Today, we’re talking to Amy Weinstein, co-founder of Other People’s Pot–a Canadian sales agency where cannabis lovers and industry vets put pot products in the hands of other people. They equip cannabis brands with the knowledge, tools, and strategy to build a better industry.
Before co-founding Other People’s Pot, Amy worked in sales and marketing, where she pushed to end the stigma around cannabis while creating space for women in the industry. And now, Amy and her team of women have created a company that is making a difference in the cannabis industry.
In this conversation, Amy shares the story of her journey into the cannabis space, how she has helped build an almost all-woman-run business in a very male-dominated field, and what OPP is doing right now to create a better industry ten years from now.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The major differences between America and Canada’s legal cannabis industries.
- How Amy works with brands to bring great product into stores, get budtenders excited to sell, and make cannabis available to consumers.
- What OPP is looking for in a prospective client.
- Where major opportunities currently lie in Canadian cannabis–and what Amy foresees coming in the next few years.
- How Amy shares important information with retailers and consumers about products in OPP’s portfolio.
- Amy’s advice for anyone thinking about launching or scaling a cannabis business.
INSPIRING QUOTE
“I think being able to work with companies that are going to be able to provide consistency and transparency in how they’re doing what they’re doing at a mass scale as this grows is super important.” – Amy Weinstein
“Think about the consumer, always. Don’t just listen to your investors. That’s the biggest mistake I think people make in the cannabis space.” – Amy Weinstein
EPISODE RESOURCES
- Other People’s Pot
- Follow Other People’s Pot on Instagram
- 48North
- 3Leaf Edibles
- Aqualitas
- Reef Organic
- Dynaleo
- Cannabis Education Guild
- Follow Alison Gordon on Instagram
CONNECT WITH US
SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW THE PODCAST
If you enjoyed today’s episode of The Green Repeal, hit the subscribe button so future episodes are automatically downloaded directly to your device.
And don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Reviews on Apple Podcasts are greatly appreciated and will allow us to build awareness for the show. If you received value from this episode, please take a moment and rate and review the podcast by clicking here.
SUBMIT A QUESTION
Do you have a question you would like answered on a future podcast? Email us at greenrepeal@sohoexp.com and we’ll do our best to answer it!
TRANSCRIPT
Rick Kiley: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Green Repeal. I am one of your co-hosts, Rick Kiley, live from Brooklyn, New York. I’m joined by my partner in crime, Jeffrey Boedges. Hello, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey Boedges: Hey, everybody. Greetings from Slovenia, where I’ve recently relocated after we learned that we are very popular there.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. Green Repeal, super popular in Slovenia. I had no idea. All of their people listen to it.
Jeffrey Boedges: I am a baller in Slovenia.
Rick Kiley: It’s got to be. It’s good to be a big fish, man. You got to go there. Well, today we are welcoming Amy Weinstein, co-founder of Other People’s Pot. It’s a Canadian boutique sales agency created by cannabis lovers and industry veterans who put pot products in the hands of other people. That is not easy to say, and I am not ashamed to say I practiced. With kindness being a core tenet of their business, Amy and her team provide blossoming cannabis brands with the tools, knowledge, and strategy needed to build a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical industry. Prior to working at Other People’s Pot, Amy gained a wealth of experience as a sales and marketing leader with a particular passion for ending the stigma around cannabis while also creating space within the industry for women to thrive. Through her work, she’s emerged as a beloved figure within the cannabis industry and we’re thrilled to have her on the show.
[INTERVIEW]
Rick Kiley: Welcome, Amy.
Amy Weinstein: Oh, thank you so much. I love that introduction. I appreciate all the research that you guys have obviously done to learn a little bit about my background. And you really nailed it better than I normally do so thank you.
Rick Kiley: That’s awesome.
Jeffrey Boedges: And we’ll overdub some walkup music, too, when we do it.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. So, the first question for – go ahead.
Amy Weinstein: I’m a big Phish and Grateful Dead fan so whatever…
Jeffrey Boedges: You’re in good company. You’re talking to the Grateful Dead and Mr. Phish.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. Have you been back to a Phish show since lockdown? I saw them in Atlantic City over the summer. It was amazing.
Amy Weinstein: My partner, Alison’s at a Dead & Company going tonight in Chicago. I was maybe going to go, but I’m off to Saskatchewan. Much more exciting to sell some products and meet with some of our partners so I will not be and I haven’t gone back. I’m booked for Mexico in February.
Rick Kiley: Oh, nice.
Amy Weinstein: And just being in Canada, the border is still technically closed so I’m just still in that headspace of grappling with what the right thing to do is but I really look forward to go ASAP.
Rick Kiley: Yeah.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah. I’ll go to Mexico and join you, though. That sounds awesome.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. They do a thing on the Riviera Maya, three days. You book a hotel and you go like watch them like from the beach.
Amy Weinstein: It’s all over the board actually so it’s one resort. The concert’s there. It’s all-inclusive and you have to stay there. So, it’s a lot of fun and something I’m looking forward to for sure. And everyone’s welcome.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. All right. All right. Well, on the music jag, the first question, of course, is how many times have you had to say, “Yeah, you know me,” in response to somebody shortening Other People’s Pot to OPP?
Amy Weinstein: So many times, a lot of people telling me. I cannot get the song out of my head for better or worse so much so that we’ve actually decided to be the company that put songs in people’s heads. So, often when we write email, we’ll add in some lyrics that you just can’t help but sing along in your head. And when we’re sending our mass blast or different kinds of things that we have to do to make them more exciting, we’re always trying to get in your head with some lyrics. So, you guys know about…
Jeffrey Boedges: Right. I dig that. I think that’s great. And I think if that was like the name of some of your brands, like different earworms that you just can’t escape, I think that would be totally cool.
Rick Kiley: Yeah, just don’t do that Kars4Kids song, okay? That has to be…
Jeffrey Boedges: Do you guys have in Toronto?
Amy Weinstein: Oh, we have that. But anything for kids is like pretty much…
Rick Kiley: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good point.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah. It’s not going to go over well.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. There are some Phish songs that could rhyme well, you know, the best children…
Rick Kiley: That’s true. That’s true. All right. So, why don’t you give everybody who’s listening the details on how you got involved in the cannabis industry. Why don’t we lay the foundation there?
Amy Weinstein: Sure. Yes. I was really excited to see any kind of industry forming in the cannabis space and hear about some of the legalization efforts that had been going on in Canada around 2013, 2014. I personally was working in the journalism/digital production space. And so, I was really excited to be involved in things that were creative but I still wasn’t feeling the passion and wasn’t feeling the people part, I guess, in terms of being able to give back a little something more. So, what I learned about what was going on in the cannabis space and that there were actually dispensaries that were going to be serving a wider group of people popping up in Toronto and there would be more, I decided that that was I wanted to do, at least for the interim period of trying to figure out what I was really going to do. So, it was like I’ll be a budtender while I figure out what my next move is and how I can really find something. I really wanted to find a community, and we actually opened, myself and a group of friends, the second dispensary that was the open-door style in Toronto. So, I thought at first that I was getting myself into kind of I don’t want to be a bartender, so I’ll be a budtender. And I very quickly learned that there was so much work to be done that this was going to be my career and my path. And it really comes full circle with OPP because that’s what we try to do is help budtenders really access whatever they need to do to thrive as people and in the industry and on the floor of their stores and all that.
Rick Kiley: Got it.
Jeffrey Boedges: Great. That’s cool.
Rick Kiley: So, how did the idea then for Other People’s Pot come about? When was it like an aha moment or did it just come to you one day?
Jeffrey Boedges: Or did this come to you in college when that’s what your favorite brand was? No, my favorite brand in college.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. So, the other piece of it is actually the Ontario Provincial Police is here in Ontario.
Rick Kiley: Oh, okay.
Amy Weinstein: There’s a bit more of something there as well where we really did want to poke a little bit of fun at the legacy of this plant and where we’re going with it, which is really out of their hands at this point, we hope. And we want to be doing things that take things to a new place. So, just with all those different puns, the name itself was kind of actually something that we came to through a ton of different conversations and maybe even a little bit of like backward working from different kinds of acronyms that we wanted to explore, and that was one of them. But in terms of the actual concept, I mean, I think it has been forming since my first day stepping into the industry and seeing how much work there was to be done and also what was possible on the branding side and the marketing and the way that people connect and relate around the cannabis plant. It’s super exciting for me. It’s been a catalyst for friendships and so many fantastic experiences throughout my life since I was in my teens. And not that I’m recommending it for teen use but it’s definitely a bit something that’s been around me all the time. And so, I think this idea kind of started then. My partner, as well, Alison Gordon, she also was starting to get a lot of ideas early on in the cannabis space around 2013. And the two of us ended up working together at 48North. She hired me as one of the first hires there and we had a really great team of people always thinking a little bit differently.
And I think that that progressive thought from my time starting a black or gray market legacy market dispensary to moving into I did a lot of patient work and then I moved actually spent like nine months working for a California-based company and then back here through legalization and seeing legalization happen in California, taking a break after that, and then doing that here in Canada as well. I think it just became very clear that there was something happening on the front lines of the cannabis space, which was where the fun was going to be, which of the community and the culture were going to come back. And I could confidently say now today, two, three years almost into legalization in Canada, that we are feeling that culture come back. I’m starting to feel some of the same feelings and excitement and see it in a new way, too, with the budtenders and the up and coming community. So, it started as a journey in cannabis space and this industry and through the journey of legalization and wanting to also – we have a team of all women. We have one man on our team now, but we are really focused on expanding the view of what an industry might look like and showing people what’s possible for the cannabis space. And so, I think that that’s where it was born as well and that’s part of the drive to actually get off our asses and start a company came from, the desire to have it be done differently.
And the knowledge that we’re building an industry from the ground up today and whatever happens in 10 years from now is going to be a result of the work that’s put in today. And the best way to make a change and to influence things and people and the world is through really hard work at the outset. And you don’t often have the opportunity to actually get involved at this level. So, I was working with a lot of other companies who were run by amazing people, but it was predominantly men. It was predominantly men of a certain group. And I found with 48North actually I had escaped from that a little bit as Alison was the CEO. She had raised $70 million for the company. They had an amazing CMO. This woman, Kirsten Gauthier, she’s somebody I also learned so much from. But over time as well, if you do a good enough job, you end up in that same corporate situation no matter what. It was a public company so where we took it public and there was never a doubt that that’s where it was going but Alison was let go in March of 2020 right before COVID hit and the company had just changed a little bit. And so, the opportunity to bring women and bring people who have been other people who have not been a part of this industry traditionally in or who have been part of it traditionally and whose backs have actually been built on but who haven’t been a part of the new aid or the new legal side of things. So, we want to build it.
Rick Kiley: Got it. Cool. All right.
Jeffrey Boedges: Was California and Canada, did you find very similar the sort of makeup of the companies there? Lot of male-dominated, white-dominated, that type of thing?
Amy Weinstein: I mean, in California, there is a bit more of a grassroots vibe at least when I was there and doing what I was doing because we were building a brand from the ground up. It was called 3Leaf Edibles. It was like healthy edibles. So, yeah, I did find there were really a bit more of a diverse group of people involved in Canada because it’s been federally legal because it’s such a top-down experience. All of them I worked within my store. Some of them are maybe starting to think about entering the market right now or getting ready to. There’s one or two that I can think of that I sold in our gray market dispensary that now actually are sold. In the legal market, there’s none. So, it’s very, very different to see like the top-down legalization in terms of who gets there and play in the market. And so, I think that’s where you also get like so many public companies, so many people wanting to go public immediately without really having the business to backfill that. It was just…
Jeffrey Boedges: A clue.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. Actually. It was all about raising money and who could raise more money and have the bigger growth facility. Nobody cared about what was going to actually happen with that product at the end of the day. And I think that now that’s where it comes in with OPP and Other People’s Pot is able to connect with consumers and actually figure out what do these people really want, bring that back to the companies that we work with and work that way, and also not have to have these massive grow operations that are also expected to be production and branding and the marketing machine as well. It’s really hard to be vertically integrated.
Jeffrey Boedges: So, you’re the voice of the people. You’re the one kind of bringing the…
Rick Kiley: The other people.
Jeffrey Boedges: Well, thinking about – I like what you said. I think that’s fascinating that America really, our cannabis industry, because it’s only statewide and we can’t cross state lines, is very grassroots. It’s very local. Whereas with Canada, with the federal legalization, that you’re right, these big companies are coming in a big way and I’m sure that they probably are doing it with all the style and grace of an elephant in the China shop. So, it’s fascinating to hear that perspective on it.
Rick Kiley: Dumbo was one graceful elephant, man. I’m just saying. Just saying.
Jeffrey Boedges: For every Dumbo, there’s a jumbo.
Rick Kiley: And weren’t there some elephants in Fantasia? They know how to dance.
Jeffrey Boedges: I’ve seen a few elephants with some stuff.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. There are some good ones. All right. All right. So, before I pull us completely off track, I’m curious, what are those primary services that your company offers? Are you mostly working with brands that are looking for distribution? Are you working with dispensaries that are looking for products? How do you fit into sort of the industry as a whole? I guess, what’s the elevator pitch if you’re talking to somebody you want to work with?
Amy Weinstein: So, we’re a sales agency. So, that’s what we are. We’re a boutique sales agency, which means that we’re representing our clients to the retailers, sometimes to government boards. It’s very complicated in Canada because in all provinces, except for one, you have to sell directly to the government who sells to us first. So, we are basically there to help the supply chain flow. So, we help get the budtenders really hyped up at the store level to make sure the product is selling through. We make sure that it’s sold into the stores and really think about the distribution from that way. We work and help our clients with the boards, the government boards as much as possible, and the government distributors. And then in the few provinces and really in Saskatchewan, we work directly with some distributors and some great people to make sure that our clients have the best distribution and just can sell, basically it’s sales. We want to sell as much of everyone’s product.
Rick Kiley: So, you help people with brands get sold into the state stores as well as help them gain the distribution points at each of the dispensaries?
Amy Weinstein: Exactly. So, we’ve gotten to help all along the way.
Rick Kiley: Got it.
Jeffrey Boedges: So, the means of distribution are controlled by the Canadian government.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah.
Jeffrey Boedges: There are growers that are private. They sell it to the government then the government handles distribution to government-controlled dispensaries and private dispensaries. Am I following? Sorry. I’m not versed in all the Canada legal yet.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. That’s exactly really correct. And depending on which province you’re in, it’s very different. It’s really run by the provinces. So, some of them have private stores. Some of them have government stores and private stores. Some of them have no private stores at all where there’s not as much work for us to do in those provinces, obviously, especially when they really lock down, what the education looks like and all of that. But most of the provinces you would sell, which is Ontario, Alberta, B.C., are three of the largest ones, you would sell directly to the wholesaler. They sell it to the stores and that’s really the end of the day. And they also control pricing. So, they will price it with you at the landed cost, which is what they pay the wholesale level, which is what the retailer pays. And then they really do dictate the MSRP as well because they also have their own online portals where they sell direct-to-consumer. So, if you’re not matching their pricing or looking to it at least to decide what your pricing is, you’re going to be in trouble. So, they really do control most of the way that flow from LPs into consumer’s hands but there’s a lot of room with the private stores to create really fun environments, to do a lot of fun marketing.
There’s a big idea in Canada that you can’t do any marketing because of all the regulations but I’ve done a lot of incredible marketing under the Cannabis Act in Canada that’s all been approved by my legal teams and whatnot. So, I think there’s a ton of great work to be done and that people are starting to do and that has been done and can be done, that if people just start to get creative. And I do think that’s a symptom of the entire system, the whole top-down bit as well. When you have Bay Street running and making these decisions, they’re going to be really focused on the bottom line. And they might not realize that cannabis is a very different beast and that you can actually affect their bottom line by doing things that are going to be fun or different or maybe play around a little bit with the regulations and try to tip those scales for us a little bit.
Jeffrey Boedges: Or are you pushing the envelope? Are you like, “Oh, let’s do a package that looks like this,” even though that’s slightly on the edge?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. I think packaging is somewhere you don’t want to mess around too much. I think it might mess up your product and have it come back to you. So, yes, I see a ton of brands. Actually, there’s a law that the THC symbol has to be the same size as your logo that’s there’s a lot of brands that don’t follow those guidelines, things like that. But in terms of more like marketing, how you’re connecting with consumers, how you’re connecting with other types of businesses, and how you’re accessing and sharing the product as well, they’re federally you’re totally allowed to sample products within Canada. Each province has its own regulations around that but just making sure that you’re reading the Act yourself and not just listening to somebody else’s interpretation of the law because there’s a lot of room to do a lot of fun stuff. And when you have the drive to do that, you’ll get there but if your drive is to stay safe and to keep your license and to sell some weed, then you might not get there.
Rick Kiley: Got it. Got it. All right. As a boutique agency, are you trying to create a portfolio that is comprised of a certain type of a certain product array? Are you looking to fill it out based on you want a variety of offerings? Is there a certain philosophy or approach to growing and making products that you’re looking for? As you’re a woman-led company, are you seeking out other women-led companies to work with? I’m curious how you go about determining who you represent. I mean, I don’t know if you’re taking all comers but if you say, “I’m a boutique agency,” I imagine you might have said no a couple of times.
Amy Weinstein: Yes. We’ve said no a couple of times, which, like people, is always a big conversation and there’s always people that are like, “You should probably just take what you can get at this point as you build this business.” But for us, in this industry, we’ve seen it grow and we really do care about the work that we’ve done and our colleagues and peers have done to get it to here. And so, it’s so important to us that when we’re picking brands and producers to work with that they’re following within the same line that we’re looking to follow for the next 10, 20 years, which is to create products that, A, are true to what the consumers really want, that are going to increase cannabis availability and accessibility and bring it into people’s lives in a way that’s super meaningful and that is being respectful of the fact that, like I said, we’re starting from square one so we can do this right, finally. It’s really you don’t get a lot of opportunities to start from the beginning. So, we have a company that we work with called Reef Organic or the company is called Aqualitas. The brand is Reef Organic. They’re somebody that we are all so proud to work with. They do happen to have a woman at the helm. Her name is Myrna Gillis, and she’s incredible. But we have clients that are women, men, everybody but the thing about Aqualitas and Reef and Myrna that has been so incredible for our team is that Myrna believes truly in quality and creating an equitable industry. And so, she’s been very true to that while building this company and you can see it in every single facet of the way that the company runs.
That all links to things like sustainability because all these great concepts are connected when it comes down to wanting to do a better job protecting the future of our planet. That means the people. That means the planet itself. That means the industries and those that cannot defend themselves, too. So, there’s a really big global opportunity to not have things like slavery and people being taken advantage of in the cannabis space and all these things when you’re thinking about the fact that it’s going to become global. So, people, yeah, Myrna, I mean, that’s not exactly like what she is focused on but what she is focused on is hiring the right people from very diverse backgrounds, making sure that this industry is representing all of the people that are wanting to be a part of it and that are benefiting from the plant itself so that they can get access to it too. You really do want consumers need to see themselves in the companies that they’re purchasing. And that’s what I love about them as a company, as a whole. They just are there for the environment and the people as well. And all of our clients are really looking towards building that sustainable future.
We have another client, Purple Hills. They really came from an agricultural background too and farming in a much more sustainable way and then bringing cannabis into that. And they’ve been farming on the land where they are since the 1800s and they now have incredible cannabis brand. I mean they’re cannabis industry people as well and so they’ve been around the block, but they really truly are going for an organic, very sustainable stewardship approach to the land. So, that’s something that we really, really stand behind as well. Some of our other clients are laser-focused on what they do. We have a company called Dynaleo that we work with who are laser-focused on making gummies. They have a gummy-only facility and they’re going to be able to provide retailers and consumers with what they need, which is a consistent supply, transparent view of what they’re doing. Also, these guys are Deadheads that run it so they have that awesome flair towards just humanity, which we all love to be a part of. But I think being able to work with companies that are going to be able to provide consistency and transparency in how they’re doing what they’re doing at a mass scale as this grows is super important. So, that’s where they fit in. Yes, everybody plays an important role in how this industry gets shaped in the long run and within our small but mighty portfolio.
It’s funny, a big thing when you’re looking at who to bring on as well in terms of clients is who’s actually going to be able to keep up with the demand that we create because there’s such a growing demand. I mean, there are over a thousand stores in just Ontario now. We have 30 million people in Canada, so about half of them or 40% are probably in Ontario. So, think about that. There are more dispensaries in just Ontario than there are in all of California where there is a much probably bigger demand. So, I think it’s just super, super important that we’re able to look at what this looks like at mass because doing things small and having a few lots or batches of things at a small level is great, and having the right people do that but we need to be looking to how we’re going to keep the sustainability, keep that stewardship, keep all of these things when we scale.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah. I mean, you’re really talking about building brands. I mean, that’s what you want to be able to do. People need to be able to identify your product as a brand and what it stands for. You were talking about people want to buy from brands they see are from values they see in themselves. And that’s really the essence of branding. So, if you guys can’t do it in the packaging and you mentioned something like you can be creative, can you just articulate a little bit how that creative manifests?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. Within the space of the store is one place that you can be very creative and you can work with budtenders in any way you want. So, a lot of people do like traditional things, little POS displays, and pop-up cards, and all of that stuff. And I think that stuff’s important and great but OPP, Other People’s Pot, will take it to the next level and actually host how to sell organic weed, how to sell CBD that’s legal versus other CBD. And we’re actually teaching budtenders and retailers how to expand their way of thinking within the cannabis space. We did an event with Ducci around how to sell weed online. And it’s always just like, how do you expand your way of doing what you’re doing so that you can make more money? It can benefit all of us, it can be more accessible, and the industry can thrive. So, I think by presenting really fun opportunities to engage on topics that aren’t necessarily sales-driven like there’s so much you can do and talk about. And I think being transparent, authentic, like we were on our Instagram, everyone on our team has access. We’re all posting all the time. We share a lot of personal videos. We don’t curate a lot in terms of our Instagram specifically, and we just try to be as real as possible.
I was with some of these the other day and we have a 30-minute conversation. She’s like, “Where can I learn from you? How can I get educated by you?” And I’m like, “Well, I kind of just did and I think you can keep asking me questions and finding us out here.” And she’s already reached out to me twice and I’ve set her up with some other people from our team who will now carry that relationship forward. And I think it’s like we’re able to take them to facilities to have them see how things grow, how things happen. We’re able to create storytelling opportunities I guess is the real biggest one, you know, being able to speak.
Jeffrey Boedges: You’re speaking our language, actually. I mean, that’s kind of what we’ve done our whole career.
Amy Weinstein: When I was with 48North, we started something called Latitude, which is a platform for women to tell their story on how cannabis has seeped into their life and what it might have done for them. We did a focus on non-industry people so that it was people outside of the cannabis industry, because the industry tends to be like a bit of a snake eating its tail and talking among itself a lot about how amazing the plant is, but it’s great to hear from others. So, that was a way in which it was a regulatory okay because it was outside of the actual brand name itself and it was first-person people speaking their true experiences. So, just little things like that. And then there’s I’ll give away one tip to those looking. The other kind of things we do is work with photographers and say, “Can we pay you to take this shoot? And if you happen to be an influencer and post it on your page at the same time,” like, “Oops. That’s not our contract.” These kinds of little things that we can do to work around the system basically and keep everybody working and keep us being able to promote these products in a way that sells them and keeps business flowing. Because that’s the problem with regulations, they’re not always thinking about business and wanting to do good business.
Rick Kiley: Does the oops defense work in Canada? Because it doesn’t work for me very much here in New York.
Jeffrey Boedges: Woops, I thought the speed limit was a lot higher.
Rick Kiley: Yeah.
Amy Weinstein: You’re looking at like an Act that’s just come into place, right? Because can I pay somebody to take a photograph of my product? Yes. Can I pay somebody to post that product on their Instagram? No. So, where’s the line there?
Rick Kiley: Right. So, you could pay somebody, say, $10,000 to take a picture of your product and just suggest, “Boy, that would look good on somebody’s Instagram feed.”
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. Exactly.
Rick Kiley: That’s how that works. Got it. Cool.
Amy Weinstein: You might not even ever have to talk about it because often getting things in people and, “Oops, you posted it. Wow.”
Rick Kiley: Hey, oops, by the way, is very close to OPP. I think an OPP oops t-shirt thing could maybe happen. I don’t know.
Jeffrey Boedges: We worked on an Oops Wine here in the US many years ago.
Rick Kiley: Oh, my God. I forgot about Oops Wine.
Amy Weinstein: I love it.
Rick Kiley: So, I want to talk about the budtenders a little bit and I read an interview. I think it was with your business partner. And the suggestion was made that you actually don’t like the comparison of cannabis and spirits but I do find a lot of similarity around sort of trying to educate and empower budtenders. It’s very similar to a lot of the work we do for some of our wine and spirits clients where we’re trying to educate budtenders, mixologists, sommeliers really so that we can get them talking about the brands to the consumers that come to the store and know a lot about it and hopefully like it enough to authentically recommend it to someone. So, I don’t know, maybe there are some stories to share and swap ideas but I’m very curious as to your approach to engaging the members of the trade, the budtenders, and what you feel is the right recipe to kind of getting them on your side or getting them up to speed on the brand, getting them comfortable with it to the point where they want to recommend it to consumers?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. I mean, definitely, sampling is really important for us and having people be able to try the product. As you’re talking, I’m realizing the biggest difference really is the fact that you’re making a cocktail and giving it to somebody like versus we’re not given that opportunity often to actually give variance with more like a budtender is not done smoking that joint with the consumer or they don’t take a sip and be like, “Hm, that was delicious,” the sample with clients. But I think what we like to do is not that different than a really high-end proper like alcohol education for a small brand.
Jeffrey Boedges: Sure. Yeah.
Amy Weinstein: I think actually a good friend of mine used to be a rep for a rum company that was out of wherever somewhere in the islands, that was from that I’ve never drank and it’s like they have true sales tactics to get all trying. It’s not like Bacardi. You’re not trying to sell Bacardi, right? And everyone’s coming. Everyone is thinking Bacardi in Canadian cannabis like it’s just where people’s heads are at. So, when we say it’s not the same, it’s because they’re hiring the guy that ran Molson to come in and just sell in today’s industry. And so, that’s where the biggest differences lie. I think there is a lot to be learned at that level. I think there’s also a tendency for people in the cannabis space, like my partner Alison doesn’t drink at all, not even a glass of wine. So, for her, it’s like this is different. This is totally different and I’m part of that. And I believe that, too. But I also think that it is that we’re all stuck in Molson craft. Like, we’re not in the craft mentality when it comes to good liquor that we know and that we come across in the industry on the day-to-day. So, I think that’s the biggest.
Rick Kiley: Oh, I get it. It’s cool.
Jeffrey Boedges: Labatts Blue has the maple leaf. It looks a lot like a marijuana plant. I’m just bringing that up. I’m sure I’m not the only person thinking that.
Rick Kiley: Wow.
Amy Weinstein: I’m sure.
Rick Kiley: Are we looking for Labatts to sponsor this?
Jeffrey Boedges: I’m just saying.
Amy Weinstein: Bacardi made their deals like with somebody in the Canadian cannabis space. Like that’s where you do see you can see Constellation Brands doing a $5 billion with Canopy and that’s the alcohol world that we’re all referring to. And that’s where the opportunity lies in Canada because for people like me, like that’s the world I’m playing in. And so, there’s a ton of lead for success but there’s also a whole other world of business out there that will emerge.
Rick Kiley: Yeah, I guess I’m curious more around like I think the objectives, of course, are the same, right? So, the idea of getting a budtender kind of steeped in with a new cannabis brand is similar than the objective of trying to get a bartender/mixologist behind your brand. So, I’m curious, I mean, one of the things that we find happens a lot is when we go talk to people who are, let’s call it just mixologists who have been around enough to have a feeling that they are a leader in the organization. They don’t respond to being told how to do things and they think they know a lot more than everyone that comes through the door. I’m curious is, like, do you run into that on the budtender side? Are there people who are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get what you’re talking about, I’ve been there, I know everything? Like, does that…
Jeffrey Boedges: I’ve smoked everything.
Rick Kiley: Yeah, does that thing exist?
Amy Weinstein: Oh, it definitely exists, I mean, the cannasseur is a real thing, and I did a lot…
Rick Kiley: Oh, the cannasseur, oh, god.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, the cannasseur.
Rick Kiley: It’s good.
Jeffrey Boedges: There’s a t-shirt.
Amy Weinstein: I mean, it’s becoming a pretty popular term. And they’re like tasting courses and similar like sommelier-style courses. One company is calling it interpening because it’s interpreting terpenes, which is the flavor molecules, and again, trying to move away from the sommelier and like the alcohol language, I think, is important to a lot of people in the industry for whatever reason, but– can you remind me what we were just saying?
Rick Kiley: Just whether or not you run into budtenders who kind of think they know it all and if it creates challenges and I guess, how you deal with that type of individual?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, so we run into it all the time. And I think, like, we can again go head to head with any of these guys any day.
Rick Kiley: Sure, yeah.
Amy Weinstein: Probably as can anybody on my team. And I think that’s the key. And we’re on their level, we’re total frickin’ weed nerds and we know everything about the plant and so does every person that we hire. And they may not love every product that we sell. And we’re going to tell them why they might not love it and why they should carry it anyways because in reality, it’s not the mass consumer and in Canada, even more so, the people shopping in the stores are not necessarily the potheads because we have there on how much you can buy at a time. The legacy market is still very strong. So, yeah, they need to carry stuff that’s outside of their snobbyness.
Rick Kiley: Right, of course.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. I think having like the background and the ability to not say the wrong thing and to back up what you’re talking about is A1 most important. You have to be able to speak at their level.
Rick Kiley: Right, yeah.
Amy Weinstein: Talking about terpenes and the entourage effect and the difference between any type of ethanol versus CO2 versus different types of extractions, like you have to be able to have that conversation and admit when you’re wrong as well.
Rick Kiley: Yeah.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, maybe you can help me and Rick with our new brand. We’re calling it Stems and Seeds. It’s going to be awesome.
Amy Weinstein: You know what? That’s a whole other market.
Rick Kiley: I think we can sell that, absolutely.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. I think it’s fantastic. If that’s the wave you have, then you should call it. That way you can be honest about what you’re selling.
Rick Kiley: Right. So, when you’re hiring people for your sales team, are you hiring people who have all the knowledge coming in? Or do you have like a training program that would– I mean, to me, it strikes as pretty intensive. If you need to be able to talk like an expert, there’s a ton of information out there.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah.
Rick Kiley: I’m curious as to like how you…
Jeffrey Boedges: There’s a kilo of information.
Amy Weinstein: There’s a kilo of information?
Jeffrey Boedges: Sorry, dude, it’s Canada, man. You can’t go throw American things around like that.
Rick Kiley: Sorry, man, I’m going to be authentic. I’m going to be who I am, man. And that’s if I’ve learned one thing today, be authentic.
Jeffrey Boedges: The reason we’re popular in Slovenia is because we speak metrically, that’s all I’m saying. Sorry, remember what Rick said about me taking things off and going down the rabbit hole?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah.
Rick Kiley: Alright. So, the question was, if we recall about the level of know-how people come in to work on your team, do they have to come in the door with it? And how much training do you require them to go through before you put them in that situation where they’re in front of Nerdy McNerdalot weed guy?
Amy Weinstein: I’d say, most people do have the knowledge so far.
Rick Kiley: Really?
Amy Weinstein: We’ve been really lucky to find some amazing candidates. There’s a lot of weird nerds here in Canada at this point.
Rick Kiley: That’s amazing.
Amy Weinstein: We have some amazing people. A friend of mine has something called the Cannabis Education Guild. So, we always offer that program to people, the interpening course, as well. Some of our people have taken too. We’re always up to help support people’s education. Honestly, you learn so much in the field so quickly in this industry that if you’ve worked in it before, we’re not hiring anybody that is totally, totally fresh to the concepts and they might have worked in this specific type of a role or in the industry and all, but they’re a huge fan. And so, they have gone deep on this stuff or the opposite that they’ve just been around it. And so, they’ve picked it up.
A little secret, there’s a ton to know. There’s a lot of fancy words. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find you can learn it pretty quickly. I think it’s because it’s so interesting because you’re learning actually, when you learn about the entourage effect, for example, which is how all this terpenes kind of like together, like that is life changing. So, when you learn it for the first time, you’re going to remember it and you’re going to probably go home and read more about it. And so, this stuff like it seeps into people so quickly as they enter the industry. It’s incredible to watch. And yeah, we’ve been very lucky to hire people that really know what they’re doing and really do know what they’re talking about. The other thing is I always tell people, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, just please don’t pretend you know what you’re talking about.
Rick Kiley: Yeah, I think that’s a life lesson there for everybody, really. You don’t want to…
Jeffrey Boedges: Rick’s been trying to tell me for years.
Amy Weinstein: If you’re to say, hey, you know what? I don’t actually know. Let me come back to you with the answer, especially like really snobby, nerdy people that are kind of waiting for you to trip up, like the only the rule is don’t trip up.
Rick Kiley: I think that’s also when you’re a women-led organization, there’s less preponderance to do that. I think it’s mostly men’s planers that tend to think they know what they don’t know, more on average.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, pretty sure.
Amy Weinstein: Although, you think that sometimes we try, we feel the need to explain ourselves a little bit more as women overall. I’ve noticed it. They pretty said, like your deck is very wordy. And I’m like, I think that’s because we’ve just been trying to explain our concept to people rather than what it is. So, yeah, I think it’s interesting.
Rick Kiley: Give it to Jeff because he loves cutting decks down. He is an editing whiz.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, I wasn’t a journalism major, but I could have been. Yeah, so my question follow-up was that how long before Canada has the universities are offering cannabis-specific degrees and everything from horticulture to marketing to appreciation? It’s like all these things are going to be far more in demand in the future. And I would think if I’m a Canadian school, I’d be like, dude, we’re doing this because the U.S. is going to be just a sitting duck market because they can’t really do it here.
Amy Weinstein: It’s happening already for sure. There’s definitely cannabis courses at a lot of the colleges. The universities as well, I think, are starting to offer some business cannabis courses and things like that. My thing is I really like to see it offered in medical schools and for people to actually understand what this plant is capable of.
Jeffrey Boedges: Right, but medical schools are funded by pharmaceutical companies, aren’t they?
Rick Kiley: Quite often.
Amy Weinstein: It shouldn’t quite the same, but one of the first time that they ever saw my partner, Alison, speak on was with this awesome, awesome character in Canadian cannabis called Bubble Man. And he was saying that he called– I don’t know if you guys know Bubble Man, but…
Jeffrey Boedges: No, but if your name is Bubble Man, you’re working in cannabis. It’s just that way.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, well, he created the Bubble Bags that are sold everywhere. He didn’t necessarily invent the concept, obviously, of water hash like that, but anyways, he was saying he had called, I think, over 70 schools, and none of them had even like, ever thought about talking about cannabis. Now, this is the great regulator. It can regulate your entire system and create a situation of homeostasis. So, that to me is where it has to go, but obviously, I do think that we’re starting to see it in horticulture for sure. We’re starting to see it in business for sure. Marketing, definitely. And maybe that’s the stuff that needs to happen first for people to start going, hey, what’s going on here? I heard that this can also fight my cancer or fight my nausea or help my stutter or whatever.
Jeffrey Boedges: Right, it’s a brilliant point.
Rick Kiley: Alright, cool. I wanted to know one thing because I read it somewhere and you said gummies. Is it true that gummies, you can’t call them gummies in Canada? They have to be called something else. Soft chews.
Amy Weinstein: We call them gummies. We do call them gummies often, but in like, on the government sites, on the retailer sites, and a lot of places, they’re calling them soft chews, and on the packaging, as well.
Rick Kiley: Alright.
Amy Weinstein: And other places that I think people are playing around with the regulation.
Rick Kiley: Sure, okay. And then one thing I wanted to ask, and this wasn’t a question I had when we started out, but you mentioned that you really, what you’re offering is being able to tell brands what consumers really want. And when you said that, I’m curious, like, how are you going about capturing the information to be able to distill that and give that to people? Is it data you’re collecting? Is it through conversations with the retailers and consumers? How do you go about sort of delivering those insights because I think that’s important?
Amy Weinstein: It’s definitely a mix of those things. We want to look at data as much as possible, but when you only have three years of data, and like I said, it is very different here, the uptake, than in the US because of the top-down versus the grassroots. So, you want to look at data, but we do a lot of digging on the floor of the dispensaries, on social as well, and conversationally, we do a lot of polls and feedback loops with the budtenders, whether that’s roundtable conversations or literally, please fill out the survey and get this t-shirt or whatever it might be, yeah, just doing a lot of looking to see where the retailers are making their purchases as well, but I just don’t believe that the data yet really shows you a clear picture of consumer interests because it’s driven by so many other things and there’s a lot of big money players. Like I said, there are chains with over a hundred stores that have major data plays or different types of ways. So, how do you really know what’s the consumer and what’s being driven by business?
Rick Kiley: A very targeted marketing study.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, that’s what I’m asking you as a director, it was like big data. What role is big data playing in the Canadian cannabis world because you can certainly like track people where they’re going from a dispensary to what kind of messaging they’re exposed to and how that is driving them or not driving them? All that stuff is, I mean, we’ve seen it with other categories in the U.S. So, I imagine in a place where it’s federally legal, that’s got to be something that’s out there.
Amy Weinstein: It’s definitely out there. Some of the big retailers are starting to have some pretty robust programs where you can kind of buy into as a licensed producer, and it really is just licensed producers that are supposed to be engaging in any marketing, but they will collect all of this data from their websites and they’re online ordering and people coming in out of their shops and all of that great stuff, but it’s been very much tied to listing and other activities here because it is not legal to do paid listings in the Canadian cannabis space. So, people are using data access as a way to basically offer a paid shelf space. And so, you’re selling some of your data but at the end of the day, they’re paying for that data on your shelf.
Rick Kiley: It’s grift. That’s just plain and simple. That’s a loophole that’s being grifted.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah. And there’s conversations like, I’m comfortable having this conversation with you guys because I’ve had this conversation with the regulatory heads in Ontario or with the biggest retailers to say, like can we or can’t we? Like, I just don’t know. You know what’s going on. The biggest guys are doing it. It’s affecting all of our business. So, should I play as well? And what do you guys recommend we do as smaller groups? But an aggregate, we can bring our clients into these types of deals if we want to, so yeah, it’s very complicated here. I don’t know if this is really bit of a tangent now.
Jeffrey Boedges: Not really. I think it’s something that’s actually people are into it, here, on the state level, and because really, you can’t have any kind of communications that go across state lines. And so, they are using it maybe even more here than you are in Canada at this point, but I think as things like the CCPA come online and I think a lot of the states are going to follow soon. And then, hopefully, eventually, we’re talking about a federal legalization here, there’s going to have to be some sort of legislation dealing with how big data is used in all of the industries, but I think cannabis is going to be a hot button as well just because I think there’s going to be so much initial resistance on the federal level. Anyway, sorry, that is a slight tangent.
Rick Kiley: That is a slight tangent, it’s a good one, though. Yeah, I’m going to bring it back, though, for a second. So, one of the things I just wanted to mention and ask you about is, as you’re probably near the beginning of your journey here, imagine that you’ve been engaged by a couple of brands that are early in their life, of course, looking for help. And Jeff and I, through our work in marketing in the adult beverage, we’ve also been introduced to and asked to support a lot of new brands that are just coming to market. And in our experience, unfortunately, for every Tito’s vodka out there, there’s like a million– something that you don’t know of because it fails. They don’t get any traction, they disappear. And so, I’m wondering if you could tell the presumptive person coming to say, hey, come represent my brand, help me be successful. What are the one or two or three things that you’re like, make sure you do these things because they’ll set you up for success? Or to avoid these three, maybe it’s their fault, don’t do this. Don’t make something that’s called kid’s cannabis.
Jeffrey Boedges: Right.
Amy Weinstein: That’s fine, but I would say, always telling people to make sure that they can actually supply the markets that they want to go to. Again, this is all really that we end up thinking in Canada, but the biggest mistake people make is to try to go national right off the bat. So, it’s like targeting your product.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, we have that conversation.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. Every deck he has, oh, hey, we’re going to go in all 50 states in year two. And we were like, cool, can we get paid up front, please?
Amy Weinstein: And like, yeah, who’s making all this product for you? So, I think like always telling people to really serve the clients that they have and the markets that they have before growing. I think, letting people know that it’s not going to be a short game, especially with Ontario is very strict on listings. You might get one listing if, let’s say, your beverage company of four beverages, you might get one listed in six months from now. And then in another six months, you might get another. So, just have money to support you through this launch period in Ontario and look at the markets that are going to support you right off the bat, I guess.
And my other piece of advice is think about the consumer, always. Don’t just listen to your investors. That’s the biggest mistake I think people make in the cannabis space. Don’t just look at data. Don’t just look at the investor. Look at consumers in other markets. Look at data from other spaces because so much of what we’re doing in this space is like a crossover. And so, maybe, if you’re looking at infused beverages, you’re going to want to look at actually the beverage space, the alcohol space, but also maybe you’re looking at the nonalcoholic wine space or just different kinds of being creative about what kind of data you’re sourcing. Not necessarily comparing wine and weed, maybe you’re comparing yoga and weed, maybe you’re comparing something completely different. So, I think it’s just important to look at all the ways that this fits into people’s lives and think about what your products are truly going to be, not just looking at cannabis data or liquor data.
Rick Kiley: Got it.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, I think that’s a lesson for a lot of brands even outside of that space, though, because I totally agree.
Rick Kiley: I mean, yeah, every category, but it’s good stuff. Alright, we’re getting towards the end of the time, but there are a couple of things I wanted to touch on. I know you are pretty passionate about social justice and sustainability. These subjects have come up in a lot of the interviews we’ve done. So, I’m curious how your company thinks about these subjects. You talk about ethics, fairness, sustainability, how you think about them and how you put them into practice, so to speak.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, and if you can just explain what social justice means in Canada because we have three strikes and you’re out in the U.S. And so, we got a lot of people serving endless prison terms for things that are now legal. I don’t know what the situation is in Canada from a parallel.
Amy Weinstein: It’s not quite that. When I learned that about California, I think I remember where I was when I heard that that’s the law there.
Jeffrey Boedges: It was that shocking.
Amy Weinstein: All that I was completely shocked, especially from my idea of what California represents and is. And yeah, in Canada, I mean, we have a ton of cannabis. It has left out minority groups, period. I think in Canada, the way that– there are still incarcerated people, like all of these things are still a massive issue here, and I think it’s really important, though, to see how the industry is growing without these people and how awful that is and how important it is to change that. And I can tell you, as somebody that’s looking to hire diversely and just has an eye on these things in the industry, that I don’t see that it’s going to be easy to come out of, there is a huge history, racist history, behind cannabis, obviously, which we all know. And the way that that plays out currently today is, it’s real in Canada. I’ve seen people not want to be a part of the legal industry. I’ve got little goosebumps right now, but I think that the biggest problem that we’re going to face is how do we create an inclusive industry, period, end of sentence, like let’s create an industry where everybody wants to be a part of it, where everybody feels they can be a part of it.
And of course, that means giving a platform to every group and letting them speak, but also how do we make sure that everybody wants to have that voice and everybody even wants to be a part of this conversation of what legalization really means in Canada? And I don’t know the answer, but that’s like definitely where my head is at right now. And I think I see it. I see it with Other People’s Pot that the women that come onto our team are feeling like they can speak and contribute in a way that they’ve never had that before.
Rick Kiley: That’s great.
Amy Weinstein: And I think you can create that in an industry-wide level if everybody’s committed, but I just don’t know how you do that in a place that– and the government needs to help create an easier business situation so people aren’t just like flying by the seat of their pants. We have no margins. The government’s taking so much of the money that we’re bringing in from these products. It doesn’t leave us a lot of time to problem solve. And I think that that is like where I would put all of my energy and all my extra time. And I am doing that. And it’s literally in my everyday way that I live and same with our team for sure, but I know that people are even coming into the industry and saying, you know what? Maybe this isn’t ready for me yet, or maybe my family, but the history of this plant and my cousins who are in jail, my family’s not ready for me to be a part of this version of this industry. And that is like it’s so sad for me, and I don’t have an answer, but that’s where I see the change needs to happen.
Rick Kiley: Yeah. Those are good words, alright. And the other sort of half of my question there, the sort of the sustainability side, I know that that’s important to you. Do you have a litmus test for the brands that you represent in terms of running sustainable operations? I mean, is everybody even really able to, I guess, like to what degree it’s possible? I don’t know. How do you incorporate that philosophy into what you do? And I mean really, not just like lip service. Like, how does it play out?
Amy Weinstein: I mean, it always blows my mind that it’s not just built into what most cannabis companies do just because of the nature of the plant and everything around it and legalization itself and why we’re here where we are, but alas, it’s just not a priority for so many. The cannabis industry, actually– a cannabis facility can create as much exhaust and detriment to the environment as an auto facility. So, it’s like we have to go and speak to people and create a trusted bond that they’re going to be committed to doing that, and of course, you’re going to be let down along the way. And I’ve been let down in this industry before OPP working with groups who are really committed to things like the opiate crisis or committed to environmental things, that it was all lip service, and you can’t ever know for sure, but I think creating a really strong connection and bond in terms of being authentic and real with each other, that’s the only way and that, I think cannabis people can do, like someday like me, you had to operate in the legacy market, purchase, and sell a product based solely off of trust, like we were testing our product and all that, but how did I know that it was all the same? Like, I have to trust these people.
And so, that trust has to come, and I can look somebody in the eye and hopefully know if they’re telling me the truth, but I think it’s– yeah, we look at their facilities, but it’s always a promise towards the future. It’s never a current state. And so, we do have to work with people that we can trust. And that’s the one benefit of having myself and Alison, both ten years or seven or eight years myself and her ten years in the industry like our bullsh*t meter is pretty fine-tuned. And I’d say, we don’t really have time or energy for people that aren’t trying to do it, to be honest and upfront with us, so.
Rick Kiley: Got it.
Jeffrey Boedges: Alright, cool.
Rick Kiley: One thing I was just curious because I’m sure people send you a lot of their products to try. Have you tried anything that’s been truly terrible? You don’t need to name who it is, but I just want to know, what’s like really bad? I want to know something really bad.
Amy Weinstein: I’m like going to have to show you my collection of terrible products that I have.
Rick Kiley: Oh, no.
Jeffrey Boedges: Oh, you got a wall?
Amy Weinstein: I mean, actually, I won’t show it to you because that’s not very nice to the brand side.
Rick Kiley: We don’t want to denigrate the brand.
Jeffrey Boedges: Oh, just don’t name them because there’s no video on this.
Amy Weinstein: Every year in November, I actually make a massive batch of oil or coconut oil or last jar of shea butter with all the products that I didn’t think, all that we have not fit to smoke, let’s say. So, there is a lot.
Jeffrey Boedges: We got to see this wall. There’s no video on the podcast, so no one will see it. We won’t mention any brands by name, but I got to see this.
Amy Weinstein: I cleaned up recently, so I can see that they’re gone, all the jars here.
Rick Kiley: Okay.
Amy Weinstein: And there’s one here.
Rick Kiley: Oh, those are all bad.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, that’s the wall of shame.
Amy Weinstein: Well, yeah, they’re all bad, like they’re not great, not A.
Jeffrey Boedges: And here’s Rick and Jeff’s systems and see the brand. What’s that doing there? Yeah.
Rick Kiley: Well, I think if you called it Stems and Seeds, it could be bad.
Amy Weinstein: That’s what I’m saying, so…
Rick Kiley: Like one out of every five is a great high, but four times out of five, it’s just…
Jeffrey Boedges: It’s a headache.
Amy Weinstein: Well, no, we grew on 80 acres of 48North to come to our farm before. And we obviously had a ton of terrible weed that came off that farm. And the whole plan was like, let’s sell it, and then tell people we’ll get their seeds, too. So, it’s like, oh yeah, you’ll get your seeds and you’ll get an A, but whatever. And so, maybe…
Jeffrey Boedges: That’s fine.
Amy Weinstein: That’s the marketing, maybe that part doesn’t fit into the podcast.
Rick Kiley: Well, what’s the batting average out of every like 10 things that you get sent, are nine bad, five bad, one bad?
Amy Weinstein: I’m not sent very much product at all, only actually buying it and being disappointed, which is even worse.
Rick Kiley: Yeah.
Amy Weinstein: I’d say, at this point, probably half the products that I try is great and half that I’m not really interested in trying them.
Rick Kiley: Alright, that’s a lot higher than I want that number to be. Alright, come on, everyone, let’s make some good weed. Okay, alright, before we wrap up, just curious, does Other People’s Pot, like anything new coming up that you want to talk about? Or is there anything on the horizon for you that you want to mention to the people who might be listening? Or are you accepting people coming in and saying, hey, look at my stuff?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, we love to have more people join our community. We are definitely going to be closing the portfolio at some point soon, probably for a little bit.
Rick Kiley: Oh, closing the portfolio.
Amy Weinstein: Sooner rather than later, we really do want to just grow what we’ve got, but what’s an important thing that’s coming up for us is just keep watching the Other People’s Pot brand and what comes from there because we’re really creating something special. And so, I just want to have as many eyeballs on that as possible. We just launched our merch line, which is awesome. It’s the Another World collection, and we’re all about imagining another world that’s a little bit different, but not too different than the one we’re in right now where cannabis is accessible, the industry itself is accessible. And we can all do our jobs and have fun and not have some– yeah, it’s really tough. It’s a tough market, my friends, but it’s worth it.
Rick Kiley: Alright. Well, glad to hear that. Sorry, it’s tough, but I think somebody said anything worth having takes a little bit of work, I think, so. And as we get to the end, now, you’re in Canada. You’re the second person we’ve interviewed in Canada, but we always end our interviews with the same question, which is when do you think cannabis is going to be federally legal in the United States? I don’t know if you have a position or thought on this being across the border, but maybe you do. You’ve been in California, spent some time there. Want to put some money on it?
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, I mean, I would bet with that within, I would definitely put money on within the next five years.
Rick Kiley: Right.
Amy Weinstein: And I would hope that it would be sooner, but I’ve just seen how quickly things can change. I think I was pretty shocked to see legalization actually happen in Canada. So, when you look at the numbers and people who are for legalization in the U.S., like you cannot deny what the public wants. You’ve got to give the people what they want. And this is clearly the road that people want to go down. So, it’s a matter of catching up to that. Maybe it does take 10 years, I really hope not, but I think five.
Rick Kiley: Alright, within five. I think that’s a conservative estimate, frankly. A lot of people are a bit more bullish, but I think it’s good.
Jeffrey Boedges: I think people swing back and forth.
Rick Kiley: I think you win that bet.
Jeffrey Boedges: I think that’s it.
Rick Kiley: I think that’s what I’m saying. You’re going to win that bet.
Amy Weinstein: Yeah, it’s going to take time, right? Like you’re going to want it. You’re going to want it for two years before it really, truly happens, so.
Rick Kiley: Yeah.
Jeffrey Boedges: Well, we live in legal states. We’re, like, yeah, that’s good.
Amy Weinstein: And the thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about is we went from having one page of legislation that’s up, like, weed is illegal, cannabis is illegal to over 100 pages of how and why it’s regulated. And so, that’s also not so much fun. And a lot of the issues that we’ve talked about around justice won’t be solved and aren’t solved. And also, it’s a lot more difficult to follow all the regs. So, good luck and have fun with that.
Jeffrey Boedges: Cool.
Rick Kiley: Alright, if somebody wants to get some more information about you or Other People’s Pot, where should they go? Where should they check it out?
Amy Weinstein: I mean, we love Instagram. We love it, @otherpeoplespot. You’ll always be able to connect with one of us there myself, I’m Amy J. Weinstein and I’m always on Instagram, too, and my co-founder, Alison, too, @cannabisculturist. So, you can find any of us there and really like that’s where we are findable. Our website is for budtenders to sign up and really be a part of our community and retailers. So, we’re not out there recruiting actively in any way other than getting people on board for our community. So, that’s the only places that you’ll really find us. And in a lot of stores across Canada, we’re selling so much great weed. So, that’s the other place. So, definitely find us.
Rick Kiley: Alright.
Jeffrey Boedges: Awesome.
Rick Kiley: You need to do the pilgrimage up north.
Jeffrey Boedges: Yeah, well, we’re overdue.
Rick Kiley: Alright. Well, Amy…
Amy Weinstein: We can do a live tour and bring you guys to a ton of different stores.
Jeffrey Boedges: I’ll see you next week.
Rick Kiley: That’s great. That would be wonderful. And we can even record it and throw it up again. So, Amy, thank you so much for speaking with us today. We really appreciate and learn about you and your company and wish you the very best of luck.
Amy Weinstein: Thank you so much.
Rick Kiley: Alright.
Jeffrey Boedges: Be good.
Amy Weinstein: Thanks for your time.
[END]