Speaker #1

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back with episode number five of Welcome to the future. And in today’s episode, it is titled going green. And we have none other than Mr. Steve Cantwell with this of green light productions, sir. Welcome to the podcast. How are you? Good. Thanks for having me. Everything is going well with your day. Oh, good. Good, good. Also sitting down with us, we have Mr. Ben Arnet who is our co-founder and president and folks. And then also we have Mr. Mike Howard, who is our cultivation liaison here. Anything you need to know about growing, doing it the right way and being successful? This is the guy you want to know. In this episode. We’ll get more into that. I’ll be starting off. We’ll kick it to Steve. How did you get introduced to cannabis? Let’s talk about that. First, Let’s kick it straight there.

Speaker #2

Well yeah, I guess as a youth kids that were older than me and cooler than me. Smoking weed. Yeah. Kind of that story. Yeah. Since I was teenager.

Speaker #1

I read around like 12 your first experience while you were introduced kind of to around that age, right? 

Speaker #2

Yeah about 12 years old.

Speaker #1

Nice. Now how did it grow from 12 to graduating high school, then UFC? And how did that connect?

Speaker #2

Well, I grew up in a small town that didn’t have a whole lot going on. So cannabis was just one of the funnest things to do. And it was not fun shit to do. funner so now just grew, grew up just you know, smoking cannabis doing just small town prom shit. And then I got into a lot of fights. Whenever I wasn’t smoking weed, I was always kind of getting in trouble fighting, got kicked out of high school, and then moved to Las Vegas. While I started training, martial arts, I won’t kick gym, I did that for a while. And then once I started coming to his end, I quit smoking through that whole period of my life for the most part. And then once that came to an end due to injuries and things like that, it was kind of reintroduced to cannabis. And more like a medical side of things versus recreational. And then yeah, I fell back in love with Mike, my first love, so to speak. And as the rest is kind of falling into place.

Speaker #1

Now I read that your wife took you or she made your first doctor’s appointment with the medicinal doctor. Correct. That was like the transition to medical use.

Speaker #2

Yeah, she was after my last fight. I fought in Japan. And yeah, I took a pretty good ending, my career is pretty rough on the injury side. And she didn’t want to see me go through it with all the pain pills and go down that road. See how she kind of held my hand and did all the back in the day. Like we had to get a medical license. It wasn’t just like, go to your doctor like California wasn’t like yeah, I have a sore foot, give me some weed cards, whatever. Now you had to like, get fingerprints and yeah, and then go to a doctor and you know, this is insane that the hoops they made you jump through. And so we did the whole thing. And it was one of the first or not one of the first but yeah, back then, like was it? Like 10 years ago? Yeah, so whatever, you know, 10 years ago 2017 2012 1012 Yeah. So it’s been a while.

Speaker #1

When did you guys first come into contact with Green Life Productions? How did you guys get introduced to it?

Speaker #3

We got introduced to green light productions when he was looking for LEDs to test he had started as 100% led out the gate. Really one of the first guys you know that was doing it commercially as well, especially with living soil. And after four or five years, obviously, it was just time to look at some new tech and you know, fortunately we were both in Las Vegas and had an opportunity to link up he tested a couple of our fixtures and you know the results spoke for themselves I’m not sure what was the first time we grew it was like how much bigger than the there was almost like twice the size of the plant.

Speaker #2

I kind of burned you guys though.

Speaker #3

Oh yeah. We tried. We tried to forgot about that. 

Speaker #2

I was brought to a facility and they showed me their lights. And they were very early on. This was when the lighting industry was really exploding. And I just to be honest, he just was a little nervous because they were a new company and they had all these crazy new ideas and I was like a little like, no pump the brakes like I’m not gonna go this direction right now. And then fast forward to about I think was like a year and a half later half later on after those testings, cultivation. Yeah, I was testing some new lights for our facility. And they seem to make a post showing some lights. And anyways, they reached out and we went full circle and I tested their light through the white up against some other leading brand lights and it just smashed everything there wasn’t even close to in that moment. That false light was the light for you. Yeah. 100% Oh, yeah, these guys are definitely going somewhere. So at the end of day, it’s not just you. You really got to know the company because not just in that Passing in the technology, you really got to make sure there’s a good company behind it to be around to honor that warranty for sure. An X amount of time.

Speaker #3

That’s a good point. They’re not even around two months. They’re out of business in two years. That don’t make sense, you know, how convenient the warranty lasts. 10 years product is out and your business is stuck.

Speaker #1

Yeah, definitely wasn’t the motto, but you see it all the time. I mean, there’s some companies that I mean, super reputable, but out of nowhere, something hits them hard. And next thing you know, they can take care of warranties or, you know, you go to get replaced apart or, you know, call someone on the phone and you get to, you know, no signal line or something. So,

but a typical response, give us an email and we’ll someone from our customer service team will reach out to you but no one reached out. 

Speaker #2

From the beginning, these guys have definitely shown their true colors and shining it throughout always helped us. I’ve never left us hanging. So and to be honest, I have a lot of problems with our products. So it’s always convenient to but any issue we’ve ever had was always been, you know, taken care of appropriately.

Speaker #1

So before we move forward, let’s talk about Green Life Productions name. Where’d you get the name from for Green Life Productions and you know the origin. Let’s talk about that.

Speaker #2

We were trying to come up with something new, something that kind of spoke, what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to make like my goal was to taste like cannabis and use it as like a gateway drug to like more sustainable ways of living. First off, just how to grow plants and how to kill the earth with soil and healthy soils. So it’s kind of hold it is this green life production, the making of green light green being that whole green movement and regenerative regenerative? So, why this regenerative approach to this healthier lifestyle? So Green Life Productions kind of came to mind, I think my buddy Scott, I mentioned a name Trikon productions was he wasn’t he wasn’t the song called Trikon productions. And I liked that. I didn’t want to rip them off. So I just took the production part. So shout out to Scott!

Speaker #1

How has it changed your family? Obviously, with you being a UFC fighter than to now being a full business owner with green life? How has life changed a bit?

Speaker #2

Yeah, life is way different. From being a professional athlete to to, somebody gets to smoke and grow cannabis all day is a polar polar bug and opposite, honestly. So but yeah, as far as how my family ticket, it’s cool. I mean, I’ve gotten to like heavy like crazy religious people in my family, nothing like that. But he’s pretty. My parents are pretty hippies to the max. All grew up in like rock bands and, and shit like that. So they smoke the GOP.

Speaker #1

I mean, judging from the success of you can’t be too mad, right? I mean, you kind of have to be a little bit happy.

Speaker #2

But I mean, for me, the hardest thing was talking to my family, my coaches, my coaches for martial arts, they were more reserved, not cannabis friendly. So kind of that was more touchy than actual family members, to be honest, but they’re cool. They all understand. And again, the success kind of speaks for itself. You know, cannabis helped me out tremendously. They’ve seen it, so I can’t argue it.

Speaker #1

I mean, once you get into the science, I mean, especially at what we do here a FOHSE it falls between the science and engineering with LED outside of just cannabis. It’s such a bigger world outside of it just being a controlled substance or whatever you want to call it, you know, however, people enjoy it, it has a lot of benefits.

Speaker #3

Yeah, and Steve has actually took it to the next level and even sponsored athletes and you know, MMA in, you know, around town too. And I mean, people don’t talk about it enough. And obviously, the UFC is kind of fronting that fight for everyone kind of saying maybe we should let people smoke cannabis as it relates to recovery. And, you know, is it really a performance enhancing drug? Or is it something that should be used? Like, do you want to give them oxy cotton or you want them to smoke some weed? It’s like, what are we really doing here? So it’s pretty fun to see a lot of sports change especially with UFC and MMA kind of kind of leading that charge.

Speaker #1

Now what are your thoughts on that? Considering times were a bit different when you were a fighter with UFC and some of their rules and regs with marijuana? What are your thoughts on it now? 

Speaker #2

I mean, I’m not hating it. That’s what they want to do. I mean, I don’t think I would smoke cannabis all that much as a professional athlete honestly, it’s just as good as it can do. It’s also I think it could kind of stifle you a little bit as far as just your you want to be hungry you want to be you want to be uncomfortable you if you’re continuing you’re not champion, you should be uncomfortable until you get that belt. You should be hungry, you should be you know, all these things. They feel like cannabis is on a curve. So I feel like cannabis would be kind of counterintuitive. If you don’t use it, you have to be really strict. Maybe just use it at night for recovery. And be very strange specific, but I wouldn’t recommend it makes you comfortable. You know, like I don’t even like before train camps. I wouldn’t even like hanging out with my wife too much. Trying to get to that warrior mentality, I need to try to enjoy the process the suffering a little bit. So I feel like cannabis could kind of disrupt that old, especially on like younger athletes or younger fighters. But definitely on the older ones I see it being you know, if used correctly, because he had been beneficial.

Speaker #1

Do you have a lot of guys come back and reach out to you to talk about it like current fighters to kind of talk about your journey up until this point?

Speaker #2

Yeah. And I mean, and I just, as far as cannabis goes, yeah, they’re always asking questions, what’s training, especially not, I tell them the same thing, like, it’s not gonna help them fight better, I wouldn’t take it like, I wouldn’t be smoking too much. But I mean, getting fighters deal with a lot of shit, they have a lot of their own issues. So you can’t really judge them. You never know what they’re going through. For sure.

Speaker #1

I look at it, like whatever it takes to get you to show up as long as you show up to do the job. Granted, I mean, I want you to be your best, but whatever I can do to get you to show up in the best state that I can get you at this point. So be it. I mean, I see how a lot of guys, I mean, during my time in boxing, I would see, I will get a front row seat to kind of how he will look after a fight, you know, and the days after, and that’s the part that you don’t see like the beat up, the bloody face is swollen, you can’t walk. So it’s kind of good. I actually think it’s a great idea that fighters are getting the opportunity to explore additional healing properties. Because the longevity of their body with over the counter drugs and pills is just not long term. It’s not sustainable. Not at all. Has that improved, like your quality of cannabis, or some of the products that you offer? Considering you think about athletes as well?

Speaker #2

Yeah, and just just I used to be an athlete, so that I got the benefit of starting off in the medical days of the MediCal program. And back then it was, it was a really exciting time, people were, were super stoked on like, all the different scientists, as far as terpenes, and cannabinoids and this, that, and all the entourage, this and, and all these things was a really exciting time, as soon as it went recreational. Like, everybody’s mindset just completely changed. And it was just like 30% 40%. So luckily, as an athlete coming from the medical days, I feel like it definitely like I’ll keep some strains, that really, at first glance, may not be all that great looking. But then if you look over, like the terpene profile, like, oh, shit, yeah, you know, five milligrams of this rare terpene that, you know, no, nothing else has. So you’ll kind of see why it’s around. But you have to kind of look past that, you know, 20% THC levels, or whatever the norm is now.

Speaker #1

So Mike, let me ask you. So obviously, you deal with a lot of cultivators and making sure that they have what they need or that they’re in the right position. To start off, what would be some of the advice that you give cultivators, like Steve, who may be entering into it from a medicinal standpoint, but now going into recreational, you know, scaling their business to be for servicing recreational.

Speaker #4

I mean, cultivators, like Steve, I wouldn’t give advice he does. Those are the guys that you give the lights and you kind of let them run with, right? There’s, there’s like certain nuances, obviously, you know, you can bounce ideas off each other with but yeah, there’s certain guys, you can just throw lights and write and learn something from by watching them do what they do in a slightly different way. Steve’s a great example of, you know, just someone that you can learn from by watching him do what he does.

Speaker #1

How instrumental would you say your role is just for people that are making that transition to really wanting to educate themselves, as well as grow quality product in launching their their business?

Speaker #4

I mean, every facility needs something different, right? So sometimes I help out 1%, sometimes 0%, sometimes I’m a lot more hands on, whether it’s a new state that goes legal and has kind of new guys adapting for the first time or even growing for the first time, obviously, you need to be a little bit more hands on with them. So I mean, every facility is a little bit different. And it’s just trying to figure out that nuance to where you can help them succeed.

Speaker #1

Nice. Now speaking of Ben, let’s start here. So obviously, they had our first fixtures. What is one of the challenges that you see with getting a new business or an exam? Obviously, Steve does everything right. So this wouldn’t be him. This is hypothetical, that everything but he does majority of what he’s supposed to right. But for the people that are trying that are struggling, what’s one of the things that you look at that you would advise them with switching over to LED?

Speaker #3

I think it’s a multiple part thing you got to imagine every time you open up a new market, it’s those first adapters, those first people to license those first people putting plants in the ground, they’re going to have a competitive advantage over anyone else as it relates to building their brand, working out any kinks in their system. But at the end of the day, in the next five years, you’re gonna see a serious rush of people trying to figure out how to reduce the cost per pound and how they can grow the most of it and the highest quality of it. I mean, that as the as the name of the game, right? So if you’ve got equipment that is down the street growing twice as much as you for 20% cheaper and they’re, you know flippin faster than you and they have an amazing team that’s just like, you know, clockwork. There’s a lot of things you have to do. One is equipment. And that’s not The only successful grow though I mean, it’s it mean, it could almost be 5050 You got to make sure you have the right equipment, but you got to have the right driver too, you know, always going back to car analogies, but, you know, you know, 2000 horsepower, race cars and anything with a guy doesn’t know how to use it or a girl who doesn’t know how to use it. So is that the right cultivator, the right management team, the right strains, everything that goes along? I mean, you can just look at the cannabis industry, just one strain that’s hot right now. You’ll literally be made fun of and laughed at for growing in 12 months. I mean, that’s how fast this industry changes. So I mean, it’s staying on the cutting edge of the curve, and which is a very scary spot to be at, because you buy one piece of equipment and you’re just curious, like God, is this thing going to be worth anything? In a year or two? You know, before the warranty runs out, I am gonna have to buy something new because the guy on the streets got something. So it’s a very interesting, obviously time for cannabis. But it’s very exciting time because now we have people actually building stuff for commercial cannabis growers, not just saying, yeah, we’ll use it for tomatoes, that will work for you too. So we’re seeing a lot of cool stuff come out and a lot of research being done. And we’re just excited to be obviously a part of that. But yeah, again, putting your best foot forward and making the right purchases, you know, by once, not twice. So doing it right the first time is huge. And if you can find some people to help you that have done successfully in other states, or near the same methodology or trying to, to copy or replicate, you know, get those guys on board and take care of them. The the amount of people that fail because they don’t take care of their growers or their team. It is beyond me, you get a couple guys that literally think they can. I just pay a OG grower to come in who knows what he’s doing. Teach two kids, you know, the same thing. And then they have one good harvest, they’ll fire the OG. And I’m like, Oh, my God, that’s such a foolish move. And then literally to harvest later, back in square one, the rooms that the plants looked at the you know, the people that that were trained aren’t even showing up. And it’s like, we’ve gotten those calls before.

Speaker #1

Understand the why, like you get it going the right way. You’re making money, making money, you’re having the data coming in, right, like you’re getting the dream that you want, and then it’s kind of I mean, do they make it? Do they feel that it is that easy to sustain without them?

Speaker #3

Oh, 100% It’s crazy. I mean, I think everyone in this room has probably seen or been through a scenario like that, where you’re like, you go to help some guy out, you start helping them and then they try to get out of it, because they think they got it figured out. And then six months later, they’re knocking back at your door. It’s just bonkers. And it’s it’s pretty crazy to see. And I’ve seen that happen. And be the reason cannabis grow takes a huge dive or isn’t as successful. More than anything else genetics equipment, otherwise, is them not being able to or them trying to, like screw over a team member or something like that. So it’s, it’s bringing the right team mom and then compensate them pay him for what they’re doing. Don’t be scared to write that check.

Speaker #1

Consistency is key. And that clearly you can check your operations in that there’s there’s no way.

Speaker #3

Yeah, when it comes to cultivation. I mean, that’s your integrity. I mean, if you go 25% THC and 4% Terps this time, and then the next run, you’re telling, you can’t call that the same strain. That’s, that’s not even that’s not good for your brand. 

Speaker #1

On this podcast we talk a lot about transparency. And that is something that we pride ourselves on here. I know Steve does with a great product that he offers and then as well with us at FOHSE. So before we go any further, let’s get into the product that you brought with you Steve, let’s talk about what you brought with you today.

Speaker #3

Oh, you know, I just tried to reach out for some different things, but not for too long. So I got some eeglab number nine, we had a couple females floating around. This was the winner of them. And then we brought some formats. I did a great pie format. And we did a coffee cubed format. So these are just straight Bubble Hash are not pressed. Okay? So they’ll leave a little grit and the nail but the flavors are worth it.

Speaker #1

Okay, good, good, good. We’re gonna get into them. Let’s see what’s the what’s the first one we’re gonna start with? Start with some flour. So for our listeners, although you cannot see if you are interested in watching the podcast, right now go over to fohse.com Click the top right tab, and you will see the podcast tab click down and all of the episodes up until this point will be there along with this one. So you can get into this next segment that we’re about to do we’re about to do some testing on some stuff that was brought into some goodies. So let’s see how it goes. Let’s see what we got.

Speaker #2

So this is a purple cough cross to lavender. There was a male and then it was crossed to the lab Mac one so we call it.

Speaker #4

That’s your in house breeding program?

Speaker #2

Yeah, we have a test room with Fohse lights. Really it’s really really nice light it’s especially for like the home grower. It’s the absolute I think it’s the perfect light personally.

Speaker #3

Steve’s got our A3i’s, our F1V’s and our greenhouse fixtures. 

Speaker #1

So the first one you tried from us was the A3i?

Speaker #2

Actually it was the F1V.  We originally set our records on to be honest X definitely be has gotten both records technically it has the first record yeah no it actually holds the record actually over a three I believe it or not actually it’s a love triangle add to check though because I think we just recently broke that record onto the eighth guy.

Speaker #1

So let’s start here. Welcome to the future everybody. This is what the future will consist of. Obviously, as we know, we’ve seen the news and all that the decriminalizing marijuana and a lot of states. Also if you guys have been paying attention to one of our earlier episodes, I think it was episode one where it all began. We may refer to the East Coast. Speaking of New York, New Jersey, Maryland and so on. They will be regulating cannabis so it will be a huge boom on the east coast in the near future. Um, but in the meantime, let’s talk the first time you remember getting stoned Mike? Oh man, boom you remember or one of the fondest a while ago, not the first one, let’s say your fondest memory of your first time being stoned or high. What would you say Steve?

Speaker #2

It was so similar. You guys mentioned earlier it was Jamie. Jamie Martin was a dude I grew up with I don’t know what the fuck happened to him actually, I think everybody does. But yeah, you’re out there. Hit me up IG. But not here. I went to his house. He was wild and asked us to do anything. And I smoked weed for the first time with him. He was again a football player older than me. But then the cool part was as I think my parents kind of, they were savage. What was going on? Because when I came home, that’s when they introduced me to teaching and Chong. So I came home after spending at my friend’s house getting stolen, I came home stoned, and then they fucking had Cheech and Chong playing up in smoke for the first time. That’s why I remember more than actually getting stoned. Jamie remembered coming home and watching Cheech and Chong, my parents.

Speaker #1

The first time you felt like, okay, I’m good at home like I’m, I think they’re good with me smoking. Was that the first moment that you noticed? We’ve embraced it.

Speaker #2

They never really disciplined it in a negative way they saw I mean, yeah, I knew it was cool. From the beginning. I guess you could say.

Speaker #1

Definitely have that be a great feeling knowing from sneaking as a kid to walk into the house and then your parents have Cheech and Chong playing. You’re like, Oh, perfect moment. It makes sense.

Speaker #2

About halfway through the movie, I realized I knew I was stoned, and wasn’t watching. I was like, they had to have known there’s no way this is a coincidence.

Speaker #1

What about you, Ben? Do you recall?

Speaker #3

I actually was with all my buddies. Like we were 14 years old. And we went over to my buddy’s house whose parents both work doubles or whatever, and they really just don’t give a shit. We go to the basement where skateboards are oversized D sheets, TC shoes on crack the window, like get for a breeze going. And we fuckin rolled up the shittiest little joint and then we had a little Chilam and we smoked some probably horrible mids back then. And then we went to Taco Bell. We skateboarder there and we thought we were like the coolest fucking kids and then went and got another Chilean fun 18 year old kid to buy for us at the smoke shop. And then yeah, we were basically all just hard asses.

Speaker #1

Mike, in the house for you? Or back of the car?

Speaker #4

It was in high school. I’m not sure what it was like freshman sophomore year just with my buddies out of a little children’s car. I think it was called Gecko or GEICO or some shit like that. That’s insurance. Yeah. That was the name of the piece as well. That’s okay, back to

I don’t know if I would have said something that was named after the insurance. I don’t know if that would have been assigned to me life insurance if I am taking this or do I not?

Right? No, I think I just went back home and ate ice cream. I mean, pretty. Standard first time.

Speaker #1

Wow. I would ever guess it would be like that. I would say this is my first time smoking. Hmm. To my parents if you’re watching this, this is gonna be an interesting segment. Let’s think on that. Hmm, I think I didn’t inhale you didn’t know. I think I was like 20. I did everything right up until like 20. And I think I experienced it like a hot box and going to storage in the backseat. And that was the first time I was just sitting back there like, oh, because Windows finally hit like hot box. I was just sitting in the backseat like, I’m gonna die. 

Speaker #4

Was that the version in case your parents were? 

Speaker #1

No, that was really good. I didn’t even smoke. I was just the response. Okay. Now, I’ll be a responsible driver. So I didn’t drink, I didn’t party. I was using the guy that was Haley, are you going to come back and get us at one get us at two. So when I was like, Alright, I’m not going to be squared, not gonna go in the house. Let’s hotbox in the backseat. And I was like, Oh, okay. Then I got out. And that was the first time I felt the high walking on space. That was first time after that. I say it was 21. And I’m going to college. So I didn’t really know about I mean, I had family and friends that used to enjoy and partake, but I was never the one that I was always the kid in the corner. Like mom says, Don’t smoke. Mom says don’t smoke. Then here we are later. I mean, I’m smoking podcast.

Speaker #3

My mom grounded me on my 16th birthday. They caught me smoking weed because someone at work told me and I had just got my license pass flying colors like 100% I’m stoked and she’s got this look on her face. And she’s like, I’m surprised you could because you weren’t stoned. I was like, I did that after the test. But then you fast forward like, you know, two decades and I was like, huh, pretty funny. Pretty funny. That plant that you got so upset about

my mind sometimes. Yeah. I think really when she goes to like Minnesota where it’s not legal and she just be like, ripping her pen in a bar and I’m like, you know, you can’t fucking do that right? Like they will arrest you. She thinks she’s so gangster. It’s so funny. I’m like, why would you want to do here? Brings bags of edibles everywhere she goes and CBD for the dog? Yeah. Even got the grandparents on it. They’re fucking loving it.

Speaker #1

Everyone’s like super. They have to be super chill.

Speaker #3

I mean, that’s the whole point. That’s why the medicine is so good. People take it for the side effects like no one raises their voice. When’s the last time you’ve heard your mom raise her voice since enjoying can and she’s

allowed lady so I mean, it’s often out of anger, but it helps. It helps. She doesn’t know what she’s smoking. No, no. She doesn’t know she just starts baking up a bunch of goods or starts trying to ask about grandbabies or something. She’s pretty chilled. No, but she’s a nighttime smoker she can smoke during the day but is still proud of her. Yeah.

Speaker #1

For sure. We’ve come a long way from penalizing and punishment to partaking with your parents. We’ve come a long way. I mean, that also talks about I think they also talks about the magic of cannabis because it’s such an ever it’s such an ongoing narrative that changes and then once you add in the science and you add in the engineering behind it it’s it’s a whole different ball game you know it’s a respectable thing. 

So here we are. It’s 2022 Steve, what do you see for Green Life Productions? What do you see for the next 10 years?

Speaker #2

You know, I just live in the now you know I’m just I’m over kind of trying to forecast and I’ve had a million tire kickers corporate tire kickers over the years I’ve had a million got excited million times for a million reasons now I’m just enjoying what I have making the most of it we started a farm this year. So we’re growing produce now and see that as another cash crop if you will, that’s less regulated and a little easier to grow. So we’re doing that right now a good way to kind of keep giving back to the community and just do my thing man just chilling not rushing anything. As far as the 10 year plan goes. And 10 years. I just want to be happy as shit dude. At the end of the day, you know? Yeah, that’s my goal.

Speaker #1

Do you see yourself fully giving into farmer life at some point?

Speaker #2

I’m more like the dish, it’s all gonna fucking Karina down eventually and I want to be self sustainable side of things, you know, to a point so yeah, I mean I’m totally all part of it but I’ve always been to animals and gardening and, and plants okay I grew cannabis before I ever smoked it. So like for me like yeah, I’m just all about it just where do I have the time to spend? I don’t have no time to go full time, Farmer Steve and go this off grid regenerative lifestyle, like I would like to one day do but right now I’m just trying to, you know, get there?

Speaker #1

Well, like you said that could be included and part of the happiness. You know, at some point we read it and lay it down. All right, the cows are calling I gotta go.

Speaker #2

I’m just enjoying the process. At the end of the day. It goes

Speaker #1

What about you, Mike? What do you see next in years for cultivators? For how the industry is growing and blooming? What do you see?

Speaker #4

Man? It’s hard to predict how to dial everything’s? Yes, awesome. Yeah, I mean, it’s cool to see things functioning on such a narrow window now. Yeah. Growers yield quality. It’s all going up. And all this new tech coming in is awesome. There’s a lot of it. And it’s cool. But you got to filter it out, too. Right? There’s a lot of noise out there as well. So where I see it going, it’s really hard to predict. Yeah, we’ll just see where it takes us.

Speaker #1

What would you like to see from the industry considering you have such a monumental hand and cultivators and the success of their business? 

Speaker #4

More grower, more grower owned? Operations? I think that translates well, the product is always good. Part of the secret sauce for sure. 100% is I mean, it’s, you see the plants, you see the quality of the flower and most grower-owned facilities are banging out some amazing product. 

Speaker #1

What hinders that? What stops that from happening?

Speaker #4

Just the entry to the market. I mean, a lot of times, it’s harder for people who’ve been doing this to get into the market now with how the laws are structured.

Speaker #3

Yeah, I want to throw the grill where on the cap table, they don’t want to give them equity, they don’t make an equity pool part of the employment program or something like that. So there’s an easy way to get a grower to kick ass and die straight. Yeah, we’re keeping that company and then tell them it gets paid on per pound or THC percentage, just find a way to make it performance based and watch how good that product is.

Speaker #4

Give your growers equity. All right. That’s what I’m saying.

Speaker #2

Historically, farmers always get fucked. So it’s kind of translated into cannabis too. I mean, it’s more or less than just even giving them equity or giving them all the money, just giving them a respectable job with good hours, and just consistent work. Because they can’t even get that half form, you know.

Speaker #1

Respecting them for their contributions, because they’re a lot, they’re way more important than the respect level would give off to be, you know, a, you just think they’re a throwaway employee, but they’re literally the operations of the fund. 

Speaker #2

I have the, I will say, 90%, will all my managers have been there from the day we opened pretty much within the first like, yeah, my two growers, my trim room manager, office manager, they’ve all been there for seven years now. So we definitely respect our employees, it’s definitely part of the program. When I get paid, they get paid.

Speaker #1

Nice. What about you, Ben? I know you see it from all sides, you see it from the investor side, you see it from the regulation side and in markets that are on the horizon of, of crossing over. And you also see it from technology with LED engineering and science and stuff. How are you? What are your thoughts? What would you like to see? And then what do you see for the industry?

 

Speaker #3

Yeah, it’s just kind of interesting to see each state roll out differently. I think, obviously, seeing the amount of data collected now compared to the beginning where it was, you know, to get someone to give you their yield, even like weights, it was like coffee stain papers. And now we have elaborate spreadsheets and equipment that actually can track your data from, I mean, every five seconds to every 15 minutes, whatever you want. I think that’s pretty cool. Seeing the technology that’s actually built for this, this industry. Seeing some of the big operators come into place, and then seeing some of the craft guys like some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen is I mean, we got guys that are we’ve seen their product and where we go on their farm and it’s I mean it is out of this world. I mean it is completely bonkers. So again, kinda like what Mike said, seeing more of the grower owned or you know, grower, really grower has some equity in the operation. If you want to be competitive, I think that’s an easy way to do it. We have these markets like Oklahoma, where you’ve got 3000 cultivators. I mean, I think it’s kind of showing us what that will do to the price per pound in an area like that. And I mean, it almost makes it unfair for People who aren’t, you know, set capital wise. So there’s just a bunch of things I think are gonna have to happen as we roll out federally, and we’ll see what that looks like, but I mean as it relates to what I’d like to see I don’t know I’d like to see federal legalization so we can kind of see what that looks like. And make sure that we’re still testing like I think Michigan does a great job in Nevada where they limit the licenses but I mean, the quality coming out of those places is phenomenal and their markets are still looking super strong. So maybe just taking a couple tips from the states that are doing it right and you know, let’s let’s fucking legalize this thing.

Speaker #1

Let’s do it. Right. Hopefully the East Coast I know about mentioned that earlier. And we talked about it again in the first episode, but I know the East Coast is getting close. So I would love to see how that changes once New York once New York legalizes.

Speaker #3

New York and Florida are gonna be so much fun to play in those of you to really fun markets to watch because I think those will be like California almost where they kind of like you get to see really what people are feeling for sure.

Speaker #1

And I think tourism will increase because I mean, now everyone has to go to LA to smoke because you think you think we’d LA but now it’s completely different thinking East Coast New York Times Square smoking, it’s not it’ll be a complete mind change for everybody. Now that’d be massive for sure. Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you see the conversation has slowed down just a tad. Because we all have enjoyed it but I hope you’ve enjoyed a little bit of this episode and a little bit of the smoking segment on Mr. Cantwell is someone to definitely follow um, Steve for those that want to learn more about you. Where can they follow you and where can they get more information?

Speaker #2

Yeah, I guess Instagram is probably the best bet. Go to Green Life Productions spelled all the way out. Yes, because I’ve been shadow banned for like ever.

Speaker #1

But it’s Instagram we will tag you please.Okay, then I know the website is to make sure I’m quoting this right when they want to get the full info it is GreenLifeProductionsNV.com. We have episode six coming next week and cannabis has been a pleasure having you been. It’s always good, Mike. It’s always good. I look forward to seeing Mike more. You know, we’ll have to get him on camera. So please, if you guys can tag him make sure to find them online. He’s definitely a genius in what he does as well. He needs to be heard way more and of course you know the man with the plan must have been our net. You can never lose when talking to him. I’m Leo. This is again, Welcome To The Future. Thank you guys for watching, and we’re gonna smoke some more so stick around.