"From Dropout to Cannabis Entrepreneur: Salwa Ibrahim's Journey in the Cannabis Industry" OG cannabis industry pioneer, Salwa Ibrahim, shares her journey from being a college dropout to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the cannabis industry. Her story showcases her resilience and commitment to the cannabis industry. She joins Kyra Reed to talk about all the hurdles that she overcame to open her Oakland dispensary from securing the necessary permits to gaining political support. Produced By PodConx Kyra Reed - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrareed/ Women Leading in Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/women-leading-in-cannabis Salwa Ibrahim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/salwa-ibrahim-ba8485159/ Website - https://highsalwa.com/
"From Dropout to Cannabis Entrepreneur: Salwa Ibrahim's Journey in the Cannabis Industry"
OG cannabis industry pioneer, Salwa Ibrahim, shares her journey from being a college dropout to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the cannabis industry. Her story showcases her resilience and commitment to the cannabis industry. She joins Kyra Reed to talk about all the hurdles that she overcame to open her Oakland dispensary from securing the necessary permits to gaining political support.
Kyra Reed - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrareed/
Women Leading in Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/women-leading-in-cannabis
Salwa Ibrahim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/salwa-ibrahim-ba8485159/
Website - https://highsalwa.com/
Panther group.co. Go to Women in Cannabis and click on the mentoring program
[00:00:00] Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Ready, Dan. All right. In today's episode we're talking with Salwa Ibraham. Did I pronounce that right? Salk Salwa.
All right. It's like south. Sorry. No, I, that helps. In today's episode, we're talking with SAA Ibrahim, an OG cannabis industry pioneer, who launched the first cannabis dispensary I p o in history. How did she raise the money and create success for the business? She ran. Stay tuned to hear her story. Welcome back to Women Leading In Cannabis, where we get real about what it takes for women to raise money in cannabis.
You can find us on the Pod Connects network on iTunes, Spotify, [00:01:00] and Pandora. I'm your host, Kira Re, you like what you hear, subscribe to women leading in cannabis and leave us a good review. We'd surely appreciate it. Also good news to share today, the Roadmap to Funding Mentor Program has been released and seats are available.
Stay tuned until the end for more details. Welcome to the show, saa. Hi, how are you? I'm good. I'm so glad you're here. It's been a long time since we've had a chance to talk, and I'm gonna read your bio now, but I have to tell you, reading over this, I. Was pretty blown away what you've done since we've last spoken, so I'm gonna get into that now.
Sowa has been a pioneer in the cannabis industry for over 15 years. Opening and operating dispensaries and cultivation, extraction facilities across multiple states with sales totaling 70 million plus. Annually in 2019 saw her team at Highland Events, produced [00:02:00] grasslands at San Francisco's outside lands, the first recreational cannabis vending experience at a major music festival.
Additionally, she's managed several cultivation facilities, overseen production of a five acre greenhouse, and a hundred thousand plus lights of indoor. In her current role, she lends expertise and experience to emerging cannabis companies while seeking new opportunities and markets. Salwa hosts the High Class a cannabis business podcast, which serves as an education tool for emerging entrepreneurs and offers digital downloads and resources for the industry.
She also owns and operates Cookies Oakland Dispensary. Wow. I mean, come on. This is, I can't even believe This is amazing what you have done in the last five years. So I have the benefit of knowing a little bit of your history, but I want you to just lay it out for my listeners. I wanna know your whole story.
How'd you get started in campus? What led to the [00:03:00] I P O? How cool was Grasslands and you have a cookie store, so, all right. Tell us everything. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm honestly thrilled to be here and this is actually my first podcast interview, so this is a lot of fun.
Um, Let's see, like, I like to really share sort of my background because I feel like my road to getting to where I was is actually like really achievable in the sense of it was one thing that led to another. Um, I am a college dropout. I. And I, when I was like 20 years old, I had to really figure out what I was doing in my life.
So I moved back home, and home for me is in Oakland. And so my parents were like, look, you need to get a job. And so I went to, um, employment fairs and career date, um, Sorry, career day gatherings that the city would host and things like that. All in effort to just kind of find and land a job. And long story short, I happened to [00:04:00] get a job with a local developer who, uh, was developing the Oakland Fox Theater Project.
And that theater project was sort of the cornerstone of redeveloping the entire downtown area of Oakland. And my job specifically was to help sort of with the fundraising efforts, which required me to do some. Political fundraising for not only the elected officials in Oakland, but also like in higher levels of government, but also do like door to door neighborhood fundraising efforts.
But at the time, The, the theater was surrounded by dispensaries. And so I would go and I'd be like, Hey, like, wouldn't it be so cool to have this theater up? And everyone's like, yeah. And they totally understood the vision. So I started creating relationships with all of the different dispensary owners, and Oaksterdam University and Richard Lee and all of these other people who are pioneering this, this parallel effort.
And so the theater was pretty close to being done. [00:05:00] I was pretty much gonna be out of a job, and at that time I was like, I don't know, am I early 20 four-ish years old? And I just was burnt out. I was so tired. I had worked weekends and nights and these long hours during this development project, and so I'm sitting there in my office one day.
And Richard Lee came in to pay his rent to my boss. And I'm sitting there just staring at my computer screen and I'm like, oh, okay. I'm gonna get ready to quit my job. I'm gonna get ready to quit my job. I'm gonna do it right, and I'm hyping myself up. And all of a sudden, Richard Lee comes to my office and he's like, Hey, you want a copy of the West Coast Leaf?
Which was like a free cannabis newspaper. And I was like, no, dude. Get outta my office. I'm getting ready to quit my job. And he was like, and he was like, well, oh you are. He's like, oh, well, you know, why don't we talk, like you could come work for me. And so I mustered up the energy to like, you know, quit my job.
And I gave Richard to Leah a call, and I was like, oh, cannabis industry. That's gotta be, that's gonna be easy. Okay, great. That sounds like a [00:06:00] vacation compared to what I've been doing. Right? Little did I know. And so long story short, I went to become Richard Lee's assistant. But while I was there, I fell in love with the entire movement.
I mean, at that point I had already, you know, consumed cannabis my entire life at that point. But I just started understanding it from a completely different perspective. And so with the school being like the first education facility in the country, To offer proper education and certification for the industry.
I got to learn so much just by helping facilitate the classes and helping with the teachers and things like that. But also, Richard had this idea of making Oakland like a mini Amsterdam. So we had cultivation, we had. Um, a clone shop. We had the dispensary, we had a coffee shop, we had a bike rental shop.
We had all of these different things and Oakland was just in this [00:07:00] huge renaissance. But what was really cool is like we sort of took that momentum of the school and basically created a PR stunt, which allowed so much media attention to come in and watch the school, and basically parlay that into a legalization effort, which was proposition 19.
And so I helped work on the campaign at, um, the Prop 19 campaign, which ended, we ended up losing by a very small margin. And I believe the reason why we lost is because we didn't have industry support, because at that time, legalization was like a concept we couldn't grasp, right? Like how that would affect us.
And so we lost by slim margin, which led Colorado to take the lead. In the legalization effort. And, um, there was a political consequence to that, right? Like the government wanted to send a message saying like, Hey, you know, we mean it, we don't want cannabis, right? So they put in [00:08:00] a full on raid onto the school.
It was the dea, the irs, and the fbi. In a coordinated effort, and they didn't tell our Oakland police department at the time because they thought the Oakland Police Department was too friendly with us and they'd tip us off. And what year is this? Oh God. This was like 2012. I'm gonna fact check that, but I think it's around way before legalization.
So you were out there on the front lines, like, oh yeah. Way. Like I got my first, yeah, I got my first job in cannabis in 2008. And so, oh my gosh, it was not cool back then. It was scary. And you didn't tell people what you did. Yeah. You didn't share with your family. You were very isolated in certain respects.
And it was something that like, you know, you had to really decide if you were gonna be a part of it. And I just remember going to my parents and my family and my loved ones being like, Hey, you know, I'm doing this Proposition 19 campaign and I'm gonna be quoted in the news, and this is why it's important.
Important to [00:09:00] me, and I think it's a civil rights issue, and I don't think people should be in jail for a plant that doesn't make sense to me at all. And basically getting my family's buy-in, even though they were reluctant. But then like all the other things associated with it. Getting kicked outta your personal bank account, getting followed home, all of these different things that like we had to live through back at that time.
But what ended up, and you didn't give up, you through all of that, you stuck with the cannabis industry. You know, it was like one thing that led to another. So for me, that raid that happened was a pivotal moment in cannabis history because when we got raided on that exact same day, the Oakland Police Department was with the federal government.
At our school, we had a shooting at a college across town, and the police couldn't respond because they were taking plants away from the hippies. And that and that news made the news [00:10:00] cycle. So it forced the Democratic party to take a position on, are we gonna fight? Are we gonna fight this? Are we gonna fight against states?
What are we doing with our precious resources? And if that didn't happen at that exact same day, I don't know where we would be right now. Because the position before that moment was very different than it is today. So at that time, it's like, Hey, we all lost our job. Richard got, you know, a lot taken away from him.
It was a super scary time. We didn't understand if they were gonna press charges or not. And quite frankly, like after the fear wore off, I became, I got pissed. Like, you know, I'm like mad now, you know? And for me, rage is a good fuel, like rage. Rage is like something that could keep me going, you know? And so while this was kind of going on, The city of Oakland had four dispensary permits, but back then dispensary permits gave you a license to do whatever you wanted.
Like anything in cannabis, they didn't even understand how [00:11:00] to classify certain things, so it was like a golden ticket. So they had four that were already out and they were getting ready to issue four more, and that was. The one, I wanted to be one of those four. So I went to every single meeting. I didn't have any money.
Right? And I'm just a brown Oakland girl. I went to every single meeting. I met with every single council member. I volunteered for every single campaign I could doing Name, uh, name registering. I. I'm sorry. Doing registration at events, doing knocking on doors, going above and beyond as much as I can because I had no money to drive influence, but I had time and so I made sure I spent my time where it needed to go in order to gain political favor, in order to be a person that you know is.
Seen in the industry as a leader, and so I just kind of became this Oakland girl who really wanted one of these four permits. And so during that time, I marketed myself, I marketed on myself as [00:12:00] like, oh, I'm the go-to Oakland Golden child of cannabis. Right? Whether or not anybody actually thought that, you know, it was a whole nother thing.
But that's kind of the story I was telling, right? And so if somebody who's an outsider wanted to break in, Like, I would be a person that they wanna, you know, interview with or maybe, you know, provide me with capital or something like that. And so I pro I proceeded to take a bunch of capital meetings, right.
And I had. So many different types of meetings. I had meetings that were so offensive that were just like, oh hey, get the permit and leave. We never wanna see you again to like all of these different structures and things. And it was just, it was just crazy there. But there was this one man, Derek Peterson, who had already like, kind of came into Oakland, kind of skyrocketed and dipped.
He kind of had like these, these. Issues and these relationships and things, and he was kind of ostracized a little bit, but he came to me and he was like, look, I can help get you [00:13:00] funding. And I have very modest expectations, but my goal is to eventually go public. Like, are you down for this? And in my mind I'm like, yeah, sure.
On the going public thing, he only wants 10%. That's great. That's the best financing deal I could get. And he, um, he, I got the letter that says I had a certain amount of money in the bank that allowed me to check that part off on the RFP and submit. And so I was like, okay, great. So we ended up doing a deal.
And where I retained most of my company, he got the 10%. And I got to apply and I wrote my own application alongside an application writer, and I had an attorney and at one point the attorney wrote the application, he sent it back to me. I'm like, I can't read this. I'm like a 20 something year old college dropout.
And I'm, it's like, whereas blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I literally can't read my own application. Like I don't understand what it says. So I threw it away and I sat there and I wrote the whole thing. Because I needed to understand what it said, and I [00:14:00] wrote it more like a story. I wrote it more like a, okay, so this is the type of business I want and this is how I wanna affect the community, and these are the visions that I have.
And so I submitted it and I ended up getting ranked number one. So, Yes. I was very, very proud of that. Congratulations. Thank you. And then so when there, so there was this kind of like cross section of time where it's like, we got rated, we lost your job, and then like a month later I got awarded this permit.
And mind you, I'm still in that mode of like hiding under my covers. And every time I hear something at the door, I'm like scared. Right? And so I had this conversation with the city of Oakland. I was like, look, you guys, like I just went through this really traumatic event. I don't know. Like I wanna delay opening my dispensary.
And they basically told me, they're like, look, we're counting on the tax revenue. It's either use it or lose it. And so I had to have very serious conversations with a lot of different industry mentors. And this is like why mentorship is so important, right? Because when you feel like you're losing your way, [00:15:00] they can help guide you.
And I remember this one gentleman told me, he was like, look, why are you doing this? I was like, because I wanna help people. He's like, well, They need your help and for you to be too scared to help them. It's, you've gotta find something bigger than that. You have to find a better why. And so people need safe access to this medicine, and if you have a tool that allows that to happen, you've gotta use your tool.
And so I was like, okay. And so we went, moved forward, we got a location we opened up. I took on operating partners because. They, I just didn't wanna, I didn't want a fumbling start to figure out how to do a dispensary, so I took a bunch of meetings too and found a group that were like-minded. We worked really well together.
Uh, they were okay with my 10% partner. They understood kind of what we were trying to do. They didn't wanna push me out. They were willing to teach [00:16:00] me. Along the way and, um, they actually ended up being really great partners. They've helped, they helped me through all these different points in my career.
And so we got up and running and we were cranking and we all decided really early on in the beginning to keep good books, keep clean books, keep accurate books, and that in and of itself set us free because if we. Fudge the numbers. If we didn't keep track, if we didn't do these things, we would never have been able to go public.
So we set ourselves up from the beginning with that goal in mind. And so we worked with a company called Ana, who are a C P A at la. I think at this point they've touched every public comp, every cannabis public company's books at one point in time. But they started with us and they basically worked with us and the s e c to figure out a way [00:17:00] to verify the funds that we had.
Because not all the money went through the bank, right? Because it's all cash and we couldn't put everything in the bank. So how does the s e c, if I'm sitting here saying like, Hey, I make 10 million, but I spent 9 million of it, how do you verify that you actually made that 10 million? Right? So we created that process and the s e C approved it.
And then in March of 2016, we officially were the first company to, uh, uplift on the American Stock Exchange. Amazing. And how did you get in a company that was plant touching on the New York Stock Exchange? So it's on the O T C qx, which is like technically the penny stocks, which the rules for that are a little bit different.
I mean, there's other companies like Xerox is on the O T C QX and things like that, but the OTC QX is like the highest level you can get [00:18:00] without being like a nasdaq or you know, That type of, a level of, of company. And so the rules for us are a little bit different and they're a little bit more relaxed than let's say in nasdaq.
But in and of itself it was like this huge feat of paperwork tracking financials, um, appropriate government agency signing off. And so between like, you know, getting the blessing of. The city of Oakland, like managing the partnership and making sure all of the partners are on the same page. Understanding like, Hey, if we sell a certain amount, that's public knowledge.
Like what are we comfortable with? It was like a huge feat because there were so many different trains that were kind of tracking in the same direction. But ultimately, I think what really set us free was. Day one being like, Hey, this is the goal. Are you, are you signing on to this? Yeah, sure. I'm signing on to that.
Okay. This is what I need from you. Okay. This is what I need from you. [00:19:00] And so kind of having everybody, setting everyone's expectations to, to un like, to understand like, Hey, this is what we're doing and at some point we're not gonna own this thing, and we're slaving away for it, and we're all okay with that.
You know, it took a lot. But, so it was one dispensary? It was, it was one dispensary, but it was vertical because at that point it was, like I said, it was like a dispensary permit allowed you to do everything. So we had onsite cultivation, we weighed, we packaged, I had an extraction facility in the garage.
Like I had everything on that, on that side. Oh my God. Middle days. Yeah. Wow. It was a little days. Wow. Okay, so let's talk about what it took to raise the money. Uh, you said that you early on were able to find partners that. I mean, it sounds like you landed in an unreal, amazing situation that is very hard to find.[00:20:00]
Yes and no. Okay. So I would say like my financial track was a little bit different in the sense of, What I did that I think more women should be hip to and sort of is like the secret sauce here is if you are going to be applying for a dispensary location or really any of these businesses, when you go to lease your building, do a lease with an option to buy.
Okay. Mm-hmm. And do your lease with an option to buy in a different entity that you own and control that can then sublease to your plant touching entity, which is essentially what we did. We're like, Hey, I'm, I am going to control my real estate. So I have two businesses that I've got right now. I've got my plant touching business that's basically paying rent.
To the landlord, and as we were rolling at a certain point, like money [00:21:00] was flowing and things were good, I executed my option to buy. And so I became that landlord. And so when I needed money, I raised money against my real estate. And very smart, smart. That's, that's the difference. And I was able to parlay that over and over and over again.
I sold that building, was able to like take that money, put a down payment on another commercial building and another commercial building, parlay that and do all of that stuff, which later on when my life fell apart like that, that structure saved me. I had this real estate portfolio that was able to like save my house.
That's amazing. Yeah, because that is not the story, you know, in California, as you know, it's been kind of a bloodbath in the last year. Yeah. We've lost about 50% of the brands that we have. I was just in a meeting this morning hearing about. You know, more manufacturing facilities that are going [00:22:00] under and it's like every day, oh, did you hear who went under today?
So we're in a climate where raising money is, on the one hand you've got the issue of raising money in can period in cannabis. In California as a woman. Mm-hmm. Um, and you know, we've also got on the other side of it, for the women who have raised money, I've watched several companies get taken away by the investors from the women running them.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, and then you end up with putting all this time and energy and money into something that essentially you have nothing but air with later. So looking out at the landscape we have right now, what moves are your, are you making in your businesses when it comes to raising money and what, what do you see the future, specifically for California, but at large the United States in terms of, you know, getting money into this industry that is stable so that we don't end up doing this over and over [00:23:00] again?
I mean, how many extinction events have we had in California alone since 2017? Yeah, I'm, I was definitely caught in that extinction event, you know? Um, I definitely felt that, and I was in a position where unfortunately being on both sides actually hurt me. Right? So I was on one side where I had the real estate.
I was on the other side where I was the largest tenant of a group. Now I'm partners with very sophisticated land developers, right? And they're friends. But when, like that financial squeeze started happening, They held us to the letter of our contract rule agreements, which were not in our favor. And so I had to personally guarantee the rent in order to stabilize the building.
Oh, yeah. In order to stabilize the building, because we wanted to collectively, as a group on this side, wanted to sell that piece of real estate, but they can't sell that piece of real estate if the tenant isn't performing. So I had to [00:24:00] perform on this side in hopes that I got paid back on this side. But in order to do that, I had to take out more loans and I had to get in more debt.
And so by the time I was actually able to sell the real estate, it almost became in that neutral. And so I, it was a really hard time for me that was like the hardest, that was probably legit the hardest year of my life. I, um, There was a lot of interpersonal stuff, a lot of deep work and things like that, and I got to a dark place where I'm like, I.
Just don't feel like the plant wants me to serve her in the way I've been serving her. Like I just don't think that my role in cannabis is going to continue the way it has been. And I'm so grateful for my history. I, no one can take that away from me, and it's a thing that I'm super proud of, but moving forward for me, it's not gonna look the same.
And so I think that when we're preparing our businesses, understand that there's a lot of us, if you [00:25:00] look at. The history of these larger companies and these pioneers in this industry. There's a life cycle and there's an end. Like I, there's, you know what I mean, like the forefathers of our industry.
You're like, oh, where are they going? Why are they quitting? La la, la? Like, that doesn't make sense. Or like the bang chocolate, or like these giant companies that were like just dominated, open and like all these. These huge companies that are no longer with us, you know? And so when you start looking at it like that, it makes you have more strategic moves.
Also really getting a very, very good grip on your finances. How much do you. Actually need, do not take more than what you need and be a very, very good steward of it. So cannabis and recreational cannabis has. Way more expenses than CBD companies do and other types of cannabis companies do, or all the ancillary [00:26:00] businesses do.
So if you really wanna be in this market, like just try to do an assessment of all the different sort of businesses that there are and, and two 80 E, which is a complication that only plant touching businesses in cannabis have that. It still amazes me. New states come on. And I talk to entrepreneurs who had no idea until they were already deep in their business about two 80 e.
Yeah. And that, that changes the entire calculation of your business if you are not calculating that properly. Absolutely. Absolutely. And once you start doing that, you realize that they're very thin margins. And it's not just, I don't even wanna say cuz like, I feel like two 80 E is like the, the big elephant in the room.
But let me tell you about the, like little things in the room. Mm-hmm. The compounding expenses across the board, your rent is naturally higher because your landlord is telling you that they can't refinance with their bank because their tenant is plant touching, [00:27:00] so they're gonna make up for that in your rent.
So your rent's more expensive, your insurance is more expensive, your payroll is more expensive. I pay my bank $3,000 a month for the luxury of giving them my money. Like, are you kidding me? Absolutely. And in addition to that, they're so stringent on compliance that I have to carve out staff time very regularly to just deal with the bank.
That's not including the $3,000 fee, right? And then you start kind of like, it just keeps compounding across the board. So it's the taxes are an issue, the licensing are an issue, but everyone's taking a pound of flesh as you go. And it's just very quickly double industry right now. Sorry. Who's getting rich in this industry right now?
I don't know. I don't if you know someone hollerer. Cause I don't know. I, but like, okay, so let's, I just to kind of take it back, the beauty of what I was able to do with the. [00:28:00] Stock that I received was I liquidated it and then I made investments and I made a heavy investment in one of the very first early investors in cookies.
I am an early investor in can craft. I. I have an investment in Guild. I have all of these different investments that I'm super proud of, but I also invested in myself. And again, I re invested in my real estate portfolio that ended up saving me through this hard time. Right? And so, um, one of the things that we also did is we looked at Prop 64 as a body of work.
And as a p like as an industry leader, I'm looking at this, I'm like, oh, this is a piece of shit. I was like, how the fuck are we gonna fix this? You know? And so for, for those, hold on. For those that don't know who are outside of California, prop 64 is the, um, the bill that allowed us to have recreational cannabis in California.
Correct. And so I'm looking at it, I was like, wow, this is. Fucking terrible. So I'm like, how are we gonna fix this? And so people are chit chattering and they're like, [00:29:00] oh, we need a new bill. Oh, we need to throw it all away. Oh, we, I was like, oh, well why don't we just start like one thing at a time and like do amendments, right?
And then so. I'm like, okay, I'll go first before I can like ask a glass house or somebody else to like do something like here I will do something. And so we worked with towns and public affairs. We did prop, um, I'm sorry, Senate bill 2020 that basically amount allowed for an amendment to have. Cannabis be sold outside of county fairgrounds.
So if a city's like, oh, hey, you could sell weed at this concert or whatever, and you comply with the state, you can have these temporary events where you're selling cannabis, which increases access, essentially helps with public safety cuz you're giving an al alternative to alcohol. And it cre it corrects one wrong in this body of wrong, right?
And so we did that and that's how we became the first also to sell cannabis compliantly at a mainstream music festival. Because while we were doing that, I was like, well, I [00:30:00] also wanna take it out. I was like, I actually, I want that win, you know? And so, um, it was sort of a one two punch, but, um, I think I say this all to say that like, this is the time to get involved.
You gotta really participate in the public comment periods. You have to participate in the open comment periods because it is their job to listen to you. And I had the opportunity to, uh, moderate a panel with the D C C, which is our regulatory body here in California. And I asked them, I was like, well, in front of everybody, I was like, oh, hey, like these licensing fees are so expensive.
Like, how do we get them amended? And basically they're like, oh, well if we hear it, If we hear a consistent message from enough of you, we have to listen. And I'm sitting there going, I'm like, okay, great. Like, how do we coordinate that as a, as an industry, right? And some, no. Cause there's no one who's not complaining about it.
I mean, totally right? Everybody is unhappy with it, but [00:31:00] they're not, we're not, our leadership as an industry isn't funneling our voices during the very specific period of time that they're actually listening. Which then makes me realize, I was like, who's watching the ship? Like who's doing this? Where's our industry association?
Where like, what's happening? You know, where's our leadership? So I guess my point is look at the entire industry. Okay. Like there, this industry is so broad. If you wanna be relevant in this space, there's so much room for leadership that is so welcomed. There's so much room for getting people together to unify the voice, to correct some of these legislative mistakes.
There's so much that we need as an industry to like unify us and bring us together, and it's only getting bigger and we need as many people as we can have be in this space.[00:32:00]
That's, I just, I don't even know what to say about that because it's this kind of phenomenon that happens when you get yourself insulated and you don't actually go out into the street and talk to people and talk to dispensary retail owners and talk to cultivators and say, what are the things that are really.
Holding you back from succeeding in the state of California in your business. And I just, I don't, it's not like we don't all know, and we're not all experiencing the same exact pains, but where're how many years into rec legalization now, and I mean from your position, has much changed to make it Sure. No serious?
No, because I, I don't this. We are so stressed out, like it's so unfair. Like being a cannabis entrepreneur is so taxing on you emotionally. On [00:33:00] your spirit, on your body, like we are expected to be above and beyond a normal entrepreneur. We have to be educators, we have to be activists, we have to be lobbyists.
We have to like, we have to do so much. It is so exhausting, which I think goes back to the life cycle of this industry. Yeah. Because at a certain point, it's just like you, it's. It's too much, right? Like how many sacrifices are we as individuals supposed to make for the better Good. That doesn't really seem to fetch us very far, right?
So I, yeah, there's no reward in it right now too. No. And so it's like I, I know so many people who are like done this year and they're going back to the black market. I'm like, I mean, if I were any other person, I would, I would definitely be like, Hmm, yeah, that sounds good, but I can't, so, you know. Yeah.
It's, it's the, our rules are pushing people back into the shadows that legalization was supposed to pull them out of. Right. And it was hard too, because it was such a fumbling [00:34:00] start, because the dynamic between the DCC or the Bureau of Cannabis Control and the, uh, industry. Was still cops and robbers. It was very, it was like very, it wasn't like this, Hey, you know, we're gonna usher this industry into the compliant market.
Let's work together. That was not the vibe in the beginning. It was very like, haha, we're gonna get you for this one thing that you did wrong. You know? And it was it. It's just insane. I think since then, if I had to point to one thing that has been of benefit since we started and where we are is they've chilled a bit.
You know, now when they come to. The Emerald Cup or any other event, they're more pleasant. They're like not trying to like search random people's backpacks, which they're not allowed to do. You know, like, so it's like that's a benefit. But after that, I don't know much else. Okay, so we unfortunately have to begin wrapping [00:35:00] up this conversation.
I could talk to you for days probably about this stuff. You are so passionate and so knowledgeable, so I wanna ask you one question before we get to our next segment. She's had my back. Um, you gave us a really great piece of advice. About investing in and owning your real estate, right? It's a great way to put yourself in a financial position for the future.
What is one other piece of advice that you wish someone had shared with you as a woman when you started this process around fundraising and money that you can share with us today? I wish if I could go back in time, I wish I was, I wish I watched my money closer and fought for every dollar because there were so many times where I was like, oh, Comcast, they have the $70 fee [00:36:00] or the $50.
I wish I would've picked the $50 and kept the seven, like being that diligent with my money, like being that smart and focusing on every single dollar. Because once you start being an entrepreneur with all these different things, you put people in place to kind of watch it for you and do their job. I.
But like, so for instance, my beautiful compliance people, I love them, but so they've got their compliance checklists that they're going through. They're like, oh, we have to apply for the waterboard. Okay, here, set it up on the credit card, do this, this, that. But this credit card is getting charged during the months while you're applying.
I. And so you're getting charged months of fees before you're even supposed to because your compliance people are overloaded and they're just trying to check shit off their list. Mm-hmm. So if I could go back in time, I would be very mindful and diligent about every penny, cuz it really adds up and it really does matter.
And once you start [00:37:00] understanding your finances in that capacity, God forbid you have to break down your business. It makes it a lot easier. But also on the flip, if you have to take on investment, it makes it a lot easier. It's just really being diligent and really mindful about the spend. Because I think a lot of us are creatives.
Like we wanna just like, we wanna build the brand, we wanna grow the weed, we wanna do the this. But at the end of the day, you guys, it's a business. You have to be with the money. And it's funny cuz when I got asked this a lot too, they were like, oh, oh, like what's the day in the life? You know? What's it like?
They think I'm like skipping in a garden all day. I was like, my day sucks. I have to deal with attorneys and accountants all day. That's all I do. Uh, you know, but it really just kind of from the law of attraction perspective that is, you know, being really close with your money, knowing everything that happens to your money is a way to kind of energetically also bring it in as a well as.
Abiding by the laws of our [00:38:00] country, which are, you have to account for every single penny cannabis company or not. And that if you know where your money is going, you're much more likely to be able to draw it in from the more woowoo perspective of things that it kind of lines up with exactly what you're saying.
So I That's great advice. Thank you so much. Yeah. All right. Hey man, the, the school of hard knocks, right? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And you know what it pays to be, um, a goodie two shoes, you know, where you really walk, the line of the walk. And that's especially in this industry. So I really commend you for taking that hard stance because I know it's not easy.
If I can say just one more thing Absolutely. Is. I would say that that was the blessing cuz I was, when I was shutting all the businesses down and I had to fire sale all the businesses, uh, in order to keep my house, I. Was in a position to where I was able to actually sell my grow because I did [00:39:00] all of the construction correctly.
I did, I got all the sign offs correctly. I did everything correctly because at a certain point, like that was what, that's what the buyers were looking for, cuz there was all these gardens, but they weren't compliant and they weren't gonna get renewed for licensing. But I was sitting there at one point being like, oh, oh, if I skipped this, or if I shortcut here, I would have all this money.
I would've saved all this money. So I'm sitting there as things are falling apart. I was like, well, oh my gosh, I, if I didn't pay for construction this way, or this way or this way, I would have so much money to pay these bills. But at the end of the day, doing it properly is what ended up saving me because I actually had a business I could sell.
Such great advice. Such great advice. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Are you ready to hear about some really incredible women in today's? She had my back segment. Sure am. Our first submission comes from Sarah Tupper. She is celebrating Tiffany Woodman of Canna Bell Luxe. She tells us that Tiffany forever encourages me to amplify my voice and my [00:40:00] mission by being an example of female leadership in the cannabis space.
Along with always having my back in business and friendship. She's a true example to me of a rising tide lifts all ships and an industry that can be predatory for female entrepreneurs. I will forever have her back just as she's had mine, as I build my brand and work towards my next project for empowering women.
How wonderful. Thank you for sharing that with us, Tiffany. That's, I mean, Sarah, about Tiffany. That's awesome. All right. Our next submission is from Erin Bernhard. She wants to call attention to Sarah Tupper, who I believe is the woman who's just submitted the other, uh, the, the other. She has my back. Um, and Sarah is with, uh, Sarah Jane and Ashley Lounge.
She says, Sarah is the queen of relationship building with women in the Michigan cannabis scene and has set her fair share of roller coasters along the way. She encourages me daily to [00:41:00] just get out into the scene and start engaging. She's the epitome of a fearless canna mom, entrepreneur, and I couldn't be more proud to witness her smash glass ceilings and events, hospitality and brand building.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Erin. And we can see just in these two submissions that when one woman helps woman, it starts with Tiffany. She helps Sarah. Sarah's got the energy, love, and support she needs to have her bank filled and then turn around. And have other women's backs. It's an incredible cycle, ladies, that we can do it for each other.
And the more we give, the more gets given and the stronger we're going to be because we really are better together. So Sarah and Erin, thank you so much for your submissions today when she had my back. All right. Thank you so much, SAA for your time. And for sharing your wisdom with us today. I really appreciate the space to share.
Thank you. Ah, it's been so great to hear from you and you will come back because I think we are going to have a lot more to talk about in the future. Anytime. I'm here [00:42:00] ladies. Thank you for tuning in. If you haven't yet downloaded the roadmap to funding the Essential Guide for Starting your Funding Journey for Success, go to the Panther group.co/roadmap to funding.
And I promised in the intro to have more details for you today on the mentoring program that goes along with this download, this eight week virtual course is meant to prepare you for the funding process, teach you the right strategy to improve your odds of success. And if you listen to this show regularly, you know that only 1.9% of funding in 2022 went to women led and owned businesses.
And we aim to change that in the cannabis industry. We've got some incredible mentors and some really kind of behind the curtain information to share with you ladies. For more info, check out our website to reserve your seat now the Panther group.co. Go to Women in Cannabis and click on the mentoring program and join us again soon for another funding [00:43:00] conversation with women leading in cannabis.