You're listening to your highness podcast. I'm your host, Diana crash. And today I am joined by will read of Cana planners and common sense to me. Did I say that right or is it sent to me? Yeah.
I think I think either will will pass in social context. I think you're good.
How are you doing today? Well,
I'm totally awesome. I'm a little sweaty. Like I just said, I was getting lunch for the team. So I was running back with hot pizzas in my hand. So luckily, this is an audio podcast. So I can't see how gross I look. We got
your cardio when you're getting the pizza. So I think
yeah, I don't think I'm not sure if that counts. Getting pizza. Yeah, that might not count. I think those kind of that's a negative sum there.
I don't know. I think any running I count as cardio. I hate.
I do have my whoop, my whoop strap will detect whatever it is I do. So it'll tell me if I'm good or bad person.
You're already at that level. I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm like, what is that? Is that some kind of tracking?
It's like a Fitbit sort of thing. It's just, it's a different you know, it's a different thing. It's but it's basically a Fitbit. So it tracks my sleep. It tells me how crappy I sleep. And you know how fat I am? And you know, to call my mom and you know, you know, call your mom enough? And you know, just makes me feel terrible.
Yeah, I'm not getting in on that at all.
No, it's actually it's actually fascinating, like the data it shows you. So I am I am not much of a like, I'm not a drinker. I'm not not a drinker, like I'm not a sober person, but I just don't really drink. But so you can see the effects of alcohol on your sleep like crazy. So usually I'll have I'm a pretty good sleeper. So it measures your recovery rates. So the the thing will tell you, you know, you've you've recovered 80%, which is you've had a really good night of sleep, right? But if I have a, you know, like a, you know, an old fashioned or some even just one drink one glass of wine with dinner, I'll register like 30 or 40% recovery rate, like it's crazy what that will do to you. Wow. Wow. Diana?
Yes, I haven't drank in over two years. And it's like you said it's not like a moral choice or anything like that. I just, yeah, alcohol just makes makes me feel bad. And yeah,
totally. Yeah, my, my wife and I went like, my wife and I went like a bunch of years. And then at the beginning of COVID, we moved to my family's vacation house and our psycho like we moved there permanently, because we were just like, kind of COVID nomads. But we were at the vacation house. And for some reason our psyche just changed and we were like, Oh, we're at the vacation house. Let's have a drink. You know, like, so we went from like literally not drinking to like, oh, it's Tuesday. Let's have a glass. You know. We have to figure it out. We had to figure that out real quick.
Yeah. COVID rehab at home, which is choking. So we're going to start this episode as we do every episode with our fav pot and faith not pot, which is our favorite cannabis related item and our favorite non cannabis related item if you couldn't tell by the name. So
I'm a listener. I'm a list. I'm a longtime listener. First time guest
Stop making me blush. Well, okay, we're trying to get through this podcast. All right. So I'll start with my fav pod. And I should say this this particular brand is not a sponsor. Not yet. I just keep talking about them because I can't help myself. I love every single thing that I'm I use. So my favorite part right now is Flora and best. They have a product called relief potion. And it's CBD. It's just 1000 milligrams of CBD. But the really cool thing about it aside from the fact that it's a great thing to do in the daytime because because it's very uplifting. Is that you can use it as a topical and an ingestible. Hmm. I mean, does that blow your mind a little bit?
Yeah, like so it's RSO
No, it's CBD oil that you can use as a topical. And I've actually tested this out, it works as a topical for like pain relief. And it's supposed to help get your body and mind back into balance during times of stress, anxiety and discomfort like CBD does. But I don't know if it's the cult of our it's Hawaiian haze. I don't know, you know, but who knows? Yeah, it's just really, I don't know, the the person behind it is a genius when it comes to creating these products. So yeah, I definitely would recommend it. And that's called Florida and best their relief potion.
We'll link it in the description, folks. I'm sure it'll be right down there. Click the buy it. Let's get it. Let's get on some sales.
No, seriously, though. Okay, so what is your favorite pot right now?
Can I just first tell you the anxiety that like I'm good at podcasting? Like I can have a conversation. But this specific segment has I've had anxiety about this for the last week. Like seriously, like, I'm like, I'm reconsidering my life choices. I'm like, do I say? Like, there's a lot of things happening. So so my fav pot right now, like we've got a lot of things going on at Cana planners. So we're a Vermont based company, and Vermont is opening its adult use doors. I don't know when you're releasing this, but from the day of recording in like nine days. So it's right down the road. So that's that's all to say that we've been so busy with all these last minute Vermonters up here who are just, you know, throwing products at us and having us, you know, asked me, I love it, it's a great problem to have. But we're inundated with work. So our office is like full of weed, right? So we just did, we just finished a branding prod project for a small tier one outdoor grower in the state of Vermont called this his family tree who is was a CBD producer. And still as a CBD producer, but it's transitioning over to the adult use market. And I just we finished the the the new doob tube roll and it looks great. And I was enjoying a sample earlier today before we finish the roll. So as you know, we've got all this great product here. I would say my favorite strain right now. Because there's still not like I can't go out and get like there's no products. You know, we could talk about CBD products. But there's no I can't walk into a store yet. So have me back and I'll tell you what my favorite Vermont product ends up being but I'm really enjoying a chem dog strain right now that was grown here in the state of Vermont. So that's what I've got on my desk. Yeah.
And I mean, I would say the fate pod is that Vermont is finally you know, getting this done, right?
It's crazy. Yeah, Walker
is but also really great. In some ways. I think maybe, maybe not. Right?
No, totally. It's, it's for sure. Gonna be bonkers for lots of reasons. But also, like, I can chart the court the trajectory of my company based upon cannabis related legislation in the state, like, from basically decriminalization to, you know, today. So it's, yeah, it's, it is definitely crazy. Just just and, you know, I'm stoked on it. But just that perspective of it is like, wow, we've been doing this for you know, it's not that long in the, in the grand scheme of businesses. You know, it's we incorporated in 2017. But we started you know, I started trying to figure out where I wanted to fit into the Vermont adult use market because I knew it was coming, like in 2013 or something, you know, so it's, it's been a while it's, it's crazy to see, I'm so psyched, we're here.
Wow. So now these seeds that you sowed years ago, right are finally coming into full bloom.
Yeah, puns intended like a wholeheartedly for sure. I mean, Vermont was a little bit ahead of the along with a couple other states. We were a little bit ahead of the nation in regards to the farm though. So there are lots of CBD companies. Prior to like, the National CBD, boom, like there was, you know, dozens and I think, in just a few years, it went from like, eight licenses to like 300 licenses or something like that. So, you know, over again over the course of like, maybe maybe two years maybe. So there was there was a lot for, you know, there was a lot of opportunity for Kana planners to kind of figure out who we were and what kind of impact we hope to have with these companies that were also figuring that out for themselves. You know, at the same time, we were all like, babies, you know, entrepreneurial babies.
Yeah. Well, that's really cool. I'm glad that you were able to make it through all of that, because a lot of digital marketing agencies didn't.
Okay, it happens.
So, yeah. All right. So my fav, not pot is actually our new sponsor, because it is a product that I use every single day. So I feel really good about promoting it. If you're new to the idea of kratom, there's a lot to be a lot to find out there. But it falls under the umbrella of plant medicine. And it's what really got me into plant medicine. And some people pronounce it differently. Kratom kratom. Cortisone? I don't know. So I might not be pronouncing it correctly. But our new sponsor is Mitra Gaya. MITRAG, ay, ay ay. And you can go to their website matricaria.com. And enter the code YH pod for 10% off. And if you purchase it on a Wednesday, you'll get double points if you sign up for their loyalty program, which I definitely recommend. But it really helps me with my pain relief. I have chronic pain, and it really helps with my Crohn's disease as well. So if you are looking to expand your plant medicine profile, definitely look into kratom. Because for me, it was like,
I don't know much about that stuff. I've obviously like heard about it over over the last few years. I know it's, I guess my legal
in Vermont, so that's probably why you haven't.
It's not. You're saying it's illegal here.
Correct.
Oh, wow. I didn't even know that. That's crazy. But it shouldn't be because I guess maybe you can confirm or debunk. But like I've heard that. It's incredibly helpful to people with, you know, fighting certain addictions.
Oh, absolutely. I actually have written about that. Thank you for bringing that up. episode about that coming up.
On the description, folks. It'll be right down below.
There you go. Yes, but it does. It has it helps me I was on prescription pain, pain medicine for years. And that's what helped me transition off of that. So. And it's also used in rehabs like in Maine and in other places as well. Like alternative rehabs, not ones that are controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. But anyway, so I don't want to get off on a rant on that one. But
check, go for it you need to do right away. It's your broadcast. Well, I
have been using this brand for years. So I do feel great about this partnership. And I'm hoping that people can really benefit from the code. Especially when they're having all these great deals. So anyway, what is your favorite not pot? Well,
so this is the part that's been driving me crazy, like the pot parts easy. I have, you know, that part's easy. I am thinking about this question. I'm like, you know, I'm looking at myself in the mirror and I'm saying self you are the biggest loser because i i There's no good TV out right now. You know, the Lord of the Rings remake is sucks and like all the Marvel crap is crap and everything else is garbage and get off my lawn. But there's, you know, I'm not enjoying pop culture, maybe that much right now. And well, I just keep coming back to my company that sounds so lame, Diana, but like, my favorite thing right now and forever and has been for the last few you know, many years is this sounds so stupid. I'm such a loser. But walking into my office, like I love you know, there's a genuine I mean, it gives me genuine joy like for real you know, and even leaving at the end of the day when I turn the lights off, you know, because I'm the you know, the last person to leave usually. You know, I'm so grateful just so and that feeling I'm not getting anywhere else. not reading anything cool. I'm not you know, there's no no cool new podcasts that I'm listening to. Yeah, so it's my company is so self serving and lame.
Not at all you have to be if you aren't then who will be I mean come on now. And also it's like it is actually yeah, it is actually true. And also this, this market being In digital marketing, market, industry, not even cannabis is so oversaturated. So when you have a company that is like, value, you know, they're providing quality services, it's, it's really exciting to be a part of that and to know that you're doing something that's providing value to people's lives. And that's like means so many different things in what you're doing. So I think that's awesome. And I bet you the people that work with you just love that. And they probably feel that energy and they love coming to work every day or doing their work. That's amazing. That is a huge, huge deal. I would be so excited if I were you. I definitely love what I do. That is something we all want, right? Like that is the ultimate, you know, I mean, it's like to be that secure, knowing that you love what you're doing. And even if you get frustrated with like, the BS everyday stuff, yeah, the global feeling of being like, secure in what you're doing and knowing what you're doing something, let
me just articulate how much of a loser I am. So I suppose Vermont State law says you don't, you know, employers don't need to give their employees health insurance until they reach a headcount of 50. And that was just not going to fly for me. And one of my goals this year was doing that. And it was as boring and vanilla. And as much paperwork. As you know, like, it was the most excruciatingly boring thing that I've probably ever done. But I actually found joy in it, because I knew like, the larger implications of what I was doing here, I'm kind of a late bloomer, in my entrepreneurial, like, I didn't start my company, I'm going to be 42 in a couple days, like, I didn't start my company, when I was young, I didn't drop out of school to start this or anything like that. You know, I don't have that perspective, I started as a grown ass man, you know what I mean? So like, there's always been this, this kind of compromise, I don't know, whatever you want to call it I had with myself, which is like, I'm either gonna, like this is either going to be the smartest thing I've ever done, or this will just be a colossal fuckup that, you know, like, I can laugh about maybe one day, but so far, it's, you know, it's working. And even doing things like getting health insurance for, for my team, you know, my team of 13, there's only 13 of us. It was such an important thing in order to because like you said, there are a billion friggin digital, like, Forget digital marketing, like just website company, you know, like exactly, just that there's a billion of them. And they like, you know, I'm sure everybody who's listening has been, you know, hit up on LinkedIn or whatever, by, you know, everybody in their grandmother who builds websites, like we're not we're not, you know, this isn't groundbreaking. Business, a groundbreaking business model that we have. But what we are, what I do recognize is just the time and place of the whole thing like the, you know, people say, the gold rush, and I hear that, and I don't think about it in terms of profitability, like there's not, you know, we're not getting gold, but we what we are at is the dawn of an industry, right? Like, that's really what that means to me, like the Gold Rush was just a certain time in place in history were something new is happening industrially. So I for sure, recognize that. And, you know, gone are the days of me being able to like, Woo an employee with bad pay and no benefits based purely on the fact that we like do stuff in the cannabis industry. Like no one gives a shit about that anymore. Like we have to be. We gotta be real.
Well, I can say someone has worked for many of these agencies. You're an outlier in the fact that you are just enjoying this experience of creating such a great workplace for your team. And that is what's going to set you apart um, you forget about cannabis and everything else. I've never worked for somebody who in the digital marketing space, even people who are my own family. I've never heard them speak like that about you know, caring about what kind of quality that you're offering them as a job and not just not just putting the opportunity in front of them, you know, like, oh, yeah, get to work in cannabis, because that happens way too often. And yeah,
totally. Totally. And also, no one cares anymore.
No, no one cares. Literally, no one cares, especially when you live in a state that penalizes you for being cannabis user and makes it so that you can't work in cannabis. So Yeah, I don't know, how isn't that but I actually I do know, what am I talking about?
Legal? We're good. We're good here moved to Vermont moved to Vermont. I was gonna say, though, to your, to your point? Absolutely come on up now, to your point, that was the, that's the bigger picture that I see because like, when I first started the company, there was a, you know, a slightly altruistic mission, which was, you know, normalization it's not an uncommon mission in this industry anymore, like you hear, I mean, you work for a magazine, you know, you write for a magazine, that, that, you know, that's their, that's their mission as well, you know, Canon curious. That's, you know, part of their tag there. So, like this idea of normalizing, and we can get into what that means if you'd like, but like, that was an important thing to me. So like, the thing I learned as the years have gone by is like that, that only gets you so far in your output, meaning like, we can normalize the, the, you know, our clients, cannabis brands with the output that, you know, the work that the deliverables that we give them, you know, we're giving them responsible, you know, brand design, we're giving them excuse me, responsible and retail, ready packaging, you know, design, like we're managing the website creation and avoiding pitfalls that, you know, cannabis companies should avoid. All those things were important in the beginning, because it kind of it kind of legitimized, what I hoped our mission statement was normalizing the cannabis industry through beautiful design and powerful web solutions. But then, as the company grew, and that output, you know, that output was high ever since day one, like, we're, we've been putting out, straight up, you know, I'm biased, but we've been putting out hits since day one, you know, we we only make awesome shit. And it's because like, in the beginning, it again, validated our mission statement. And then as the company grew, and we were doing more and more work, like all these other things, like getting health insurance, or, you know, whatever the internal big task of the of the month was, those things normalized us, which then normalized, you know, it's, it's a cert, it's for sure, you know, cyclical, you know, the whole normalization thing isn't just, you know, us making a logo that doesn't detract any person, right. It's, it's about how I run this company. It's about it's about that for sure. But it's also about how I run this company, kind of, you know, how are we? Yeah, it I just think, you know, we're, I'm, I'm figuring this all out as the company goes, every month, I'm for sure challenged and learning something new. And hopefully, it all plays a normalization.
So am I correct to assume that the podcast was something that was created to help your business grow?
Yeah, that was totally, I mean, I would say it still is, I mean, it was totally self serving. It is self serving, you know, I and that's not to say I don't enjoy doing it, I thoroughly enjoy doing it. I thoroughly enjoy the logistics of doing a podcast, like I love learning about a person and then maybe like, you know, like, when we did our, our conversation, like, I tried to insert personality into that, but for sure, the goal, the you know, the the impetus was self serving, and I started the podcast, you know, during right after quarantine, when it's like, I wasn't going to trade shows, I wasn't like, you know, my account management was kind of shitting the bed because my personally, because we were growing and I now had people so I wasn't like talking to clients really as much as I had used to. I wasn't out there as much. So it acted as a kind of a replacement for some of those things that we did pre COVID. And now Thank God we're doing them again. But yeah, but it was, you know, it's it's, it's, I definitely don't have podcasts are on my resume. You know, it's, it's, yeah, it's the market mine.
I'm not even.
I gotta be I gotta be honest, I haven't had a resume in so long. It's like, I don't even have that file on my computer anymore. You know what I mean? Like, it's so awesome. Maybe I'm putting all my eggs in one basket, but I'm hoping I never have to write one ever again. I don't think I could, I wouldn't know where to begin.
But yeah, I've been having to drag my note lately and it's it's a mess. About the name of your Yeah, no, it is. So let's talk about your name of the podcast, which I love. Is it. Common Sense Samia? Common Sense, Amelia? Yeah, what do you call it? What do you call
Are you common sense to me. Yeah, no, I do the the Latin Double L. Since me Yeah.
Censor me Yeah. Censor me Yeah. All right. I like that. So how did you come up with that name?
I didn't. My producer Tyler who is amazing. Did we had something like, you know, the industry and podcasting. You know whether you're an improv group, a cannabis company or a podcaster, there has to be some stupid pun somewhere. Somehow, you've got to do it. So I can't remember what the podcast was called at first. But it was something even stupider and then. Yes, Tyler, Tyler came up with that gem, and it just kind of it stuck. naming things is a really hard thing
to do. Yeah, it is. I we came up with ours actually, it was it was somebody else, because my original co host had a logo that she had paid for. And it was called her. Your Royal Highness. That was something she was doing series of something. And I got rid of the Royal so I had something to say about it. But yeah, it sticks with you. And then you have to figure out how to make it fit. So how does it fit with your show? Like? Yeah, it's a common sense topics. Yeah.
I, so my favorite podcast forever was how I built this. And I will say that, like, you know, I don't have an MBA. I was tangentially, you know, I will say, tangentially involved with maybe a few startups in, you know, in my past experience, but mostly, I was a nine to five dude. Like, you know, I, after college, I was in a band for many years. And that's actually what I did for a living for a few years, but then I just became a nine to fiver. So I never really had any entrepreneurial experience. And then when kind of, I realized that I was a bad nine to FiVER, right? I was getting older, I was, you know, maybe had younger bosses, younger managers, who were maybe I felt were, you know, whatever, not fill in the blank, whatever, you, you know, right. Yeah, you could relate, you know,
I have problems with authority to,
you know, all that stuff, just to our goals, and let's say our goals, not aligning, let's put it that way. You know, these were things I was becoming self aware about. And, you know, I was like, I'm, you know, I need something more in my life. So, that's, that's when, you know, what do I do? And I think in the early days, my wife and I, you know, kicked around the idea of like, buying a gas station, you know, we were just like, throwing shit against the wall and figuring out like, okay, like, what kind of life do we want to lead? Like, how do we, you know, it's, you know, which is the most hardest, but simplest question to ask, you know, one ask, asks oneself is like, how do I want to live like, people don't often stop and think about that. And we wanted to be more flexible and autonomous in our life. So, you know, starting a company is, is what you do, when, you know, those are all the variables, you, you go out and strike it out on your own. So that's all to say, like, I didn't have any, like, experience running a business at all. And I definitely had preconceived notions of like, I wasn't, you know, smart enough to do this, or like, I don't have the experience to this or like, I need to go to business school or like, whatever, you know, like, whatever those voices in your head, say, you know, whatever, self doubt creeps into your brain, like, you know, I was definitely experiencing all that shit. So the podcast, how I built this, which is an NPR podcast, where the host interviews entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs that you know, you know, owners of companies that you definitely use that podcast lended a whole new perspective. Because all of the people he interviewed and they're all Fortune 500 company owners, they're all billionaires, you know, they're hugely successful people. None of them, you know, almost none of them had an MBA, almost none of them had any entrepreneurial experience. You know, I could relate to a lot of these people who I put on a pedestal because of their success, and didn't know like, oh, there's a human behind that success story like and it's relatable. So that podcast like I was hugely impactful in just my confidence, right? i At the very least knew that, hey, if, if this doesn't work, like whatever it was, like, if this idea doesn't work, there's another idea, or at the very least, there's always a nine to five job, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not getting any younger, I can take this, I don't have any children, I can take this risk now. And put all of my energy into it and see where it goes. So that podcast really, you know, helped, helped me. So when I was figuring out what to do during quarantine, and how to be active and still have, like, still build content and all that stuff, I just straight up ripped off that podcast. And I was like, I want to talk to cannabis entrepreneurs. And I want to de stigmatize fear and self doubt, and all that stuff. And like, you know, give the same perspective that I was able to get from the podcast, how I built this to, you know, a whole a specific industry. So, really, what what, you know, the common sense of it all, so to speak, is just that. You just have to be a just just go for it. Like, it's usually the simplest solutions are the right ones. Yeah, so that that was kind of the impetus. And that's kind of where, you know, the, if the title plays into it at all, that's, that's how,
