On this edition of The Cannabis Today Podcast, Steve Blank is joined by Founder and CEO of Green Flower, Max Simon.
On this edition of The Cannabis Today Podcast, Steve Blank is joined by Founder and CEO of Green Flower, Max Simon.
Hey everyone. Thanks for checking out the cannabis today podcast. I'm Steve Blank. On this edition of the podcast, I'm joined by Max Simon of Green Flower. At Green Flower, their mission is to spread trusted cannabis knowledge around the globe. That's why they work with 700 plus of the world's top cannabis experts, doctors, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders to produce trusted videos that give you the facts, science, and knowledge of cannabis today. Whether you're interested in using cannabis as medicine, starting your own cannabis business, investing in the space, cooking with cannabis, becoming a more powerful cannabis leader, growing your own cannabis, helping change the laws and much more. They've got you covered with compelling videos featuring the world's best and now Max Simon. How's it going?
Max Simon:Good. Nice to meet you. You as well. Thanks, for making the time to join me for a recording of the podcast here today. How's your day treating you so far?
Speaker 3:Good. Yeah, real good. Cool, cool, awesome. We're shooting as as usual. We're shooting here.
Max Simon:Pretty regular.
:Right now we're shooting about six days a week.
Max Simon:Okay, nice. Well before we dig too deep into the nuts and bolts of what's happening at Green Flower, let's back off and maybe just begin by giving you an opportunity to introduce yourself.
:My name is Max Simon. I'm the CEO and founder of Green Flower Media. We started in 2015 with a goal to become the world's most trusted platform for cannabis education. Today we're proud to have millions of people visiting Green Flower we're proud to have over 1500 hours of expert-led cannabis education content. And we're proud to be helping both consumers and professionals get well educated on all the beauty that this plant has to offer the world.
Max Simon:Awesome. What, um, how long has green flower been in effect?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we, we started in 2015 and now we're up to about 25 employees. We have a 10,000 square foot production studio right here in Ventura. Um, we're really excited about some of these global expansion plans we have. So it's been really fun and you know, a relatively short amount of time to see this thing grow and build into a something that can really impact the world in a big way.
Max Simon:Nice. What was work like for you before green flower? What were you up to? Uh, prior to that,
:Originally I built and grew Deepak Chopra's business. Deepak Chopra is a self help author, and that kind of a spiritual guru and I was in charge of all of his products, the digital strategy, um, and really was responsible for kind of architecting the way that we reached hundreds of millions of people. Um, and so I did that for a very large chunk of my career. And then after that I started my own company, which was designed to help experts and thought leaders and influencers and authors to use the digital channels to reach larger audiences and build digital businesses. And so I helped a few thousand people in that business as well in many New York Times bestselling authors and some of the more famous speakers in the world. Um, and the whole time I've been a cannabis consumer, but I had always been a closeted cannabis consumer. And when I had kind of was looking for my next thing, I started doing my own research into cannabis and I just felt like there was this enormous missing void of credibility that anybody who is starting to look into cannabis in any real substantial way couldn't find a place where they could get credible information, credible guidance, uh, credible level of, of support.
Speaker 3:And so, blending my background in digital media and reaching large audiences with my personal relationship with cannabis, with the sheer opportunity I saw to, to reach hundreds of millions of people, that's how kind of green flower was born. So you're in Ventura as we speak then, right? Right. Are you native to the area or where are you from? I grew up in San Diego. I went to school at Sdsu. Then I write out a school is when I got the job with Chopra and I moved up to North County San Diego. So I was in like Encinitas and Katie and I was there for almost eight years. And then I, um, ended up having to move back to San Diego with my dad, got a brain tumor, which was a sad, painful problem. Uh, and now me and my wife and my son about seven years ago moved to?. Which is just in between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. So I lived there and then we've got the production studio here in Ventura. Any, notable Valentine's Day shenanigans for you and the wife yesterday? You know, so, um, I like to say that, um, my wife's relationship and I has started with cannabis and sustain with cannabis, continues to grow with cannabis. And so, um, we had a cannabis filled day. We consume together, we did some activities together, we had some private time together. And it was just a really special day to, and I was, you know, we talk about how grateful we are that both of us have this love for cannabis because it's made our relationship just, I mean, unbelievable. I quite frankly, I feel like cannabis is the secret to incredible relationships that the world doesn't understand yet. So, uh, we just had a really, really nice day together. Cannabis fueled. That's awesome to hear. What, um, when you say your relationship
Max Simon:Came together by way of cannabis, how so do you mean?
Speaker 3:Just right in the beginning I told her it was an important part of my life. I, she came into my life right literally at the beginning of my dad getting a brain tumor and going through this, you know, subsequent, very challenging dying process. And so, uh, at that time, she, not only was this kind of tragic thing happening, but I was really using, I was leaning on cannabis deeply to help me just kind of get through without falling apart so deeply. And so I was really open about that with her. And I actually initially, she, uh, was in a very like no cannabis, no drugs, no kind of place. And, um, not because she hadn't had a history with it, just because that was a phase that she was in. And, um, I, I just very quickly is that, well, this is my, the way I choose to use it, and this is important to me. And so I'm going to is, you know, you have to be okay with that and if you want to start experiencing it with me and she pretty quickly and of put it back over to the other side. I think anybody that's holding onto the shame of it really doesn't want to be. So, um, she kind of flipped over and right from early on in our relationship, cannabis was just a, it was just an important part of everything. It was important part of how we connected and how we communicated and how we celebrated and you know, just became an important part of our career or a part of our relationship. And it has been ever since I've gone almost 10 years with her now.
Max Simon:That's beautiful. What about, uh, you know, the transition from some of those previous work endeavors that we talked about over to green flower over to cannabis centric endeavors. What was that transition like for you? Less as an entrepreneur and more as a man, as an individual with siblings, parents, you know, pastors, a community. What was the transition like for you?
Speaker 3:I mean, it's so, it's you get nervous in the beginning for sure, just cause you don't know how people are gonna react. And so in the very beginning I was super quiet about it and then I would slowly start to tell family members a little bit. Um, and my mom had a pretty pretty, uh, not negative reaction, just as shocking reaction, you know, she was like, you know, isn't this something that's really bad for you and are you sure you want to associate with this industry? And all that kind of stuff just, but it's mostly because, you know, there's so much stigma that exists. It's the natural reaction that people have. But you know, my mom and others might've had just an initial, I mean like at the time of telling them some kind of funky reaction or surprising reaction, but I was really surprised how fast everybody got over it and curious and interested and then excited about it. Uh, and partially because by the, I told them I was a little bit more well educated and so I could communicate to them in a way that held some credibility. And then it was just, you know, very, very quick to see how fast they would shift into being open. Um, and now my whole family uses cannabis in some way, shape, or form. My mom uses it to sleep every night. And My grandpa, he uses it for his arthritis hands. My sisters use CBD oil. Um, you know, everybody, my whole family now uses it in some way, shape or form. And so, uh, as not only that resistance in my own inner circle broke down really quickly, but as I started to see it impact and benefit them, it just made me more and more passionate. And now I'm so proud of the work that we do. And I would say 99.9% of the time, people are just like, wow, that's cool. And every so often, like one out of every 500 people, maybe even a thousand people will be like, you're doing something bad. You know? And, uh, that's been, that's been cool to see the overwhelming support that people have for this. That's definitely counterintuitive to what you had fear for, you know? Absolutely. Times are a changing. Yeah. Let's dig into the green flower. Then maybe you start with the umbrella overview, the 40,000 foot, uh, uh, summary of, of what is green flower. I have green flower. Sole purpose is to help educate the world about the value of cannabis. And that happens in a lot of different camps. Um, in our, in our medical communities, there's a lot of people that are sick and there's a lot of people that serve people who are sick and cannabis is, um, in some ways miraculous and its effectiveness and its ability to deal with so many different ailments and conditions. And it's safety profile. It's a wide therapeutic window. And, uh, the most of the world doesn't really understand how that works. Consumers don't understand how it works, medical professionals to understand how it works. Very few people have a real understanding of how it works. So we have a tremendous amount of education both for consumers and for professionals that want to get educated about the medical side of cannabis and how it works for different ailments and conditions, how it works in the body, how it's safe or in ways that can be unsafe. You know, everything about it. We have a lot of content that we educate people about the opportunities that exist to participate in the, that includes all the sectors, cultivation, extraction, retail investing. But it also includes simply understanding the industry enough that if you're an entrepreneur or a service provider or you're somebody that wants to invest, that you have these abilities to understand the industry. Um, and then we have this whole section of content that revolves around cultivation. There's millions of home growers that are starting to come online now because they can, it's legal. You can grow six plants for plants, 10 plants without anything just in your backyard or in your closet. So there's a, a birth of a homegrown movement that's so exciting. It's so fulfilling. And then on the flip side, you have all the waves of professionals, whether that's people that are cannabis cultivators in hem cultivators, where it's farmers trying to transition into this industry and they need education. And then there's the bigger picture, which is just understanding cannabis, the history, the laws, the movements, the people, the benefits, the product types. And so we have a lot of education there. And so we have a whole slew of different ways that we package this education for people. We have a lot of free content. We have a paid subscription channel, our most popular offerings or our certificate programs where they're kind of deep intensive trainings with a final exams that allow you to get something of credibility when you finish it. Um, and now in 2019, I'm proud to say that, um, this year, um, uh, a slew of colleges and universities will be launching green flower courses inside of their schools and we'll be powering curriculums in higher Ed. So, um, that's Kinda the big picture of what green flower does, is we have a lot, a lot of education content and products that help and serve people and all sorts of different ways. And it's fun because it's really making a substantial impact in people's lives.
Max Simon:Awesome to hear. Well said. Um, as you continue to develop content in, in the time that you've done so and gotten responses and feedback from the now millions of people observing the content, what are you finding are the most, uh, attractive types of content? What are people most interested in learning about?
Speaker 3:So the thing that's so amazing about cannabis that I've never experienced before, but he's also what makes it such an enormous challenge, which is that the demographics of cannabis are so wide, just unbelievably wide. And what I mean by that is that you have, you know, tens to hundreds of millions of people that are in different categories of I'm sick and I'm looking for medical information that helps me. And you have that whole camp, you a passionate camp of employers, employees, job seekers, opportunistic entrepreneurs, investors that they want to get into the industry, right? So they're trying to learn and understand from a professional and a career standpoint, how do I participate in this thing? Um, and then you know, you have what I would call this enthusiasm group and the includes yes group or people that fucking love cannabis and they love everything about it. They want to learn everything about it. They want to spend their time in it, they want to enjoy it and participate in it. They just love cannabis. And so we find that there's all three of those different audiences, which are big audiences. And each audience is very interested in different stuff. You know, the medical community wants to research the facts that dosing protocols, the science, the crip credibility, the protocols, the contra indication, you know, anything about that stuff. And then the job seekers want to understand exactly what skills they need. They need to understand where the opportunities are. They want to understand where they can transition in. They want to understand who's friendly and who to play with. You know, like that whole camp. And then the enthusiast camp wants to grow it. They want to make products from it, they want to see reviews of it. They want to understand what's going on in this space, you know? So there's just all this stuff in all of these camps to create. And um, that's one of the things that makes it such a challenge, but also such a fun, creative opportunity that there's just all these places to, um, to make an impact.
Max Simon:Cool. And then let's bounce from our enthusiasts, etc. To our, uh, less than enthusiasts who are critics, you know, some of those that, uh, I guess like that one in 500 or that one in a thousand, um, with the stigma approach would order some of the stigmas, whether it's green flower and your experiences or some of the stigmas that challenge your content providers, um, water, some of the most prominent today you think,
Speaker 3:I mean, there's still a lot, ton of misinformation and you know, I guess I should also say, now that I'm hearing you rephrase that question back to me, we're definitely in a bubble, right? I'm in California. I mostly go to places where cannabis is totally legalized. So you're right, there's still huge sections of our planet that are very against or, or more significantly still believe a lot of the myths. And that was my point is that there's still a ton of misinformation out there about the safety or harms of cannabis. And the, the truth is when you look at the science and the facts and the information, all that stuff that people use as objections is statistically right. The ideas about schizophrenia, it's completely devoid of any factual information. And you know that very, very simply, the amount of cannabis use has risen, you know, in some cases, 10, 20 30% every few years and there has not been any statistical increase in schizophrenia. So if that argument held up that cannabis causes schizophrenia, as you have drastic increases in consumption, you would have drastic increases in schizophrenia. But that's not been true. It's printing has been completely flatlined for decades. So you there, there's, you can go line by line, brain kills brain cells, you know, it's terrible for the youth kills. Sperm count is highly addictive. There's all these things you can go down better that then when you look at the research are actually statistically completely debunked or scientifically deepened. And so that message that, that needs to get out there more people need to understand that more. Um, I mean, not to say there isn't any harms whatsoever, but the harms are more like side effects that are more like, you know, if you smoke a lot, you can have risk of um, you know, uh, really bad cops, right? You can get those kinds of things. Well of course you're smoking a lot that's going to do with cannabis necessarily has to do with smoking, but that's still bad for you to have those really bad coughs or um, you know, some people will get anxiety from taking cannabis. That's a side effect, right? And that needs to be managed and managed. So, um, there's not no harms, but the things that people mostly use that are like really big issues are all scientifically not true. So that information needs to get out there. You know, what a wild, wild world we would live in. If there was a true correlation between schizophrenia and cannabis consumption, it would be a walking through a mall would be a scary thing. Not that it can't be. Yeah. I mean what people, again, it just, and this is why education is so interesting. So prior to 1920, um, really 1913, it was when the law changed, um, cannabis was the third most prescribed medication and all of Pharmacopia people don't realize that, that there was over 3 million cannabis prescriptions written every single year before 1913. And so, um, this was already an accepted part of our society. It was deemed safe and valuable. It was something that, that, that we were incorporating almost every facet of medicine already. Uh, and then just because of a kind of a weird racist political play, they were able to turn it into something illegal and then that was, became political motivation and turn it into something even worse of a story. But scientifically, we already actually accepted this as a safe medicine. We pretty using it throughout everything that we already had prior to 1913. And so just again, people don't realize that. Um, but once you start to know these things, you started to look at it and go, why? Why are we so scared of this? This is so weird. Why are we, why are we so scared of this, you know?
Max Simon:Absolutely. So from 1913 to 2019, what are some, um, you know, I think you have a truly unique perspective, um, on the industry and the little that I know about you yourself and what it is green flower does through having such awareness of all of the ancillaries and the subsections within the industry and all of the moving parts for lack of better terms in 2019, what are some of the things you expect to see with regard to the industry as a whole?
Speaker 3:Well, I think full legalization is right around the corner. I mean, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Trump realizes that and he knows the support that's there. And I could see Trump very easily deciding again politically to go ahead and just legalize because he has the executive power can do that thing. Um, if you want it to, if that doesn't happen, almost all of the debt that's running are running on a legalization promise. So I think that realistically we're anywhere between it immediately happening and it's happening within two to three years at the latest. Once that happens, you know, you just, I always just want people to understand that the simplicity of the contrast, the alcohol industry is one point$6 trillion industry, one point$6 trillion industry cannabis in 2019 globally will be like a 20 million,$20 billion industry. So, um, you just have to realize the seismic difference of what this cannabis industry will be able to accomplish in the world when the, you know, the doors are kind of opened up a little bit more widely and I think that that should be anybody Tang very close attention to how do I get as much skill and knowledge as I possibly can right now in the areas that I want to be. And because, um, you know, people say this is like the internet boom. And it's true except for that it's going to grow even faster than that. And I think that there's going to be, uh, an enormous amount of opportunity for people that are well positioned. So I they just keep saying the same thing. I think everybody should get as well educated as possible because ultimately that's how you succeed. You know, you'd have to learn, learn how to learn how this whole thing works. Yeah,
Max Simon:low key little secret. That's exactly what I'm here doing is learning and um, you know, I just hope that others can continue to utilize resources like this podcast and green flour to continue to do the same, to tie it all back into green flower. What are some of your, uh, hopes and expectations or, um, you know, what, what do you foresee for green flower in 2019?
Speaker 3:I just want more and more people to, um, see the value in what we're doing and utilize it, share it, participate in it, and then go back out there and really embrace the opportunity. You know, the thing that's most exciting for me is the thousands of stories that we get from people in all walks of life. I have stories of, I have countless stories of people going from being suicidal to now living an amazing life because of green flower. I have countless stories of people carrying cancers or at least putting their cancers into remission. That's a better way of describing what happens with cancer. I have, I have hundreds of stories of people waning off of opiates and controlling their pain and sleeping better at night. And so, um, I want green flower to reach everybody in the planet. And part of that happens by being on podcasts like this. Part of that happens by people just enjoying the service and talking about it. And part of that happens very diligently by, you know, becoming a deeper part of what we're doing, whether that's alumni or our affiliate program or our upcoming street team and that kind of thing. So my one thing I wanted, they just want to keep getting people to really utilize this extremely valuable thing that we've created. Um, I'm really excited about this school partnerships because uh, you know, infusing directly into colleges and universities is a great way of getting this next generation of people to really step up to the opportunity of cannabis. Right? You can't just get, I mean, you can get into an industry about any experience or knowledge, but it's really hard, right? Ultimately if you look at everything that ever existed in an industry, the reason people accelerate and in this because they, they get well trained first, you know, you go to school, you go to college, you, you get some knowledge or information that allows you to get skilled and then you go in and you start to build. So getting to be a part of schools and universities to me is a really cool thing. And I see us, you know, by 2020 having hundreds of school apart. Um, so I'm excited about that and I want to see that happen. And uh, you know, we've got a whole slew of new certificates that are coming out this year and into next year. What, you're just going to be really cool. Um, you know, we have a CVD certificate for people that really want to become experts. The CBD world, we have an extraction certificate coming, which is going to be incredible. We have a CME accredited medical cannabis certificate program that will allow doctors and physicians to actually get CME credits in exchange for learning for cannabis education. Um, and a lot more stuff. So, you know, I'm, I'm pumped. It's going to be a, it's going to be a fun next few years because we've got a lot of cool stuff coming out.
Max Simon:That's awesome. Uh, there are a lot of entities and or individuals out there that would happily accept my money in exchange for information education. Um, whatever their definition of those things may be. There are a lot of reasons that we've already tapped into as to why green flower. Um, but to make it less of a, you know, this isn't a, a sale or a pitch of green flowers. So to take it away from that context and to shift the context more too, as a consumer, how the heck do I differentiate, um, any insights or tips as, as a consumer, somebody who hears this podcast and thinks, wow, that sounds super on point. I was one click away from signing up for x, Y, Z certification from some other entity. You know, how do we differentiate?
Speaker 3:I mean, first off, I think that I have the attitude that anybody who's looking to get educated from anywhere is doing the right thing. Absolutely. I think that, um, in terms of where we are in the spectrum of this, we're just starting the first inning and, and so I'm just under the mindset that everybody that's doing anything, whether you call them my competitors or you call them other companies or whatever, if they're helping to educate people about the value of cannabis, then they're doing something of tremendous value and I support them. Um, I mean, in terms of green flower, I would just say check it out. It's usually pretty easy for people to see what we do and how we do it and decide for themselves whether they think it's something that they should lean into or not. And even if it's not, we have so much free stuff. I mean we have hundreds and hundreds of hours of video that you and we have over, I think we're up to 2000 free articles and blog posts right now that all are mostly thousand to 3000 word posts. We put a lot of money into our free written content so that it's meaty and interesting. Um, and our newsletter that we send out twice a week has, you know, probably 10 to 15 hours of free content people can consume every single week. So, um, you know, I would just say check it out to people and let us use the ecosystem we've created that has all these layers of things that are of benefit to you and you know them and they can go where they want to go.
Max Simon:It speaks for itself for sure. And to reiterate an earlier point of mind, no, a ambush journalism here, I don't ask questions like that as much to create a, you know, a bash fest or to to go into throwing shots at so-called competition, so to speak, rather as you described earlier, there's a ton of information out there. There's also a ton of misinformation. So I consistent consistently rely on podcast guests to say like, you know, if you had any, what are your standard operating procedures on identifying and differentiating this from that. So awesome insights. I appreciate you, uh, Sharon there. What haven't we gotten a chance to talk about or dig into here, uh, given the, the time, uh, that you definitely wanted to make a point to share today. Back in my notes while you think and see if there's anything that I haven't
Speaker 4:quite covered with you.
Max Simon:Take a minute to think about that while I ask. Uh, if you have the time for both, do you feel like you have a, uh,
Speaker 4:uh,
Max Simon:an idea of what the future of the job marketplace looks like? You know, as you continue to curate content and you're connected with the industry and all the different subsections and ancillaries, what jobs or types of jobs or components in the industry do you think are going to offer the most opportunity to, to job seekers?
Speaker 3:I don't think people see it as clearly as I do, but the sheer volume of job growth is going to be unbelievable and as a good example, so Canada, which is an entire country is smaller than California when it comes to the cannabis market within the next three to five years, Canada, we'll hire 150,000 new jobs in three years. It's almost hard to understand the scope of that much growth and that represents California, so I just think what people don't realize is when they say what's the opportunity, the opportunity is everywhere. There will be opportunity in cultivation and extraction in retail and licensing and investment in product making, cooking and everything, and the, the scope of someone's ability to capitalize on that opportunity is 100% based on how much specialized knowledge they have in those areas. If I'm a well trained cultivator, there will be thousands of high paying cultivation jobs available for me. If I am trained in extraction, there will be thousands of extraction jobs available to me and the higher you want to go, it's just on the more specialized knowledge you have. That's really how job jobs work. If I really understand how to do this thing, I'm going to be ahead of the person that doesn't know how to do that thing. Right? So I, my message to people is, um, embrace that there is an unbelievable amount of opportunity, but you got to find the place that you want to play and then you want to go deep in that place and very, very few people ahead of you. Most people don't understand cannabis. Cannabis is not something that's well studied or well mastered in today's world. So the people that are gonna win are the ones that become most aggressive with becoming experts in certain domains.
Max Simon:Well said. Excellent insights. Uh, 37 after. I'll make this time the time for a final thoughts if you have them.
Speaker 3:Um, my final thoughts are t take this cannabis things super seriously. Uh, I think that it's very easy to look at this whole thing and kind of dabble in it and talk about it. You know, maybe kind of be a part of it on some periphery level, but this is the internet in the first inning. And if you had an opportunity to, to really play big at the moment when there was an explosion of growth and capital, um, how much would you want to seize that opportunity? And so I certainly can tell you that all of us here at green flower, we are working harder than we've ever worked in our entire lives. We are going through more challenging things than we've ever done in our whole lives. But I think the result of that will be an enormous for all of us. And I hope that everybody that's listening, uh, here's the opportunity that's in front of them and decides to take it really seriously.
Max Simon:Absolutely couldn't agree more. Well said. Whether it's a online, on social media or otherwise. Where can we learn more about green flower,
Speaker 3:green-flour.com we're on all the social sites except for youtube who shut us down. Another story for another day. But, uh, we're on all the social sites. You can find a screen-flour.com. Um, personally, I'm only on Linkedin so you can look up Mac Simon on linkedin and uh, it's nice to be here with you today.
Max Simon:Absolutely. Yeah, I had a great time talking to you. You've been, uh, an excellent guest than if you didn't, uh, have too bad a time here today. Then maybe we can swing back through for round two and talk a little bit about that Youtube, uh, situation and more as 2019 divulges for green flower. So I'll keep in touch, uh, with Sabrina and yourself and I'll forward, um, the transcript once it's finalized and edited and some different marketing materials stuff. And uh, as always, I appreciate you making the time to join me here today. What else you got going on this weekend?
Steve Blank:MMM.
Speaker 5:Yeah,
Speaker 3:I think that on Sunday my wife and I are for the first time since we have our little boy's about to turn two, since he's, since we've had him, her and I are going to go do a yoga class and kind of couples experience by ourselves. So that should be really nice. Awesome.
Max Simon:Well enjoy man. It's been awesome meeting you. I really appreciate you making the time to join and I'm making a few extra minutes to, to dig a little deeper and look forward to talking to you again soon. Have a great day.
Speaker 3:You too, my friend. Thanks so much. Thanks. Bye.
Steve Blank:More information on green flower, checkout, green-flour.com to leave comments, feedback, or join the podcast, visit kenna-today.com as always, please rate, review, subscribe, and share. I'm Steve Blanket. Thanks again for listening to the cannabis today podcast.