If you’re new to the cannabis world, you might assume that the scene in every city is basically the same from how you sell to how you network to how you grow your business. But there are definitely differences between what’s happening on the east and west coasts, and Lulu Tsui is here to talk about them.
In this episode, Lulu Tsui, co-founder of On the Revel and president of the Cannabis Media Council, shares about the diversity of the New York cannabis culture, what’s happening with legislation in her state, and what she’s doing to help educate consumers on the benefits of cannabis.
We also emphasize something you’ve heard me say on many previous episodes, which is to attend as many events as possible and broaden your network in the cannabis industry. It’s truly important if you want to get your foot in the door.
If you’re a DIY cannabis hustler who is just getting into the industry, make sure to subscribe to my podcast, High Class, where I help you move past the frustration, hurdles, and red tape of the cannabis industry.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
- [06:59] The importance of community in the cannabis space and bringing people together
- [12:05] Lulu describes what the NY cannabis scene is like, especially the diversity found within the culture
- [16:34] What’s shaping the legislation in NY and the dynamics between outsiders, locals, politics and legacy
- [26:06] What’s going on with the unregulated market in NY, and how the Cannabis Media Council helps educate consumers
- [32:25] Why your cannabis network and attending events is so important, plus Lulu’s advice to someone who is just starting out
- [39:11] Lulu’s vision for the future of cannabis in NY
If you want to hear more about the East Coast vs West Coast cannabis culture, be sure to tune into this episode:
Links mentioned in this episode…
Full Spectrum: Guidelines for Responsible Cannabis Advertising (2023)
Reggie Harris on the High Class podcast
About Lulu Tsui
Lulu Tsui is a badass on the New York cannabis scene. She is the co-founder of On the Revel, which is a series of conferences and events aimed at educating and fostering an inclusive, collaborative and flourishing cannabis industry. She’s on the advisory board to Mr. Reggie Harris and Oakland Hyphae. Lulu is also the president of the Cannabis Media Council, which aims to end the stigma against our beloved cannabis plants through responsible and uplifting advertising and be the collective voice in cannabis that broadens consumer awareness and consideration for this amazing plant.
Stay Connected!
Follow On the Revel on Instagram
High Class Podcast Community on Facebook
Transcript for “East Coast vs West Coast and New York’s Unique Cannabis Culture with Lulu Tsui”:
[00:00:06] Salwa Are you thinking about getting into the cannabis industry but aren’t really sure how? I’m Salwa Ibrahim, your cannabis auntie and I’m here to help you find accelerated success in your cannabis business. And I’m sharing all the details on how to get there. So get comfy as we dive in. Hello classmates. I am so excited for today’s episode. Today on the High Class Podcast, I am thrilled to have Miss Lulu Tsui here with us. Lulu is a badass in New York cannabis scene and basically has a front row seat to everything that’s going on out there, all the chaos, all the drama, all the wins and all the highs. Lulu is the co-founder of On the Revel, which is a series of conferences and events aimed at educating and fostering inclusive, collaborative and flourishing cannabis industry. She’s on the advisory board to Mr. Reggie Harris and Oakland Hyphae, who was recently a guest on this show. Mr. Harris is charging the path forward in psilocybin research and is basically leading the way in testing and taking notes and the lessons learned from cannabis. And if that isn’t enough, Lulu is the president of the Cannabis Media Council, which aims to end the stigma against our beloved cannabis plants through responsible and uplifting advertising and be the collective voice in cannabis that broadens consumer awareness and consideration for this amazing plant. Lulu, thank you so much for spending your morning with us. Welcome to the High Class Podcast.
[00:01:56] Lulu I’m super stoked. This meeting has been in the making for a while. I’ve been hearing about you through loved ones in the space. So I’m really honored to be featured today and I can’t wait to chop it up with you.
[00:02:10] Salwa Same. Same. And just to give the listeners a little bit of a background, I just recently, this last 4/20 got invited to judge the National Cannabis Fest in Washington, D.C. And I’ve got two little kids. So when I get to leave the house, I’ve got to jam pack it in. So on 4/20, it was the day that I was supposed to be focusing and judging, which I did, but I basically packed up my kit and booked it to New York and met up with some friends. And while we were there, I just kept hearing your name everywhere. So I was like, I need to meet this person. So I hit up my friends at compound and they connected us and now you’re here. So it’s great.
[00:02:49] Lulu I was super stoked and really excited and always excited to meet like, especially pioneering women that have just been moving behind the scenes and just like killing it and owning it. So this is very exciting for me.
[00:03:01] Salwa Game recognize game.
[00:03:03] Lulu Exactly.
[00:03:04] Salwa All right, Lulu, before we dive in, I want to know, can you please give us your background, your history? How did you get to where you are today?
[00:03:12] Lulu Okay, well, okay, we’ll start from the beginning. So I was introduced to the plant since we landed in the United States. I’m a first generation immigrant. I was born in northern China, and then my parents immigrated to Eugene, Oregon, with me, I think in 1979, 1980. And I’m a very different experience than most, I’d say Asian-Americans. The people that taught my parents English that babysat me, that kind of took us under their wing and helped us acclimate to American culture. We’re all cannabis growers and also distributors and consumers. So these were the aunties and uncles that raised me. So I’ve always been familiar with the plant. When I was curious about consuming, it was my aunt who went and got some really beautiful Oregon bud and she gave me eight bong rips to make sure that I was fully aware of what this magic is and just sat with me. You know, her philosophy was, Hey, I would rather have you be in a safe space with me and just kind of make sure you’re okay and watch over you. So she was kind of like my first Sherpa into plant medicine. And then when I was interested in psychedelics, my uncle procured for me when I was 15 and sat with me. So I’ve had a pretty gentle entry and education into this whole world of plant medicine. And if you’re from Eugene, Oregon, it’s just I think it’s in the water, think they put it in the water. So I’ve just always had a really positive experience. And then through just learning and sitting with my community, becoming kind of that Sherpa for other friends or even colleagues and now family members too. So that’s how I’ve just become familiar with that type of growing up. And then of course, when I turned 18, I was like, Get me out of here. And I fell into tech. So this was in the mid nineties. I fell into tech and I built up a career as a user experience designer and researcher. So before it even had a name. And then in 2015, when Washington State opened up my friends from college, they reached out to me to see if I could help with the track and trace system that they were using. Of course, it was software that was inherited from another industry that they kind of Frankenstein-ed together. And so my friends are like, Can you just help us design some flows that actually fit with how we run our business? And unfortunately, in that time, that track and trace system closed up all their APIs. So there really wasn’t anything we could really do. And they said, Why don’t you just stay here and see if there’s anything you want to do with weed? So I lived on site and this little town in Washington called Bell Fair, and I stayed there for about a year and a half. And Root Sciences is the manufacturing side of the house, so I got to go with them on installs. I got to see what was happening across different markets as they were coming online and look at the build outs and, you know, understand the type of investments and the type of people that were coming into cannabis. I’d go into like these L.A. installs or someone’s basement versus, you know, the multimillion dollar installs that were happening on the East Coast. And then in 2016, in New York, I met my co-founder Jacoby from at a 4/20 party hosted by Women Grow. And at that time, there was a lot of conversations in New York around advocacy. There’s a lot of conversations around fundraising and investment. And what was important for us, it was like there wasn’t really anyone talking about what was actually happening on the ground, like the ground truth of what was going on in the industry. So we decided to start hosting kind of meetups. And what was important for us was to bring the good people that were meeting in our path in Washington and Jacoby in Colorado and also in California and Oregon, and the cool people that were meeting that like shared the same belief that we had that like this industry should be diverse, it should be equitable, but at the end of it, it should have opportunities for anyone that comes through because we’re seeing a lot of gatekeeping at that time. Remember, you know, when adult use was coming online, like resources were kept secret, money was kept really tight, and we were just like, you know what? When New York comes online, it’s going to be a global influencer of the market. So let’s just start planting seeds, bringing people in like, you know, New York is, I’m going to get in trouble for this. But like West Coast always talks about community, about like community, community, community. But honestly, in New York, people just do it. You’re together with people. You’re on top of one another. And like, you just have to help each other. There’s a lot of suffering that happens in New York, and I think that actually creates solidarity and bonding. And I got to say, like we spent seven years culminating and curating and connecting folks who were just passionate about cannabis. And here we are. And it’s been really beautiful to see. A little bit nerve wracking, but when New York gets together behind something, it’s like a bullet train.
[00:08:27] Salwa Amazing. Yeah. No, it’s interesting to hear you say that about community. One of the things in this project that I’m doing with High Class Podcast, the thing that’s been coming up is I’ve had a lot of college kids reach out through the website, and it’s been interesting to hear that their biggest problem is trying to figure out how to get in or connect with anybody in the space because there is so much gatekeeping and because like all of these events are invite only or industry only. And so like, you know, I’m talking to these guys and they’re like, well, do we lie? Like, what do we do? And it’s true. So it really was interesting when I did go there. The magnetism that you would feel like the charge of, like what’s happening in New York, like the excitement. And you’re right in the sense like there was this very broad spectrum of the people who were at all of these events. Right? So I love that. I love that so much. I think it’s really cool. And especially because coming from California, you know, and what we are currently going through and just went through as far as a market correction is concerned, it’s. So revitalizing to go to New York and you’re like, Oh, oh, this is happening. People still care. People still are into this. Yeah, it’s really good.
[00:09:45] Lulu Yeah, I mean, I would say what was always important about what we do with On the Revel is we always wanted to make sure that there was events for industry folks, but it was also important to always focus on community. Right. Like you really in New York, you really can’t have one without the other because cannabis has been here for so long. And, you know, I always say like the way we need to treat cannabis in New York is kind of like a supporting character. It’s not really the main star because it’s never been that way. Maybe at one point, like it’s always supported culture, right? Like I’ve been having these conversations…
[00:10:23] Salwa That’s beautiful. I love that actually.
[00:10:23] Lulu Yeah, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with folks from other markets that are trying to come into New York. And I’m always saying like, this is not a zoom nation of, you know, you can’t really build relationships with people just over conference lines. This is a very high touch market. This is like if, I always say the analogy of like, oh, it’s like your Chinese best friend that you’re trying to go like, talk to the grandmother, right? You’re going into her house. It’s like very old world, it’s very community driven, it’s very interactive. So it’s interesting to see. It’s really interesting to see like the brands that come in and are doing kind of the playbook of the checkbox of how to like connect and market. And they’re failing. They’re failing. Versus the folks that are coming in and like being part of the community, attending events. Like really.
[00:11:19] Salwa Yeah, just show face.
[00:11:20] Lulu You have to show face. And it’s also really interesting to see like post-COVID, the groups that are still using pre-COVID ways of trying to like market or advertise or connect versus the folks that are like really learning about what has changed in terms of kind of behavior and explanation. And that’s where like my UX side starts to come in and really trying to learn like what is motivating for people, what you know, what are their goals like, what are the things that they don’t want, and trying to really curate events and experiences in your work that really resonate with being impactful, being helpful with being like, interesting.
[00:12:02] Salwa So yeah, yeah, amazing. I love that so much. Okay, so for those listeners that haven’t experienced in your cannabis scene, can you describe what it’s like? Can you describe what being to one of the On the Rebel events is like or just being in the scene and the market?
[00:12:24] Lulu Yeah, so all of the other states talk about diversity and I’m going to get in trouble again here, but I’m like, I lived in Oregon, I lived in Washington, I have ten years in San Francisco, five years in L.A. So I’m like, I can speak a little bit about what I’ve seen over there. And we talk about diversity. And there’s just I feel like the West Coast is like very clustered with one note, right? Like if I go to Washington, I can be like, Oh, you love dogs, you recycle you X, Y, and Z. And I also I think that the West Coast has helped create stoner culture, but I feel like in New York, culture is created from being stoned, if that makes sense. So you know what I mean?
[00:13:10] Salwa I love that.
[00:13:11] Lulu I have this conversation with people and my feathers get ruffled like when someone says like, Oh, culture travels from west to east. I’m like, Wait a minute. Like, are you telling me, like, your food and your entertainment and your museums are going to compare to New York? San Diego, I’m sorry. So I definitely think that the West Coast has really created a beautiful culture of accepting cannabis and like, what does that mean as part of your life? The cultivation, like the farming and all of that. But I really feel like New York has used cannabis and it’s been very powerful to create really amazing things with music, with art, with fashion. So a little bit nuanced. But when you come to New York, you’re going to see that all the diversity that people talk about in existing markets you can find here, like this is the epitome of what everyone talks about. Like we spent a lot of time with legacy. I mean, I was raised by aunties and uncles and legacy. So anybody that has been participating out of need, I would say like there’s not a lot of opportunities for people that came from being veterans, from socioeconomic status is from just being born into situations. That was a need. That was an opportunity to provide for yourself, for your family. So legacy has always been important. We respect the folks that came through. We always have them. And I’m Chinese. You always learn from the folks that came before you. So we have legacy folks, we have the entrepreneurs, we have women, we have every color under the rainbow people that are interested in this opportunity. So it’s magnetic, it’s exciting. It can be charged. What I’m also learning is people have different motivations. And for your own sake, kids, I’m in my late forties. I’m like, Everyone’s a kid to me. So all of the students that are interested just show up, create something at your school, right? We have a lot of universities here that actually have cannabis kind of clubs. Create that. Maybe it’s pulling some people from the law school, maybe it’s pulling people from the business school, like create a cannabis club and, you know, start doing things together, doing things for the community, doing things always hit up like for us, always hit us up. We have student discount tickets, we have free tickets for students. And a lot of our sponsors are so badass that they’ll sponsor a whole set of tickets. So just show up and never be afraid to ask. You know, if you’re going to an industry thing, just be like, Hey, I’m a student. I want to learn like, is there a code? Is there something? Can we volunteer? Like, there’s so many ways of participating and you just have to just do it. This is a roll up your sleeves industry. You kind of have to be the squeaky wheel. You do.
[00:16:07] Salwa And it’s true. I always say this and they’ve said this on the show a million times. Showing up is half the battle. It’s like amazing what you learn and who you connect with if you just show up.
[00:16:16] Lulu And always ask questions, ask the stupidest questions that you think they’re saying. Because in most cases this is new to everybody and whatever question you are asking, someone else is also thinking, So just…
[00:16:33] Salwa 100%. 100%. It’s funny because you I actually on my list of questions for you was what are the dynamics between outsiders, locals, politics and legacy? And if there is like some sort of an order, especially when it comes to shaping policy, right. Like usually people and those in positions, staffers and aides, when they’re taking these meetings and they’re taking them with every single category of person to do you feel like there’s an order to which they’re actually listening the people? Is it the locals first then legacy, outsiders? Is it money influence? How do you think that’s shaping legislation at this point?
[00:17:11] Lulu Oh, man, that’s such a good question and let’s get into it. So what I do love about New York, New York is the only market that is coming in trying to lead with equity folks. So equity and social justice has always been an afterthought in every other market. But that is not the easiest thing to implement in one of the largest municipalities communities legacy like please in the world. Right? I think the legislation is written in a way that is supposed to do a specific thing. The regulations are also supposed to try and support the legislation. There has been so many kind of unknowns that have come up that have been trying to like, I’m just going to say cock block the program, lawsuits, injunctions, things like that. So I’m not going to say it’s been the easiest rollout, but I do hope that in a year from now and six months from now, it’s going to increasingly get better in terms of roll out. I mean, there’s so many there’s so many things right now, right? There’s like, how do we make sure that the justice impacted folks have resources to be able to have a business? How do we make sure that the cultivators have been sitting on product for a very long time now, coming up on our second planting, how can we facilitate that they’re not going out of business and they have all this product? So there is a lot of interesting bills that have been presented. We have a farmers market idea bill, that would allow for the cultivators to sell in a quote unquote farmer’s market style. There’s just so many things. So I think all of those things are important. Legacy, existing cultivators, justice impacted, actual business, like how do we create an economy out of this, not just business? So I’m not in a place to say what is best or what is not. I can only and we at On the Revel can only just try and support and connect and do what we do best, which is bringing people together in a room to really try to figure out what the similarities are moving forward versus what the differences are. So I’m trying to use my UX best practices on solutioning with as many people and many groups as possible. So that’s kind of.
[00:19:42] Salwa One of the things that I kind of kudos to New York on is when watching this drama unfold, there seems to be more of a unified voice for what’s happening versus in California, we were just so easily divided because of the way our rollout happened that they couldn’t get. Lawmakers had a hard time understanding who to listen to. Yeah, right. And so we were pushing so hard for cap and cultivation. And towards the end on like we’re gearing towards this deadline and everybody was just so focused on like making sure that their piece of the pie was ready for rec market and like, for their rollout that nobody was sort of watching the ship. And then all of the sudden behind one closed door meeting, we got rid of the cap. And now you have the situation that we have where it’s like super flooded and we have a bunch of media or product and all the things. So it’s been wonderful to kind of see that you guys seem to be watching the ship and unifying the voice and leading like, Hey, industry does not want these things, industry does want these things and calling out the bad actors.
[00:21:11] Lulu Oh, yeah, right. It’s been interesting. Like the new version of the regs just came out and one of the biggest red flags that came up from a lot of people is, you know, our Os, our registered organizations, which is our medical groups, which are essentially MSOs. Originally they were going to have three years before they could open up shop, and now that’s.
[00:21:35] Salwa To give everybody a chance for ramp up, right?
[00:21:38] Lulu Yeah, and now that has been shortened. So again, these are still in progress regs. We’ll see. I’m also hopeful that, hey, you know, I feel like a lot of the MSOs really had everything on lockdown in medical markets, right? There really wasn’t options. And now with adult use, I’m just hopeful that consumers are going to be able to make that choice. I mean, I just saw your brother’s just posted like Trulieve is closing up shop in California and Massachusetts. So I’m like, hey, maybe if we just educate the folks and give them the understanding of like, this is where your money is going, like, this is what you’re supporting, maybe that will give everyone.
[00:22:22] Salwa But that’s not why they’re leaving, You know what I mean? Like, they’re not leaving because the consumers are trained to make a good choice. They’re leaving because our system just straight up doesn’t work. And if it doesn’t work for somebody who has that much cash flow to burn, it sure as shit isn’t going to work for like a mom and pop, you know what I mean? Like, the economics of it make absolutely no sense yet lawmakers keep on cookie cuttering this structure across the country. It’s almost like they don’t believe us.
[00:22:53] Lulu I’m like, This is like user centered design, right? Like, you learn and you make models that support existing behaviors. So like, that’s my biggest frustration is like we’ve had, what, almost 30 years of, you know, when did the first 1996 is that the first.
[00:23:12] Salwa Medical, yeah, in San Francisco.
[00:23:30] Lulu Yeah. I was going to say, we’ve had 30 years of learnings of what could work and what doesn’t really work. Can we at least think progressively a little bit more and not repeat these? It didn’t work.
[00:23:42] Salwa It’s just unfortunate because there’s still that cops and robbers mentality. Unfortunately, like the people who are making the rules don’t understand the business. And yet when we get invited into the room to explain the business, there’s this like sense of I don’t know if I believe that, you know what I mean? It’s like, now we’re telling you, you know, yeah, high taxes don’t work and these things don’t work, right.
[00:24:07] Lulu And I think like understanding the motivations and goals. Can we get everyone in the room and talk about that first and foremost and maybe see any kind of like adjustments we can make that makes everyone?
[00:24:24] Salwa I for me, what scares me about truly leaving these states is that they’re just going to concentrate their efforts on the markets that are productive, the markets that are doing well, that do foster like entrepreneurial growth, which unfortunately, if they’re dumping all their publicly traded money into those markets, then it’s going to be really hard to beat them at that point.
[00:24:49] Lulu Yeah, no, understood. Understood. You know, one thing that’s very interesting about New York, too, is we’re on a 2 tier system, right? So it’s not vertical. Like supply chain side is completely separate from retail. And I feel like maybe that was a decision that was made also to kind of match, at least in New York City. There’s not a lot of like mass, large scale chains. You know, there’s banks, there’s fast food. But our buying behavior or consumer behavior, as residents in New York City is very different than like.
[00:25:26] Salwa Localized.
[00:25:27] Lulu Very localized. You don’t move outside of a four block radius where you and all of your retail stores, your grocery stores or liquor stores, they’re all mom and pop. They’re all like local and small and medium sized businesses. So it’s going to be really interesting also just to kind of see how consumer behavior is influenced by how our existing shopping behavior is. And delivery is huge, like everything in New York is delivered. So I think that is going to be interesting to see how that shapes up like regulated and unregulated.
[00:26:04] Salwa Mm hmm. Mm hmm. What’s the vibe with the unregulated market?
[00:26:09] Lulu So, like, let me just call something out between legacy and gray market. So there were in New York has always had legacy, you know, unregulated, traditional folks. Before this big surge, people were doing quietly, pretty much delivery services. Sometimes there were kind of like pop up like stores that just happened. But all of a sudden, in the past year, year and a half, all these smoke shops started opening up. Right. And I’m going to call those gray market folks. And those gray market folks are not legacy. They came in. They’re opportunists. That’s New York. There’s an opportunity we’re going to go and make some money. And what’s really alarming is these gray market shops are actually cutting into profits for legacy folks along where legacy folks had to close up shop and close up things. There’s I guess so three groups now kind of vying for market share. There’s our up and coming regulated, folks. There’s the legacy folks. And then there’s the gray area. I don’t really know what that.
[00:27:21] Salwa It was really hard to tell. When I was walking around. I couldn’t tell. I was like, I feel like that one’s not legit. Yeah, it was hard to tell, honestly.
[00:27:29] Lulu So the legacy folks have always had their supply chain from places like California, from Canada, from West Coast. What I’m hearing with the smoke shop, gray area folks, that’s all coming from Oklahoma, that it’s the Yemenis mafia and new connecting with the Chinese mafia in Oklahoma that’s not root. So there is going to be a difference in quality. There’s going to be a difference in how it’s grown, how it’s harvested and toxins and pesticides like. So that, I think, is always been a concern. I think that’s one of the reasons why folks are some some folks are really wanting to be shopping in the regulated market is, you know, there is testing and there are some health like considerations that come from shopping on the regulated side. But, you know, we’ll see.
[00:28:25] Salwa We’ll be like this is a perfect segue way into the Cannabis Media Council because it seems like a tool like that is really powerful. Once you start like educating the consumer on like the differences and why they should care about having regulated cannabis. Right? So talk to me about how did you come up with that idea? What was that start look like and where are you at with it?
[00:28:50] Lulu Sure. So Cannabis Media Council was actually started by Amy Dennison from, you know, and one of my dear friends, Joyce Sonali, you know, Sonoma Hills Farm and Big Rock. And Amy’s been working as, you know, head of marketing for about the past ten years with a lot of cannabinoid companies and really trying to maneuver and creatively problem solve around marketing and advertising for our industry. So she has a lot of really deep experience. And Joyce, you know, has been on the family office side trying to invest and work with brands. And, you know, marketing and advertising is also another sore spot for her. So we’ve been talking about this trade association and being able to first and foremost grow the addressable market. Again, we’ve been in our church talking about cannabis with all of our followers for the past 30 years almost, but there’s still that 80% of mainstream market that we really need to help grow and help educate and kind of help them understand that cannabis is also something that could provide some wellness or health benefits. I can’t say what those are for everybody, but they brought me in about a year and a half ago to just start thinking about ways to tell positive stories around cannabis with the goal of breaking through the mainstream moratorium on advertising. So we launched February this year, our first campaign called I’m High Right Now, led by Allison Disney and Brett Brown with Sister Mercy as our agency of record. And if you go to imhighrightnow.com, it’s our first campaign targeting elders who we think are really great demographic that no one’s really marketed to. And we think that with any community if grandma and grandpa or with any family unit, if grandma and grandpa are cool with using cannabis, then it trickles down to the rest of the generations. And as each family was becoming okay with it, then the community attitude changes. So that’s what we’re trying to do with the Trade Council is really understanding the needs of our market, of our industry to collectively try and find products and services as a number and start creating really amazing campaigns that are happy, positive, uplifting, light hearted and a little bit provocative maybe, and change the narrative on the heavy the government base and just start creating conversations and giving light to what is also part of cannabis, which is having fun, laughter, lightheartedness and, you know, positivity. So that’s what we’re doing. And today we just launched our 2023 full spectrum report guidelines for responsible advertising in cannabis. So if you go to CannabisMediaCouncil.com, you can download the report. It’s very insightful. It’s going to be very useful. We really want to start bridging the gap between brands and operators and media about how we can all really support each other and really try to change the narrative that way.
[00:32:14] Salwa I love that so much. It’s so needed. Thank you so much for leading that charge and thank you for that explanation. I get it now. All right. So what is taking up most of your time these days?
[00:32:28] Lulu We are sending a buyers club. We did a test. I mean, we’ve been focused with On the Revel with our conference called Revelry, and that’s been very much like a signature talk, almost like a TED Talk conference and education series. And then as our market came online, we kept on hearing like friends at Dutchie and in Jalen, who were helping a lot of the card folks are like, Oh my gosh, The key thing we kept hearing is like, they don’t know. The folks that are getting the retail licenses have no understanding of how to connect with the supply chain operators. And I’m also a retail committee member for CANY, Cannabis Association of New York. And it was like, well, how do we get in touch with the retailers? So we decided to do what we do best is we create a room and we invited all the card folks, we invited all of the supply chain folks, we put them in the room, shook it all up, and that was the beginning of our New York operator to operator trade show. We’ve always wanted to do that. That was like on the vision board, but it just seemed like a really daunting task to do something so big. But we’re doing kind of, again, design thinking methodology is create something small, see what works, see what doesn’t work, and then go bigger. So June 22nd, we’re holding our second Buyers Club up in Hudson, and it’s going to be the celebration of our second planting here. And there’s 300 licensees for Card. We’re hoping to get about 150 of them up there and to connect directly with our cultivators, processors and brands.
[00:34:07] Salwa I love that. So much, that’s going to be a very special event. I would highly suggest if you get an invitation to go to this event, please take the time and go because your network is gold.
[00:34:19] Lulu Exactly. And it’s really beautiful to see the baby industry that’s forming and now is the time to make those relationships. And so if you want to come through, like be my guest. I would love to have you.
[00:34:32] Salwa I appreciate that.
[00:34:33] Lulu Lauren in compan will be there and Node will be there. So come visit.
[00:34:38] Salwa I would love that. I will definitely do my best. I’m an event person. One of my things that I’ve done in my career was basically change Prop 64 to allow cannabis to be at events other than things that trade shows, so have the cannabis be at concerts and things like that. And then we closed that year by doing 2019 Grasslands at Outside Lands, which was a major mainstream music festival. So I’m an events person through and through. And I think that events are the cornerstone of our community. I don’t think our community would be as broad or as ahead if we didn’t have or cherish our events. And I have to tell you, throughout my career, being in the cultivation, being in extraction, being in distribution, being in retail and all of the things, there has been so many times that I needed my ass saved and something moved or something purchased or whatever, and it was a person that I knew that saved me, that I met at a conference, that I did this thing. So it’s your network is so important. And every single person I’ve had on this show, which is going to be your next question, I asked them, What advice would you give to someone who’s just starting out? And so far, the consistent answer has been broaden your network, go to the events. But Lulu, I pose it to you now.
[00:36:04] Lulu I’m going to say always do your due diligence, whether it’s a business partnership, a licensing partnership, any type of partnership, always do your due diligence. I think it’s really crazy to me. For example, when you’re renting an apartment, right, they do a background check or credit check. But when we go into these relationships in cannabis, no one even does that. And that’s just bizarre to me. And I’m saying this from personal experience, having to pay things for not doing these basic things, just Googling people. Also, I like to Google their name and lawsuit and their state because very interesting things come up. So the things that I’ve been burned with the most is not doing proper due diligence and it can be really, really helpful in saving a lot of heartache, a lot of time and a lot of legal things.
[00:37:01] Salwa And it’s amazing, too, because like, I feel like this is a good PSA and I’ve been thinking about this a lot because there’s a lot of legacy people who have deep roots in the industry. They have brands, they have things that they built. And they enter into these agreements and it’s almost like they don’t take them seriously. Like they don’t take that like oh they’re just signing a contract. No big deal. But I am the brand, so they can’t do this without me mentality. And I can’t tell you how far from the truth that is. When you sign a contract, it is very much binding. I actually like think of The Little Mermaid because I’m going to go see it tonight with my daughter where Ariel made a shitty deal. But guess what? King Triton couldn’t tear that shit up because she signed it. Yeah. So she belonged to Ursula, and it’s the same thing goes for you and your brand.
[00:37:53] Lulu Facts. Like, okay, if you’re in legacy, there’s a lot of rules that come into play in regulated, which is people and lawyers and hiding behind your lawyers and bleeding you dry with lawsuits. I think is just really important, it’s so important, understand your contract. Don’t even just trust your lawyer to read the contract. Understand the contract yourself. Get familiar with the legalese because it’s so nuanced. Sometimes you just really, really have to just you have to stand up for yourself and understand what you’re doing. And outside of legacy, anybody like Cannabis legal is and.
[00:38:33] Salwa This goes into also not just making an agreement but taking somebody’s money. That’s a whole other like thing that you could go to jail for or you could get in serious trouble for. So it’s just a very… once lawyers get involved. You really have to be smart. And like Lulu said, it’s very important that you understand it. And don’t be shy about reading it. It’s in English. Read it, understand it, even if it takes you multiple days to get through the document, I assure you it’s worth it. So, yeah, thank you for that. That’s killer advice and that’s very important. All right. So as we close off, what are you most excited about? What do you think is the future of cannabis in New York? And. Paint a picture for me.
[00:39:21] Lulu So we’re continuing to do events. So we’ve got a buyers club. June 22nd, we have our block party in Brooklyn on the 26th and then next year, which is going to go big. So next year, in 2024 February, we’re combining both our conference speaking series with our trade show. I’m really excited about that. Now with our New York industry, I would really love to see all of our institutions be part of cannabis. I would love to see all of our schools doing testing, all universities of love for them to be participating in testing for cannabis. I would love to see the programs for branding and marketing that have cannabis as a project. So instead of our Department of Health doing RFPs with like million dollar agencies, I would love to involve our students that are getting the masters in branding and advertising. Start creating campaigns and use all of the brain trust that we have in New York as participating in creating an economy and creating an industry here in New York.
[00:40:28] Salwa I love that. I feel like that’s really important to keep that dollar circulating. Yeah, right, exactly. I love it. Thank you, Lulu. Thank you so much for your time, your energy. Thank you for the work you’re doing because like you said, New York is so pivotal to our entire global movement. And I so appreciate and it brings joy to my heart to know that there are people like you leading the charge and bringing people together and really championing what’s right. All right. So thank you again for your time today. Love to have you back on the show. And yeah, until next time, classmates keep on pursuing the high life. Thank you for listening to High Class. Please be sure to share the podcast and leave a review. If you’re ready to build a cannabis business that you can be proud of, start here today and head over to highsalwa.com to sign up for my newsletter. See you there.
