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[Music] so good afternoon and welcome to ncia's industry essentials educational webinar series our premier digital educational platform featuring a variety of programs to provide you timely engaging and essential education when and where your team needs it most my name is brian gilbert the deputy director of events here at ncia and as always i'm very excited to welcome you all to the first of two catalyst conversation series being hosted across february in celebration of black history month in case you're joining us for the first time this afternoon please note that these catalyst conversations are an advanced webinar series curated to give enrollees and ncia's social equity scholarship program the opportunity to network and gain access to valuable knowledge that will help them excel in the cannabis industry if you're just joining us please stay on the lookout for housekeeping notes and orientation instructions to be relayed via the chat window so we're not taking up any more valuable time with routine info but if you have any questions for our team on how to participate in this virtual event message myself or my colleague brooke gilbert at any time via a private message in the chat room before we get started a thank you and final note to our guests who are joining us for the limited preview on our facebook live stream as well if you're an active ncia member follow that short link in the description to log into your account and join the conversation if you're not an active ncia member follow the join now link to activate your membership or the register now link to purchase a discounted pass so you won't miss out on this invaluable programming now let's get this show on the road legalization in new states and expansion of existing cannabis programs has created opportunity in a number of markets in 2021. in today's session you will hear from experienced operators consultants and technical assistance providers sharing best practices and advice on where to get started whether you'd like to apply for a license or start an ancillary business we've got a lot of information to cover and a very important topic to explore so let's not waste any more time to kick things off i'd like to welcome our co-moderating team for today's session to the virtual stage to hear johnson the diversity equity and inclusion manager here at the national cannabis industry association alongside christine de la rosa the ceo and national co-founder of the people's dispensary you all have the floor and can take it away from here all righty well thank you brian and thank you to everybody out there we're looking forward to having a good conversation we've had we have a great panel of experts lined up for all from all parts of the industry so christine and i are definitely um happy to be moderating this conversation um first off we have lawanda knox from make green go i'll let her come on and introduce herself how you doing luwanda hello hello i'm just so happy to be here right now so um yeah so hello everyone i am luanda knox i am the ceo of make green go and we provide technical assistance through the social equity programs for the city of oakland the city of fresno and the city of san francisco and our expertise is business development thank you for having me here thank you thank you thanks for joining us definitely looking forward to to all the knowledge you're going to drop today next up i have my good brother kevin ford from uplift kev what's going on bro not much my brother appreciate you having me as always my name is kevin ford jr i'm the founder of uplift and we started off as uplift maryland but very excited to be transitioning to uplift national this year more so focus on education and training for minorities and women who are interested in applying for licenses or really just becoming a part of the industry in any sector there may be so look forward to speaking with you all yeah thank you kav and um and next up my my homegirl becky colette detroit's finest ceo of collection and the newest ncia board member becky what's good what up though hi guys i'm so excited to be here my name is rebecca collette i'm the ceo of collection collection is a medically licensed cultivation and processing brand right in the heart of detroit we supply directly to patients and dispensaries we soon will be adult use license later this year so we're so excited about that collection also has a consulting arm and a non-profit where we do so many beautiful things in the community like community events cleanups we rebuild homes we we are building community gardens right now and workforce development programs in partnership with the city of detroit so so excited to be here and represent the midwest i love it man glad to have you here representative d and thank you looking forward to everything you're going to share with us um we have my girlfriend amber norwood from weed to people law amber what's going on sorry it's all good okay sorry let me put my camera on all right oh they'll just start camera okay hi good morning can you hear me okay good morning hi i'm amber i'm the co-founder of lead the people law which is a consulting firm that helps clients prepare for all aspects of the licensing process and that means we help clients ranging from business formation to strategic partnerships application writing packaging and submittal i've been focused i've been focused solely on the licensing and compliance aspect um for the past four years and today i've submitted well over 100 applications and have one client over 80 plus licenses in california in addition to we the people i also sit on element seven i am the chief compliance officer element seven is a virtually integrated operator that will have over 30 operations in california i'm excited to be here and answer any questions that anyone may have as it relates to licensing and compliance in the industry thank you thank you amber so much um so much different great experience to be able to share with us and just so you know we can hear you but we still can't see you right and um last but not least my my co-host the amazing christine de la rosa ceo of the people's dispensary and the chair of our diversity equity and inclusion um integration committee christine what's up hi everybody i'm so happy to be here amongst so many great people doing amazing things in the industry i'm super excited to have this conversation so rather than waste a lot of time on me let's get to the questions let's go um well you know first um you know as we talk about one thing just to set the stage to um for everybody out there and i think it's important to recognize as we look at cannabis it's a multi-billion dollar industry multiple different opportunities as you see here and our speakers will tell you there's not just opportunities we have people that are operators i'm on the planet touching side like becky and christine but also as you see people like lawanda kevin amber who have built businesses and ancillary and also help people um build some of those other types of businesses so as we look at an industry that's projected to be worth over 40 billion on by 2025 we want to make sure that you're prepared to be in the industry um whatever um that looks like so um you know first off would um would somebody want to talk about um you know what are the different license types for for people just to be able to start off there i'll go you guys i know this part i know this part um i can speak to michigan so in michigan we have five different license types we have cultivation you know growing we have processing which is taking that raw product and processing it to oil or edible form we also have provisioning centers which are retail dispensaries which most people know in the cannabis industry that's uh the place you go and buy product we also have safety and compliance which are the facilities that test our raw product tested for heavy met metals mold all kind of bs but also for thc percentage cac percentage and other cannabinoids and then we also have transport secure transport so working with cultivators processors and dispensary owners securely transporting money and product and secure vehicles so that's michigan i know there's some other license types like delivery in california so maybe west coast but we don't have delivery licenses yes yet here in michigan if you want to deliver you have to have a retail license so i guess oh yes absolutely so uh we do have a lot of overlap with um what rebecca said we do have delivery which is good because it's a lower uh capital to get started and we have distribution which is a requirement it's basically the middleman and they're the ones who collect the taxes and they can do transport and they get the product from point a to point b so we have distribution on top of everything that rebecca said and we call our processors manufacturers um and then we have testing everybody has um some sort of testing and then we have micro businesses which is a combination of uh up to three different permit types which makes a a micro business um so that could be like retail cultivation and um so those are some of the differences kevin is there anything different in maryland that's going on in terms of license types or maybe a license type that's labeled differently because we know like in michigan there's transport but we call it distribution what's going on in maryland yeah so maryland we have growers we have processors we have dispensaries we have independent testing labs they also just late last year started registering ancillary businesses to be actually controlled by the commission and then one other license type that really comes up to the top of my head that we didn't mention already is education and research licenses oklahoma is one of the first states to roll that out but even still today i don't think they have any education and research licenses that have actually been given out but that's actually something that we've been uh advocating and lobbying for here in maryland as well you know oh i'm sorry go ahead sorry christina uh christine i left one off our newest one uh is the cannabis event organizer license like how could i forget that one um yeah and that that was really exciting because it actually has the lowest uh capital the amount of money you need to to get started so that a cannabis event organizer's license we should circle back to that one for sure absolutely but one of the things i wanted to talk with amber about because we've now heard from three different states all of the states are using different language there's very few overlap in the languages and so if you're new coming into this business what would you suggest amber is the first thing that we should be doing trying to understand whether we want to be in the cannabis business or whether it's something that we can do in terms of trying to figure out all of the different languages what should we do as a new a new entrepreneur that's a great question christine i think as an entrepreneur coming into the cannabis industry it definitely goes back to your passion what your passion is and see if you can tie that into our industry i'm not on the planned touching side i have an ancillary business so i just provide consulting but my clients are plant touching i like to do consulting i've been in the law industry for like over seven years and i kind of tailor myself into an aspect of the industry where i can still do use my law background and apply it to the cannabis industry so i think people should really take a deeper dive into themselves and see like what they like to do what their passion is and then from there kind of stem and see what what um opportunities you know that that are available like in their areas like in different states have different opportunities some are medical only some are medical and wreck some of them have very um thick regulations and like barriers to entry like states of florida california you know massachusetts um so i think it's a lot of research you know you have to do a lot of research when you get into any industry especially in the cannabis industry um that we have a lot of laws we have a lot of regulation we have a lot of red tape we have a lot of great areas which is where you know consultants and attorneys and you know people that are already operators and industry can help you out i think you people really i mean i've seen all these ordinances and all of these like pennsylvania's you know ordinance for that it has and it's it's heavy like the things are heavy and not everybody goes to law school and wants to read all that heavy material you know but i think if they have like a solid thorough like understanding you know like a blanket understanding and then if they can reach out to certain people or certain groups you know in their states or in their cities to give them more information i think that'll be the best path but i think it really lies on what's available in your state what's available in your area your understanding and then from there you kind of slowly branch out and see what you're actually capable of because this industry requires a lot requires a lot of blood requires a lot of sweat it requires a lot of money it requires a lot of perseverance so you really want to make sure that you're actually committed to doing and going you know joining you know the legal cannabis industry and you know i would say to follow that up christine i have a question for you because this is something that you and i have spoke about like once you decide that you do want to get into the industry right we know there are all these different license types but for example you've built a successful retail business but you're learning about um how cultivation or some of those if different points around the supply chain can be you know more valuable could you talk a little bit about like some of the things you wish you knew early on like and um you know making that decision sure i'll tell you first off i wish i was rebecca um who has the cultivation and a manufacturing license um one of the biggest things that i think is a real detriment especially to people of color and black people coming into the industry is that we're kind of sold a bill of goods that retail is the place that we should be because it's easier right and i have to be honest with you when we started in 2016 i thought that too i thought well i don't know anything about manufacturing and i can pick the best bud from uh from a harvest but i don't know how to grow it i don't know how to do distribution i mean i can drive a car but there's one that so there's all this stuff that you're sort of it's in your mind that you don't know and what we have found out and what i know now is that i could have learned it you know what i mean because having a retail shop doesn't really matter if you can't get the supply and so if we don't control our own supply chains as people of color as women own businesses then really we're going to be at the mercy of large corporate in their supply chain and so when i say i'm really excited about rebecca and what she's doing in her company and other people that are doing manufacturing and distribution with their companies is that they weren't afraid of that and so now i'm having to go back and really reevaluate what kind of licenses i want to get so i would tell people who's starting out retail is it sounds sexy but it's really hard and i'm not telling you not to do it but i'm telling you to also do the distribution also do the manufacturing and if you can if you have somebody in your group that's cultivation also do that as well because we learn from each other every single day you don't know how to grow something i'm sure rebecca wouldn't mind you coming looking at her cultivation and talking to you about it and that's how we grow it's like everybody growing together we rise that tide because you know that's so important so that's the thing i wish i had not been afraid of afraid of all of the other licenses which i am now i'm not afraid i'm not afraid anymore rebecca did you have something yeah i was just gonna add on like in addition to look into cultivation and process and for instance just look at the complete supply chain look at how many licenses they have in retail already if
they have all these retail shops already for instance in detroit that was the scenario they had all these retail shops but when i looked and saw how many licenses they had on the wholesale on the manufacturing and cultivation side the percentage was extremely different so just i would just encourage people to look at the full supply chain and look and see the competition in those respective verticals look and see how many other retail shops are out there do you really want to open the 201 dispensary if there's already 200 instead of opening the number fifth grow i mean that because it's public information you can look up licenses so look it up i mean lawana you can speak to that having just gone through the fresno applications right yeah i mean absolutely i mean first if you can shadow uh if you can't shadow another cannabis operator that would be the way to go i mean i know we're like in covet but it would be nice if you could um in terms of mentorship and and because i'm like a visual person so i got to see it and you know like maybe even go into a delivery uh or uh or even visit your dispensary um if there are if they um if they are around or travel to one and then um like you already mentioned cultivation and everything but uh bringing it back to like the city of fresno for example where it's limited it's a cap on the number of licenses um they're going to allow maximum was maximum of eight for equity four was for uh going to be retail and the other four is going to be for non-retail which would be the cultivation distribution um manufacturing that we talked about and so you know already uh because a lot most of the applicants applied for retail so there uh the few that did apply for something else will most likely get it uh without a whole lot of competition just because um you know everybody was really going for everybody's really going for the retail which is you know and no and no um i mean the retail is necessary right we do need that's the front line is the retail um but because there's no delivery option there in that area uh even if they wanted to not have a storefront still need to apply for just retail uh for as a storefront even if they're gonna uh operate as a delivery so you know there's doing the research like like everyone's saying here um it's never too early to start um your business plan because that's where a lot of that research that you're gonna do is going to tie into your business plan uh so we could um and and so that you can really you know get your vision on paper and then you'll know where the gaps are absolutely now i just want to do a really quick pivot if that's okay with everyone hopefully um and talk to kevin about the education programs and all of the things that you're doing with uplift because i think one of the things that we were missing in 2016 was that education we were just kind of flying by the seat of our pants and hoping we got it correct right um and luckily now people who are in the upcoming five medical and adult use markets that are coming online don't have to do what we did which try to figure it out by ourselves you know in the middle of the night talk to us about what's available to people that want to learn more before they decide that they want to apply i mean so i guess first things first is you know starting off with the different organizations that are around that offer educational material like ncia like m4mm minority cannabis business association women grow etc and and uplift you know and really just dive in and not only not only do you want to dive into the information you also want to dive into the people you know because a lot of this especially on the local level is really about who you know and who you can team up with to make something happen on a larger scale so you know the education is is definitely important but the networking and everything that goes along with that is also just important and that's why we have decided to move from a maryland focus to a national focus and create the uplift community which is going to serve as a membership platform for minorities to really come together and to strategize on how we can move forward and in the industry whether it's from the advocacy and lobbying standpoint or education and training or you know just the whole social aspect because even with kovi you know cannabis was one of the most social uh uh commodities that there was out here and we've lost a lot of that with kovitz so that's a lot of what we're trying to bring back is um just the opportunity to truly just have you know downtime conversations with folks um welcome to my cannabis awesome so i have a question for the panels whoever wants to answer um i wanted to ask each of you what should the attendees that are listening to us right now what should they know right now and what do you think their first steps are to apply for a license in their jurisdiction like what did you wish you had known and then what do you tell other people to ask for now that you know let me go first if i can absolutely this is the long game if you're coming in here to make a to make a quick dollar this isn't what you need to be trying to do you know um this this legitimately is is for you to come in to this budgeting industry and really grow along with the industry because the industry itself is still growing there are you know the largest companies in america will tell you their ceos will sit here and tell me like dude i didn't figure this out like when i first came out and even to christine's point in terms of not being scared about these different license types you know you just have to jump out there and have a little bit of faith to believe in the unseen you know and if you can do that i think that is what is like the intangible that could could take you far um in this industry so long as you continue to surround yourself around the right people yeah and then i and then also uh if they're if you think you qualify for that for an equity program if you have an equity program that would be a a good place to start is to go through the verification process for the equity program so that you can tap into the free resources available like the technical assistance legal assistance uh any type of funding that may be available so so that's a good place to start also um like i said it's never too early to start writing your business plan because once you start getting that vision on paper and you start crunching those numbers you can tell uh you know if you're if you're a model where you're thinking will make money or when it will make money because one of the um things early on is underestimating how long it will take for you to actually be able to support yourself with your business and that's with any business but particularly so with cannabis it may take a little bit longer before you can actually pay yourself so how so figuring out how you're going to pay your bills uh while you're trying to start up this business because it's it's really full time like once you get past the permitting process and and you're starting to get to the point where you want to um build out and get operational uh it is it is you know it's a full-time job uh so figuring out how you're gonna support yourself is is going to be critical to your success and then also uh thinking about uh getting the technical assistance is important and also the legal assistance so that you can get your entity and your business structure together as early as possible but getting help with that and then i would say the final uh thing if you're you know getting started is also doing your research on the local and or state application process you know just getting a handle of what that's going to look like from start to finish those are some of the things that i would recommend starting at and then one of the other things thank you so much uh kevin and alanda for for sharing those nuggets of wisdom but i wanted just to anecdotally tell you that one of the biggest things i think at the beginning that we made a mistake on is that we didn't have an amber so um i want amber to talk because i want to tell you like i'm going to be just super honest like you start talking to compliance and my eyes glaze over start asking me to read a legal document and i start to like snore this is true statements and yet i am telling you right now this should be the first line item on your operational budget because it wasn't ours and now we're going back and having to fix a bunch of stuff amber i want to talk to you about what do you think if you're newly coming in and let's say somebody gives you a call and they're like hey i want to start a cannabis business and i'm an underground grower what do i need to do what are like some of the things that you tell them about because i'm telling you i we didn't know about you like we did not know about especially people of color that do what you do right because there was a lot of people not people of color that were giving us a lot of really bad advice because they weren't didn't understand who we were how we were coming out of the informal market right and what do you tell them because i think that this is the biggest thing and the most powerful and most important um thing to do if you're just starting well i i've had a lot of clients that have been in the um [Music] that are that were in we're in the elicit market and transitioned over to our the legal market and the biggest thing is what we what i tell them to focus on is that like kevin was saying this is a long game like the permitting process is a very um long strategic process you know and it's finding locations you know looking at the application that's the local application so i'm out here in california the city's application you know finding the proper areas finding what they will allow what they want to allow help the growth size you know um different things so the biggest thing is that we want to transfer over what they're what they currently did which was like they had a under an illicit dispensary we'll transfer it over to um take the same business model and everything they have they have capital luckily they have the capital and we find a city that is open a municipality that's open you know dive into their ordinances their regulation their application process and i lay it out for them and everybody they're always like this is a lot you know it's a lot we like we have to build an application we have to build a story because it's like retail licenses and all licenses california are really competitive you can't just go in and fill out a form like we used to do for like city of maywood back in like 2017 or lindawood in 2016. you know you could just go in there just put some stuff together and they're like okay you have a license now you know but now it's been very strategic and these cities in these localities have like you know people that have sit on the council and they they they're seeing names on these applications you know they're seeing affiliations with different groups and you know um different partners and different advisors and so it's become it's slightly becoming a little political um actually so it's very important to network and have a positive um you know reputation in an area you know or have people that have like positive reputation that we can kind of nudge to kind of give us like it's sad but that's it's truth we have to nudge some of these you know officials and planners and you know we have we have to do what we have to do i want my clients to get licensed so of course we do everything illegally but um this is the cannabis industry you know it's still anybody's game and we play to win and we do what it takes to win and it's really important that they understand that this is a long process we might it might get a license they might not get a license you know it's a gamble but you have to understand that networking and having a solid team a solid vision a solid plan like romano was saying and having your business plan you can't um thorough because i asked them i said well who's you know who's going to be your master girl or who's going to do your distribution who's going to do this like oh my cousin and my brother and this but i was like well we can't just put your cousin your brother and you know ray ray on the app like we can't do that we have to have you know people with railway could be on the app as long as ray ray's background checks out you know things like that because we have to let the city know that you are capable you have you come from solid backgrounds you know we don't have any like issues that they might raise a red flag you know you're bringing money to their city they want the money but we have to present the best package possible if railway can't go on the app then he won't go on the app got it awesome well thank you so much for that um i wanted to uh so we've gotten through the let's say that we're we're an applicant we've got we've done our social equity um verification like rwanda suggested we've talked to kevin and all of the other organizations he talked to so we could learn as much as we could we've contacted amber to do our first free consult so that we can like see how we can afford her and all the things and so we're over here we've applied for a license we've gotten the license and rebecca i'm going to throw this to you um what was the next thing you did after you were you had your medical uh license like what was the very first thing as a small business owner that you were like i gotta do this right now yeah um so the first thing is is depending on where you are there's phases so um the first thing we did was really go through construction and that is a whole [Music] process in itself with um managing that team and then managing timelines and then after that i think it's important like something that something that we did this that other people should do is if you're on the wholesale side set up your distribution channels before you get that license you know set up those retail partnerships set up those other process and partnerships before you get that license so when you harvest when you have product you have some body to give it to to sell it to because you've already established that relationship that rapport you've already had them try samples like establish that so first thing is doing that whole construction piece but actually after you have that license in hand is i would suggest establishing those relationships so while you're going through the harvest and stuff like that you have those purchases orders set up ready to go you've established prices already ready to go um and there's no time in between because you know there is a lot of capital startup cost in the beginning and there is going to be some time before you even make any money because plants have to grow when what are you doing that's in that in that meantime um and so so until you get that first capital influx from those first harvest you know i mean where are you going to get money from so you don't want any you don't want any lag time so as soon as all the plants are packaged dried ready to go you got you you got the half of the invoice coming in right now or cash on delivery whatever it is um that's what i would suggest and and we did that because we came from the medical market we already were supplying to dispensaries but i've seen some of my peers just other growers i know um that have had inventory for some time because they didn't establish those relationships on the retail side so they just have this inventory sitting so nobody want no inventory sitting that's just money you leaving on the show um so that's what i would suggest and then um well okay another suggestion is that team is so important um on all fronts whether it's the attorney whether it's the accountant especially the accountant in this industry but a team is very important because once you have you have that team and that infrastructure everybody has their roles and responsibilities and everybody works together um it's just so important a lot of people think oh i just want to sell some weed i just want to grow some wheat but this this industry is so more intense than that is you know it's commercial agriculture you know it's a full supply chain um and as an owner you need to evalua
e that full supply chain and put people in roads to support that full supply chain and you know becky um well that i think that's so that's so great because i think one of the things that people miss out on is that like you said after you apply for a license you really have to operate the business right um and like even so what you said getting capital was one of those parts that was really important to it could you talk a little bit about that process of like you know how you acquire capital and then also how you can um you know how you make sure that you were you know just did your due diligence and and who you got that from and retained ownership yeah so um in cannabis you have to be very creative you can't go to bank of america and get an sba loan because of the federal schedule oneness of this drug um so you have to be really creative um there are also restrictions on crowdfunding but like christine and i have talked about in the in the past there's ways you just have to be creative um and have a great attorney on your side to give you that that advice with sec compliance etc so we were very creative in doing some crowd funding with some um one or two equity investors but what's also really important to to mention is that in my personal opinion one of the most important things in the cannabis industry is real estate so we knew this going into the industry we knew that real estate is scarce in green zones whatever they call it in other states green zones places you can have plant touching facilities so after you acquire that real estate you then are able to go get more hard financing from institutions because you can get a real estate loan you can get a construction loan you can get an equipment loan and all these things don't include the plants which means there's more opportunities for you to go out there and get a loan just like if you were to open a restaurant or any other type of business you could get a business loan so that's what i would suggest is definitely some bumps on the road and even in us raising right now for adult use it's some bumps in the road that i've had to figure out but once i figured out that real estate was really the game like that's what these institutions want they want that collateral to be real estate they really don't care how many plants you grow the institutions care about that real estate especially when it's tied to approved permits site plans a license that building doubles or triples in the value just because it has that cannabis permit attached to it so now you have collateral now you go around and say i got a warehouse that's worth three million dollars and i can get financing against that three meal for instance just um that's something that i wish i would have known but i have figured out along the journey talking to people that are not in cannabis that are just in finance that are just in lending and they lend to cannabis they lend to restaurants they lend to cpg they lend to everybody as long as you got that hard collateral and everybody knows real estate in every industry and and every investor i've ever talked to in my whole entire life has always been comfortable with investing in real estate i mean that's been around since the beginning of time people buying real estate so that's that makes people comfortable because cannabis to a lot of people is still so uncertain like it's still federally illegal like people change their minds all the time we got a new administration so people a lot of investors are scared of investing in cannabis in the plant but what has not changed is they're still comfortable in investing in that real estate so in essence get that real estate own that real estate and then go out there and get financing opportunities that way you don't mess up your cap table you can retain as much equity as possible um and you can be more creative with debt i mean you could pay off debt and then you pay off the debt and then you get rid of them and then you just move move ahead debt isn't almost every business and every business vertical in the world so that's what i would suggest great that was key becca uh maintaining your equity as much as possible because a lot of times in the beginning when um when we're trying to start up and get capital for the business the first thing to go out is especially with equity applicants is they they allocate the up to the max that they can allocate of their equity um for little things not little things but for minor things in the beginning like getting assistance with their application for example or securing the real estate for example without really fully thinking about the long-term impact that giving up too much equity so soon has on uh their long-term success uh because investors like a clean cap table and they don't want to see a bunch of 20 10 you know um broken up uh and then it limits your ability if you do need to go the equity route instead of the debt route um it limits your ability to go and get those investors so so maintaining as much equity as you can in the beginning is that's one of the common uh mistakes that we see uh with equity applicants for example absolutely and i think that's a good question too um you know because a lot of times there's a lot of things you have to figure out when you're just starting up but christine i think i have a good question for you as somebody who's been operating for a while right and even thinking about our social equity scholarship program you know for you as a as an operator once you've been successful and you think about you want to start scaling your business up or even expanding into other markets um because you've done that with the people's dispensary you know what is that what is that process like and what are the steps you should take well you know it's a that's a that's a difficult question um once you try to scale up like i mentioned before um we have outstanding licenses in la we just finished our second phase for fresno we have outstanding license applications for chicago which is now embroiled in a lot of lawsuits so one of the things that we've really started to think about is pivoting towards making partnerships with people in other states that already have licenses so that we can figure out a way in which we can work together with them and we're also looking at a lot of the different locations that are coming up like arizona looks like new mexico is going to go adult use soon we're looking at even south dakota we're looking at different places and then the other thing that we're doing is we're also partnering with a lot of the tribal the tribal nations um in the country because some of them have sovereign land so it's better for them they don't have to go through the same application process that the rest of us have to go through and not as being you know extractive and putting a dispensary on their property but really being integrative and saying how can we help you put a dispensary on your property on your land um i think that's one of the things that we have to really consider because there's so few of us i think it's four percent maybe five percent of the entire cannabis industry is owned by people of color um and black people we have to stick together and we have to work together to bring everybody up and help everybody get what they need um in in the industry nationally i do believe that the morocc will get passed this year or next year but before the next senate hearing so we have to mobilize together whatever we have even if you have something like a little bit i have a little bit but i have a lot of knowledge so i want to make sure we share that knowledge with everybody and our little bit where we can and so i think that that's my strategy for growing the company is basically to grow the company with everybody else so that everybody's growing their company at the same time and that we have a larger foothold in the cannabis industry absolutely and i see we have about 15 minutes left so it's probably a good time for us to jump over into the chat um one question that i see in particular that is that i think is a great question i saw i see lawanda teed up to answer this um but i'd also like to get some feedback on kevin because i think you can speak to this from um personal experience so wanda you can answer first and then kevin um you talk as well but it says i see resources for first-time social equity applicants but what about those who are not successful the first time and i think kevin you can speak to this because you know in maryland where you started out wanting to you know apply for a license um but you know you didn't stop right you pivoted and still did kept uplift going so if you guys could just both speak to like what do you do if you you know if you don't win oh you know i think you're gonna mute the wander okay i thought you were talking to kevin you could go first okay thank you i misunderstood so yeah basically um so number one there's the ancillary route right so so if you don't if you if you try to get a permit and then you were unsuccessful at it um you can go the ancillary route you can also partner so let me first talk about partnering so uh there's other folks that got the permit and that you may know and uh there might be an opportunity for you to like share your resource or consolidate uh resources and and work together so i promote that a lot with uh equity applicants even if they did get their permit they still may not have gotten the resources they needed to get up and running and so i recommend that they partner with another equity or non-equity applicant um and share resources so partnering then there's the ancillary route where um like rebecca was talking about uh around like you need to round out your team so like some operators may be really good at making their edibles but they may not be good at like metric you know or the record keeping or the bookkeeping so like i kid you not like they're uh working with uh equity applicants they um are always asking for help with sales and marketing or branding like a website um you know like bookkeeping is huge security so if you if you go down that compliance checklist i guarantee you there are some things in there that you can do that you may not even thought about and there are people who need your services like if you like training people then you know you can start like a training consulting company and build content so um i think that that is uh some options that you could look at yeah that's um you know it's funny because when we first started uplift my whole my whole mindset at first was hey i want to become an operator but at the time there was no opportunity in maryland they had just issued the first round of licenses and then i sat there and said you know well i'm smoking this good cannabis how can i get other people to smoke like me you know so i started uplift first of all just to do patient certifications and then um really changing up from from there there was an opportunity to apply for a grant for the education and training side of it we applied for that and we won then we applied for a license again still didn't win you know and one thing that's not really talked about as much in terms of getting licenses but is a method that is used you know more so by the corporate entities is um acquisition and mergers and mergers and acquisitions m a deals you know and actually going and acquiring a license that might already be operating and whether they're not doing well or whether they um you know they're ready to just get out the game they got their quick couple dollars that they wanted um there are opportunities out here to actually go and purchase licenses as well so i guess really look out for that too but you know definitely if you're coming through that route you need that cash up front a very strong um financial partner at that so um and just to circle back because one thing i wanted to say about the whole financing thing is make sure that you keep at the forefront of your mind time frame you know if you're looking to apply for a license in a state that might be next year you should be trying to get your uh financial capability together right now you know and because it shoot even once you say hey i have this good deal and you have all your stuff together it's not like they're to be able to turn around that term sheet for you next week you know it's going to take 45 60 90 days 120 days for them to get you what you need so just make sure that you have enough lead time in front of what you're doing uh well in front of trying to acquire this capital or at least just that term sheet for the capital um as soon as possible rather than waiting oh yeah and just gonna say yeah kevin you're definitely right because in some instances for certain licenses for instance medical in michigan we had to have a certain amount of assets liquid to even qualify for the license so yes asap get started asap and then also i was going to say about uh people looking at the ancillary approach because uh everything is remote now that's actually to your advantage that's an opportunity the remote work because the whole camp cannabis industry is very tech driven and everything is cloud a lot of the software is cloud-based so if you think about it you could be um you know in michigan and or any state and still and help people in california with their metric um from your own home like think really be thinking about uh because all you got to do is log into the system as long as you're a user uh they're on quickbooks online for example for bookkeeping you could be anywhere and you can help remotely uh these plant-touching businesses um uh with those services so and then you can stack those services too and and add um more you know kind of um comprehensive like all-in-one house type of type of deal so it could be you and a couple of your friends that have skills and you can have a whole little remote remote workforce without even leaving your home so i would really um consider that because there's a need for it there's a need for people with specific skills that can help these cannabis businesses and they don't necessarily have the money to hire they don't have enough money to hire an employee to do all of these things for them but they could pay you you know a fixed amount a month or um on an hourly rate um to for you to do those things um at that time or for a fixed number of hours so uh that would be a good approach i think but let me also say this and i know that we've kind of pivoted the question a little bit in terms of like say what happens if you don't get the license the other side of it is just perseverance keep pushing again this is the long game you know if you don't get it the first time try again try again try again you know and not to mention there are other states out here um that have uh looser uh regulations and restrictions like in oklahoma for example just try if this is really what you want to do go and figure that out we only have time for one more question and this is from one of our attendees and amber i'm thinking this might be in your wheelhouse um it's asked do the panelists have any thoughts on new business owners entering into revenue sharing agreements does that feel yeah absolutely kevin um okay so well for so revenue sharing agreements i mean they they happen but i think they're more so in in the form of what we call either management or operating agreements where you might own the license but somebody else is operating or an event or in reverse somebody else might own the license and you might want to come in and be the operator so there are ways to structure um solid deals in terms of revenue share from the operations or or management perspectives yeah i mean just to piggyback i mean i've seen this a lot of times in social equity plays where in order to get that license that social equity applicant has to have 51 percent of the license however a lot of times predatory investors would then create a revenue share agreement where you're not getting 51 percent of the revenue so um just in those instances because i have friends especially out in cali you know with the social equity have just not worked out in their favor just be um have a good attorney on your side coming back to that that can review these
type of agreements especially if you're going into a partnership in those areas where the licenses are limited to social equity applicants for instance in detroit it's about to be the same type of deal that we about to get into that social equity applicants are required to have 50 of all the license types for adult use what you're going to see happen is a lot of investors try to come in and be 49 of the license but they may try to get more at a revenue share so um just know your legal documents read all the fine print or have an attorney definitely have an attorney because i've seen scenarios where um they they verbally agreed on you know the split and then what was in writing or the way that the the legal documents were drafted it was uh different and only in an attorney is tr have a train is trained to be able to pick up on that whereas you may read it and still not um actually pick up on that so you definitely need um an attorney to review anything that you before you sign it and um also not all anyway so basically that just definitely have an attorney look at that because everything that rebecca said was correct that's how a lot of the predatory uh scenarios come into play i'm sorry to pick back off of what everyone said um this industry is i do have clients that have management you know agreements with different operators and they are coming in with the money they're coming in with the capital and when you have as a social equity you know um applicant that's working with them they are invested in getting their money back and unfortunately more than likely the terms aren't going to be in your in their favor you know because i mean it's business right you want to be in business they want to be in business we have to have a social equity applicant in order first you know to move forward right but at the beginning end of the day the person with the money you know they're going to get the money back so even when your attorney does look at the um agreement you have your own attorney they have their attorney you're gonna have to come to a happy medium and more oft in my my finest cases more often than not the terms aren't the best for the social equity applicant but it is the best that they can get right now and they want to take advantage of the opportunity partner with a strong um you know cannabis company and they're going to do it so you have to you're going to have to be a little flexible and one last thing they also have to in some cities in some locations they the managerial partners also have to do the background check and be um named as owners on the application even if they don't have equity but they still may they still may have to be listed on the application itself yeah we'll definitely appreciate y'all you know we got three minutes left you know i think that's all we could fit in the hour but i definitely appreciate y'all she know sharing so many gems um for everybody that came out i definitely hope you understand and got some something good to take away from the day the recording will be available um you know i think that our social equity scott um also to mention our social equity scholarship program for everybody out there listening um it's free complimentary membership to ncia um doesn't matter if you won a license you know even if you applied for one before and you didn't win it you're still eligible as long as you have met the requirements as a social equity applicant or operator in your respective jurisdiction then you qualify for the program so you know we're here to help um producing more great content like this later on this month we'll have ours with growers um big thank you to our sponsors um big thank you to copper state law offices at omar figueroa big thank you to um tahoe wellness um and everybody else so brian i'll pass it back over to you yeah fantastic thank you so much to here um just sort of piggybacking off of tahir's closing remarks here um you all will be provided a pdf of today's presentation it'll just be the title slides and the contact information slide for your reference um but do note that there will be hyperlinks contained in that pdf so you can directly contact or follow any of the social channels from the our esteemed panelists today so please do follow up on today's conversation don't hesitate to reach out to any of the panelists at any time to reach out and ask more questions to follow up on today's conversation i mean with that we're going to transition into sort of the outro of today's program so please audience members do stick around for the next two to three minutes to get some updates on some upcoming activities that are taking place underneath the ncia umbrella and thank you once again to all of our panelists for joining us today and leading that fantastic conversation alongside tahir and christine all right and as uh to hear just mentioned a final huge shout out and thank you to all the benefactors of ncia's diversity equity and inclusion program which currently include four front ventures greenbridge corporate council tahoe wellness center copper state farms and the law offices of omar figueroa these businesses have taken their commitment to social justice to the next level by providing significant financial support for all of our dei efforts across the association you can learn more about these initiatives on ncia's website by following the short link that you see on the page here and then you can join the ranks of these pioneering businesses pushing for a more equitable industry today and with that thank you all so much for participating in yet again another ncia industry essentials educational webinar as to hear mentioned we do have a number of sessions including another catalyst conversation scheduled across the month of february that catalyst conversation series in particular is taking place on february 16th again as with today's session all industry essentials webinars are free for ncia members and there are a number of discount codes floating around for the later catalyst conversations taking place later this month so if you're not ready to take the plunge to membership with the organization you'll be able to secure a discounted pass for one of those sessions taking place later this month by reaching out to tahir individually or any of the co-panelists on that session black cultivators in cannabis you'll all be directed to an attendee survey after leaving the meeting room please do complete that as soon as possible that will grant you immediate access to our presentation and do note that all ncia members receive exclusive 30-day access to a formatted video recording of all of our webinars first posted in our members only community platform ncia connect then posted publicly for the rest of the world to engage with on nci's youtube channel one month after the original broadcast so there are some high benefits to joining in order to engage with this programming in a timely manner hope you all have a wonderful week i look forward to seeing all of you all again next time for another ncia industry essentials educational webinar we've got a committee insight series session scheduled next week on february 10th we'll leave all of you all with this end of event credit sequence highlighting the 145 plus member businesses that tahir has brought into the ncaa community underneath of our social equity scholarship program and all the other members that participated in today's session as always during this uh credit sequence we'll showcase some audio stylings by our resident musician at our colorado based events kj list and his illinois-based musical side project indigo sun enjoy and we'll see you all later next [Music] week [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] no [Music] huh [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you
