THC Drinks, Cannabis Quality & the Ganjier Movement | Elizabeth Sage

Elizabeth Sage’s cannabis story starts long before the Ganjier Guild.

In this episode of The Canna Connect Show, we sit down with Elizabeth live from Lucky Leaf to talk about cannabis beverages, hemp regulation, product quality, education, and how the industry is evolving.

We discuss:

•  THC drinks and mainstream adoption 
•  Why cannabis quality goes beyond THC percentage 
•  Hemp vs marijuana regulation 
•  Cannabis as a harm reduction alternative to alcohol 
•  Elizabeth’s path from corporate consulting into cannabis 
•  The creation of the Ganjier Guild and cannabis education movement 

This is one of the broader conversations we’ve had about where cannabis culture and infrastructure are heading next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the CannaConnect show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. CannaConnect 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_01 0:44

Welcome back to the Canada Connect Show. I'm your host, Stephen Eigenman, and today we are sitting down with Elizabeth Sage, certified Gangier, uh creator and help with the Gangier Guild, which I learned a lot about today. Uh help is a four-letter word. Instrumental in creating the Gangier Guild. Gangier Guild.com. I'm excited to get into it. Thanks for being on the show today.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Let's talk about the Green Standard.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

We'll be right back. What I'm weighing is like Yes, there's a lot more to learn around beverage, and there's a lot more to perfect, but also there's less and less of a runway to be live with actively selling hemp beverages. And nobody really knows what what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Yeah, it's tough to invest in something that you know that the future of is very much in jeopardy in on numerous stages too, right? Not just our stage, but on the national stage.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Yeah, and I you know, I think, you know, Luke and I had a meeting yesterday where we're helping a group that they can help they can benefit both hemp companies and adult use cannabis businesses. And I think we we we are also in that boat, or we're also in that space. So um when we're doing events, we cater to the the greater cannabis industry in Minnesota. When we're doing beverages, yeah, it's a it's a hemp venture per se. Um you know, I thought Tanner had an interesting Substack post this week that said we've gotta get it, we've we're we're we gotta be done with hemp. It's not really it doesn't really make sense anymore because hemp is a four-letter word. Because if you look at it nationally and you look at what's actually if you actually know how these products are made, and not just these ones, more so THCA selling online backdoor uh marijuana reaching the market online through the hemp industry, we don't deal with that. Consumers can benefit from that, and they often do if you look at the Reddit threads, they're saying just buy online, go to Michigan, buy online, go to Michigan, buy online, like totally disregard the industry that we're creating that we're creating. And so, and and to take it off Tanner, but I I can read through the lines on his post, like there's a there's a growing uh there's a murmuring of deschedule it because hemp ban plus schedule three is still a clusterfuck and it doesn't it still knocks out a lot of the operating businesses right now from seed to all the way through to flower. So if and we have a radical president so it's possible, it makes the most sense. The way I'm to take it off Tanner, the way I'm thinking about this is descheduling it, descheduling marijuana removes marijuana from the conversation. Right. It then becomes all cannabis, and it's not so much where it's produced, it's your your wristbanding on your capping milligrams and you're capping where it's sold from a PG-13 versus an R-rated experience. Right. It's not gonna be the same movie theater. But there's been enough evidence on the low-dose hemp derived side that the folks that enjoy PG-13 movies don't necessarily enjoy going to the R-rated movie theater. And so removing access, limiting where these safe and effective products can be sold is a detriment to society at a time when our ec where our economy is crumbling. This is a new industry that we've seen and that Minnesota has championed for the last four years, five years. To to all of a sudden just dismantle it makes no sense. I think we have to remove marijuana from the conversation and then focus on hemp, uh focus on cannabis as a spectrum.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Because as you know, hemp is cannabis.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

It I mean, it is all one and the same. And it really is interesting the way, particularly here in Minnesota, cannabis beverages have infiltrated our restaurants and our way of life, really, in a way that I'm always uh surprised when people come and they're like, oh, you can get it at a restaurant, you can get it any of these different places. And we're like, Yeah, that's I was at the Mall of America yesterday and I was walking by and you can buy THC gummies there. And I sent it to my friend because they were like, Oh, you're out in suburbia. I'm like, Yeah, but suburbia in Minnesota, like we can buy weed at the mall. Like it's that is a pretty cool thing to be able to say, but it is a responsible product. 50 milligrams is not going to do anything to anybody that is going to be particularly harmful, or even, you know, it is a big dose for some people. Yeah. But for some people, that's a quarter of a dose, right? And so there's that whole spectrum of usage. And then you look at products like this that have yes, THC, which is great, but they also have other ingredients in them that are really beneficial to people. And the conversation is always so focused on THC percentage, right? That people forget the effects of all of the other cannabinoids. And so part of the conversation needs to be too like what cannabis can do for you holistically, what all these other compounds are, and why it makes sense to even if you have beverages that don't have THC in them, but can have some of these other things that are beneficial, yeah. That industry shouldn't go away either. It's non-intoxicating. And to be able to have it in our restaurants and you know, attached in liquor stores attached to our grocery stores, the normalization of it is so here.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

And and without a lot of, I haven't seen a lot of negative impact, right? Right. And I know that there must be some. I recognize that there are probably kids that have used that might not have had access before. Absolutely. But is it would they have had access to something else, right? Like if it's not this, is it alcohol? Is it other drugs that are in the home? Is it things like that?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Well, and not to glance over it, I mean, uh, you're more of a purist when it comes to the plant, but like but like, you know, if I think about the last five years, like what we've gotten rid of, you mentioned them all. I have to go. There's a story that I'll never forget. My friend, who would prefer not to be named on this podcast because he's he's in finance. Yeah. But five years ago, he goes to Ridgedale on his way to having you know this guy, going out to dinner in Wyzetta, and he stops at the C B D shop inside Ridgedale, and he gets sold uh uh 50 he he gets sold Delta Eight gummies. And and I love where this is. And so then he takes doesn't matter, five, ten, yeah, five too much, five too many, um a couple Delta Eight gummies before dinner, and he's at dinner with his family at a nice restaurant in YZ and he can barely talk. Yeah. And so having access at the mall is great. But I believe, and it's and it's not that I'm a Delta Eight hater, I believe that the way Minnesota has minimized the francinoids, yeah, that allows you to say what you said and not worry about what kind of hemp it is. But I think in a lot of states, a lot being one too many, it doesn't really matter how many, but it's been at least one too many, uh hemp is not clearly defined. Yeah. And that's where getting rid of hemp makes the most sense from uh we need to we need to advance. We haven't because the delta sorry, the THCA vapes and the Delta Eight gummies, that voice can't get on board with the trail magics of the world that are looking to advance an industry related more specifically to beverage than anything else, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Instead of saying, like, okay, we're all gonna play in this lane nicely and um you know, within the guidelines, they want to continue to operate outside of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Which is a dispensary product.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Right. Yeah, it's a dispensary product outside of a dispensary and sold without the regulations and the oversight that regular cannabis has to have. And that's not it's not fair to the players that are playing correctly, and it's also not fair to the consumer that doesn't understand the difference. Most of the people in the industry don't understand the difference. So you can't really expect a consumer, especially if they're a first-time consumer purchasing at the mall to fully understand all the nuances.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Especially in 2021 or 2022, right when that happened and very new. The before we dive in, the you mentioned, you know, the amount of cannabinoids in the product. This is another area where um unfortunately the way it's just how it was rolled out. A lot of a lot, another four-letter word, brands started in dosages doses that dosages that were more health and wellness trend and not actually medically effective doses.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

And so it's become normalized to have 10 milligrams of CBD as as your dose.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That is not an effective dose.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

No, not for most people.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

For most people. And and if you're drinking beverages, you're not gonna drink 10 beverages to get your uh adult dose. Right. It's not an effective way to tincture uh flour sublingually or uh inhaled inhalation. Uh so I that's where when we first sat down with Nick from from Earl Giles, that's where I said we want to be at 100 milligrams, total cannabinoids.

unknown 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

But in in at least in their flavor house, the work to mask the taste in the emulsion and the runway or the time that we had or what we made of with the time we had, we did not get to a place where we could feel confident in having a a a non-bitter beer taste.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Uh thinking back to those yeah, course light ads.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Well, and I think too, it's the way that you have to arrive at those cannabinoids as opposed to finding a plant that has similar ratios already in it, and then being able to use a solventless process to refine it and then turn it into your input that goes in there versus an emulsion that is probably made from distillate and came from numerous different plants to get this exact ratio. And that's the difference of you know, like there being an industry, yes, right, and having to do things industrially, and then being able to have a craft market that really does come from the plant because they are they're the same thing, yes, but the way we get to put them in things, very different processes.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And so if if our radical president descheduled cannabis or marijuana, you could have cannabis beverages without worrying that a brewery that produces beer or alcohol or just spirits, and uh I'm I'm not a lawyer, so I'm making this up, but but you could it wouldn't you wouldn't be tripping the wire of alcohol and marijuana because marijuana would no longer be a thing of the past, cannabis would be descheduled. Yeah. And then it comes down to yes, because of what you're talking about in keeping the plant in the form that it is is grown in to have that natural ratio.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Because yeah, we're we're just playing with the levers. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yeah, and there's there's nothing wrong with that. You get the the product that you want, you can achieve the effects that you want, but it's because we have to go through such an industrial process to get there, right? Like there are ways that if we didn't have all these silly laws that we do, that we could get the same thing, and then you could get the taste of the product in there too, especially Green Standard is like such a delicious, light, refreshing green beverage. Like it begs to have the flavor of cannabis in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Hey everybody, Steven with Canada Connect. Taking a quick minute to shout out today's sponsor, CEE, that is the Center for Energy and Environment. If you're not familiar with CEE, they're your one-stop shop for all lighting rebates. If you are in Excel Energy Territory and you're a micro business, CEE is somebody that you need to talk to. Give Brad a call, give Tony a call, go online, one-stop shop, LED lighting rebates. They'll help take care of up to 60% of the cost associated with your grow and your build out with the lighting. Uh, really nice people, great people to work with, huge sponsors of Canaconnect, and uh give them a shout. That's CEE, Center for Energy and Environment. A real a real drawback. So um, you know, we're talking about cannabis, we're talking about cannabis beverages. We're sitting with Elizabeth Sha Elizabeth Sage, certified Gangier. Um, what drew you into cannabis? And how long, how long does that go back?

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Um, you know, it goes back to when I was 15 was the first time that I smoked. And I grew up in northern Minnesota, and there is a very large alcohol culture up there. I mean, still there today. It's um and it starts really young, I think, in kids. It's not unusual for 14, 15, that age to start drinking. And I think by the time I was in high school, it was like pretty regularly, every weekend. And the first time that I ever tried cannabis, I was in 10th grade, and I remember just the feeling was so different than alcohol. And it was, it was just like it was light and it was happy. And I didn't have a lot of opportunities when I was young to experiment with cannabis. It was like it's hard to get and it's smelly and it's all of these different things. There were extremely I mean I had enough, right? Like I had enough, don't get me wrong. I did okay. Um, but it was it wasn't until I was out of high school and in a college setting where I had regular access to it that I largely stopped drinking, um, you know, well before I turned 21 because I didn't find the things in alcohol that I found in cannabis. And it it has always been a part of my story, but I spent most of my 20s and 30s in Chicago working for a private investment company. And that's a very alcohol-driven culture. And any events that we have, like all center around alcohol. That's what we we all celebrate at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, how did you fit in?

SPEAKER_02 15:48

I mean, it was fine. Like there, it I I've always lived by the stance, like nobody ever got further or better in their career by getting drunk at the company party. Right. And so I would always have two or three. And there was a couple of years that I remember like going a little bit over and and just truly like I hated the way I would feel on a Monday morning coming to the office, and and largely not not me, right? And I had some colleagues that could really drink, and so it would be like, well, we're gonna talk about what Tom did over the weekend, because that's kind of how it was. And so I, you know, I found a balance, but I was always like going home and smoking. Like there were plenty of times that I would be like, I will meet you there and I will take a quick walk over here before I get there. Yeah, and so it wasn't until I moved back to Minnesota in 2018, Illinois legalized by executive order right after I moved. And so I was like, just you know, I just missed that boat. Uh Michigan had come online at that time. And I was like, okay, Minnesota, like we love to be progressive. Like, I know we can do this. Uh, and we did, we did. Uh, but I started looking at like I wanted to get into this space, and our medical program was a little bit restrictive. And so I'm like, what can I do? And I did some tours of dispensaries in Colorado. I went out to California a couple of times because this is right as everything started to come online. And I was like, oh, could I be a cultivator? Probably not. Like, could I run retail? Like, I absolutely could. My I have a background in retail, I love it, but I don't really want to either. And so in 2020, I was working for McKinsey Consulting. And because we couldn't travel and do all the things that we did typically, right? They gave us a lot of money to do things that piqued our interest. And so one day I was driving and listening to a podcast, and that's that's kind of how I just started listening to things. I wanted to immerse myself in the industry, but there wasn't one here that I really could at the time. So I'm like, well, I'm just gonna start learning things from people that I hear. And I heard about the Gangier program, and I was like, this it was like one of those where I actually pulled over my car and I was like, okay, I need to like register to get on their mailing list because I don't want to forget that I heard about this and I want this is what I want.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Sign up, dive in.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Sign up, dive in. And so in 2021, yep, uh, I went through that. And it's a number of online modules that go through everything from cultivation and breeding. There's retail customer interaction. It's a very thorough program. Yes. And I took a trip out to Northern California to do some training. I went back out and tested. There's a written test on the information, there's a customer information, customer interaction protocol test, and then an assessment test where you take the cannabis that they give you and you assess it based on the aroma, the appearance, the flavor, and the experience. And you try to come to a score which is similar to the council that has judges it ahead of time, you become a certified Gangier. And so that's what I did.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

It's a great name for a program.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

It is like it's I like that much like uh Sommelier has you know, that belongs to wine. Cuppers, I learned, belong to coffee.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Uh, you've got Cicerones and beer. Yes. I also recently learned that there is a certification you can get in being a pizza aficionado. And I'm very interested in that. And that will be, I realize I like learning. Like that is something through this whole process that like I really like learning, and I like critiquing and grading things.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

So it's that's that's why you get along well with Luke.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

We have lots of opinions, so yeah, and as I went through that and I I met the most incredible people, and so like I went from having podcasts to listen to to like people to listen to, and the program is really great. It has online modules, you get to go in person, but there wasn't a community built around it. And so that's what I was immediately so drawn to the people. And I found another woman online whose name is Lucia. She's got this amazing brand, Smoke Shoco. Like, definitely check them out. They have the most beautiful women's products, I think, anywhere in the market. And she and I started meeting, and she was like my first friend in cannabis. And she was like, Do you want to start talking about the modules? And I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. She's like, Okay, I have this friend. And I was like, Well, I met this person. And so it was a very organic growing of people. And over the course of two and a half years, every time somebody went to training, they would be like, Oh, well, we're all talking over here, like, come come hang out. And it was every Monday, and it was every Monday, Tuesday, it was every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and it was like sometimes on a Sunday. Like they, it was just like such an incredible group of people. And the coolest part is that they all come from different parts of the industry and they come from across the globe. So we were really able to look at things from a ton of different perspectives. And it might be talking about cultivation, but like somebody in retail would raise their hand and say, Yeah, but by the time it gets to the shelf, it's like this. And somebody in the lab will raise their hand and they'll say, Yeah, but like these are the conditions in the lab, and this is why we see that. And so it it was so helpful to me that every topic that we had, we don't just look at it through that lens, we look at it through all of the different lenses. And so I did that for two and a half years, and then at that point I turned it into a subscription-based program. Okay, and so that allowed me-Did you have encouragement from your your community? I mean, for sure, from the community, yeah. They were they wanted more, I think. And it was like where I was doing it, but it wasn't my job, right? Like I was doing it because I thought it needed to exist, but it wasn't part of my business. And so in 2023, I launched it as part of Stage Advice, which is my business, and I have consulting and coaching as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

And it it incubated there for the last two-ish years. And then towards the end of last year, I sold that portion of my business to a newly formed group, which is the Gangier Guild. Oh, why? Because there was a million people over the course of this time that were like, this is so cool. This is what we should do, and this is what we should do. And I'm like, we should totally do all of that. I am one person who has three kids and two other businesses. Like, I can only do so much. I can hold the community, and I'm happy to. I love to. That's like my favorite happy place.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

But all of these other things that everybody wants to do, I don't have the capacity to do.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

And so there was a group of People in the Northeast that were like, okay, we think we have some capacity, we've got some capital that we can fund it, we've got some organizational structure we can bring. I brought the community in. And so for the last five months, we've been building the Gangie Guild, which is a collective of people from across the US, and we're doing activations at different places like NECAN Boston. We'll be here in Minnesota for the Legacy Cup. We'll go back out to Las Vegas for MJ Biz. It continues to provide community education to anybody who's in the Gangier community, whether that's Gangier product specialists like Luke or certified Gangier's like many of the people that you've even had on this show. And we're building a toolkit because one of the things that I hear often is people go through the program, they love it, but they go out into the world and no one's ever heard of it, and they don't have the tools that they need to go out and successfully sell themselves on their own. So we're building presentations that people will be able to have canned, and so they can approach people and say, this is what I can offer you. Pricing built out for that. We're doing some different styles of assessment. We're going to be offering judging, all sorts of different things. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Yeah, I see, I see overlap in our approach to building community and network, right? Um, turning stars into constellations, but then helping these constellations move through the galaxy. You know, once they've linked up and and created something beautiful and they've armed themselves with with education. But how do you deal with gravity? And how do you deal with meteors? And how do you deal with people that don't understand all the all the background that you have? That's really smart. It's it's it's workforce to some degree.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Yeah, and it's interesting because largely like there are probably roles in dispensaries for you know ganggiers on staff. I don't think Minnesota is there yet, right? Um, but I think that potential is there depending on how each state develops. What I think is more applicable in a lot of places is that hospitality aspect, right? Like as we're talking about a beverage like this, um, being able to pair that with something, even being able to pair something that's infused with other products, right? And and showcasing because one of the biggest uh I think blockers for a lot of people is we throw cannabis events. And so that automatically puts up like it if you're not cannabis, you don't want to come to this event because it's a cannabis event. Right. And what we need is more events where cannabis is featured, it can be front and center, but people no longer make that differentiation. And I think that's one of the great things about the form factor of a beverage, too, is you can have entire cannabis events that are smoke-free.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

People didn't stop shopping at Cub Foods once Cub Foods brought uh C B D and THC beverages in. Right? Thinking about it in that sense and and hospitality, yeah. I mean, uh there's a lot to pull there. And unfortunately, not to be a dweller of the of the bad, but like what I worry about is distribution. Yeah. And form factor beverage, the most popular form uh on the hemp side, um especially here. And okay, we want to throw an event at the Intercontinental. Alright. Well the Intercontinental buys all of their beer and wine and and from Hohenstein's. Okay. Hohenstein's has one C B D beverage on on their call sheet. And this was two years ago.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

So they weren't gonna allow THC, they were gonna allow C B D. So then I reached out to staff from Balance and I said, hey, this is what we're trying to do. We want to feature this product. It's actually the only product we can feature, but we think it's a great addition to this event because there will be alcohol at this event. So having a C B D water. But I think about that ex random example from a year and a half ago.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

And then how much more constricted distribution has gotten and how more of a traditional three-tier system that that hemp beverage is being forced into. Yeah. And that's really the only way it's gonna see the light of day in Washington is is the larger family-owned, multi-generation alcohol distributors are gonna tip the scale and and and say they need it for their business, which they do, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

They're not wrong. No, but it does squeeze out a lot of people in the middle, and I think that's kind of maybe the ugly truth that lands throughout all of this is we get some of it, we're just not gonna get all of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, I mean, I shout out to OP1 and and everyone else who self-distributes their products, but like folks have made their money and their bread through the hard work and and lugging, you know, shout out to Sam and Opie, like lugging pallets, lugging cases, and and and that's going away.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

I think there's a unique opportunity though, too. Like if if we don't deschedule, right? Say it moves to schedule three, um, and then let's set aside everybody's spheres around how like medical maybe takes over that. Like, let's assume it's schedule three that helps us with our taxes and we have a little bit more room to play. Um, I think that there is an opportunity for beverages to pair with adult use manufacturers to create the green standard, but you know, instead of the hemp version, it's the marijuana version. Yep. And the distribution of that, I think because the distribution channel is completely separate because it stays in state, that's a different way that brands have an opportunity to maybe, you know, hold their place, but pivot a little bit and then actually lean back into the state using state distribution manufacturing here at a state facility and selling to licensed dispensaries in our state.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

And I think it's just a shift in our consumer saying, like, oh, I'm gonna go get the product from Cub Foods or I'm gonna go into a dispensary. We have to get them comfortable going into dispensaries, and that's gonna continue to be a challenge, but we also have to reimagine what the dispensary experience looks like. Is it, does it look like we're going to rob a bank, or does it look like I'm going to pick up some flowers, right? Like, and we see that already, the way that the dispensaries are rolling out. There's a wild variation in even in, you know, I took a client on a tour of different ones in Minneapolis and we went to four different places, and every single one had something different, whether it was the coverings on their window, the way they secured their vault, the way they did check-in, the way they badged people in, and and all compliant. These were all businesses that were given licenses by the OCM, yeah, but vastly different in how they operate. So we see there's already a lot of flexibility in how you're choosing to operate.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Smart movement. Um, right.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Well, if you're willing to kind of, I'm, I think some of those people probably push the envelope a little bit, right? And they said, uh, are you gonna hit, are you gonna smack my hand? Are you? No, you're not. We're good, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And and Corey like said it a couple weeks ago. He's like, if there's one thing that cannabis entrepreneurs, or it was Jason Terasek, if there's one thing that cannabis entrepreneurs are known for, it's finding the wrinkle. Yeah. It's finding the opportunity to do it. And I think I think of Sean uh Sean Weber from Crested River, formerly of Crested River, like he set up his own canning line years ago. Because he's like, to hell with these breweries, I'm gonna do it myself. I'm not gonna rely on these breweries, and that probably sets them up really well when when things change.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, if you get a manufacturing license and you have that capability, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Yeah. So what is your role with respect to the Gangier Gale? Um, I I mean, I get it. It titles are made.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

I'm like without the big explanation of we have a 501c6 and we have an LLC. And so we have one organization that is very much based on the community and is involved in in lifting that up, in doing things around it, and bringing visibility to the Gangier name. But as a 501c6, there are some things that we're not able to do and things that we need to do in order to fund the C6. So we also have an LLC that sits on top of that. And I am the like the chairman of the board for the C6, but I also sit on the board of the LLC. So oversight on both, but leadership on the C6. And so I have a team of people inside of there that is helping to build the community, build all the content, and deliver a lot of like the back-end stuff. We've got a website team, we've got an operations team. It's very like it runs on Asana. I don't know if we have any Scrum Masters out there and the process that we run there. So we run different sprints in the building phase. And there's been a lot, obviously, like there's a lot of legal parts to do. We are activating at NECAN Boston, like I meant. Coming up in April. Coming up in April. So if you're in the greater New England area, come see us there. We've got a guild hall, which is something we debuted at MJ Biz. One of the biggest complaints we hear from people at these events is like there's no place to just go hang out close by. Uh, maybe get a little bite to eat that doesn't cost$12, clean your rig, whatever that is. So we have a room inside of the hotel.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

And so you can come up off the floor, come get a bite to eat, hang out. If you have important business conversations you don't want to hold in the floor, bring them up to our suite.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

We also have a 44 by 40 booth on the floor where there's different activations. We're working with Turplandia to bring a water station and some other experiences there. We have a number of certified Gangiers who are bringing their businesses here, doing pop-ups. We have talks on like women's health, mental health. We have Queering Cannabis that we're partnering with on some things. We're doing uh, I mean, it's like a million different things. There's podcasts. Yeah. Um, and then on Saturday night, we're doing a dinner. It's called the Six Flavors of the Commonwealth. And we're taking fruit, fuel, sweet, floral, earth, and funk and putting them all together into a pairing dinner with David Yusuf Zeta, really, who you know from Plant Jam. And we had that wonderful dinner with. Yeah. Um, and my friend Alex Sherma, who is our chef on the Gangier campus. Okay. The two of them together are putting together this event on Saturday night that we're going to be hosting. So pairing stations with each of these different flavors and really showcasing the hospitality aspect of it. We found an awesome space in Cambridge called Diaspora that allows for consumption, and we're going to have an evening to remember. Wow. Um, and then stay tuned here in Minnesota because we're going to replicate that when we come back for the Legacy Cup. So excited to be able to talk more about that.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

We need more Legacy Cup after party. Yes, and like before parties.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

And it's only one day. Like that's my biggest complaint is I want it to last all weekend long.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Right. Oh, I love that. I'm excited. Yeah, this industry is really just gearing up.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Um, so if folks want to get in touch, they like what they're hearing.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah, they can go to gangierguild.com. There, if you're in, like I said, the Gan GA program, whether it's GPS or certified Gan GA, if you are just interested in what we're doing, you can sign up for our newsletter. You can find me. I'm everywhere. Um, Elizabeth SageAdvice. Is that yeah? Elizabeth SageAvice. That's my website.com. Uh go there, find me on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Google it.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Yeah, Google me. Actually, don't, because there's this other Elizabeth who she has like a wardrobe thing. I'm like, that's kind of cool too.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Interesting. Um, I appreciate this. I think we should sit down more often. We should. We say that every year that we get together. Um, but we have seen, we have been a part of some cool events, and we are seeing some really cool things happening in the industry. Next time we sit down, let's digging more into the Minnesota market. Yeah. I mean, just real quick, you know, we've got three testing facilities, four transporters, 18 manufacturing licenses, and 107 retail licenses.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

It's a weird proportion, people.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

It doesn't quite add up to a productive market.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

It doesn't. And it's, you know, there's still room, but I think the hardest part is what our consumer expectations are that we're setting. And we're doing those retailers a big disservice by allowing them to open without supply in the market. And with, you know, and a lot of the supply is just being held and like there's just so many nuances. And, you know, you were saying before with the OCM. And I think it is important for us to remember, like, you know, the people looking for the wrinkle, they're making they, you know, they they helped create the rules, but they're making real-time judgments on the interpretation of the rules as we go along. And that's why I think it's important that people push every single time, because that's how we get somewhere. And you can always do less, but at some point you can't do more. So do more while you can. Keep pushing, keep asking for the things that we want. Um, and and bring in educated people who can tell the OCM and succinctly explain why it matters to business that some of these things happen.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Amazing, amazing. Elizabeth Sage, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you next time on the Canada Connect Show.