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We talk about all things cannabis from dispensaries, cultivations, current news & entrepreneurship along with some lifestyle topics to intrigue, inspire and flat out make you laugh! During this series we'll have interviews with some game changers showing you a different perspective discussing the state of Cannabis. Friendly for newbies, vets and people who curious. It's funny, it's blunt, it's real... Sativa Talk Podcast.
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV studios on public radio KUNV
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91.5 the content of this program is sponsored by the sativa talk podcast The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more or the university of nevada las vegas Hello and welcome back to another episode of Sativa Talk Podcast where we have blunt
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conversations. We like to talk about cannabis of course whether you are a vet, newbie or just curious we got you covered and we would like to get into some lifestyle entrepreneurship as well. Now this is episode 5 so we are celebrating and according to Noura Noura. Numerology, the number 5 symbolizes freedom, curiosity, and change. A desire to have adventures and explore new possibilities. But it signifies more than just high energy and excitement as well. So episode 5, you know what, let me, high energy, excitement, let me pick up my tone and my energy because we on episode 5 and I have a very special guest that's in here with me today you can hear her as well podcasting in the podcast world known as high bud tenders right that's it okay we're not speaking on anything else she does at the moment so we'll just pin it right there miss
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Rocky how are you feeling today hey hey what's going on Angie I'm super glad to be on your podcast. This makes me super happy. I mean, you're on mine. And I appreciate it. Yeah, you were just a little light on the podcast. So I was super excited. And everything that you bring all the energy you bring to this industry, girl,
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it's amazing. Thank you, darling. Now, like I said, we didn't get into a lot of what you do, because I know you have affiliations with some cannabis organizations here in Vegas. You have some affiliations with magazines. You have some affiliations with the... you got affiliations. Yes. But once again I do appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. Now we're gonna get into some weed news but first of course we got to pay some of the bills now. I got to give a shout out to my sponsor the Bizz Entertainment West. They are in the business of providing entertainment on the West Coast. You can find them on Instagram at bizentwest underscore Vegas and tell them thank you for bringing Angie T back on the airwaves. So I want to get into what's going on currently in the cannabis realm in the cannabis world here in Las Vegas. So you know the Big Brother CCB board it's been a lot going on with them within the past couple weeks. It was like talk of like a freeze or something. They had to go and recalibrate the, well they couldn't issue out any additional regulations. Did you hear about? I did. Okay and I know that the organization that you're one of the organizations you're affiliated with, they kind of posted about it. So did you
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guys meet on it or you have any further info? I think it was a little bit of a surprise to be honest. We weren't even prepared for that. But I mean stopping the regulations from happening, but I think it was a statewide situation, right? So it wasn't just for cannabis. It just kind of like cannabis fell into the realm of that situation. So as far as we know, we're not too pervy. I mean really there's other things that we are addressing now And then let me let me tell you I'm speaking of the chamber of cannabis So right now we are working on a few things most more than likely you'll probably be hearing from us about changing the The limit of cannabis that you could purchase so we want to take that from you know recreational one ounce to a two ounce situation. It will help out greatly with revenue in the cannabis industry. Absolutely. And then another thing too is helping these ex-offenders that had cannabis charges to work in the industry. It's ridiculous that they can't. Just to have any kind of restriction whatsoever about that. So really, in all honesty, I feel like what we are really basing our focus on is more so the people and not the state. Right. Right. So yeah, I mean, I could definitely bring that up. But we probably know very little about how that even got started. Yeah, at least I don't,
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you know, for sure. But I was shook like, Oh, what? Something done happened. But it seems as if maybe that freeze is over because they actually have recently Suspended a license on a north side. Yes, so that was the helping hands Wellness Center So I'm just reading from the article But it's very serious so they suspended the license Citing that it was a threat to public health and safety. They were saying that, that basically they found some flour in their cultivation that was not tagged. And they have some surveillance of some people. They had some flour in there that was not tagged. fun time contamination, you know, yeah, exactly. So that's that was the threat. I feel like the words they use is like very serious, like threat to public safety and health. But I mean, kinda, because it helps keep track of what was put on the flower and make sure that it was tested before it gets hit to the shelves. So I don't know, I feel like that once again, CCB flicks and they muscle like, Oh, you think it's the game?
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Well, I mean, it was pretty huge to be honest with you. I mean there was a lot of product that had to be taken off shelves because of the fact that, because of this contamination. From what I know it kind of maybe stemmed from a pesticide, right, that was not regulated or whatever the case may be, people should just know in advance that CCB ain't playing with you.
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When they get their wand, their magic wand.
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No, just do the things that you're supposed to do. I mean, in all honesty, that is the repercussion for those actions. And I think it makes a lot of people think about what they're doing in their next steps and their cultivations and things of that nature. Just follow the rules, man, because it really was extensive. If you saw how many different brands were
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involved with that. With the pesticides or with the contamination? Oh yeah yeah yeah that that was another thing I was gonna bring up. So we're talking about the CCB board they issued a bulletin on products treated with unapproved pesticides. So this is to keep the flower from from bug contamination. This is to kill possibly any E.coli, any germs that may be on the flower. They use these chemicals to kill that, but ultimately it ends up a threat to your organs because now when you smoke it, you're consuming it and it's a danger to you. So I had to get into the cannabis industry to understand the severity of it, of how much it really matters, how you tend to this plant, what do you put on it, down to the what what do you are you do you talk to the plant, do you play any music for the plant, what's the energy of this building as a whole. So yeah, have you experienced any like have you been to a
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cultivation you looked around and was like oh. My cultivation experience actually working in a cultivation Made me want to get out of cultivation because of some you know what I mean just because it's a fine line Especially if you're working for cultivation, you're not fully privy of all the regulations that are out there But yeah, my experience was it was decent. There was some there were some things where I was like, hmm But it makes you learn and it makes you ask questions, too. So now, when I do visit cultivations, like I most recently I was at the Fleur Cultivation, shout out to them. Really great facility, doing a really great job. They actually do organic cannabis. So nothing to see there as far as like pesticides or bad things that are put into cultivations. But for the most part, this was complete surprise to me because I I know that we are privy of these regulations and we should be following them so I don't know how this even came to this point where like all of these brands you know had their hands in that situation I think it was some distillate maybe it looked like a lot of production items that were in that. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, they had
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like, so I'm looking it's 117 infused edibles, 41 infused pre rolls and 221 concentrates. So bamboozled. It's like now when you go shop for marijuana, it's almost like, you know, when you go to the shop for meat, like you're gonna go to Whole Foods and get your meat and you're gonna go to the shop where they don't wear gloves.
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And that shouldn't even be the case, right? With cannabis, like, we shouldn't have to worry about these things whatsoever. So it's a little bit, I think that it's going to alert the consumers a little bit more about what could quite possibly happen. Right? Yes, absolutely. cultivation stay on the level and follow these regulations. It's very important. There's obviously a really good reason for the fact that these things are in place. So I mean the only the only logical reason that I could see for that is how much we can
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get out as much as possible. You know too but you got to keep in mind of the
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So for a minute there I was like, hey CCB there you go, finding that stuff out. Because I'm a heavy consumer.
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That part, yeah. I mean it definitely has its pros and cons because some of the regulations it appears like it was not, it wasn't made in, how should I put this, when the regulation was made it was more beneficial or easier for a corporation than a small business. It's almost like it's itching out the small businesses. So to play devil's advocate a little bit, that's why when the CCP comes out with these regulations, I'm like, oh gosh, it's like they're just putting extra squeeze on the smaller guys. So, but I am for sanitation and hey, don't put none of that on my stuff give me the and you can taste it when you smoke it too if something has like a lot of chemicals on it or you know something don't taste right. I was just talking to someone
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about white ash and oh yeah the ashes yeah how your ash burns and yada yada there's a lot of misconceptions regarding that but and I think it's all providing to the metals that are found in some of these pesticides and stuff like that.
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So touch on that real quick. So if the ash is dark, that means it was, it has a lot of chemicals.
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Yeah, I thought that like it's more treated, right? And then those that don't that burn white ash, but see that whole situation, I want to make sure people understand that has been, there have been people that have, you know, college students that have debunked that whole situation. So please do your homework. That's always what I'm about. Like, hey, if you're going to be quoting things that are like, hey, white ash is this and black ash is that, you have to know and you have to be a little bit more educated before you put things like that out into the atmosphere. But that's the kind of fear we provide. I feel like as we're moving closer to federal legalization, we're going to see more of this situation. So I wouldn't be, I wouldn't say this is probably going to be the only time that this happens.
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Oh, absolutely not. Could you imagine a board like this. So we're kind of setting the standard on how to move forward.
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I think we requested this, didn't we? Wasn't it us who requested it? I'm just kidding. I know people are going to give me backlash.
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I feel like it was like a lever.
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It's like, OK, well, if you're going to let us sell it, OK, here, come on with the board and we'll let the board tell us what we're getting.
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And now we're like right exactly that's that that's exactly it it's like be careful what you wish for kind of situation you know I mean but I think that that goes without saying in any kind of thing that's ultimately
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regulated to the hill because it is you even praying sometimes you got to be very specific and Wesley keep that in because I want people to know that I ain't perfect, but I'm making it work, okay? But yeah, about your prayers and what you ask for because sometimes we get it but not how we think we are. And you know it's funny, I'm touching on this real quick, you had mentioned that people come in town, you know, well people wanting to buy more than an ounce. I think it's the funniest thing when people come from out of town and they're like, oh give me the best Give me they want to buy everything you only here for two days. Yeah You want to challenge yourself? So you want to sleep the whole trip or yeah, I learned that in this industry
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Hey, look, whatever you want to do sir, so long as it's in the realm of these regulations, right? Sure, we're gonna get you. You know what I mean? If we can a lot people two ounces and if it helps the cannabis industry because right now I mean to be honest with you the dispensaries are a little hurting right now because we've kind of driven those prices right down to like bottom of the barrel everything else is raising in prices eggs I think are like two million dollars. Last I checked. They're like nine dollars a dozen and we have like 3.5 grams of cannabis going out there in the world for like 15-20 dollars. I don't just feel like 70 bucks. You know what I mean? So it's just a totally different world out there.
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Well we deserve that. You know what I'm saying? Because when it first came out, it was legal, the stuff was overpriced. Okay? It was too much. It was crazy. So now I feel like, yeah.
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Is this the level out? Do you think this is the level out?
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I don't like ugly. So when we get back together, don't raise the price again.
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Right? No, I hear it. I hear it. And I'm there for that situation. I work in the industry. And I know how hard it is to, you know, shout out to some of the growers out there that are putting out the best kind of cannabis possible. I mean, I'm the kind of person that always feels like you pay for what you get, right. So if you do want the best of the best, you're not going to be chasing that $70 ounce because I'm not saying is, you know, bad or anything like that, but it's not going to be, you know, superior. Oh, girl, please, it'll smoke just
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good. Don't listen to her. Don't listen to me. It'll be just fine from experience. So, I do want to tap into that, you know, your podcast, High Bud Tenders. So, it was originally started to kind of give the perspective of bud tenders. So, and you work, you oversee, you manage a whole dispensary. So, let's kind of switch gears and get into that. So, what makes a good bud tender?
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Fantastic customer service. Know the basics. Understand your product. That way when you're selling something to somebody the worst thing you can do is lie to a customer, especially when it comes to cannabis. Because that is the one product people will come back and tell you you lied about. You know what I'm saying? So to be a good bud tender, you have to be thorough with the customer service, explain to people, get them what they want, find out what they need. Are they going to a show? What's happening today? What are you getting into? Are you just mind sit around and lay around on a couch? All of these kind, all this, these questions are very important to being a bud tender and getting to know your customer. Honestly, retention is key with bud tending. So you want, especially your locals, to come back and see you the next day. So be honest about the product that you're selling and be knowledgeable. That way when people come, they just say, I'm gonna go back to Rocky, who really took care of me and blew my mind yesterday when I was at, you know, when I was at one of the Cirque de Soleil shows. It's fabulous. So I think it's just consistency. It always goes back to customer service. Everybody wants really great service and if you're paying that much, because in all honesty it's still a high-priced item for something that you're consuming, right? So if that's the case, just give the people what they want, right? Don't try to work outside the box. Sometimes people provide way too much information and the customer is completely overloaded. You know. Yeah, so overload.
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Okay, so what if someone is listening right now, they want to get involved and become a Budtender. What would you say a good way to just segue into that?
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First get your agent card. Start there before you even start.
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Oh, you think you should get the card first.
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Oh, absolutely. Okay, I do I if you're very serious about being a butt tender do the steps in the process is necessary To eliminate any issues by the time you go to apply time to start. Okay, so get your agent card If you have to get a sheriff's card get you know What I mean make sure when you get there you ask all the questions that way you seem knowledgeable Get the basics down. You don't have to know about every single strain in Vegas. That's kind of impossible, right? So get down your terpenes, get down your cannabinoids, understand that a little bit, understand the effects of some of these terpenes and cannabinoids. That way you can be a little bit educated by the time you get into that realm of... When I hire someone, I'm not looking for them to come out the gate knowing everything about cannabis. Because if you love it and you're a smoker, you're going to learn. So for me, being able to exhibit great customer service, understand what you're dealing with as far as average ticket and things of that nature, KPIs, key point indicators, you know, everything like that. If you're privy to this knowledge, you're going to make a good bud tender. If you really love the plant, you're going to learn. And then that comes with time. When I first came into the industry, I knew a little bit about terpenes a little bit about cannabinoids a little bit about everything I didn't know everything a little dabble, but I knew how to service a customer Okay, I think that that's so important is to give the people because what they want is an experience It's very different. You don't go into a bar and say hey, what is that? Tom Collins gonna do for me? How am I gonna feel after a couple of those time calling? You know what I mean? So for us, it's more, it's a bigger picture that you're paying for the customer and the consumer. And you want them, if it's their first time, you don't want it to be their last, right? So do the right thing with your first time patients and make them wanna come back for more cannabis.
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That's one of the biggest things, you know, a lot of people, when they say, oh, I smoked and I was so paranoid, I was so this. A lot of times when people are already like high energy. The last thing you want to do is subscribe them a sativa because that's gonna take you an overdrive and then I can see why you anxious because you was already here and now you're up here like yeah you know what I'm saying so okay back to uh bud tenders though so should they go into these dispensaries and be like hey I need a job or should they attend certain events, join groups? Like what do you think the best route is?
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Absolutely, I mean you can get into different organizations right here. If you're a minority and you want to learn a little bit more about cannabis, but you want to be able to open up a business later, CEICNV.
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That's Cannabis Equity Inclusion Community.
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Oh yeah. What's up, whoo! If you are looking, if you have a business and you're looking to further your business or small business and you want to kind of work with people that have been in the industry a while chamber of cannabis, right if You want to learn the full gamut and kind of help the community help ex offenders help people do M for M minorities from medical marijuana do these things in advance of actually walking through the door because honestly those are like additional keys to get you the position. Like if somebody came in there and they're like hey this is my resume and at the bottom of their resume they're like I'm in this the normal you know what I mean CEICNV M4MM, Chamber of Cannabis. If you're in some of these things in advance you kind of got a good knowledge of what regulations are looking like here in Canada and you know in Nevada and then also to the laws that govern that. Yes
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okay thank you so much I hope this helps somebody out there that wants to get involved because I get those inboxes a lot I want to get in but I'm not sure how it's really about networking it's not super hard a lot of a lot of the times but for the most part people are friendly and wanting to help so you know yeah absolutely I think
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that these are all things that are helpful in the end that'll help you get your foot in the door persistence is key there's been a lot of times where people drop off their resume to a dispensary not realizing that the dispensary gets hundreds of resumes daily persistence sometimes is key sometimes you have to come back and be like hey I put an application and I never look at people when they come back in and be like, Oh my God, you are. Why are you bugging me? Yeah, no, I'm like, Okay, you you're really striving to get this position. And that holds bearing regardless of what people tell you that's keep doing what you're doing. But actually come with something because these things, you don't have to have someone sponsoring you to be a part of these organizations.
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You could just join them. Literally and just get in where you fit in. You'll figure it out along the way. Now I do want to get into some a little bit of lifestyle because I do like to tap into different areas. So I want to talk about what to do in a toxic workplace or ways to maintain your Zen in a toxic workplace. So here are a couple suggestions and what's funny is I do these naturally so you know I just pat myself on the back because that's how much I protect my peace. So number one is find your other Zen warriors. Now Zen warriors let's not confuse that with complaining patties okay you don't want to pour more gasoline on the complaining fire right the goal is to change your mindset because honestly we already are manifesting the lives that we are living so to have a woe is me type of mentality is a rabbit hole of doom so to have somebody else you know what's this gonna bring you that positive insight when you are having a stressful day or something I come back you know huh this thing got on my nerves you know let me get it off my chest but we can end the conversation with something to hold on to, something to look forward to, something to grasp on to. Do you
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feel like you have a Zen warrior? At my job? Uh-huh. I do, actually. Yeah. I do have quite a few people. There's one gentleman who is a buttender, and he, I'm going to shout him out, Rick, you're amazing, just comes in with the best attitude possible. Today, he runs by my office and he's like going to the front of the store, he goes, I'll be right back. He has a button on his lanyard that says free hugs. And I guess somebody wanted one. So he was running all the way from the back to the front to give them a hug. So for me, it's like those little things, right? So you make that person's day, right? So he does that to me every time. It's positive reinforcement. Hey, regardless of what today is going to bring, you are going to get over it. The day will end. You know what I mean? You might have to have a positive spin on it when you wake up in the morning. That problem might still be there, but it's less. You had some time to think about it. Don't stress over these things. Make a positive environment. And I would like to say that he helps out in that capacity every single day. That's a beautiful thing.
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Alright so another one is to meditate in the parking lot. Oh baby. That meditation session sometimes turns into a nap. Maybe that's what you needed. You need to go to the car and take a nap real quick. Yes. You look cranky. To rely on headphones. Now some places you aren't allowed to have headphones which, but I understand. But sometimes putting on the right tone in the music just kind of changes and shifts your energy. Let's see. Leave work at work. Don't let the stress follow you home.
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Amen.
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And so sometimes your family pays the price because you, one of your coworkers ate your lunch and now you come home with attitude. Right. or we leave or even sometimes leave home stress at home just kind of learning how to separate the two. Yes, it's a process. Yes, it is.
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So yes, I highly agree with that. 100% you have to be able to in order to function in life and have some balance. You cannot mix the two. It just it doesn't work out. It's just one of those things that took me a really long time to learn but you're right now.
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And then another one we have is to neutralize gossipers. So even though don't get me wrong we all like a good story now but sometimes a lot of the times we got to nip that in the bud because that can be going that can be an ongoing thing and once again if we're talking on an energetic level this this is a lot of negativity so now every time you see me I don't want you to think I want you to pour the negativity into my cup because I didn't ask for it today. You know what I'm saying? So it's kind of just not even participating in it. And let's see and to share some of your Zen. So that's kind of like how you mentioned Rick was that his name? How he comes in and kind of just he has the hugs and even though COVID I do free fist pounds. We can pound fist all day. But, but no, just sharing a smile, being nice, sharing a compliment, just doing that for other people can really take it a long way. When you're servicing the people. So yeah, I agree. Yeah. So in other news, your podcast,
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how about tenders? Well, how often does it come on? How can we find it all that good stuff. Okay, so we usually do it every Monday. We've had a few like weeks where we skipped a week because we're just passing through a couple of really big holidays that came through but we try to do it every week. I just recently had to skip a week. It happens guys in the podcast world, believe it or not, some things come either a person cancels on you, or you're just like, hey, you run into an issue on the day of podcasting and you're like it happens but yeah every Monday we usually have a podcast and we try to get as many people in the cannabis industry, bud tenders, consumers and then of course brand owners and things of that nature so that we can educate people on what's going on in the Vegas cannabis world. Absolutely, so you want to give us your social media, website, whatever you got for us. Absolutely, so we're at www.hiibudtunders.com if you want to listen to the podcast it's forward slash podcast. We also have a merchandising
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session so that's for forward slash shop if you're looking for that. On all
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We are at High Budtenders.
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All right.
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We do have a High Budtenders podcast, which is a backup page, but check us out on High Budtenders on Instagram.
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Okay, appreciate you for that, for coming through and hanging out with us. I wanna send a big thanks again to the Business Entertainment West for the sponsorship. If anyone would like a mention or sponsorship, you can reach me at ngt.onair at gmail.com. Thank you, Wesley in the sound room for having my back. P.O.P. If you would like to run this episode back or if you missed any previous episodes, you can search Sativa Talk Podcast on Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music, Audible, Podcast Addict and of course UNLV's website. Just search for the podcast. My Instagram is AngieT underscore on air or Facebook Angie Thompson. Don't tell nobody else. I want to send my love and appreciation out to you guys for tuning in and I'll see you next week I want to send my love and appreciation out to you guys for tuning in and I'll see you next week This is a Tiva talk podcast
Transcribed with Cockatoo