Inside Tokahe Distribution: Building Minnesota’s Cannabis Supply Chain

Before products hit shelves, before brands grow, before consumers ever walk into a store, there’s a system behind it all.

This episode pulls back the curtain.

Recorded at Lucky Leaf Expo, we sit down with Chad Stout and Brock Friesen to talk about Tokahe Distribution and the broader ecosystem being built through Prairie Island’s cannabis operations.

From cultivation to manufacturing to distribution, this is one of the most ambitious vertically integrated efforts in Minnesota.

And it’s happening in real time.

We get into:

•  Building a cannabis operation across multiple business units 
•  The reality of scaling from startup to full organization 
•  How tribal cannabis is entering and shaping the state market 
•  The challenges of compliance, logistics, and distribution 
•  Why timing matters when launching in a new market 

This conversation captures what it looks like to build the infrastructure of an industry while it’s still forming.

Minnesota cannabis is coming to life, and distribution is a big part of that story.

Listen in and stay connected with the community.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the Canic Connect Show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. Can I Connect does not promote or facilitate any activity that violates state or federal regulations. Everything you hear here is strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not legal advice. It is not financial guidance, and it's definitely not medical direction. Seriously. Don't take our word for it. Even if someone on the mic sounds like they know what they're talking about, and they're probably crazy smart too. Regardless of how legit our guests may be, you should always do your own homework, consult with your attorney, and understand the risk you're taking before you do anything when it comes to cannabis. Our intention is to keep it real. If you've got a problem with anything we've said, take us to court.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Island Peigey Takahi Distribution Engine. Vertically integrated multi-uh joint venture. A lot of good things coming out of Prairie Island. And the tribal nation down there. Yes, just south of Hastings, Red Wing area. 45 minutes southeast of the Twin Cities. Yeah, it's one of the closest tribal owned dispensaries in the market here from the Twin Cities, like you said. Huge supporter of the Lucky Leaf After Party, two years in a row. Yes. First beverage free coming out of Grasslands.

unknown 1:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

First beverage is free. Everybody that comes is gonna get it get a little uh ticket, drink ticket. I'm gonna give you those before you leave so we can hand them out at the show. Oh, perfect. Or at the after party. Yeah, yeah. Uh hey Ben, what do you know about these guys? Yeah. Big supporters of Canada Connect. We appreciate Grasslands and Island Peiji. Um come out to the after party. If you're if you did go to the after party, leave a comment how the after party was. Let us know what you think of the new Grasslands beverage. It's a great drink. We're gonna be drinking it tonight. Yeah. Produced by Earl Giles nonetheless. Produced by our friends at Earl Giles. CEO. What's your background prior to cannabis with the tribe?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, so um the background before this was um I had a company for almost 20 years in facility services. So completely unrelated to cannabis. Completely unrelated to cannabis.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

You don't always need at the CEO level, right? You you think about CEO, but like you're you're there to operate the company, yeah. Not to smoke the weed, yeah, not even to grow the weed necessarily. It's a larger operation. You guys have one of the largest operations in the state. Like there's a certain amount of responsibility that comes with that. How have you learned to take on that responsibility like day by day, week by week, quarter by quarter, because you're scaling right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I think we recognized early on that we had this, you know, this founders group, you know, that was uh that we quickly needed to change to uh a leadership organization, right? You know, and uh and so that's kind of what we've been working on basically over the last year, year and a half is going from a group of you know investors and founders that had a great idea uh to that got it to fruition, right? Yes, but then now we've got this behemoth of an organization right that has to be run professionally. Okay. And so um, and so that's that's really been the focus of all of our changes over the last year.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The like I have my own personal questions, like full disclosure. I was working for uh another manufacturer at the end of 2024 when I first found out about North Star Canna. It was under wraps. It was uh I designed a non-disclosure, and uh and Brock and I we sat at a restaurant for a bit and we talked and I was leaving this organization that I was with at the time and actually have had my been under the hood for a short amount of time, understood what it looked like in the beginning of 2025, not not at the beginning of 2026. So how much have you how much did you picture versus how much is actually happening? Like because it's a joint venture, right? There's three sides to the stool, and each group does something unique within the process. With Takeihi, with Tokahei, Takehi, um you're starting to kind of come together, right? Because the product needs to move. Nobody makes money if it just sits inside the warehouse. So I guess I don't have a strong question, but like how is the joint venture going? I guess how you you guys are uniquely set up. Chad, you seem like you've got your head on straight, like rock. I know you have your head on straight. Like some days, yeah. You guys are driving, you guys are driving the cannabis industry. You're a large supplier for the overall market. Like, how's it going?

SPEAKER_03 4:57

I mean, I think in the beginning when we first started, right? You don't really have anything if you don't have plans. So obviously you guys started growing right away. Yeah, it was an outdoor grow as we were building everything, right? Kind of building the plane as you fly situation, but because we knew time was of the essence. So getting the getting the plants in the ground, getting the building up so then we could dry, cure, start extraction. Yeah. And then kind of, you know, a couple months after that, then piecing to guard together the manufacturing piece of it, getting a few machines in, just getting some tables in, right? Getting stuff inspected and passed our inspections, right? We still have to go through that as well.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

And then kind of getting these two, right? Getting the growing side up and running, getting the manufacturing up and running. Well, now we're now we got the third leg of the stool, right? Tokaya distribution to get the distribution out. So kind of seeing like one piece get built at a time, sure, but now kind of really blending together.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

So I guess like because initially you're selling through the retail dispensary on reservation, and you're selling tribal to tribal market. It's it's less regulated, not as much requirement, not as much OCM involvement at the time. More streamlined for sure. More streamlined. You guys know each other, it's tribe to tribe. Yeah. Makes sense. As you guys refer to it going to the state market, um tell me, what's it been like?

SPEAKER_03 6:18

It's been um it's been awesome to see like the Minnesota cannabis actually come to life now, like seeing the the micro businesses, the social equity businesses. I mean, some of the people, right? I've been here in the Minnesota market for a couple years, so seeing some of these right hemp dispensaries change over to the rack side, like seeing them actually open, seeing their dreams come true, seeing people actually get product. Philly, Philly D. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

It's like just everyday guys that have a huge passion for the plant and they're finally able to do what they wanted to do legally.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

That is probably the it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We're not gonna see a bunch of new industries come online in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

No, and it's been right, wait, it's been tough too, but well, kind of what I try to remind myself about it again is no other state is doing this.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Other states do have tribal cannabis, but they're only on tribal land. Okay, we're one of the only states, right, that's actually bringing tribal cannabis to a you know public off-reservation, right? Like our compliance, everything. And so like the OCM checks all of our CLAs, all of our orders before they even go out the door. Okay, right. So we have that communication with them and really just try to streamline that, right? Make it a little, yeah, make it a little faster and just easy for everybody to again kind of just keep the keep the wheels turning.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

But you know, I get hung up on the sales and distribution side because I'm a marketer and I'm a consumer. But Chad, you wanted to talk about the stewardship in cannabis and and what does that actually look like from the ground up on the farm? So that is a unique approach as well as the living soil element element. So let's let's ensure that we give the plant the recognition it deserves, right? And so that's what we're all here for, right? Whether it whether it ends up in a pen or it's in the flower format or it's in a you know, all different types of varieties and more coming online all the time. But like most growers are only chasing yield and speed. You guys have taken a different path.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yep, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, making the decision to grow in living soil and kind of going after this regenerative grow, you know, that's kind of our North Star, right? It's something that you know you're always kind of striving for. You might not necessarily always, you know, get there or fully achieve it, but you're always striving for that. But the reason why we went down that path is, I mean, it actually goes back to when we started first talking to Prairie Island, you know, three years or so ago. Um, you know, having these shared values around, you know, we're gonna be operating on sovereign land, right? Um, there's a responsibility there that the tribe has always had for their land. Yes. And so when we started talking to them about what this project could look like and what we could, what we would be doing here, um, you know, having those shared values was key to this whole thing. It would have never even gotten started if we were saying, well, we're just gonna grow as synthetics, you know, we're gonna grow for as much yield as we can get, as fast as we can get there. Uh and it just would have, well, I mean, our company, Good Steward, wouldn't be in existence today if that spark of shared values hadn't happened. It's rooted in real values. 100%. 100%. Um, you know, and so, but we also believe that, you know, not only was this just something that was important to us and important to Prairie Island, but you know, it's a long-term business decision that we believe and we know it's gonna pay off in the long run, you know. And so, you know it's not a get rich quick. It's you know, I mean, I think there's a little bit of this misconception that everybody feels like if you make this choice or decision to grow with living soil, your yield you're not gonna get the yields. Oh, I see. Uh, you know, you're not gonna get the same, and and in in a in in a sense, that's kind of a falsity, right? You know, I mean, we truly think that um you know, mother nature is patty your master grower to start with, right? You know, I mean, as you start to, you know, and as humans, you know, we're always thinking we can out-engineer Mother Nature here, right? Um, and I kind of think the second we try to the second we try to out-engineer mother nature, we kind of get backslapped, right? And she reminds us that we we don't really know what we're doing. So, so if you really like, if you're really like understanding what's happening in the soil and that complexity and that biodiversity that's happening in there, um, you quickly realize that there's already a very um complex system in place, right? And so rather than rather than fighting that, we when you're doing living soil, when you're doing regenerative, when you're doing Korean natural farming, you're actually lit, you know, leaning into um that that the way that nature intended it to be, right? Yep. And so at the end of the day, you actually get a product that expresses itself totally different than if you're growing with synthetics, right? You know, you get a product that expresses its terpenes better, the flavors are clearer, right? The natural benefits of cannabis are much stronger when you grow this way. Um, and at the end of the day, I mean that's why everybody loves cannabis to begin with. Love cannabis for its full potato.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

And it's you're really going into that full stetchal feel, right? More than the canon, more than the cannabinoids, more than the terpenes, right? You're like lavinoids. You have a give it every piece of sand and it's it's giving you a different a different product.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Reminds me of is our our friend and industry counterpart that's been growing living soil since I've known him, like Cornell Urban Agriculture, right? Everybody knew for a long time Cornell Urban Agriculture had the best products tincture-wise, salve-wise, and nothing against the brands you rep, but like he was growing them and putting so much care and like literally creating the worms himself. You can't get closer to the plant than he was. He was out in northeast Minneapolis, like one of the few guys who was growing hemp strong enough that he could sell it and command a price point nationwide that it kept him in business. Right. You know, because it you know, everybody has issues with Square and getting paid and online sales, like those are headaches that growers don't want to deal with. Yeah, are there certain headaches that you're happy that you don't have to deal with because you've got a team like uh North Star Kana to help with some of the manufacturing. 100% the manufacturing.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah, absolutely. Right. I mean, I think that was a a big part of this whole you know partnership is that everybody recognized that we all can be experts at all things. And so, you know, bringing on an expert like North Star Canada on the manufacturing side, bringing on an expert in the grow side of things on our side. Okay, and then with the with Prairie Island, you know, from the retail and the distribution side, everybody was able to take one piece of the puzzle and really focus their energy and their efforts on making sure they do it right so that all of us can come out of it much more powerful at the end, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:15

And they instill their their seven generation type of thinking into the work that you guys do, right? I mean, how far back would we have to go to get to seven generations? We'd be 1700s, maybe, you know, or or the 2300s looking forward. So that is something that I've learned a little bit through engaging with Prairie Island and Grasslands and through events like these where we're able to build a better understanding, whether it's through the the honest cannabis team initially and now with you know CBH as a whole. So like I'm appreciative of the and I talk about this often. Cannabis is a vehicle for me to better understand tribal organizations, the people inside the tribe, and for Minnesotans to be able to do business with with the Dakota people. And there's so many, I'm so ignorant to so many aspects because I didn't grow up around Native Americans. Yeah. They they were othered in a lot of ways. I mean, dating seven generations back, right? And putting them on reservation and separating them. And I just think it's a nice, I think it's a responsibility that that neither of you two take lightly that's worth recognizing how much of an opportunity it is for the Minnesota cannabis industry to have engagement and and productivity and commerce with tribal nations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

And like you said too, it's not just about all right, what can we do this year? What can we do now? It's yeah, this is gonna be here long after we're gone, right? That's the that's the plan, right? So this is this can be a sustain by itself eventually. Yeah. And then yeah, like finding the right people, the right partners, so they just focus on it so you don't stretch yourself too thin. Like like you know, a little bit of our background, but we grew hemp a couple years ago, and glad we don't have to do that anymore, right? I'm glad we found somebody who can do it, has expertise in it. Let them do it. That's why it's why I'm glad you're on this podcast with the two. Because I was like, I know it's organic, I know it's living soil. I don't know how much more I could tell you guys than that. So I'm glad bringing you on to this to kind of explain that side of it because you have the right team here, I think, to really to really scale.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

One thing I'd like to know about the grow is how are you guys growing? Yes, with living soil, but yeah, greenhouse, outdoor, is there an indoor component as well? So what's all happening?

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So we we've got everything. So we've got we've got indoor greenhouse and an outdoor uh crop every single year. Okay, which is which is really unique and also great. Like it it gives us diversity. Um it kind of spreads out, you know, we don't just have something hitting like an outdoor would hit once a year or twice a year, right? Right, and then you have nothing else the rest of the year. Yeah, um, and we also get a good mix of product, you know, because in our indoor, yeah, um, you know, it's it's all under synthetic lights. Yeah, we're you know, we're the connoisseur, you can grow really, really good product, and we are gonna grow really good product in that, but in our greenhouses, we also get that mixed light, which I think a lot of people would say is really the best product at the end of the day, right? You know, I mean you've got the synthetic light to kind of um you know add to it and just make sure you've always to supplement it, right? Yeah, exactly. You can't you can't copy the sunlight, yeah. No, you recreate it. Can't recreate that. And you know, right now we just got through our fun December, January, February, Minnesota month. Oh, those when you get when you get absolutely zero help from the sun, you gotta turn it up, yeah. And so you know they're really relying on the lights and pretty much the lights only. Um, and so yields go down, you know, and you can see it in the plant. The plant's not the same. Um just to account for that as your forecast thing. Yeah, 100%. Um, and then you know, now that we're getting into March, we're actually already seeing it. The plants are already reacting to just a little bit of like extra sun and the extra hour of just a little extra and just a little bit extra strength of the sun, you know, that we're getting now. You can literally see it already. Wow. And so our next cycles in the greenhouses are just gonna be so much more robust than the last cycles were.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

How long are cycles in the greenhouse? How long are they under uh since how long are they under the lights before they can be uh harvested?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, so they're typically put in the greenhouses, then they're gonna flower for about a 56 to 60 day cycle. Okay, and you know, depending on strain, once they get to the very end of that cycle, uh it's uh up to those experts on our grow team to kind of make that determination of do we pull that now because we don't think they're gonna do much more for the next week, week and a half. Right. Or sometimes uh we were just talking yesterday, they had one of the greenhouses, it's it's due to be pulled on I think Monday or Tuesday and harvested. Yeah, and they think they're probably gonna give it another extra week because they can still see that it's still building and it's still it's still getting better. January it wasn't very bright out. Yes, yeah, exactly. And and honestly, you know, we're seeing this extra like this last week. The sun's gone a little bit stronger, and they're like, they're pushing, they're still wanting to push a little more. So um, you know, but that's why we have such good teams and the experts on our growth side. You need experience in this industry. Yeah, there you can't just you can't just put it in a schedule and set it and forget it and say, well, in 60 days, it chop it all down. Like you have to have people that really, really understand and can they're one with the plant, honestly. Yeah, and they they know all those nuances right at the very end uh to make sure they finish out right. So uh let's talk brands a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Um, you know, we got some Takahé distribution banners hanging up tonight at the after party. We've got everything from Carpedium to Nebula. Tell me how how the how the product goes where and and and how differentiated are these brands? Like they are what most consumers are seeing on the shelves now. So, like, how do you sell these brands uh on the THC? Let's start with the THC side.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yeah, so so with the Grasslands brand, right? More the the clean, some of the outdoor stuff, right? But again, more so that flour is gonna be you know, outdoor stuff's more for like the oil. Yep. Um, but just kind of having the two different tiers of products or two different tiers from the grasslands branded versus the island peggie branded stuff. Okay, that's right. There is kind of having different tiers of products. Um's a higher end. Yeah, gonna be more of that premium brand, right? Again, different strains, different offerings, maybe different devices or different quantities, and then going to like a lakeside cannabis brand, more of lifestyle branded, right? Kind of some fun lake, you know, canoe, uh the nap.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Is Lakeside also selling flour as well?

SPEAKER_03 19:57

Yeah, so eventually Lakeside will do some flour. Yeah, we'll do some like dog walker five packs, but we're gonna ask a good different, like different products in all the different brands to give people a different offering. Now, not everybody wants a one-gram joint, right? Not everybody wants uh, you know, a one-gram vape pen. Yeah, not everybody wants a disposable, so try to give people different offerings.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah, um with the lace side brand. Got it.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah, branding, products, hardware, right? It's gonna appeal to different people. Um, again, different strains, different entry different to with like the nebula stuff, right? A little more fun, a little spacey. Um kind of on the gummy side, what we were thinking was adding more cannabinoids to it. Like for an example, right? Like nebula would be rocket shit, go to the moon, here's the high THC only. Yeah. And then with some of our lakeside stuff, or like maybe grasslands. So well, let's add some CVDs, the C VG to it. Kind of running into a little problem with that because we can't add any hemp-derived cannabinoids to a cannabis product. So now we got to do a little bit of rebranding because we don't want to just offer a THG gummy. Not everybody's looking for THG only. Some people are looking for one-to-one, some people are looking for a CBD dominant or CBG dominant product, but we'd have to grow all well. Now you'd have to do like a sole, you'd take out two of those greenhouses. But now you don't have that anymore. Now you have C B D in one and C BG in another, but that takes away from your product. It takes away from the projections that that shit. I hear you, I see it. And especially if you're a micro license, that's tough. That's tough. Like if you're a micro license or a mesolicense, right? You're back you're stuck at a 5,000 square foot or 15,000 square foot canopy, and you're gonna take half of that to make a CBD hemp. Like for like it doesn't make sense, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Hemp hemp and cannabis can't you know can't be mixed. As much as sometimes I want them to be two different things, right? Here's an example of where, man, it would be nice if you could bring in some of this into the uh AU side of things. We were sitting with Carol Moss earlier, and you know, she did great work to help protect shipping on the hemp. Uh B2B and consumer side. But here we have an issue. You know, uh the PG 13 market can't sneak into the R rated market when it comes to the back end oils, the inputs. I hadn't thought about that.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah, that's and like the LCM comes and tours our facility all the time, and they like tour the grow, they tour the manufacturing to kind of see what we're up to, what's new. Um, right, just kind of bringing them up to speed of kind of what we're doing and always asking, like, are we doing this right? Like, is this compliant? And we're showing them different products and brands, and they go, Well, hey, what about this one? I'm like, glad you brought that up. Love to talk to you about it, because here's my issue. Yeah, and they're like, Oh, well, you can grow hemp plants. I go, Yeah, but that takes away from the rest of my crop. So now I don't have as much to feed the market. So again, now there's gonna be more of a supply issue.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

So but if you grew hemp and it was grown on on reservation, then it's okay. Is it the sourcing aspect that makes it challenging?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

No, I think it's just it's just you know, well, one metric. It's yeah, not the metro trap. It's all planted up, all those hemp plants are gonna be metro track. It's it's uh it's a regulation thing, it's an operational thing, it's a land thing, it's all it's all kinds, you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

And it's tough because you know, Brock and I have bonded over the hemp industry. You know, I've I've known you since the pandemic, yeah, you know, and and the hemp industry has a place, but it's clearer and clearer that it's getting usurped by adult use cannabis, and and then you got medical over here that's kind of like the Pluto of the Minnesota cannabis solar system. And and like it's complicated. Even when they were making the rules and the law and the bill, like the way they referred to cannabis, then they referred to marijuana, then they referred to hemp. And ultimately, not everyone can go to the party. I mean, if you're Prairie Island, everybody can go to the Lucky Weave after party, but not everyone gets to go to the dance. And that and that's kind of the reality that we're in as folks navigate in 2026. What's gonna happen to hemp? And you guys have you you still have an interest in in the CBE world.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Well, we still have our you betcha cannabis line for the Lodos hemp, and we still have the Carpe Diem line too for the CBD, and navigating the rules and regulations right here in Minnesota, they're not the same as in other states. So it's like we're gonna we have so many, right? You have so many partners and accounts outside of you'd be protected here, but not necessarily or we're protected out there if but we then we couldn't do it in Minnesota, right? Like like certain levels, certain products, right? Fullligrams, milligrams, dosing. Um and we have our clubs, yeah, yeah. But I don't see the hemp side going away, right? People love their drinks, they do. The drinks are are booming. I think you know there's gonna be a little bit of a shift, but people like the products that work for them. Not everybody wants to smoke a joint, right? It's around people everyone want to drink, like it's inconspicuous. We can all be at the party, and I got my solo cup, you got your solo cup, but they're different, right? So yeah, dude. That's kind of that's kind of the fun part, but yeah, it's complicated, but as long as you know that, and hey, agree is this complicated, but let's help trying to figure it out though, right? Like let's try to work together to to make this work for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

So random, but you know, I was thinking about this earlier. Delivery hasn't come online yet. I wonder how much that's going to shift uh the dispensary market and and just you know, demand. Okay, I can just get it delivered, right? I know delivery is not perfect. There's a lot of X's and O's that you gotta cross through, but like that's that's an opportunity that hasn't been tapped yet on the adult use side. I know it's been under scrutiny on the hemp side, but we still have so much more foundation to grow outward, like you know, like what 60, 70 dispensaries currently, like projected to get to 500. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Yeah, yeah, we still we have to 5x.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Yeah, you you you have no choice. Yeah, strap in, yeah, right? Yeah, and we're in about 32 dispensaries right now, so you can get all the good stewards, all the flour, yeah, all the brands again, trying to get more brands out. The the faster we can get testing that, the faster we can keep keep uh you know products moving out. And like on the delivery side, yeah, it's gonna be interesting though, because again, yeah, I can just sit at home and you get Uber Eats and you know deliver some cannabis, great, but not everybody wants that. Not everybody wants to know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

So delivery society these days, right? Like we want everything to come to us. Sure. And so you would think that cannabis has got to find a way to follow suit, right? Just because you know, that's just the way the consumer wants it, right? I would think.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

How much have you learned? How much has your brain shifted in the last three years since coming from where you were or exiting where you were, and and your day-to-day is is the plant.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Uh, I've gotten an MBA in the last year and a half. I mean, you know, I certainly don't try to, you know, act like I'm an expert in this by any means. I mean, you have to build really, really awesome teams around you that that know their stuff. Absolutely. Um, but certainly it's it's really fun to to learn alongside these guys, you know, always be learning, right? Like, and so that's the great part for me is just you know, I mean, the sheer amount that I've understood and learned about cannabis in the last year and a half is it's it's crazy to think that, you know, a year and a half ago I wasn't even in this industry with sales. No, um, so I like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

I've talked to Brock about this a little bit, I think, but we all enter this space currently, right now, with a certain level of stigma. We grew up with us, we we were indoctrinated with propaganda, and some of that, whether we're in the industry or not, is still it's still inside of us. And it's it's tough. We have to check our biases and as much as possible because we are all operating with with a certain level of stigma. There's there's not someone who has zero uh misconceptions around cannabis, and it's interesting because we've done such a good job of comparing and contrasting it to alcohol in Minnesota with head beverage. So we've started to realize that the boogeyman doesn't live in this can. It's it's not that different than the Coors Light or the Diet Coke. Um, but I just want to recognize that as someone who's coming into cannabis, you know, relatively middle-aged and you know, new, yeah, uh, but it's okay. I think we just have to recognize we're all a little bit stigma stigmatized.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

You should uh you should try to make phone calls to friends and family to talk about investment opportunities and completely forget about the fact that this could be taboo to something. How did you dance? Well, even like even just telling people like, what are you doing now? And then you know, I don't even think twice about it. Yeah, but the second I say what I'm doing, yeah uh and see the blank stare on their face, then I'm like, oh yeah. And it's on tribal land, which is which we have their misconceptions about that as well. And so, yeah, you know, there's a lot of that. I think, you know, I mean, for me personally, I can't speak for a lot of people, or for me personally, you just don't you don't even really think about that, and people have their misconceptions or they have their own biases, and you just kind of let it go at that. What was the squid roster slang? What's that? How did you get pals? You know, um, it was just uh through through connecting networks, basically. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Wow, wow. What's it like working with Chad?

SPEAKER_03 29:15

It's been awesome. It's been it's been sweet having these guys and because like we get we get to know their team quite a bit, and yeah, and like learning like Yachty and all those agramats. I have to get it with, uh I guess you know him pretty well. Like getting to know all those guys has been great. And I mean, you don't have anything if you don't have a good two, yeah, right? You can have a good idea, you can have the best machine in the world, but you don't have the people around it that you can trust and that you can rely on. Because right, we're we're three legs of a stool, but we all rely on each other, like we solely rely on each other. So it's been it's been awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

You were hitting on that earlier, like you know, how is it working with the three of you? And um, you know, one of the things we quickly realized was that as we're all running so fast, uh, to get this thing built, right? Yeah, we kind of forgot to communicate with each other at times. Yeah, and we realized like we all gotta plug our binders up, right? You know, yeah, we just we're like, we gotta do this, and then all of a sudden, like, wait a second, they need to know that we're doing this, and so we're starting to do a lot more of this community, you know, a lot more better communication these days, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

You I mean, I get it. Uh, my company is not nearly as large as as as the group that you're working with, but you start running around without communicating and things break. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um I gave Ben and Neil some flowers on my last episode with Corey Lake. I just want to recognize the the how many stairs are you are you in here? CBD, THC, adult use, adult use distribution. I mean, you're five, you're five levels in, right? I mean, if you're rolling on the mat, it's it's at least a purple belt, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, no, it's been it's been awesome, man. Um, especially working with the tribe too, having that unique opportunity to sell the other tribal dispensaries and be in and be in like the state market, right? Like we say. Yeah. Like it's been cool to kind of see both sides of the coin on that. And learning so much from the CBD side, from the Lodo side, right, to the rec side. Like, right, Ben's not even here today, right? He's at the NFL chiropractic conference right now, right? Educating Kairos on you know, topical C BD create, right? So completely different world than what we're doing right now, but to kind of see all that really come together and like learn from each one, and like you said, how they're so different, but how they're so the same, and trying to navigate that and explain that to people, right? Like, I mean, a couple years ago, trying to tell people about CBD was hard enough, but why telling it all wreck, and there's like, wait, what you're doing what? I'm like, no, it's a drink, it's in a can. Like, you can like what? Like, what am I talking about? Like, it's a like you get any liquor state, but like, what is what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Remember when it wasn't in liquor stuff, yeah, but all of a sudden it was everywhere?

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Yeah, right. And it's funny though, because like it's not always great to like compare it to alcohol, no, but it's a great analogy that people understand, right? So I think that's like the important part. It's like we're not comparing it to alcohol, I'm just using it as an example so you can follow along, right? And that's kind of how I try to slay it to people because it's like again, like cannabinoids and then vitamins and fruit. I try to explain it that way, right? Like hemp, CBD, you know, THC, vitamin C, right? Like apples and oranges have both vitamins, but one has guys more than the other. So, like just trying to educate people, find little ways to kind of you know, unclick something, like, oh yeah, that makes sense to you. I'd get that. Or do you have to believe in it?

SPEAKER_02 32:32

But and for you guys to be rooted in growing with North Star Hemp as it as how North Star Hemp started in the field, it just made so much sense when I file when I found out about the opportunity to join within a a joint venture. Because they came to you because you have authentic from the ground up experience. Now you're not growing for best in show CBD flour, but the grow allowed you to harness the oils, which allowed you to create the gummies and the tinctures, yeah, and and the top.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

It wasn't living soil, but it was organic growing, though, right? Right, yeah. So like we know we could uh wasn't quite the top tier you guys are doing, but what impresses you about what what Good Stewart is doing? Oh, the like the whole process, I know how hard it is to grow. Yeah, right. And then it's funny because again, people have a misconception because on the tribal we don't have a canopy restriction, right? But we're not growing a million acres. Okay, I mean it's hard enough to keep three plants alive in my house, right? So, like, but is there in trying to keep up with sorry? We're not the growers, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

We're not the growers, right? So that's why we have a team that does it, but again, keeping track of you know, a couple thousand plants, like maintaining them and making sure they're you know good, they're not withering, they're not, oh, this one needs more sunlight. Oh, that's it. Like, don't harvest this one yet, let it go a little bit longer, like little things like that, really impressive because you really dial in to the plant, right? You're you're listening to the plant. You're not just like this is a schedule, we gotta go. It's when are you ready? Like, what are you doing, right? And I think that's really what bought us together, like you said, like talking of the tribe, like organic growing, giving back to Mother Earth, and then knowing our story, right? Like being talking to the tribe about how we did organic growing, we want healthy products, products with a purpose, not just about getting high, but like, what are you actually using this product for? Use it for some healing. And it was just like that, it everybody's vision was kind of the same, and this is like that's just kind of I think how it really kind of got connected when, oh, this is gonna be a good partnership. We're all kind of on the same page, we want the same things. Let's let's let's make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Well, and and we're still early, so I'm I'm excited to see the products that come out in 2027 and 2028, and you're gonna continue to serve this market, you're gonna continue to innovate, and you guys have a great start. You know, it's clear that uh it's working. So I appreciate you guys sitting down with us today. For sure. If folks want to come see the product, probably best place is Island Peige, as well as the uh accounts that you service. I mean, how far around the state of Minnesota is is Grasslands and the Tokahei brand?

SPEAKER_03 35:01

I mean, all the way down from Winona to Laverne, all the way up to Duluth and in between. Cool. So pretty pretty far spread. If you go to the go to the North Star Canada website and we're trying to add it to yours as well. We've got a store finder on there. Great. So you can go see what dispensaries we're in. Cool. Um, and yeah, we got some pretty pretty fun stuff. I think you guys got some pretty fun strains in your back pocket you're waiting to pull out. Oh, I got one more question, please. We have some fun innovative products to come out too. So excited for that.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Craziest strain name that's come across. Oh man. Um, I mean, they're funny, they're all funny. Like, there's, I mean, there's well, there's like there's I mean, I think some things are funny that people just have known for that is so like you know, when I hear things like gorilla glue or when I'm like walking in the fields, or I'm even helping them with plant work someday, and I'm looking at like all these different banana something or other, right? And then we got freak show. Yeah, uh, I don't know if I should release that yet, but we got I saw that thing, and this was it's freak show, but it's really, really funny some of the names that they come up later. This industry is so creative, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:08

Yeah, well like you see when you're like unicorn poop, like you just said that right, dude.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

No, that's that's 100%. That's the one that literally I grabbed one of our totes one day and I was like, that does say unicorn poop, right?

SPEAKER_03 36:19

You can misspell this, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

And then all that, yeah, you gotta say super booth. We just had super booth come off the line the other day, and and uh you know what I loved about it is one, I mean it's it's super funny when I'm like telling here's our super booth, but like again, this is me learning, getting my MBA in it. Yeah, is you know, we take this, we take this harvest down, you know, and it smells like weed, it's in our dry room, sure, it gets bucked, it gets trimmed, and then it goes into the curing process. And about three to four days in that curing process, I can open up one of those totes and I have this most lovely like fruit smell that comes out of there, right? It's amazing. And then, like, to me, for a guy that doesn't come from this industry, yeah, that kind of transformation that happens, and our people know how to make that transformation happen so perfectly that I'm just like, this is amazing. Like that something can go from that to that in like a couple days. Napa Valley, yeah, right? I mean, there's a sort of thing. It's like it used to be nuance. It's like a it's like a wine enthusiast drinking their fine wine. It's it's it's cool. Absolutely. Somalier, Gangier. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Yeah. Uh guys, uh, let's do this again. Love to love to sit down with you guys again in a couple months, see where things are at, and uh appreciate you unshark notice coming on the show. Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate it. Cool. All right, that's uh Takahi Distribution, Grasslands, Island Heiji, North Star Canada, all under the three roofs on the Canada Connect Show.