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Pacific Northwest cannabis industry media project attempt #2

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

SDE

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Love your progress, mate.

Keep executing!
 
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Love your progress, mate.

Keep executing!

Thanks Raz, all about the executing, will have an update soon, got some good stuff going on and happy to say people are getting back on their grinds from the holidays and a lot is going on which is good for what Im doing as I just show up to their events, let them do the heavy lifting and I just network and make deals.
 

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Hello to Ghana! I was very close to moving to Mali once for a job and was reading about cannabis in Ghana.

It is interesting those links you shared as it reminds me how many opportunities within the cannabis industry there are in so many directions. I look forward to the day when the majority of the world embraces both the medicinal and financial impact the plant and allow millions upon millions have amazing opportunities in the zillion local industries that would be created.
 
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Private Witt

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The long wait is over! My next event in two days and Im pumped. Since there are no tickets Im not sure what to expect but I feel there will be a good turn-out. I was able to get an interview on an industry blog and a strategic partner that is well-liked did a video inviting peeps and the response was very positive.

Im looking at this as a chance to get 50 or so books into the industry. Hope pick up a few reviews and also have practice for a much bigger launch party Ill be throwing in Seattle on March 9th. Now this next event is exciting as I will own the tickets, VIP and sponsorship. I also will have four local musical acts at a great price.

The last month has been rough but happy to say getting back into swing of things and ready for a productive 2019. I have a ton of work to do on my site, marketing and consolidating partners but things are looking up and just need to keep grinding. I feel I can scale to one event a month by mid-year and take things up a few notches, but for now focusing on what is in front of me and that is to crush this weekend and be ready to turn-around and get to work on the next with lessons learned.
 

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The event went as expected, but the drive there and back on the same day was brutal and destroyed me for days. It was an amazing learning experience as a few things went completely wrong due to lack of knowledge of the venue and Portland, but a few positive byproducts emerged and with a few tweaks and more experience I think Portland will be a place where I can build a lot of strong allies and value.

My next event in Seattle is looking to be very interesting as for the first time I hold the tickets, VIP, sponsorship and music booking. Its a small venue of a max cap of 250ish, but I may have two buses outsides for consumption that seat 50. The situation with the location, cost of venue and the booking agent makes the perfect 1st total rookie shot.

I've had training wheels on for all past events due to others doing the bulk of the ticketing, marketing and sales. Im pumped for the opportunity to take the leap and be on my own.

Its also became clear that this is a great chance to bring on a bunch of industry influencers and possible strategic partners to help sell this out and also throw one amazing event. My plan is to finish the line-up the next few days with four or five local emerging acts who can easily move 20 or so tickets each, Im going to comp quite a few and than sell another 100.

I need a sponsorship plan and I will be bringing a few party throwers to help with that, in addition to my own reach-outs.

When it come down to it Im tapping a ton of different tribes and going straight to the leaders and then on March 9th going to have a little party while Im making deals all the way to the event, during and after.
 

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I ended up getting incredibly sick with a cold and fever from Thursday to yesterday. This sucks as I lost a lot of earnings from my cash death grind, but okay as I got so much done with a little effort. The first draft of the poster for the event was finished, which allows me to promote and sell tickets. Im going to launch it tomorrow through my social media and hopefully all the performers do the same. I will than execute a marketing plan with strategic partners.

As for the performers, I got really good news. I landed three rising acts, completely different, with great back stories. One is a female from Tacoma on fire, 4 dudes who are growing a passionate local fan base and a Gen X duo who have amazing videos and branding with one of the guys being a major player in a Seattle mega-startup beast.

The venue only holds 270 and I will be comping upwards of a 100 so I will be setting the goal of 170 tickets. The question is how many will buy the GA for $15 or the VIP for $30. Shall soon see. I will be also pounding out cash for sponsorship but will start promoting and getting everyone on the same page for a week or so.

As I mentioned in the last post I need to consolidate human resources and that has already started. I've started with ten people so far and will be expanding 1 - 5 people a day, but not going to rush it, at same time have an intensity of purpose. I think in the end Ill have over 25 entities on this event and over 50 people and time to see who is serious and wants to come to the green promise land with me.

Glad to say I have 12 entities locked down and communicating so I'm really happy with my position with 46 days left to the event.

I also decided to pump up my events to one a month and have already started my April planning with an event either in Olympia or Seattle. By summer my goal is to able to book 1000+ where the real profits lurk, but I need to do some small ball before I take the leap.
 
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Jonathan Hoch

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Cheering from Texas... grew up in Seattle. Down here they condescendingly call it the devils lettuce, while drinking their piss water/bud light.
 

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Cheering from Texas... grew up in Seattle. Down here they condescendingly call it the devils lettuce, while drinking their piss water/bud light.

Haha, will be funny how the devils lettuce attitude changes when Texas starts to feel the $$$$ potential. Ill never forget my trip to Oklahoma last summer and now the industry has gone nuts in that state.

Man, u must be shocked when you come home to Seattle. Ive been here only going on my 4th year and the changes have been incredible, what a disaster. Shocked when I hear when the long-term locals tell me what this city used to be like.
 

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I also decided to pump up my events to one a month and have already started my April planning with an event either in Olympia or Seattle. By summer my goal is to able to book 1000+ where the real profits lurk, but I need to do some small ball before I take the leap.

What a hustler. I can't imagine planning big events like this every month. You have to juggle so much!
 
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Jonathan Hoch

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Haha, will be funny how the devils lettuce attitude changes when Texas starts to feel the $$$$ potential. Ill never forget my trip to Oklahoma last summer and now the industry has gone nuts in that state.

Man, u must be shocked when you come home to Seattle. Ive been here only going on my 4th year and the changes have been incredible, what a disaster. Shocked when I hear when the long-term locals tell me what this city used to be like.
I've been in Texas 10 years. I wouldn't be able to recognize the place. My friends take pictures of entire neighborhoods that are now completely torn down and rebuilt. I built a house down here for 250k that would go for 850k up there. Hard to go back when I'm $600k richer just by that standard.

Anyway, how are your social media presences? Instagram pages grow ridiculously fast, being that so much of the cannabis culture can be caught on images.

Also, I've reached out to a friend who I know has compiled a massive cannabis dispensary list, but I forgot where he pulled the data from. I'll see about his method. I figure you could do some outreach to a list of local dispensaries. Maybe workout wholesale pricing, and offer a joint with a ticket or a voucher to the locations. In return, more highly targeted places you can send your posters.

Dammit, now that I'm typing this, I wish I was up there, what a time to live!
 

Private Witt

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What a hustler. I can't imagine planning big events like this every month. You have to juggle so much!

Massive juggling and feel the jump to once a month will be insanity, but one of my partners does like 20 - 30 a month so its doable but as a rookie landmines are everywhere.

Im also reminded of the Frye Festival and I never want to be involved with an event that is not the total opposite.
 

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I've been in Texas 10 years. I wouldn't be able to recognize the place. My friends take pictures of entire neighborhoods that are now completely torn down and rebuilt. I built a house down here for 250k that would go for 850k up there. Hard to go back when I'm $600k richer just by that standard.

Anyway, how are your social media presences? Instagram pages grow ridiculously fast, being that so much of the cannabis culture can be caught on images.

Also, I've reached out to a friend who I know has compiled a massive cannabis dispensary list, but I forgot where he pulled the data from. I'll see about his method. I figure you could do some outreach to a list of local dispensaries. Maybe workout wholesale pricing, and offer a joint with a ticket or a voucher to the locations. In return, more highly targeted places you can send your posters.

Dammit, now that I'm typing this, I wish I was up there, what a time to live!

Yah man enjoy that house, it sucks so hard living in an apartment that I pay $1500 a month for. Im kinda sick of it here and Im very inspired to live elsewhere and happy to say my business is built for so many places I want to be. But I will hack it up for a while as so much opportunity and Im at the cusp, just need to keep executing.

My Instagram page has been kept small for a few reasons, mostly due to cannabis page shutdowns. But I have a decent local industry reach and will be growing it with local influencers and party throwers joining my team soon. My Facebook page I use for a few things but not a big fan as Im always getting ads and things rejected due to cannabis so I mostly use social media to coordinate with allies and pass info.

I have a pretty decent store penetration in the greater Seattle area and Tacoma. Doing those types of giveaways cant be done by law. Washington state has incredibly strict cannabis gifting and wholesale laws so I dont go near it. But there are workarounds with the bus and what Im doing.

In the industry, they say if u can be profitable in Washington state you can make it anywhere.

I agree it is a good time to live, but the good news it will be in your neck of the woods soon enough, nothing is stopping the cannabis train, not even Texas, just a time thing.
 
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Jonathan Hoch

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I never plan on going back for more than maybe a few Seahawks games, so I've never looked into the laws. bummer!

You're right though, the politicians will eventually get greedy enough to want their piece of that green tax, and it'll spread like a humboldt county wildfire >< And of course, I'll be waiting for that gold rush with my shovels and headlamps!

As far as the accounts getting shut down, any reason why? Maybe some sort of "+21 Only" watermark on your images, so you can really showcase yourself as a responsible brand?

PS: As I was typing this, I got word back from my friend, and he naturally has lists of California and Nevada. Nothing in Washington or Oregon.
 

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I never plan on going back for more than maybe a few Seahawks games, so I've never looked into the laws. bummer!

You're right though, the politicians will eventually get greedy enough to want their piece of that green tax, and it'll spread like a humboldt county wildfire >< And of course, I'll be waiting for that gold rush with my shovels and headlamps!

As far as the accounts getting shut down, any reason why? Maybe some sort of "+21 Only" watermark on your images, so you can really showcase yourself as a responsible brand?

PS: As I was typing this, I got word back from my friend, and he naturally has lists of California and Nevada. Nothing in Washington or Oregon.

Yah the government in Washington is the big winner with a 38% tax rate and banning home grow to the public.

I dont know why but they target a lot of local influencers with shutdowns of massive cannabis Instagram and Facebook accounts. There is a lot of infighting in the industry and it could be people reporting each other for nonsense causing issues.

Im not a big fan of watermarks or putting disclaimers up to satisfy the powers-to-be. Maybe down the road I'll develop a strat, but for now happy with my small local crowd and adding a few people a day to my followers.

Speaking of BS platform rules. I just got pushed back a few days to market my event because Eventbrite rejected my listing after being up with no problem. I found a local company that allows cannabis events but waiting to get approved. Check this chit out, I do break the first as there are legal cannabis gifts in the swag bags on the buses.

It has come to our attention that your event may violate U.S. federal regulations surrounding cannabis. While various activities related to cannabis are permitted under certain states’ or countries' laws, they still remain illegal under U.S. federal law and are therefore not permitted by our Terms of Service.

Specifically, Eventbrite prohibits:

  • events where cannabis or cbd of any type is included with a ticket or registration, for example, free samples, gifts, giveaways, or infused food or refreshments available at the event
  • events where attendees learn how to extract or grow cannabis
  • dispensary tours
  • events that highlight attendees sharing their own cannabis as a key element of the event
 

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Damn. That’s like your entire business model summed up in 4 bullets. Stupid.
 
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Damn. That’s like your entire business model summed up in 4 bullets. Stupid.

It touches on a lot but nobody really enforces that, but the ticket website I guess.

I do not like a lot of the restrictions in place in the industry. I loath business obstruction and there is some serious mismanagement going on by our great government. Is one of the cool part of the industry as there are causes to jump on and collaborate with like-minded people doing stuff.
 

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Resistance is hitting me hardcore. First I was sick for a full week. I also had to rearrange my entire work schedule and deal with irregularities due to Seattles ViaDoom for three weeks. Basically they shut down the secondary main in Seattle to realign a tunnel that launched on Monday. Seattle is already a traffic nightmare and this just made it so much worse.

Of course on Monday, Seattle was hit with a massive snowstorm which like an idiot I drove through as I needed to grind my pay bills job. Made it alive with a ton of close calls, but man i saw like ten accidents in real time and was nuts.

Now I cant do my cash grind and have to cancel all meetings as city and surrounding area is on lockdown. The hills are what kills it as they are very hard to pass and they are everywhere.

Im hitting off tasks at home but this has been going on for three weeks and ready to giddie-up. I think another week of snow too, but Im going to try to get my grinds on no matter what happens.

Been rough since October with gloomy weather and makes everything harder, but it shall pass and will be stronger.

I slowed down team building, but focusing on the ten or so attention I have and hope to have a few meetings in next few days that put massive actions in ticket sales and sponsorship. So far 120 tickets set aside for comps and sponsors, 130 to sell at $30 each.
 

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The hills in Seattle are already no joke. Add snow? You’re slipping all the way down and into the Puget Sound.

At least the snow is incredibly rare in Seattle. Just sucks that it’s mid-grind-mode.
 
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Private Witt

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The hills in Seattle are already no joke. Add snow? You’re slipping all the way down and into the Puget Sound.

At least the snow is incredibly rare in Seattle. Just sucks that it’s mid-grind-mode.

Yah man, its nuts on those hills. It looks like the last few days have been a warmup and on Friday and Saturday the worst snowstorm to hit Seattle in a long time is coming. Than a day off and another storm Monday and Tuesday.

Ill be ready for this one stocked up with supplies and no meetings. As long as I have Internet I can get stuff done. I do have to do more sponsorship work than I thought as I have a few people MIA and may as well start bombing away throughout the industry as so many entities and people to reach out to.
 

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Its like Im living in a horror movie as SnowDoom has gone on nine days. A lot of people will say big deal, it snows like balls in a lot of places but Seattle is totally unequipped for the level of snow that is coming and its like every few days it retreats and everyone rushes the stores and restocks.

After about 6 days of this BS totally jacking me up I changed tactics and gave into SnowDoom and took it head on. Im not sure if Ill survive as its predicted for 7 to 10 more days, but Ive been driving around a lot taking care of business the best I can. Seems like 80% have stopped everything and bunkered down playing video games or something as people are communicating like chit, but the real players rise in these times and can get it going. I have a ton of work to do as so far behind but the show must go on and Im seeing a lot of benefits that could come out of this strange time and emerge a little stronger and ready to giddy-up.
 

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Im going to save a full report to right before the show, but what has happened since my last post has been stunning. But I can say the snow storm went on for over two weeks and was a complete nightmare. I ended up having to reconstruct a great part of my team during the time and man I hit gold!

Even though I still have not replaced a few important slots, in other departments I completely have gone insane with incredibly talented cannabis influencers and a few up and comers that are gonna be huge.

It all started with bringing on two local female influencers who also could fall under the 420 model niche at one time but they are focusing on other sides of their talents. One is going to be the event photographer and the other the cannabis bus hostess. Well, this led to a series of Instagram posts and now I wake up every day with beyond amazing local 420, bikini and other models sneaking into my DMs asking to join up, many offering pro-bono just to be on the team :). I've had this happen before as have worked on 420 projects before, but never the level of talent I'm seeing. I was going to wait to integrate models until at least the summer, but this is for sure going to accelerate things as now a ton of them will be at the event and they all have decent Instagram presence, so this shall be interesting. You can Google Cha-Cha VaVoom and Summer Rain, two models I've done extensive work with other models through their agency. I swear Im not making this chit up.

One thing to note is I have a very small Instagram page of like 320 followers as I haven't strategized at all due to the fact they shut down cannabis pages all the time and also have had massive Instagram failure. I will say having the page small has helped as I can see who locally is engaging easier versus when getting blasted with a 5k + page and having to really pay attention to who is there, kinda like this thread.

On other fronts, I have a ton of running around to do the next 9 days before the show to get swag, but keep finding every face-to-face just keeps bringing great news.

Buckle up, this could get a little nuts over the next few months.
 
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Glad to hear the ice age is over! If I’m ever back up in the PNW, I’ll be needing a tour.

Have you thought about growing “child” accounts? I would suggest a Handful of smaller accounts so you still have plenty of reach, without as much risk.
 

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Glad to hear the ice age is over! If I’m ever back up in the PNW, I’ll be needing a tour.

Have you thought about growing “child” accounts? I would suggest a Handful of smaller accounts so you still have plenty of reach, without as much risk.

Yah so glad that chit is done, now its just cold as balls, but I see the light! When you come back u may need a tour as it probably will have changed so much, crazy the growth here.

I've seen others do it, but since I haven't taken my main account serious, I don't really want to deal with a second one. Im talking with some local people to form a team and once that is done I for sure will get on secondary accounts.

Is Instagram a specialty of yours?
 

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Yah so glad that chit is done, now its just cold as balls, but I see the light! When you come back u may need a tour as it probably will have changed so much, crazy the growth here.

I've seen others do it, but since I haven't taken my main account serious, I don't really want to deal with a second one. Im talking with some local people to form a team and once that is done I for sure will get on secondary accounts.

Is Instagram a specialty of yours?
No, but I get obsessive about something and then move on. I had an instagram kick, and rapidly grew a ford raptors account to a couple thousand followers, and then abandoned it for some other shiny object.

It was nothing but re-posting other peoples trucks, and giving them credit. Then it snowballed and people started tagging it when they would post their own stuff.

I still get tagged notifications for it all the time. But I don’t own a raptor, just a regular v8 f150. And it was taking too much time to source awesome pics. Although, I should probably fire it back up, because the engagement was fairly high, at around 1,000-1,500 likes per pic, on an account that had just around 2,000 followers at the time.

I was going to buy a couple of weed IG accounts, as they are super easy to grow. Everyone loves showing off their bongs, blunts, and babes, so there is a ton of source material to post and repost.

The big thing, is growing them yourself. And that can take time :( I have a few friends I can talk to about helping develop a strategy for you if you would like. If you’re serious, definitely delegate this stuff to someone else. It’s boooooooring!
 
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That is pretty cool your page grew like that.

Yah I find it boring and I dislike phones and that is why I just drop and GTFO. But Im seeing some pretty amazing human resources results as well as tickets sales through IG so will be stepping my game up.

Thanks for the offer for help, will get back to you on that. My plan right now is to put a local team together for my events out of the ones who shine on this one. Ive talked with a few of the prospects and they are up for joining on a local IG growth campaign. I really need local content and others maintaining the content and posting, but for now Ill just have to slug it out and not gonna lie enjoying it as getting some fantastic zero cost results, but once this event is over feel like Ill get back to it being a drag and the only way to get real growth is with on-the-ground help.
 

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The week leading up to the event was a complete nightmare, worse than during the snow nonsense. I had around 6 sponsors cancel on me for one reason or another. I also had a few performers have issues and bailed on me. In addition, I had a few problems with my core team out of cannabis. Im happy to say I found solutions and took it to the wire with getting stuff done for the event.

Swag bag heroes rose and got a huge donation of 50 beanies from a new cannabis brand. Also had an amazing reach-out on Instagram at the right time and two days later had a box of bag fillers shipped from across the state to a new friend. A few other companies came through and the bag came out dope. Ill link a pic when I have the media going.

My human resources consolidation was a huge success. I was able to weed out a ton of posers and find the true players. I will say the lack of attention was the main culprit. Many of these people Ill still see and be friends with but any business will have to wait as Im going to be processing and working with those who showed up at this important time.

I ended up working with around 25 entities for the whole event. I think I want to get to 35 in the near future but still processing the information and will have a new set of standards developed for the next show. I will say doing a show a month is a little nuts at this time, but for sure want to get to this level. I do think I may do other creative events and can hit the one a month during 2019.

I had massive Instagram success when I brought on two cannabis influencers who many would consider 420 models. Posting their pics that they were on my staff brought me two models who ended up coming as VIP guests. I will be closing deals with the two models within a few weeks. The two cannabis influencers are more complicated due to higher costs and also due to the fact they have established brands and deeper business will take more work and time. Also a rapper reached out and he became a non-paid opener for exposure trade. He did well and has a nice following due to being a former wrestler and could be an interesting side story and will be doing more work with him.

While the lead-up was from hell the actual event was beyond epic. Everything went correct and those who were involved all came through. So many people shined that Im still a little shocked. I lost money due to many factors but was worth it. My contact base has exploded from musicians, models, brands, and others it was worth every penny.

Ive learned there is massive after effects from events and is a great time to strike deals and pump up media. Im going to rest a bit while working from home, but have a feeling it will be a big few weeks. One thing to note the manager from a cannabis VC fund was at the show and he is on a cannabis brand team that is launching and looks like I may have some media rolling out on the company and event, will be interesting if I can get a meeting with this guy, but at this point Im going to draw resources from a pool of family and friends who make small investment intake smooth and quick.

Looking forward to a event non-planning break, but already know Ill have something on the books quickly as it seems I just can't stop :).
 

Private Witt

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Congrats!

Take the break, you well deserve it.

This is exactly what I did. One month turned into 3, than six. I ended up launching a newspaper into the industry in November. I started a thread on that I need to update, but can summarize real quick. It totally dragged me down as I had massive interest in the beginning, cued the second edition up but did not have the proper systems with sales and advertising. I started to stall and than I stepped on a landmine in December. I decided to put the paper on hold and explore at later time.

For now Im back grinding events. I have a 350 person rap show at Hard Rock Cafe Seattle in March. Ive brought on a local DJ at the biggest rap station to be host and a headliner who is a top five local rapper and has a national record deal. The second act is a local cannabis rapper in traction. Im rounding out the show with 6 other acts and use their communities to sell it out.

Also hitting my stride to get to one event a month as been holding smaller cannabis seshes and will be doing a bigger one in april.

Other good stuff forming on business end but just need to keep grinding and producing epic events and building my brand.
 

Private Witt

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Still 6 weeks out to the show but things are looking incredibly positive. Have sold most of the VIP and reserved tables. I have a team so far of 20 and most are sharing the event all over Facebook and Instagram. Im going to bring on a few more hostesses. Right now at 10 rappers, one radio DJ as host, one event DJ, and 8 local Instagram models as hostesses. I have swag coming and the ladies and rest of team will all be in unity. They will look great chucking swag into the crowd during artist changeover.

I have a non-profit cannabis event coming up Saturday. Proceeds will go to vets in medical cannabis programs. They are so broke and cant afford their meds so need help. The VA wants to give them 20+ daily pills, but they choose cannabis but of course they have to pay 100% out of pocket.

Im getting serious local media interest. My goal is 5 articles in both digital and print by the show. I have a few locked down and once they roll out will use them to get more.

Business structuring is getting serious. Money is not a big issue for me right now as have a pretty deep F & F pool to go to and also have been doing great with my current business fund management. Ive worked out of We Work before and think Ill be heading back to a shared space soon, most likely in April or May. Im not in a big hurry on things as still working on personal and business systems. Time is my greatest issue, but think I have a decent handle on my time management processes and development. Im preparing for angel funding and also have VC interest. Word has gotten out about my progress throughout the industry both in Washington and in other states. The daily pull is getting stronger everyday and high quality as well. My newspaper has taken it to the higher level I was looking for. Mark my words, within 2.5 years Ill find myself in The Fast Lane cannabis stock thread ;).
 
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