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Darnell Smith is the founder and CEO of MXXN, a non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused spirits brand that is evolving today’s cocktail culture and disrupting the alcohol and cannabis industry
Join us on the Disruption Now podcast as we challenge the status quo and advocate for digital equity, ownership, and responsible technology.
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There is
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this romantic view of like
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pushing all the chips in and
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but very rarely does that equate long
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term success.
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I think you have to have some things
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in your favor
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before you fully exit stage left.
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If you want some
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some longevity in being an entrepreneur.
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Welcome to Disruption Now
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I'm your host
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and moderator, Rob Richardson.
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We're here today,
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of course, powered by Disrupt Art as always
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we love to bring the stories
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of entrepreneurs, particularly black
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and brown
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entrepreneurs, to tell you their story,
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their struggles, their paths
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and how they ultimately built
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what they have today.
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So with me
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is Darnell Smith
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with MXXN
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as well as Mojo Ventures?
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I believe. So
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he's a serial entrepreneur,
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an expert in marketing.
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And now he's
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combining this
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unique thing of it's a nonalcoholic, but
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cannabis infused spirit,
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which I've never had.
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It sounds very interesting.
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We're going to talk
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more about his product,
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how he got into that.
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And but for now, Darnell,
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how are you doing, man? Great.
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Thanks for having me.
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Thank you for being on.
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What is before
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we get down this rabbit hole of
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cannabis infused cocktail,
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which is new to me, like I said
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but I'm up for adventure.
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What is your story
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in terms of entrepreneurship?
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Tell us how you got to be
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in this crazy world of entrepreneurship.
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Yes.
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So I spent the early part of my career
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going from agency side to client
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side to
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management consulting
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and kind of near the tail end.
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And my first run with management consulting,
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I decided that some of this
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knowledge and
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and things that we were given the clients
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I probably could do on my own.
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And so,
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you know, back in 2013
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or so decided
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to venture out
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and the rest is kind of history,
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you know, founded
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Mojo and work
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with a lot of blue chip clients.
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And from there, you know,
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we always had a plan
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to have a ventures arm.
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And that's where really
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the serial entrepreneurship
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really took off
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and we started investing
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in certain brands and so on.
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Okay, so walk me through
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like taking that taking that leap
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because, you know, it's like it's is a
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it's a hell of a leap to take.
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Did you have
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I'm sure there was a time
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where you were like a
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you were still there in a company.
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But figuring out the plan of
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of escape,
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depending on how people talk about
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it, it's escape and it could be
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a trap, all on its own too
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but anyway, that's neither
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here nor there.
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I digress.
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How did you
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did you have a
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you have a couple of signature
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clients lined up already
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or did you just take that leap
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and just knew it was going to come?
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Yeah. No, I mean, you hit it.
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The Golden handcuffs are real,
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you know, especially for,
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you know, black male in America making,
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you know, high six figures.
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Like when you tell someone,
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I'm leaving this, you get some, you know,
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deer in the headlights look like,
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you know, what are you doing
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from the outside?
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It looks like you have it made right?
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You know, obviously, I was very
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litigious and very, you know, planned
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in how I made my exit
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so I wasn't going to do it.
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You know,
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I was
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at an age in my life where I couldn't do
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it, kind of like the broke guy doing it right.
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So I had to, which I.
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Believe is a myth, by the way.
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Darnell Like it's
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something that I don't
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I don't mean to interrupt you,
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but I think it's a really important
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point is a it's mostly a myth
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that people go out here and,
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oh, it's the 22 year old.
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He goes out, living on his couch
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having no money or the person
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to say, I'm going to risk all of it
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put all my money up.
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Most people I know that have made it.
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And then if you go to Google,
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if you go to Warby Parker
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and I'm sure there's a whole bunch
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of other cases,
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case after case of case Tesla,
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all those people
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I've seen one or two situations.
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There are exceptions
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to fit that narrative or stereotype.
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People love like, oh,
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the man or woman
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who's just found their way
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out of nothing.
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But generally speaking,
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like there's a path there.
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Either they have support from a spouse
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either they had
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either they had the ability to
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already have like a pretty good runway
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to know that, yes, I'm taking a risk.
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But it is a calculated risk
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because I get the different advice.
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Like, I don't think the good.
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I don't think it's a good
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like good advice,
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some people say, to go
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and burn everything down
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and then just say like, okay,
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no escape, I'm going forward.
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Like, I think that's idealistic way.
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I think in your mind
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you have to have that as a mindset
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that I don't I'm not going to lose.
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But I think in terms of
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doing something
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where you don't have any real
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revenue or
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no real runway,
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if you will,
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you're setting yourself up for failure.
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Because what I found through my adventures
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is that,
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you know, things never work out to the
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in the in the time
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path that we put forward.
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It's always longer.
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There's always things
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you don't anticipate.
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So you always want to have
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as much revenue as possible
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because things are not going to work out
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the way you expect. But go ahead. Yeah.
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And I couldn't agree more.
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And, you know,
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that kind of really encapsulates
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my path, right?
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I there were a few things
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that came together.
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I felt like I had crossed
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the threshold of experience
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that put me in another kind of echelon
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of what I was able to offer clients.
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I also was very, again, very litigious
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about how I stash money away.
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So I had a long enough runway
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to deal with the
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ups and
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downs and the
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unpredictability of entrepreneurship.
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And then I also made sure
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I had some marquee
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clients lined up before
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I actually pulled the ripcord.
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And so I had to your point,
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I think, you know,
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there is
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this romantic view of like
00:05:52:06 - 00:05:54:14
pushing all the chips in and
00:05:54:14 - 00:05:57:18
but very rarely does that equate long
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term success.
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I think you have to have some things
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in your favor
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before you fully exit stage left.
00:06:04:18 - 00:06:06:03
If you want some
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some longevity in being an entrepreneur.
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Yeah.
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So looking back,
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do you feel like there were some
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something you would do differently?
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Or put another way,
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if you had to go back
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and talk to your younger self in 2014,
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what advice would you give
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your younger entrepreneurial self then
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and what advice would you ignore?
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I think the advice I would
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give is patience, right?
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You have to plan.
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You can't just
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you know,
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I wanted to do this
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since mid to late twenties,
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but it took me until my, you know,
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almost forties
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to be able to execute it. Right.
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I had to get the proper knowledge.
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I had to go through some things.
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I had to have some ups and downs
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in my career.
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I had to stash away money.
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So, you know,
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I would have told my younger self, like,
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I know you want it to happen right
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now, but
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be patient
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and then,
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you know what I'm glad I didn't listen to
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is that, you know, that
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I call it the golden handcuff mentality.
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It's like,
00:07:03:02 - 00:07:04:11
you know, once you get somewhere,
00:07:04:11 - 00:07:05:16
people will say
00:07:05:16 - 00:07:06:03
you shouldn't,
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you know, how could you ever. Be exactly.
00:07:08:12 - 00:07:09:02
How could you ever
00:07:09:02 - 00:07:10:03
turn your back on that?
00:07:10:03 - 00:07:11:16
And I think,
00:07:11:16 - 00:07:12:08
you know,
00:07:12:08 - 00:07:13:09
I'm glad I didn't
00:07:13:09 - 00:07:15:09
listen to that pressure in my life
00:07:15:09 - 00:07:17:05
to stay,
00:07:17:05 - 00:07:19:00
you know, kind of that corporate path.
00:07:19:00 - 00:07:19:20
I mean,
00:07:19:20 - 00:07:21:16
I always knew I could go back to it
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if I needed to.
00:07:22:16 - 00:07:24:17
I had already accomplished that.
00:07:24:17 - 00:07:26:05
So, you know, now
00:07:26:05 - 00:07:27:06
it's more about preparing
00:07:27:06 - 00:07:28:23
myself for the next step. So
00:07:30:05 - 00:07:31:06
you and I are
00:07:31:06 - 00:07:32:10
I'm not going to call you old
00:07:32:10 - 00:07:34:13
you and I are seasoned enough
00:07:34:13 - 00:07:35:18
to have known this movie.
00:07:35:18 - 00:07:36:11
But did you remember
00:07:36:11 - 00:07:37:12
did you ever see the movie
00:07:37:12 - 00:07:39:05
with Tom Cruise, The Firm?
00:07:39:05 - 00:07:40:10
Oh, yes. You see that?
00:07:40:10 - 00:07:41:00
Yeah, right.
00:07:41:00 - 00:07:42:00
It is the background.
00:07:42:00 - 00:07:42:11
Just so
00:07:42:11 - 00:07:43:04
for our listeners
00:07:43:04 - 00:07:44:15
who may not be as seasoned
00:07:44:15 - 00:07:46:05
as both of you and I are, right.
00:07:46:05 - 00:07:47:18
The background was
00:07:47:18 - 00:07:49:10
this this young hotshot
00:07:49:10 - 00:07:51:05
get out of college, Tom Cruise, right?
00:07:51:05 - 00:07:51:17
He comes
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and he gets to work for this firm.
00:07:53:09 - 00:07:55:10
And it's just seemed like the dream.
00:07:55:17 - 00:07:57:09
And they told a lie
00:07:57:09 - 00:07:59:11
and then they tell him later on
00:07:59:12 - 00:08:00:15
he starts to be with the FBI.
00:08:00:15 - 00:08:01:07
He said, Nope,
00:08:01:07 - 00:08:02:17
this is actually backed by the mob.
00:08:02:17 - 00:08:03:07
It's so much worse.
00:08:03:07 - 00:08:04:06
than you think because at first
00:08:04:06 - 00:08:05:10
they get you used to the good life,
00:08:05:10 - 00:08:06:20
get your kids a good school
00:08:06:20 - 00:08:09:11
and then they tell you the truth. Right?
00:08:09:11 - 00:08:10:13
That's what I would
00:08:10:13 - 00:08:11:08
I would equate that
00:08:11:08 - 00:08:13:07
to a lot of corporate life
00:08:13:07 - 00:08:16:06
like it's like it's for some people.
00:08:16:20 - 00:08:17:24
But generally what happens
00:08:17:24 - 00:08:19:02
is they get you to something.
00:08:19:02 - 00:08:20:18
And if they if you get
00:08:20:18 - 00:08:22:07
if you make these high six
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figures, there's a lot
00:08:24:06 - 00:08:26:14
that's extracted out of you.
00:08:26:14 - 00:08:27:23
That is,
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you're not going to
00:08:29:00 - 00:08:31:11
you're not going to just come away
00:08:31:11 - 00:08:32:20
and just have a lot of free time,
00:08:32:20 - 00:08:34:04
have a lot of autonomy,
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if you will, fit within a system.
00:08:35:14 - 00:08:36:12
And you have to deal
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with what I think
00:08:37:17 - 00:08:39:07
a lot of us don't like is the is the
00:08:39:07 - 00:08:40:15
is the corporate politics. Right.
00:08:40:15 - 00:08:41:24
The corporate politics,
00:08:41:24 - 00:08:42:19
you know, it's not it's
00:08:43:05 - 00:08:43:13
it's not
00:08:43:13 - 00:08:45:19
not about how great your product is.
00:08:45:19 - 00:08:48:05
It's also about how great your mind is.
00:08:48:05 - 00:08:49:03
It's really about
00:08:49:03 - 00:08:50:24
how much Bob likes you up the hall,
00:08:50:24 - 00:08:52:21
how much Susan likes you up the hall,
00:08:52:21 - 00:08:54:16
how much Carole likes you up the hall.
00:08:54:16 - 00:08:55:13
And if they don't like you,
00:08:55:13 - 00:08:56:19
they can sabotage your career.
00:08:56:19 - 00:08:58:13
And will do so, right?
00:08:58:13 - 00:09:00:03
I mean, it's just and those.
00:09:00:03 - 00:09:02:02
And not think twice about it. Oh, yeah.
00:09:02:02 - 00:09:03:21
And not think twice about it. Right.
00:09:03:21 - 00:09:06:05
That's just the reality of it.
00:09:06:05 - 00:09:07:12
So was there a moment
00:09:07:12 - 00:09:08:20
like was there a moment?
00:09:08:20 - 00:09:10:10
You don't have to give any details
00:09:10:10 - 00:09:12:04
unless you want to, you know, we don't mind
00:09:12:04 - 00:09:13:16
that really made you say?
00:09:13:16 - 00:09:15:11
Like, I have to take this leap,
00:09:15:11 - 00:09:17:16
I have to do this, or I'm going to,
00:09:17:16 - 00:09:17:22
you know,
00:09:17:22 - 00:09:19:10
look back in my rocking chair and say,
00:09:19:10 - 00:09:20:13
I should have taken the leap,
00:09:20:13 - 00:09:24:06
I should have taken this opportunity.
00:09:24:06 - 00:09:26:24
I think it wasn't like a negative moment.
00:09:26:24 - 00:09:28:14
It was a very positive moment
00:09:28:14 - 00:09:31:03
in which one of my largest, most
00:09:31:03 - 00:09:32:14
trusted clients
00:09:32:14 - 00:09:34:07
at the time pulled me aside
00:09:34:07 - 00:09:35:11
and was like,
00:09:35:11 - 00:09:37:01
Hey, man, I think you,
00:09:37:01 - 00:09:39:04
you know, underplaying your cards
00:09:39:04 - 00:09:40:12
by being in this situation.
00:09:40:12 - 00:09:42:14
I think you have a lot more to offer.
00:09:42:14 - 00:09:43:19
And, you know,
00:09:43:19 - 00:09:45:09
if there's any way I can support you
00:09:45:09 - 00:09:47:20
in making that leap, you let me know.
00:09:47:21 - 00:09:49:03
And that's where he left it.
00:09:49:03 - 00:09:51:15
And that that to me was enough
00:09:51:15 - 00:09:54:01
of a nudge to have, you know, some
00:09:54:17 - 00:09:56:16
somebody else see it when I was kind of,
00:09:57:15 - 00:09:58:05
you know,
00:09:58:05 - 00:10:00:09
oscillating back and forth, like,
00:10:00:09 - 00:10:01:22
am I going to fall for that,
00:10:01:22 - 00:10:02:09
you know,
00:10:02:09 - 00:10:03:16
staying safe
00:10:03:16 - 00:10:05:00
or am I going to really do it?
00:10:05:00 - 00:10:07:00
And I think that conversation was like
00:10:07:00 - 00:10:07:16
the moment
00:10:07:16 - 00:10:09:09
where the light bulb clicked for me.
00:10:09:09 - 00:10:11:14
Like, No, that's right.
00:10:12:05 - 00:10:13:04
That's what I believe
00:10:13:04 - 00:10:14:07
and that's what I'm going to follow.
00:10:14:07 - 00:10:15:01
So, you know,
00:10:15:01 - 00:10:16:00
it wasn't like
00:10:16:00 - 00:10:17:14
someone did me dirty or,
00:10:17:14 - 00:10:19:19
you know, I had a bad experience.
00:10:19:21 - 00:10:22:16
Like, you know, I had a relatively
00:10:22:16 - 00:10:24:18
I was often the only person of color
00:10:24:18 - 00:10:26:17
in some very high ranking meeting.
00:10:26:17 - 00:10:27:03
So, you know,
00:10:27:03 - 00:10:28:12
I had kind of
00:10:28:12 - 00:10:29:16
the Karen's up the hall
00:10:29:16 - 00:10:31:06
and the Bobs up the hall. They have.
00:10:31:06 - 00:10:32:06
But everybody's got the Karens
00:10:32:06 - 00:10:33:08
the Bobs
00:10:33:08 - 00:10:36:14
Just part of the process.
00:10:36:14 - 00:10:38:16
So, you know,
00:10:38:16 - 00:10:40:02
I didn't have a bad experience
00:10:40:02 - 00:10:41:03
in that in that way.
00:10:41:03 - 00:10:42:11
You know, for the most part, you know,
00:10:42:11 - 00:10:44:12
especially once I establish
00:10:44:15 - 00:10:47:00
a certain level of my career.
00:10:47:00 - 00:10:48:21
But that client kind of giving me
00:10:48:21 - 00:10:50:21
that nudge was really that
00:10:50:21 - 00:10:52:19
that moment when I said, okay,
00:10:52:19 - 00:10:53:21
this is happening.
00:10:53:21 - 00:10:56:00
Right, right.
00:10:56:00 - 00:10:58:16
So, I mean, your story and so many others
00:10:59:06 - 00:11:02:01
really reinforces the true narrative.
00:11:02:06 - 00:11:03:23
of how lots of people come to entrepreneurship.
00:11:03:23 - 00:11:05:17
They actually get it through
00:11:05:17 - 00:11:07:16
real experience.
00:11:07:16 - 00:11:09:00
Corporations sometimes
00:11:09:00 - 00:11:10:09
I know people have this
00:11:10:09 - 00:11:12:04
there is this mindset
00:11:12:04 - 00:11:13:19
that if you were in corporate,
00:11:13:19 - 00:11:14:18
you know, you're rigid,
00:11:14:18 - 00:11:17:03
you can't think outside of it.
00:11:17:03 - 00:11:17:17
You can't
00:11:17:17 - 00:11:18:20
you can't become an entrepreneur
00:11:18:20 - 00:11:19:04
that way.
00:11:19:04 - 00:11:20:20
But the truth is
00:11:20:21 - 00:11:21:08
most of
00:11:21:08 - 00:11:21:21
the path
00:11:21:21 - 00:11:22:13
is usually through
00:11:22:13 - 00:11:24:10
some opportunity in those areas.
00:11:24:10 - 00:11:25:04
And it sounds like
00:11:25:04 - 00:11:25:14
not only
00:11:25:14 - 00:11:26:21
that you got a chance
00:11:26:21 - 00:11:28:02
to branch out with some of the clients
00:11:28:02 - 00:11:30:04
that you worked with while you were at
00:11:30:20 - 00:11:33:19
whatever agency or whatever corporation.
00:11:34:01 - 00:11:34:19
And so to me, it's
00:11:34:19 - 00:11:36:17
just that a testament to do
00:11:36:17 - 00:11:37:14
everything you can
00:11:37:14 - 00:11:40:00
to the greatest ability, let your work,
00:11:40:16 - 00:11:41:24
speak through your work, you know,
00:11:41:24 - 00:11:43:03
and then that
00:11:43:03 - 00:11:44:14
and building relationships,
00:11:44:14 - 00:11:45:12
building through your work
00:11:45:12 - 00:11:46:19
is how you really have great impact.
00:11:46:19 - 00:11:48:03
So let's talk about MXXN
00:11:48:03 - 00:11:49:06
Let's talk about this project.
00:11:49:06 - 00:11:51:22
which is combining
00:11:51:22 - 00:11:54:01
nonalcoholic drink with
00:11:55:00 - 00:11:56:00
cannabis
00:11:56:00 - 00:11:58:10
to create this new type of cocktail.
00:11:58:10 - 00:12:00:01
Tell me how you got into this world
00:12:00:01 - 00:12:00:13
a little bit
00:12:00:13 - 00:12:01:09
in terms of cannabis
00:12:01:09 - 00:12:02:07
then I want to talk more
00:12:02:07 - 00:12:04:02
about what this cocktail is
00:12:04:02 - 00:12:04:23
and how we can,
00:12:04:23 - 00:12:06:13
I guess, actually get a chance to
00:12:06:13 - 00:12:08:00
to taste this cocktail.
00:12:08:00 - 00:12:08:23
Sounds pretty interesting.
00:12:08:23 - 00:12:09:17
Yeah. Yes.
00:12:09:17 - 00:12:11:01
So a large
00:12:11:01 - 00:12:12:14
a large portion of my career
00:12:12:14 - 00:12:13:03
is spent
00:12:13:03 - 00:12:14:23
in beverage innovation
00:12:14:23 - 00:12:17:02
and commercialization, right.
00:12:17:02 - 00:12:19:09
From the agency side to client side.
00:12:19:09 - 00:12:20:14
I've worked with,
00:12:20:14 - 00:12:23:06
you know, the behemoths at Diageo,
00:12:23:07 - 00:12:26:10
Pernod Ricard, Bacardi, and done
00:12:26:17 - 00:12:27:19
trademark innovation
00:12:27:19 - 00:12:29:02
and commercialization,
00:12:29:02 - 00:12:31:12
you know, for a big part of my career.
00:12:32:07 - 00:12:34:02
And so during that time,
00:12:34:02 - 00:12:36:16
just paying attention to trends and data
00:12:37:02 - 00:12:39:24
and also learning the ropes of,
00:12:40:09 - 00:12:41:15
you know, for me,
00:12:41:15 - 00:12:43:18
bringing something to market from liquid
00:12:43:18 - 00:12:44:10
all the way, you know,
00:12:44:10 - 00:12:45:20
from concept and liquid
00:12:45:20 - 00:12:47:12
all the way to, you know,
00:12:47:12 - 00:12:47:23
the plan
00:12:47:23 - 00:12:49:09
that's going to roll this out to marketing
00:12:49:09 - 00:12:52:18
and make it stand out among the other 37
00:12:52:18 - 00:12:55:09
million vodkas or 37 million Tequilas
00:12:55:10 - 00:12:56:17
that are already out there right.
00:12:56:17 - 00:12:57:01
You know,
00:12:57:01 - 00:12:58:23
you learn some things during that process
00:12:58:23 - 00:13:00:10
and they have a way that they do it,
00:13:00:10 - 00:13:02:20
which is, you know, very well documented.
00:13:02:20 - 00:13:04:05
And they you know, they're very
00:13:05:21 - 00:13:07:01
they they very they
00:13:07:01 - 00:13:08:04
focus on a very hard
00:13:08:04 - 00:13:08:12
in terms
00:13:08:12 - 00:13:10:05
of how to commercialize new things.
00:13:10:05 - 00:13:10:12
Okay.
00:13:10:12 - 00:13:12:22
So, you know, for me,
00:13:12:22 - 00:13:16:13
once I went through that, you know,
00:13:16:13 - 00:13:17:05
what I will tell
00:13:17:05 - 00:13:18:16
you is being in the spirits industry
00:13:18:16 - 00:13:20:08
for some time,
00:13:20:08 - 00:13:22:03
you either go one or two ways, right?
00:13:22:03 - 00:13:23:11
Either you can handle it
00:13:23:11 - 00:13:26:20
or your liver is basically like no more.
00:13:27:07 - 00:13:29:01
And I think for me,
00:13:29:01 - 00:13:31:06
I got to a point where, you know,
00:13:32:06 - 00:13:34:18
from a physical standpoint, me
00:13:34:18 - 00:13:36:04
and alcohol
00:13:36:04 - 00:13:38:07
over the time just continue to agree
00:13:38:08 - 00:13:40:09
less and less. Right, right, right.
00:13:40:10 - 00:13:42:19
It would throw me off my game and like,
00:13:43:07 - 00:13:45:05
you know, as a black male,
00:13:45:05 - 00:13:47:12
you got to be twice as good, right,
00:13:47:14 - 00:13:49:15
to get the same, same accolades.
00:13:49:15 - 00:13:51:08
So I couldn't for me, I couldn't
00:13:52:09 - 00:13:54:05
approach my career in a manner in which
00:13:54:05 - 00:13:55:09
that was a big part of it.
00:13:55:09 - 00:13:57:02
So back
00:13:57:02 - 00:13:58:01
15 years ago,
00:13:58:01 - 00:13:59:09
when I was living in New York City,
00:13:59:09 - 00:14:01:07
I started making a tincture, right?
00:14:01:07 - 00:14:03:15
And a tincture is really simple.
00:14:03:15 - 00:14:06:07
I would, you know, heat up some flowers
00:14:06:07 - 00:14:08:13
and cannabis to a very specific temperature
00:14:08:23 - 00:14:10:13
for a very specific time.
00:14:10:13 - 00:14:12:04
And then I would
00:14:12:04 - 00:14:15:07
soak it in like some high proof alcohol
00:14:15:10 - 00:14:16:24
and I would strain it
00:14:16:24 - 00:14:18:02
like a month later
00:14:18:02 - 00:14:20:02
and it'd be a little dropper bottle
00:14:20:02 - 00:14:21:10
and I'd be the guy at the bar
00:14:21:10 - 00:14:22:01
that be like, Hey,
00:14:22:01 - 00:14:24:00
can I have a tonic and lime in?
00:14:24:00 - 00:14:24:20
And I turn around
00:14:24:20 - 00:14:26:05
and I put three little drops
00:14:26:05 - 00:14:28:01
of my tincture in the tonic and lime,
00:14:28:01 - 00:14:30:01
and I would be sessioning cocktails
00:14:30:13 - 00:14:31:20
right along with everyone else.
00:14:31:20 - 00:14:32:16
But no one knew
00:14:32:16 - 00:14:34:06
what was in my glass, right?
00:14:34:06 - 00:14:35:01
That's smart. That's that.
00:14:35:01 - 00:14:36:16
Lyndon Johnson used to do that
00:14:36:16 - 00:14:37:18
Let other people drink.
00:14:37:18 - 00:14:39:04
It was like, have a drink.
00:14:39:04 - 00:14:40:01
You learn more information
00:14:40:01 - 00:14:41:11
that way, you know, very shrewd of you.
00:14:41:11 - 00:14:42:09
Go ahead. Yeah.
00:14:42:09 - 00:14:45:01
And so that was 15 years ago.
00:14:45:01 - 00:14:45:14
And that, you know,
00:14:45:14 - 00:14:46:03
that was like
00:14:46:03 - 00:14:49:08
kind of the first idea of MXXN it was like
00:14:50:02 - 00:14:52:20
what's now become this alternative
00:14:52:20 - 00:14:54:01
alcohol movement?
00:14:54:01 - 00:14:55:14
Right you had
00:14:55:14 - 00:14:58:07
a ton of nonalcoholic spirits brands.
00:14:58:07 - 00:14:58:20
You know,
00:14:58:20 - 00:15:00:07
I won't name them all, but, you know,
00:15:00:07 - 00:15:01:18
they're out there
00:15:01:19 - 00:15:04:11
and you have the rise of cannabis
00:15:04:12 - 00:15:05:10
infused beverages.
00:15:05:10 - 00:15:06:15
And so,
00:15:06:19 - 00:15:07:19
you know, for me,
00:15:07:19 - 00:15:09:01
I kind of took this data
00:15:09:01 - 00:15:10:00
of watching people
00:15:10:00 - 00:15:11:03
be more mindful
00:15:11:03 - 00:15:14:00
about how they consume alcohol. Right.
00:15:14:00 - 00:15:16:03
And really reducing consumption
00:15:16:03 - 00:15:18:15
or changing the way they consume.
00:15:18:22 - 00:15:20:11
And then also looking at the rise
00:15:20:11 - 00:15:21:16
of this new technology
00:15:21:16 - 00:15:24:00
that was giving us, you know,
00:15:24:03 - 00:15:24:20
the Heineken
00:15:24:20 - 00:15:28:21
0.0 and, you know, the OG O'Douls
00:15:28:21 - 00:15:29:03
Right.
00:15:29:03 - 00:15:31:06
And things have just spawned from there.
00:15:31:06 - 00:15:32:08
And so I said to myself,
00:15:32:08 - 00:15:34:24
what if I kind of took these two things
00:15:34:24 - 00:15:36:08
and made a new monster?
00:15:36:08 - 00:15:38:15
And that's where MXXN came from.
00:15:38:18 - 00:15:42:14
And so it took three years to perfect
00:15:42:21 - 00:15:46:16
how to infuse a non aholic spirit
00:15:46:16 - 00:15:48:20
with cannabis and not have it taste
00:15:48:20 - 00:15:49:22
like cannabis.
00:15:49:22 - 00:15:51:08
Because right for us
00:15:51:08 - 00:15:52:16
we're going for
00:15:52:16 - 00:15:54:00
the taste of cocktails, right?
00:15:54:00 - 00:15:55:19
So we want it to taste
00:15:55:19 - 00:15:57:00
like a gin and tonic
00:15:57:00 - 00:15:59:21
or a margarita or Paloma or what you
00:16:00:00 - 00:16:01:14
what you're already familiar with.
00:16:01:14 - 00:16:02:23
We didn't want to drown that out
00:16:02:23 - 00:16:05:08
with cannabis taste and so that
00:16:05:08 - 00:16:05:22
I bet the process
00:16:05:22 - 00:16:07:18
is intense to figure that out.
00:16:07:18 - 00:16:09:01
I can't tell you
00:16:09:01 - 00:16:11:23
how many nos and thumbs down I got.
00:16:11:23 - 00:16:14:04
We had a panel of mixologists and,
00:16:15:01 - 00:16:17:16
you know, sensory experts and
00:16:17:16 - 00:16:19:14
even myself, I was very exacting.
00:16:19:14 - 00:16:21:09
And I mean, we got to so many
00:16:21:09 - 00:16:23:13
I mean, I couldn't tell you what version
00:16:23:13 - 00:16:25:11
we were on by the time we landed it.
00:16:25:11 - 00:16:27:23
And it was yeah, it was a very exacting
00:16:29:09 - 00:16:30:22
process, but it was worth it.
00:16:30:22 - 00:16:31:17
Because I think we
00:16:31:17 - 00:16:33:01
we truly came up with something
00:16:33:01 - 00:16:35:14
that is very rarely do you see something
00:16:35:21 - 00:16:37:15
come along in beverage innovation
00:16:37:15 - 00:16:39:20
that is truly like, oh, wait, what?
00:16:39:20 - 00:16:41:13
And I mean, it was new to me.
00:16:41:13 - 00:16:42:12
I had to read it twice.
00:16:42:12 - 00:16:43:03
It's like, all right.
00:16:43:03 - 00:16:45:08
No, it's definitely it is innovative
00:16:47:08 - 00:16:49:04
and I think it will be possible to do.
00:16:49:04 - 00:16:49:13
Yeah.
00:16:49:13 - 00:16:49:24
I mean, look,
00:16:49:24 - 00:16:50:24
the feedback we've gotten
00:16:50:24 - 00:16:52:17
so far has been overwhelming
00:16:52:17 - 00:16:54:01
to the point where,
00:16:54:01 - 00:16:54:08
you know,
00:16:54:08 - 00:16:56:12
it's a very simple conversation.
00:16:56:12 - 00:16:57:10
It's like
00:16:57:10 - 00:16:59:09
typically someone who comes to us
00:16:59:09 - 00:17:00:03
is like,
00:17:00:03 - 00:17:01:09
man, I like,
00:17:01:09 - 00:17:01:18
I don't
00:17:01:18 - 00:17:02:20
I love cocktails,
00:17:02:20 - 00:17:04:01
but I can't like
00:17:04:01 - 00:17:05:09
I'm just in a life phase
00:17:05:09 - 00:17:07:22
that I can't drink like that anymore.
00:17:07:22 - 00:17:09:05
And so that's
00:17:09:05 - 00:17:10:03
what they call a can,
00:17:10:03 - 00:17:11:12
a curious consumer
00:17:11:12 - 00:17:14:09
and someone who still needs the release.
00:17:14:09 - 00:17:16:00
But does it want
00:17:16:00 - 00:17:16:18
let's be honest,
00:17:16:18 - 00:17:19:23
alcohol is ultimately poison when you.
00:17:20:02 - 00:17:21:07
Literally yeah, right.
00:17:21:07 - 00:17:21:22
Literally.
00:17:21:22 - 00:17:23:12
So, you know,
00:17:23:12 - 00:17:24:04
when you get people
00:17:24:04 - 00:17:25:22
coming to you in that manner
00:17:25:22 - 00:17:26:08
and they're like,
00:17:26:08 - 00:17:28:17
okay, so I'm interested in cannabis,
00:17:28:17 - 00:17:31:08
but I have no idea on where to start.
00:17:31:21 - 00:17:34:11
And for us it's a very simple exchange.
00:17:34:11 - 00:17:35:20
Are you familiar with Gin?
00:17:35:20 - 00:17:37:05
Are you familiar with tequila?
00:17:37:05 - 00:17:39:05
Are you familiar with whiskey?
00:17:39:05 - 00:17:39:24
Okay, great.
00:17:39:24 - 00:17:40:24
If you are
00:17:40:24 - 00:17:42:04
and you have a favorite of those,
00:17:42:04 - 00:17:43:06
I have a bottle of something
00:17:43:06 - 00:17:45:10
that you can replace that bottle
00:17:45:10 - 00:17:46:21
and do exactly the same
00:17:46:21 - 00:17:48:10
things you've been doing
00:17:48:10 - 00:17:50:04
and have a cannabis infused
00:17:50:04 - 00:17:52:09
cocktail versus an alcohol
00:17:52:09 - 00:17:53:09
infused cocktail.
00:17:53:09 - 00:17:56:02
And you will have a taste and experience
00:17:56:14 - 00:17:57:15
and feel from it.
00:17:57:15 - 00:17:59:05
And people are like, No way.
00:17:59:05 - 00:18:00:09
And then two weeks later
00:18:00:09 - 00:18:02:03
they'll call us back and be like, Holy.
00:18:02:03 - 00:18:05:05
You know what?
00:18:05:05 - 00:18:07:19
Now that's wow.
00:18:07:19 - 00:18:08:19
That's really,
00:18:08:19 - 00:18:10:19
really innovative is the word.
00:18:10:19 - 00:18:11:20
I want to go back to a point
00:18:11:20 - 00:18:12:12
you said earlier
00:18:12:12 - 00:18:14:19
about the exacting process with marketing
00:18:14:19 - 00:18:16:09
when it comes to spirits,
00:18:16:09 - 00:18:17:18
and then I want to talk to you.
00:18:17:18 - 00:18:18:17
And then the second
00:18:18:17 - 00:18:19:17
thing I want to talk to you about
00:18:19:17 - 00:18:22:10
is the challenges about how you do this
00:18:22:11 - 00:18:23:22
being the fact that it is cannabis.
00:18:23:22 - 00:18:24:21
And although it's
00:18:24:21 - 00:18:26:04
legal, it's still,
00:18:26:04 - 00:18:26:16
you know,
00:18:26:16 - 00:18:27:04
cannabis
00:18:27:04 - 00:18:27:19
and it's still got
00:18:27:19 - 00:18:28:18
the federal challenges.
00:18:28:18 - 00:18:30:01
And state by state,
00:18:30:01 - 00:18:30:22
I wanted to talk to you
00:18:30:22 - 00:18:31:21
about how you're navigating
00:18:31:21 - 00:18:32:22
both of those things.
00:18:32:22 - 00:18:34:02
How you navigating that,
00:18:34:02 - 00:18:34:24
both of those things on that end
00:18:34:24 - 00:18:36:08
And when it comes just the regulatory
00:18:36:08 - 00:18:37:05
structure, both federal
00:18:37:05 - 00:18:38:06
and state by state.
00:18:38:06 - 00:18:40:00
But let's go back to the marketing part.
00:18:40:00 - 00:18:40:21
What is
00:18:41:08 - 00:18:43:01
what's the most important thing
00:18:43:01 - 00:18:43:11
or the most?
00:18:43:11 - 00:18:43:17
Let's say
00:18:43:17 - 00:18:45:09
the most two or three important things
00:18:45:09 - 00:18:46:19
that needs to be done
00:18:46:19 - 00:18:48:07
to effectively market
00:18:48:07 - 00:18:49:06
a spirit
00:18:49:06 - 00:18:50:01
that will increase
00:18:50:01 - 00:18:51:13
your chances of success.
00:18:51:13 - 00:18:51:21
Yeah.
00:18:51:21 - 00:18:52:23
I mean, first is
00:18:52:23 - 00:18:54:16
you got to have a brand story
00:18:54:16 - 00:18:58:02
and you got to have some of the authentic
00:18:58:24 - 00:19:00:22
pieces of that story, like
00:19:00:22 - 00:19:03:02
for just to throw a bottle of alcohol
00:19:03:02 - 00:19:03:15
at someone.
00:19:03:15 - 00:19:05:04
People these days,
00:19:05:04 - 00:19:06:05
when you
00:19:06:05 - 00:19:07:22
are drinking something, it kind of
00:19:07:22 - 00:19:09:22
is a representation of who you are.
00:19:09:23 - 00:19:11:24
Like if you're drinking Crown,
00:19:11:24 - 00:19:13:17
that says something about you different.
00:19:13:17 - 00:19:15:17
Than if you're drinking Jack Daniels
00:19:15:17 - 00:19:18:19
or if you're drinking, you know, Angel's
00:19:18:19 - 00:19:20:20
Envy, Bourbon or whatever,
00:19:20:20 - 00:19:22:08
all these things
00:19:22:08 - 00:19:24:17
in some respects, they give a person
00:19:25:00 - 00:19:27:04
some clues about who you may be. Right.
00:19:27:06 - 00:19:28:19
And that's that brand story. Yeah. So
00:19:29:18 - 00:19:30:15
that that holds
00:19:30:15 - 00:19:32:04
true, whether it's cannabis,
00:19:32:04 - 00:19:34:13
whether it's our spirits, whether it's.
00:19:34:13 - 00:19:35:08
Whether it's
00:19:35:08 - 00:19:37:12
whether it's anything, whether it's like,
00:19:38:06 - 00:19:39:00
I'll tell you, the drink
00:19:39:00 - 00:19:40:13
that stands out to me very quickly
00:19:40:13 - 00:19:41:05
tells a story
00:19:41:05 - 00:19:42:10
I still remember
00:19:42:10 - 00:19:45:02
I don't know, it probably says that about me,
00:19:45:02 - 00:19:46:15
Dos Equis
00:19:46:15 - 00:19:47:03
I remember that
00:19:47:03 - 00:19:49:22
the most interesting that I loved that.
00:19:50:03 - 00:19:51:10
Oh, the most interesting man
00:19:51:10 - 00:19:52:03
in the world.
00:19:52:03 - 00:19:54:07
Those were such great campaigns
00:19:54:10 - 00:19:55:18
I didn't even like beer.
00:19:55:18 - 00:19:59:00
I just said, I might just order one just to show
00:19:59:00 - 00:19:59:20
exactly
00:19:59:20 - 00:20:01:16
Says it like it
00:20:01:16 - 00:20:03:12
led something for you, right?
00:20:03:12 - 00:20:04:17
Like it
00:20:04:17 - 00:20:05:18
said something about who
00:20:05:18 - 00:20:06:22
you were as a person
00:20:06:22 - 00:20:08:17
when you and everyone else
00:20:08:17 - 00:20:09:15
did that,
00:20:09:15 - 00:20:10:20
everyone else at the bar
00:20:10:20 - 00:20:12:09
might have been pouring a corona.
00:20:12:09 - 00:20:12:21
You're like,
00:20:12:21 - 00:20:14:11
I'll take a Dos Equis you know?
00:20:14:11 - 00:20:15:17
And people look at you
00:20:15:17 - 00:20:16:19
kind of like, Oh, okay,
00:20:16:19 - 00:20:17:19
this guy's different.
00:20:17:19 - 00:20:19:10
And so
00:20:19:10 - 00:20:20:20
that still holds true, right,
00:20:20:20 - 00:20:21:04
when you're
00:20:21:04 - 00:20:23:11
trying to build a spirits brand,
00:20:23:11 - 00:20:24:10
especially because
00:20:24:10 - 00:20:27:16
the occasion and the place that spirits
00:20:27:16 - 00:20:28:16
and cannabis
00:20:28:16 - 00:20:30:12
ultimately hold in life,
00:20:30:12 - 00:20:31:04
there really was.
00:20:31:04 - 00:20:32:03
What's the brand story of MXXN
00:20:32:03 - 00:20:33:16
then I guess that that leads me to that.
00:20:33:16 - 00:20:35:01
And then finish the rest of the other two points.
00:20:35:01 - 00:20:35:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:35:23 - 00:20:40:16
And so MXXN was really about as I was
00:20:42:07 - 00:20:44:08
developing it, like I was trying to
00:20:45:19 - 00:20:48:00
like quantify like what it made
00:20:48:01 - 00:20:49:02
you feel like
00:20:49:02 - 00:20:50:18
and one night, you know,
00:20:50:18 - 00:20:53:10
I twas tasting one of the
00:20:53:13 - 00:20:55:15
millions of prototypes we came up with
00:20:55:15 - 00:20:56:05
and it was like
00:20:56:05 - 00:20:57:15
an exceptionally good one.
00:20:57:15 - 00:20:58:11
And it was a night
00:20:58:11 - 00:20:59:17
where it was a full moon,
00:20:59:17 - 00:21:01:20
and the moon was kind of glowing to me
00:21:01:20 - 00:21:02:21
on my back porch.
00:21:02:21 - 00:21:04:05
And I was like, Wow, it's like it
00:21:04:05 - 00:21:05:17
kind of feels like a glow.
00:21:05:17 - 00:21:06:07
And that's
00:21:06:07 - 00:21:10:03
where the whole inspiration for MXXN came from.
00:21:10:03 - 00:21:11:05
It was just a moment
00:21:11:05 - 00:21:12:07
I had with it that,
00:21:12:07 - 00:21:14:24
As I started to think about it
00:21:14:24 - 00:21:16:22
it said so many things about what
00:21:16:22 - 00:21:18:00
the product is, right?
00:21:18:00 - 00:21:20:01
It's kind of like, you know,
00:21:20:19 - 00:21:23:12
extraterrestrial experience, right?
00:21:23:14 - 00:21:25:06
It's something familiar
00:21:25:06 - 00:21:27:20
but new in the sense of it's a cocktail,
00:21:27:20 - 00:21:28:23
but it takes me to a
00:21:28:23 - 00:21:30:01
much different place.
00:21:31:05 - 00:21:32:04
And I remember the first
00:21:32:04 - 00:21:33:16
time we had
00:21:33:16 - 00:21:36:08
an event where we served exclusively MXXN
00:21:36:17 - 00:21:39:01
and it was just a bunch of people
00:21:39:01 - 00:21:41:21
standing around smiling and laughing.
00:21:41:21 - 00:21:42:13
And I was just like,
00:21:42:13 - 00:21:44:19
Wow, this is a really cool experience
00:21:44:19 - 00:21:45:04
because, you know,
00:21:45:04 - 00:21:46:09
and sometimes you're in an environment
00:21:46:09 - 00:21:47:05
where
00:21:47:11 - 00:21:48:13
there's all
00:21:48:13 - 00:21:50:23
sorts of responses to alcohol, right?
00:21:50:23 - 00:21:55:01
There's the sloppy drunk there is the angry
00:21:55:16 - 00:21:58:01
belligerent, there's the, you know,
00:21:58:01 - 00:21:59:01
you've got all ranges
00:21:59:01 - 00:22:01:08
I've seen them all. Yes. Right.
00:22:01:08 - 00:22:04:11
So you have that kind of like consistent
00:22:04:11 - 00:22:06:02
experience of like
00:22:06:02 - 00:22:08:08
people were just smiling
00:22:08:11 - 00:22:09:23
and just relaxed.
00:22:09:23 - 00:22:12:00
And it was just a very a
00:22:12:00 - 00:22:14:05
just a very warm environment that that
00:22:15:01 - 00:22:16:20
doubled down on the MXXN name for me.
00:22:16:20 - 00:22:17:16
And then the
00:22:17:16 - 00:22:18:21
you know what people ask, well,
00:22:18:21 - 00:22:21:01
why isn't it spelled with O's?
00:22:21:01 - 00:22:22:07
And you
00:22:22:07 - 00:22:23:23
you actually nailed a point earlier
00:22:23:23 - 00:22:25:20
as to why it's Xs.
00:22:25:20 - 00:22:27:24
And it's really because it's kind of a
00:22:27:24 - 00:22:30:12
an homage to, you know, the fact that
00:22:30:12 - 00:22:33:10
it is still actually federally illegal.
00:22:33:12 - 00:22:34:00
Right.
00:22:34:09 - 00:22:36:17
It's kind of like this prohibited.
00:22:36:17 - 00:22:38:14
You know, thing. And so
00:22:40:01 - 00:22:40:08
that's
00:22:40:08 - 00:22:41:06
really where
00:22:41:06 - 00:22:43:12
the inspiration from the name came from.
00:22:43:12 - 00:22:44:10
And we just took it
00:22:44:10 - 00:22:45:02
and ran with it
00:22:45:02 - 00:22:46:15
and it just has so many extensions
00:22:46:15 - 00:22:48:15
and applications for
00:22:48:15 - 00:22:51:02
From how it makes you feel too, you know,
00:22:51:02 - 00:22:52:03
where its place
00:22:52:03 - 00:22:54:07
is among other beverage brands
00:22:54:07 - 00:22:58:08
and we just ran with it. Right
00:22:58:08 - 00:22:59:05
So let's talk about the
00:22:59:05 - 00:23:01:00
the challenges with regulations
00:23:01:00 - 00:23:03:03
and how you go about doing this
00:23:03:03 - 00:23:04:19
and the state by state like so
00:23:04:19 - 00:23:06:01
how would this work?
00:23:06:01 - 00:23:08:04
Rob wants to try a drink.
00:23:08:21 - 00:23:10:10
How would I be able to do that.
00:23:10:10 - 00:23:12:21
How would my customers be able to
00:23:12:21 - 00:23:13:18
work with. Yeah.
00:23:13:18 - 00:23:15:19
So it's going to be kind of a,
00:23:15:19 - 00:23:16:15
you know, a
00:23:16:15 - 00:23:19:09
game of patience, like I said earlier.
00:23:19:09 - 00:23:19:15
Right.
00:23:19:15 - 00:23:21:06
In the sense that
00:23:21:06 - 00:23:22:24
when you started typical business
00:23:22:24 - 00:23:24:15
in the United States,
00:23:24:15 - 00:23:26:00
once you start at one place,
00:23:26:00 - 00:23:28:24
it started for the rest of the country.
00:23:28:24 - 00:23:31:01
Whereas in cannabis, right,
00:23:31:03 - 00:23:32:08
you're starting a business.
00:23:32:08 - 00:23:33:14
And effectively
00:23:33:14 - 00:23:35:22
each time you start this business,
00:23:35:22 - 00:23:37:24
you have to start a new one in each state
00:23:37:24 - 00:23:41:03
because the you know, from
00:23:41:05 - 00:23:43:00
the packaging regulations
00:23:43:00 - 00:23:44:23
to the amount of cannabis
00:23:44:23 - 00:23:47:05
you can have in a package, to
00:23:47:24 - 00:23:49:11
other things that come into play
00:23:49:11 - 00:23:50:19
that just are different
00:23:50:19 - 00:23:52:08
from state to state
00:23:52:08 - 00:23:54:07
and they're changing all the time.
00:23:54:07 - 00:23:57:01
And so so you're in California.
00:23:57:01 - 00:23:58:01
We're in California.
00:23:58:01 - 00:23:59:05
We're in talks
00:23:59:05 - 00:24:01:12
to move into two additional states.
00:24:01:12 - 00:24:02:02
Okay.
00:24:02:07 - 00:24:04:00
And, you know, obviously,
00:24:04:00 - 00:24:05:14
where we're aiming right now
00:24:05:14 - 00:24:06:21
is the 19
00:24:06:21 - 00:24:09:07
or so recreational states, right.
00:24:09:08 - 00:24:10:24
That are online now.
00:24:10:24 - 00:24:12:06
It's going to be our first target.
00:24:13:05 - 00:24:13:15
Who are
00:24:13:15 - 00:24:14:03
like you don't have to
00:24:14:03 - 00:24:16:12
say all they are but there are is
00:24:16:12 - 00:24:17:14
Miami is not recreational
00:24:17:14 - 00:24:18:08
is Miami recreational?
00:24:18:08 - 00:24:19:11
as a Florida recreational.
00:24:19:11 - 00:24:21:24
Florida is not not yet.
00:24:21:24 - 00:24:22:16
Miami would
00:24:22:16 - 00:24:24:13
be a great target for you
00:24:24:13 - 00:24:25:10
You would think. Right?
00:24:25:10 - 00:24:26:23
Yeah. Miami would kill it.
00:24:26:23 - 00:24:28:03
But okay.
00:24:28:03 - 00:24:30:15
So I assume New York is. New York is.
00:24:30:15 - 00:24:32:10
But they're still coming online, right?
00:24:32:10 - 00:24:34:05
They're still getting all of their ducks
00:24:34:05 - 00:24:36:05
in a row like most of the Northeast
00:24:36:05 - 00:24:37:06
corridor is now.
00:24:37:06 - 00:24:39:17
So Connecticut is
00:24:39:23 - 00:24:42:07
I think Rhode Island recently did.
00:24:42:15 - 00:24:45:04
Massachusetts is a big market
00:24:45:04 - 00:24:45:22
on the East Coast.
00:24:45:22 - 00:24:49:03
Jersey is now rec
00:24:49:03 - 00:24:51:01
And then you move a
00:24:51:01 - 00:24:53:00
Well Jersey is one
00:24:53:00 - 00:24:54:08
you move west
00:24:54:08 - 00:24:55:00
and then you got
00:24:55:00 - 00:24:56:16
there's some pockets in the Midwest.
00:24:56:16 - 00:24:59:18
So Illinois and Michigan, you move
00:24:59:18 - 00:25:00:16
further west,
00:25:00:16 - 00:25:02:21
you got Colorado, Nevada,
00:25:03:05 - 00:25:06:04
Arizona, obviously the whole western
00:25:06:10 - 00:25:08:03
Seaboard with California,
00:25:08:03 - 00:25:09:14
Oregon and Washington state.
00:25:09:14 - 00:25:11:06
And so that's really,
00:25:11:06 - 00:25:13:06
you know, for all intents and New Mexico
00:25:13:06 - 00:25:14:08
just came online.
00:25:14:08 - 00:25:16:15
That's really our our map right now.
00:25:16:16 - 00:25:17:00
Right.
00:25:18:02 - 00:25:18:22
And so for folks
00:25:18:22 - 00:25:19:06
who aren't
00:25:19:06 - 00:25:21:22
in those states, unfortunately,
00:25:21:22 - 00:25:22:10
there's going to be
00:25:22:10 - 00:25:23:09
a little bit of a wait
00:25:23:09 - 00:25:24:07
unless you travel
00:25:24:07 - 00:25:25:07
into one of those states
00:25:25:07 - 00:25:26:17
and then you can, you know,
00:25:26:17 - 00:25:27:17
you'll be able to find it.
00:25:27:17 - 00:25:29:18
But, yes, it's a it's a
00:25:29:18 - 00:25:32:19
the regulations make this, you know,
00:25:33:15 - 00:25:35:14
like exponentially tougher than starting
00:25:35:14 - 00:25:36:22
your regular business, right?
00:25:36:22 - 00:25:39:03
Because you're building a new business
00:25:39:03 - 00:25:41:23
in every single market you go to.
00:25:41:23 - 00:25:43:09
And I imagine you're
00:25:43:09 - 00:25:44:09
the digital media space.
00:25:44:09 - 00:25:44:23
Are there
00:25:44:23 - 00:25:46:15
are there barriers for digital media
00:25:46:15 - 00:25:47:17
marketing as well too?
00:25:47:17 - 00:25:49:03
Yeah, I imagine
00:25:49:03 - 00:25:49:24
they probably make it
00:25:49:24 - 00:25:51:07
harder to do that too.
00:25:51:07 - 00:25:52:09
Yeah, much harder.
00:25:52:09 - 00:25:55:03
And we have a little bit of a
00:25:55:08 - 00:25:56:00
in there
00:25:56:00 - 00:25:56:14
in the sense
00:25:56:14 - 00:25:59:00
that like our vessel is the cocktail
00:25:59:07 - 00:26:00:10
and so
00:26:00:10 - 00:26:01:12
we can talk about
00:26:01:12 - 00:26:03:04
other worldly cocktails
00:26:03:04 - 00:26:05:05
without really talking about cannabis.
00:26:05:05 - 00:26:07:10
And you know, upon further digging
00:26:07:10 - 00:26:08:11
you'll find out
00:26:08:11 - 00:26:09:08
it's, you know,
00:26:09:08 - 00:26:11:14
THC or cannabis infused, right?
00:26:11:22 - 00:26:14:14
But if you're a flower brand or a vape
00:26:14:14 - 00:26:16:18
brand, it's really no way to hide that.
00:26:16:18 - 00:26:19:23
So what you can do is super limited.
00:26:19:23 - 00:26:23:17
So it's not workarounds, but it is tough.
00:26:23:17 - 00:26:24:11
So what
00:26:24:11 - 00:26:26:21
does success in five years look like?
00:26:26:21 - 00:26:28:21
How do you hope to transform
00:26:28:21 - 00:26:29:15
the spirit industry?
00:26:29:15 - 00:26:30:06
What does that look like
00:26:30:06 - 00:26:31:06
when you've done that?
00:26:31:06 - 00:26:31:22
Yeah, look,
00:26:31:22 - 00:26:32:18
I say that
00:26:32:18 - 00:26:33:17
everyone I talk to,
00:26:33:17 - 00:26:35:24
I'm not here to replace alcohol.
00:26:36:02 - 00:26:39:16
I'm here to give folks another option
00:26:39:17 - 00:26:41:06
as it relates to their,
00:26:41:06 - 00:26:42:23
you know, their home bar cart.
00:26:42:23 - 00:26:45:01
Like, I feel this deserves a place
00:26:45:16 - 00:26:47:06
amongst every bar cart
00:26:47:06 - 00:26:50:03
and it's as an option to enjoy
00:26:50:10 - 00:26:51:11
when you're feeling
00:26:51:11 - 00:26:53:11
like a zig or a zag from alcohol.
00:26:53:12 - 00:26:54:14
Not to mention
00:26:54:14 - 00:26:55:24
obviously, we want to be an option
00:26:55:24 - 00:26:58:09
for those who have completely sworn off alcohol
00:26:58:09 - 00:26:59:18
and still want to have
00:26:59:18 - 00:27:01:03
that release occasion
00:27:01:03 - 00:27:03:23
and are okay with cannabis.
00:27:03:23 - 00:27:06:02
So five years from now, it's
00:27:06:05 - 00:27:08:06
a lot is going to depend upon
00:27:08:06 - 00:27:09:02
how much further
00:27:09:02 - 00:27:10:09
we make it from,
00:27:10:09 - 00:27:11:06
you know, legal
00:27:11:06 - 00:27:13:06
and in a regulatory sense.
00:27:13:06 - 00:27:16:08
Yeah, obviously our dream and our hope is
00:27:16:08 - 00:27:19:01
that we can be next to spirits
00:27:19:11 - 00:27:21:02
products wherever they're sold,
00:27:21:02 - 00:27:21:24
you know, whether it be in
00:27:21:24 - 00:27:23:10
a bar, whether it be in a
00:27:25:01 - 00:27:26:12
liquor store or what have you.
00:27:26:12 - 00:27:28:19
You know, I think that is the aim.
00:27:28:22 - 00:27:30:23
Are we we're not banking on that. Right.
00:27:30:23 - 00:27:32:24
Just based on how things have gone.
00:27:32:24 - 00:27:34:14
But I think we,
00:27:34:14 - 00:27:36:02
you know, five years from now,
00:27:36:02 - 00:27:38:15
if we're like kind of a mainstay on
00:27:39:08 - 00:27:40:04
a fair
00:27:40:04 - 00:27:40:21
amount of bar
00:27:40:21 - 00:27:43:13
carts, that'll be success for us.
00:27:43:13 - 00:27:43:23
All right.
00:27:43:23 - 00:27:45:19
Couple of quick, rapid fire questions,
00:27:45:19 - 00:27:46:14
rapid fire question
00:27:46:14 - 00:27:47:15
You could just finish this.
00:27:47:15 - 00:27:48:07
Finish the sentence
00:27:48:07 - 00:27:51:16
so the future of spirits in America is.
00:27:53:06 - 00:27:54:02
It's going to be here.
00:27:54:02 - 00:27:55:02
It's not going anywhere.
00:27:55:02 - 00:27:56:02
It's been here forever.
00:27:56:02 - 00:27:57:14
It's going to stay.
00:27:57:14 - 00:27:59:07
I think it's just evolving.
00:27:59:07 - 00:28:01:23
So what do people from the outside
00:28:03:05 - 00:28:04:22
get most get wrong?
00:28:04:22 - 00:28:07:22
Most often when it comes to cannabis.
00:28:07:22 - 00:28:10:13
I think the stigmatism that still exists,
00:28:10:17 - 00:28:11:00
you know,
00:28:11:00 - 00:28:13:17
from the war on drugs and you know,
00:28:13:20 - 00:28:15:22
there is no hiding from the fact
00:28:15:23 - 00:28:17:04
that there's plenty of people
00:28:17:04 - 00:28:17:21
that look like
00:28:17:21 - 00:28:18:15
you and I
00:28:18:15 - 00:28:20:05
who are definitely behind bars
00:28:20:05 - 00:28:22:01
for low level,
00:28:22:01 - 00:28:23:22
you know, marijuana offenses.
00:28:23:22 - 00:28:24:21
Absolutely.
00:28:24:21 - 00:28:25:04
You know,
00:28:25:04 - 00:28:26:19
something that is still
00:28:26:19 - 00:28:28:11
hugely problematic and.
00:28:28:11 - 00:28:29:21
And they still can't profit from
00:28:29:21 - 00:28:30:17
they're not the ones being able
00:28:30:17 - 00:28:31:22
to profit off of this.
00:28:31:22 - 00:28:34:22
And for the most part, yeah, that's it.
00:28:34:23 - 00:28:37:12
Yeah, it's extremely problematic.
00:28:37:12 - 00:28:39:00
And you and I should just point out
00:28:39:00 - 00:28:40:17
that I believe the company
00:28:40:17 - 00:28:41:13
MXXN is going to give
00:28:41:13 - 00:28:43:10
some portions back to,
00:28:43:10 - 00:28:45:13
you know, those who have been affected by
00:28:47:03 - 00:28:48:18
by these incarcerations.
00:28:48:18 - 00:28:49:19
Talk a little bit about that.
00:28:49:19 - 00:28:51:08
We do a lot of important work there.
00:28:51:08 - 00:28:51:17
Yeah.
00:28:51:17 - 00:28:53:01
So that's very central
00:28:53:01 - 00:28:54:23
to our whole mission in this.
00:28:54:23 - 00:28:56:13
And, you know, it's it's part
00:28:56:13 - 00:28:58:11
advocacy, right?
00:28:58:11 - 00:29:00:16
Supporting organizations that do
00:29:01:04 - 00:29:02:24
that work, you know, of
00:29:02:24 - 00:29:04:21
getting records expunged
00:29:04:21 - 00:29:06:12
and the lobbying work
00:29:06:12 - 00:29:09:03
it's going to require to change that whole
00:29:10:19 - 00:29:12:02
situation.
00:29:12:02 - 00:29:16:05
But it also is us being much more
00:29:17:14 - 00:29:20:01
watchful of our own supply chain
00:29:20:01 - 00:29:21:20
and who we give opportunities
00:29:21:20 - 00:29:24:21
to from an employment standpoint
00:29:24:21 - 00:29:26:22
and creating opportunities for,
00:29:26:22 - 00:29:28:22
you know, folks who have been affected,
00:29:28:22 - 00:29:29:18
but family members
00:29:29:18 - 00:29:30:21
have been affected by this.
00:29:30:21 - 00:29:32:09
Folks of color. Right.
00:29:32:09 - 00:29:35:11
Is really bringing us into the fold
00:29:35:12 - 00:29:36:08
into an industry
00:29:36:08 - 00:29:38:17
which has a chance to do it differently.
00:29:38:17 - 00:29:39:20
But unfortunately,
00:29:39:20 - 00:29:41:05
it's starting to shape up
00:29:41:05 - 00:29:42:18
and look like just like start.
00:29:42:18 - 00:29:43:20
To look like everything else.
00:29:43:20 - 00:29:45:13
In some ways, the areas are harder.
00:29:45:13 - 00:29:47:06
I have had some involvement
00:29:47:06 - 00:29:49:02
in some of these projects
00:29:49:02 - 00:29:49:19
through investment
00:29:49:19 - 00:29:51:02
are just looking at opportunity for
00:29:51:02 - 00:29:52:24
and I can tell you the barriers
00:29:52:24 - 00:29:53:21
they make them even
00:29:53:21 - 00:29:56:04
higher than normal barriers for business.
00:29:56:09 - 00:29:56:21
Yeah.
00:29:57:13 - 00:29:59:13
Which is, which is challenging.
00:29:59:13 - 00:29:59:22
And so
00:30:00:21 - 00:30:01:04
for all
00:30:01:04 - 00:30:02:21
the talk about inclusion,
00:30:02:21 - 00:30:04:10
it's been quite the opposite.
00:30:04:10 - 00:30:05:18
I've seen that play out in the space
00:30:05:18 - 00:30:08:05
I'm in with Web3 as well. So I can yeah.
00:30:08:05 - 00:30:09:17
I mean, there's a lot of talk about this,
00:30:09:17 - 00:30:11:10
but I tell people all the time,
00:30:11:10 - 00:30:12:09
no one is going to give us
00:30:12:09 - 00:30:13:10
diversity, inclusion,
00:30:13:10 - 00:30:13:22
nobody
00:30:13:22 - 00:30:16:02
we have to build for a period
00:30:16:02 - 00:30:17:19
in a discussion.
00:30:17:19 - 00:30:18:18
It's the only way we're going to get it
00:30:18:18 - 00:30:20:11
is that we provide the platform.
00:30:20:11 - 00:30:21:23
We provide the businesses,
00:30:21:23 - 00:30:23:07
we provide the strategies,
00:30:23:07 - 00:30:26:03
and we actually implement them
00:30:26:03 - 00:30:26:20
because they're not.
00:30:26:20 - 00:30:28:01
No one's going to do it
00:30:28:01 - 00:30:29:18
because it's the right thing to do.
00:30:29:18 - 00:30:30:05
They're going to
00:30:30:05 - 00:30:30:22
they're going to do it
00:30:30:22 - 00:30:33:01
because it's the profitable thing to do.
00:30:33:01 - 00:30:34:02
And that's what we have to do
00:30:34:02 - 00:30:35:09
because it is a profitable thing to do,
00:30:35:09 - 00:30:36:09
but we have to be the ones
00:30:36:09 - 00:30:37:18
creating the platform.
00:30:37:18 - 00:30:38:12
Otherwise we're not going
00:30:38:12 - 00:30:39:06
to be able to leverage it.
00:30:40:13 - 00:30:41:24
And that is
00:30:41:24 - 00:30:43:10
that is where we come from,
00:30:43:10 - 00:30:44:06
you know, in the sense of
00:30:44:06 - 00:30:46:03
like we're trying to be a platform
00:30:46:03 - 00:30:47:18
for the advocacy
00:30:47:18 - 00:30:48:06
part of it,
00:30:48:06 - 00:30:51:20
as well as the systemic disruption of
00:30:52:04 - 00:30:54:20
where opportunity is for people of our,
00:30:54:23 - 00:30:56:12
of our ilk. Right.
00:30:56:12 - 00:30:58:19
Like I want to make sure we,
00:30:58:19 - 00:31:01:11
you know, any position that we have open.
00:31:01:14 - 00:31:03:08
Like if I haven't seen
00:31:03:08 - 00:31:05:22
multiple candidates of color,
00:31:06:08 - 00:31:09:17
you know, or diversity, like don't even
00:31:09:20 - 00:31:10:21
don't even bring it to me
00:31:10:21 - 00:31:12:03
until I see that
00:31:12:03 - 00:31:14:15
we've exhausted every single path we can.
00:31:14:17 - 00:31:15:00
Right.
00:31:15:00 - 00:31:15:15
To provide
00:31:15:15 - 00:31:17:22
opportunity to those who are getting
00:31:17:22 - 00:31:19:23
stiffed, are stiff armed elsewhere.
00:31:19:23 - 00:31:22:13
So that's hugely important to us.
00:31:22:13 - 00:31:24:17
So yeah, I mean, that, that without that,
00:31:25:08 - 00:31:26:00
that to me
00:31:26:00 - 00:31:28:10
was like the biggest part of doing this
00:31:29:07 - 00:31:31:16
was the opportunity to provide
00:31:31:16 - 00:31:33:16
more opportunities to the folks
00:31:33:16 - 00:31:35:07
that look like, like you and I.
00:31:35:07 - 00:31:36:10
So yeah.
00:31:37:02 - 00:31:38:11
Darnell Smith
00:31:38:11 - 00:31:40:01
with MXXN and Mojo Ventures.
00:31:40:01 - 00:31:41:06
We're going to be looking
00:31:41:06 - 00:31:42:03
I'm looking for my content
00:31:42:03 - 00:31:43:05
we're going to do some work to get it.
00:31:43:05 - 00:31:44:23
So appreciate having you on
00:31:44:23 - 00:31:45:10
and we'll
00:31:45:10 - 00:31:47:00
make sure everybody can see the link.
00:31:47:00 - 00:31:47:19
Where to find out
00:31:47:19 - 00:31:49:04
more information about you, what events
00:31:49:04 - 00:31:50:00
you may have coming up.
00:31:50:00 - 00:31:51:06
We look forward to hearing
00:31:51:06 - 00:31:52:07
more and seeing more from you.
00:31:52:24 - 00:31:53:14
Thanks for having me.