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Marc Winn – How Legal Weed is Dispensed at Moncana - Marc Winn delivers high country hospitality at Moncanna medicinal marijuana dispensary in Missoula Montana. Marc runs a state-licensed, legal marijuana dispensary. Marc and our host Pete A Turner, talk about how a state's attempts to regulate the marijuana industry impacts him as a small-business owner.
Learn more about Moncanna on their Facebook page. The quality of Marc's product is undisputed, what matters, more to us is the quality of Marc's character. His desire to stay well within the state's prescribed limits, help people that find value in CBD/THC based therapies get a safe and legal product, and educate the public to de-stigmatize the industry. #moncanna #montana #missoula #legal #marijuana |
#bids #groundtruth #cbd #Thc #legalmarijuana
Haiku
Moncanna Big Sky
How a small business owner
Gets Missoula well
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Darryl Anders
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Haiku
Moncanna Big Sky
How a small business owner
Gets Missoula well
Similar episodes:
Darryl Anders
Tim House pt 1
Tim Fitzgerald
Transcription
Jon Leon Guerrero 0:00
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Mar when he's a small business owner who made an interesting transition from owning a wood flooring company to now operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Missoula. It's called mon Canna. If you're thinking, here's an interesting topic for the break it down show. Well it may have come about because Marc's is Pete's cousin. And Pete captured this episode while he was visiting Montana. But Marc is also a rugged outdoorsman, the kind of guy goes hunting in the mountains and gets there on his horse. So you know exactly the kind of dude we celebrate on this show.
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Mar when he's a small business owner who made an interesting transition from owning a wood flooring company to now operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Missoula. It's called mon Canna. If you're thinking, here's an interesting topic for the break it down show. Well it may have come about because Marc's is Pete's cousin. And Pete captured this episode while he was visiting Montana. But Marc is also a rugged outdoorsman, the kind of guy goes hunting in the mountains and gets there on his horse. So you know exactly the kind of dude we celebrate on this show.
Jon Leon Guerrero 0:00
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Mar when he's a small business owner who made an interesting transition from owning a wood flooring company to now operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Missoula. It's called mon Canna. If you're thinking, here's an interesting topic for the break it down show. Well it may have come about because Marc is Pete's cousin. And Pete captured this episode while he was visiting Montana. But Marc is also a rugged outdoorsman, the kind of guy goes hunting in the mountains and gets there on his horse. So you know exactly the kind of dude we celebrate on this show. And when Marc and Pete get into it, about what it takes to stay legit and expand the market, in the marijuana industry in a place like Montana, where people are big on personal liberty, but still pretty conservative, especially when it comes to drug policy. And the laws on cannabis use are evolving and steps. You see here, he's our kind of guest. Speaking of our kind of guest, we got to do Zika coming up for you our show from quarter Madera, California recorded in a little Tavern called Mosley's with its proprietor, the one and only Johnny Mosley. That's a fun show. And you're going to love it one of our increasingly unusual occasions where Pete and I get to do a show together, Johnny is Pete's homeboy. And I've always wanted to hang out with him. And we got to do it in his bar, which is terrific. Also coming up. I've been on a body comp challenge for the last six and a half weeks. And so my results are coming in in about 10 days. And we're going to have my strength and conditioning trainer Ted O'Neill on the show. He's trained more elite level power lifters at his gym Diablo barbell than anyone west of the Mississippi. And we talk about the psychology of peak performance. That's going to be a great show too. And we'll get to see what Ted's program did to me over eight weeks. Also, Pete is doing the Cornetto seal Memorial swim on Saturday, September 21, to benefit the seal veterans foundation. And you can go to seal veterans foundation.org to see what they're about. And Pete's taking that opportunity to strive toward peak performance himself. So you clearly care about peak performance because you listen to this show. And that's why we get such a reward out of bringing you these episodes. So I'm going to ask you to do one thing today, hook us up with a five star rating on whatever platform you're using, whether it's iTunes or Stitcher, wherever you're listening to us right now. Or if it's YouTube, just subscribe and hit the notification bill. Easy stuff. And while you're at it, go ahead and write us a review. Nothing big, just something like hey, it'd be cool to have a beer with these guys. And if we're in your town, by the way, it would be cool to have a beer with us and you should. And if you're in Missoula, it'd be cool to have a beer with our special guest today. Here's Marc when millions rock productions
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Pete Turner 3:08
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Marc Winn 3:12
Hey, this is Marc when with mon Canna home of High Country hospitality and you're listening to the break it down show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 3:21
And now the break it down show with jon Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Pete Turner 3:27
Love it. Hi, country hospitality. Now marc is my cousin. We go back as far as he's been alive. And they're up there in Missoula, Montana, where I love to go visit and Marc is he's an entrepreneur, he's got a flooring company. So if you're in Montana, or especially in Missoula area, he will hook you up with some wonderful hardwood floors. But I really want to talk about, and this is why this is interesting to me, Marc, because this is an emerging market throughout the nation, you run a legal medicinal marijuana dispensary. And I'm saying all those things carefully. So everybody can understand that marcs service is a patient comes to him and says, You know, I need a brand of some kind of product from the cannabinoid world.
And that will help me with my cancer with my epilepsy with my fill in the blank thing. And Marc provides that product to them. And they feel better. I'm saying this, I'm not having marc, say this, because there's a lot of legal loopholes, Marc, this whole thing is legal crazy. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, it's not a license to print money, but you've got a license to help people and make a good revenue stream from that. Talk about the legal thing to kind of hold you in check. Sure.
Marc Winn 4:38
So basically, in Montana, like you said, We are a medicinal only state there is no rec law here. So if somebody wants to become a patient and the Montana medical marijuana program, they first have to have a qualifying condition. There are several of them, I'm not sure that I can actually recite all of them, but the main ones are can cancer, HIV, chronic pain, you know, epilepsy. And recently, they added PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions. And you know, I might be missing a few or gotten one wrong. But yeah, that's the important thing is that you have one of those qualifying conditions. And if you want to proceed from there, you would need to get a licensed physician that's licensed in Montana to sign a physician statement that the state that you can get from the state, basically, a testing that you have one of those qualifying conditions, and then we submit that to the state and there's some fees involved. And shortly after there, you will receive Montana medical marijuana card.
Pete Turner 5:45
Hey, this is Pete real quick, I just want to let you guys know, we are proud to announce our official support of save the brave, a certified nonprofit 501 c three with the charter of helping veterans with post traumatic stress. Here's how you can help go to save the brave, calm com, click on the link on the website. And my recommendation is this subscribe, give him 20 bucks a month, you've got subscriptions you can turn off right now that you're not using that are $20 a month, swap that out get involved. Let's help these folks out
Marc Winn 6:13
shortly after their you will receive Montana medical marijuana card.
Pete Turner 6:18
So there's a lot of questions right folks have a lot of I mean, there's decades of thought on this that is sort of pushed into our brains. And there's a lot of unfairly negative things that come out of the marijuana industry and its existence. I'm not a marijuana user. I'm not opposed to it. I'm not opposed to CBD, but it's just not something that I have chosen to do or have found use and but I also understand that there's people with epilepsy whose lives are significantly improved. And you know, nausea, and all the other problems with cancer are proven dramatically to help out. So can you talk a little bit about some of the things you've seen or experienced from your, when you have actual patients? These are like you call them patients? You don't call them customer?
Marc Winn 6:59
Right? I think, you know, a lot of people get benefit and a lot of different ways from it. You know, I mean, I think one of the biggest things in my experiences, I mean, it really helps with nausea, you know, if I am ever feeling nauseous, and I use it, I get huge benefit from that. And I think that sort of goes to show why you know, cancer patients, people going through chemo and whatnot, find a benefit with it, because of its ability to help with the nausea and also with pain. I would say, probably most of the people in the Montana medical marijuana program are given a prescription because they have chronic pain, you know, and I think does it help in the same way is narcotics do not necessarily, you know, I know, in my personal experience, I've had three different knee surgeries, I've blown both of my ACL and fractured my tibia plateau. And I'm also like you said in the flooring business, so I spend a lot of time getting down on my knees standing up. And you know, I find that but the end of the day, myself, knees just will start to swell, and I get this aching pain. And I've chosen as opposed to using narcotics or using, you know, even ibuprofen, which I do use on occasion. But I think that there's some downsides to using ibuprofen on a regular basis, in terms of how it affects your gut biome is what I've recently heard in. But yeah, I mean, I like to use cannabis, because it's all natural and, and it really helps I can take it in an edible, I can smoke it, I can vaporize it. And the effect is instantaneous, and it lasts for a good amount of time. And you know, something that a lot of people, you know, when they think about cannabis, they think of people smoking it, but that's one thing that I think a lot of people overlook is that there's a lot of different ways to consume it. And you know, using edibles that it affects you completely differently than it would if you smoke it. And you probably get pain relief for a longer period of time when using edibles. So that's one thing that we're trying to kind of focus on is having you know, as we dive into the business side of things is I want to have a wide variety of edibles and products out there to that are an alternative to smoking because a lot of people you know, don't like that kind of thing. I mean, I I will smoke. But you know, I think in the end, I mean, as much as I think it's healthier than smoking cigarettes, it's still inhaling heated plant matter. And I think if you're going to be using it medicinal Lee and in the long term, you should look at using edibles, whether it be a beverage, or Carmel or a mouth spray even. So, and that's really kind of the exciting thing about it from marketing standpoint is you can really go into any one of these different areas. I mean, you could be making ice cream, and you know, and just have a really great ice cream that tastes good and also relieves pain.
Pete Turner 9:56
So when you're talking about these things, like the pain products, and mean pain is just one thing, but swelling. I know a number of people, especially people that are over 50 years old, that has some form of arthritis, rheumatoid, whatever it's going to be, and they swear by the CBD cream, and like you said, I rub it on, I feel better. And, you know, I want people to follow the law and everything. But I also don't want them to suffer unnecessarily. And like you said, and again, I sounds funny, like I sound like promotional video for cannabis use. But I know what Motrin can do to your body, you know, to your liver to your stomach, depending on if it's a seated benefit, or, you know, whatever it is ibuprofen. But you know, there are drawbacks to everything. It does seem like though, that the nation is moving towards a more deregulated stance, I mean, obviously here in California, medicinal Okay, great, but also recreational, Colorado is I think they just passed the mushrooms because we're understanding more and more about the medicinal value of mushrooms now is is Montana going the same way they going? less regulated doors to fight still sort of going on?
Marc Winn 11:02
Well, you know, I guess I can give a little bit of context to what we've been through. So I first got into the cannabis business back in 2009. And, you know, so we had a completely different law at that point. And I got about a year deep into the business. Before our legislature, when they went into session, they actually repealed our law and replaced it with a really difficult law that was so highly regulated and not intuitive to the horticulture of marijuana that pretty much everyone got out of it. And it sort of laid dormant for a while. And people here in Montana sort of lobbied together and we create a lobbying group that hired an attorney and started pushing towards getting a good workable law that can appease kind of both sides. And what we came up with is what we have now. And I think it's a really great log, because in a lot of ways, it's very comprehensive to the ins and outs of marijuana horticulture. So when it comes to growing it, you know, so with our first law, we were limited to six plants per patient. But then we could only grow one ounce per patient. So the problem there was try growing six plants that only produce one ounce, I mean, they just unless you're don't have very good genetics, or you're not a very good grower, you're going to produce more than that. So our current law allows us to possess what our yield is, which is a lot more practical, because, you know, obviously, everybody that's doing this is probably trying to do the best grow to the best of their ability. And byproduct of that is getting a good harvest. So that's kind of the first thing that's, you know, I think really good about
Pete Turner 12:48
that makes me think about a farmer, you know, in a farmer is incentive to find ways to bring in a greater yield, to bring it a bigger crop not to bring in, you know, a crop that weighs x, I can see like, you know, as you try to sort it out, it's kind of funny that up there, you know, we're farming is a big part of your guys's economy that you wouldn't think about it in those terms. But you're right, you want to bring in the biggest, strongest, you know, best product you can and it doesn't make sense to limit that to a measurement.
Marc Winn 13:15
Exactly. So that's, you know, we went through that for a long time, we're like said original law was just, it started off pretty good, but it had some areas that needed fixing. But so in our original law, we voted, I think it was like 6040, you know, in favor of that law. And then the legislature just repealed it and replaced it with their law. So then we had to then vote in an amendment to get the law that we have now. And it's like I said, it's vastly improved. I mean, there's a realistic limitations on what you can, we can possess our yield, that's the way it should be. Because I can't control what my plants are going to produce, run, they allow us as square footage for our canopy space. So we get 30 square feet per patient that we have. Or if you're growing for yourself, you also would get I believe it's 30 square feet.
Pete Turner 14:09
So you're limited on size of your area of your farm, I guess or whatever, however small your farm is, or big it is your license allows you to grow 10 plants, which equals 100 feet, or whatever it is,
Marc Winn 14:20
yeah, yep. Okay, so you know, and then furthermore, so the limitations have improved. And then now we have a seat. So our state is contracted with a company that has a software program called metric. And so this is a seed to sale tracking software, that basically once we have to get metrics certified, so we have to take a course and then pass the test. And then we can start performing functions of metric. And basically, at the beginning, you know, we start with immature plants, you know, whether they're seedlings or clones, and we have to create create a batch for those seedlings or clones, that has a tag attached to it. And then once those start to reach maturity, which Montana says is a foot tall and a foot wide, then each plant will get their own individual plant tag. And any plants that are good you can you have a method for destroying them digitally in metric. And I mean, it's just really comprehensive in the sense that, you know, if I'm going to destroy a plant, there's a, I have to do it in metric also. So we have to select our plants that we're destroying. And then we have to choose a method of waste, and I have to have a waist log. And you know, so everything's monitored pretty closely. And then as we progress through the growing phases, so marijuana and is a photo period sensitive plant, so that means it responds to the natural light cycle. So if you want to keep a plant in what's called a vegetative growth state, you maintain a 13 hours of light. And then when you're ready to get it to produce flowers, you'll reduce your light cycle to 12 hours. So I'll have my plants physically in a bedroom, and I've created rooms and metric for those plants. And then when I'm ready to put them in the flower room, then I have to digitally move them to the flower room. And when I'm ready to start that process, so let me
Pete Turner 16:25
jump in here because I want to speak for the person who is cautiously concerned right now, and I want to ask questions on their behalf, because what you're describing is a fairly involved system. So the state is requiring you to account for each plant that you have, based on size based on location, on your property, or the dispensary, or wherever it is, like you have to be accountable all the way. And I know how the state is. And a lot of times, you know, these systems get so big, so fast, they can't possibly inspect. And so a lot of times you can just do whatever you want to do. How was monitoring, keeping you guys honest, on check on up on here? I mean, digitally transferring things and having someone standard to clipboard? two totally different things.
Marc Winn 17:08
Right. You know, there's certainly probably periods where, you know, people could, you know, maybe fudge areas, you know, because yeah, I mean, there's not going to be, there's not going to be a person from the state there at all times, we're not required to have a video feed like some states are, right, but we are subject to unannounced inspections. And we typically get an annual inspection or whenever I apply for a new license will get a new inspection. And part of the deterrent of the program is the fact that if we're not abiding by the state's policies and laws, then we can lose our license. And and there's a lot of investment that goes into it to get to the point where we are, I mean, just in terms of license fees, and paying for testing and everything. I think for the most part, people are walking the line, just because there's so much at stake.
Pete Turner 18:05
Well, let's talk about that money. And I don't want to get all the way into your business. But give us an idea, like what does it cost to get a business of your size and scale off the ground? What does that equal? Hmm,
Marc Winn 18:18
I guess there's several phases to it. And really, to get to where I am now, it's really been a couple of years in the making, we have a greenhouse that I've probably spent, you know, between eight and $10,000 getting it bill, and we have an indoor facility that is probably in the 10 to $15,000 range. And in then our dispensary, you know, we have rent, we pay about thousand 50 a month. And we have a POS system that you pretty much when you're on metric, it's very tedious to enter your sales manually. So almost everybody has to get a private POS system, or they have to sign up with somebody that can help them with the point of sale. And ours we use flow hub, one called flow hub, and it costs you know, about $400 a month for that. So with all that said, I mean our you know, our overhead, and then we have currently one bud tender, which you know that cost is around 1500 a month for one bud tender. So we're operating really lean right now, with all that said, and just kind of trying to get off the ground. The hard part here is that because we don't have rec, we don't have walking sales, all of our revenue comes from people that have signed up with us and only us to get the medicine that they need. So that becomes you know, part of the challenge is just getting enough patients to sustain everything. And there's a good amount of overhead, I think our monthly costs are around 30 504 grand between the store and the power bill, the product testing, the product testing can get pretty, you know, it's it's considerable, you have to get up for a full compliance test. It's $375 for up to five pounds, and then you add $50 additional for each strain that you're testing that is on flour. If you're testing concentrates like Rick Simpson oil, or rosin or bubble hash, it's 400 for a full compliance test. And then if you're getting edibles, edibles are a little less money, they're about 90. And topical are also about 90 for full compliance. So it's little bit less money. So
Pete Turner 20:43
yeah, I mean, you're talking about a considerable I mean, this is a legitimate business. And then I guess the next question is, I'm going to give everybody who says they have a medical problem, the benefit of the doubt, because I would rather help 100% of the people that need help, and have some fakers come in the door Vantage and someone who's desperate for help, because we want to make sure we keep the fakers out. So I'm just going to say that and that's going to be our premise going forward. But what about the earth at market? What about folks that are out there? You know, not that you keep track of what's happening on the street corner? But what's the sense in Montana and Missoula? Especially because it's a big city for the state? Is the illicit drug use thing a problem? Or is it gone down? What's your sense? You know,
Marc Winn 21:25
I can't really speak to how the weather the MediCal program here is affected the illicit drug market, but I mean, are there certainly a black market here? And, you know, I think in terms of like the narcotics and whatnot, I mean, it's not as bad as you know, some bigger metro areas. I mean, we have a pretty small population. It's largely rural Missoula, is a smaller market, hovering around 200,000 people, I'm not sure what the influx is with it is a college town. So we get we have the University of Montana kana here. And when schools in session, I know that our population will get a significant boost, but I'm sure there's a good amount of illicit marijuana use going on campus. And, you know, I just I haven't, you know, I'm not necessarily in that I'm not in that world. So I don't really know, you know, I can't speak to numbers or anything, but I'm sure it's a thing. I would think that it's, you know, I've observed over the years, I mean, the marijuana prices have dropped significantly. And I think with that said, you know, there's probably less interest in getting into black market marijuana, because the costs have gone down so much. I mean, in 2010, or 2008. I mean, people were paying $300 an ounce, and now everyone's, you know, between 202 50 an ounce, or I should even say 118 to 20. Yeah, you know, it seems like most of the shops are right in that area. And so I think it's gotten probably harder for people to make money in the black market on it. Of course, there's Oregon right next door. And you know, I've definitely heard Oregon, Washington, I'm sure that there's some people that are growing legal recreational weed there, and they're probably transporting it to Montana, I've heard that a pound can sell for as little as $1,000, in Oregon, you know, so people will get a pound of Oregon weed and bring it to Montana and probably take it to the campus and sell it for my guess is close to the, whatever the medical prices are, right? Because it seems like the street value is gone down, you know, from everything that I've been told. And but I think, you know, I think as these laws improve, and it becomes more accessible to people, they're just going to be lessens incentive for the black market, there's just not as much money there. And it's, if it's available to people through a legal Avenue, then why would they go there? You know, I think there's always going to be some people that they might have a job, they're scared that their boss could find out or if they have, you know, if they're an insurance, or if they're, you know, an attorney, I mean, I've certainly heard of people in a variety of occupations that have their reasons why they don't want to go medical, so, but they're also regular users. So I think, you know, ultimately, we need to get those people in the clear to where they're not, you know, I believe that recreational should be available. And I think the way to handle it would be to tax it differently. Right now, our medical law, we are taxed 2% of our gross sales. And we just passed an amendment to where, for at least one year, they're going to increase it to 4% to pay for some stuff, and then supposed to go back to 2%. But my thought is why not, you know, keep the taxes low for people that want to get their medical card. And then if we're gonna bring wreck, tax it a little bit greater, you know, and then there will still be an incentive for people to get their card if they have, you know, one of those qualifying conditions to where they really need it. And then the rest of the people that are just recreating, let's get the state some tax revenue, you know, and then that way, there's still going to be a reason to keep a medical market and direct market. I'm not sure what Colorado is doing. But I've heard that they have pretty substantial taxes for their wreck market. But I believe that the medicinal is
Pete Turner 25:32
less. Hey, this is Pete a Turner from Lyons rock productions, we create podcasts around here. And if you your brand, or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me, I'll give you the advice on the right gear. The best plan is show me how to take a podcast that makes sense for you that's sustainable, that scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show. com Let me help I want to hear about it.
Marc Winn 25:56
I'm not sure what Colorado is doing. But I've I've heard that they have pretty substantial taxes for their wreck market. But I believe that the medicinal is less. So
Pete Turner 26:08
I want to ask a question about so I love it up there. And in Montana is great. Missoula is awesome. But I can see that there's not like a lot of there's not a lot of money. There's a lot of folks that need money, right. And I can't imagine that tax revenue has got to be, you know, kicking your guys's ass because, you know, there's just not a lot of big industry up there. You know, there's breweries seem to be doing well, but that's not going to employ 150 people that's going to employ a small amount of folks. So does this sound like a good? I mean, you guys just roads must need redo it completely every five years. It's cold up there.
Marc Winn 26:44
Yeah, the first thing that you said, I mean, yeah, I think in Montana, there's not a lot of super high paying jobs. And I think the 2% tax really is not bad. And even if if the feds make it start to move towards leaving realization and the end allow, you know, give us the ability to pay taxes, you know, I would hope that they would try and mirror you know, what the state does. So if we were paying 2%, state 2%, federal, for medical, I think would be reasonable or even 4%. For each. You know, I would love it, if some of that money went towards whether it be roads or schools or drug abuse counseling or, or whatnot, I think there's a ton of different things that the money could go towards and in our state could definitely use it. We're fortunate. I believe our state's doing pretty good. We have a huge tourism industry. I think that the state's doing well, overall right now. But I'm sure every everything helps. I mean, there's been cuts, I heard last year to some mental health programs that were severely cut where a lot of people lost their jobs. And you know, I think what a great way to to get some revenue to help with those kinds of programs to tax marijuana. I mean, I think, really the 2% it's like, it's not until you're actually generating some revenue. I mean, we're paying, I don't know, it was only $250. Last quarter, you know, so it's, it's not that huge. course the state's still getting, they're getting other fees from us that are probably helping them out for the majority, like the license fees, each of our licenses are $500. And I have for currently, so and then you also have to pay for how many patients you have. So like one to 10 is $1,000 1149 is 20 $500 and 50. And above is $5,000. Yeah, so there's some pretty good fees that they're getting from the providers alone there, then they have all the sales in addition to that, but I think that, you know, we can it's not so much that it's pricing people out of the product, you know, I guess but I get concerned when I hear about quality rato having a 30 or 40% tax, and that makes me think Geez, like, who's gonna be able to afford it at that at that rate? I mean, that seems like too much.
Pete Turner 29:10
Yeah. I mean, at some point, the tax is high enough your incentive Not you, but a person is incentive to maybe go black market. And because now you can write 40% cut price, right? Yeah. Yeah, you know, and then you get out of the business of regulating and you get into the business of, you know, punitive laws. Again, it's so it is a balance, man, it and it's tricky, because you don't want to increase crime, you don't want to increase drug use, where it's harming humans, but you do want to have the balance of caring for people, you know, whether it's anxiety, PTSD, any of these things that are sort of hard to see, you know, like, I can't tell if you're anxious right now. But I do know that if you're out there running a flooring company, and you're still bending your knees and your back to put flooring down. Like it's hard to find the right kind of people to work those jobs are hard physical labor, jobs. You know, that's, that's hard living, no matter whether you're roofing or flooring, or plumbing, you know, you're talking about real, physical hard work, and you build up a lot of damage over the years doing that. And so, should if smoking a little bit of weed, the evening is what gets you through it, then I want to make sure you have it. And yeah, their state can have a little cut. But Gosh, 40% seems really high. Yeah.
Marc Winn 30:23
Yeah. So we hope it doesn't get to that, you know, I just recently made a trip to Oregon went sturgeon fishing, and I visited several dispensaries while I was in Oregon and one in Washington. And, you know, it's just kind of interesting. You see, the people you see coming in, I mean, you see, the construction workers with their hard hats, you know, coming in, and they're getting a vape pen, you know, and something to that they can use discreetly, and you see elderly people and, you know, so I think it's, you know, and then if you get I got into downtown Portland, and there was some a little bit more swanky spots where you see the kind of the city folk coming in. And, you know, I noticed the price kind of went up from when I was in our story at Oregon vs. Portland, Oregon, you know, seem to be a pretty good price jump to. But you know, that's to be expected. And sure, sure,
Pete Turner 31:14
I mean, that's just running your business, you have people that want a higher caliber experience, you charge more for it, for sure. So let's talk about you said a key thing there, old folks that are using this stuff, what percentage would you say of your patient list, and I don't want you to break any kind of laws. So be careful about how we say this. But what percentage of them is is say, over the age of 50 years old, but you know, if they legitimately are just taking care of broken bodies, broken minds, broken spirits,
Marc Winn 31:43
over 50? I'd say probably 25%. Right. And then there's probably between 30 and 50 would probably be 50%. And you know, but a lot a lot of people in the mid 30s to early 40s. You know, I think there would be more of an elderly community coming. I mean, if they knew it was available and knew what it took to get it. And I think mainly, you know, a lot of people, it's just the legality of it, you know, they just, some people don't want to take a risk at all, for sure. But we, you know, some of my best patients are in their 60s, you know, I've got several that I've known for years and years, I knew some people that I met way back in 2010. That are now my patients again, and they're great. I mean, they're really some of the best people to work with. And probably our ideal demographic, I think, you know, going forward, I mean, we want to get the people that really have need for it, and that are good, trustworthy customers. I mean, I think if you built your business based on young people, I mean, you're probably diving into that area where some of these people may not, you know, it's not really fair to speculate whether they have a qualifying conditions, there's plenty of people that have chronic pain that are young, but you know, there's probably some out there that are, you know, just using it to get marijuana. And I don't think that there's, I don't think that that's necessarily wrong, from my point of view, in and of itself, you know, because I don't think people should, well, yeah, get some criminals from it.
Pete Turner 33:20
You know, let me just take that whole burden off you then let me let me just say this, again, I'm not a marijuana user. It just, you know, I like beer. I like shots and shit like that. And as a guy that likes beer and shots and shit like that, I got no problem. If a guy wants to go out and lay down tile all day, Holy fuck, I've done that work. That's hard work. And if you want to smoke a blunt, you know, and chill out and relax. And that's how you have gotten in, do it. You know, I'm totally for that. But And beyond that, I want to say this too, because I want folks to understand that the kind of dude you are, because, yeah, we're family and everything. But you know, we're not that close. We've only met I don't know, maybe 10 times in our whole life, if that many. But it doesn't mean that I don't care about you, Mikey. But what I noticed about you is this one, you're an entrepreneur, you run your own company, and you get out and you get floors laid down, and you didn't pick an easy job, and you picked a hard job. So you're a hard read, dude, you got a bunch of kids, and you constantly are driving your son, all over Montana, getting him into motorcycle races and everything. I mean, you're doing what dads do. And now you got this other business and you're doing things when people support something like Montana is supporting a real all American hard work and family. I don't want to call you a blue collar. Because I don't think that does justice to what you do. Like you're a hard working dude. And I appreciate that. I think the world of what you're taking on here, you know, I see you like you talked about going hunting with your older brother, you guys get on horseback and head up into the mountains. Holy shit. That's that's stuff of dreams, man. People love that. So I mean, this is the kind of dude you are, you're not just some Lackey, asshole trying to get rich, like you're out there working hard, trying to provide value. And every time I've talked to you about this stuff, you're very careful about making sure that you're within the law and expressing like, this is the law, this is where we have to stay within, because you're not trying to jeopardize what you've got, you're not trying to be a criminal, you're trying to. I mean, look, you're not perfect, but you're doing a lot of things, right. I know, your dad would be proud of
Marc Winn 35:26
Thanks. Yeah, and, you know, I would like to, you know, I think our goal is to kind of, I don't want to try and grow it too fast. I'm trying to grow it organically, so to speak, you know, the business. And, you know, I think that as time goes on, and as we develop more products, and you know, fine tune our strings, I think that, you know, we're going to get there and a lot of people assume that it's just hand over fist money. But if you go and talk to a dozen providers, you're probably going to find out that half of them are still breaking even, you know, they might be paying their bills, but they're not lining out a bank account yet. And, you know, I think, why is that I mean, it's largely due to that we're subject to just a patient list, ultimately, are people that are willing to take those steps to get their cards, you know, so I think kind of my hope in the long run is, you know, I hope that wreck does eventually come. And, you know, like I said that we can offer discounts to medical patients and get some of those walk ins, I think it'll pay off in the long run. And, you know, I really love doing floors to you know, and it's, it's a great trade, and I'm really passionate about it, but, you know, I hope that someday I can be a little more selective about the ones that I do. And my whole goal with this is, you know, ultimately, I would like to spend more time with my family and be able to, you know, provide a future for them. And I'm sort of banking on the dream here that this is going to pay off, you know, it might not, or it might, you know, I mean, it's, it's a gamble at this point. But you know, it's one that for whatever reason, I've had rolling around in my wheelhouse for over 10 years, and there's been a lot of steps into getting here, you know, I think buying my house having my own property, I knew that that was going to be essential to being able to be in this just knowing that I could have they grow space, because otherwise you have to get a landlord permission slip, which can be really difficult. And I had one back in 2010. And I invested a bunch of money into it. And then some landlords actually got in trouble in Montana when there was sort of a crackdown. So basically, the landlords all got together and decided not to rent people as much, right? And so it became really difficult. So I mean, I feel like, you know, this has been a long time in the making, for me, you know, between getting the house and you know, I built the greenhouse three years ago, and I've been sort of adding little things to it. As time goes on. This year, I added a light deprivation system that's automatic, so I can flower so you can ultimately you could flower outdoors in Montana and get two crops a year. Yeah, if you time, everything, right. So there's just a lot of little things that that have sort of come with time. You know, we got our rosin press. Now we're trying to get into the concentrates world of things. And that's like a whole other spectrum of knowledge and tooling and processes to get those and there's so many different ways that you can do it. And you know, all the equipment's really expensive. So we've started with this. It's a rosin tech press. So basically, you can take anything Muse flower, you can process flour into a dry sift, or you can process flour into a bubble hash, and then you put it inside this, it's a 20 ton pneumatic press, and you put your product inside of a seed that so it's basically a bag or a pouch with very small holes in it 25 micron, typically. And then you put parchment paper around that, and you squish that product. And then that yields you a solvent free cannabis extract, you know, that we call Roz. And, you know, there's a bunch of different ways that you can make it and and then you have to figure out a way to market it people on you know, that's it seems to be largely where the industry is going. A lot of people want that they want the vape pens, because they're so discreet and convenient. And part of the method to getting there is just, you know, whether you're doing some people use butane extraction, so they'll literally use the butane to extract the THC and the CBD and the terrapins from the plant and produce that concentrated product. And, you know, I think a lot of places are shying away from the butane, because it's flammable, it's kind of dangerous to produce it. And you have to make sure you get all of that solvent out of the product before you sell it. And everything's tested before you can. So I mean, you'll know it's passing if it is, but people are developing some pretty high tech methods of achieving the same thing. And so we're kind of just diving into that right now. And
Pete Turner 40:14
it's a fascinating world. And you're doing here talking about new products and branching out, let me ask you to say cuz you run a business, you've got a flooring business, you've got a dispensary, which is not just, you know, a storefront, you're actually a weed farmer, if I was going to, you know, use a colloquial term. How many people could you possibly employ, like if you really are cooking, as our other four or five more jobs are because you're describing product development, marketing? Obviously, you've got someone who curates the plants and everything. How many people can you employ in this little small business?
Marc Winn 40:47
You know, right now, we have one bud tender, and a cultivation manager, and n extracts manager and myself. So, you know, we're basically four people in someone's running the storefront. Yeah. And I think as we progress, if we can, you know, we only have 30 patients. So, you know, sort of our and actually picked up a couple since then. But I think once we get up to the hundred patients, then, you know, I think we'll be at the point where we could start looking to hire another bud tender. I think if we can get to 200 patients, then, you know, we could probably have three bud tenders. So I think, you know, in the long run, I mean, I don't know, I went to going to a dispensary in Oregon, or the one I went to in Washington, you know, one of them had probably five different bud tenders operating there. And they were all pretty busy. Yeah, I think, you know, the more people we get in there, I think the more employees will be able to sustain, you know, on the growing and we're pretty proficient with, you know, basically three of us doing most of that at this time. But, you know, it depends on, you know, when harvest time comes, that's when the work starts, you know, I mean, that's, it's all really easy until you know, you have with the greenhouse, you could have 20 pounds that you have to trim all the leaves off of, and you have to do it in a pretty tight timeframe. Yeah, because there's really kind of a short window that's ideal for harvest. But before I go too much off on that tangent, yeah, I think that it could sustain a lot of people just in harvesting. I mean, it's not not unheard of, to have 20 trimmers, you know, harvest time. And it might be like, if you're doing if you're talking the greenhouse harvest, I mean, that might take a couple of weeks with 10 people, you know, potentially, to get everything cut down in a large greenhouse, and, but then there might be work for two weeks, and then it kind of dries up until the next harvest, you know, so I think some of its come and go, and that might work for some people. But for the full the full time works probably going to be mostly in the bud tending.
Pete Turner 43:00
What's your main message to folks in the greater Missoula area? What do they need to know? I mean, there's a lot of dispensaries out there. Why are you guys different? What makes your business different?
Marc Winn 43:10
You know, I mean, in all honesty, I'd have to go and investigate everybody else to really truly answer that question. But I think we have an exceptional work ethic, myself, and my staff, and all of us have backgrounds working in trades. And you know, one of us was a an outfitter, one of us was an HVAC, Alex, my brother, he's going to school, and working for us as a bud tender at the same time. And, you know, I think we bring a lot of knowledge and background to the table with having an HV ac guy that's built our indoor grow facility. I mean, it's really well, climate controlled. And we're all pretty well read on the subject. So and pretty well experienced at this point, I can't say say that we're the best hands down. But I can say that we're going to give whoever's the best run for their money, because we do have a work ethic. And, you know, I think there's a couple little tricks that that we have that some people may not know about yet, you know, we have the edges here and there. I think Time will tell you know, I think it's pretty early in the game here. There's definitely a few companies that have been out there, they've sort of, you know, I mentioned, like our change in laws, and there's some people that have wrote out all those changes and been in the business here for 10 years now. Wow. And those are going to be the people that are hard to catch. But some of those folks, you know, have their own problems. You know, I've heard of other dispensary's not being able to keep enough product in the store. And I mean, that's never been our problem, yet, you know, I hope? I mean, in a way, I hope that becomes a problem yet. You know, I, I think that, you know, we're basically putting the infrastructure in place to be able to satisfy a pretty large clientele. Well, that's great. Now,
Pete Turner 45:02
you're building something, right. And we talked to a lot of people that do a lot of different things. And you know, the 10 year overnight success is a thing. And when you talk about working hard, and I know the kind of dudes you guys are, you know, there's, there's no doubt that you're going to be a big player there. Because there's folks that just don't have when it gets hard. You're like, yeah, of course, it's hard. You like, it's not news to you that running a business is going to require staying up late, constantly improving, like, those are the things that if you aren't in that, if you aren't that kind of an entrepreneur, then when the money dries up, you don't know how to get more money, you don't know how to get lean, you've grown too fast. I don't hear you talking about those things. I hear someone that's conscientious, that has great character, and is trying to stay within you know, what the law allows, and not every business like that makes it but you're certainly ahead of the game with those things, man, and just by just getting after it the way you're getting confident you're going to get there. Yeah.
Marc Winn 46:01
You know, you gotta if you're not, I don't know what I was even gonna say, I mean, you gotta try, you gotta put an effort out there. I mean, if anything, and, you know, you know, I know that I've known people that have had been successful in the industry and that I've grown up with and, you know, doesn't mean my path is going to be exactly the same as theirs. And I don't necessarily want it to be, you know, none of us are expecting to become filthy, stinking rich off of this. You know, I think that we all just kind of want to live well, I mean, we love living in Montana, we want to, we want to not work as hard, you know, we want to work hard now. Yeah. Yeah. At some point, we would like this to be streamlined. And we want to provide jobs to people, whether it be trimming or bud tenders. Sure. And, you know, the hope, in the long run is that we can just enjoy life, you know, be happy. And I think, you know, that's,
Pete Turner 46:58
I think you said it, man, he wanted to speak able to enjoy life, I'm going to close this down by just leaving you with some words that your dad gave me. 25 years ago, I was going through a master's program. And I think the world of your dad, he passed on a couple years ago for the audience, just an outstanding guy. And I was asking him because he ran the hospital up there. And I'm going through a Master's organizational management program. And what do I need to know? What can I learn, you know, source to write a paper and he's like, here's my job, you take the organizational chart, and you flip it upside down. I'm the guy in the bottom. And my job is to make sure everybody above me has what they need to do their job well. And if I don't do that, that I'm the one that failed. And do that sounds exactly like what you're doing right now. You know, you're looking at nine, and that's,
Marc Winn 47:43
you know, thanks for remembering that Geez, laughter like, re listen to this and think about that. Well,
Pete Turner 47:49
I swear to god that's stuck with me. I'm like, That's brilliant. Because time, I thought the CEO was the big boss, and he told everybody what to do. And he's like, nope, my job is to make you know, I picked up people to do these individual jobs. My job is to make sure that they've got what they need that so they can succeed. And, and I hear you saying those things, man. So I'm super glad. Well,
Marc Winn 48:11
you know, I spent a lot of years quietly in the background listening to dead bad. And I like to think that that had an impact on how I am as an adult and navigating this business do is just know the people skills goes a long way. And it's important making like said making sure everyone has what they need. I mean, that's, you know, that's an essential part of this for sure.
Pete Turner 48:36
Well, listen, thanks for coming on the show. Let's do some more. Let's find some more folks in your industry. And let's do a couple more.
Marc Winn 48:42
If you want to do a hardware podcast, let me know. I can talk about hardwood for hours.
Pete Turner 48:48
Thanks, man.
Hey, this is john Leon Guerrero. Our guest today is Mar when he's a small business owner who made an interesting transition from owning a wood flooring company to now operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Missoula. It's called mon Canna. If you're thinking, here's an interesting topic for the break it down show. Well it may have come about because Marc is Pete's cousin. And Pete captured this episode while he was visiting Montana. But Marc is also a rugged outdoorsman, the kind of guy goes hunting in the mountains and gets there on his horse. So you know exactly the kind of dude we celebrate on this show. And when Marc and Pete get into it, about what it takes to stay legit and expand the market, in the marijuana industry in a place like Montana, where people are big on personal liberty, but still pretty conservative, especially when it comes to drug policy. And the laws on cannabis use are evolving and steps. You see here, he's our kind of guest. Speaking of our kind of guest, we got to do Zika coming up for you our show from quarter Madera, California recorded in a little Tavern called Mosley's with its proprietor, the one and only Johnny Mosley. That's a fun show. And you're going to love it one of our increasingly unusual occasions where Pete and I get to do a show together, Johnny is Pete's homeboy. And I've always wanted to hang out with him. And we got to do it in his bar, which is terrific. Also coming up. I've been on a body comp challenge for the last six and a half weeks. And so my results are coming in in about 10 days. And we're going to have my strength and conditioning trainer Ted O'Neill on the show. He's trained more elite level power lifters at his gym Diablo barbell than anyone west of the Mississippi. And we talk about the psychology of peak performance. That's going to be a great show too. And we'll get to see what Ted's program did to me over eight weeks. Also, Pete is doing the Cornetto seal Memorial swim on Saturday, September 21, to benefit the seal veterans foundation. And you can go to seal veterans foundation.org to see what they're about. And Pete's taking that opportunity to strive toward peak performance himself. So you clearly care about peak performance because you listen to this show. And that's why we get such a reward out of bringing you these episodes. So I'm going to ask you to do one thing today, hook us up with a five star rating on whatever platform you're using, whether it's iTunes or Stitcher, wherever you're listening to us right now. Or if it's YouTube, just subscribe and hit the notification bill. Easy stuff. And while you're at it, go ahead and write us a review. Nothing big, just something like hey, it'd be cool to have a beer with these guys. And if we're in your town, by the way, it would be cool to have a beer with us and you should. And if you're in Missoula, it'd be cool to have a beer with our special guest today. Here's Marc when millions rock productions
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Nikki Sebastian youngsters Rick Morocco Stewart co-produces
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mix Alexis Andy samosa, skunk Baxter,
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Pete Turner 3:08
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Marc Winn 3:12
Hey, this is Marc when with mon Canna home of High Country hospitality and you're listening to the break it down show.
Niko Leon Guerrero 3:21
And now the break it down show with jon Leon Guerrero and Pete a Turner.
Pete Turner 3:27
Love it. Hi, country hospitality. Now marc is my cousin. We go back as far as he's been alive. And they're up there in Missoula, Montana, where I love to go visit and Marc is he's an entrepreneur, he's got a flooring company. So if you're in Montana, or especially in Missoula area, he will hook you up with some wonderful hardwood floors. But I really want to talk about, and this is why this is interesting to me, Marc, because this is an emerging market throughout the nation, you run a legal medicinal marijuana dispensary. And I'm saying all those things carefully. So everybody can understand that marcs service is a patient comes to him and says, You know, I need a brand of some kind of product from the cannabinoid world.
And that will help me with my cancer with my epilepsy with my fill in the blank thing. And Marc provides that product to them. And they feel better. I'm saying this, I'm not having marc, say this, because there's a lot of legal loopholes, Marc, this whole thing is legal crazy. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, it's not a license to print money, but you've got a license to help people and make a good revenue stream from that. Talk about the legal thing to kind of hold you in check. Sure.
Marc Winn 4:38
So basically, in Montana, like you said, We are a medicinal only state there is no rec law here. So if somebody wants to become a patient and the Montana medical marijuana program, they first have to have a qualifying condition. There are several of them, I'm not sure that I can actually recite all of them, but the main ones are can cancer, HIV, chronic pain, you know, epilepsy. And recently, they added PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions. And you know, I might be missing a few or gotten one wrong. But yeah, that's the important thing is that you have one of those qualifying conditions. And if you want to proceed from there, you would need to get a licensed physician that's licensed in Montana to sign a physician statement that the state that you can get from the state, basically, a testing that you have one of those qualifying conditions, and then we submit that to the state and there's some fees involved. And shortly after there, you will receive Montana medical marijuana card.
Pete Turner 5:45
Hey, this is Pete real quick, I just want to let you guys know, we are proud to announce our official support of save the brave, a certified nonprofit 501 c three with the charter of helping veterans with post traumatic stress. Here's how you can help go to save the brave, calm com, click on the link on the website. And my recommendation is this subscribe, give him 20 bucks a month, you've got subscriptions you can turn off right now that you're not using that are $20 a month, swap that out get involved. Let's help these folks out
Marc Winn 6:13
shortly after their you will receive Montana medical marijuana card.
Pete Turner 6:18
So there's a lot of questions right folks have a lot of I mean, there's decades of thought on this that is sort of pushed into our brains. And there's a lot of unfairly negative things that come out of the marijuana industry and its existence. I'm not a marijuana user. I'm not opposed to it. I'm not opposed to CBD, but it's just not something that I have chosen to do or have found use and but I also understand that there's people with epilepsy whose lives are significantly improved. And you know, nausea, and all the other problems with cancer are proven dramatically to help out. So can you talk a little bit about some of the things you've seen or experienced from your, when you have actual patients? These are like you call them patients? You don't call them customer?
Marc Winn 6:59
Right? I think, you know, a lot of people get benefit and a lot of different ways from it. You know, I mean, I think one of the biggest things in my experiences, I mean, it really helps with nausea, you know, if I am ever feeling nauseous, and I use it, I get huge benefit from that. And I think that sort of goes to show why you know, cancer patients, people going through chemo and whatnot, find a benefit with it, because of its ability to help with the nausea and also with pain. I would say, probably most of the people in the Montana medical marijuana program are given a prescription because they have chronic pain, you know, and I think does it help in the same way is narcotics do not necessarily, you know, I know, in my personal experience, I've had three different knee surgeries, I've blown both of my ACL and fractured my tibia plateau. And I'm also like you said in the flooring business, so I spend a lot of time getting down on my knees standing up. And you know, I find that but the end of the day, myself, knees just will start to swell, and I get this aching pain. And I've chosen as opposed to using narcotics or using, you know, even ibuprofen, which I do use on occasion. But I think that there's some downsides to using ibuprofen on a regular basis, in terms of how it affects your gut biome is what I've recently heard in. But yeah, I mean, I like to use cannabis, because it's all natural and, and it really helps I can take it in an edible, I can smoke it, I can vaporize it. And the effect is instantaneous, and it lasts for a good amount of time. And you know, something that a lot of people, you know, when they think about cannabis, they think of people smoking it, but that's one thing that I think a lot of people overlook is that there's a lot of different ways to consume it. And you know, using edibles that it affects you completely differently than it would if you smoke it. And you probably get pain relief for a longer period of time when using edibles. So that's one thing that we're trying to kind of focus on is having you know, as we dive into the business side of things is I want to have a wide variety of edibles and products out there to that are an alternative to smoking because a lot of people you know, don't like that kind of thing. I mean, I I will smoke. But you know, I think in the end, I mean, as much as I think it's healthier than smoking cigarettes, it's still inhaling heated plant matter. And I think if you're going to be using it medicinal Lee and in the long term, you should look at using edibles, whether it be a beverage, or Carmel or a mouth spray even. So, and that's really kind of the exciting thing about it from marketing standpoint is you can really go into any one of these different areas. I mean, you could be making ice cream, and you know, and just have a really great ice cream that tastes good and also relieves pain.
Pete Turner 9:56
So when you're talking about these things, like the pain products, and mean pain is just one thing, but swelling. I know a number of people, especially people that are over 50 years old, that has some form of arthritis, rheumatoid, whatever it's going to be, and they swear by the CBD cream, and like you said, I rub it on, I feel better. And, you know, I want people to follow the law and everything. But I also don't want them to suffer unnecessarily. And like you said, and again, I sounds funny, like I sound like promotional video for cannabis use. But I know what Motrin can do to your body, you know, to your liver to your stomach, depending on if it's a seated benefit, or, you know, whatever it is ibuprofen. But you know, there are drawbacks to everything. It does seem like though, that the nation is moving towards a more deregulated stance, I mean, obviously here in California, medicinal Okay, great, but also recreational, Colorado is I think they just passed the mushrooms because we're understanding more and more about the medicinal value of mushrooms now is is Montana going the same way they going? less regulated doors to fight still sort of going on?
Marc Winn 11:02
Well, you know, I guess I can give a little bit of context to what we've been through. So I first got into the cannabis business back in 2009. And, you know, so we had a completely different law at that point. And I got about a year deep into the business. Before our legislature, when they went into session, they actually repealed our law and replaced it with a really difficult law that was so highly regulated and not intuitive to the horticulture of marijuana that pretty much everyone got out of it. And it sort of laid dormant for a while. And people here in Montana sort of lobbied together and we create a lobbying group that hired an attorney and started pushing towards getting a good workable law that can appease kind of both sides. And what we came up with is what we have now. And I think it's a really great log, because in a lot of ways, it's very comprehensive to the ins and outs of marijuana horticulture. So when it comes to growing it, you know, so with our first law, we were limited to six plants per patient. But then we could only grow one ounce per patient. So the problem there was try growing six plants that only produce one ounce, I mean, they just unless you're don't have very good genetics, or you're not a very good grower, you're going to produce more than that. So our current law allows us to possess what our yield is, which is a lot more practical, because, you know, obviously, everybody that's doing this is probably trying to do the best grow to the best of their ability. And byproduct of that is getting a good harvest. So that's kind of the first thing that's, you know, I think really good about
Pete Turner 12:48
that makes me think about a farmer, you know, in a farmer is incentive to find ways to bring in a greater yield, to bring it a bigger crop not to bring in, you know, a crop that weighs x, I can see like, you know, as you try to sort it out, it's kind of funny that up there, you know, we're farming is a big part of your guys's economy that you wouldn't think about it in those terms. But you're right, you want to bring in the biggest, strongest, you know, best product you can and it doesn't make sense to limit that to a measurement.
Marc Winn 13:15
Exactly. So that's, you know, we went through that for a long time, we're like said original law was just, it started off pretty good, but it had some areas that needed fixing. But so in our original law, we voted, I think it was like 6040, you know, in favor of that law. And then the legislature just repealed it and replaced it with their law. So then we had to then vote in an amendment to get the law that we have now. And it's like I said, it's vastly improved. I mean, there's a realistic limitations on what you can, we can possess our yield, that's the way it should be. Because I can't control what my plants are going to produce, run, they allow us as square footage for our canopy space. So we get 30 square feet per patient that we have. Or if you're growing for yourself, you also would get I believe it's 30 square feet.
Pete Turner 14:09
So you're limited on size of your area of your farm, I guess or whatever, however small your farm is, or big it is your license allows you to grow 10 plants, which equals 100 feet, or whatever it is,
Marc Winn 14:20
yeah, yep. Okay, so you know, and then furthermore, so the limitations have improved. And then now we have a seat. So our state is contracted with a company that has a software program called metric. And so this is a seed to sale tracking software, that basically once we have to get metrics certified, so we have to take a course and then pass the test. And then we can start performing functions of metric. And basically, at the beginning, you know, we start with immature plants, you know, whether they're seedlings or clones, and we have to create create a batch for those seedlings or clones, that has a tag attached to it. And then once those start to reach maturity, which Montana says is a foot tall and a foot wide, then each plant will get their own individual plant tag. And any plants that are good you can you have a method for destroying them digitally in metric. And I mean, it's just really comprehensive in the sense that, you know, if I'm going to destroy a plant, there's a, I have to do it in metric also. So we have to select our plants that we're destroying. And then we have to choose a method of waste, and I have to have a waist log. And you know, so everything's monitored pretty closely. And then as we progress through the growing phases, so marijuana and is a photo period sensitive plant, so that means it responds to the natural light cycle. So if you want to keep a plant in what's called a vegetative growth state, you maintain a 13 hours of light. And then when you're ready to get it to produce flowers, you'll reduce your light cycle to 12 hours. So I'll have my plants physically in a bedroom, and I've created rooms and metric for those plants. And then when I'm ready to put them in the flower room, then I have to digitally move them to the flower room. And when I'm ready to start that process, so let me
Pete Turner 16:25
jump in here because I want to speak for the person who is cautiously concerned right now, and I want to ask questions on their behalf, because what you're describing is a fairly involved system. So the state is requiring you to account for each plant that you have, based on size based on location, on your property, or the dispensary, or wherever it is, like you have to be accountable all the way. And I know how the state is. And a lot of times, you know, these systems get so big, so fast, they can't possibly inspect. And so a lot of times you can just do whatever you want to do. How was monitoring, keeping you guys honest, on check on up on here? I mean, digitally transferring things and having someone standard to clipboard? two totally different things.
Marc Winn 17:08
Right. You know, there's certainly probably periods where, you know, people could, you know, maybe fudge areas, you know, because yeah, I mean, there's not going to be, there's not going to be a person from the state there at all times, we're not required to have a video feed like some states are, right, but we are subject to unannounced inspections. And we typically get an annual inspection or whenever I apply for a new license will get a new inspection. And part of the deterrent of the program is the fact that if we're not abiding by the state's policies and laws, then we can lose our license. And and there's a lot of investment that goes into it to get to the point where we are, I mean, just in terms of license fees, and paying for testing and everything. I think for the most part, people are walking the line, just because there's so much at stake.
Pete Turner 18:05
Well, let's talk about that money. And I don't want to get all the way into your business. But give us an idea, like what does it cost to get a business of your size and scale off the ground? What does that equal? Hmm,
Marc Winn 18:18
I guess there's several phases to it. And really, to get to where I am now, it's really been a couple of years in the making, we have a greenhouse that I've probably spent, you know, between eight and $10,000 getting it bill, and we have an indoor facility that is probably in the 10 to $15,000 range. And in then our dispensary, you know, we have rent, we pay about thousand 50 a month. And we have a POS system that you pretty much when you're on metric, it's very tedious to enter your sales manually. So almost everybody has to get a private POS system, or they have to sign up with somebody that can help them with the point of sale. And ours we use flow hub, one called flow hub, and it costs you know, about $400 a month for that. So with all that said, I mean our you know, our overhead, and then we have currently one bud tender, which you know that cost is around 1500 a month for one bud tender. So we're operating really lean right now, with all that said, and just kind of trying to get off the ground. The hard part here is that because we don't have rec, we don't have walking sales, all of our revenue comes from people that have signed up with us and only us to get the medicine that they need. So that becomes you know, part of the challenge is just getting enough patients to sustain everything. And there's a good amount of overhead, I think our monthly costs are around 30 504 grand between the store and the power bill, the product testing, the product testing can get pretty, you know, it's it's considerable, you have to get up for a full compliance test. It's $375 for up to five pounds, and then you add $50 additional for each strain that you're testing that is on flour. If you're testing concentrates like Rick Simpson oil, or rosin or bubble hash, it's 400 for a full compliance test. And then if you're getting edibles, edibles are a little less money, they're about 90. And topical are also about 90 for full compliance. So it's little bit less money. So
Pete Turner 20:43
yeah, I mean, you're talking about a considerable I mean, this is a legitimate business. And then I guess the next question is, I'm going to give everybody who says they have a medical problem, the benefit of the doubt, because I would rather help 100% of the people that need help, and have some fakers come in the door Vantage and someone who's desperate for help, because we want to make sure we keep the fakers out. So I'm just going to say that and that's going to be our premise going forward. But what about the earth at market? What about folks that are out there? You know, not that you keep track of what's happening on the street corner? But what's the sense in Montana and Missoula? Especially because it's a big city for the state? Is the illicit drug use thing a problem? Or is it gone down? What's your sense? You know,
Marc Winn 21:25
I can't really speak to how the weather the MediCal program here is affected the illicit drug market, but I mean, are there certainly a black market here? And, you know, I think in terms of like the narcotics and whatnot, I mean, it's not as bad as you know, some bigger metro areas. I mean, we have a pretty small population. It's largely rural Missoula, is a smaller market, hovering around 200,000 people, I'm not sure what the influx is with it is a college town. So we get we have the University of Montana kana here. And when schools in session, I know that our population will get a significant boost, but I'm sure there's a good amount of illicit marijuana use going on campus. And, you know, I just I haven't, you know, I'm not necessarily in that I'm not in that world. So I don't really know, you know, I can't speak to numbers or anything, but I'm sure it's a thing. I would think that it's, you know, I've observed over the years, I mean, the marijuana prices have dropped significantly. And I think with that said, you know, there's probably less interest in getting into black market marijuana, because the costs have gone down so much. I mean, in 2010, or 2008. I mean, people were paying $300 an ounce, and now everyone's, you know, between 202 50 an ounce, or I should even say 118 to 20. Yeah, you know, it seems like most of the shops are right in that area. And so I think it's gotten probably harder for people to make money in the black market on it. Of course, there's Oregon right next door. And you know, I've definitely heard Oregon, Washington, I'm sure that there's some people that are growing legal recreational weed there, and they're probably transporting it to Montana, I've heard that a pound can sell for as little as $1,000, in Oregon, you know, so people will get a pound of Oregon weed and bring it to Montana and probably take it to the campus and sell it for my guess is close to the, whatever the medical prices are, right? Because it seems like the street value is gone down, you know, from everything that I've been told. And but I think, you know, I think as these laws improve, and it becomes more accessible to people, they're just going to be lessens incentive for the black market, there's just not as much money there. And it's, if it's available to people through a legal Avenue, then why would they go there? You know, I think there's always going to be some people that they might have a job, they're scared that their boss could find out or if they have, you know, if they're an insurance, or if they're, you know, an attorney, I mean, I've certainly heard of people in a variety of occupations that have their reasons why they don't want to go medical, so, but they're also regular users. So I think, you know, ultimately, we need to get those people in the clear to where they're not, you know, I believe that recreational should be available. And I think the way to handle it would be to tax it differently. Right now, our medical law, we are taxed 2% of our gross sales. And we just passed an amendment to where, for at least one year, they're going to increase it to 4% to pay for some stuff, and then supposed to go back to 2%. But my thought is why not, you know, keep the taxes low for people that want to get their medical card. And then if we're gonna bring wreck, tax it a little bit greater, you know, and then there will still be an incentive for people to get their card if they have, you know, one of those qualifying conditions to where they really need it. And then the rest of the people that are just recreating, let's get the state some tax revenue, you know, and then that way, there's still going to be a reason to keep a medical market and direct market. I'm not sure what Colorado is doing. But I've heard that they have pretty substantial taxes for their wreck market. But I believe that the medicinal is
Pete Turner 25:32
less. Hey, this is Pete a Turner from Lyons rock productions, we create podcasts around here. And if you your brand, or your company want to figure out how to do a podcast, just talk to me, I'll give you the advice on the right gear. The best plan is show me how to take a podcast that makes sense for you that's sustainable, that scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show. com Let me help I want to hear about it.
Marc Winn 25:56
I'm not sure what Colorado is doing. But I've I've heard that they have pretty substantial taxes for their wreck market. But I believe that the medicinal is less. So
Pete Turner 26:08
I want to ask a question about so I love it up there. And in Montana is great. Missoula is awesome. But I can see that there's not like a lot of there's not a lot of money. There's a lot of folks that need money, right. And I can't imagine that tax revenue has got to be, you know, kicking your guys's ass because, you know, there's just not a lot of big industry up there. You know, there's breweries seem to be doing well, but that's not going to employ 150 people that's going to employ a small amount of folks. So does this sound like a good? I mean, you guys just roads must need redo it completely every five years. It's cold up there.
Marc Winn 26:44
Yeah, the first thing that you said, I mean, yeah, I think in Montana, there's not a lot of super high paying jobs. And I think the 2% tax really is not bad. And even if if the feds make it start to move towards leaving realization and the end allow, you know, give us the ability to pay taxes, you know, I would hope that they would try and mirror you know, what the state does. So if we were paying 2%, state 2%, federal, for medical, I think would be reasonable or even 4%. For each. You know, I would love it, if some of that money went towards whether it be roads or schools or drug abuse counseling or, or whatnot, I think there's a ton of different things that the money could go towards and in our state could definitely use it. We're fortunate. I believe our state's doing pretty good. We have a huge tourism industry. I think that the state's doing well, overall right now. But I'm sure every everything helps. I mean, there's been cuts, I heard last year to some mental health programs that were severely cut where a lot of people lost their jobs. And you know, I think what a great way to to get some revenue to help with those kinds of programs to tax marijuana. I mean, I think, really the 2% it's like, it's not until you're actually generating some revenue. I mean, we're paying, I don't know, it was only $250. Last quarter, you know, so it's, it's not that huge. course the state's still getting, they're getting other fees from us that are probably helping them out for the majority, like the license fees, each of our licenses are $500. And I have for currently, so and then you also have to pay for how many patients you have. So like one to 10 is $1,000 1149 is 20 $500 and 50. And above is $5,000. Yeah, so there's some pretty good fees that they're getting from the providers alone there, then they have all the sales in addition to that, but I think that, you know, we can it's not so much that it's pricing people out of the product, you know, I guess but I get concerned when I hear about quality rato having a 30 or 40% tax, and that makes me think Geez, like, who's gonna be able to afford it at that at that rate? I mean, that seems like too much.
Pete Turner 29:10
Yeah. I mean, at some point, the tax is high enough your incentive Not you, but a person is incentive to maybe go black market. And because now you can write 40% cut price, right? Yeah. Yeah, you know, and then you get out of the business of regulating and you get into the business of, you know, punitive laws. Again, it's so it is a balance, man, it and it's tricky, because you don't want to increase crime, you don't want to increase drug use, where it's harming humans, but you do want to have the balance of caring for people, you know, whether it's anxiety, PTSD, any of these things that are sort of hard to see, you know, like, I can't tell if you're anxious right now. But I do know that if you're out there running a flooring company, and you're still bending your knees and your back to put flooring down. Like it's hard to find the right kind of people to work those jobs are hard physical labor, jobs. You know, that's, that's hard living, no matter whether you're roofing or flooring, or plumbing, you know, you're talking about real, physical hard work, and you build up a lot of damage over the years doing that. And so, should if smoking a little bit of weed, the evening is what gets you through it, then I want to make sure you have it. And yeah, their state can have a little cut. But Gosh, 40% seems really high. Yeah.
Marc Winn 30:23
Yeah. So we hope it doesn't get to that, you know, I just recently made a trip to Oregon went sturgeon fishing, and I visited several dispensaries while I was in Oregon and one in Washington. And, you know, it's just kind of interesting. You see, the people you see coming in, I mean, you see, the construction workers with their hard hats, you know, coming in, and they're getting a vape pen, you know, and something to that they can use discreetly, and you see elderly people and, you know, so I think it's, you know, and then if you get I got into downtown Portland, and there was some a little bit more swanky spots where you see the kind of the city folk coming in. And, you know, I noticed the price kind of went up from when I was in our story at Oregon vs. Portland, Oregon, you know, seem to be a pretty good price jump to. But you know, that's to be expected. And sure, sure,
Pete Turner 31:14
I mean, that's just running your business, you have people that want a higher caliber experience, you charge more for it, for sure. So let's talk about you said a key thing there, old folks that are using this stuff, what percentage would you say of your patient list, and I don't want you to break any kind of laws. So be careful about how we say this. But what percentage of them is is say, over the age of 50 years old, but you know, if they legitimately are just taking care of broken bodies, broken minds, broken spirits,
Marc Winn 31:43
over 50? I'd say probably 25%. Right. And then there's probably between 30 and 50 would probably be 50%. And you know, but a lot a lot of people in the mid 30s to early 40s. You know, I think there would be more of an elderly community coming. I mean, if they knew it was available and knew what it took to get it. And I think mainly, you know, a lot of people, it's just the legality of it, you know, they just, some people don't want to take a risk at all, for sure. But we, you know, some of my best patients are in their 60s, you know, I've got several that I've known for years and years, I knew some people that I met way back in 2010. That are now my patients again, and they're great. I mean, they're really some of the best people to work with. And probably our ideal demographic, I think, you know, going forward, I mean, we want to get the people that really have need for it, and that are good, trustworthy customers. I mean, I think if you built your business based on young people, I mean, you're probably diving into that area where some of these people may not, you know, it's not really fair to speculate whether they have a qualifying conditions, there's plenty of people that have chronic pain that are young, but you know, there's probably some out there that are, you know, just using it to get marijuana. And I don't think that there's, I don't think that that's necessarily wrong, from my point of view, in and of itself, you know, because I don't think people should, well, yeah, get some criminals from it.
Pete Turner 33:20
You know, let me just take that whole burden off you then let me let me just say this, again, I'm not a marijuana user. It just, you know, I like beer. I like shots and shit like that. And as a guy that likes beer and shots and shit like that, I got no problem. If a guy wants to go out and lay down tile all day, Holy fuck, I've done that work. That's hard work. And if you want to smoke a blunt, you know, and chill out and relax. And that's how you have gotten in, do it. You know, I'm totally for that. But And beyond that, I want to say this too, because I want folks to understand that the kind of dude you are, because, yeah, we're family and everything. But you know, we're not that close. We've only met I don't know, maybe 10 times in our whole life, if that many. But it doesn't mean that I don't care about you, Mikey. But what I noticed about you is this one, you're an entrepreneur, you run your own company, and you get out and you get floors laid down, and you didn't pick an easy job, and you picked a hard job. So you're a hard read, dude, you got a bunch of kids, and you constantly are driving your son, all over Montana, getting him into motorcycle races and everything. I mean, you're doing what dads do. And now you got this other business and you're doing things when people support something like Montana is supporting a real all American hard work and family. I don't want to call you a blue collar. Because I don't think that does justice to what you do. Like you're a hard working dude. And I appreciate that. I think the world of what you're taking on here, you know, I see you like you talked about going hunting with your older brother, you guys get on horseback and head up into the mountains. Holy shit. That's that's stuff of dreams, man. People love that. So I mean, this is the kind of dude you are, you're not just some Lackey, asshole trying to get rich, like you're out there working hard, trying to provide value. And every time I've talked to you about this stuff, you're very careful about making sure that you're within the law and expressing like, this is the law, this is where we have to stay within, because you're not trying to jeopardize what you've got, you're not trying to be a criminal, you're trying to. I mean, look, you're not perfect, but you're doing a lot of things, right. I know, your dad would be proud of
Marc Winn 35:26
Thanks. Yeah, and, you know, I would like to, you know, I think our goal is to kind of, I don't want to try and grow it too fast. I'm trying to grow it organically, so to speak, you know, the business. And, you know, I think that as time goes on, and as we develop more products, and you know, fine tune our strings, I think that, you know, we're going to get there and a lot of people assume that it's just hand over fist money. But if you go and talk to a dozen providers, you're probably going to find out that half of them are still breaking even, you know, they might be paying their bills, but they're not lining out a bank account yet. And, you know, I think, why is that I mean, it's largely due to that we're subject to just a patient list, ultimately, are people that are willing to take those steps to get their cards, you know, so I think kind of my hope in the long run is, you know, I hope that wreck does eventually come. And, you know, like I said that we can offer discounts to medical patients and get some of those walk ins, I think it'll pay off in the long run. And, you know, I really love doing floors to you know, and it's, it's a great trade, and I'm really passionate about it, but, you know, I hope that someday I can be a little more selective about the ones that I do. And my whole goal with this is, you know, ultimately, I would like to spend more time with my family and be able to, you know, provide a future for them. And I'm sort of banking on the dream here that this is going to pay off, you know, it might not, or it might, you know, I mean, it's, it's a gamble at this point. But you know, it's one that for whatever reason, I've had rolling around in my wheelhouse for over 10 years, and there's been a lot of steps into getting here, you know, I think buying my house having my own property, I knew that that was going to be essential to being able to be in this just knowing that I could have they grow space, because otherwise you have to get a landlord permission slip, which can be really difficult. And I had one back in 2010. And I invested a bunch of money into it. And then some landlords actually got in trouble in Montana when there was sort of a crackdown. So basically, the landlords all got together and decided not to rent people as much, right? And so it became really difficult. So I mean, I feel like, you know, this has been a long time in the making, for me, you know, between getting the house and you know, I built the greenhouse three years ago, and I've been sort of adding little things to it. As time goes on. This year, I added a light deprivation system that's automatic, so I can flower so you can ultimately you could flower outdoors in Montana and get two crops a year. Yeah, if you time, everything, right. So there's just a lot of little things that that have sort of come with time. You know, we got our rosin press. Now we're trying to get into the concentrates world of things. And that's like a whole other spectrum of knowledge and tooling and processes to get those and there's so many different ways that you can do it. And you know, all the equipment's really expensive. So we've started with this. It's a rosin tech press. So basically, you can take anything Muse flower, you can process flour into a dry sift, or you can process flour into a bubble hash, and then you put it inside this, it's a 20 ton pneumatic press, and you put your product inside of a seed that so it's basically a bag or a pouch with very small holes in it 25 micron, typically. And then you put parchment paper around that, and you squish that product. And then that yields you a solvent free cannabis extract, you know, that we call Roz. And, you know, there's a bunch of different ways that you can make it and and then you have to figure out a way to market it people on you know, that's it seems to be largely where the industry is going. A lot of people want that they want the vape pens, because they're so discreet and convenient. And part of the method to getting there is just, you know, whether you're doing some people use butane extraction, so they'll literally use the butane to extract the THC and the CBD and the terrapins from the plant and produce that concentrated product. And, you know, I think a lot of places are shying away from the butane, because it's flammable, it's kind of dangerous to produce it. And you have to make sure you get all of that solvent out of the product before you sell it. And everything's tested before you can. So I mean, you'll know it's passing if it is, but people are developing some pretty high tech methods of achieving the same thing. And so we're kind of just diving into that right now. And
Pete Turner 40:14
it's a fascinating world. And you're doing here talking about new products and branching out, let me ask you to say cuz you run a business, you've got a flooring business, you've got a dispensary, which is not just, you know, a storefront, you're actually a weed farmer, if I was going to, you know, use a colloquial term. How many people could you possibly employ, like if you really are cooking, as our other four or five more jobs are because you're describing product development, marketing? Obviously, you've got someone who curates the plants and everything. How many people can you employ in this little small business?
Marc Winn 40:47
You know, right now, we have one bud tender, and a cultivation manager, and n extracts manager and myself. So, you know, we're basically four people in someone's running the storefront. Yeah. And I think as we progress, if we can, you know, we only have 30 patients. So, you know, sort of our and actually picked up a couple since then. But I think once we get up to the hundred patients, then, you know, I think we'll be at the point where we could start looking to hire another bud tender. I think if we can get to 200 patients, then, you know, we could probably have three bud tenders. So I think, you know, in the long run, I mean, I don't know, I went to going to a dispensary in Oregon, or the one I went to in Washington, you know, one of them had probably five different bud tenders operating there. And they were all pretty busy. Yeah, I think, you know, the more people we get in there, I think the more employees will be able to sustain, you know, on the growing and we're pretty proficient with, you know, basically three of us doing most of that at this time. But, you know, it depends on, you know, when harvest time comes, that's when the work starts, you know, I mean, that's, it's all really easy until you know, you have with the greenhouse, you could have 20 pounds that you have to trim all the leaves off of, and you have to do it in a pretty tight timeframe. Yeah, because there's really kind of a short window that's ideal for harvest. But before I go too much off on that tangent, yeah, I think that it could sustain a lot of people just in harvesting. I mean, it's not not unheard of, to have 20 trimmers, you know, harvest time. And it might be like, if you're doing if you're talking the greenhouse harvest, I mean, that might take a couple of weeks with 10 people, you know, potentially, to get everything cut down in a large greenhouse, and, but then there might be work for two weeks, and then it kind of dries up until the next harvest, you know, so I think some of its come and go, and that might work for some people. But for the full the full time works probably going to be mostly in the bud tending.
Pete Turner 43:00
What's your main message to folks in the greater Missoula area? What do they need to know? I mean, there's a lot of dispensaries out there. Why are you guys different? What makes your business different?
Marc Winn 43:10
You know, I mean, in all honesty, I'd have to go and investigate everybody else to really truly answer that question. But I think we have an exceptional work ethic, myself, and my staff, and all of us have backgrounds working in trades. And you know, one of us was a an outfitter, one of us was an HVAC, Alex, my brother, he's going to school, and working for us as a bud tender at the same time. And, you know, I think we bring a lot of knowledge and background to the table with having an HV ac guy that's built our indoor grow facility. I mean, it's really well, climate controlled. And we're all pretty well read on the subject. So and pretty well experienced at this point, I can't say say that we're the best hands down. But I can say that we're going to give whoever's the best run for their money, because we do have a work ethic. And, you know, I think there's a couple little tricks that that we have that some people may not know about yet, you know, we have the edges here and there. I think Time will tell you know, I think it's pretty early in the game here. There's definitely a few companies that have been out there, they've sort of, you know, I mentioned, like our change in laws, and there's some people that have wrote out all those changes and been in the business here for 10 years now. Wow. And those are going to be the people that are hard to catch. But some of those folks, you know, have their own problems. You know, I've heard of other dispensary's not being able to keep enough product in the store. And I mean, that's never been our problem, yet, you know, I hope? I mean, in a way, I hope that becomes a problem yet. You know, I, I think that, you know, we're basically putting the infrastructure in place to be able to satisfy a pretty large clientele. Well, that's great. Now,
Pete Turner 45:02
you're building something, right. And we talked to a lot of people that do a lot of different things. And you know, the 10 year overnight success is a thing. And when you talk about working hard, and I know the kind of dudes you guys are, you know, there's, there's no doubt that you're going to be a big player there. Because there's folks that just don't have when it gets hard. You're like, yeah, of course, it's hard. You like, it's not news to you that running a business is going to require staying up late, constantly improving, like, those are the things that if you aren't in that, if you aren't that kind of an entrepreneur, then when the money dries up, you don't know how to get more money, you don't know how to get lean, you've grown too fast. I don't hear you talking about those things. I hear someone that's conscientious, that has great character, and is trying to stay within you know, what the law allows, and not every business like that makes it but you're certainly ahead of the game with those things, man, and just by just getting after it the way you're getting confident you're going to get there. Yeah.
Marc Winn 46:01
You know, you gotta if you're not, I don't know what I was even gonna say, I mean, you gotta try, you gotta put an effort out there. I mean, if anything, and, you know, you know, I know that I've known people that have had been successful in the industry and that I've grown up with and, you know, doesn't mean my path is going to be exactly the same as theirs. And I don't necessarily want it to be, you know, none of us are expecting to become filthy, stinking rich off of this. You know, I think that we all just kind of want to live well, I mean, we love living in Montana, we want to, we want to not work as hard, you know, we want to work hard now. Yeah. Yeah. At some point, we would like this to be streamlined. And we want to provide jobs to people, whether it be trimming or bud tenders. Sure. And, you know, the hope, in the long run is that we can just enjoy life, you know, be happy. And I think, you know, that's,
Pete Turner 46:58
I think you said it, man, he wanted to speak able to enjoy life, I'm going to close this down by just leaving you with some words that your dad gave me. 25 years ago, I was going through a master's program. And I think the world of your dad, he passed on a couple years ago for the audience, just an outstanding guy. And I was asking him because he ran the hospital up there. And I'm going through a Master's organizational management program. And what do I need to know? What can I learn, you know, source to write a paper and he's like, here's my job, you take the organizational chart, and you flip it upside down. I'm the guy in the bottom. And my job is to make sure everybody above me has what they need to do their job well. And if I don't do that, that I'm the one that failed. And do that sounds exactly like what you're doing right now. You know, you're looking at nine, and that's,
Marc Winn 47:43
you know, thanks for remembering that Geez, laughter like, re listen to this and think about that. Well,
Pete Turner 47:49
I swear to god that's stuck with me. I'm like, That's brilliant. Because time, I thought the CEO was the big boss, and he told everybody what to do. And he's like, nope, my job is to make you know, I picked up people to do these individual jobs. My job is to make sure that they've got what they need that so they can succeed. And, and I hear you saying those things, man. So I'm super glad. Well,
Marc Winn 48:11
you know, I spent a lot of years quietly in the background listening to dead bad. And I like to think that that had an impact on how I am as an adult and navigating this business do is just know the people skills goes a long way. And it's important making like said making sure everyone has what they need. I mean, that's, you know, that's an essential part of this for sure.
Pete Turner 48:36
Well, listen, thanks for coming on the show. Let's do some more. Let's find some more folks in your industry. And let's do a couple more.
Marc Winn 48:42
If you want to do a hardware podcast, let me know. I can talk about hardwood for hours.
Pete Turner 48:48
Thanks, man.