I’m sure you can agree that this interview with Russ was really awesome, scientific and energetic. We got some amazing information about isolation and extraction and really the science behind created CBD additives and more... We also talked about Russ’ book Molecular Influence.
Who is Russ Cersosimo? He is the go to person for launching a business - from concept to market! In fact, Russ plays a key role in helping businesses get off the ground, brand, grow, improve processes and increase revenue. Russ is the managing partner at Hemp Synergistics .
Hemp Synergistics is a biotech company specializing in intelligent hemp ingredients and consumer products. Hemp Synergistics partners with brands and healthcare professionals to incorporate THC-free, CBD containing products into their product offering.
Connect w/ Russ:
https://hempsynergistics.com
https://www.instagram.com/hempsynergistics/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hemp-synergistics
Check Russ' Book: Molecular Influence
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ronjini Joshua (00:11):
I'm sure you can agree that this interview with
Russ Cersosimo from hempsynergistics was really awesome.
Sheldon (00:17):
Oh, it was the bomb and we're definitely going to
Pittsburgh.
Ronjini Joshua (00:21):
Yes, it was scientific energetic. And of
course Pittsburgh is where theirHQ is.
So that's why Sheldon is takinga solo trip there,
Sheldon (00:31):
I'm gonna go into the lab.
Ronjini Joshua (00:32):
And we got some amazing information about
isolation and extraction and thescience behind creating CBD
additives and more stuff. Imean, like, he just kind of goes
and breaks it down at everylevel and the way he explains
it. It's just really simple tounderstand. Yeah, yeah. Now
let's get back into theinterview with Russ Cersosimo
(00:52):
from hemp synergisticsHi, everybody, we are back. And
today in the greenroom, we haveRuss Cersosimo. He's a serial
entrepreneur, founder and CMO ofhemp synergistics. It's a
biotechnology company thatprovides the highest quality,
THC free, hemp based ingredientsfor consumer products. So, Russ,
(01:15):
thank you for joining us today.
Good to be here. Yeah. So I havea lot of questions for you. But
we always start this off bygetting into the background of
like, what people were doingbefore they're doing what
they're doing now. So kind ofthe journey of how you got to
where you are, and then we'llwe'll go into some other details
(01:36):
of what you did today.
Russ Cersosimo (01:38):
Yeah, so Oh, what I was doing before actually
leads into what I'm doing now.
So I started a tech company inaround 2008 2009 in California.
And I was at a schoolplayground, you know, they kids
playing on playground,basically. And I saw a woman
that had a stroller with herchild in it, and she lit up a
joint and the other side of theplayground was a police officer
(01:58):
and nobody cared. And comingfrom the east coast and being an
on the west coast, it was kindof like, wait, what you can even
say marijuana in Pennsylvania,right? without fear of being
searched, right? So I justremember that hit me pretty
hard, right? So I went, Ibrought the company back to East
Coast. And there was a group ofmoms that were starting to push
legislators, you know, they allhad children with severe
(02:20):
epilepsy and seizure syndromes.
And I we kind of reached out tome my business partner and say,
Look, we'd love to help youguys. Like we saw what this was
doing. We saw in California,it's not demonized my background
psychology. So I think I canhelp influence. And other moms
were kind of like, I don't know,I mean, you don't have like, why
are you really in this, youknow, because a sauce is the
business guys getting into it.
And what happened was I went toa fundraiser at one of the
(02:42):
highest profile patients house.
And she had a grand mal seizureright in the middle of the
party. I mean, it was the firsttime that these eyes got to see
what happens to these children.
And I mean, I've close to likeso she just had the seizure went
down, hit her head on theconcrete and the sound was crazy
disgusting. And I just rememberit hit me it really hit me. As I
left half the party left scaredto death as the ambulance came.
(03:04):
I was one of those. The otherhalf was like Hey, where's the
wine at? Or did you try thechicken in the buffet? They were
real desensitized. And comingfrom a site guy. I noted that
right? So I went back to mylife. And about two weeks later,
I got a call from my businesspartner. He said, hey, look,
they just sent Hannah that washer name home from the hospital.
She was 11. She was out about10,000 seizures a year. They
sent her home, our organs arenow shutting down. They don't
(03:26):
know what's wrong with her.
They've suggested we starthospice. You gotta find her this
oil. And it was about four hoursof dialing all over the United
States. And eventually I got intouch with a woman that was
funding research at a majoruniversity. She called the
researcher and said, Look, I'mpulling your research money if
you don't get this to this kid,you only have so many days left.
(03:47):
They compound it, got it to usand she was on her side in a bed
for days wasn't able to get upor walk out a feeding tube in
and they gave her one grain ofrice size drop on her tongue
basically inside her lip. withinseven minutes, she was pulling
away at the feeding tube andwithin half an hour she's she
was up and running around andthen put a helmet on her. That
(04:09):
was in August of 2014 What wasit that they gave her? It was a
THC, high THC I think it wasactually 16 to one okay. And at
the time you know, the guy saidhe said look, I mean if this
stuff is strong, but that's whatshe needs because our organs
need to rest right and that thatthis is what she needs. So it
was real high THC, I think was16 to one CBD THC. And
(04:33):
she went from having 10,000 ayear to about I think it's like,
you know, four episodes a monthor something like four major
episodes.
But that was about I think,about seven years ago and she's
living she's, you know, qualitylife she didn't have before. Her
mother has has, you know, abetter quality of life as well
now that they're giving it toher. It was just when I saw that
I never looked back. I mean Iwas in data at that technology
(04:55):
at the time with a company Ibrought back from California and
I said to my brother, how's thatTo you, I'm jumping into
marijuana I want to go savepeople and that's kind of how it
started we went and started thePennsylvania medical cannabis
society as a nonprofit to go outand educate them because it was
pre legalization and we wereinvolved in about 50 events
across three different states.
And you know, we went out andjust kind of really took the
(05:15):
torch as far as education goes,but that's how I got into it.
And then how I evolved into thebiotech side is is I ended up
winning dispensaries inPennsylvania and a full vertical
in West Virginia so I'm one ofthe guys that go after these
licenses. But I in all mytalking out there in front of
doctors, researchers,scientists, parents, caretakers,
you name it you know you heardwhat they were looking for in
(05:38):
products you know, deliveryforms different different you
know, they were worried aboutbioavailability they're worried
about heavy metals so I startedkind of taking this all into
account and eventually it waslet's let's refine this stuff
and let's put it into forms thatthese people are used to working
are forms that industriesoutside of the hemp industry can
use like nutraceutical and foodand beverage so that's kind of
(06:00):
the evolution that's how I gotinto it and you know once once I
saw what it did and I neverlooked back
Ronjini Joshua (06:06):
What about you like did you ever have like you
know childhood experiences withwe like what was your
introduction to just like weedin general like,
Russ Cersosimo (06:17):
yeah, so my dad was so anti weed. He would
literally make me smell breatheon him when I came home. I was
kind of I was kind of the guythat was anti right now. I took
what my dad said andregurgitated it right I remember
the first time I had it I was ona golf course in action I take
(06:38):
that back as a Dave Matthewsconcert.
Ronjini Joshua (06:41):
That makes sense. Yeah, so that was
Russ Cersosimo (06:43):
the first time I ever did and then second time I
really did I was on a golfcourse and I got paranoid and
that's when I kind of backed offof it again. So really I started
a tech company and hot why I gotinto it is first of all the
doctors were prescribing me 30focalin which is Ritalin a day
okay which is insane Oh wow.
They were using me as a guineapig and you know i One could say
(07:03):
I had ADHD but I also changed mydiet and fixed a lot of things
once I got on plant wisdom ingeneral but what I noticed is I
had the Add issue and then I hada major head injury to my
frontal lobe back in 2012 aboutand I started realizing that it
was marijuana that would help meconcentrate help get rid of the
(07:23):
concussion symptoms when Ireally didn't even know I had a
problem I just know that if Ismoked it things got better and
that's when once I you know atthat point then I never looked
back on on ingested it myself indifferent ways. And now looking
at different cannabinoids andreally refining and seeing what
CBG and CBN and I'll tweak in mydaily schedule right so I've
annoyed as opposed to just youknow, it's the diva versus
(07:44):
Indigo
Ronjini Joshua (07:46):
right? Right interesting. Okay, so now you've
gotten into this you startingthis technology company which is
really interesting that you'repositioning it that way and I'd
like to hear a little bit moreabout that but yeah, what is
what is the next thing you startthis company and what is where
was where did you go from there?
Russ Cersosimo (08:04):
Yeah, so that's a kind of that's a good story
too. So we raised the money onthe basis that we were going to
be one of the very few thatcould remove THC down to the
parts per billion because weknow that's coming. We also have
management that comes fromhighly regulated industries has
worked under DEA guidelines andthings like that. So when we
read the Farm Bill, it wasreally we started raising the
money in the Farm Bill hit andnow there was clear roles right?
(08:27):
So we read through those and wesaid look we know that scaling
what's called reverse flashchromatography which is the the
main technology that can takethat THC molecule out right and
leave the rest of them in there.
We knew that scaling that wasgoing to be tough. So the Coca
Cola is of the world and whenthey want to get into it their
big thing is they need access tosupply and it's got to be there
all the time and it's got to bestandardized. That's what we
shot for a while. I don't knowif you know this but everyone in
(08:49):
the industry is operating in amajor gray area they're all
shipping THC laden productsthey're figuring Hey, if you
water it down at the point ofretail product creation you're
gonna be okay and everyone'skind of happy in this say like
I'm ignorant stage right they'renot cracking down so when they
weren't cracking down werealized that we can't we were
in now price battle with allthese guys that were just out
there squeezing hemp into a jarfor through an apex machine
(09:12):
right not worrying about the THCremove on the part that's
expensive, and it takes a highlevel of science and knowledge.
So very quick, man, it didn'ttake us more than really I'll
bet you a week after we openedand I said look, let's focus on
solving major problems insteadof I should say the whole team
collectively. So that's calledmajor problems because they came
(09:32):
from nutraceutical food andbeverage the supplement industry
as well as lawn not I won't saylaw enforcement but testing and
that testing the stuff throughthe state crime lab system. So
we were looking at things from adifferent angle. And if you look
at the let's look at just threemajor problems that we're gonna
have to solve in food andbeverage and I was listening to
one of your episodes earliertoday and you were talking with
(09:53):
the gentleman two days ago onyour, I think the 20th episode
and you were mentioned I cookwithin you It was tough for you
and you know yes, there's a lotof steps that like if you just
want to integrate marijuanacannabis or hemp, whatever it
is, you know there's all theseextra steps you have to do this
you have to we said look, let'stake, we got to take that
molecule put it in a form thatthese food manufacturers are
(10:13):
used to working with and they'reused to powders and they're used
to just throw it in flour,right? evenly homogenized, it's
dosed perfectly but that's theydon't have it they haven't a
nano but nano most people don'trealize is eight to one
chemicals it's it's it's forevery one molecule of CBD
there's eight other molecules oftitanium dioxide there's there's
pickling agents there's there'sjust
Ronjini Joshua (10:39):
like preservatives for like that like
a preservative Okay,
Russ Cersosimo (10:42):
exactly they don't have to be on the label
because there's such small formgotcha and there's also other
major problems with the and Imean people are testing nano
drinks and they're finding noCBD and it's because the CBD is
under 50 nanometers nano itseeping into the plastic so we
said what the taste problembecause you know it's gonna
taste like marijuana when youput the stuff in. It smells off
(11:04):
pudding, it's bitter when you dobite into it and you know it's
not something that the generalpublic would be interested in
buying a second one of if therewasn't some major effects and
they can be okay getting throughthat taste and that smell was
like Oreo cookies not going tocome integrate something into
their you know, age old recipeand have it tastes like some
it's not supposed to. They wantOreos with CBD, you know, just
(11:25):
have a taste the way Well, sowhat we did is we took the CBD
molecule and all the good thingsthat come along with it. And we
took a helix structurepolysaccharide kind of like DNA,
and we opened it up and we stuckit inside, closed it back up.
What that did is that took awaythe smell and the taste. It's
completely vegan and organic, ithas no chemicals in it. And 100%
natural. And what it also did issolve the first pass metabolism
(11:47):
problem, right? So if we takeany supplement including CBD,
THC, whatever, our stomach acidbetween our mouth in our lower
GI tract destroy about 90% ofthe active ingredients got to
get up and left forbioavailability then they go up
in the system, because weencapsulated in something that's
completely impervious to stomachacids. It's getting all the way
through. And convenientlythere's enzymes in your lower
(12:09):
intestine that unlock thatpolysaccharide so
Ronjini Joshua (12:12):
I was gonna say how do you unlock it if it's an
impervious? Yeah,
Russ Cersosimo (12:16):
so so that opens it up and now like I'll give you
an idea I could have a 25milligram CBD pill from any
other manufacturer and I don'teven know I don't know if
anything's happening, right.
There's no there's nothing sowhen we found out that we put
this stuff in a brownie that hasfats in it, if I eat a CBD
brownie with 25 milligrams, I amliterally asleep in an hour
(12:36):
sleep best night asleep in mylife and it's wild because it's
preparing well and it's gettingall the way down into that lower
GI tract. So I'm getting hitwith 25 milligrams all at one
time as opposed to like 2.5 sothat food and beverage industry
that's that's where we went withthat. nutraceutical
manufacturers, they can't useanything about powders on their
machines like they don't evenclean the machines with water.
(12:58):
So when you walk through thesefacilities is nothing but
200,000 square feet of boxedpowder stacked on top These are
three stories I sure when youlook at the rooms that they're
doing the caption, you know,they're making the calves
there's you know, flyaways whatthey call it there's dust
everywhere, so that the betteryou can pelletize that when it
goes in the better it is theless runoff there is. So we
focused on making anothervariation that would work well
(13:20):
for capsule manufacturers.
Because ours is two and a halftimes stronger than nano then
nano, we can use way less of thecapsule which gives these other
nutraceutical manufacturers theability to compound other
things.
Ronjini Joshua (13:32):
We'll go back real quick. So you say because
your product is nano you canmake better use of the capsule
does that mean that it's notgoing to go through anything is
that what you're asking
Russ Cersosimo (13:42):
us it's two different technologies you have
nano and their technology isthat to literally beat the crap
out of the molecule with asonicator it's this it's this
titanium rod that basically putstuff up in a bowl and this rod
will vaporize ice in seconds Imean it's it gets really hot
which also isn't good for themolecules it converts some of
(14:04):
the precursor molecules intoother things that are toxic you
know during that process a lotagain, all things we don't
really know about yet they'restill coming out. So nano then
their goal is to get it to youknow between 150 and 150
nanometers wide. That's reallytiny. Ours is about 300 so ours
isn't getting into littlecrevices in the notch Okay, that
(14:26):
and also it's we're not havingsome of these issues that nano
causes with the blood brainbarrier and bringing in Titanic
like these titanium fragmentsand stuff from the process. So I
think we're gonna find out a lotmore about nano moving forward
but nano, because it's thateight to one molecule you're
having one molecule CBD to eightother things. It's lost my train
of thought for a second Oh, ittakes up all that pill. Sorry,
(14:48):
yeah, takes up all that pill andnow you can add other things. So
we solve two problems theirbioavailability and you know, we
brought that down to just afraction, maybe 20% of a big
capsule and now they cut outother things. Things like enzyme
blockers that will further helpit get into your system. Like I
said, melatonin now you canclaim it's for sleep because
there's research tied tomillstone so things like that.
(15:10):
The other big major problem thatwe focused on because we have
people coming from the labtesting in law enforcement side
of things was we know now thatnow that hemp is federally
legal, you have people drivingaround with hemp in their car,
or in their tractor trailer,like you know, pounds and kilos,
and you know, a lot of it andthese guys are pulling them over
(15:30):
and they're seeing marijuana,right? Doesn't matter that it
looked at if you say attempt, itdoesn't matter, you have lab
tests, it looks like it smellslike it tastes like it's got to
be it and that's what they haveto do right plus they're taught
that you're lying anyways forthe most part. Now they got it,
they got to put it in queue atthe state crime lab system takes
about eight months on average,depending on what state you're
(15:51):
in, oh geez $800 to test it,just to find out that it was
hemp and no one's in troublehere right? So $800.08 months
later, you got someone that'sgot this on the record, what we
did is we invented somethingthat for around the cost of $15
on the hood of a car, a policeofficer can take hemp or
cannabis whatever it is grind itup, shake it up, put a couple
(16:14):
chemicals in it, and within 90seconds tell you exactly how
much THC is in there not justpass fail, we haven't seen a
3% 1% more than 3% and so on andso forth. So we actually
quantify the results. What thisdoes is it takes major load off
the state crime labs within eachstate and it's gonna help a lot
of people go free for somethingthat now we're seeing its
prevalence all over the place.
That's amazing. We patented thatwith Purdue University Northwest
(16:36):
nirbhaya forensics departmentand we just testified to the
State Senate of Indiana thestate because they want to write
this into legislation if someonegets pulled over with a
substance that looks like thismake sure it goes through this
process first before we put allthis weight on the state crime
lab system so state crime labsaren't happy about it because
taking away their business butso those are the may have
Ronjini Joshua (16:59):
other they have other crime says oh that's okay
right.
Russ Cersosimo (17:02):
That's right.
Right let us go Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (17:07):
Because go ahead sorry.
Russ Cersosimo (17:09):
No, so that's what we're talking about kind of
the problems are what we'redoing now Yeah, that's that's
kind of the evolution is we'relooking at what things that we
solve for these bigger you know,in the food and beverage
industry is the biggest thing inthe world nutraceuticals it's up
there internationally I mean,the 6 trillion I think
nutraceuticals you know that 72billion or a trillion for the
(17:30):
food and beverage so those guysare starting to get into it
we're working with tier onemanufacturers that know that
this is on the horizon to belegalized and food not federally
and they're all starting to getready and we have I'll bet you
we have probably 20 differentlarge scale manufacturers that
have this in r&d or are alreadyimplementing it into their
products and I'm talking to tierone guys we work with
(17:51):
restaurants and all kinds oflittle guys but you know we're
going after the big scale guysbecause ultimately once they
jump in it's it's gonna bepretty wild time so
Ronjini Joshua (18:00):
so so from your site I saw that it was a THC
free so you're working with hempand CBD? Is that correct? Are
you going to be doing all of itonce it's all available?
Russ Cersosimo (18:09):
Well, yeah, so we're creating the IP around
doing things with the moleculesYeah, so right now in
Pittsburgh, we have our 53,000square foot facility we do
nothing but isolate hempmolecules are separate and
reformulate hemp moleculesbecause we didn't have to go get
a license to do it withmarijuana. The marijuana
(18:31):
industry is actually very behindthe times on that and the reason
is is because they haven't hadto push science any further
right right. Growth thegenetically they're they're
doing things because they wantto squeeze more THC or different
you know, miners out of it. Butthen it's just going through an
apex machine getting squeezedinto a jar, it costs $20,000 to
(18:51):
put money down again, Apexmachine 200 grand total, anyone
can get it, anyone can operateit, it's as easy to use as a
commercial washing machine. Theyhaven't had to go in and fish
out that single THC molecule toremain legal, like the CBD
industry has, right so ourscience has kind of evolved the
separation of cannabinoidswhere, you know, cannabis
(19:12):
industry squeezing in a jar, alot of people in the hemp
industry are squeezing the jarboth add like a little bit of
carrier oil, whatever we'regoing in and literally fishing
out the molecules separatingthem go into these manufacturers
and what do you want, you wantto sleep formula? Okay, we're
going to do this much CBD, we'llthrow a little CBN in there. And
we're going to go ahead and putthese other you know, enzyme
blockers that are going ahead
Ronjini Joshua (19:33):
and how are you figuring out like, and obviously
this is super like scientificand technical, but how are you
figuring out what is the processof figuring out like, okay,
let's, let's say, hey, yes, I'mhaving trouble sleeping, or we
want to create a product tosupport sleep or support joint
health or whatever. What is theprocess for you guys to come up
(19:54):
with a formula for them?
Russ Cersosimo (19:55):
Yeah, it's actually pretty cool to have a
biotech facility you would notbelieve I would the first day I
went in with a new molecule newmolecule molecule I've been
looking at for a long timedimethyl dimethylsulfoxide I
walked in I said to my headscience and said look I think we
can create like and I had acouple different things one was
a mouth gargle one was a topicalhe said we'll go into the other
(20:19):
scientists and tell her exactlywhat you want they went and
looked at the molecules rightthere to make sure everything
would bond they did a test andthen boom about 15 minutes later
I had what could have been puton the shelves as a product and
we all were testing it so youknow people rubbing it on we're
checking for irritation I dranka bunch of it. I ended up on the
toilet for two days
Ronjini Joshua (20:37):
I hear you you're your guinea pig in
yourself
Russ Cersosimo (20:40):
somebody's got to do it right founder thing on
my title I mean, me if no oneelse wants to do it right right
I'll give an example this ispretty cool this is this gives
you a look into how close we areto this stuff so I drank it and
what happened was thedimethylsulfoxide carries it
through skin and through anykind of membrane it loops it and
kind of lattices your skin andpushes through it does the same
(21:03):
thing with your you knowanything, anything it touches.
It's actually kind of dangerousif you're not paying attention
but it's it's non toxic,unhealthy. So what happened was
I drank it. I spent two days inthe bathroom. I called my my
scientists and I said, this islike literally making me I feel
like everything blasting out ofmy body like and it's I think
it's detoxing me. Because I'vedone I was going all the other
(21:23):
plants where I know exactlywhat's happening. And it's this
rush of toxins to your to yourinsides, and then you have to
flush it out. I said I thinkthat's what's happening. He says
you poisoned yourself, dude,you're crazy. Let's try and I
stay I stayed strong. Yeah,right. Not many people have done
I was good. They know like, hey,that's the same feeling right?
That's exactly what's doing inhere. Two weeks later, another
(21:46):
CBD company put out a there wasan article in one of the
magazines they had just patenteda an intravenous shot of CBD for
rapid detox. So the key was Iwas getting soup. I mean, not
super dose I probably had, Ithink was like 1000 milligrams
of CBD in one dose. And it wasrapidly going into my system.
(22:07):
But you know, we noticed rightaway that at least I noticed
that it was it was detoxing, andyou know, someone else had
patented like two weeks later.
So yeah, that's the kind of workwe're that close to things and
we're trying different things.
And that's how it all starts.
Then what you do is you bring inother people so like we're
working on a sleeping pill. Whatwe did is I you know, I my first
question when people come in theoffice, because anyone that
walks through that door is apotential subject.
Ronjini Joshua (22:30):
We're not going I'm not going to your office,
I'm not.
Russ Cersosimo (22:34):
You have a lot of NFL players, surprisingly,
that come through and, you know,their big thing is pain. We're
working on a topical patch thatdoes it superpowered, right, so
we had one of the guys from thesteel curtain back in the 70s of
the Steelers Come come in and hehad any problems we put it on
him. But 10 minutes later, wealways ask Hey, how's it What's
going on? And he goes, I can'tfeel the whole left side of my
(22:56):
body. Ready to turn it back. Youknow, another one's a sleeping
pill. I had one of the we have aguy we just Charlie bats. He's
He's an NFL quarterback for theSteelers, he he just signed on
with us. He's now going to bepart of our team. And why he was
sold was he told me and sleepingproblems. And I said this first
day he came the office I saidtake this pill tonight. Call me
(23:17):
the next day he sent me ascreenshot. He said this is my
sleep app that monitorseverything every night, look
five hours, five hours, fivehours, nine and a half hours. So
that that one milligram of CBNpaired it encapsulated in our
thing that literally gets all ofit through so it'd be the
equivalent of having about 10milligrams. Oh, I
Ronjini Joshua (23:36):
see. I see.
Russ Cersosimo (23:37):
I mean, so now I mean that's just boom puts them
out and you get the best sleep.
So that's how it all startsright? I mean there's there's
there's all kinds of researchthat you can pay for after the
fact. But right now, I mean, inthe nutraceutical industry, we
don't really have to do that ithas to work and people have to
rebuy it right. So that's kindof without that now if I want to
go out and have this tested byhospital we are we have things
set up with various researchersand doctors, but they're slow
(23:59):
universities are a pain in theass to deal with, you know,
they're they're just slow andCOVID didn't help. We had a lot
of stuff set up that becauseCOVID kids weren't coming into
school, they weren't able to doa lot of this stuff. So anyways,
but yeah, that's how you get itstarted you. you ingest it.
Okay,
Sheldon (24:16):
I have a quick question this write it down, writing it
down was important. This keepscoming up in interviews that we
have, that you know, indika andsativa. That's not the main
thing you should be going forwhen you're trying to understand
the effects and people aresaying more and more the
terpenes are what you should belooking at to understand the
effects of, you know, the theend effect, I guess. So what
(24:40):
role from your perspective andyour knowledge to terpenes play
in the effect of cannabisconsumption?
Russ Cersosimo (24:48):
So that's a good question. And here's a good you
know, analogy or metaphor,whatever you call it. I've heard
people say that the cannabinoidsare like the gas. If you Driving
a car, right? And then thatterps kind of steer it. I've
noticed personally, that certainterpenes knock me out. So if
(25:11):
those are removed, I don't havethe same problem without you
know, a higher refineddistillate. So I think they
absolutely have effect. I mean,they've been in our diet for a
long time. I think now becauseit's cannabis, everyone's super
interested in them, but theydefinitely can steer the car.
There's no doubt about it. Cool.
Yeah. So
Ronjini Joshua (25:27):
how do you guys?
So do I mean, I guess Do you usethat to create the profiles of
the things that you have? Solike, like you said,
Russ Cersosimo (25:35):
Now we're not worried about that. We
Ronjini Joshua (25:37):
got good. No, I was gonna. I was gonna say,
well, then how do you? How doyou identify what parts of the
cannabis plant or this like thiscompound that you guys are?
You're basically manipulatingHow do you know which parts of
those are an obvious you guysare looking at under a
microscope, but are going toapply to joint pain or sleep or
(26:03):
anti anxiety or you know, thethe host of things that we talk
about when when we talk aboutcannabis? Right? So
Russ Cersosimo (26:10):
yeah, so like, there's I mean, there's a couple
ways to do it. So we have ascientific advisory board. In
fact, Dr. burbach bond is on it.
He's the guy that is pioneeringCBD research related to COVID.
He's all over the world healthorganization website. What
happens is researchers like thisare finding this stuff in little
studies, some with with mice,and rats, you know, some with
you know, little groups ofhumans utilizing the data, it's
(26:30):
tough to do the research becauseeveryone's handcuffed. You know,
I almost had a thing going withJohns Hopkins because I was able
to create software that allowedthem to talk to the patient and
monitor what those cannabinoidswere, because there was then I
jumped into biotech and forgotabout it. But yeah, you got to
be dynamic in this industryright now. But no one wants to
(26:51):
buy the data yet. So let's moveto something else, right. But
basically, these guys aredetermining what to start
looking at. And then we have theability to just separate it and
try it and find out forourselves. Like I said, we don't
have to do any major research.
Because we're in thenutraceutical side of the
industry, we just can't make anyclaims. What you can do is
(27:12):
compound with other things thathave been proven in research
that you can make claims, andtie that to your product. But
really, you know, from our side,we really do this for the large
scale people, I want to makeingredients to sell to the
Nestle's in the conagra is andthe Coca Cola is of the world,
we do make retail products thatso that people can try them. But
(27:33):
at the end of the day, our mainthing is if someone comes to me
and says, I know that this worksfor this, this and this, I need
you to come up with aformulation, tweak it do the
r&d, test it on some people makesure it works and I'd be willing
to buy, you know, 20 kilos amonth of that powderized product
from you, the integratedwhatever
Ronjini Joshua (27:48):
when it comes to consumer rising consumer rising
this and and you working withextractions and like powders the
way you guys are? What do youthink the role of you know,
being organic? And like, is itchemically? Are you guys
creating it as a chemical? Iguess, are you creating it
(28:09):
separately as like a chemicalcopy? Or is it actually coming
from the plant?
Russ Cersosimo (28:13):
Yeah, so there's, yes. first answer is we
are making everything 100% fromthe plant, okay, we'll take it
from the plant, we're refiningit, we're then maybe
reformulating it, but it's allstuff that came from the plant.
We're certified organic, webring in organic stuff, by the
time it leaves our facility,it's still organic. Okay. Now,
you're hearing a lot about Deltaeight, right? And everyone's the
(28:36):
new face. Well, we clearlylooked at, we looked at the
things and we clearly saw the DAwas going to be illegal
eventually. Right? And the mainreason is not necessarily that
it's intoxicating, is that theway that people were getting da
was taking a differentcannabinoid and taking it
through a process that willconvert it right so you look at
those molecules, you know, let'sjust say this is you know, let's
(28:58):
say delta A, delta nine, okay,take the Delta nine out, they
break that thing off throughsome sort of process like
catalytic conversion or, or adifferent chemical process. And
now all of a sudden, you have Deight, and it has different
things in it. That's now asynthetic cannabinoid. Now that
falls in like a to, you know,you spice you hear about that
kind of stuff that's nowschedule one, because it's
(29:18):
synthetic cannabinoid, right.
But governments, you have nowlocal governments that are
stepping in like, I want to sayI know Texas. And I think it was
Colorado, I can't recall there'sanother state that just just
laid out the laws and said anyform of delta is out delta A
delta nine, and they wentthrough Delta because
Ronjini Joshua (29:40):
because it's chemic. It's it's synthetic.
Russ Cersosimo (29:44):
Well, and because it's causing other highs
that they'd rather just shut thewhole door on it, I suppose.
Have these ones go but thegovernment's gonna end up coming
down because they're synthetic.
Sheldon (29:56):
Okay. And that's a tricky one, because if you open
up that floodgate, then you cansay Oh, well everybody can
create whatever they want to. Bythe way, kudos on the hem shape
and benzene structure.
Russ Cersosimo (30:09):
hexagon
Sheldon (30:10):
Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (30:11):
Oh, that's a hexagon make it a molecule you.
So yeah, I mean, that part isinteresting to me. And also the
part of like extracting THC andwhat, like a lot of people claim
that like, Okay, once youextract, you know, the CBD from
(30:32):
the THC like, is it effective?
Is it is it? You know, what isthe science behind that? I mean,
you seem to have like a prettygood science background. So I
think I'd love to hear moreabout like, what is the real
science behind the facts on thepotency of CBD with or without
THC? Like, what, what really isthe controversy? Yeah, yeah. So
Russ Cersosimo (30:53):
the truth is this, that plant grows the THC
naturally, at about point 3%. Ifyou keep it at that, you're
gonna get all the benefits ofthe entourage effect. Yeah, and
they all help each other in somelittle way, like to dumb it down
seventh grade level. So if youstart removing those things,
you're taking little pieces outof the out of the whole recipe,
right? That all go to benefit.
You know, the word isolate, wehear isolate a lot. They've
(31:15):
isolated CBD yet has a lot ofbenefits, but also has a lot of
side effects. And it doesn't doall the things that a full
spectrum product would do.
Ronjini Joshua (31:24):
Does it have side effects? Because it's
extracted?
Russ Cersosimo (31:29):
It's not mean because it's isolated, isolated?
I'm
Ronjini Joshua (31:32):
sorry, yes.
Yeah. I
Russ Cersosimo (31:33):
mean, well enough. We're looking at GW
Pharmaceuticals thing I were inpharma. And I don't know exactly
what else they're putting inmight be causing side effects.
But I mean, lactate is anytimeyou manipulate Mother Nature,
yeah. Right. And if you make iteasier to manipulate Mother
Nature, you're like, causingcancer, things are bad,
whatever. So I mean, at the endof the day, I blame pharma for a
lot of this, just generally, butI think, I mean, you you need
(31:56):
that whole plant to get allthose effects, not like I said,
you're gonna get some of them.
But I'm the, like, CBN worse forsleep. But we put 22 milligrams
of CBD in with it with that onemilligram of CBN. Right, right.
Yeah, I mean, we don't know whatwould happen, you might fall
asleep for two days, it mightnot work the way it's supposed
to. And these are all thingsthat that even science and
research haven't figured outyet.
Ronjini Joshua (32:18):
Right? So you guys have to find the like, like
the formula to kind of putthings together. So they work in
a way that hopefully you expectit to work, you're gonna crack
the code, which is why you ateor drank your own formula does.
Russ Cersosimo (32:37):
r&d baby,
Ronjini Joshua (32:38):
yeah. Well, I think it's really, I mean, I
don't know like, what what arethis? What are some of the
products that you guys have kindof gotten into so far? What
who's adopting this? Youmentioned food and beverage Is
this the kind of science that'sgoing into these like new CBD
beverages, some of them I've hadare pretty bad. By the way,
Russ Cersosimo (32:56):
they're bad, right? And the reason they're
bad is because you're drinkingnano, right. And then as the
only water soluble form until weinvented our stuff, we're
calling him drink mix. But, youknow, because it has all those
masking agents, and agents andall that, that's what you're
tasting. And they have to put ina lot more sugar. Yeah, to get
(33:16):
rid of that. So that's why themost of the drinks are off
putting. And if they try to sellsomething Low, low sugar, or
whatever, it's now you creep upon the nasty, bitter taste. We
manufacture something thatdoesn't taste like anything, and
you just put it in your drink,and you're good. So the food
manufactures products. And soone of the things that we did on
(33:37):
the product side is we took ourstuff that easily mixes in with
food, and we put it in a littlelike a sugar packet. I must be
calm sachets around the office.
Little sachet. Now you could gohome, you could have a dinner
party, and you could go buy offthe shelf. Any brownies, or cake
or gravy are Marin, it doesn'tmatter what you want to make.
You make your recipe and thelast thing you add is this mix,
(33:57):
put it in you can cook it afteryou can put it out you can cook
it before you can cook it afterit doesn't matter. You do it
when it makes sense in therecipe. Tastes free odor free,
and now all of a sudden you have25 milligrams per whatever
you're doing for the brownies.
And there's 12 of them. Ifthere's 12 donuts, whatever it
is a loaf of bread per slice,everything equally. You know, it
doses out the way it should.
That's hot right now, becausethere's nothing else on the
(34:20):
market. I mean, like I said, youhad mentioned cooking with it.
It's difficult to taste weird.
It's not something you're proudto put out now. I've gone to
dinner parties where I broughtthis stuff in, right because
I'll send it to the people fordinner parties. They throw this
in the desert, and people wereblown away that face that the
fact that they're tasting thepumpkin pie that they ate,
there's nothing else they had acouple glasses of wine and now
(34:40):
they're just chill the wholeentire night. We can do that in
THC as well. I know we kind oftouched on this or I was going
yeah, we just need to work witha manufacturer within that
state. You know, for instance,you had I forget the guy's name
on your two episodes ago, he wasmaking extracts and put them
into food. Oh, simply Hi. Yeah,yeah, yeah. So I could go to go
to him and Listen, let melicense my process to you,
(35:03):
you're gonna have to add theselittle bits of equipment, you
have to do it this way. But nowyou can take any cannabis oil,
turn into a powder. And now it'savailable for any food and
beverage manufacturer in thestate in a better form. And
that's, that's where we'reheaded with it. We have a lot of
work to do here just in the hempindustry as as it is. But
eventually we'll end up gettingthe cannabis industry, doing it
with THC as we refineeverything. And I
Sheldon (35:24):
just say I'm honored that you watch our podcast.
Ronjini Joshua (35:29):
Great, thank you. Well, so then you mentioned
powder. You mentioned powders.
So would this work in adifferent form? Like, and maybe
it turns into something else? Ifyou make an A water soluble
product or an oil or like a, Idon't know, what is the
difference between having apowder, an oil, a liquid, you
(35:51):
know, like, what is the bestopportunity?
Russ Cersosimo (35:56):
Like I'll give you an example. I talk to people
that are in the marijuanaindustry. Like, we have, like,
you know, that last little bitof oil that's in your vape pen,
right? Okay. Yes, yes, guessOkay, that's that's what like
when people order a whole kiloof distillate they're getting
that you literally can take thetop off that jar, you cannot
pour this loud, it doesn't move.
It's not free flowing, got italmost crystallized, you're
(36:17):
going to talk about oh, what'sthe CBD present? 93%? Well, that
means it's pretty much like ahard object, right? Like it's a
solid object at that point.
Well, the stuff that you'reseeing that you get a vape pen,
the easy stuff, well, that haspropylene glycol and other
things added to it so that it'sless viscous. You can put that
stuff from food starts to changethe recipe and show us what is
(36:38):
possible to mix. So turning intopowder changes that whole entire
thing, but it's mainly becauseit's sticky, you truly can't
work. It's like It's likegetting you know, glue on your
finger like supervillain youcan't get off. Yeah, you need to
use a solvent. And now you'readding the solvent. Now you got
all these other things thatyou're adding, it's like, Look,
let's just get it down to anatural, vegan, organic,
pourings free flowing substancethat looks and works like flour.
(37:01):
And it won't change the recipenow that no one has to think
anymore. You don't have to messwith something they've never
brought in. They don't have toclean machinery with special
chemicals to get this viscousstuff off of it. So it's
actually a game changer for thefood and beverage industry.
Sheldon (37:15):
Well,
Ronjini Joshua (37:15):
so as far as the technology and the development
of this technology, I mean, youguys, yes, you're creating
formulations, but really your,your, your specialty, is the
actual technology behind itcorrect or
Russ Cersosimo (37:27):
Yep, so everything's patented. We, I
mean, that's, that's the mainthing is, look, let's solve this
major problem. Let's get therefirst, let's also lock it down,
right and continue to be able todo biotech stuff, which is r&d.
A lot of you know, biotech, ifyou get into that, as you see a
lot of it is really, for yearsworking to figure stuff out in
in, lock that IP down, and thenyou have a big sale. Yeah, or
(37:51):
someone comes in and buys youthat needs to utilize that and
doesn't want anyone else to havethat technology. And that's kind
of where we're at. Buteverything's locked down IP.
And, you know, it's, it's ours,which is cool.
Ronjini Joshua (38:03):
Yeah, it's cool that you're doing this in the
cannabis hemp space, but it canpretty much apply to any space.
Right? I mean, you could do itwith other other products.
Russ Cersosimo (38:13):
100% Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (38:14):
Is it plant?
Like, is it plant focused? Like,would you would it be like other
herbal like, plants flowers, ordoes it really apply to
anything?
Russ Cersosimo (38:24):
You Well, you mean? encapsulating? Yeah. The
what? what you
Ronjini Joshua (38:27):
guys are doing specifically in like creating
the powder and encapsulatingYeah,
Russ Cersosimo (38:31):
yeah, actually, that's a good question. I don't
know. That would be higher levelscience than I am. Oh, I can
tell you tomorrow I walk in thelab and ask my science. Yeah,
no, no. Okay. I think it'spossible. I think a molecule is
a molecule. Yeah. No, it's amatter of how much can you
loosen up that that that helixstructure? Gotcha. And there's
other you know, there's otherstructures that we could use to
(38:52):
sit to your point, we couldprobably pack a lot of stuff
into it. Yeah, but I do not knowthe answer off the top of my
head. Well,
Ronjini Joshua (38:57):
okay. You also wrote a book. So I want to hear
a little bit more about what youwhat you wrote in your book,
your molecular influenza, he'sready. Yes. What is it? What is
it about? What can we learn fromit?
Russ Cersosimo (39:12):
So little backstory, my grandpa was a
magician, I was the oldestgrandson. Okay, so as the oldest
grandson, I was taught thetricks because they had to use
someone as a prop. So that I'mtold by my grandfather, hey,
listen, you're gonna get cut inhalf, but you're not really
gonna get cut in half. If you doX, X and X the crowds we think
you have cut in half. And then,you know, we laugh our whole way
(39:34):
back into the other room knowingthat you didn't you know, right,
that's a trick. So like five,six years old, I was exposed to
that. So I guess,
Ronjini Joshua (39:42):
before we move forward, you you've got to tell
me the secret to that trick.
Like how do people get cut? Idon't I don't know. I don't know
additions
Russ Cersosimo (39:50):
can't tell their tricks. I'll tell you I'll tell
you off.
Ronjini Joshua (39:54):
I think we all wonder about the cutting in half
track okay. So
Russ Cersosimo (39:58):
basically What happens I learned just to set up
a room where, you know, ifpeople see certain things,
they're gonna think certainthings, right? And if you keep
certain things away, you'regonna keep them from thinking a
different way. Right, right from
Ronjini Joshua (40:12):
my power of influence. Exactly. So
Russ Cersosimo (40:15):
my dad was a, it was an entrepreneur around here
and he built the world's or thecountry's largest privately held
home security system securitycompany and I got to watch him
systematically approachcustomers. Well here at seven
years old and really for twoyears before that, two or three
years before that I worked atthe Pittsburgh Home and Garden
Show with him when they wouldhave the annual show and you'd
have a security booth. Andacross the aisle from us every
(40:37):
year was another guy from meatmckees rocks, Pennsylvania, and
that's Billy Mays, the oxicleanguy. Okay, yeah. Right. So Billy
was doing his thing and this isway before he was famous. He was
young I was probably you knowshit back then. He was probably
2930 years old. And I justwatched him everything he did
was just so lucky he had asystem to everything. Well here
(40:59):
I could wonder why everyonebought two mops he was every
year he was selling a why somewash ematic salsa Matic veggie
mash right it's something alittle bit more automatic than
you're used to like mobberleyjust squeezed itself in like
maybe at a pump or somethingright? But what happened I saw
everyone walk away with two ofthem everyone that he presented
he would have his his thingwhere he was a little 12 inch
(41:21):
stage yeah microphone Yeah,everyone come around whoever's
close to me do this. It's a 510minute thing and everyone bought
too and as a kid watching acrossthe aisle I'm wondering How's he
doing it what's what's he doing?
You know, how's it going? We'rehere a couple walks past me and
each one of them had to overtheir shoulder and the husband
the wife looked at the husbandand said, You know, it really
stinks. You can only buy two ofthese you can only buy two and
(41:42):
I'm like, man that's it. LikePappy would does my grandpa yeah
like he would get them to pickthe right card the card he
wanted Billy was maneuvering thewords in his pitch and all that
so that they would say I want tohave these things right up to
him I said Mr. Mays, because inmy mind my dad knew each other
they were great we grew up onthe cross the street and each
other. I said I want to learn todo what you do better because I
was like this cocky little shitkid. Yeah. And he said alright
(42:04):
kid, I want you to come standnext to me when I do my next
pitch and you're going to watchone by one I'm going to pick off
the women that I'm going to pickoff the men I'm gonna pick off
the kids and they're all gonnabuy to when I hit him with an
offer they can't refuse now weknow later that ended up
evolving into but wait there'smore that was his tagline
started calling people up onstage he said Ross get up here I
(42:25):
sat next to the world's greatestpitch man of all time quite
arguably. And I got to see himdo exactly what he told me he
was going to do so much of acard trick or if you don't
that's exactly what he did everytime and he got the same result
every single time well hear thatthat you know that I started
thinking a whole different waythen after that so I went into
(42:46):
sales I went to psychologyschool I worked with rats in a
Skinner box and you start to seethat animals are all the same
and how they come up withsomething in their head is it's
like the factory and theorem ifyou if you know what a is, and
they know a Yeah, you'd be theirbrains gonna automatically do
see but you need to know whatinformation to put in front of
them. So that that so that thathappens, right? That heuristic
(43:06):
or that eureka moment, which iswhere heuristics is derived
from. And basically then, youknow, I'll fast forward it's
it's kind of cool. 20 yearslater, Billy Mays, I was put on
the phone with him. I was likein the weirdest situation. I was
at a restaurant someone said,Hey, you said you know Billy
Mays, look who's calling. I saidget out here. So if that would
have been Spider Man or MichaelJackson, I would have been just
(43:26):
excited. Right? Right. Hey, theyput them on the phone. I said,
Billy, get out of his rostersauce bases Get out of here. I
said, No, no, not my dad. We getthe same name. He says Now I
know. He said the seven year oldkid that freaked me out. When he
said I want to learn to do whatyou do better. I mean, he
remembered so I started tearingup. I was like, my heroes, my
hero. He's remembers me. And hesaid, he said, Listen, I'm
(43:47):
filming this TV show down inMiami called pitch option Tampa
Bay called pitchmen. It's onDiscovery channels where people
come pitch their products. Iwant you to come beyond the
final episode. So hear me hisson, his dad were on this final
episode, I got to work with him.
It was a coolest thing. And herehe died the week before it was
before it was released and Mametof Poland just doing a tribute
(44:07):
episode. I was still on it. ButGosh, that's kind of and so the
book is about is, you know, Iwent to psych school and I got
to learn from a research sideand from academia. Exactly what
the street guys in my dad, BillyMays and my grandpa were doing.
And I got to see exactly whatthat's called, what the research
says how they got to that point.
And when you know that stuff,now you really could build a
(44:28):
system. So I build a frameworkthat if you want to influence
somebody, aka into the marijuanaindustry, you want to influence
legislators, you want tointerest a partner, you wanna
raise money, whatever it is,know your goal, know how to
dress to impress them, right?
Like because they're going tojudge you the second second,
they look at you because that'show we're built. And then from
there, what do you do to elicitemotion from them, then surround
(44:49):
them with indisputable logic, sotheir brain starts thinking, you
know what, I do want to dobusiness with that guy, and then
probably time when you have theask, but if you follow that
structure,
Ronjini Joshua (44:57):
just slow down so I can write this down on my
I'm like, wait a minute, where'smy notebook? Yeah,
Russ Cersosimo (45:02):
share your book.
I mean, it's easy and it's whenpeople follow this, they're
amazed that when the time forthe Ask comes, people are just,
they go along with it. It'sbecause you've created a
homeostatic homeostasis in theirbrain right? Where they're
making a decision, you know,based on you
Ronjini Joshua (45:18):
you've actually you've actually bought them into
the story as you're doing thedifferent steps
Russ Cersosimo (45:23):
Yeah, I mean, like you said it you say hey,
look, you know a lot aboutscience. I don't know much about
science, I regurgitate reallywell, right? And I'm receptive
to what these guys are talkingabout and I i understand what so
I then can explain it to peoplebut that puts a white coat on me
right? This is the right word.
And what happens is once I'mperceived as an authority now
all of a sudden you're buyinginto a little bit more what I'm
saying and I don't mean in amanipulative way No, no to prove
(45:44):
it right away so that all thosequestions that might have been
there that that keep that brainfrom being in a homeostatic
environment you've checked thatbox so if you can check all
these boxes then when you go inand have the ask you don't know
how much to worry about.
Ronjini Joshua (46:01):
So the idea is that you're like knocking down
the questions like I'm notquestioning your your authority
or your ability to know thisinformation and that's when
people will make don't makedecisions is when they're still
questioning the options right?
Russ Cersosimo (46:15):
Like I mean just an example if I prove them on
authority, I mentioned somethingthat gives me social proof like
your friends are buying it orhere's a testimonial right? I
show that there's scarcity likeI could somehow like incite a
little bit of FOMO you startdoing that you start mentioning
to you starts going towards youright like what you want like
it's no longer what they wantthey start to fear missing out
(46:37):
right and right, this person isthe authority like now all of a
sudden I'm salivating like aPavlovian dog I'm paying
attention to five minutes agoand you know, it all comes down
to you need to hook them atfirst and hook them with your
emotion right so if you cansomehow get them through common
enemy common goal curiosity needthey want you to one of those
(46:59):
things it's real systematic tothe approach and then boom once
you get it going, you're good togo and you know, because I was
in marijuana I really was ableto refine it because I was hit
with radical opposition Oh yeah,yeah, anytime I spoke there was
there was people in the audiencethat could not wait to get up
and tell me what they knew andwhy I was wrong and I turn that
around pretty quick. But thenthen you win them over and you
(47:21):
see you know, it is just asystem I get hit in the face
with this radical oppositionit's the same thing every single
time if I just unfold the peelback that onion in this in this
way that person is going to wantto hug me at the end of this and
they're gonna be an advocate andright well you can see it
clearly especially because itwas marijuana. It was easy to
write the book because it wasjust you know, pulling things
together and having that sightback on so it was it's cool it's
(47:42):
an exciting it's good to readand you'll learn a lot from it.
I'll send you
Ronjini Joshua (47:45):
one Okay, please do
Sheldon (47:47):
too. But I love books like this because one for a
person trying to become moreinfluential it's very helpful
but also for someone beinginfluenced it gives insight into
your own mind so when you'rereceiving information you get to
make a choice and not just beled so this exactly right yeah
Russ Cersosimo (48:07):
it's it's a good it's a it's a defensive strategy
book as well.
Ronjini Joshua (48:12):
Okay, well, we're running out of time but I
would love to talk to you morebut before we run out of time
time I want to make sure that weyou know if there's anything
that you guys are doingspecifically in the industry
that you think is worth talkingabout and just you know having a
short conversation around Isthere anything that we missed
that you guys are working on
Russ Cersosimo (48:32):
no I think we've covered it I'm I'm pretty good
at rattle that off whenever youget me started wind me up
Ronjini Joshua (48:38):
we were gonna have to do like half the normal
Part Two we're gonna have to dolike a half slow mo version
because there's a lot of juicyinformation you you dropped it
was just really fast we justYeah, yes.
Russ Cersosimo (48:53):
Well I mean honestly, I think that the food
mix is the big thing becausethat's that's who's sitting on
the sidelines right now sayingI'm gonna jump in Yeah, and I
don't know how where, who totalk to what to put in and they
got to start from scratch. Youknow, now we have something you
could pour in just throw itright into your ingredients like
you always did. So that I meanthat's what I'm most excited
about. But yeah, I would say forlisteners that's that's the one
(49:17):
they could kind of dig theirteeth into.
Ronjini Joshua (49:18):
Do you think do you think most I mean, right now
we're looking at brands that arecreating new brands for the
cannabis CBD hemp industries. Doyou think that the food the
adoption with food is reallygoing to happen more at that
like larger CPG side or is itnew brands too, that are going
(49:39):
to create new opportunities,
Russ Cersosimo (49:40):
you're going to have new brands at first, like
I'll give you an idea we starteda brand called the hemp bakers
because we teamed with a companythat has five generations of
family bakers and their lastname is Baker so perfect. We
started putting the CBD andwe're selling those out to gas
stations, health food foodstores, we've got them in a
large Scale grocers here. Butwe're a small company doing it.
(50:03):
Yeah, what's going to happen isthere's going to be another
company that sees it and eitherbuys that company or says I want
to integrate my own things, butit's going to be the smaller
company, things that have noproblem kind of navigating the
weird laws and regulations rightnow. Pennsylvania, I'm sorry,
New York, West Virginia,Colorado, a lot of the states
have legalized CBD and food. Soyou have the large scale groups,
(50:23):
they're like, at, like, mydistribution is all over the
country of the world. I don'twant to worry about onesies.
twosies For now, in the States,like Colorado got a hold of our
brownies. We have a 50 chain gasstation gas station. It says
look, we want them in ourplaces. So I know that they're
not making good CBD food outthere because they're they're
buying our stuff from out inPennsylvania. But it is the
little answer your question.
It's the little guys that arestarting first. And then we'll
(50:45):
start to see these big brandswho are looking into it Oreo,
Anheuser Busch morson, you know,Cola, Molson Coors. They're all
in r&d right now.
Ronjini Joshua (50:55):
Oreo cookie, CBD cookie.
Sheldon (50:58):
I already feel extreme relaxation when I eat Oreos.
This would just be right yeah,
Ronjini Joshua (51:03):
we already low Yeah, you already use it as a as
a like euphoric experience. Andit can't get any better or can
it
Russ Cersosimo (51:13):
that's it.
That's the tagline I like thatYeah.
Ronjini Joshua (51:16):
Well, thank you Russ so much for spending your
time with us this Saturday andthere's going to be an awesome
episode so we will put all thelinks for the book and ham
synergistics in the show notes.
So guys, check them out thereand Russ will talk to you next
time.
Russ Cersosimo (51:32):
Thank you guys was awesome being on.
Ronjini Joshua (51:36):
The Green Room podcast is brought to life by
green seed PR, a cannabis greentech focused PR agency and a
dedicated production team ofeditors mixers and show
Booker's. A huge thank you tothe vessel team for providing
their studio for our recordings.
Don't forget to subscribe andshare the green room podcast
with friends, colleagues, andfamily. That way you'll never
miss an episode and we can keepthe lights on. If you're feeling
(51:58):
extra generous. Please leave usa review on favorite podcast
listening platform. You can alsofind us on Instagram at Green
seed PR and to the live videoversions of all of our podcasts
on YouTube. Would you like to beon the guest on the show or do
you have a great guest referral.
Awesome. Submit your guests atGreen CPR comm slash the hyphen
(52:21):
green hyphen room. Thanks forlistening and be well
I'm sure you can agree that this interview with
Russ Cersosimo from hempsynergistics was really awesome.
Sheldon (00:17):
Oh, it was the bomb and we're definitely going to
Pittsburgh.
Ronjini Joshua (00:21):
Yes, it was scientific energetic. And of
course Pittsburgh is where theirHQ is.
So that's why Sheldon is takinga solo trip there,
Sheldon (00:31):
I'm gonna go into the lab.
Ronjini Joshua (00:32):
And we got some amazing information about
isolation and extraction and thescience behind creating CBD
additives and more stuff. Imean, like, he just kind of goes
and breaks it down at everylevel and the way he explains
it. It's just really simple tounderstand. Yeah, yeah. Now
let's get back into theinterview with Russ Cersosimo
(00:52):
from hemp synergisticsHi, everybody, we are back. And
today in the greenroom, we haveRuss Cersosimo. He's a serial
entrepreneur, founder and CMO ofhemp synergistics. It's a
biotechnology company thatprovides the highest quality,
THC free, hemp based ingredientsfor consumer products. So, Russ,
(01:15):
thank you for joining us today.
Good to be here. Yeah. So I havea lot of questions for you. But
we always start this off bygetting into the background of
like, what people were doingbefore they're doing what
they're doing now. So kind ofthe journey of how you got to
where you are, and then we'llwe'll go into some other details
(01:36):
of what you did today.
Russ Cersosimo (01:38):
Yeah, so Oh, what I was doing before actually
leads into what I'm doing now.
So I started a tech company inaround 2008 2009 in California.
And I was at a schoolplayground, you know, they kids
playing on playground,basically. And I saw a woman
that had a stroller with herchild in it, and she lit up a
joint and the other side of theplayground was a police officer
(01:58):
and nobody cared. And comingfrom the east coast and being an
on the west coast, it was kindof like, wait, what you can even
say marijuana in Pennsylvania,right? without fear of being
searched, right? So I justremember that hit me pretty
hard, right? So I went, Ibrought the company back to East
Coast. And there was a group ofmoms that were starting to push
legislators, you know, they allhad children with severe
(02:20):
epilepsy and seizure syndromes.
And I we kind of reached out tome my business partner and say,
Look, we'd love to help youguys. Like we saw what this was
doing. We saw in California,it's not demonized my background
psychology. So I think I canhelp influence. And other moms
were kind of like, I don't know,I mean, you don't have like, why
are you really in this, youknow, because a sauce is the
business guys getting into it.
And what happened was I went toa fundraiser at one of the
(02:42):
highest profile patients house.
And she had a grand mal seizureright in the middle of the
party. I mean, it was the firsttime that these eyes got to see
what happens to these children.
And I mean, I've close to likeso she just had the seizure went
down, hit her head on theconcrete and the sound was crazy
disgusting. And I just rememberit hit me it really hit me. As I
left half the party left scaredto death as the ambulance came.
(03:04):
I was one of those. The otherhalf was like Hey, where's the
wine at? Or did you try thechicken in the buffet? They were
real desensitized. And comingfrom a site guy. I noted that
right? So I went back to mylife. And about two weeks later,
I got a call from my businesspartner. He said, hey, look,
they just sent Hannah that washer name home from the hospital.
She was 11. She was out about10,000 seizures a year. They
sent her home, our organs arenow shutting down. They don't
(03:26):
know what's wrong with her.
They've suggested we starthospice. You gotta find her this
oil. And it was about four hoursof dialing all over the United
States. And eventually I got intouch with a woman that was
funding research at a majoruniversity. She called the
researcher and said, Look, I'mpulling your research money if
you don't get this to this kid,you only have so many days left.
(03:47):
They compound it, got it to usand she was on her side in a bed
for days wasn't able to get upor walk out a feeding tube in
and they gave her one grain ofrice size drop on her tongue
basically inside her lip. withinseven minutes, she was pulling
away at the feeding tube andwithin half an hour she's she
was up and running around andthen put a helmet on her. That
(04:09):
was in August of 2014 What wasit that they gave her? It was a
THC, high THC I think it wasactually 16 to one okay. And at
the time you know, the guy saidhe said look, I mean if this
stuff is strong, but that's whatshe needs because our organs
need to rest right and that thatthis is what she needs. So it
was real high THC, I think was16 to one CBD THC. And
(04:33):
she went from having 10,000 ayear to about I think it's like,
you know, four episodes a monthor something like four major
episodes.
But that was about I think,about seven years ago and she's
living she's, you know, qualitylife she didn't have before. Her
mother has has, you know, abetter quality of life as well
now that they're giving it toher. It was just when I saw that
I never looked back. I mean Iwas in data at that technology
(04:55):
at the time with a company Ibrought back from California and
I said to my brother, how's thatTo you, I'm jumping into
marijuana I want to go savepeople and that's kind of how it
started we went and started thePennsylvania medical cannabis
society as a nonprofit to go outand educate them because it was
pre legalization and we wereinvolved in about 50 events
across three different states.
And you know, we went out andjust kind of really took the
(05:15):
torch as far as education goes,but that's how I got into it.
And then how I evolved into thebiotech side is is I ended up
winning dispensaries inPennsylvania and a full vertical
in West Virginia so I'm one ofthe guys that go after these
licenses. But I in all mytalking out there in front of
doctors, researchers,scientists, parents, caretakers,
you name it you know you heardwhat they were looking for in
(05:38):
products you know, deliveryforms different different you
know, they were worried aboutbioavailability they're worried
about heavy metals so I startedkind of taking this all into
account and eventually it waslet's let's refine this stuff
and let's put it into forms thatthese people are used to working
are forms that industriesoutside of the hemp industry can
use like nutraceutical and foodand beverage so that's kind of
(06:00):
the evolution that's how I gotinto it and you know once once I
saw what it did and I neverlooked back
Ronjini Joshua (06:06):
What about you like did you ever have like you
know childhood experiences withwe like what was your
introduction to just like weedin general like,
Russ Cersosimo (06:17):
yeah, so my dad was so anti weed. He would
literally make me smell breatheon him when I came home. I was
kind of I was kind of the guythat was anti right now. I took
what my dad said andregurgitated it right I remember
the first time I had it I was ona golf course in action I take
(06:38):
that back as a Dave Matthewsconcert.
Ronjini Joshua (06:41):
That makes sense. Yeah, so that was
Russ Cersosimo (06:43):
the first time I ever did and then second time I
really did I was on a golfcourse and I got paranoid and
that's when I kind of backed offof it again. So really I started
a tech company and hot why I gotinto it is first of all the
doctors were prescribing me 30focalin which is Ritalin a day
okay which is insane Oh wow.
They were using me as a guineapig and you know i One could say
(07:03):
I had ADHD but I also changed mydiet and fixed a lot of things
once I got on plant wisdom ingeneral but what I noticed is I
had the Add issue and then I hada major head injury to my
frontal lobe back in 2012 aboutand I started realizing that it
was marijuana that would help meconcentrate help get rid of the
(07:23):
concussion symptoms when Ireally didn't even know I had a
problem I just know that if Ismoked it things got better and
that's when once I you know atthat point then I never looked
back on on ingested it myself indifferent ways. And now looking
at different cannabinoids andreally refining and seeing what
CBG and CBN and I'll tweak in mydaily schedule right so I've
annoyed as opposed to just youknow, it's the diva versus
(07:44):
Indigo
Ronjini Joshua (07:46):
right? Right interesting. Okay, so now you've
gotten into this you startingthis technology company which is
really interesting that you'repositioning it that way and I'd
like to hear a little bit moreabout that but yeah, what is
what is the next thing you startthis company and what is where
was where did you go from there?
Russ Cersosimo (08:04):
Yeah, so that's a kind of that's a good story
too. So we raised the money onthe basis that we were going to
be one of the very few thatcould remove THC down to the
parts per billion because weknow that's coming. We also have
management that comes fromhighly regulated industries has
worked under DEA guidelines andthings like that. So when we
read the Farm Bill, it wasreally we started raising the
money in the Farm Bill hit andnow there was clear roles right?
(08:27):
So we read through those and wesaid look we know that scaling
what's called reverse flashchromatography which is the the
main technology that can takethat THC molecule out right and
leave the rest of them in there.
We knew that scaling that wasgoing to be tough. So the Coca
Cola is of the world and whenthey want to get into it their
big thing is they need access tosupply and it's got to be there
all the time and it's got to bestandardized. That's what we
shot for a while. I don't knowif you know this but everyone in
(08:49):
the industry is operating in amajor gray area they're all
shipping THC laden productsthey're figuring Hey, if you
water it down at the point ofretail product creation you're
gonna be okay and everyone'skind of happy in this say like
I'm ignorant stage right they'renot cracking down so when they
weren't cracking down werealized that we can't we were
in now price battle with allthese guys that were just out
there squeezing hemp into a jarfor through an apex machine
(09:12):
right not worrying about the THCremove on the part that's
expensive, and it takes a highlevel of science and knowledge.
So very quick, man, it didn'ttake us more than really I'll
bet you a week after we openedand I said look, let's focus on
solving major problems insteadof I should say the whole team
collectively. So that's calledmajor problems because they came
(09:32):
from nutraceutical food andbeverage the supplement industry
as well as lawn not I won't saylaw enforcement but testing and
that testing the stuff throughthe state crime lab system. So
we were looking at things from adifferent angle. And if you look
at the let's look at just threemajor problems that we're gonna
have to solve in food andbeverage and I was listening to
one of your episodes earliertoday and you were talking with
(09:53):
the gentleman two days ago onyour, I think the 20th episode
and you were mentioned I cookwithin you It was tough for you
and you know yes, there's a lotof steps that like if you just
want to integrate marijuanacannabis or hemp, whatever it
is, you know there's all theseextra steps you have to do this
you have to we said look, let'stake, we got to take that
molecule put it in a form thatthese food manufacturers are
(10:13):
used to working with and they'reused to powders and they're used
to just throw it in flour,right? evenly homogenized, it's
dosed perfectly but that's theydon't have it they haven't a
nano but nano most people don'trealize is eight to one
chemicals it's it's it's forevery one molecule of CBD
there's eight other molecules oftitanium dioxide there's there's
pickling agents there's there'sjust
Ronjini Joshua (10:39):
like preservatives for like that like
a preservative Okay,
Russ Cersosimo (10:42):
exactly they don't have to be on the label
because there's such small formgotcha and there's also other
major problems with the and Imean people are testing nano
drinks and they're finding noCBD and it's because the CBD is
under 50 nanometers nano itseeping into the plastic so we
said what the taste problembecause you know it's gonna
taste like marijuana when youput the stuff in. It smells off
(11:04):
pudding, it's bitter when you dobite into it and you know it's
not something that the generalpublic would be interested in
buying a second one of if therewasn't some major effects and
they can be okay getting throughthat taste and that smell was
like Oreo cookies not going tocome integrate something into
their you know, age old recipeand have it tastes like some
it's not supposed to. They wantOreos with CBD, you know, just
(11:25):
have a taste the way Well, sowhat we did is we took the CBD
molecule and all the good thingsthat come along with it. And we
took a helix structurepolysaccharide kind of like DNA,
and we opened it up and we stuckit inside, closed it back up.
What that did is that took awaythe smell and the taste. It's
completely vegan and organic, ithas no chemicals in it. And 100%
natural. And what it also did issolve the first pass metabolism
(11:47):
problem, right? So if we takeany supplement including CBD,
THC, whatever, our stomach acidbetween our mouth in our lower
GI tract destroy about 90% ofthe active ingredients got to
get up and left forbioavailability then they go up
in the system, because weencapsulated in something that's
completely impervious to stomachacids. It's getting all the way
through. And convenientlythere's enzymes in your lower
(12:09):
intestine that unlock thatpolysaccharide so
Ronjini Joshua (12:12):
I was gonna say how do you unlock it if it's an
impervious? Yeah,
Russ Cersosimo (12:16):
so so that opens it up and now like I'll give you
an idea I could have a 25milligram CBD pill from any
other manufacturer and I don'teven know I don't know if
anything's happening, right.
There's no there's nothing sowhen we found out that we put
this stuff in a brownie that hasfats in it, if I eat a CBD
brownie with 25 milligrams, I amliterally asleep in an hour
(12:36):
sleep best night asleep in mylife and it's wild because it's
preparing well and it's gettingall the way down into that lower
GI tract. So I'm getting hitwith 25 milligrams all at one
time as opposed to like 2.5 sothat food and beverage industry
that's that's where we went withthat. nutraceutical
manufacturers, they can't useanything about powders on their
machines like they don't evenclean the machines with water.
(12:58):
So when you walk through thesefacilities is nothing but
200,000 square feet of boxedpowder stacked on top These are
three stories I sure when youlook at the rooms that they're
doing the caption, you know,they're making the calves
there's you know, flyaways whatthey call it there's dust
everywhere, so that the betteryou can pelletize that when it
goes in the better it is theless runoff there is. So we
focused on making anothervariation that would work well
(13:20):
for capsule manufacturers.
Because ours is two and a halftimes stronger than nano then
nano, we can use way less of thecapsule which gives these other
nutraceutical manufacturers theability to compound other
things.
Ronjini Joshua (13:32):
We'll go back real quick. So you say because
your product is nano you canmake better use of the capsule
does that mean that it's notgoing to go through anything is
that what you're asking
Russ Cersosimo (13:42):
us it's two different technologies you have
nano and their technology isthat to literally beat the crap
out of the molecule with asonicator it's this it's this
titanium rod that basically putstuff up in a bowl and this rod
will vaporize ice in seconds Imean it's it gets really hot
which also isn't good for themolecules it converts some of
(14:04):
the precursor molecules intoother things that are toxic you
know during that process a lotagain, all things we don't
really know about yet they'restill coming out. So nano then
their goal is to get it to youknow between 150 and 150
nanometers wide. That's reallytiny. Ours is about 300 so ours
isn't getting into littlecrevices in the notch Okay, that
(14:26):
and also it's we're not havingsome of these issues that nano
causes with the blood brainbarrier and bringing in Titanic
like these titanium fragmentsand stuff from the process. So I
think we're gonna find out a lotmore about nano moving forward
but nano, because it's thateight to one molecule you're
having one molecule CBD to eightother things. It's lost my train
of thought for a second Oh, ittakes up all that pill. Sorry,
(14:48):
yeah, takes up all that pill andnow you can add other things. So
we solve two problems theirbioavailability and you know, we
brought that down to just afraction, maybe 20% of a big
capsule and now they cut outother things. Things like enzyme
blockers that will further helpit get into your system. Like I
said, melatonin now you canclaim it's for sleep because
there's research tied tomillstone so things like that.
(15:10):
The other big major problem thatwe focused on because we have
people coming from the labtesting in law enforcement side
of things was we know now thatnow that hemp is federally
legal, you have people drivingaround with hemp in their car,
or in their tractor trailer,like you know, pounds and kilos,
and you know, a lot of it andthese guys are pulling them over
(15:30):
and they're seeing marijuana,right? Doesn't matter that it
looked at if you say attempt, itdoesn't matter, you have lab
tests, it looks like it smellslike it tastes like it's got to
be it and that's what they haveto do right plus they're taught
that you're lying anyways forthe most part. Now they got it,
they got to put it in queue atthe state crime lab system takes
about eight months on average,depending on what state you're
(15:51):
in, oh geez $800 to test it,just to find out that it was
hemp and no one's in troublehere right? So $800.08 months
later, you got someone that'sgot this on the record, what we
did is we invented somethingthat for around the cost of $15
on the hood of a car, a policeofficer can take hemp or
cannabis whatever it is grind itup, shake it up, put a couple
(16:14):
chemicals in it, and within 90seconds tell you exactly how
much THC is in there not justpass fail, we haven't seen a
3% 1% more than 3% and so on andso forth. So we actually
quantify the results. What thisdoes is it takes major load off
the state crime labs within eachstate and it's gonna help a lot
of people go free for somethingthat now we're seeing its
prevalence all over the place.
That's amazing. We patented thatwith Purdue University Northwest
(16:36):
nirbhaya forensics departmentand we just testified to the
State Senate of Indiana thestate because they want to write
this into legislation if someonegets pulled over with a
substance that looks like thismake sure it goes through this
process first before we put allthis weight on the state crime
lab system so state crime labsaren't happy about it because
taking away their business butso those are the may have
Ronjini Joshua (16:59):
other they have other crime says oh that's okay
right.
Russ Cersosimo (17:02):
That's right.
Right let us go Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (17:07):
Because go ahead sorry.
Russ Cersosimo (17:09):
No, so that's what we're talking about kind of
the problems are what we'redoing now Yeah, that's that's
kind of the evolution is we'relooking at what things that we
solve for these bigger you know,in the food and beverage
industry is the biggest thing inthe world nutraceuticals it's up
there internationally I mean,the 6 trillion I think
nutraceuticals you know that 72billion or a trillion for the
(17:30):
food and beverage so those guysare starting to get into it
we're working with tier onemanufacturers that know that
this is on the horizon to belegalized and food not federally
and they're all starting to getready and we have I'll bet you
we have probably 20 differentlarge scale manufacturers that
have this in r&d or are alreadyimplementing it into their
products and I'm talking to tierone guys we work with
(17:51):
restaurants and all kinds oflittle guys but you know we're
going after the big scale guysbecause ultimately once they
jump in it's it's gonna bepretty wild time so
Ronjini Joshua (18:00):
so so from your site I saw that it was a THC
free so you're working with hempand CBD? Is that correct? Are
you going to be doing all of itonce it's all available?
Russ Cersosimo (18:09):
Well, yeah, so we're creating the IP around
doing things with the moleculesYeah, so right now in
Pittsburgh, we have our 53,000square foot facility we do
nothing but isolate hempmolecules are separate and
reformulate hemp moleculesbecause we didn't have to go get
a license to do it withmarijuana. The marijuana
(18:31):
industry is actually very behindthe times on that and the reason
is is because they haven't hadto push science any further
right right. Growth thegenetically they're they're
doing things because they wantto squeeze more THC or different
you know, miners out of it. Butthen it's just going through an
apex machine getting squeezedinto a jar, it costs $20,000 to
(18:51):
put money down again, Apexmachine 200 grand total, anyone
can get it, anyone can operateit, it's as easy to use as a
commercial washing machine. Theyhaven't had to go in and fish
out that single THC molecule toremain legal, like the CBD
industry has, right so ourscience has kind of evolved the
separation of cannabinoidswhere, you know, cannabis
(19:12):
industry squeezing in a jar, alot of people in the hemp
industry are squeezing the jarboth add like a little bit of
carrier oil, whatever we'regoing in and literally fishing
out the molecules separatingthem go into these manufacturers
and what do you want, you wantto sleep formula? Okay, we're
going to do this much CBD, we'llthrow a little CBN in there. And
we're going to go ahead and putthese other you know, enzyme
blockers that are going ahead
Ronjini Joshua (19:33):
and how are you figuring out like, and obviously
this is super like scientificand technical, but how are you
figuring out what is the processof figuring out like, okay,
let's, let's say, hey, yes, I'mhaving trouble sleeping, or we
want to create a product tosupport sleep or support joint
health or whatever. What is theprocess for you guys to come up
(19:54):
with a formula for them?
Russ Cersosimo (19:55):
Yeah, it's actually pretty cool to have a
biotech facility you would notbelieve I would the first day I
went in with a new molecule newmolecule molecule I've been
looking at for a long timedimethyl dimethylsulfoxide I
walked in I said to my headscience and said look I think we
can create like and I had acouple different things one was
a mouth gargle one was a topicalhe said we'll go into the other
(20:19):
scientists and tell her exactlywhat you want they went and
looked at the molecules rightthere to make sure everything
would bond they did a test andthen boom about 15 minutes later
I had what could have been puton the shelves as a product and
we all were testing it so youknow people rubbing it on we're
checking for irritation I dranka bunch of it. I ended up on the
toilet for two days
Ronjini Joshua (20:37):
I hear you you're your guinea pig in
yourself
Russ Cersosimo (20:40):
somebody's got to do it right founder thing on
my title I mean, me if no oneelse wants to do it right right
I'll give an example this ispretty cool this is this gives
you a look into how close we areto this stuff so I drank it and
what happened was thedimethylsulfoxide carries it
through skin and through anykind of membrane it loops it and
kind of lattices your skin andpushes through it does the same
(21:03):
thing with your you knowanything, anything it touches.
It's actually kind of dangerousif you're not paying attention
but it's it's non toxic,unhealthy. So what happened was
I drank it. I spent two days inthe bathroom. I called my my
scientists and I said, this islike literally making me I feel
like everything blasting out ofmy body like and it's I think
it's detoxing me. Because I'vedone I was going all the other
(21:23):
plants where I know exactlywhat's happening. And it's this
rush of toxins to your to yourinsides, and then you have to
flush it out. I said I thinkthat's what's happening. He says
you poisoned yourself, dude,you're crazy. Let's try and I
stay I stayed strong. Yeah,right. Not many people have done
I was good. They know like, hey,that's the same feeling right?
That's exactly what's doing inhere. Two weeks later, another
(21:46):
CBD company put out a there wasan article in one of the
magazines they had just patenteda an intravenous shot of CBD for
rapid detox. So the key was Iwas getting soup. I mean, not
super dose I probably had, Ithink was like 1000 milligrams
of CBD in one dose. And it wasrapidly going into my system.
(22:07):
But you know, we noticed rightaway that at least I noticed
that it was it was detoxing, andyou know, someone else had
patented like two weeks later.
So yeah, that's the kind of workwe're that close to things and
we're trying different things.
And that's how it all starts.
Then what you do is you bring inother people so like we're
working on a sleeping pill. Whatwe did is I you know, I my first
question when people come in theoffice, because anyone that
walks through that door is apotential subject.
Ronjini Joshua (22:30):
We're not going I'm not going to your office,
I'm not.
Russ Cersosimo (22:34):
You have a lot of NFL players, surprisingly,
that come through and, you know,their big thing is pain. We're
working on a topical patch thatdoes it superpowered, right, so
we had one of the guys from thesteel curtain back in the 70s of
the Steelers Come come in and hehad any problems we put it on
him. But 10 minutes later, wealways ask Hey, how's it What's
going on? And he goes, I can'tfeel the whole left side of my
(22:56):
body. Ready to turn it back. Youknow, another one's a sleeping
pill. I had one of the we have aguy we just Charlie bats. He's
He's an NFL quarterback for theSteelers, he he just signed on
with us. He's now going to bepart of our team. And why he was
sold was he told me and sleepingproblems. And I said this first
day he came the office I saidtake this pill tonight. Call me
(23:17):
the next day he sent me ascreenshot. He said this is my
sleep app that monitorseverything every night, look
five hours, five hours, fivehours, nine and a half hours. So
that that one milligram of CBNpaired it encapsulated in our
thing that literally gets all ofit through so it'd be the
equivalent of having about 10milligrams. Oh, I
Ronjini Joshua (23:36):
see. I see.
Russ Cersosimo (23:37):
I mean, so now I mean that's just boom puts them
out and you get the best sleep.
So that's how it all startsright? I mean there's there's
there's all kinds of researchthat you can pay for after the
fact. But right now, I mean, inthe nutraceutical industry, we
don't really have to do that ithas to work and people have to
rebuy it right. So that's kindof without that now if I want to
go out and have this tested byhospital we are we have things
set up with various researchersand doctors, but they're slow
(23:59):
universities are a pain in theass to deal with, you know,
they're they're just slow andCOVID didn't help. We had a lot
of stuff set up that becauseCOVID kids weren't coming into
school, they weren't able to doa lot of this stuff. So anyways,
but yeah, that's how you get itstarted you. you ingest it.
Okay,
Sheldon (24:16):
I have a quick question this write it down, writing it
down was important. This keepscoming up in interviews that we
have, that you know, indika andsativa. That's not the main
thing you should be going forwhen you're trying to understand
the effects and people aresaying more and more the
terpenes are what you should belooking at to understand the
effects of, you know, the theend effect, I guess. So what
(24:40):
role from your perspective andyour knowledge to terpenes play
in the effect of cannabisconsumption?
Russ Cersosimo (24:48):
So that's a good question. And here's a good you
know, analogy or metaphor,whatever you call it. I've heard
people say that the cannabinoidsare like the gas. If you Driving
a car, right? And then thatterps kind of steer it. I've
noticed personally, that certainterpenes knock me out. So if
(25:11):
those are removed, I don't havethe same problem without you
know, a higher refineddistillate. So I think they
absolutely have effect. I mean,they've been in our diet for a
long time. I think now becauseit's cannabis, everyone's super
interested in them, but theydefinitely can steer the car.
There's no doubt about it. Cool.
Yeah. So
Ronjini Joshua (25:27):
how do you guys?
So do I mean, I guess Do you usethat to create the profiles of
the things that you have? Solike, like you said,
Russ Cersosimo (25:35):
Now we're not worried about that. We
Ronjini Joshua (25:37):
got good. No, I was gonna. I was gonna say,
well, then how do you? How doyou identify what parts of the
cannabis plant or this like thiscompound that you guys are?
You're basically manipulatingHow do you know which parts of
those are an obvious you guysare looking at under a
microscope, but are going toapply to joint pain or sleep or
(26:03):
anti anxiety or you know, thethe host of things that we talk
about when when we talk aboutcannabis? Right? So
Russ Cersosimo (26:10):
yeah, so like, there's I mean, there's a couple
ways to do it. So we have ascientific advisory board. In
fact, Dr. burbach bond is on it.
He's the guy that is pioneeringCBD research related to COVID.
He's all over the world healthorganization website. What
happens is researchers like thisare finding this stuff in little
studies, some with with mice,and rats, you know, some with
you know, little groups ofhumans utilizing the data, it's
(26:30):
tough to do the research becauseeveryone's handcuffed. You know,
I almost had a thing going withJohns Hopkins because I was able
to create software that allowedthem to talk to the patient and
monitor what those cannabinoidswere, because there was then I
jumped into biotech and forgotabout it. But yeah, you got to
be dynamic in this industryright now. But no one wants to
(26:51):
buy the data yet. So let's moveto something else, right. But
basically, these guys aredetermining what to start
looking at. And then we have theability to just separate it and
try it and find out forourselves. Like I said, we don't
have to do any major research.
Because we're in thenutraceutical side of the
industry, we just can't make anyclaims. What you can do is
(27:12):
compound with other things thathave been proven in research
that you can make claims, andtie that to your product. But
really, you know, from our side,we really do this for the large
scale people, I want to makeingredients to sell to the
Nestle's in the conagra is andthe Coca Cola is of the world,
we do make retail products thatso that people can try them. But
(27:33):
at the end of the day, our mainthing is if someone comes to me
and says, I know that this worksfor this, this and this, I need
you to come up with aformulation, tweak it do the
r&d, test it on some people makesure it works and I'd be willing
to buy, you know, 20 kilos amonth of that powderized product
from you, the integratedwhatever
Ronjini Joshua (27:48):
when it comes to consumer rising consumer rising
this and and you working withextractions and like powders the
way you guys are? What do youthink the role of you know,
being organic? And like, is itchemically? Are you guys
creating it as a chemical? Iguess, are you creating it
(28:09):
separately as like a chemicalcopy? Or is it actually coming
from the plant?
Russ Cersosimo (28:13):
Yeah, so there's, yes. first answer is we
are making everything 100% fromthe plant, okay, we'll take it
from the plant, we're refiningit, we're then maybe
reformulating it, but it's allstuff that came from the plant.
We're certified organic, webring in organic stuff, by the
time it leaves our facility,it's still organic. Okay. Now,
you're hearing a lot about Deltaeight, right? And everyone's the
(28:36):
new face. Well, we clearlylooked at, we looked at the
things and we clearly saw the DAwas going to be illegal
eventually. Right? And the mainreason is not necessarily that
it's intoxicating, is that theway that people were getting da
was taking a differentcannabinoid and taking it
through a process that willconvert it right so you look at
those molecules, you know, let'sjust say this is you know, let's
(28:58):
say delta A, delta nine, okay,take the Delta nine out, they
break that thing off throughsome sort of process like
catalytic conversion or, or adifferent chemical process. And
now all of a sudden, you have Deight, and it has different
things in it. That's now asynthetic cannabinoid. Now that
falls in like a to, you know,you spice you hear about that
kind of stuff that's nowschedule one, because it's
(29:18):
synthetic cannabinoid, right.
But governments, you have nowlocal governments that are
stepping in like, I want to sayI know Texas. And I think it was
Colorado, I can't recall there'sanother state that just just
laid out the laws and said anyform of delta is out delta A
delta nine, and they wentthrough Delta because
Ronjini Joshua (29:40):
because it's chemic. It's it's synthetic.
Russ Cersosimo (29:44):
Well, and because it's causing other highs
that they'd rather just shut thewhole door on it, I suppose.
Have these ones go but thegovernment's gonna end up coming
down because they're synthetic.
Sheldon (29:56):
Okay. And that's a tricky one, because if you open
up that floodgate, then you cansay Oh, well everybody can
create whatever they want to. Bythe way, kudos on the hem shape
and benzene structure.
Russ Cersosimo (30:09):
hexagon
Sheldon (30:10):
Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (30:11):
Oh, that's a hexagon make it a molecule you.
So yeah, I mean, that part isinteresting to me. And also the
part of like extracting THC andwhat, like a lot of people claim
that like, Okay, once youextract, you know, the CBD from
(30:32):
the THC like, is it effective?
Is it is it? You know, what isthe science behind that? I mean,
you seem to have like a prettygood science background. So I
think I'd love to hear moreabout like, what is the real
science behind the facts on thepotency of CBD with or without
THC? Like, what, what really isthe controversy? Yeah, yeah. So
Russ Cersosimo (30:53):
the truth is this, that plant grows the THC
naturally, at about point 3%. Ifyou keep it at that, you're
gonna get all the benefits ofthe entourage effect. Yeah, and
they all help each other in somelittle way, like to dumb it down
seventh grade level. So if youstart removing those things,
you're taking little pieces outof the out of the whole recipe,
right? That all go to benefit.
You know, the word isolate, wehear isolate a lot. They've
(31:15):
isolated CBD yet has a lot ofbenefits, but also has a lot of
side effects. And it doesn't doall the things that a full
spectrum product would do.
Ronjini Joshua (31:24):
Does it have side effects? Because it's
extracted?
Russ Cersosimo (31:29):
It's not mean because it's isolated, isolated?
I'm
Ronjini Joshua (31:32):
sorry, yes.
Yeah. I
Russ Cersosimo (31:33):
mean, well enough. We're looking at GW
Pharmaceuticals thing I were inpharma. And I don't know exactly
what else they're putting inmight be causing side effects.
But I mean, lactate is anytimeyou manipulate Mother Nature,
yeah. Right. And if you make iteasier to manipulate Mother
Nature, you're like, causingcancer, things are bad,
whatever. So I mean, at the endof the day, I blame pharma for a
lot of this, just generally, butI think, I mean, you you need
(31:56):
that whole plant to get allthose effects, not like I said,
you're gonna get some of them.
But I'm the, like, CBN worse forsleep. But we put 22 milligrams
of CBD in with it with that onemilligram of CBN. Right, right.
Yeah, I mean, we don't know whatwould happen, you might fall
asleep for two days, it mightnot work the way it's supposed
to. And these are all thingsthat that even science and
research haven't figured outyet.
Ronjini Joshua (32:18):
Right? So you guys have to find the like, like
the formula to kind of putthings together. So they work in
a way that hopefully you expectit to work, you're gonna crack
the code, which is why you ateor drank your own formula does.
Russ Cersosimo (32:37):
r&d baby,
Ronjini Joshua (32:38):
yeah. Well, I think it's really, I mean, I
don't know like, what what arethis? What are some of the
products that you guys have kindof gotten into so far? What
who's adopting this? Youmentioned food and beverage Is
this the kind of science that'sgoing into these like new CBD
beverages, some of them I've hadare pretty bad. By the way,
Russ Cersosimo (32:56):
they're bad, right? And the reason they're
bad is because you're drinkingnano, right. And then as the
only water soluble form until weinvented our stuff, we're
calling him drink mix. But, youknow, because it has all those
masking agents, and agents andall that, that's what you're
tasting. And they have to put ina lot more sugar. Yeah, to get
(33:16):
rid of that. So that's why themost of the drinks are off
putting. And if they try to sellsomething Low, low sugar, or
whatever, it's now you creep upon the nasty, bitter taste. We
manufacture something thatdoesn't taste like anything, and
you just put it in your drink,and you're good. So the food
manufactures products. And soone of the things that we did on
(33:37):
the product side is we took ourstuff that easily mixes in with
food, and we put it in a littlelike a sugar packet. I must be
calm sachets around the office.
Little sachet. Now you could gohome, you could have a dinner
party, and you could go buy offthe shelf. Any brownies, or cake
or gravy are Marin, it doesn'tmatter what you want to make.
You make your recipe and thelast thing you add is this mix,
(33:57):
put it in you can cook it afteryou can put it out you can cook
it before you can cook it afterit doesn't matter. You do it
when it makes sense in therecipe. Tastes free odor free,
and now all of a sudden you have25 milligrams per whatever
you're doing for the brownies.
And there's 12 of them. Ifthere's 12 donuts, whatever it
is a loaf of bread per slice,everything equally. You know, it
doses out the way it should.
That's hot right now, becausethere's nothing else on the
(34:20):
market. I mean, like I said, youhad mentioned cooking with it.
It's difficult to taste weird.
It's not something you're proudto put out now. I've gone to
dinner parties where I broughtthis stuff in, right because
I'll send it to the people fordinner parties. They throw this
in the desert, and people wereblown away that face that the
fact that they're tasting thepumpkin pie that they ate,
there's nothing else they had acouple glasses of wine and now
(34:40):
they're just chill the wholeentire night. We can do that in
THC as well. I know we kind oftouched on this or I was going
yeah, we just need to work witha manufacturer within that
state. You know, for instance,you had I forget the guy's name
on your two episodes ago, he wasmaking extracts and put them
into food. Oh, simply Hi. Yeah,yeah, yeah. So I could go to go
to him and Listen, let melicense my process to you,
(35:03):
you're gonna have to add theselittle bits of equipment, you
have to do it this way. But nowyou can take any cannabis oil,
turn into a powder. And now it'savailable for any food and
beverage manufacturer in thestate in a better form. And
that's, that's where we'reheaded with it. We have a lot of
work to do here just in the hempindustry as as it is. But
eventually we'll end up gettingthe cannabis industry, doing it
with THC as we refineeverything. And I
Sheldon (35:24):
just say I'm honored that you watch our podcast.
Ronjini Joshua (35:29):
Great, thank you. Well, so then you mentioned
powder. You mentioned powders.
So would this work in adifferent form? Like, and maybe
it turns into something else? Ifyou make an A water soluble
product or an oil or like a, Idon't know, what is the
difference between having apowder, an oil, a liquid, you
(35:51):
know, like, what is the bestopportunity?
Russ Cersosimo (35:56):
Like I'll give you an example. I talk to people
that are in the marijuanaindustry. Like, we have, like,
you know, that last little bitof oil that's in your vape pen,
right? Okay. Yes, yes, guessOkay, that's that's what like
when people order a whole kiloof distillate they're getting
that you literally can take thetop off that jar, you cannot
pour this loud, it doesn't move.
It's not free flowing, got italmost crystallized, you're
(36:17):
going to talk about oh, what'sthe CBD present? 93%? Well, that
means it's pretty much like ahard object, right? Like it's a
solid object at that point.
Well, the stuff that you'reseeing that you get a vape pen,
the easy stuff, well, that haspropylene glycol and other
things added to it so that it'sless viscous. You can put that
stuff from food starts to changethe recipe and show us what is
(36:38):
possible to mix. So turning intopowder changes that whole entire
thing, but it's mainly becauseit's sticky, you truly can't
work. It's like It's likegetting you know, glue on your
finger like supervillain youcan't get off. Yeah, you need to
use a solvent. And now you'readding the solvent. Now you got
all these other things thatyou're adding, it's like, Look,
let's just get it down to anatural, vegan, organic,
pourings free flowing substancethat looks and works like flour.
(37:01):
And it won't change the recipenow that no one has to think
anymore. You don't have to messwith something they've never
brought in. They don't have toclean machinery with special
chemicals to get this viscousstuff off of it. So it's
actually a game changer for thefood and beverage industry.
Sheldon (37:15):
Well,
Ronjini Joshua (37:15):
so as far as the technology and the development
of this technology, I mean, youguys, yes, you're creating
formulations, but really your,your, your specialty, is the
actual technology behind itcorrect or
Russ Cersosimo (37:27):
Yep, so everything's patented. We, I
mean, that's, that's the mainthing is, look, let's solve this
major problem. Let's get therefirst, let's also lock it down,
right and continue to be able todo biotech stuff, which is r&d.
A lot of you know, biotech, ifyou get into that, as you see a
lot of it is really, for yearsworking to figure stuff out in
in, lock that IP down, and thenyou have a big sale. Yeah, or
(37:51):
someone comes in and buys youthat needs to utilize that and
doesn't want anyone else to havethat technology. And that's kind
of where we're at. Buteverything's locked down IP.
And, you know, it's, it's ours,which is cool.
Ronjini Joshua (38:03):
Yeah, it's cool that you're doing this in the
cannabis hemp space, but it canpretty much apply to any space.
Right? I mean, you could do itwith other other products.
Russ Cersosimo (38:13):
100% Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (38:14):
Is it plant?
Like, is it plant focused? Like,would you would it be like other
herbal like, plants flowers, ordoes it really apply to
anything?
Russ Cersosimo (38:24):
You Well, you mean? encapsulating? Yeah. The
what? what you
Ronjini Joshua (38:27):
guys are doing specifically in like creating
the powder and encapsulatingYeah,
Russ Cersosimo (38:31):
yeah, actually, that's a good question. I don't
know. That would be higher levelscience than I am. Oh, I can
tell you tomorrow I walk in thelab and ask my science. Yeah,
no, no. Okay. I think it'spossible. I think a molecule is
a molecule. Yeah. No, it's amatter of how much can you
loosen up that that that helixstructure? Gotcha. And there's
other you know, there's otherstructures that we could use to
(38:52):
sit to your point, we couldprobably pack a lot of stuff
into it. Yeah, but I do not knowthe answer off the top of my
head. Well,
Ronjini Joshua (38:57):
okay. You also wrote a book. So I want to hear
a little bit more about what youwhat you wrote in your book,
your molecular influenza, he'sready. Yes. What is it? What is
it about? What can we learn fromit?
Russ Cersosimo (39:12):
So little backstory, my grandpa was a
magician, I was the oldestgrandson. Okay, so as the oldest
grandson, I was taught thetricks because they had to use
someone as a prop. So that I'mtold by my grandfather, hey,
listen, you're gonna get cut inhalf, but you're not really
gonna get cut in half. If you doX, X and X the crowds we think
you have cut in half. And then,you know, we laugh our whole way
(39:34):
back into the other room knowingthat you didn't you know, right,
that's a trick. So like five,six years old, I was exposed to
that. So I guess,
Ronjini Joshua (39:42):
before we move forward, you you've got to tell
me the secret to that trick.
Like how do people get cut? Idon't I don't know. I don't know
additions
Russ Cersosimo (39:50):
can't tell their tricks. I'll tell you I'll tell
you off.
Ronjini Joshua (39:54):
I think we all wonder about the cutting in half
track okay. So
Russ Cersosimo (39:58):
basically What happens I learned just to set up
a room where, you know, ifpeople see certain things,
they're gonna think certainthings, right? And if you keep
certain things away, you'regonna keep them from thinking a
different way. Right, right from
Ronjini Joshua (40:12):
my power of influence. Exactly. So
Russ Cersosimo (40:15):
my dad was a, it was an entrepreneur around here
and he built the world's or thecountry's largest privately held
home security system securitycompany and I got to watch him
systematically approachcustomers. Well here at seven
years old and really for twoyears before that, two or three
years before that I worked atthe Pittsburgh Home and Garden
Show with him when they wouldhave the annual show and you'd
have a security booth. Andacross the aisle from us every
(40:37):
year was another guy from meatmckees rocks, Pennsylvania, and
that's Billy Mays, the oxicleanguy. Okay, yeah. Right. So Billy
was doing his thing and this isway before he was famous. He was
young I was probably you knowshit back then. He was probably
2930 years old. And I justwatched him everything he did
was just so lucky he had asystem to everything. Well here
(40:59):
I could wonder why everyonebought two mops he was every
year he was selling a why somewash ematic salsa Matic veggie
mash right it's something alittle bit more automatic than
you're used to like mobberleyjust squeezed itself in like
maybe at a pump or somethingright? But what happened I saw
everyone walk away with two ofthem everyone that he presented
he would have his his thingwhere he was a little 12 inch
(41:21):
stage yeah microphone Yeah,everyone come around whoever's
close to me do this. It's a 510minute thing and everyone bought
too and as a kid watching acrossthe aisle I'm wondering How's he
doing it what's what's he doing?
You know, how's it going? We'rehere a couple walks past me and
each one of them had to overtheir shoulder and the husband
the wife looked at the husbandand said, You know, it really
stinks. You can only buy two ofthese you can only buy two and
(41:42):
I'm like, man that's it. LikePappy would does my grandpa yeah
like he would get them to pickthe right card the card he
wanted Billy was maneuvering thewords in his pitch and all that
so that they would say I want tohave these things right up to
him I said Mr. Mays, because inmy mind my dad knew each other
they were great we grew up onthe cross the street and each
other. I said I want to learn todo what you do better because I
was like this cocky little shitkid. Yeah. And he said alright
(42:04):
kid, I want you to come standnext to me when I do my next
pitch and you're going to watchone by one I'm going to pick off
the women that I'm going to pickoff the men I'm gonna pick off
the kids and they're all gonnabuy to when I hit him with an
offer they can't refuse now weknow later that ended up
evolving into but wait there'smore that was his tagline
started calling people up onstage he said Ross get up here I
(42:25):
sat next to the world's greatestpitch man of all time quite
arguably. And I got to see himdo exactly what he told me he
was going to do so much of acard trick or if you don't
that's exactly what he did everytime and he got the same result
every single time well hear thatthat you know that I started
thinking a whole different waythen after that so I went into
(42:46):
sales I went to psychologyschool I worked with rats in a
Skinner box and you start to seethat animals are all the same
and how they come up withsomething in their head is it's
like the factory and theorem ifyou if you know what a is, and
they know a Yeah, you'd be theirbrains gonna automatically do
see but you need to know whatinformation to put in front of
them. So that that so that thathappens, right? That heuristic
(43:06):
or that eureka moment, which iswhere heuristics is derived
from. And basically then, youknow, I'll fast forward it's
it's kind of cool. 20 yearslater, Billy Mays, I was put on
the phone with him. I was likein the weirdest situation. I was
at a restaurant someone said,Hey, you said you know Billy
Mays, look who's calling. I saidget out here. So if that would
have been Spider Man or MichaelJackson, I would have been just
(43:26):
excited. Right? Right. Hey, theyput them on the phone. I said,
Billy, get out of his rostersauce bases Get out of here. I
said, No, no, not my dad. We getthe same name. He says Now I
know. He said the seven year oldkid that freaked me out. When he
said I want to learn to do whatyou do better. I mean, he
remembered so I started tearingup. I was like, my heroes, my
hero. He's remembers me. And hesaid, he said, Listen, I'm
(43:47):
filming this TV show down inMiami called pitch option Tampa
Bay called pitchmen. It's onDiscovery channels where people
come pitch their products. Iwant you to come beyond the
final episode. So hear me hisson, his dad were on this final
episode, I got to work with him.
It was a coolest thing. And herehe died the week before it was
before it was released and Mametof Poland just doing a tribute
(44:07):
episode. I was still on it. ButGosh, that's kind of and so the
book is about is, you know, Iwent to psych school and I got
to learn from a research sideand from academia. Exactly what
the street guys in my dad, BillyMays and my grandpa were doing.
And I got to see exactly whatthat's called, what the research
says how they got to that point.
And when you know that stuff,now you really could build a
(44:28):
system. So I build a frameworkthat if you want to influence
somebody, aka into the marijuanaindustry, you want to influence
legislators, you want tointerest a partner, you wanna
raise money, whatever it is,know your goal, know how to
dress to impress them, right?
Like because they're going tojudge you the second second,
they look at you because that'show we're built. And then from
there, what do you do to elicitemotion from them, then surround
(44:49):
them with indisputable logic, sotheir brain starts thinking, you
know what, I do want to dobusiness with that guy, and then
probably time when you have theask, but if you follow that
structure,
Ronjini Joshua (44:57):
just slow down so I can write this down on my
I'm like, wait a minute, where'smy notebook? Yeah,
Russ Cersosimo (45:02):
share your book.
I mean, it's easy and it's whenpeople follow this, they're
amazed that when the time forthe Ask comes, people are just,
they go along with it. It'sbecause you've created a
homeostatic homeostasis in theirbrain right? Where they're
making a decision, you know,based on you
Ronjini Joshua (45:18):
you've actually you've actually bought them into
the story as you're doing thedifferent steps
Russ Cersosimo (45:23):
Yeah, I mean, like you said it you say hey,
look, you know a lot aboutscience. I don't know much about
science, I regurgitate reallywell, right? And I'm receptive
to what these guys are talkingabout and I i understand what so
I then can explain it to peoplebut that puts a white coat on me
right? This is the right word.
And what happens is once I'mperceived as an authority now
all of a sudden you're buyinginto a little bit more what I'm
saying and I don't mean in amanipulative way No, no to prove
(45:44):
it right away so that all thosequestions that might have been
there that that keep that brainfrom being in a homeostatic
environment you've checked thatbox so if you can check all
these boxes then when you go inand have the ask you don't know
how much to worry about.
Ronjini Joshua (46:01):
So the idea is that you're like knocking down
the questions like I'm notquestioning your your authority
or your ability to know thisinformation and that's when
people will make don't makedecisions is when they're still
questioning the options right?
Russ Cersosimo (46:15):
Like I mean just an example if I prove them on
authority, I mentioned somethingthat gives me social proof like
your friends are buying it orhere's a testimonial right? I
show that there's scarcity likeI could somehow like incite a
little bit of FOMO you startdoing that you start mentioning
to you starts going towards youright like what you want like
it's no longer what they wantthey start to fear missing out
(46:37):
right and right, this person isthe authority like now all of a
sudden I'm salivating like aPavlovian dog I'm paying
attention to five minutes agoand you know, it all comes down
to you need to hook them atfirst and hook them with your
emotion right so if you cansomehow get them through common
enemy common goal curiosity needthey want you to one of those
(46:59):
things it's real systematic tothe approach and then boom once
you get it going, you're good togo and you know, because I was
in marijuana I really was ableto refine it because I was hit
with radical opposition Oh yeah,yeah, anytime I spoke there was
there was people in the audiencethat could not wait to get up
and tell me what they knew andwhy I was wrong and I turn that
around pretty quick. But thenthen you win them over and you
(47:21):
see you know, it is just asystem I get hit in the face
with this radical oppositionit's the same thing every single
time if I just unfold the peelback that onion in this in this
way that person is going to wantto hug me at the end of this and
they're gonna be an advocate andright well you can see it
clearly especially because itwas marijuana. It was easy to
write the book because it wasjust you know, pulling things
together and having that sightback on so it was it's cool it's
(47:42):
an exciting it's good to readand you'll learn a lot from it.
I'll send you
Ronjini Joshua (47:45):
one Okay, please do
Sheldon (47:47):
too. But I love books like this because one for a
person trying to become moreinfluential it's very helpful
but also for someone beinginfluenced it gives insight into
your own mind so when you'rereceiving information you get to
make a choice and not just beled so this exactly right yeah
Russ Cersosimo (48:07):
it's it's a good it's a it's a defensive strategy
book as well.
Ronjini Joshua (48:12):
Okay, well, we're running out of time but I
would love to talk to you morebut before we run out of time
time I want to make sure that weyou know if there's anything
that you guys are doingspecifically in the industry
that you think is worth talkingabout and just you know having a
short conversation around Isthere anything that we missed
that you guys are working on
Russ Cersosimo (48:32):
no I think we've covered it I'm I'm pretty good
at rattle that off whenever youget me started wind me up
Ronjini Joshua (48:38):
we were gonna have to do like half the normal
Part Two we're gonna have to dolike a half slow mo version
because there's a lot of juicyinformation you you dropped it
was just really fast we justYeah, yes.
Russ Cersosimo (48:53):
Well I mean honestly, I think that the food
mix is the big thing becausethat's that's who's sitting on
the sidelines right now sayingI'm gonna jump in Yeah, and I
don't know how where, who totalk to what to put in and they
got to start from scratch. Youknow, now we have something you
could pour in just throw itright into your ingredients like
you always did. So that I meanthat's what I'm most excited
about. But yeah, I would say forlisteners that's that's the one
(49:17):
they could kind of dig theirteeth into.
Ronjini Joshua (49:18):
Do you think do you think most I mean, right now
we're looking at brands that arecreating new brands for the
cannabis CBD hemp industries. Doyou think that the food the
adoption with food is reallygoing to happen more at that
like larger CPG side or is itnew brands too, that are going
(49:39):
to create new opportunities,
Russ Cersosimo (49:40):
you're going to have new brands at first, like
I'll give you an idea we starteda brand called the hemp bakers
because we teamed with a companythat has five generations of
family bakers and their lastname is Baker so perfect. We
started putting the CBD andwe're selling those out to gas
stations, health food foodstores, we've got them in a
large Scale grocers here. Butwe're a small company doing it.
(50:03):
Yeah, what's going to happen isthere's going to be another
company that sees it and eitherbuys that company or says I want
to integrate my own things, butit's going to be the smaller
company, things that have noproblem kind of navigating the
weird laws and regulations rightnow. Pennsylvania, I'm sorry,
New York, West Virginia,Colorado, a lot of the states
have legalized CBD and food. Soyou have the large scale groups,
(50:23):
they're like, at, like, mydistribution is all over the
country of the world. I don'twant to worry about onesies.
twosies For now, in the States,like Colorado got a hold of our
brownies. We have a 50 chain gasstation gas station. It says
look, we want them in ourplaces. So I know that they're
not making good CBD food outthere because they're they're
buying our stuff from out inPennsylvania. But it is the
little answer your question.
It's the little guys that arestarting first. And then we'll
(50:45):
start to see these big brandswho are looking into it Oreo,
Anheuser Busch morson, you know,Cola, Molson Coors. They're all
in r&d right now.
Ronjini Joshua (50:55):
Oreo cookie, CBD cookie.
Sheldon (50:58):
I already feel extreme relaxation when I eat Oreos.
This would just be right yeah,
Ronjini Joshua (51:03):
we already low Yeah, you already use it as a as
a like euphoric experience. Andit can't get any better or can
it
Russ Cersosimo (51:13):
that's it.
That's the tagline I like thatYeah.
Ronjini Joshua (51:16):
Well, thank you Russ so much for spending your
time with us this Saturday andthere's going to be an awesome
episode so we will put all thelinks for the book and ham
synergistics in the show notes.
So guys, check them out thereand Russ will talk to you next
time.
Russ Cersosimo (51:32):
Thank you guys was awesome being on.
Ronjini Joshua (51:36):
The Green Room podcast is brought to life by
green seed PR, a cannabis greentech focused PR agency and a
dedicated production team ofeditors mixers and show
Booker's. A huge thank you tothe vessel team for providing
their studio for our recordings.
Don't forget to subscribe andshare the green room podcast
with friends, colleagues, andfamily. That way you'll never
miss an episode and we can keepthe lights on. If you're feeling
(51:58):
extra generous. Please leave usa review on favorite podcast
listening platform. You can alsofind us on Instagram at Green
seed PR and to the live videoversions of all of our podcasts
on YouTube. Would you like to beon the guest on the show or do
you have a great guest referral.
Awesome. Submit your guests atGreen CPR comm slash the hyphen
(52:21):
green hyphen room. Thanks forlistening and be well
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com