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Dive into Kaya Cast each week for candid conversations with the visionaries shaping the cannabis landscape. We sit down with industry trailblazers to uncover their hard-earned insights and incredible experiences—arming retail entrepreneurs with the know-how and motivation to build a cannabis business they'll love.
Cal McDonald: How do you value your time?
How many dollars is a minute worth to
you, and if you can save a lot of time
on a regular basis and then dedicate
that time to making sure that the most
critical elements of your business are
functioning properly and, you know,
enjoying life on top of that, I think
that's, that's really where my head is at.
Tom Mulhern: Welcome to
the Kaya Cast Podcast.
I'm your host, Tom Mulhern.
And today on the show, I have a
conversation all about cannabis security
with Cal McDonald, who is the territory
manager for cannabis, for Solink.
And Solink is a video security company
that empowers businesses to perform
better using technology and analytics
to really get insights into their data.
And they're not just a security company.
Their security system integrates with
a point of sale system to really give
cannabis businesses unbelievable access
to data that otherwise they wouldn't know.
It makes them more secure.
It makes them a better,
more effective business.
And so, Cal and I dove into a whole
bunch of topics, including, prioritizing.
And employee training and compliance
and, you know, having efficient time
management for owners, business owners,
where are you spending your time?
Where are you investing your time
in your business to really grow it?
We also dove into, you know,
streamlining operations and how
businesses can be more secure.
All of these different things.
So I really, really hope you
enjoy this conversation with
Cal McDonald from Solink.
Cal McDonald is the Territory Manager
for the Cannabis Industry at Solink,
a video security company that empowers
businesses to perform better through the
use of smart technology and analytics.
Cal holds a business degree in
marketing from the University of Ottawa.
At Solink, Cal oversees the implementation
of video surveillance in the cannabis
industry and is utilizing his skills
to make Solink the go to solution for
businesses requiring video surveillance
and loss prevention services.
So Cal, welcome to the
Kaya Cast podcast, man.
It's awesome to have you on the podcast!
Cal McDonald: Pumped to be here, Tom.
Really excited.
Thank you for having me on.
Tom Mulhern: I want to jump right
into your background and how did you
end up working, you know, in security
and working in the cannabis industry?
Cal McDonald: About 15 years
ago or so, I worked for a sort
of a sister company to Solink.
So it was tech industry,
software, that sort of thing.
I did that for a while and I met a
lot of people in this space and I kept
in touch with a lot of those people.
I ended up jumping around and
doing a whole lot of other
things between then and now.
And I kept in touch with a lot
of people in this industry and
in, in software in general.
And I spoke with them, you know, a couple
of years ago about what Solink did.
And I was really intrigued largely
from the perspective of having
experience as a business owner.
The value proposition was something that
I didn't realize was actually happening.
I didn't know people were essentially
leveraging the security system
as a business intelligence tool.
So, you know, taking the hardware you
have in place for security and then
saying, Hey, how can we use these
cameras, this data from the point of
sales and help it benefit the business.
Tom Mulhern: Give me a
brief overview of Solink.
What are some of the main focuses,
because I know you're not just
only in the cannabis industry,
you're a big organization, so yeah,
paint a picture of Solink for us.
Cal McDonald: We are in really any brick
and mortar business can be using Solink.
The way I break this down
is into three pieces.
Solink is your video surveillance,
your video management system.
So it means by which you can easily access
video, you know, take a look at what's
happening in your business, find, save,
share video and then also put analytics on
top of that video to allow you to automate
certain processes within the business.
Number two is security.
So we use the cameras
as a security system.
It's actually quite interesting.
It results in increased response
time from police based on a video
verification security system.
So we use the cameras as the
security rather than having a
secondary system for security.
And then the final piece is an
integration with point of sales.
So we pull data from
point of sales system.
What we call business intelligence in
pulling data from the point of sales.
And then pairing that with the video
system and then making everything
within the business searchable.
So I can search for transactions.
I can search for products,
employees, and so on.
And again, it leverages the existing
camera system and the point of sale
system to streamline that process.
Tom Mulhern: What are some of the
considerations a business owner has to
come with when they're dealing in c@nn@b1s
Cal McDonald: Definitely comes
down to compliance in cannabis.
It also comes down to the volume
of business that you're doing.
A lot of customers that we talked to
were doing 150 - 1,000 transactions
a day, where you have employees in an
industry that's very young trying to
manage those employees, trying to train
those employees and so on, keeping
track of their behavior, essentially,
you know, what are they doing while
they're working for your business, right?
So.
Really, compliance is at the forefront.
You have to tick a lot of boxes, depending
on the state that you're in, the local
municipality, you need to make sure you're
meeting a lot of different requirements.
But where Solink has strength is
we provide everything you need for
compliance, but there's that extra
layer of essentially time savings,
which I don't know if now's the
appropriate time to delve into it,
but that's a huge part of what we do.
Tom Mulhern: How does it
help with that time savings?
Cal McDonald: As a business owner,
really, it comes down to you and the
passion that you have for your business.
You're the one person who's always
going to be making sure that
everything's running the way that
you want it to be ran, right?
So you have a limited amount of time in
a day and the decision as to where you
place that time is extremely critical for
the long term success of your business.
In cannabis, there tends to be
this sort of gold rush mentality
where you're in a new state.
You establish yourself early
on in the process of licensing.
You're doing very well.
The market's doing very well at
the beginning, but over time it
becomes more and more saturated.
People have more options.
People start going to
different shops and so on.
And it's imperative that owners
are focusing on those, those
foundational elements of what it
takes to keep a successful business
and run a successful business.
And I think as most people are aware,
I mean, location plays a big role, but
the customer experience is so critical.
If I was the owner of a dispensary, I
would be in there on a regular basis.
I would be making sure that the way
my employees are interacting with
customers is meeting a standard
that is just absolutely exceptional.
Tom Mulhern: Now, if someone's
brand new, they're, they're just
opening up a dispensary what
advice would you give to them?
Where would you say to put their
money, their time, their focus
with, when it comes to security
for a brand new dispensary?
Cal McDonald: It's a balance
between compliance and operations.
And what I mean by that is you absolutely
have to do what's required for compliance.
We're going to need video cameras.
You need them everywhere, regardless
of the state that you're in.
You need a security system, for sure.
In many states, you need access control
in some states, you need panic buttons.
And in most states, you need
some kind of a battery backup.
Those are the main elements
that you're going to encounter.
So you're going to need some
variety of each of those.
As you're evaluating where to
put your resources, it's okay.
I met compliance, but I don't, I don't
want just a system that's I just paid for.
And now I don't use it at all.
Like it's going to be used
maybe once in a decade.
I want to make sure that.
I've set it up so when I encounter
common scenarios as a business
owner, I'm able to very easily use
this system to my advantage, right?
So a simple example, very, very simple
example is you have a vault and you
need to have one camera in your vault.
But if you have one camera in your vault,
it's very likely that it's unable to see
all of the products within the vault.
And if you're going to be verifying when
you lost product or when product you
know, disappeared, essentially, you're
going to have to go into your vault.
You're going to have to access one
of those cameras and take a look
at what happened in that moment.
So you don't want it just for compliance.
You might want another camera angle
there so that you can easily verify
what happened in a particular moment.
These are the considerations.
It's what's going to happen on a
day to day in running your business.
You want to be able to have visibility
into, of course, the customer experience,
what your employees are doing, making
sure that during downtime, you know,
your employees are following procedure.
Are they organizing the storefront?
Are they making sure things are very
presentable for customers and so on?
That really comes down largely to being
on site is one element, but if you're of
the mind of try to expand your business.
You want to have multiple
businesses, multiple shops and so on.
You want to really streamline
this kind of stuff.
So you can hop on your phone
really briefly and say, okay,
let's make sure everything's going
the way that it's supposed to go.
That's the camera side and really the
camera side is where the majority of
those decisions are made because access
control, panic buttons, things like that,
these really come down to compliance.
Tom Mulhern: Now what about
for those businesses that are
scaling to multiple locations?
What advice would you have for
someone to scale to multiple locations
and keep compliance and security?
Cal McDonald: It's pretty tough not
to just say go with Solink, you know,
because really the platform that we
have, it allows you to just add more
locations on the same platform, right?
So you'll log in.
To, you know, you click on one location,
you can, you can search all locations.
You can see traffic
throughout all your stores.
You can search point of sales
transactions throughout all locations.
So in scaling, so for example, one thing
that we do a lot, there are our customers
in cannabis, but also in retail and
restaurants where they have a recording
device at every single one of their sites.
So maybe they got three sites,
20 sites, 10, 000 sites, right?
And they have a recording
device at every site.
And each recording device, maybe different
sites have different recording devices
and they're logging with different
apps to get into different devices.
And none of those devices are connected
to their point of sale system.
None of them are in a position where
they're easily connected to one another.
If you're planning on having multiple
businesses, particularly, just making
sure that you're able to use the same
systems, that level of familiarity is
going to save you a lot of time, you're
going to know how to use those systems,
that's going to, you know, result in,
again, time savings, and if you use
something like what Solink has, you will
have cameras at all your locations and
it'll be as if it's one location, really,
based on the data that you're bringing
in and the cameras that you can view.
And that is really critical.
If you're planning on scaling,
then that's something you want
to think about in on day one.
And there's no reason to think that
that means a bigger investment up front.
It actually, it oftentimes doesn't.
You can find you know, companies
like ours who will set you up
for a very competitive rate.
And then as you scale it's just
beneficial because they're all
a part of that same system.
Tom Mulhern: I have one
more question for you.
What is one tip that you would
have for a cannabis to launch,
scale, or grow their business?
Cal McDonald: Automate as much as
you can so that your time is spent on
the highest value activities, right?
It comes down to the fact that we
are seeing through the various States
rolling out their programs that there
is a trend, the trend is a bunch of
shops open, they find a lot of success
early on, slowly over time, the markets
become more saturated, certain businesses
make it, and certain businesses don't.
I think that it's a phenomenal, like
an, actually an unbelievable opportunity
for the people who are getting in
early in this space, but as you get
rolling, and I'm sure most people know
this, but you achieve a lot of success.
However, we know through experience
that a lot of these businesses
have greater challenges, three,
five, 10 years down the road.
So again, going back to how can
I automate the things that are
just not wasting my time, but I
shouldn't have to spend my time on.
What do you, where, how
do you value your time?
You know, How many dollars is a minute
worth to you, and if you can save a
lot of time on a regular basis and then
dedicate that time to making sure that the
most critical elements of your business
are functioning properly and, you know,
enjoying life on top of that, I think
that's, that's really where my head is at.
Tom Mulhern: Yeah, and that's such great
advice because for people in, you know,
tech and software, we're always trying
to find ways to optimize and automate.
And even in my role,
I automate everything.
And I think that's, that is such good
advice for a business owner who may not
be as familiar or comfortable with that.
It's, there are tools out there
to help with that automation.
Cal McDonald: In a lot of cases, there
are definitely major benefits to having
the service and the support of businesses
who are taking care of a lot of different
things for you and because they're
experts in their niche they're going
to be able to do it very efficiently,
which means their costs won't be very
high relative to what your costs would
be if you tried to do that yourself.
So just keeping an open mind to the
fact that you will likely have some
recurring expenses and those recurring
expenses can really pay you back.
If you really dig into it and you see
the value that comes from it and the time
savings, there is a ton of value there.
So I would, I would just
stay open minded to that
Tom Mulhern: So Cal, how
can people connect with you
guys, connect with Solink?
What are the, some of the main markets
that you work in and yeah, how can people
get connected to what you're doing?
Cal McDonald: Solink, solink.com.
Definitely an easy way to check us out.
And you can schedule a meeting
with anybody through the website.
You can come to, you know,
you come to me directly.
You know, cmcdonald@solink.com.
That's me.
You'll see us at a lot of different shows.
We're generally at as
many shows as we can be.
That's in, in restaurants, in
retail, in, in cannabis particularly.
Tom Mulhern: Well, we'll have all of
the links to the, in the bio of this
podcast episode for people to connect
and find out more about you, but Cal,
thank you so much for taking this
time and sharing so much about it.
Cal McDonald: Thank you.
No, I really appreciate the opportunity.
I really feel for the people who are
running these businesses and I really
know that you can be in a position where
you're putting it on the line, you know,
and you have to work very, very hard.
And a lot of people don't understand
the work that goes into running
your own business, you know?
And so I love working
with people like that.
I feel like there's a certain level of
being willing to take that risk, take
that step into running your own business.
I love that.
So I love working with people like that.
Tom Mulhern: That's right.
Well, thanks again.
It's been great.
Cal McDonald: Thanks a lot, Tom.
Tom Mulhern: Automation has
saved me so much time in my role.
And if you're a cannabis business
owner, Who's thinking automation,
what are you even talking about?
Well, there are so many software
tools out there in the cannabis
space to help you automate
different aspects of your business.
At KayaPush we offer an all-in-one
solution that really allows you to
do HR payroll, all of your people
management at the push of a button.
This is going to save you time and money.
And this is just an example
of what Cal was talking about.
And so I really, really appreciate
Cal's advice to automate as much
as you can in your business.
So you can focus on growing your business.
I want to encourage you to check out
Solink, check out the links in the bio
to find out more about what they're
doing and how you can connect with them.
And I want to thank you for listening
to the podcast today for being
a subscriber to the podcast and
for supporting what we're doing.
We're so excited to connect with people.
Coming up here soon at MJ biz con, if
you're going to be there, let's hang out.
And stay tuned for more interviews,
just like this on the Kaya Cast podcast.
Thanks for listening to
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