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Featured Guest: JM Balbuena, Author - The Successful Canna-preneur
Whether you're a seasoned pro or a cannabis newcomer, there's something for everyone. Find us on YouTube @BenzingaCannabis
Featured Guest: JM Balbuena, Author - The Successful Canna-preneur
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NewsTranscript
00:00 - Good afternoon, J.M., how are you?
00:02 - I'm great, how are you guys?
00:04 - Good, lovely, lovely to have you.
00:06 Thank you for joining us today.
00:08 A lot to talk about in the cannabis industry,
00:10 never a boring day, but if you don't mind, J.M.,
00:12 can you just give us a little sense of your journey
00:15 with the plant in the industry and where you sit
00:18 in all this? - Absolutely.
00:19 I mean, I gotta say, cannabis saved my life.
00:22 I was in the military, I was not a cannabis consumer
00:26 prior to the military.
00:27 I mean, I did in college, but not necessarily avidly.
00:32 And so I was lucky enough to come across somebody
00:38 that told me, educated me about the medicinal benefits
00:44 of cannabis.
00:45 I was dealing with a sleep disorder that came
00:48 from a concussion because I suffered a traumatic brain injury
00:53 while I was in the military serving.
00:56 And cannabis pretty much helps me to sleep.
00:59 It helps me to rest.
01:01 Prior to that, I had that sleeping disorder for three years.
01:05 Imagine not sleeping through the night,
01:08 waking up with the whole PTSD and what the TBI cost,
01:13 waking up every hour, not being able to get an actual
01:22 consistent sleep through the night for three years.
01:25 So I was super tense, started getting depression,
01:28 started having even attitude problems
01:33 because I was always so tense and tired.
01:36 And so one night smoking a joint with a friend,
01:41 I slept like a baby and that was it for me.
01:47 I started my journey as a patient.
01:49 And then once I'm going to the dispensaries
01:52 and seeing the flow of traffic,
01:54 I'm like, wait a minute, this is an actual industry.
01:58 I always, I come from a family of entrepreneurs
02:02 and just seeing, put into and together.
02:06 I started just looking into it and met my business partner
02:09 in the Retz's history.
02:10 You know, I've been in the industry since 2014,
02:15 have focused on the licensing because San Diego,
02:21 where I'm from at that point was starting to develop
02:24 their licensing programs to allow people to do cultivation
02:28 and all the different operations in that legal landscape.
02:32 And so I started there early and here we are.
02:36 - One followup and then Javi can jump in.
02:38 Are you focused in your work within the cannabis space?
02:41 You're obviously a patient as well,
02:43 but when it comes to your work in the cannabis space,
02:46 A, is it more as a consultant
02:48 and you help other people thrive?
02:50 And then B, where is it just specifically California
02:55 that you work or do you work across the country?
02:57 - No, so through doing consultant work,
03:00 I have championed over 40 licenses
03:03 throughout the legal states in California.
03:05 I'm from Washington state, Hawaii,
03:09 Illinois and Colorado and so in Las Vegas and Nevada,
03:15 specifically in Las Vegas, a few there.
03:20 And so with that, I also have my own licenses
03:25 that we have championed with the businesses
03:27 that I helped to found.
03:30 And so what we did is since we started early
03:33 with the applications and reviewing and understanding
03:37 the language and the requirements from there,
03:41 having our own licenses,
03:44 individuals were looking at us like,
03:45 "Hey, can you help us?"
03:47 And we're going through the process.
03:49 And so we started a consulting firm
03:51 and helped people like that.
03:53 And that's why I wrote the book
03:54 because I realized that a lot of people
03:57 didn't necessarily, they wanted to be in the space
04:01 because perhaps they were doing it,
04:02 it's a legacy operator before the legal landscape
04:07 started arriving.
04:11 And so I wrote the book to put that information out there.
04:16 And just knowing that maybe I had a little bit
04:19 more information than other people
04:20 since I started in the early days,
04:24 just wanted to give my two cents
04:27 and make sure I had all that information in one place
04:32 where people can just find it and read it.
04:35 And not only about the actual ins and out of the industry,
04:40 but also the personal development,
04:42 the stamina that you have to have
04:44 in order to deal with an industry
04:49 that is federally illegal
04:50 and all the things that happen,
04:52 the changes and how to circumvent your personal
04:57 with the business side of things.
04:58 And so the book is pretty much a combination
05:00 of those things.
05:02 But no, I have my own licenses here in San Diego, California
05:06 we have a retail location,
05:08 we have a manufacturing distribution facility.
05:11 And so I do both essentially, long story short.
05:15 - I will get back to these ventures,
05:17 but if you could give us a couple of insights,
05:21 key lessons and takeaways from your book,
05:23 like tease it enough so that people are interested
05:25 in buying it, but give us a little bit of a sense
05:28 of the kind of teachings that we could get
05:31 from the successful people.
05:32 - Absolutely, I try to do a few.
05:36 My approach was to tell my personal story
05:38 of how I went from a patient
05:41 to a professional in the space
05:43 and then migrated to being an entrepreneur,
05:47 by working my butt off and then getting sweat equity
05:50 from some of the businesses that I was helping.
05:53 And then just give an insight as to,
05:57 what is the difference between being in the CBD space only
06:02 and then the differences between the licenses
06:05 as far as like the retail license,
06:07 the manufacturing distribution, even like lab testing.
06:10 And that's a way also to get into the space,
06:15 cultivation and just identifying the different verticals
06:20 that people can get into.
06:21 And then the approaches was also reflective
06:26 where I pretty much let the reader see in themselves,
06:31 like what do you bring to the table?
06:34 And then understand why you bring to the table
06:37 and how you can provide value to the space
06:40 and this is the space and this is what it looks like.
06:43 These are the hardships, this is the opportunity.
06:46 And then at the end in the chapter,
06:50 the mindset is the last chapters,
06:51 the mindset of a successful entrepreneur
06:54 is just giving you some strategies
06:58 of how to make sure your mental health is taken care of
07:03 and in how I did it.
07:05 And I was able to stay in the industry.
07:09 And sometimes the successful entrepreneur
07:14 doesn't necessarily mean like,
07:16 oh my gosh, I'm this successful person all the time.
07:19 It's just being able to still stay in this industry
07:23 and maintain and withstand the difficulties
07:27 and the dynamic environment and all the changes.
07:30 - Navigate it and stay afloat.
07:32 - Exactly.
07:33 - If you're floating on a door.
07:35 (laughing)
07:39 - But the lady.
07:40 - So, you know, JM, you've been in the space for a while.
07:47 You have a book really about entrepreneurialism in cannabis
07:52 and helping people find how to be a successful one
07:55 with their strengths and improving their weaknesses.
07:58 Can you give me a sense of what is one thing
08:02 that cannabis entrepreneurs in your eyes
08:05 just consistently lack?
08:07 Like what is the one piece of knowledge,
08:11 the one piece of experience,
08:13 or just the one resource that you find is always in need?
08:18 - Capital.
08:20 (laughing)
08:23 You know, that is, I think, one of the things
08:25 that is keeping the industry, the growth,
08:29 like I don't wanna say stagnant
08:30 because there's still growth happening.
08:32 You know, we're getting creative
08:34 in the way that we circumvent these challenges,
08:38 but the lack of access to capital, you know,
08:41 like a regular business,
08:43 I believe that makes a lot of people give up.
08:46 You know, you start your journey,
08:49 you may have your own capital,
08:50 and then, you know, you invest it all,
08:53 and next thing you know, you know.
08:55 In all industries, business need capital to grow.
08:58 You know, you scale by, you know, raising capital
09:02 and being able to, you know, buy bigger properties,
09:05 you know, hire more qualified individuals.
09:08 And then in this industry, the lack of capital, you know,
09:11 and access to capital like regular businesses, you know,
09:15 I think that is the main thing
09:18 that keeps people from being able
09:19 to get to the next level faster,
09:23 or, you know, or traditional, in a traditional way.
09:27 - You know, we're a little bit over time,
09:30 but I gotta ask you one more question to close it up.
09:33 Why do you want to boycott shitty weed?
09:36 What do you want against shitty weed?
09:38 (all laughing)
09:40 - I hate it.
09:41 - But like, explain it, please.
09:43 What is, what is BSW?
09:45 - Boycott shitty weed is my advocacy, my advocacy brand.
09:50 With that, the message is, you know,
09:53 there's more than just consumption.
09:55 First of all, yes, it is important to make sure
09:58 that you know that the quality
10:00 of the cannabis you're consuming is good,
10:03 because we have an endocannabinoid system.
10:05 You know, this is not just, you know,
10:08 drinking malt liquor to forget your,
10:11 your, your woes and stuff like that.
10:15 I always advocate for the intentional use, you know,
10:17 the plant can help you with things like anxiety.
10:21 And I'm speaking from my personal experience, you know,
10:23 even if I wanted to get creative, I know the strains,
10:27 you know, what to consume in order to bring that out of me.
10:31 So I think that's super important.
10:32 And that's one sense.
10:33 The other part is understanding, you know,
10:36 that supporting businesses that support,
10:39 let's say social equity,
10:41 support diversity and inclusion, support, you know,
10:44 things that are important to the community.
10:48 And that's another part, you know,
10:50 if a business is not doing that,
10:52 a cannabis business in particular, or any business,
10:56 I boycott that too.
10:57 And so that's just a part, it's a layered, a layered thing,
11:01 but for the brand itself in the advocacy side of things,
11:06 I use the different collections that we put out
11:09 to put out information about the industry,
11:14 the cannabis plant in itself, like why prohibition,
11:17 and you know, was horrible and you know, what led us there.
11:22 So for instance, my second collection is called
11:24 Propaganda Heroes Versus Villains.
11:27 In that one, I used the different logos and graphics
11:31 to expose, you know, why, what Nixon did and how, you know,
11:35 he criminalized cannabis and obviously drug abuse
11:40 when it's actually a health issue.
11:41 And so with all the content that we put out,
11:44 we just explain those things just to educate individuals
11:47 about how we got to where we are and also educating
11:51 about how they can contribute to a better future.
11:54 - Love it.
11:55 One quick one to close it up.
11:56 And this is like a yes or no question,
11:58 but it's like, this is a debate that has been ongoing here.
12:01 It's, is all cheap weed shitty
12:06 or can great cannabis be affordable?
12:10 - I think great cannabis can be affordable.
12:13 I mean, for instance, here in California,
12:15 you can grow six plants.
12:17 And so you can do it on your own and make sure that,
12:22 you know, you're using inputs for,
12:25 to grow the plant that are, that are good
12:27 and not necessarily, you know, super expensive.
12:30 I think it gets expensive when you,
12:34 when the greed sets in of, you know, of corporate,
12:40 but it doesn't have to be like that, in my opinion.
12:43 I feel like a lot of the times when you have individuals
12:46 that know what they're doing and doing it for the culture,
12:49 doing it for the, for to make the industry be,
12:54 'cause you know, the culture of cannabis
12:56 is community and compassion.
12:57 And so it started like that.
12:59 People had in the past were contributing
13:02 and people were consuming quality stuff
13:04 for medicinal purposes, you know,
13:06 back in the nineties and eighties to help people with,
13:09 that were dealing with AIDS and cancer
13:11 and things of that nature.
13:13 And so it was affordable.
13:15 Most people were giving it out for free, you know,
13:17 Dennis Barone, Mary Jane Radford, like,
13:20 and so, yes, it is possible, you know,
13:23 long story short in my view.
13:24 - Nuestra amiga Dominicana, J.M. Balowena,
13:29 is a woman of many hats,
13:31 author of the successful "Cannabinoid Advocate",
13:34 entrepreneur, filmmaker, Navy vet,
13:36 managing partner at Jax, CMO of Prime Harvest,
13:39 the creator of "Boycott Shitty Weed",
13:41 and I don't know how many other things.
13:43 Go check her out on social media.
13:45 J.M., thank you so much for joining us.
13:47 - Oh, gracias. - Thank you, J.M.
13:49 - Gracias. - Really insightful.
13:50 - Muchas gracias a ustedes.
13:52 Thank you very much, you guys.
13:53 - Thank you, we'll talk to you soon.