S1, E57: Beehive Farmacies - Bijan Sakaki - Small Lake City

Episode Transcript
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Bijan Sakaki (00:00):
My company is Beehive Pharmacy.
So I was born in New Jersey.
My parents immigrated here fromthe Middle East.
Like I was probably the darkestdude in my neighborhood I got
diagnosed with ulcerativecolitis.
It's like Crohn's disease.
I mean.
The largest qualifyingcondition right now in the

(00:20):
program is chronic pain.
Four and a half years in, we'reabout 90,000 patients right now
.
Those are also great questions.
I think we're working towardsthose all as an industry.
My flower, I make sure, isbetter than what's on the street
and what you can go to Wendoverand get.
I'm a patient first and thenI'm a business owner.
This has been a lifelongjourney and we're not even done.

(00:42):
Your health, relationships,your friends those are not
renewable.
I think that's what I learnedis a superpower here.

Erik Nilsson (00:51):
What is up everybody and welcome back to
another episode of the SmallLake City Podcast.
I'm your host, eric Nilsen, andabout five years ago medical
cannabis was legalized in thestate of Utah and now there's
been some learning, some changes, some developments since then,
but there's been someone who'sbeen in the front lines, both as
a patient and as a businessowner, that we have on the

(01:13):
podcast today.
His name is Bajan Sakaki, whogrew up in Salt Lake City, utah,
after the age of six, with hisparents immigrating from the
Middle East, growing up in avery white suburban neighborhood
, to being diagnosed with anautoimmune disease which caused
him a lot of pain and discomfort, where he ultimately found that
cannabis was the solution tothat pain and discomfort, which

(01:36):
motivated him to participate inthe cannabis industry both
outside of Utah and now insideof Utah, where he founded the
business Beehive Pharmacies, apharmacy both here in Salt Lake
as well as Brigham City as wellas owns his own farm where he
distributes that cannabisthrough his pharmacies.
So we talk a lot about cannabisuse in Utah, cannabis trends,

(02:00):
his story of becoming anentrepreneur and owning his own
business, and a little bit moreabout mental health health,
where we find happiness, and alittle bit of our own personal
beliefs and all of that.
So, uh, definitely a greatepisode.
I think you're going to enjoythis one, so check out the
conversation with me and Bajan,enjoy.
Yeah, it's.
It's funny, like, and I I'mlike kind of like don't get

(02:21):
surprised by it anymore aboutwhen I sit down with someone who
I don't know and then, withinlike five minutes, I know all
these people Exactly.
It's like the exact same socialcircles.
Um, small Lake city, that's thething.
Oh, that's the story of my life, like I remember when, at first
cause everybody experiencessmall Lake city in their own
regard.

Yeah, but then when?
you put out the energy of smalllake city, have a podcast about
small lake city.
All of a sudden it's almostlike the energy of the universe
is like that.
It's like how small is thiscity?
Yeah, yeah, no, it's good.
That's what I like I I thinkthat's what I learned is a
superpower here instead of afault, because it holds you

(03:01):
accountable if you're a badactor, you have bad ethics, bad
character.
It's very quick to know, like,don't fuck with this guy,
whereas you're in another city.
There's pockets of so manylittle clicks that you can
reinvent yourself.
You can burn somebody, changeindustries, change your outfit,

(03:22):
put on a new mask, get some workdone and show up and you're
somebody completely different.
But and no one knows thedifference but here it's like,
oh no, like, like I said, likeour friend Scott Paul I've known
him 10 plus years.
It's crazy.

And I've known him 10 plus months.

Yeah, that's fair, even your other, even, uh, our
other friend, scott, the otherScott who I worked with, I
worked with, that's fair.

Even our other friend Scott, the other Scott
who I worked with.
I worked with, he's your boy.
Yeah, scott Paulson.
And it's funny too, because ifyou were to draw I don't know
what the chart's called, butit's like a circle where
everybody gets drawn to theother person if they know each
other or some sort ofcorrelation of doing that, and
there's a couple people I'm like, oh, I know who the people with

(04:06):
the most lines to them would be.
They tend to be like the.
I think if there's five or sixpeople I could bring a name up
with someone and if they knewone of those people it would
tell me a lot about them.

In a good way or a bad way, both, both.
Yeah, there's some superconnectors out here, for sure.
Scott Paul's one of them.

Yeah, oh, oh, like , and it's and it's like a good
group, because you're people whoit's like I mean successful,
creative thinkers, um,definitely like, uh,
iconoclastic kind of people whoare open-minded and but also
like successful, I mean goodpeople who have, I mean, are
working on making things abetter place.
And so it's like yeah, I thinkit's a great example of like a
good thing that you could runinto someone they know and be

(04:41):
like, oh, like you, you, youpass.

You pass thing that you could run into someone
they know and be like oh, likeyou, you'd pass.
You pass the, the bs, the smelltest, the sniff test.
But with anything, even here,there's more than a sniff test.
You know, um, I came here in 96, so I was born in new jersey.
My parents immigrated here fromthe middle east.
Shit wasn't going over wellover there, so they came, they
came over here.
I guess it's a bad time now too, and it's never a good time.

It's never a good time Like.
No one's ever like oh, we got avacation in the middle East.
It's finally a good time.

You know, summers in Kabul are just um no.
So my parents immigrated fromIran.
Uh, we moved to new jersey.

(05:34):
We did the east coast thing.
I moved here when I was six.
So when I moved here in 96 95I'm 35 now like I was probably
the darkest dude in myneighborhood yeah, which is
insane.
So moving here to a new place,me being the outlier, the
minority not being of the commonbelief system too, totally in
the neighborhood.

It was like a double whammy.

It was immediate black sheep, like something
happened, toilet papering,stealing, reindeer getting
stacked, which is actuallypretty funny.
All of those got blamed on usin our neighborhood.
And fast forward now my motherstill lives in our house in
willow creek and it's I.
It's changed immensely.
Yeah, like it's such a diverseplace, there's so many different

(06:07):
, uh, sects of people, sects ofpeople, religions, races, and
seeing that shift at first I'mlike, wow, this is really hard,
get me out.
And so I moved to San Diegoright out of high school.
I was like, fuck this, thisplace is whack.

(06:28):
Um, and I moved to san diego toplay professional paintball for
a little bit so how did you get?

where did the paintball start?

paintball started at this really dope place called
paintball planet.
It's no longer there.

I did my.
I did my sixth birthday there.
I'm just like my sixth gradebirthday.
There's okay.

Over on 94th like Sandy Parkway, gang, gang.
And it just became this thingwhere every Friday and Saturday
and Sunday I was there all day.
My brother's birthday party wasthe first time I learned about
paintball.
I wasn't old enough to actuallygo, that's tough.
I wasn't old enough to actuallygo, that's tough.
So then when I got old enough,I started going.
My parents again bless them,immigrant mindset, they're like

(07:10):
no paintball guns, you'll shootyour eye out.
And they finally got me one formy birthday and it was the
coolest thing ever becausethat's every weekend, just
10,000 hours in Damn.
And at a young age you learn howto communicate with people
because you're playing againstpeople who are 40.
Yeah, and I mean, obviouslyit's like a little weird when

(07:36):
40-year-olds and 15-year-oldsare in the same room, but you
learn.
You're like, okay, cool, thisis how I communicate, this is
how I navigate, this is how Iown somebody on the field.
And it just grew into thisthing where you get on a local
team, a regional team, and thenyou network, you make friends,
they.
You try out for a team incalifornia.
Yeah, tried out for a semi-proteam, got on that.
My friends got me on a europeanteam, an australian team.

(07:58):
So you know, 18, 19, 20, 21 wasjust mobbing country to country
to country, seeing the world,um, and it was, it was.
It was the most fun I've had inlife.
It was sick.

I mean doing what you love traveling the world.
I mean that's.
I mean a dream, no matter howyou spend it that that kept me
sane.

Getting through, moved to California, through,
moved to california, I gotdiagnosed with ulcerative
colitis.
It's like crohn's disease.
Okay, when I was 12.
Obviously, you're 12.
Cannabis is not an option.
Um, I'm playing paintball for ateam in holland at the time and
everything I'm reading about islike cannabis helps with

(08:43):
autoimmune, helps with stomachaches, and the whole time.
I'm like there's like cannabishelps with autoimmune, helps
with stomach aches, and thewhole time I'm like there's no,
there's no way like yeah mybrother.
He smoked weed in high school.
My parents weren't stoked, solike I have this, you know dare
mindset where?
I'm like there's no way this ishappening.
So it's.
It was more like survival atthat point.
Yeah and uh.

(09:08):
First time I didn't havesymptoms, side effects, pain.
I could eat, I can get up andwalk.
I mean, I was down to 130pounds.
It was crazy and the doctorswere like, okay, this is going
to go one of two ways.
We're either going to put youon this intense infusion regimen

(09:30):
, which I'd have to gettreatments every eight weeks, or
let's just cut everything out.
You'll have a bag on you.
It's a great look for an 18year old and I was just like
fuck that dude, like let's dothis, let's change my diet,
let's start using cannabis.
I started going down the pathof just knowledge.
Is power Inflammatory foods,mindset, cannabis, other plant

(09:55):
medicines?
I did a lot of internal work.
That really full circle.
That's why I really believe inwhat we're doing is because if I
never got sick, I'd never findthis thing, I'd never be able to
help so many people Right, andand I always wondered the whole
time like why like what?
what, what?
Why do you get sick?

(10:15):
Why do you get sick?
And that's just the bestsuperpower ever.

Yeah.

You know he can navigate now.
Now I know what all of mypatients go through on a regular
basis.
Like you have to have findaccess to medicine, you have to
find high quality medicine.

So it's more, it's more of an authentic journey
for me now yeah, and I'm andit's so interesting to see
because I mean again coming fromparents who migrated from the
middle east to, I mean, willowcreek, cottonwood heights, solid
city, utah brighton high schooland like very conservative
territory like I mean.

No, no parents to Willow Creek, cottonwood Heights
, salt Lake City, utah, brightonHigh.

School Very conservative territory.
No parents in any neighborhoodin Salt Lake are stoked to find
their kids in high schoolsmoking weed For sure.
Still a lot of taboo around itand then to go to a place like
in Holland and being inAmsterdam and being like where
it's the most acceptable thingNormal, you're 13.
Exactly.
And then it's like all right,well, I mean there's two ways

(11:07):
this can work.
It's either going to work and Ifeel better and everything's
really said, or I'm right whereI am and I guess we'll try to
figure out what the next kind ofexperiment is going to be.
So I like that.
I mean, so you grow up here,you take off from paintball, go
around the world, have this, Imean, and then what did this
experience?
I mean in the light of, like,sunsetting your paintball career

(11:30):
and kind of thinking about whatthe next steps could be.
I mean, what was that kind ofnext step in that transition to
where you are now?

I mean it was twofold.
My mom also got re-diagnosedwith cancer at the time, so she
got sick.
I got super sick and I meanit's all connected your body
response to stress, response totrauma, et cetera so she got
super sick.
I moved back to Utah, helpedtake care of her she was going
through divorce and whatnot.
Um, then I got sick and thenthat's when I started the

(11:55):
infusions and and uh, so from 20to 25 was really just wow, this
is my life right now.
Every eight weeks I'm going toLDS hospital getting infusions
and it was kind of a mind fuckbecause you're told you're sick

(12:16):
and this is the only solutionand it's going to happen for the
rest of your life.
So breaking that mold mentallywas one of the biggest
challenges that I had and I'msuper grateful for my good
friends, family and people youmeet along the way that help you
break that, that mindset andthat stigma.
Um, so, 21 to 25, you know I'mlike I'm working in tech.

(12:40):
Um had a great opportunity toalso start my own vaporizer
company.
This is back in like 2012, 2013, and I have my corporate job
for this company.
That's no longer around.
It's called inside salescom andI'd moonlight at night and on

(13:01):
the weekends going to musicfestivals selling these
vaporizer pens.
And at that point I'm like, doI go the route that my education
and my parents and everythingelse were pushing me to, or do I
run with this?
And I try to do both and youcan't really do both.
And I learned after a long timethat something hits like run

(13:25):
with that.
Um.
So I stuck in that tech worldfor a little bit.
I had operations in california,I had dispensary california,
had some stuff in oregon, uh,tried stuff in colorado.
Things didn't really work out.
So I learned a lot from thecannabis industry in other

(13:46):
markets and the whole timekeeping a radar on what's the
pulse and the palette formedical cannabis here.
So it took I think it was aneight-year evolution before the
legislation was like okay, thisis an acceptable medical
framework.
That was done through a ballotinitiative, which means you have
a constitutional right ascitizens of the U S to put

(14:07):
together this bill, get enoughsignatures, and then that goes
before and becomes law.
Our state is probably one ofthe few that meddled with that.
A little bit Like the ballotinitiative said X and we ended
up with Y, yep and um.
As a result of that, we haveour medical cannabis program,

(14:28):
which went live in 2019 or fouror five years in, and that has
been my sole focus the last six,seven years of my life is just
getting healthy and helpingother people be healthy through
something like this.

No, I mean that's.
It's unreal to see how you wentfrom the one needing the help
to now being the one who canhelp, cause I mean there's
always going to be a stigmaaround weed and everybody just
wanting to, I mean cannabis,cannabis.

That's.
That's.
That's part of the, that's partof what we're trying to do.
Is that's a?

great.
I mean I love a good rebrand,um.
But I mean that's like thestigma around cannabis is.
A lot of people just think it'sall recreation.
There's no medical application,there is no um good side to it,
it's all bad or it's a cheechand chong movie yeah, exactly,
and.
But in reality there's so manyof these stories similar to
yours that it helps so much.

(15:21):
I mean, you see, and then allthe evidence is starting to come
out with and and it's.
It's kind of ironic because Imean, there's so many
documentaries about it, butessentially, like the war on
drugs, ended up with usrealizing that a lot of the
drugs there's a right time andplace.
They can help a lot of thingsin a lot of ways.

And not to mention that, like there's also with
the correlation to opioidoffsets, so in in in any state
that you introduce medicalcannabis, there's a direct
correlation to opioid relateddeaths, opioid related crimes,
opioid related abuse, um, from adrug perspective and also, I'm

(15:58):
sure, from a physicalperspective.
But it's crazy to see that justby doing this, there's a lot of
other leading and laggingindicators as a result of it.
But but we're we're workingwith the state to get that data
and make it more presentable,because I think it'd be great to
know, like hey, we saved a lotmore lives from opioids.
I mean, the largest qualifyingcondition right now in the
program is chronic pain.
Even though people are buyingsleep gummies, sleep's not a

(16:21):
qualified condition.
So soon I think the program willmatch what people's needs are
in that regard.
Like sleep, everyone's using itfor sleep, right, but it's not
a recognized medical condition.
So chronic pain you get a lotof people that come in for
chronic pain, acute pain,autoimmune conditions, cancer,
crohn's colitis, ptsd is alsoanother big one.

(16:44):
So this is not a one size fitsall model.
I mean this one plant cancreate hundreds of different
modalities for people to ingest,to vaporize, to put on
topically.
So it's dope.
I'm stoked that when I got intothis, we didn't have labels
like this.
You what I mean it was it was.

(17:05):
This is what I have and this ishow much it costs I mean, which
is someone that?

so, wow, which is the experience of so many people
?
I mean pre like cannabisrevolution.
I mean it would go, yourbrother's friend who would buy
like an ounce and you go get aneighth from him, yeah you don't
know what it is and like you'dbe in the back of a church
parking lot smoking behind likea dumpster or something picking
stems out exactly and then now,like I saw a tiktok of this

(17:29):
guy's, like I used to, I mean,be paranoid about everything and
I'm like vaporizing at targetand which not good yeah, I know,
butbut it's like that's kind of
where we're at and like theamount of people with um that
have been like, oh cool, like Imean it's.
I mean it's an edible, it's notlike threatening, it's such an
easy thing to do and I just feelsilly.
And then I get to go watch amovie and have a pizza and have
a great night.

Or if you're in so much pain you can't even move.
Yeah, take one of those, andthen now you can function daily.
It's crazy because some peopleare using it, for I can't even
get out of bed unless I havethis thing.
So it's good.
I'm grateful.
I think we're doing good stuff.

No, totally.
And so I mean walk me throughthe process, because I know, I
mean, it's only been within thepast five years that cannabis
has been legal to any extent.
But when we think about it now,then of what it took to get a
license to become a dispensary,to become a grower, I mean of
then, of like what it took toget a license to become a
dispensary, to become a grower,I mean, what does that look like
compared to now and what weresome of the things that have

(18:28):
changed along the way or been alot of the roadblocks?

yeah, great, great question.
So the program went live in2019.
They issued eight licenses forcultivation.
Uh, cultivation is just growingof cannabis.
You can do it indoor or outdooror you can do a mix the two.
The difference is the two.
Indoor, you can control theenvironment better, so a lot of
the two.
The difference is the two.
Indoor, you can control theenvironment better.
So a lot of the cannabis you'regoing to see that looks like
came from out of space, likealien type weed.

(18:52):
That's going to be more indoor,okay, um, outdoor, use the
elements of nature sunlight,water, et cetera.
You get bigger plants, biggeryields.
Most of those are going to beum, extracted for concentrates,
for gummies, for vape carts.
Then you'll have greenhouse,which is going to be a mix of
the two.
That's where you ride that lineof affordability and quality.

(19:12):
So that was cultivation andthen retail went live.
Part of the re-stigmatizing ischanging the vernacular from
dispensaries to pharmacies.
So we're pharmacies because wehave to staff a pharmacist on
staff at all times, just like aCVS or Walgreens, and we, we
have to, we pay them.

(19:33):
They're real pharmacists andthose are the ones that you see
for your first time coming intothe store.
They make sure you don't haveany interactions, make sure that
you know what you're doing andyou can abide by the rules of
the program, which are no flameto flower.
That's why I'm using thislittle taser looking vaporizer
device.
This will heat up the medicineto a certain point where there's

(19:53):
no carcinogens, no actualburning.
So the rules here are no flameto flower and then we'll go
through and identify anyinteractions.
Obviously, like somebody hasdiabetes, we're not going to
recommend a gummy that couldmess with their glycemic index.
If somebody has lung issues,we're not going to recommend
inhalation.

(20:13):
So that's what the pharmacistis there for.
Those licenses were issued in2020.
Okay, we're coming up on ourfour-year anniversary, oct 18th.
So in four years, we havestores as North as Logan and as
far South as St George.
We have three in the Salt LakeValley.
Uh, our second stores inBrigham city.

(20:36):
So they're in rural, butthey're also in urban areas.
Program went live.
We were not sure how manypeople would actually go get
their medical card.
Yeah, four and a half years in,we're about 90 000 patients
right now.
Wow, so about 130 140 000people total have gotten their
card, some of which haven'trenewed, some of which have let

(20:58):
them lapse, but currentlythere's about 89 to 90 000
active people.
Wow, um is a lot, but isn't alot.

Yeah.

You know 90,000 people.
It's about one and a halfpercent of our population of
three and a half million.
But how many of those peopleare actually consuming cannabis?
Purchasing cannabis, you knowit's?
You get a lot of people that welose to the traditional market,
the illicit market or therecreational market.
A lot of people from Utah go toWendover and.

(21:28):
Mesquite and they don't have toget a cart.
So 2019 grows went live, 2020pharmacies went live, and then
processors went live around thesame time.
Processors mean you can makegummies and package flour and
make vape carts.
So the evolution of the programhas grown.
The state has done a good jobof building a platform.

(21:52):
Like, every single thing thatgets sold gets tested by the
state, and they have insanetesting protocols so that you
know what you're getting isclean.
We talked about, yeah, howdirty some of the illicit
cannabis can be.
So all of our license fees andstate fees go to fund that part
for the state.
That's run by the department ofag, and then the medical cards

(22:15):
that you get are ran by thedepartment of health.
So we work with the health anddepartment of ag, um, and it's I
mean, it's a lot, it's, it's a,it's a big system and we're
fortunate to be a part of it.
I think the only way you canmake a difference is, like by
playing by the rules.

Yeah, and it's been.
I mean even just using my ownpersonal life as an example, I
feel I mean three, four yearsago I mean, and obviously, um,
covid has an aspect of playingit, but like not really a lot of
people had them.
There's a lot of people who askquestions if somebody did kind
of like a lot of ignorancearound it.
But then I mean fast forward tolike this year.
I feel like I've had so manypeople like bring up, like, oh,
I have my card, I have my card,I have my card.

(22:50):
I was like, oh, interesting,like I never thought that that
many people would be opting todo it, know more about the
process so they can do it, andjust like further, to get
adopted, because I mean, howmany states have there been that
didn't go from I mean medicalto recreational in some way
shape or form?

every state typically goes that route.
Yeah, uh, the sentiment here iswe want to maintain medical
like they want to steer awayfrom anything recreational.
So every state eventually getsthat way.
The benefits of that you haveyou have more people in the, in
the program, because you don'thave to get a card, but then
you're able to tax it and thenyou're able to use that money

(23:31):
for roads and schools andeverything else.
So, uh, I truly believe thatthis program will remain medical
for many years.
Like the difference between ourmedical program and a
recreational program is you'renot allowed to smoke.
There's no, no pre-rolls.
There's no chocolates.
There's no crazy packaging Likethis is my packaging.
There's no like cartooncharacters on this.

(23:52):
Um, so, while everyone thinkslike rec, rec, rec is coming
also, look at how alcohol ishandled.
Do you want it to be handledlike that?
And oftentimes the answer is no.
You know when you, when you,when you hand that over to the
state, uh, you know you lose.
You know you look at you, lookat going to a brewery versus

(24:13):
going to a state liquor store,and you know you have employees
there that really don't give afuck.
They're there for their jobversus people that are
passionate about brewing, beer,et cetera.
So I don't think the sentimentof moving toward recreational,
honestly, is there.
Um, we talked with a lot oflawmakers and regulators and,
look, we just went this programfive years.
Most programs typically willtip and go wreck within that

(24:35):
timeframe, but I think we'vedone a good job of demonstrating
that this can survive withinour, our framework, our, our
state's very unique.
There's a fine line ofseparation.

Yeah, and with I mean so, now that you've been
involved in the industry forlike five years now five plus
years, what?
And again realizing that it'sprobably gonna be a lot of time
as a medical environment than arecreational environment, what
changes do you think are shouldbe happening?
Uh, to make it it as mean,either as efficient for the
consumer or just improve theprocess in general.

I.
Those are also great questions.
I think we're working towardsthose all as an industry.
One is making sure people haveaccess to cards, I think so.
This is, this is a Venti.
Uh, same guys that make thevolcano.
These are the.
These are.
This is everyone thinks thatpeople that consume cannabis
can't build things.
So these, this is Germanengineering.

I know, and this is the first hand, this is the
first no, no, no.

It's all good.
This is the first handhelddevice that's actually worked.
Certain things like looking atqualifying conditions, for
example.
We want to talk about gettingpeople in the program.
At the very beginning it waslike $200 for some doctors to
get a card.
A lot of people can't afford$200 just to get in the program,
to spend a hundred dollars ontheir medicine.

(25:52):
So industry has made changeswhere obviously pricing has come
down.
We do a lot of things calledcar drives now as retailers,
where we will work with a doctor.
They'll come to our spot spotset up in our parking lot and
people can come get their cardand then after that they can

(26:13):
come shop oh cool rather thanhaving that bottleneck be at
specifically one clinic.
So we're working with qmps,which are qualified medical
providers.
That's who you go to to getyour card Working on them, to
have more access and cheaperprices to get people in the
program.
Us as operators, we're lookingat creating more products that

(26:34):
people would otherwise leave theprogram to go get Like ratios.
A lot of people want THC andCBD and CBG or CBN.
Those things help withdifferent things.
So if we don't have them in ourprogram, they're going to go to
Wendover, they're going to goto the illicit market.
So as operators, we can createproducts that they would want to

(26:54):
produce or they'd want toconsume.
Yeah, and then as an industrywe can look at how do we educate
customers Like why would youwant to be a part of the program
?
You can go buy a vape cart for$20 on the street.
You don't know what's in thatvape cart.
That could be the dirtiest vapecart that you ever put.

Yep Literally inhaling poison.

Yes.
So part of our job is education, and the reason why you're
paying a little bit more foritems in the program versus your
dealer or a street plug is wehave to pay taxes, we have
license fees and everything hasto get tested.
So everything's moving in theright direction.
I think the more we educatepeople, the more people will

(27:34):
recognize like okay, I doconsume cannabis to help me with
my ailments, let me get a card.
I mentioned earlier that thenumber one condition for people
getting their card is chronicpain.
Right, so you were in sports,your back hurts, you have
chronic pain.
But a lot of times we'renoticing people are buying
things for sleep, like those aresleep gummies and I know, you

(27:57):
know industry and the Utahmedical association and
regulators are looking at whatother things can they do to make
sure they call it a leakybucket.
We don't want to lose patientsout of the program, so they're.
They're making tweaks here andthere, um little rule changes.
I think that will keep peoplein the program.
But all in all we're trying toraise the bar, not only quality

(28:19):
but access.
So my flower, I make sure isbetter than what's on the street
and what you can go to Wendoverand get.
If I don't do that, then I'mfalling short as an operator.
So I think everyone is reallytrying to put their best foot
forward and say look, if youtrust us, come in, take a chance
with our product and we'll findthe right product for you.

(28:39):
You get to actually talk tosomebody.
So I think it's moving in theright direction.

I mean, which is good to know, because sometimes
I feel like there's like asentiment, just about government
in general, that if it's everup to them to make a decision,
it's probably going to take waytoo long.

Yeah, there's not a sense of urgency, but that's
why I'm glad.
Originally, when the programwent live, there were going to
be seven state-owned they callthem central fill and I'm really
glad that now private industrycan take over that because, like
I said, you've been to a liquorstore before you see how they
operate.
They're not.
They have a great budget theycan build out, but they're not

(29:15):
the most inviting environment,yeah you know you're not going
to be able to ask a lot ofquestions there.
Totally it's more transactional,that is, more a recreational
transaction, totally, whereaswith with any store in the
program, you have to talk to apharmacist your first time.
After that you're able to makepurchases.
So it's it's.

It's a it's same same, but different totally,
which I mean that's good to knowand and it's I always
appreciate like the testing partof things, because I mean
that's that's the biggest, Imean plus side of having
everything be medical and gothrough the state is there are
always some requirements orregulation that's going to
contextualize what's actuallyhappening.

(29:57):
And so I think and that was onething I mean when I lived in
Seattle for four years it was sohelpful to be like, oh, what am
I getting?
Oh, how is?
And again, because like, likeas a medicine.
You mean you'd be like, oh,cool, a high THC, low CBD or no
CBD.
I see like and be like, oh,this is what helps me for this,
this is what does but the THC isnot really the thing.

a lot of consumers are misconstrued.
They want the highest THC.
What it actually is is thesethings called terpenes.
So those are the oils and theplants and I thought I thought
doterra and young living and allthese essential oil companies
were all snake oil until westarted looking at cannabis and
saying, okay, these are thesimilar oils like this terpene,

(30:39):
limonene, limonene is found in alot of sativa strains and that
same terpene is found in a lotof citrus fruits, that blend,
that doTERRA or these oilcompanies.
It'll be like energized andit's like grapefruit, orange,
lemon and the main terpene inthere is limonene.
And then I was like, okay, thisisn't complete bullshit.

(31:04):
At that point and you know I'vebeen doing this for over 15
years and in California wedidn't necessarily educate the
customer on terpenes.
It was look, smell, potency,what's the effect?
Now that we can look and sayterpenes.
I know that if you arestruggling with paranoia when

(31:28):
you try cannabis, we can avoidcertain terpenes.
If you are struggling with painand you want relief, certain
terpenes will provide thatrelief.
Mersene is a big one.
Beta-caryophyllene is anotherbig one.
Those happen to be found in alot of indica strains.
So indica sativa, it's like oldworld of indica strains.
So indica sativa, it's like oldworld.

(31:50):
People don't like saying indicasativa because it really just
classifies the type of plant.
It's not really the effect.
So with terpenes we can now sayokay, how do you want to feel?
What are you struggling with?
And that's why I challenge alot of people when they say you
know, I tried cannabis back inthe day.
It wasn't for me.
And that's why I challenge alot of people when they say you
know, I tried cannabis back inthe day, it wasn't for me.
I went paranoid.
I started pacing back and forthand and there's a strain that
does that for me.

(32:10):
It's called green crack, andthey call it green crack for a
reason.
That's why I don't use it, andand so I think, if, if people
now know, okay, this is how I'dlike to feel, if we do our job
well, we can, we can Sherpa youto to the right option.

Yeah, it's so fun to see how, I mean, much of the
science has pushed everythingand see, like, what actual
outcomes happen, what correlatesmore, get more particular and
granular about what we knowabout it.
But I'm curious, when you werein California, by your
experience there and I meangoing from someone who had
little to no experience incannabis and then finding
yourself there I mean, what didyou learn quickly?
What did you learn quickly?

(32:49):
What was some of your surprisesin your learning process before
you came back?
So California.

California had this system called prop two, 15.
That was the medical programand that changed in 2016 when it
went to Prop 64.
So Prop 64 went.
Rec 215 was medical Okay, and Icut my teeth in the medical
days and it was again during atime where it was still

(33:18):
federally legal.
It was quasi-legal Gray area.
You know you're a caretakerquasi-legal gray area.
You know you're a caretaker.
You have patients that have aright to grow plants that you're
growing on their behalf.
Then you have a store that's acollective, that's a non-profit,
that then takes those plantsand sells to those patients, and
so it's this quasi supply chainthat's regulated.

(33:42):
That when 64 hit, that's whentaxes and regulations came in A
lot of the industry went upsidedown, and so part of my journey
is like, okay, what didn't workin that market and it wasn't
something that this person didor that person did, it was what
everybody did.

(34:02):
Everybody overproducedced.
So if you have too much productand not enough people to
consume it, there's an imbalancein supply and demand.
If you issue too many licensesand there's not enough people to
support that, those people willgo out of business.
So, learning a lot aboutframeworks and regulations that

(34:24):
worked and didn't work.
So I don't take it as an L, Itake it as a learning lesson.
Different L, and I am always theone here, the squeaky wheel.
That's like yo, this didn'twork in California and I think
people they kind of shit on mefor that because I'm like the
wet towel in the room Becausethey may have overbuilt and they
might be experiencing some ofthose issues.

(34:46):
But I would not be doing, I'dbe doing a disservice if I
didn't share, like, myexperiences and it's like hey,
dude, the market is the marketand our market's not any
different.
This is economics, so we're notanything special relative to
another market that had similarissues.

(35:08):
So I learned a lot there.
I also learned a lot aboutdiversification.
So a lot of people would try tobe they call them MSOs,
multi-state operators.
So when markets opened up,people would go ham.
They would just be like cool,license here, license here,
license here, license here.
You can't be in five places atonce and operate effectively.

(35:32):
You know, it's like like that'swhy there's certain like when
you are going to franchise, youhave to have certain thresholds
in place and requirements beforeyou can even truly franchise.
And like now I get it becauseif you were just to go not that
this is a franchise, but ifyou're going to go and ramp up a
business and try and scale itin a bunch of different states,
you got to know what the fuckyou're doing.

(35:52):
Yeah, a lot of these businessesdon't, and so this was early on
, like like dot com, you get alicense, somebody would overpay
you for it.
So a lot of stupid money wentout.
I had a lot of friends thathave retired from from stupid
money coming in the system andbuying their companies.
And the other thing I learnedwas like there's cycles to

(36:12):
everything.
You know, like we're.
We're in the middle of a cycleright now.
What's going to happen whenpeople spend goes down, costs of
weed going down I mean,cannabis costs a lot of money
for us to grow.
We have license fees, we havetaxes, we have, you know,
everything else, and and so Ilearned a lot about okay, how
can you do things effectively?

(36:34):
So my team, we decided to be asingle state operator, sell
everything in California, divestin other places and focus
solely on this, because if I'mdoing this and another state and
another state, I'm onlyoperating at 60% at each of them
.
So, um, so we committed to justfocus on, on Utah, and that's

(36:54):
where I mean we eat, breathe,sleep this every day, when I'm
not working, I'm I'm judging ahash contest in California or or
finding new, new cultivars, newstrains, new products in other
markets, and um, so I thinkthere's, there's definitely room

(37:14):
in the next couple of years togrow and really take advantage
of what I know in my experience.
But it's also, it's all timing,Like the market is the market
and like other people not incannabis have had great ideas
and the market just wasn't readyfor it, and so I think a lot of
it is just it's just timing.

And I think there's a lot of good tailwinds
going on right now too, causeeveryone, I mean, is deciding
they want to be sober, which is,for whatever reason, good for
them.
I mean, there's a lot ofreasons to.

And there's levels of sobriety.
Yes, you know, there's Calisober, that's what I was going
to say is.

I feel like most of my friends that say they're
like sober, meaning they're notdrinking but they're usually
from alcohol.
Yeah, yeah, it's mostly foralcohol because like the health

(38:11):
curious, because I think it'sgonna threaten a lot of social
structure.
But then also I mean alcohol isnot gonna go down without a
fight no, and one and one's amedicine and one's a vice.

Yes, you know, and granted, there's recreational
states so people can challengethat and say cannabis can be a
vice, but right now, for ourmarket, it's medical and this is
the first time that cannabisuse has surpassed alcohol use,
like nationally, which is crazy.

Yeah, it's this whole inflection point.

And you look at it Growing up, I can't drink.
I did drink for a while, butwith my condition, my body would
be like what are you doing tome?
And it took me some years tofigure out.
Like you said, there's going tobe some weird social isms where
, if people aren't drinking,what are they going to go to?
And rather than using this associal lubricant, it's like like

(39:02):
how many people were drinkingto alleviate some of their
symptoms yeah pain, mild pain,chronic pain, ptsd, sleep.
You know all these other things.
So I am curious to see wherethat shift comes.
And look when I, when I wasexperimenting and learning, like
I didn't have stores withpharmacies and government

(39:23):
testing and so it's a differentworld.
So I think we're in a verylucky place as patients, as
citizens of utah and asoperators.
Like this is like.
This is crazy we're growingcannabis in utah where it would
never have happened 10 years agooh yeah, you'd be in like
prison for like a decade, yeahit'd be.
I mean, there's still people.
There's still people in prisonfor this, which is crazy.

And it's also I mean there's also like a detail
that a lot of people don't knowabout that I mean puts it in
favor ahead of alcohol,especially in Utah, is, I mean
like the LDS church has come outand said if it's a medical
prescribed from a doctor, thenyou can still, I mean, be a full
faith member, still, I mean goto the temple and so like there.

That I think that definitely made the path to
getting into the program a lotmore acceptable, because there's
people that I know that areactive members, bishops, et
cetera, that like they're likedude, I'm not taking Ad're.
Like dude, I'm not takingadderall, I'm not taking ambient
anymore and this works for me.
Yeah, and I and I was like I, Ilove you either way, I know

(40:29):
you're not going to hell for itso, so I I think if, if that
didn't happen, I think we'd bewe'd be very bifurcated.
You know the the a lot of thepeople here would say I, I need
this, but it's frowned upon.
So I'm going to continue withthese opioids that my doctor has
prescribed to me.

Yeah, cause there's just again like there's
not a stigma around it and likethat's always.
The funny thing too is yeah, Imean just like the pill culture
in general, to say you know,there's another option.

Yeah, and what's different too is like, as a
pharmaceutical company, let'ssay no one's.
No one's ever saying like, oh,I tried this lorazepam, it's
awesome.
You know I tried this and this,and so it's it's.
It's.
It's different, you know, likeit's not a apples to apples to

(41:24):
acetaminophen or hydrocodone.
You know, a lot of times we'llfind our pharmacists will advise
patients to use them inconjunction.
So if you're taking an opioid,lower the use.
The intent is to get off theopioid.
Lower the use.
Cannabis will amplify theimpact of it.
So how do we slowly get peopleoff that?
But again, everyone'smetabolism is different.

(41:48):
We have an endocannabinoidsystem in our body which makes
it really weird.
Like that's where the thc andthe cbd gets processed.
So people think if we didn'thave that system, were we not
designed to consume this?
You know, like that's likechicken or the egg type question
.
But it definitely wouldn't getthe attention it has for sure

(42:12):
and and I think the thing youasked something earlier about,
like from medical moving forward, I mean, we are the only state
that requires a pharmacist atall times and you know, next
time you come through we'll sityou down with with our
pharmacists.
But they're real pharmacists,they're not just stoners in lab
coats, it's a.

(42:32):
It's a real thing.
And there's certaincontraindicators where, if
you're on one or two medications, we need to know, because
cannabis can can impact that.
But for the general populationit's like it will make you
operate at an optimized level.
It's just finding the right fitfor you.

Yeah, I mean it's the same thing that someone
who's diagnosed with ADHD wouldgo to the doctor for and be like
, well, if this is how you'refeeling, then we'll start with
this and we'll see how it goes.
And if it feels likeeverything's I mean the outcomes
that you want to have arehappening, then great, but if
not, let's try something similarand slowly like narrow down
this, like pendulum swing thatyou start with and again like

(43:15):
the like there's so much moreattention on it now, there's so
much research being done,there's so much um, I mean,
social stigma is being wipedaway.
It's hard to not see kind ofthe path for it all, even in a
state like Utah, because when Ilived in Seattle I was like
there's no way Utah is goingintentionally, with the right
people behind it, like goodoperators you don't have to
worry about a lot of thequestionable things that happen

(43:35):
in other states Like in otherstates.

Right now you have backdoor.
I mean, 80% of California'scannabis goes around the country
, yeah, and we don't have thathere, you know.
So, like we're we're, we're ina good place, we can learn from
the people around us, but Ithink that it's super important
to not make the same mistakesthat everybody else does too.

Oh well, cause I always remember when I first
went to my first appointment hewas like I mean, it's so funny,
cause like I go and he's like,so most people say this like
would you say?
He's like, yeah, actually I dohave like neck, like chronic
neck pain.
He's like cool, what else?
And just kind of goes throughit.
And then he's the one who toldme about like lds church stuff.
He's the one who told me, uh,what else he told me about?
But it's just so interestingthis was.
This is where you got your cardright yeah, yeah, and it was so

(44:36):
interesting to go through theprocess because I mean in
seattle there is no, I mean it'srecreational.
So you show up, yeah, just showup, and you do your thing.
And to go from like buyingcannabis, from like my friend's
older brother's friend, andbeing all sketched out and
trying to like anyway, it's likethis whole process we're in
seattle, there's a.

There was a really dope spot, diego pellet
pelletier.
If you ever shopped there, thatwas a dope spot in seattle was
that the like um?
it was super fancy yeah almostlike like a hipster cocktail bar
.
Yeah, like vibe, like peoplehad twisty mustaches and
three-piece suits.
Um, now, seattle, dude, seattle, washington everyone sleeps on
washington, but they did itbefore everybody.

(45:15):
Washington, colorado like weall can learn a lot from, and,
uh, like you said, the stigmathere was removed.
You go to colorado orwashington, people are growing
in their backyard.
Yeah, like if you grew in yourbackyard here, you'd have police
here, you know, asap, asap.
So, um, I think the one thingthat I really appreciate about

(45:38):
our marketplace is so incalifornia, there's the bureau
of cannabis control, the bcc,and it's huge california's giant
.
Yeah, you have so manyoperators it's really difficult
to uh get face time with theregulators.
You know and I think herebecause this program was in its
infancy, when it went live thatthere's a pretty good line of

(46:01):
communication betweenlegislators, regulators and
operators.
To be like yo, this, this iswhy I don't think this is a good
idea for these reasons.

Yeah, instead of never being able to even get
that because of the way that theinfrastructure set um, yeah,
and I and I'm glad we kind ofstarted narrow in the approach
because again, like if we had to, something terribly wrong
happened in the um, like thisprogram, and they had to like

(46:32):
reel it in, not saying anythinglike that ever happened, but if
they did roll it out so muchmore broader, faster a lot more,
a lot can go wrong yeah, like,like, if you've like again,
these are this is a departmentthat was regulating food and
agriculture, and then now you'reinspecting live cannabis plants
.

You don't know what to look for, yeah, and so
imagine, instead of having eightpeople and you had 30, like
there's a lot more room forerror at that point.
So I think with anything, asyou expand any program, you need
to do it intentionally, do itright, make sure it's demand
driven, make sure it's with theright people and make it like,

(47:09):
make it an equitable thing foreverybody.
Like, make sure it's right forpatients, make sure it's right
for operators, instead of justwhat we deal with in our
industry is a lot of like oh,this person didn't get this, so
I'm going to go complain andtalk to legislators or do this
and do that.
So a lot of it is like how muchof it really is an issue?
Or is it one person saying youknow stomping?

their feet saying Just the loudest squeaky wheel,
exactly, exactly.

And that's why I appreciate like I'm a patient
first and then I'm a businessowner, so it's easy for me to
put that hat on and be like andthen I'm a business owner, so
it's easy for me to put that haton and be like I agree.
Or this is obviously a biasfrom you.
Yeah, using this, using likepatients as a Trojan horse.

Totally and like the easiest comparison I can
derive from is I mean the DABCin Utah, where I can't remember
the staff to fact check myself,but it's the DABS now Sorry, dbs
Cause I always think dabs Umyeah, well cause DAB DC was a
beverage control and now it'sservices.
Yes, there we go, lesscontrolling less, controlling

(48:13):
more, servicing, and where'slike they had their first
drinker or someone that actuallydrank alcohol on the board for
the.
It was either the first timeever or the first time in like
recently, like very recent, like, um, in a long time, and so
it's nice to hear people likeyou that it's like oh, I am a
patient and a business owner.
I'm not just a person lookingat the financials and making
sure I'm making money, but I'malso not a regulator and so.

So we have the uh like policy advisory boards that
they're not legislative groupsbut it's a policy board that
regulators sit on a couplepeople from industry, one from
law enforcement, one from thepatients group.
So they try to get like apretty holistic grab of like

(48:57):
non-biased people and we'll comeand we'll talk in public
comment and give, give our twocents there.
But, um, to your point, yes,like we are vocal, we are active
and I appreciate the state'swillingness to listen.
Nothing's perfect.
There's always shit thathappens.
That necessarily like, how didthat happen, you know?

(49:20):
And so my, my biggest thing ishow do you do you spend most of
your time worrying about that?
Or are you head down justtrying to master your craft and,
you know, sharpen your sword?
And that's mostly where I'm atis there's a million things that
, yes, I could try and help anddo this and that, but, first and
foremost, if I don't have abusiness, I'm not even part of
the program.
So a lot of it's just been headdown and and I do think we're

(49:45):
one of the few groups like we'rewe're one of the only locally
owned and operated groups,meaning all my business partners
, our investment money, this isall utah and I'm in the store or
the grow or the lab every day,and when I'm not in there, I'm,
I'm testing, I'm, I'm trying andso it's it.
It's not, you know.

(50:06):
You hear people everyone hasfucking haters.
You hear people like oh, yougot lucky, or this is like an
overnight thing.
I'm like no, this has been, thishas been a lifelong journey,
and I'm not, we're not even done.
I have no idea where, where themarket's going to go, where the
program's going to go, whereeven cannabis is going to go.
You know, like this has evolvedso much in five years, like

(50:27):
what's going to happen in fivemore years.

Who knows?
It could disappear, it could goto the moon.
No one ever does.

And you've got to be ready.
You've got to look at both andbe ready.

No, I totally agree, and I mean so whenever
you're not.
I mean working in cannabis umtesting cannabis.
What else do you like to do inyour spare time?

or get out, enjoy honestly, I'm trying to figure
that out like no, I mean that's.
There's a lot of people yeah,I'm trying to figure that out.
I've had some really closefriends, like what brings you
joy, and the biggest thing thatbrings me joy is helping people.
So I'm trying to figure out howcan I do that in a way that I
can also, like, do other shit.
Um, I hike a lot, um, I, Ireally, I really think that okay

(51:17):
.
So I'm doing this, this crazything, for on sunday, tomorrow,
I'm doing a darkness retreat forfour days, uh, where, going to
a essentially like a cave, likea underground in this room, and
I'll be there for four days andone of my biggest goals is to

(51:38):
figure that out.
And it's not like I need to sayit out loud, I got to go sit in
the hole for four days tofigure that out, but there's so
much noise in the world.
There's so much noise, but thinkabout it Like there's.
So we have 50 employees andevery day there's always
something and I and I have, Ihave parents, I have friends, I
have cats, so like there's a lotof noise.

(51:59):
Yeah, I've, yeah, I've neverbeen able to like.
Yes, I meditate, but thisexperience I'm really looking
forward to just seeing like whatcomes up for me.
You know there's, this is mewith me, yeah, and I know me
like well and I so I'm not likenervous to go into this, I'm
just curious to know my biggestthing was like what?

(52:19):
What brings me joy?
yeah what do I like?
I like to do, because I don't.
I really don't do a lot besidesthis.
Yeah, so long answer for yourshort question.

No, it's a good because, like there's so many
people I've talked to recentlywe were kind of talking about it
before we started recording butI've just had so many
conversations in the past I mean, let's say, like year to date,
the past 10 months where so manypeople are saying I have been
following what everybody told meto do.
I listen to all these externaladvice, expectations, social

(52:52):
pressures.

And they never worked.

It got me to this point.
It's not as good as I thoughtit was going to be.
I don't know who I am, I don'tknow what I like, I don't know
what I want to do.
People are like, oh, you have amidlife crisis.
I'm like, yeah, but midlifecrisis is like, oh, my life's
almost over, I'm going to die.
This is almost like anexistential crisis of I don't
know who I am or what I want tobe, and thankfully, that's a

(53:15):
question that I've been able toanswer really well recently and
it's taken a lot of steps anddirections that I never thought
I would.
And what is I mean?
I'm not going to flip thescript on you, but what is that
answer?
No, I mean, that's so funny.
You should ask Um, I would sayone is it's always going to
involve other people.
I've never heard of anybodybeing happy or being successful
by doing everything themselvesor relying on their own doing

(53:37):
but that, but that there's astep before that, which comes to
knowing who you are, what youwant, what makes you happy and
finding your values, so to speak.
And I remember when I firststarted, it was after my faith
crisis and I was going throughtherapy to try to figure out who
I am.

What's going?

on Circa, when Circa 2019.

Okay.

And so a lot of it .
Well, I remember my therapist.
She gave me this sheet of paperthat had like 400 values on it
and just said every day, crossfive off and little by little,
like ones you don't agree with.
Yeah, like that's like.
Yeah, that's not me, that's notme, this doesn't matter to me.
And came down to um, and I've,I've, like I'm like scratching
off here today, like this islike I get it, but like what's

(54:16):
going on?
And then I mean came down to itwhere I mean a lot of my values
come from connection.
I like to know what makespeople tick.
I love hearing stories.
I mean I could talk to anybodyabout anything for as long as
they want to.
I mean to the point where Istarted my own podcast.
I think there has to be anelement of creativity to it.
So I think, as humans, we wereborn to do things with our hands

(54:37):
.
None of us were born or we wereevolved to a point where we're
just, I mean, sitting andlooking at a black mirror all
day, looking at marketingreports, like that's nothing we
were meant to do.

Or worrying about your taxes all day long.
I know.

And so I think there's a part of it for
creative and that was one of thefirst things that I explored is
, which is a whole nother thing,Because if you go to anybody
and say, are you creative, theywill say no, I don't.
I can't paint, I can't draw, Ican't do anything.
But that's two things.
That's one, that's their egotelling them that this is who
you are, Don't do this Um, andpart of if you've been following

(55:14):
everything that's led you toyour ego to believe that you're
this person and you know it'snot this, why would you keep
listening to all of that and notbranch out?
So there's always going to bethis element of exploring,
especially exploring things thatare against your ego, that you
would say this is me, this iswho I am, this is what I stand
for.

Stand for is a different thing, but of like
this is who I think I am.

This is who I think I challenge it Cause again
like I couldn't have picked upa paintbrush and painted
anything.
But I knew that there was somecreativity in me that needed to
get expressed and I was likethis would be a fun way to do it
.
A friend of mine got me a10-week painting course downtown
and I remember showing up tothe first class like I'm not
good at this, I can't do this,this isn't me.
And then I'll never forget thatwe were working on this one

(55:54):
painting of an apple and I waslike again my negative self-talk
was going in there.
My ego was talking like this isstupid, you're bad at this.
This is so like what are youdoing?
And someone walked behind me inthe class like oh, that's
actually really good.
And in my head I'm like shut up, like you don't know what
you're talking about.
This is terrible.
And I took a picture of it,went home and then looked at the
picture.
I was like that is pretty great,I can do this which is another
thing, is so once you can learnthat older generations, but it's

(56:22):
less relevant now that wecannot learn new things, we
cannot become new people.
We cannot change the course ofanything.

You are what you are.
This is the hand you're dealt.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
But in reality, when we learnthat there's something that I
did, that I enjoy, that Ihaven't done, that I can get
better at all of a sudden thisdoor starts to creep open.
But then not only that.
Um, there's something else Ithink I was talking to Scott
Paul about actually is about thebarrier to competence has never
been lower.
Like, if I mean, for theexample of the podcast, I don't
know how to edit audio.
I didn't know how to post aYouTube video.
I didn't know how to upload apodcast to the website.
I didn't know how to SEO.
I don't know how to build awebsite, I didn't know how to

(56:55):
create social media posts Like Ineed to learn.
Or go to chat GBT and say,teach me how to do this, but
like there's the barriers neverbeen lowered to get to competent
.
Now, master's a whole differentthing, but you don't need to be
a master to start doingsomething.
So things like I mean paintingvideo games, getting in shit,

(57:15):
like whatever it could be, it'snever been easier to try.
And so again, like I alwaystell people go towards
creativity, challenge.
And so again, like I alwaystell people, go towards
creativity, challenge your egoand then be I mean yourself.
And like you'll start to learnwho it is.
Like there's a book I'm readingright now that even in the
prologue it talks about how thisbook will either be the biggest

(57:36):
waste of time in your life orchange your life.

What's the?

book the New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, okay, and it
was like a book that spoke to mysoul.
I read the first chapter.
I was like this is why it justfelt like it was just written
for me, and he kind of talksabout how it takes an amount of
presence and awareness to do so.
But in a situation, why am Idoing this?
Am I doing this because I'mexpecting some sort of social

(58:00):
value?
Am I doing this because itmakes my mom happy, my friends
happy?
Some sort of social value, am Idoing this because it makes my
mom happy, my friends happy iswhat someone would want me to do
in this moment.
Or is this something because Iactually want to do it?
And so I think that's a part ofthings is like you have to be
present and aware enough to knowwhat's going on in a moment,
cause so many people are just sooblivious and just kind of do
whatever they do and don't thinkabout why they do it.

I mean, those are, those are all on point I.
I think the one thing I wouldadd to that from my perspective
is trust your decisions, liketrust your intuition a lot
decisiveness and you're notgonna do it, you're not gonna
know it until you do it.
It's like.
It's like how do you expect toknow what the best move would be

(58:39):
if you haven't taken thoserisks and known like okay, when
I get this feeling and I do dothis, how was the outcome?
Okay, I'll listen to thatlittle voice inside of me, or
that pendulum in my stomach, andso if you can figure that out,
then then then I think therelationship with you becomes so
much better.

And that's when the snowball starts.
Yeah, because then, when youhave this relationship with
yourself and you understand thatwhole aspect of things, then
you can come back and say, oh,this is who I am, this is who
I'm good to be, and makedecisions based on that.
And all of a sudden you wereperforming as your authentic
self, not as what someone wouldexpect you to be, and you can

(59:18):
have better outcomes becauseyou're already good at it,
because it's part of who you are.
And then you start to see thisconfidence come forth in who
yourself.
So you're already good at it,because it's part of who you are
and then you start to see thisconfidence come forth in who
you're yourself.
So you're more confident beingyourself.
And the more confident you arein being yourself, the more you
surround yourself with the rightpeople for you, and you start
to build this world that youdidn't even believe.
And it all comes down with whatdo you stand for, what are your
values?

(59:38):
What motivates you?

And that, for me, is a huge litmus test on who I
want to work with, who I want tobe around, because the more
people that are working on thatrelationship, it's like, oh wow,
I really want to fuck with youbecause you're pushing yourself,

(01:00:03):
you're leveling yourself up.
What am I going to learn fromthat?
And vice versa, what can Iteach you?
And so I think a big thing forme has been like, in order to
get to where I wanted to be,mentally, spiritually,
physically, emotionally likecrabs in a barrel dude Crabs
they will bring you down.

(01:00:23):
Like crabs in a barrel dudecrabs they they will bring you
down.
So, finding the right peoplethat will help elevate you in
those moments, to get you there,and I think, having like I'm
very fortunate that my businesspartners are my mentors, are my
friends, you know, like I don'thave to worry about is this
person giving me advice becausethey want to buy a Ferrari or

(01:00:44):
they think they want to reinventthemselves to be this cool
person.
It's like no, this, we know whowe are, we're authentic, we're
honest, we're genuine.
These are our core values andlike I'm I'm I'm a Buddhist and
I don't I don't really fuck withreligion, but I, but I

(01:01:04):
recognize how people treatpeople.
It doesn't matter what youbelieve, it's like how you see
the world and how you treatpeople.
And it all comes down to yourcore values.
And if you don't know who youare and you don't know what
those values are, that's greatbecause you can figure that out,
but it's also scary becausesomeone that doesn't know that
like collateral damage.

(01:01:25):
You know, like, like it.
It's hard.
It's hard to be fully ingrainedin that like uh.
But it's also good to be anexample, lead by like, lead by
example but I mean good luck.

Erik Nilsson (01:01:38):
I'm excited to see how it goes.
It sounds like quite theexperience yeah, it's been, it's
good.

Bijan Sakaki (01:01:42):
I'm super grateful .
Whatever happens happens.
You know everyone thinks,myself included.
Okay, once you do this thing,everything's fixed.

It's like no dude.
No, that just draws the map.
Now you have to go follow it.

For sure, and you know heavy is the head that
wears the crown and you got torealize that, like there is a
lot of responsibility to be aleader, you have to have your
shit on point and no one'sperfect, but I'm always, every

(01:02:19):
day, trying to be better than Iwas yesterday.
Because I tell all my employeeslook, if you're not using this
as a way to level up and you'rejust using this as a short to
level up and you're just usingthis as a short-term job, like,
go find another job.
Because the most meaningfulinteractions I've had have been
at the places, like the tech jobthat I thought when am I ever
going to learn this?
When is this ever going to beapplicable in my life?

(01:02:39):
And now that I'm running my owncompany, I'm like wow, you're
actually absolutely right.
This, this was the biggestlesson.
I got to learn this on otherpeople's dollar.
Now I learn it on my own dollar.

Yeah, it's a lot more expensive these days.

And so I tell people I'm like look, learn on
my dollar right now, like trustme.
I don't know a lot, really, butI know what I know, so trust me
and I will help you guys levelup and in return, we'll be able
to help a lot of people and inreturn, we'll make the money
that we need to out of it.

(01:03:09):
That's not the driving forceand I'm learning that money is
energy.
So many people put so muchfocus on that, over
relationships and treatingpeople well.
It's like at all costs to getthis thing and it's like that's
the last.
That's, that's a renewableresource.
Yeah, your health,relationships, your friends

(01:03:32):
those are not renewable.
And you know all, all all youcan do is be authentic.
And I think I, I, I live that.
I know I live that.
I don't think I do that.

Yeah, there you go .

My company is Beehive Pharmacy.
Yes, so we have a medicalcannabis pharmacy in Brigham
City and in Salt Lake City,right off the 201.
We have a boutique grow growscraft cannabis in Ogden, so it's
crazy to think that all of thisis here in our backyard.

(01:04:07):
But uh, yeah, it's here.
We'd love to to get you guys inthe program.
Anyone that doesn't have amedical card, reach out.
We do events.
Um, we'd love to help you guysget in the program.

What's the best place to find information about
that?

Best information would be uhivepharmacycom.
Find us on social media.
We do an email newsletter.
I was doing the Instagram for alittle bit, which again is not
my strong suit, so I've gotsomebody taking over that
Delegation.
Yes, so we've got the website,the social media, and those will

(01:04:42):
be the two best places tofigure out when we're doing
events to get people in cool.
But our four-year anniversaryis october 18th, which is nuts.
I mean four years in this islike 10 20 in another industry.

So still drinking from the firehose yeah, there's
still.
Yeah, it's, it's nuts and,lastly, if you would have
someone on the small lake citypodcast to hear more about what
they're up to, who would youwant to hear from?

have you done, scott, yet?
Okay, um, have you got jimmorse on here?
Jim is one of the mostinteresting humans that I've met
.
He yeah, I'll connect you.
He used to do a lot of realestate.
He runs Skinwalker Ranch now.

Oh, okay, yeah.

Yeah, jim is probably the most interesting
man that I've met in Salt Lake.

Then I'm already excited.

So yeah, I'll connect you guys.

Okay, well, you're good to sit down and hear your
story, yeah.
Talk more about Beehive,excited for what's to come with
it thank you for the opportunity.

I appreciate you and, uh, I hope, uh, I hope this
this was good.
I hope you got to see what wehave to offer and this thing
really works now yeah, go tobeehive they will take care of
you, you'll get all your hopesand dreams.

And illnesses, ailments, ailments, ailments,
ailments.
Yes, so we're doing it.
We're doing a two-day car drive, the 17th and the 18th of
october, james and Yannis'sailments, ailments, ailments,
ailments Six.

Yes, so we're doing a two-day car drive, the
17th and the 18th of October.
We're doing those for 50 bucks,and then our four-year
anniversary is on the 18th aswell.
So normally it's not that cheapand we normally don't do two in
a week, but hey, we're turningfour.

Yeah so.

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S1, E57: Beehive Farmacies - Bijan Sakaki

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