
cornbread mix.
I guess cornbread is a bigthing in Arkansas, so we'll
probably do the wake and bakepancake mix first.
I think that one's moreuniversal and I am just head
over heels about the name wakeand bake pancake mix.
So I'm pretty anxious to getthat one onto the marketplace.
But we'll do that plus thecornbread, hopefully, fingers

(57:34):
crossed.
You know we get them both outthis year.
But those are the two productlines that will be coming out
next oh, that's exciting.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
The wake and bake does sound really exciting,
because that is one thing that Ilove to make on a slow sunday
morning is pancakes.
What a great way to spend aSunday morning making pancakes.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
It'd be great, a little infused version you might
want to take a nap.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
After you might want to go for a walk, you never know
.
Yeah, choice is yours.
It's choose your own adventure.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
There you go.
We're excited about those.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Yeah, what would surprise people about you?

Speaker 2 (58:09):
They'd probably be pretty shocked that I'm a
terrible baker.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
That is surprising.
Yeah, maybe it checks out,which is why you created like a
box mix where you can just addwater.
Yes, get high.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Yeah yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, uh, I guess you go eitherway.
What would be surprising aboutme?
I don't know.
I kind of wear my heart on mysleeve and I'm a very open book.
Honestly, I try not to be toosurprising.
Honestly, I, this is who I am.
I want you to know who I am.
I hope you like me.

(58:45):
If you don't, this is still whoI am, you know.
Yeah, still who I am you knowright, yeah, no, I love it
sometimes I that's a toughquestion for some people, but
yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
I think you answered it very honestly.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
So I did.
I'll stick with the firstanswer, though I'm not a good
baker.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
The guy that made the baking mix brand can't bake,
yeah well, there's a realscience to baking, so that, uh,
totally makes sense, and I can'tsay that.
I'm like a master baker, by anymeans either.
Like I said, I only startedbaking once.
I started like I had bakedbefore, but only consistently
after I started making ediblesmyself.
So because you know what's thepoint, otherwise, well, why are

(59:22):
we baking then?
Now outside of benevolentbakery?
What brings you joy or keepsyou grounded?

Speaker 2 (59:31):
I was on a very personal front.
I just I have a seven month oldchild and that my, my son,
brings me all the joy in theworld and 100% has been the most
humbling experience of my lifebecoming a father.
Um, just going home at the endof the day it feels different,
truthfully, and sometimes I gohome and he's napping.

(59:52):
I just go home and look at himbut he has brought a different
level of motivation to my day,certainly a different level of
joy to my day, and it's beenvery humbling, you know,
watching him develop it.
It's renewed my sense ofpurpose.
Truthfully I won't say renewed,it's shifted my sense of

(01:00:13):
purpose.
You know, now I've always knownthat sometimes you got to do
things that you don't want to dojust because they need to get
done.
But it's a lot easier to dothose things now because there's
a true purpose and there's areason behind it, and a lot of
that is with my new seven monthold son.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Beautiful, I love it.
That is with my newseven-month-old son.
Beautiful, I love it.
Now one last question before weend our conversation today.
Wesley, where can people gettheir hands on your products?

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Hey, that's an easy one, there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Easiest question of the day, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Yeah, I'll give you two different answers.
In our regulated markets, ourtraditional dispensary model
that would be Oklahoma, missouri, arkansas, montana and New York
.
For everyone else throughoutthe country or really anywhere
in the world, we have a websiteit is shopbenevolentbakerycom,
and we have two doses.

(01:01:04):
We have 100 milligrams and 250milligram brownie mixes staying
for the confetti cake mixes, andwe'll be rolling out the hot
cocoa in approximately 30 dayson the website.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
That's exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
All right, now people already get it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Wesley, thank you so much foryour time today.
I love what you're doing atBenevolent Bakery and I wish you
all the success in everythingyou're doing upcoming.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Awesome, thank you.
I appreciate you having me on.
It's been awesome chatting withyou.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as
much as I did.
Friends, I will be sure to listwhere you can buy Benevolent
Bakery in the local dispensariesor online in the show notes, so
you don't need to worry aboutwhere to find Benevolent Bakery
online.
And, of course, wesley offeredgenerously a discount code for
any listeners who wanted tocheck out some of the baking

(01:01:55):
mixes.
If you use code BITE ME 20 atcheckout, you'll get 20% off.
I don't get any kickback forthis.
This is just something.
This is something that Wesleywas generously offering the
listeners of Bite Me, and Iappreciate that.
I have tried out the bakingmixes and I think you would love

(01:02:15):
them because they were fun todo, they were simple and they
tasted great and they got mehigh, which was amazing.
So with that, my friends, Ihope you enjoyed that
conversation with Wesley and Iencourage you to check out what
he's doing.
Check out his website, find himon Instagram, find him on
social media and with that,friends, I am your host,

(01:02:36):
margaret, and until next time,stay high.