May 3, 2024 • 30 mins
Prepare to be captivated by Rama Mayo, the entrepreneurial spirit behind the revolutionary Hall of Flowers cannabis convention, as he joins us for an enlightening discussion. From its bespoke experiences for retailers to its impressive expansion across North America, Rama unveils the story behind creating a pivotal space where industry professionals can flourish. Beyond his business insights, we get a rare glimpse into Rama's personal evolution from the hectic Los Angeles scene to his serene beachside existence in Oxnard, where collecting sea glass mirrors his journey towards a more balanced life.
Trade shows are more than just displays; they are the pulsating heart of networking in any industry. Rama draws striking parallels between the relentless ambition required in both the music and cannabis sectors, offering a narrative that bridges punk rock band management with the relentless innovation of cannabis commerce. His 'lava effect' analogy paints a vivid picture of the entrepreneurial drive while honoring the resurgence of vinyl records, asserting that passion and perseverance can indeed stand the test of time.
As we wrap up, Rama's dynamic career trajectory serves as an inspiring blueprint for all dreamers out there looking to pivot with purpose. He shares insights into the California cannabis scene's intricate dance with legalities, culture, and politics, drawing from his wealth of experience. Hall of Flowers exemplifies the essence of industry convergence, and Rama's storied career is a living example of the vast horizons open to those who dare to pursue their passions and adapt to the ever-changing landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, main engine start 4, 3, 2, 1.
I'm Sean and I'm Charlie andthis is Higher Orbit.
We got a special edition.
(00:25):
We can call it a specialedition episode.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, a little single segment, something unusual for
us, but awesome guestnonetheless.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I feel like I'm really excited for this guest
because it's almost like apoker-oo situation.
It's like I was always likewho's behind this thing they
call the Hall of Flowers?
He's the puppet master, yourfavorite, Kind of like Wizard of
Oz or something.
He even kind of looks like awizard, if you ask me.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Another which I love.
Let's introduce him.
We got Rama Mayo.
Rama Mayo yeah, visionaryfounder of Hall of Flowers,
probably our favorite conventionthat's hosted in Toronto at
least one of our favorites.
One of our favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Cannabis conventions's hosted in Toronto
at least one of our favorite,one of our favorite cannabis
conventions, for sure, andsomething that I always feel
like I get something that I gotto make time for it on the
calendar, you know.
So it's really cool to have youon the show, man, and thanks
for making time.
Yeah, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Yeah, that's cool.
I love that you guys own thedispensary too, because you have
such a unique perspective onHall of Flowers, because we
really build it for you guys,for the retailers.
It's different, obviously, upin Canada versus where we
started the show down here.
You know the laws, basicallythe structure and stuff.
But, yeah, it's cool that youguys even love it.
(01:41):
Before we started I was justflattered that you guys were-.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's a fun little surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Are we on year three of theshow Like?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
is this the third year In Canada, I think formally
right.
Is it going to be your thirdyear, right, rama?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, this is the third show up there and we had
done it in Santa Rosa and PalmSprings, right, and those did
really well, so we decided tobring it up there and try out
Toronto as like our first kindof attempt towards the East
Coast of you know, the continentessentially Makes sense Growing
(02:17):
market.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I imagine it felt like the show was growing itself
.
My understanding is you getlike well over 200 retailers at
the show.
You always have tons of greatbrands, lots of new brands
itself, um, my understanding isyou get like well over 200
retailers at the show.
Um, you always have tons ofgreat brands, lots of new brands
.
From what I remember, umdefinitely excited to to make it
out to the show this year.
I think it's uh, june six,seven, is that right?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, that sounds about right yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, yeah, there we go, either fifth, sixth or sixth
, seventh.
But yeah, there we go, I checkit, nice.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, um, so we're going to go, yeah, no, I feel
like everybody, all the brandsalways being their, their
biggest stuff, um, which isalways exciting, like new
products and stuff for all theflowers, or it seems like all
the best.
I'm really excited to take partthis year.
You're joining us.
Are you based out of Oxnard,california?
(03:07):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oxnard, yeah, Like Ventura
County, so just north of LACounty, okay, yeah, so I'm
basically like I lived in LA forthe last 20 years and Los
Angeles last 20 years and, um,now that you don't need an
office really anymore, um, I waslike fuck it, I'm going to move
(03:30):
to the beach, you know.
So I like moved up here a yearago and I live like right at the
beach and I walk on the beachevery day and it's like very I
feel very fortunate to get tohave this thing and the weather
here, unlike Toronto where youknow it's basically perfect
almost every day of the year.
So don't rub it in, man, teeny,teeny town.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's that?
I said don't rub it in, man.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah you know, you already know it's still freezing
there, I bet.
But you know, I live in thislittle teeny town.
There's like not a stoplight inmy town or anything, it's just
like a little teeny little, likesliver of sand basically, and,
um, yeah, it's, it's amazing,it's it helped me, like I needed
to kind of move out of labecause, um, I have a hard time
(04:17):
balancing like work.
You know, I'm like I used toeven in my instagram I used to
say workaholic and I was proudof it, and now I'm like, oh my
God, I'm psycho, like that wasnot a good idea.
So I just it was so hard toturn it off still living in the
city, so I just kind of had toforce myself to move out of out
of the city, you know, and, um,that way I could like not work
(04:40):
every second of my life, eventhough I have a whiteboard in my
living room now.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's funny how things change.
You kind of value differentthings as life moves on.
I can relate to that too.
Man, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Sorry, go ahead.
My main priority right now iscollecting sea glass.
Okay, that's cool.
My main priority right now iscollecting sea glass, okay, you
know.
Okay, that's cool, man, that'smy main priority.
And I have some competition uphere.
I got some retiree ladies thatI can get into some little
secret spots they can't get downinto.
But yeah, it's been kind oflike a total 180 kind of the
(05:24):
past year, which has been really, really awesome.
That sounds very relaxing man.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's nice You're getting some peace.
Man, I bet you.
La has definitely got adifferent buzz to it and I could
see it being uh exhausting.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
But what kind of uh inspired you to create all the
flowers.
I was kind of thinking that, um, just to kind of bring it back
for a sec here.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, so, as my partner Dannywould say, um, who like runs the
show technically and does doesall the work really?
Um, shout out Danny, um, hesays like yeah.
He says like you know, it wasyour dream and I made it happen,
right, I'm like fucking awesome, you know.
So, yeah, essentially like I, Iwas telling you guys before
(06:04):
that we started that like I dida punk rock record label for a
long time and at the end of thepunk rock record stuff I was
working with some fashion tradeshows and I was supplying them
music.
In exchange.
They were giving me some money,but mostly giving me like space
, booth, space in the fashionworld, and I started working
(06:24):
with like some really big tradeshows.
And then I started working witha trade show called agenda.
Uh, and my partner Aaron, who'slike the you know it's like
three, three groups kind of thatcame together to do hall
flowers.
You know my group, which isgreen street um hall, and you
know Danny and this guy, aaronLevant and Aaron um owned a
trade show called and Aaronowned a trade show called Agenda
.
Danny owned a trade show calledLiberty and Capsule.
(06:47):
My partner Aaron also startedComplexCon.
So you know, really like big.
These guys are experts, likethe best in the world at
producing events.
I had a label.
I started working with them onmusic and then I ended up
starting my own little tradeshow for fashion, like like just
a couple of years later, forfact.
(07:07):
And uh, that was called, thatwas called you, not yeah, that
was called United Cool.
That was in Las Vegas and inNew York and that was like 2000,
.
Like six, seven, eight kind ofthing, I guess.
And um, it was like skull candyand and a bunch of skate brands
and you know we had some prettybig companies that were that
were exhibiting with us.
(07:28):
But it was against the bigfashion trade show out there
called magic in vegas and it'swhat we built like what you call
a satellite show.
So it's just a show that kindof floats around the big one
right and um, we did really wellwith it.
And um, my partner and I, um wasthree partners.
Steve Aoki was a partner before.
He was a famous DJ, um and uh,another partner, um, and the
(07:51):
three of us kind of kind ofsplit ways.
You know, steve became histhing.
The other guy went to do musicas well and um, I didn't know
what to do.
So after the that trade showshut down, I ended up starting
an ad agency the first time everwith a good friend of mine
named John LaCroix, up in SanFrancisco.
We did that for a few years andthen I kind of merged.
(08:12):
I left that company and cameback to Los Angeles, started
working with a big mentor ofmine named Darren Romanelli.
Dr Romanelli amazing, amazingdesigner, artist, like brilliant
thinker, and we signed a G-Pen,the portable vaporizer.
You know G-Pen, and that waslike our first project.
(08:33):
So that was like 13 years ago.
We did G-Pen and then we startedworking with First cannabis
client, so to speak, like wouldyou, yeah, we were doing beats
by dre, disney, dreamworks,things like that like big, big
corporate stuff, and gpn wantedto be part of it and and we had
an incredible run with them.
And then I worked with ahandful of other brands but the
(08:54):
whole time I was like, how comethere's not these like good
trade shows, and I think champswas around and things like that,
but nothing like in LA, nothingpart of like the culture,
nothing in California.
And you know, I had basicallyhad the idea for like years and
years and years and years,before we even started Hall of
Flowers, for the idea of doinglike what I'd call like the
(09:15):
agenda for weed or the libertyfor weed, like my partners had
done.
So I literally started going tomy partner, aaron, and and was
like, dude, we gotta do a tradeshow for cannabis.
For years I was bucking him andhe kept blowing me off and no,
no, no.
And then they sold agenda.
He got out and, um, I ran intohim and I said, dude, now it's
(09:38):
time, let's do this and cool,you know we'll do it and I'll
put it all together.
Here's, you know, meet Danny,he'll run it.
And yeah, that was I don't knowsix years ago or seven years
ago or something, but it hadbeen like, you know, something
that I've been wanting to do foryears before that and the
timing and everything wasperfect when we ended up doing
(09:59):
it Sounds about right.
Yeah, that's basically whathappened, but, yeah, inspired by
the fashion trade shows butevery industry in the world has
a trade show.
We're not inventing this, youknow.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
No, we appreciate it.
I mean, it's a greatopportunity for us to network
out and of course you know hugebrands, at least in the Canadian
market and of course in theCalifornia ones, to get out
there and talk to people,because there's really quite a
disconnect there.
But I certainly you know, justtop of my mind, you know it
(10:31):
sounds like you have lots ofexperience and lots of great
teammates working together.
But how do you get over thathump when you're like trying to
make this all happen, whenthere's so many variables,
especially with a weed, whenit's like no one has money to
market, no one has money tobudget, and you're you're like
yo give me cash to set up abooth, and you're like, fuck, I
don't know, I'm trying to makeall this shit happen at once
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
How do you over the hump?
You mean, like personally, howdo you get over the hump?
yeah, I guess it's probably justbreaking through brick walls,
really yeah yeah, every day Ikind of use this like this, like
analogy, where, like you know,like when you see, like like a
volcano erupts and it's likecrazy, but when it gets out of
the bottom of the hill it's likeslow lava and it like slowly
(11:12):
crumbs over a car and like, likeyou know, crushes it, you know,
but it's like you can get awayfrom the lava.
It's like like, but if youstand there too long, your legs
are gone, you know.
So that's kind of like theapproach.
Like every day I wake up andlike the lava is either at my
tippy toes or 100 yards away,but you just got to kind of keep
running from it.
(11:32):
You know, you gotta just run.
You know something else to do.
Like the lava, yeah, the lavaeffect, you know, like I like
this.
It's it's to me like I wastalking to a good friend the
other day and it's almostimpossible to run your own
business.
You guys know this, it'sinsanely hard and even if you
can run it, it's almost veryimpossible to turn it off.
(11:55):
I wake up in the middle of thenight.
I have a whiteboard in myliving room.
I wake up in the middle of thenight and I'm like, oh, food at
Hall of Flowers, and I think ofsome food thing and I come out
and I write it like stepbrotherstyle on the whiteboard and then
the next day I'm like why doesit say like June, you know
whatever, like?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
shish kebab or whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Like what the fuck was I thinking?
And then I'm like, oh, to melike that's, I've had some good
friends that have come into theindustry or just into
entrepreneurship, and mentallyit's just so fucking hard to do
it.
So for me, why the way I cankeep going is literally when I
did the punk rock record label,I met these bands that were in
(12:35):
basements.
At the time, you know, when Iwas working with a band called
Jimmy E World, which is theirgiant, you know.
Now they were literally playinglike basement shows and hundred
person capacity rooms, you know, and we were like, you know,
like begging.
I was their booking agent.
We were like, you know, it waslike very DIY, small, and I
worked with dozens of bands thatwere like as small as they are
they were and then became thesegiant, famous bands, giant
(13:03):
famous bands.
And, um, when I started talkingto the cannabis you know, men
and women, entrepreneurs,meeting them all I got the same
exact feeling.
I was like, oh, my god, likeyou know, my excuse me, my
industry was like emo, indie,like punk rock, you know so.
But this is 30 years ago.
It's a 30 year anniversary ofmy label this year, actually,
and uh, which is psycho.
And we're re-releasing vinyl,right, thank you.
(13:24):
And the kids still care.
I got today an email of a kidthat wants to be on my label,
which is psycho, cause it hasn'texisted in a decade.
And, um, you know, and we'rere-releasing a bunch of vinyl
records, which is insane.
(13:44):
That kids care.
These bands haven't played in25 years.
Interesting and kids still areinto it.
So that perspective and thatidea and the confidence that I
get from doing that back thenand knowing I was right and the
bands still care, is why I cankeep going now, because I have
such a clear vision of what'sgoing on with the industry and
(14:07):
where we'll be, because I havesuch a clear vision of, like,
what's going on with theindustry and where we'll be.
And you know, we started thisthinking we were going to make
two bucks an hour for forever.
Yeah, you know, and that's whatwe did.
We just really put the time inand over-delivered for everybody
and helped these kind ofoperators carry their stuff
through the mud, if you willlike.
My partner, josh, would say,and you know, but I did it once
(14:28):
before with, with, with um, withthe music stuff.
But back then in music right,there's big major labels existed
for 100 years, you know, 50years.
So for me coming indie, it wasreally hard.
I didn't see myself becomingthat big, major mainstream music
thing, even though my bandswere doing it all the time.
I didn't think that I could beepitaph records or or whatever
(14:51):
um, sub pop.
I just didn't think I could doit for some reason, because I
started it when I was 15.
Probably that's why you know,and um, and then now I'm like,
okay, now I get it.
Now I know that, like how torun a business and how to set up
structure and how to find theright partners and all what I
don't want to do.
I know myself way more, youknow.
So, having like that experience, plus the the, the vision and
(15:13):
the see it in the mirroring ofit from what I did before to now
, that's why I spring on a bedevery day, you know, because I'm
just so, I just so confident inwhat we're doing.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You know, rama what, uh, what do you think gives you
guys your secret sauce overthere at all flowers?
I do think you guys aredifferent than a lot of the
other trade shows and yeah, thatI just kind of tee up with that
one.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Secret sauce.
I love it.
So, secret sauce, I'm a sauceman for sure.
So, um, I'm.
I love mimicking, I likeGoogling.
You know what secret saucesexist, out from my my favorite
crabby restaurants and andremaking them you know, yeah, um
.
So so I love it, cause thesauce has such different
ingredients.
Usually, you know, right, likesome of that.
Yeah, there's like the, themayo and ketchup and mustard,
(15:57):
but you know, then there's likevinegar, right, and then there's
like the pickles or whatever.
Then there's, like I think thesecret sauce is probably my
partner Danny's ability to likesee that sauce and and
understand the, the, the mainingredients you know to to for
(16:17):
it to like be super unique, youknow.
But again, he did his fashiontrade show for 20 years, or
something you know, and it washugely successful way, way
bigger than my stuff, you know,or something you know and it was
hugely successful way, waybigger than my stuff you know
Cool no, I agree I think youteed it up with before as well
Like it's great to kind of hearsomeone so enthusiastic and it's
like you said, you know youkind of go through that crazy
(16:40):
moment.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You experience it.
It gives you that confidence.
It's really cool to just hearthat and of course, when you
look back you gotta giveyourself kudos.
I guess the other thing, guys.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
The other thing that I do is like, for I like still,
you know, green street is thecompany that started hall
flowers, right, which is an adagency, you know, and um, and
thankfully I stopped reallytaking clients in and just
focused on IP, building IPourselves internally, which is
what any real ad agency, that'show they really become
successful if they build theirown shit, you know.
(17:11):
So that's what we essentiallydid, you know.
So I did client work incannabis for 12 years.
You know I still have.
We can still have a couplelittle projects here and there
that we do, but you know, forthe most part it's like, um, the
agency turned into um, the iphouse or the house of brands or
whatever you want to call it.
(17:34):
And but as part of this, themain kind of client exercise
that I do and my specialty, Iwould say, is is what is like
called, or I call like like abrand realization exercise and
it's like a legitimately like.
It's a.
It's a month long process.
I've done it with a couple ofgreat companies, but it's like a
physical trainer's a.
It's a month-long process.
I've done it with a couplegreat companies, but it's like a
physical trainer, like, I don'thave a six-pack, you know you
probably couldn't tell from mysweatshirt, but you know I'm not
(17:56):
like that.
But it's like, essentially,when you go to the gym, you have
physical trainer, you work outevery little part of your whole
fucking body and like you don'thave to eat right in the water
and all this stuff, right andand it's like that's essentially
what I do for brands, you know,and specialize I've done that
forever for brands but nowspecialized for cannabis for the
last 10 years and, yes, I'llmake you a logo, but that comes
(18:20):
like after the fact that we dothese like really deep dive,
fundamental exercises, likepicture building a house.
I want to build a foundationthat you can build a hundred
story building on top of, notjust and with all the heating on
the floor and the whole thing,not just like figuring it out
later, right.
So that's why I don't take onmany clients, because most
clients don't want to put thislike really like fundamental,
(18:41):
foundational work into it,because it's not that fun, you
got to go deep.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's tough, it's like you gotta.
You gotta get uncomfortableright and you gotta move through
that.
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
100 I totally agree with you when you you think
you're here and you do thisexercise with me over the course
of a few weeks or a few months,depending on how much time you
take, and but it's like 60 pagesof like real one day is a page
kind of thing.
It's like a lot of fucking work, totally wrong, a lot of time,
90 of the time.
By the time you get through theexercise you've changed your
(19:10):
whole perspective on who you areor who you're going for or what
you're there to do, kind of.
You know, it really does change.
That's the whole point of it.
It changes your trajectory.
So we talked about Wizard of Ozearlier.
We talked about, like, theconfidence and the excitement
that I have.
Yeah, that's because I did thisexercise myself years ago and
you know it took through COVIDreally.
(19:31):
I really sat down and likespent months and months and
months, hundreds and hundreds ofhours, yeah, like figuring out
what the hell I wanted to do.
And it kind of starts with thisthing called leadership
positioning.
And now when I do it withclients, I show them two slides
Do you want to be Wizard of Ozor do you want to be wizard of
Oz, or do you want to be RichardBranston or, you know, elon
Musk, with, like the gold suiton, or whatever you know.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
What kind of leadership style?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
are you right.
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
Yeah, when you said wizard ofOz earlier, I was like, okay, I
love it, cause that's like whatI'm going for is this wizard of
Oz thing.
And you said, you know theconfidence comes from because I
feel like I know exactly whatwe're doing and what I'm out
here to do, and it's not drivenby money or anything like that.
It's driven by, like the next10 years of looking at the
(20:15):
industry, you know.
So I just have a long-termperspective on it, you know.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, what's going on in Cali right now?
I feel like I haven't been outthere in a long time.
What are the challenges thatyou guys kind of face?
Like we face a lot in marketingand and, um, kind of
advertising.
I'm sure you guys too like what, what's, what's going on with
you there and and uh, I don'tknow.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
That's really my main focus is California.
My hypothesis was also like bebig in California, yeah, that
was it.
So I I even turned down, forfor 10 years we turned down
projects from Canada or fromother States, because we just
didn't know the the world.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, I could make you a brandfor if you're in, if you're in
fucking whatever, montreal orwhatever, but like it's not, I'm
(21:01):
not there.
You know, especially likesocial and speaking to the
customer, all that kind of stuff, right?
I don't know the slang orwhatever, right?
So so instead of being greedyand just saying, yes, give me
the thing and whatever fucking,we'll figure it out, it was like
let's just focus on californiaonly and really, hopefully, los
angeles mostly.
You know, nice, hello, guyspeeking in here uh and uh, you
(21:26):
know and um, you know.
So, california, what's happeningis we just had our first hall
of flowers down here in venturaokay, I'm sure is where I live
basically, coincidentally,nothing to do with it at all.
I wish I was that smart, um,but I just moved up here and
then a few months later theywere like we can do show, but
(21:47):
the venue is a place that wewere going after for years.
It's called the Ventura CountyFairgrounds and it's right on
the ocean, you know, and soyou're driving in on the highway
.
It's an hour plus, you know,just over an hour north of LA,
(22:13):
but it's really close to likewhat they call the valley and
then northern, you know,southern mid part of California.
So it is a very convenientreally you know what I mean to
come in, you know, to this placeand it's on the ocean, it's in
a cool little town that has liketons of restaurants and bars
and cafes and you know nightclubstuff and everything you'd want
to do as a, as a attendee, youknow.
Also within like a mile radius,you know, so it's not spread
out, which is like a really bigadvantage.
Everything was better, theparking was better, you know
(22:35):
everything that about the spotwas better, but it took us years
to get the venue and, um, wedid our first show there just a
month ago.
Why?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
was.
Why was it found in the in theuh the venue, was it?
They didn't want to beassociated with a cannabis thing
?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, exactly In California the laws are
basically the allowed venues fora licensed cannabis event,
which is what we are can only beat county fairgrounds and then
other private property that isdeemed okay by the city and the
(23:07):
state.
So it's like a crazy process toeven get them to approve a
non-fairground venue, which iswhat we do.
In Palm Springs we had anon-fairground venue.
It took nine months orsomething to get the city to be
okay with it.
Because these laws don't exist.
We're going into cities thathave never done this, ever in
the world.
That's why all flowers you saidwhat's the special sauce?
(23:28):
My partner, danny, was sittingat the like the, you know the,
not the courthouse, but whateverthat town hall.
You know like till one in themorning, many nights.
You know like talking toeverybody that's there and
sitting waiting for the mayorand all this stuff.
And you know he had to likehave like lawyers and all these
(23:49):
lobbyists, all these people likeinvolved to even explain to the
city how this stuff even works.
You know, um, because it's it'svery technical, it's it?
No, I could have never pulledit off like.
The one thing I saw really thatthis past few months with with
my partner danny is that Icouldn't have had the patience
that he would have to go throughand do all this like paperwork
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I throw the red tape.
Well, me and Charlie always saythat, yeah, the red tape's nuts
, yeah, we didn't realize that.
You know, we got involved inthis industry.
We're going to have to bepoliticians as well, and that's
what it sounds like.
You're kind of saying you'reready.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, or you that that's exactly.
And that's not my world at all,I'm not interested in that.
So that's exactly right.
So so California, so you justsaid like, how's it going right?
What's going on there?
So so the show was a fuckingphenomenal, huge success.
So that's like a great thing.
But the past year has beentough.
You know, past couple of yearsreally, you Um, there's a ton of
(24:45):
unlicensed.
You know retailers still open.
You know there's um tons of tax.
You know stuff going on Um alot like some of the bigger
companies.
You know a company calledherbal went out of business.
They were distributing, likeyou know, a handful of the best
brands.
That was a big blow.
(25:05):
You know.
You know recovering, but it'slike, you know it's a, it's a.
You know you know recovering,but it's like, you know it's a.
So it's a.
You know it's it's hard.
Now the thing is we talked aboutlike um earlier.
Like you know my approach, thisstuff, and like when I sit down
with these brands, you know,and it's a, it's a nice analogy,
I think as well.
It's like um, it's like thewalking dead every day, right,
(25:27):
like lava style, but it's likeyou kick the door open and like
you could have all the plans inthe world, but that shit's gone
as soon as the new zombiescoming out of this fucking
little hole or whatever you know.
So it's like every single dayyou've got to like re, you have
to be able to like replant.
So for someone that's reallystructured and stuck in this
kind of thing and theprojections and the thing and
what like, it's almostimpossible to do those.
(25:47):
Impossible in the real world,to hit all that stuff, nevermind
in in this world, right?
So I think if you were reallyreally tried and, like you know,
raised all the money and hadthe very structured thing and I
think it's, you're gettingcrushed, you know.
But if you can kind of adaptand you know be asset, light or
whatever term people want to useto describe it, then I think
(26:09):
there's a good opportunity here.
And I'd say, like, the finalpart of California to me is like
there's a lot of brands thathave pulled out recently, big
brands, wanna brands pulled out,right, so like it, if you need
like, if if you don't needCalifornia to be part of, like
your branding and your marketingand your credibility and stuff
(26:30):
like that, then it maybe doesn'tmake sense to to to try to be
here.
You know, like that's whatyou're seeing, right, it's not
just making it up.
Like that's what you're seeing,right, it's not just making it
up, right, that's what we'reseeing.
But you know, I thinkCalifornia brands the California
lifestyle and Emerald Triangleand you know all the farms that
are here and all the genesis arehere.
(26:50):
Like, besides, bc Bud,california cannabis is number
one or two in the world as faras where people want their weed
from.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
It's epicenter for the culture.
I was going to say I think so,yeah, and the product too
Exciting.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, the product, yeah, yeah.
So you're going to see you knowthese brands going over state
lines very soon, you know, andgetting licensing deals or
building their own stuff.
They already are, but you'regoing to see them go from you
know one or two spots to likeshit.
(27:26):
We're in 14 states now becausethat's just like where the way
any Coca-Cola or Corona beer orwhatever it's how you do it,
yeah, you know what I mean.
So I think that's what's goingon.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Just to tie us in, curious, to kind of get your
sense on the Canadian market.
Obviously the US is the primary, and I get why.
But you have some great brandsin the Toronto convention.
You've got Collective Projects,scentsy Brands, west Coast
Wilds, who I think is out ofactually Oregon.
Aurora is a big one here inCanada.
I'm curious if anyone hascaught your attention on the
(27:59):
Canadian side, or also if you'veever heard of Sheesh, one of
our sponsors that make a greathash soda.
You said you like a beverage.
You got to try one.
Yeah, you got to try one.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I would love to try it.
Yeah, I saw Sheesh earliertoday on the on one when I was,
you know, creeping on yourInstagram, nice.
So, yeah, that's cool and Iliked that it was called hash.
Is this cola or silk hash?
I like that they use.
Yeah, I like that they use theword hash there.
Yeah, so Canada, like I'm notsuper familiar with it, to be
(28:29):
honest.
You know I'm not up thereenough, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I love it and I love the honesty man, next time you
come we got to get you out ofhere and we'll come to the shop
man come, we gotta get you outof here and we'll uh come to the
shop.
Man, you know, yeah, yeah,we'll come educate.
You'd be happy to consume someproducts and enjoy it with you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
For sure that I get that yeah, I would love, I would
love to easy places we eat somuch, you know, so it's like we
share that you call it.
He was like yeah, I love thecannabis.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
It's like yeah you're such a good guy.
Man like um, I really I reallygotta say I didn't know much
about you or kind of jumped intothis kind of knowing.
Like I said, boca Roo, but togo from managing or signing some
of the bigger bands of thatearly 2000 era and then doing
the fashion thing and then nowyou're transitioning to cannabis
, it's pretty cool.
I think it's cool.
It's cool.
(29:15):
I think everybody makes yourcareer transitions at different
points in your life.
Those are some cool jumpingpoints.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
In general, it's like I want people to come up from
all over the country, right, buteven if people are in Chicago
or they're in New York orwhatever, like pop up and come
to Hall of Flowers.
I think I check it out inToronto.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
It's a really good show and anybody that's
listening that hasn't been anyretailers that do listen to our
show'm just gonna say getincredible value every time I go
and always make sure to goevery year, so, uh, it was a
pleasure getting to chat withirama and get to.
Uh, nobody's behind the brandof all of ours yeah, yeah, hell
yeah, wizard of oz that beard,it's just, I love it, man.
(29:59):
Pleasure to meet you, brother.
Oh yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Appreciate it Okay, bye.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Diagnostic complete All systems functioning normally
.
Minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, main engine start 4, 3, 2, 1.
I'm Sean and I'm Charlie andthis is Higher Orbit.
We got a special edition.
(00:25):
We can call it a specialedition episode.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, a little single segment, something unusual for
us, but awesome guestnonetheless.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I feel like I'm really excited for this guest
because it's almost like apoker-oo situation.
It's like I was always likewho's behind this thing they
call the Hall of Flowers?
He's the puppet master, yourfavorite, Kind of like Wizard of
Oz or something.
He even kind of looks like awizard, if you ask me.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Another which I love.
Let's introduce him.
We got Rama Mayo.
Rama Mayo yeah, visionaryfounder of Hall of Flowers,
probably our favorite conventionthat's hosted in Toronto at
least one of our favorites.
One of our favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Cannabis conventions's hosted in Toronto
at least one of our favorite,one of our favorite cannabis
conventions, for sure, andsomething that I always feel
like I get something that I gotto make time for it on the
calendar, you know.
So it's really cool to have youon the show, man, and thanks
for making time.
Yeah, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Yeah, that's cool.
I love that you guys own thedispensary too, because you have
such a unique perspective onHall of Flowers, because we
really build it for you guys,for the retailers.
It's different, obviously, upin Canada versus where we
started the show down here.
You know the laws, basicallythe structure and stuff.
But, yeah, it's cool that youguys even love it.
(01:41):
Before we started I was justflattered that you guys were-.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's a fun little surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Are we on year three of theshow Like?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
is this the third year In Canada, I think formally
right.
Is it going to be your thirdyear, right, rama?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, this is the third show up there and we had
done it in Santa Rosa and PalmSprings, right, and those did
really well, so we decided tobring it up there and try out
Toronto as like our first kindof attempt towards the East
Coast of you know, the continentessentially Makes sense Growing
(02:17):
market.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I imagine it felt like the show was growing itself
.
My understanding is you getlike well over 200 retailers at
the show.
You always have tons of greatbrands, lots of new brands
itself, um, my understanding isyou get like well over 200
retailers at the show.
Um, you always have tons ofgreat brands, lots of new brands
.
From what I remember, umdefinitely excited to to make it
out to the show this year.
I think it's uh, june six,seven, is that right?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, that sounds about right yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, yeah, there we go, either fifth, sixth or sixth
, seventh.
But yeah, there we go, I checkit, nice.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, um, so we're going to go, yeah, no, I feel
like everybody, all the brandsalways being their, their
biggest stuff, um, which isalways exciting, like new
products and stuff for all theflowers, or it seems like all
the best.
I'm really excited to take partthis year.
You're joining us.
Are you based out of Oxnard,california?
(03:07):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oxnard, yeah, Like Ventura
County, so just north of LACounty, okay, yeah, so I'm
basically like I lived in LA forthe last 20 years and Los
Angeles last 20 years and, um,now that you don't need an
office really anymore, um, I waslike fuck it, I'm going to move
(03:30):
to the beach, you know.
So I like moved up here a yearago and I live like right at the
beach and I walk on the beachevery day and it's like very I
feel very fortunate to get tohave this thing and the weather
here, unlike Toronto where youknow it's basically perfect
almost every day of the year.
So don't rub it in, man, teeny,teeny town.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What's that?
I said don't rub it in, man.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah you know, you already know it's still freezing
there, I bet.
But you know, I live in thislittle teeny town.
There's like not a stoplight inmy town or anything, it's just
like a little teeny little, likesliver of sand basically, and,
um, yeah, it's, it's amazing,it's it helped me, like I needed
to kind of move out of labecause, um, I have a hard time
(04:17):
balancing like work.
You know, I'm like I used toeven in my instagram I used to
say workaholic and I was proudof it, and now I'm like, oh my
God, I'm psycho, like that wasnot a good idea.
So I just it was so hard toturn it off still living in the
city, so I just kind of had toforce myself to move out of out
of the city, you know, and, um,that way I could like not work
(04:40):
every second of my life, eventhough I have a whiteboard in my
living room now.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's funny how things change.
You kind of value differentthings as life moves on.
I can relate to that too.
Man, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Sorry, go ahead.
My main priority right now iscollecting sea glass.
Okay, that's cool.
My main priority right now iscollecting sea glass, okay, you
know.
Okay, that's cool, man, that'smy main priority.
And I have some competition uphere.
I got some retiree ladies thatI can get into some little
secret spots they can't get downinto.
But yeah, it's been kind oflike a total 180 kind of the
(05:24):
past year, which has been really, really awesome.
That sounds very relaxing man.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's nice You're getting some peace.
Man, I bet you.
La has definitely got adifferent buzz to it and I could
see it being uh exhausting.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
But what kind of uh inspired you to create all the
flowers.
I was kind of thinking that, um, just to kind of bring it back
for a sec here.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, so, as my partner Dannywould say, um, who like runs the
show technically and does doesall the work really?
Um, shout out Danny, um, hesays like yeah.
He says like you know, it wasyour dream and I made it happen,
right, I'm like fucking awesome, you know.
So, yeah, essentially like I, Iwas telling you guys before
(06:04):
that we started that like I dida punk rock record label for a
long time and at the end of thepunk rock record stuff I was
working with some fashion tradeshows and I was supplying them
music.
In exchange.
They were giving me some money,but mostly giving me like space
, booth, space in the fashionworld, and I started working
(06:24):
with like some really big tradeshows.
And then I started working witha trade show called agenda.
Uh, and my partner Aaron, who'slike the you know it's like
three, three groups kind of thatcame together to do hall
flowers.
You know my group, which isgreen street um hall, and you
know Danny and this guy, aaronLevant and Aaron um owned a
trade show called and Aaronowned a trade show called Agenda
.
Danny owned a trade show calledLiberty and Capsule.
(06:47):
My partner Aaron also startedComplexCon.
So you know, really like big.
These guys are experts, likethe best in the world at
producing events.
I had a label.
I started working with them onmusic and then I ended up
starting my own little tradeshow for fashion, like like just
a couple of years later, forfact.
(07:07):
And uh, that was called, thatwas called you, not yeah, that
was called United Cool.
That was in Las Vegas and inNew York and that was like 2000,
.
Like six, seven, eight kind ofthing, I guess.
And um, it was like skull candyand and a bunch of skate brands
and you know we had some prettybig companies that were that
were exhibiting with us.
(07:28):
But it was against the bigfashion trade show out there
called magic in vegas and it'swhat we built like what you call
a satellite show.
So it's just a show that kindof floats around the big one
right and um, we did really wellwith it.
And um, my partner and I, um wasthree partners.
Steve Aoki was a partner before.
He was a famous DJ, um and uh,another partner, um, and the
(07:51):
three of us kind of kind ofsplit ways.
You know, steve became histhing.
The other guy went to do musicas well and um, I didn't know
what to do.
So after the that trade showshut down, I ended up starting
an ad agency the first time everwith a good friend of mine
named John LaCroix, up in SanFrancisco.
We did that for a few years andthen I kind of merged.
(08:12):
I left that company and cameback to Los Angeles, started
working with a big mentor ofmine named Darren Romanelli.
Dr Romanelli amazing, amazingdesigner, artist, like brilliant
thinker, and we signed a G-Pen,the portable vaporizer.
You know G-Pen, and that waslike our first project.
(08:33):
So that was like 13 years ago.
We did G-Pen and then we startedworking with First cannabis
client, so to speak, like wouldyou, yeah, we were doing beats
by dre, disney, dreamworks,things like that like big, big
corporate stuff, and gpn wantedto be part of it and and we had
an incredible run with them.
And then I worked with ahandful of other brands but the
(08:54):
whole time I was like, how comethere's not these like good
trade shows, and I think champswas around and things like that,
but nothing like in LA, nothingpart of like the culture,
nothing in California.
And you know, I had basicallyhad the idea for like years and
years and years and years,before we even started Hall of
Flowers, for the idea of doinglike what I'd call like the
(09:15):
agenda for weed or the libertyfor weed, like my partners had
done.
So I literally started going tomy partner, aaron, and and was
like, dude, we gotta do a tradeshow for cannabis.
For years I was bucking him andhe kept blowing me off and no,
no, no.
And then they sold agenda.
He got out and, um, I ran intohim and I said, dude, now it's
(09:38):
time, let's do this and cool,you know we'll do it and I'll
put it all together.
Here's, you know, meet Danny,he'll run it.
And yeah, that was I don't knowsix years ago or seven years
ago or something, but it hadbeen like, you know, something
that I've been wanting to do foryears before that and the
timing and everything wasperfect when we ended up doing
(09:59):
it Sounds about right.
Yeah, that's basically whathappened, but, yeah, inspired by
the fashion trade shows butevery industry in the world has
a trade show.
We're not inventing this, youknow.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
No, we appreciate it.
I mean, it's a greatopportunity for us to network
out and of course you know hugebrands, at least in the Canadian
market and of course in theCalifornia ones, to get out
there and talk to people,because there's really quite a
disconnect there.
But I certainly you know, justtop of my mind, you know it
(10:31):
sounds like you have lots ofexperience and lots of great
teammates working together.
But how do you get over thathump when you're like trying to
make this all happen, whenthere's so many variables,
especially with a weed, whenit's like no one has money to
market, no one has money tobudget, and you're you're like
yo give me cash to set up abooth, and you're like, fuck, I
don't know, I'm trying to makeall this shit happen at once
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
How do you over the hump?
You mean, like personally, howdo you get over the hump?
yeah, I guess it's probably justbreaking through brick walls,
really yeah yeah, every day Ikind of use this like this, like
analogy, where, like you know,like when you see, like like a
volcano erupts and it's likecrazy, but when it gets out of
the bottom of the hill it's likeslow lava and it like slowly
(11:12):
crumbs over a car and like, likeyou know, crushes it, you know,
but it's like you can get awayfrom the lava.
It's like like, but if youstand there too long, your legs
are gone, you know.
So that's kind of like theapproach.
Like every day I wake up andlike the lava is either at my
tippy toes or 100 yards away,but you just got to kind of keep
running from it.
(11:32):
You know, you gotta just run.
You know something else to do.
Like the lava, yeah, the lavaeffect, you know, like I like
this.
It's it's to me like I wastalking to a good friend the
other day and it's almostimpossible to run your own
business.
You guys know this, it'sinsanely hard and even if you
can run it, it's almost veryimpossible to turn it off.
(11:55):
I wake up in the middle of thenight.
I have a whiteboard in myliving room.
I wake up in the middle of thenight and I'm like, oh, food at
Hall of Flowers, and I think ofsome food thing and I come out
and I write it like stepbrotherstyle on the whiteboard and then
the next day I'm like why doesit say like June, you know
whatever, like?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
shish kebab or whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Like what the fuck was I thinking?
And then I'm like, oh, to melike that's, I've had some good
friends that have come into theindustry or just into
entrepreneurship, and mentallyit's just so fucking hard to do
it.
So for me, why the way I cankeep going is literally when I
did the punk rock record label,I met these bands that were in
(12:35):
basements.
At the time, you know, when Iwas working with a band called
Jimmy E World, which is theirgiant, you know.
Now they were literally playinglike basement shows and hundred
person capacity rooms, you know, and we were like, you know,
like begging.
I was their booking agent.
We were like, you know, it waslike very DIY, small, and I
worked with dozens of bands thatwere like as small as they are
they were and then became thesegiant, famous bands, giant
(13:03):
famous bands.
And, um, when I started talkingto the cannabis you know, men
and women, entrepreneurs,meeting them all I got the same
exact feeling.
I was like, oh, my god, likeyou know, my excuse me, my
industry was like emo, indie,like punk rock, you know so.
But this is 30 years ago.
It's a 30 year anniversary ofmy label this year, actually,
and uh, which is psycho.
And we're re-releasing vinyl,right, thank you.
(13:24):
And the kids still care.
I got today an email of a kidthat wants to be on my label,
which is psycho, cause it hasn'texisted in a decade.
And, um, you know, and we'rere-releasing a bunch of vinyl
records, which is insane.
(13:44):
That kids care.
These bands haven't played in25 years.
Interesting and kids still areinto it.
So that perspective and thatidea and the confidence that I
get from doing that back thenand knowing I was right and the
bands still care, is why I cankeep going now, because I have
such a clear vision of what'sgoing on with the industry and
(14:07):
where we'll be, because I havesuch a clear vision of, like,
what's going on with theindustry and where we'll be.
And you know, we started thisthinking we were going to make
two bucks an hour for forever.
Yeah, you know, and that's whatwe did.
We just really put the time inand over-delivered for everybody
and helped these kind ofoperators carry their stuff
through the mud, if you willlike.
My partner, josh, would say,and you know, but I did it once
(14:28):
before with, with, with um, withthe music stuff.
But back then in music right,there's big major labels existed
for 100 years, you know, 50years.
So for me coming indie, it wasreally hard.
I didn't see myself becomingthat big, major mainstream music
thing, even though my bandswere doing it all the time.
I didn't think that I could beepitaph records or or whatever
(14:51):
um, sub pop.
I just didn't think I could doit for some reason, because I
started it when I was 15.
Probably that's why you know,and um, and then now I'm like,
okay, now I get it.
Now I know that, like how torun a business and how to set up
structure and how to find theright partners and all what I
don't want to do.
I know myself way more, youknow.
So, having like that experience, plus the the, the vision and
(15:13):
the see it in the mirroring ofit from what I did before to now
, that's why I spring on a bedevery day, you know, because I'm
just so, I just so confident inwhat we're doing.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You know, rama what, uh, what do you think gives you
guys your secret sauce overthere at all flowers?
I do think you guys aredifferent than a lot of the
other trade shows and yeah, thatI just kind of tee up with that
one.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Secret sauce.
I love it.
So, secret sauce, I'm a sauceman for sure.
So, um, I'm.
I love mimicking, I likeGoogling.
You know what secret saucesexist, out from my my favorite
crabby restaurants and andremaking them you know, yeah, um
.
So so I love it, cause thesauce has such different
ingredients.
Usually, you know, right, likesome of that.
Yeah, there's like the, themayo and ketchup and mustard,
(15:57):
but you know, then there's likevinegar, right, and then there's
like the pickles or whatever.
Then there's, like I think thesecret sauce is probably my
partner Danny's ability to likesee that sauce and and
understand the, the, the mainingredients you know to to for
(16:17):
it to like be super unique, youknow.
But again, he did his fashiontrade show for 20 years, or
something you know, and it washugely successful way, way
bigger than my stuff, you know,or something you know and it was
hugely successful way, waybigger than my stuff you know
Cool no, I agree I think youteed it up with before as well
Like it's great to kind of hearsomeone so enthusiastic and it's
like you said, you know youkind of go through that crazy
(16:40):
moment.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You experience it.
It gives you that confidence.
It's really cool to just hearthat and of course, when you
look back you gotta giveyourself kudos.
I guess the other thing, guys.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
The other thing that I do is like, for I like still,
you know, green street is thecompany that started hall
flowers, right, which is an adagency, you know, and um, and
thankfully I stopped reallytaking clients in and just
focused on IP, building IPourselves internally, which is
what any real ad agency, that'show they really become
successful if they build theirown shit, you know.
(17:11):
So that's what we essentiallydid, you know.
So I did client work incannabis for 12 years.
You know I still have.
We can still have a couplelittle projects here and there
that we do, but you know, forthe most part it's like, um, the
agency turned into um, the iphouse or the house of brands or
whatever you want to call it.
(17:34):
And but as part of this, themain kind of client exercise
that I do and my specialty, Iwould say, is is what is like
called, or I call like like abrand realization exercise and
it's like a legitimately like.
It's a.
It's a month long process.
I've done it with a couple ofgreat companies, but it's like a
physical trainer's a.
It's a month-long process.
I've done it with a couplegreat companies, but it's like a
physical trainer, like, I don'thave a six-pack, you know you
probably couldn't tell from mysweatshirt, but you know I'm not
(17:56):
like that.
But it's like, essentially,when you go to the gym, you have
physical trainer, you work outevery little part of your whole
fucking body and like you don'thave to eat right in the water
and all this stuff, right andand it's like that's essentially
what I do for brands, you know,and specialize I've done that
forever for brands but nowspecialized for cannabis for the
last 10 years and, yes, I'llmake you a logo, but that comes
(18:20):
like after the fact that we dothese like really deep dive,
fundamental exercises, likepicture building a house.
I want to build a foundationthat you can build a hundred
story building on top of, notjust and with all the heating on
the floor and the whole thing,not just like figuring it out
later, right.
So that's why I don't take onmany clients, because most
clients don't want to put thislike really like fundamental,
(18:41):
foundational work into it,because it's not that fun, you
got to go deep.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's tough, it's like you gotta.
You gotta get uncomfortableright and you gotta move through
that.
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
100 I totally agree with you when you you think
you're here and you do thisexercise with me over the course
of a few weeks or a few months,depending on how much time you
take, and but it's like 60 pagesof like real one day is a page
kind of thing.
It's like a lot of fucking work, totally wrong, a lot of time,
90 of the time.
By the time you get through theexercise you've changed your
(19:10):
whole perspective on who you areor who you're going for or what
you're there to do, kind of.
You know, it really does change.
That's the whole point of it.
It changes your trajectory.
So we talked about Wizard of Ozearlier.
We talked about, like, theconfidence and the excitement
that I have.
Yeah, that's because I did thisexercise myself years ago and
you know it took through COVIDreally.
(19:31):
I really sat down and likespent months and months and
months, hundreds and hundreds ofhours, yeah, like figuring out
what the hell I wanted to do.
And it kind of starts with thisthing called leadership
positioning.
And now when I do it withclients, I show them two slides
Do you want to be Wizard of Ozor do you want to be wizard of
Oz, or do you want to be RichardBranston or, you know, elon
Musk, with, like the gold suiton, or whatever you know.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
What kind of leadership style?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
are you right.
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
Yeah, when you said wizard ofOz earlier, I was like, okay, I
love it, cause that's like whatI'm going for is this wizard of
Oz thing.
And you said, you know theconfidence comes from because I
feel like I know exactly whatwe're doing and what I'm out
here to do, and it's not drivenby money or anything like that.
It's driven by, like the next10 years of looking at the
(20:15):
industry, you know.
So I just have a long-termperspective on it, you know.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, what's going on in Cali right now?
I feel like I haven't been outthere in a long time.
What are the challenges thatyou guys kind of face?
Like we face a lot in marketingand and, um, kind of
advertising.
I'm sure you guys too like what, what's, what's going on with
you there and and uh, I don'tknow.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
That's really my main focus is California.
My hypothesis was also like bebig in California, yeah, that
was it.
So I I even turned down, forfor 10 years we turned down
projects from Canada or fromother States, because we just
didn't know the the world.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, I could make you a brandfor if you're in, if you're in
fucking whatever, montreal orwhatever, but like it's not, I'm
(21:01):
not there.
You know, especially likesocial and speaking to the
customer, all that kind of stuff, right?
I don't know the slang orwhatever, right?
So so instead of being greedyand just saying, yes, give me
the thing and whatever fucking,we'll figure it out, it was like
let's just focus on californiaonly and really, hopefully, los
angeles mostly.
You know, nice, hello, guyspeeking in here uh and uh, you
(21:26):
know and um, you know.
So, california, what's happeningis we just had our first hall
of flowers down here in venturaokay, I'm sure is where I live
basically, coincidentally,nothing to do with it at all.
I wish I was that smart, um,but I just moved up here and
then a few months later theywere like we can do show, but
(21:47):
the venue is a place that wewere going after for years.
It's called the Ventura CountyFairgrounds and it's right on
the ocean, you know, and soyou're driving in on the highway
.
It's an hour plus, you know,just over an hour north of LA,
(22:13):
but it's really close to likewhat they call the valley and
then northern, you know,southern mid part of California.
So it is a very convenientreally you know what I mean to
come in, you know, to this placeand it's on the ocean, it's in
a cool little town that has liketons of restaurants and bars
and cafes and you know nightclubstuff and everything you'd want
to do as a, as a attendee, youknow.
Also within like a mile radius,you know, so it's not spread
out, which is like a really bigadvantage.
Everything was better, theparking was better, you know
(22:35):
everything that about the spotwas better, but it took us years
to get the venue and, um, wedid our first show there just a
month ago.
Why?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
was.
Why was it found in the in theuh the venue, was it?
They didn't want to beassociated with a cannabis thing
?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, exactly In California the laws are
basically the allowed venues fora licensed cannabis event,
which is what we are can only beat county fairgrounds and then
other private property that isdeemed okay by the city and the
(23:07):
state.
So it's like a crazy process toeven get them to approve a
non-fairground venue, which iswhat we do.
In Palm Springs we had anon-fairground venue.
It took nine months orsomething to get the city to be
okay with it.
Because these laws don't exist.
We're going into cities thathave never done this, ever in
the world.
That's why all flowers you saidwhat's the special sauce?
(23:28):
My partner, danny, was sittingat the like the, you know the,
not the courthouse, but whateverthat town hall.
You know like till one in themorning, many nights.
You know like talking toeverybody that's there and
sitting waiting for the mayorand all this stuff.
And you know he had to likehave like lawyers and all these
(23:49):
lobbyists, all these people likeinvolved to even explain to the
city how this stuff even works.
You know, um, because it's it'svery technical, it's it?
No, I could have never pulledit off like.
The one thing I saw really thatthis past few months with with
my partner danny is that Icouldn't have had the patience
that he would have to go throughand do all this like paperwork
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I throw the red tape.
Well, me and Charlie always saythat, yeah, the red tape's nuts
, yeah, we didn't realize that.
You know, we got involved inthis industry.
We're going to have to bepoliticians as well, and that's
what it sounds like.
You're kind of saying you'reready.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, or you that that's exactly.
And that's not my world at all,I'm not interested in that.
So that's exactly right.
So so California, so you justsaid like, how's it going right?
What's going on there?
So so the show was a fuckingphenomenal, huge success.
So that's like a great thing.
But the past year has beentough.
You know, past couple of yearsreally, you Um, there's a ton of
(24:45):
unlicensed.
You know retailers still open.
You know there's um tons of tax.
You know stuff going on Um alot like some of the bigger
companies.
You know a company calledherbal went out of business.
They were distributing, likeyou know, a handful of the best
brands.
That was a big blow.
(25:05):
You know.
You know recovering, but it'slike, you know it's a, it's a.
You know you know recovering,but it's like, you know it's a.
So it's a.
You know it's it's hard.
Now the thing is we talked aboutlike um earlier.
Like you know my approach, thisstuff, and like when I sit down
with these brands, you know,and it's a, it's a nice analogy,
I think as well.
It's like um, it's like thewalking dead every day, right,
(25:27):
like lava style, but it's likeyou kick the door open and like
you could have all the plans inthe world, but that shit's gone
as soon as the new zombiescoming out of this fucking
little hole or whatever you know.
So it's like every single dayyou've got to like re, you have
to be able to like replant.
So for someone that's reallystructured and stuck in this
kind of thing and theprojections and the thing and
what like, it's almostimpossible to do those.
(25:47):
Impossible in the real world,to hit all that stuff, nevermind
in in this world, right?
So I think if you were reallyreally tried and, like you know,
raised all the money and hadthe very structured thing and I
think it's, you're gettingcrushed, you know.
But if you can kind of adaptand you know be asset, light or
whatever term people want to useto describe it, then I think
(26:09):
there's a good opportunity here.
And I'd say, like, the finalpart of California to me is like
there's a lot of brands thathave pulled out recently, big
brands, wanna brands pulled out,right, so like it, if you need
like, if if you don't needCalifornia to be part of, like
your branding and your marketingand your credibility and stuff
(26:30):
like that, then it maybe doesn'tmake sense to to to try to be
here.
You know, like that's whatyou're seeing, right, it's not
just making it up.
Like that's what you're seeing,right, it's not just making it
up, right, that's what we'reseeing.
But you know, I thinkCalifornia brands the California
lifestyle and Emerald Triangleand you know all the farms that
are here and all the genesis arehere.
(26:50):
Like, besides, bc Bud,california cannabis is number
one or two in the world as faras where people want their weed
from.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
It's epicenter for the culture.
I was going to say I think so,yeah, and the product too
Exciting.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, the product, yeah, yeah.
So you're going to see you knowthese brands going over state
lines very soon, you know, andgetting licensing deals or
building their own stuff.
They already are, but you'regoing to see them go from you
know one or two spots to likeshit.
(27:26):
We're in 14 states now becausethat's just like where the way
any Coca-Cola or Corona beer orwhatever it's how you do it,
yeah, you know what I mean.
So I think that's what's goingon.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Just to tie us in, curious, to kind of get your
sense on the Canadian market.
Obviously the US is the primary, and I get why.
But you have some great brandsin the Toronto convention.
You've got Collective Projects,scentsy Brands, west Coast
Wilds, who I think is out ofactually Oregon.
Aurora is a big one here inCanada.
I'm curious if anyone hascaught your attention on the
(27:59):
Canadian side, or also if you'veever heard of Sheesh, one of
our sponsors that make a greathash soda.
You said you like a beverage.
You got to try one.
Yeah, you got to try one.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
I would love to try it.
Yeah, I saw Sheesh earliertoday on the on one when I was,
you know, creeping on yourInstagram, nice.
So, yeah, that's cool and Iliked that it was called hash.
Is this cola or silk hash?
I like that they use.
Yeah, I like that they use theword hash there.
Yeah, so Canada, like I'm notsuper familiar with it, to be
(28:29):
honest.
You know I'm not up thereenough, you know.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I love it and I love the honesty man, next time you
come we got to get you out ofhere and we'll come to the shop
man come, we gotta get you outof here and we'll uh come to the
shop.
Man, you know, yeah, yeah,we'll come educate.
You'd be happy to consume someproducts and enjoy it with you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
For sure that I get that yeah, I would love, I would
love to easy places we eat somuch, you know, so it's like we
share that you call it.
He was like yeah, I love thecannabis.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
It's like yeah you're such a good guy.
Man like um, I really I reallygotta say I didn't know much
about you or kind of jumped intothis kind of knowing.
Like I said, boca Roo, but togo from managing or signing some
of the bigger bands of thatearly 2000 era and then doing
the fashion thing and then nowyou're transitioning to cannabis
, it's pretty cool.
I think it's cool.
It's cool.
(29:15):
I think everybody makes yourcareer transitions at different
points in your life.
Those are some cool jumpingpoints.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
In general, it's like I want people to come up from
all over the country, right, buteven if people are in Chicago
or they're in New York orwhatever, like pop up and come
to Hall of Flowers.
I think I check it out inToronto.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
It's a really good show and anybody that's
listening that hasn't been anyretailers that do listen to our
show'm just gonna say getincredible value every time I go
and always make sure to goevery year, so, uh, it was a
pleasure getting to chat withirama and get to.
Uh, nobody's behind the brandof all of ours yeah, yeah, hell
yeah, wizard of oz that beard,it's just, I love it, man.
(29:59):
Pleasure to meet you, brother.
Oh yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Appreciate it Okay, bye.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Diagnostic complete All systems functioning normally
.
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