What cannabis entrepreneurs need to know about public relations While both advertising campaigns and public relations campaigns can improve brand awareness there is a difference how and when they should be used. Unfortunately, many start-ups do not understand the difference and frequently fail to achieve the results that they desire. Mike Sanchez from Emergent Layer joins Ross O'Brien and Maggie Kelly from Bonaventure Equity to explain some important public relations dos and don't to help businesses improve their brand's exposure. Produced by PodConX Cannabis Capital - https://podconx.com/podcasts/cannabis-capital Ross O'Brien - https://podconx.com/guests/ross-obrien Maggie Kelly - https://podconx.com/guests/maggie-kelly Bonaventure Equity - https://www.bvequity.com/ Mike Sanchez - https://podconx.com/guests/mike-sanchez Emergent Layer - http://www.emergentlayer.com
What cannabis entrepreneurs need to know about public relations
While both advertising campaigns and public relations campaigns can improve brand awareness there is a difference how and when they should be used. Unfortunately, many start-ups do not understand the difference and frequently fail to achieve the results that they desire. Mike Sanchez from Emergent Layer joins Ross O'Brien and Maggie Kelly from Bonaventure Equity to explain some important public relations dos and don't to help businesses improve their brand's exposure.
Cannabis Capital - https://podconx.com/podcasts/cannabis-capital
Ross O'Brien - https://podconx.com/guests/ross-obrien
Maggie Kelly - https://podconx.com/guests/maggie-kelly
Bonaventure Equity - https://www.bvequity.com/
Mike Sanchez - https://podconx.com/guests/mike-sanchez
Emergent Layer - https://emergentlayer.com/
Mike Sanchez: Hi everybody. I'm Mike Sanchez, president of emergent layer. And my blunt truth is the cannabis industry and the cannabis entrepreneurs need to take care of telling their own story and owning their own narrative and not allow others to do.
Maggie Kelly: All right. Hi Ross. Hi Mike.
Mike Sanchez: Hey, Maggie, how's it going?
Maggie Kelly: How are you?
Mike Sanchez: Doing well.
Maggie Kelly: How are you doing Ross? I just see you smiling there. You're doing good.
Ross O'Brien: Fantastic. Maggie. Thank you.
Maggie Kelly: Well, Mike, we're very happy to have you on the podcast today. We've known you for a while and we're excited for our listeners to hear what you have to say before we get started. Why don't you give them a little bit of background about yourself and about emergent.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, happy to. Well, my name's Mike Sanchez, I'm I'm president of emergent layer, which is a PR. Marketing agency that helps companies in emerging sectors, such as cannabis, AI really anything that excites me tell their [00:01:00] stories, especially if they're complicated ones. The cannabis industry being one that is probably the most challenging and has often been maligned throughout our nation's history as an industry.
That's, for people who are stoners or this or that, whatever negative perception you can have. And I think finally through storytelling, through personal anecdotes of that aunt or uncle who uses, cannabis or CBD to ease their pain people are starting to realize they were so wrong and there's a lot of value in cannabis and it's been an honor helping tell those stories.
And, prior to that, I've worked with companies in the fortune 100 to the small startup. All sorts of sectors from the visas of the world to the Samsungs or what have you. But working with entrepreneurs and smaller companies is what really, really excites me and M and Ms. Me to take the plunge.
Maggie Kelly: also for our listener benefit. , what's the difference between PR and marketing?
Mike Sanchez: [00:02:00] it's harder to distill the difference, but think of marketing is like the umbrella term that encapsulates a lot of different things, PR being one of it, which what I do is earned media. So helping condense a company's story. Down to its essence pitching it in a compelling way to a reporter and earning coverage, meaning, you've done such a good job telling your story.
It's timely. It's newsworthy, you secure unpaid coverage. That's public relations. Under marketing also under marketing is advertising. So actually paying for an ad spot, whether it be in a magazine, a commercial, social media, pretty much anything spend is advertising. And where it gets tricky is they kind of blur together.
But for the cannabis industry public relations, think has been more important or not more important, but a better allocation of time and money than [00:03:00] advertising, because as many people have seen the social media sites Facebook, Instagram, what have you, there's a lot of companies getting their profiles banned.
They've spent years trying to build up their audience and all it takes is somebody to flag a photo or. One of their content, moderators, the block, you and there goes all your efforts.
Maggie Kelly: Right.
Ross O'Brien: So Mike, can you talk a little bit? I think that's really important to understand. One of the things that people in the cannabis economy today are trying to get their arms around is why are there these restrictions on certain avenues, social media. Why has cannabis marketing and PR been put on its own on its own box that it has to offer?
Mike Sanchez: Yeah. That is the million dollar question. I think a lot of it just has to go down has, is a part of how cannabis has been maligned over time. It is federally illegal. There is still, this older generation who've used it with a stigma which is not to say [00:04:00] everybody, but it's still viewed with. Negative lens. And as a result of it being federally illegal there's a lot of important infrastructure that these businesses and entrepreneurs don't have access to. So banking being one of them social media being part of it because of rules on, paraphernalia and not promoting use and things like that.
And they're also private companies. So part of it is on the owners of these companies, the moderators at these companies. Cannabis, isn't the, the only economy that's been negatively influenced, there's some, every day you hear about Facebook banning this one group, but not another, or this image or that image and not providing any compelling reasons.
Hopefully that'll change, but that's just the world that we live in right now.
Ross O'Brien: So our audience is a lot of cannabis entrepreneurs, obviously in cannabis investors. Can you just double click on this what's happening in social media? It's not just as simple as going out there and putting out a social media campaign.[00:05:00]
Mike Sanchez: No, it's not it's so that's pretty tricky. I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who do have social media, and that has been their primary venue. And just trying to establish other methods of communicating with their audience, making sales, you, you can't rely solely on. A large Instagram following, like some of these Etsy entrepreneurs are doing to sell your devices or your products, or what have you, because you do run that risk of being manned, I don't know, Disney bracelets, aren't likely to be as crack down from the Instagram gods, then cannabis, even if you're not directly touching the plant, which is unfortunate.
But it happens time and time again. I forget who was in the news recently who one of the large companies from Canada who's legit has been around forever and is one of the leaders in cannabis had their profiles locked. So. It's something that I'm sure most of your listeners have had it happen to them, or know someone who has had it happening to them as well.
It's just, unfortunately, really common. [00:06:00]
Maggie Kelly: I think it's a good cautionary tale though. Entrepreneurs who are just getting started, who are flushing out their marketing plans right now and thinking, well, I already have a pretty good audience on Instagram or Facebook. I'm just going to leverage that to my benefit for my company. And from what you're saying, that's not certain that's not for certain, and that can be taken away essentially overnight.
And you're
Mike Sanchez: Yeah.
Maggie Kelly: from scratch.
Mike Sanchez: And that's why, a lot of email marketing and, cannabis focused social media sites just for the industry outside of the big, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are sprouting up and entrepreneurs realize you really have to control your own narrative, have your own methods of communication.
Something that we've seen a lot of companies do, start their own newsletter, start their own podcast. Hey, like YouTube channels, things like that to give you different avenues of telling your message. And I think that's why public [00:07:00] relations has really resonated. Been really influential for the cannabis economy.
Everybody knows social media is not as trusted as, a reporter, let's say Bloomberg, who's done their research in the industry and is a, an expert in their field having that third-party credibility and having it come from someone else instead of, them thinking you're tooting your own horn is also more impactful if you're trying to actually integrate.
People and influence their opinion where social media is more so, continuing to engage with your customers and shape your brand. And what do you want to be known for? But as far as actually influencing minds in the minds of people who matter, in policy potential customers and partners PR has been very helpful now.
Ross O'Brien: So I keep asking Maggie when she's going to launch our MySpace page, because I'm pretty sure that's going to be where we need to really put a pretty heavy presence. So, so, so Mike, for those of us that are. Probably [00:08:00] more advanced than I am in the world of the social medias. One of the things that we look at as investors is we talk about temporary versus permanent solutions band-aids versus sustainable enterprise.
You mentioned there's a lot of alternative channels opening up. What do you think is going to happen? Can you make a prediction? Do you think there is a future for these, one-offs that are very customized and specialized for cannabis? Or is this just something that is a band-aid that is a solution until the large incumbents really embrace cannabis more broadly.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, I do think it's not going to be a permanent solution. Just because focusing so much on cannabis companies limits their reach. I think you are, the ultimate goal is to resolve the issue and be a, be a searchable as if you were looking for a breakfast spot in a new city where you can just say, Hey, Google, tell me all the breakfast spots and in Anaheim, it was in Disneyland [00:09:00] the other day.
If you're shadow banned and you are at risk of being shadow banned, and that puts you
Ross O'Brien: What's sorry, Mike, can you explain for everybody what shadow band.
Mike Sanchez: course. So, shadow band is when these social media companies actually ban you and take you into review, right? Like you'll be flagged, Hey, this post violated our terms of agreement or service. You have a chance to petition and then either you remain banned which is thankfully becoming a little bit rare or you can come back.
However people have noted once they do come back from this review process. I don't know if it's true or not, but supposedly they've noticed a reduced interaction reduced, performance engagement of their audience. So it, and it can also slow down momentum depending on how long the band could go.
Ross O'Brien: So
what are they afraid of? What are they afraid of? If they want to shadow ban you? What is the big fear from Facebook? If they allow [00:10:00] more broadly, conversations, marketing, promotions, social media, around cannabis paraphernalia.
Mike Sanchez: I think they just want to, they don't want to be at risk for live. It's usually like, where do most of these decisions come from? It's like fear of getting sued. I'm sure. So because it is federally illegal, there are still wonky laws on, promoting cannabis business, promoting across state lines, especially if you're, dispensary or any type of delivery service.
They this is just me here. If I were in Facebook shoes or whatever suit shoes, I'm sure it's to reduce legal, liable. And once again, until it gets all federally, there's a lot of temporary bandaid solutions in marketing and banking in HR and payroll. But a lot of people are still afraid to touch these conversations, touch the industry, touch the cannabis economy because it is federally illegal because of that legal.
Ross O'Brien: So, do you have some examples that maybe you could provide for the listeners? Are things [00:11:00] that are falling inbounds versus out of bounds. If somebody came to you and said, Hey, I want to, because I, I see stuff and Instagram, right? And so he says, Hey, I want to promote a conference that I'm hosting on Instagram, or I've got a new product that I want to put out there.
Are there general guidelines that you've been able to develop?
Mike Sanchez: Being on the PR side, I may not be as close to it, but even in journalism, there are some reporters that I've worked with, from the tech sector or the business sector, known outlets that either they personally, or The outlet itself has a stance that they choose not to cover cannabis, which is unfortunate.
So I think the problem is there really aren't, for us from black-white guidelines, as you would like, there's so much gray area. And that's where everybody gets really confused and where problems can arise. And on the side of these, platform owners
they would rather just not take that risk at all.
And lean more heavily towards banning. [00:12:00] Like even like you see subreddits get banned all the time when some of the content goes a little bit, Hey, why are not even just for cannabis, but for anything. And that's the pressure that they face. And unfortunately this fear of, getting sued this fear of not knowing what the law is.
So let's just not risk it and ban this profile. Or this is what's hindering progress. This is what I'm making hard for entrepreneurs to grow their companies, to expand their audiences. And even from the medical side it being a schedule, one narcotic doing the research to find ways that can improve health outcomes. It's just limiting.
Maggie Kelly: I think it's also an exercise in frustration. If, as we're on the topic of, social media accounts being banned, I worked for a municipal government and we were flagged somehow and we're not allowed to advertise free [00:13:00] recreational programs. On Facebook. So it's, it's a, you have this behemoth that probably grew too fast, too quickly.
And it's trying to figure out all the little nuts and bolts of how things work. And in the meantime, our entrepreneurs are trying to figure out why I can't advertise on Facebook or why I can't advertise on Instagram. And you're probably never going to get an answer to that question.
Layer in analyst's economy issues and that's a whole nother ball game.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, I, I worked with this startup out of Sheila who made at home grow kits and it was really ahead of its time. It was all automated down to the strain. So these were scientists working with the Chilean government, which is, has the driest desert in the world. The Atacama not a lot of rainfalls and Sheila.
So they were looking into aeroponics where they would spray. Nutrients and water balance the pH onto the root directly. It just so [00:14:00] happened that they sold these boxes tailored towards cannabis and promoted it primarily through Instagram, which was like by far their largest driver of traffic and sales.
And they did a really good job of making it neutral and more geared towards, at home growing. Tomatoes, but we'll always a bit of a wink wink to let people know, you could go cannabis in this. And unfortunately, they winked too hard one time and they got banned for a few months which totally ruined their, the fundraiser that they were going towards.
It it's a lot of momentum and eventually they worked to get it back. But the prob what makes it scary for entrepreneurs is where is that line? What content is acceptable and what.
Ross O'Brien: So Mike, you've worked a lot with non cannabis. Companies large and small. I want to drill down a little bit in two areas first being, so, so what are [00:15:00] the best practices, fundamentals of PR that do translate to cannabis? So we know we've got this dynamic, but , where is the highest and best use of time?
What do you look for in a great story that can be told and to whether it's earned media or other outlets?
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, of course. Yeah, so I've worked with primarily a lot of tech companies just being based here in Silicon valley. I've been doing a peer on the bay area for nearly geez, nearly decade. The best time to do PR I would say for companies starting out is the earlier the better once you get too big, too quickly and you haven't engaged in PR you start to see a lot of coverage, a lot of narrative being driven by people who may have never had the chance to meet with you. So usually the I'd say the most impactful. Is to research who the most influential reporters are in whatever industry you're a part of, whether it be, artificial intelligence, whether it be consumer electronics, [00:16:00] cannabis, healthcare who are the main thought leaders who really shaped the conversation in that sector.
And even if you, you're not the apple or Amazon of the world get a chance to know them. Even if it's meeting them for coffee, even if it's offering to share commentary or be a resource for future stories, that'll build a human connection that will allow them to, when they do start speaking stories about you, you can educate them.
They're not guessing when writing about you, they have that intimate experience. They might reach out to you and that's something that. Even the apples of the world, Steve jobs did a really good job of reaching out to some of the top reporters in his space. And, even back in, I think it was the apple two days just talking to them, B being viewed as a thought leader in his industry, even though he was still very young, very up and coming down the road, those relationships played a really strong part in Apple's success.
And they really didn't towards the end of it needs to put a [00:17:00] lot of effort towards PR. They could always get it, which of course, they're apple, they're an influential company. But they have such a strong relationship with those reporters that they would just give out, one exclusive a year for their new iPhone to does someone from a VentureBeat or Gizmodo or what have you, and get the impact they need.
Ross O'Brien: So we see a lot of early stage. Get in, in my layman's terms, they get enamored with PR being featured and they seem to not have a clear strategy. Could you talk about, are there certain red flags, if somebody is really pushing on PR at an early stage and when are you not ready for going out there and trying to get this, these relationships before.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, I think people are short-sighted and view PR kind of like advertising where it's transactional and you can almost flip it on and off. Like with the advertising, [00:18:00] give Facebook or Instagram, somebody create your posts.
It goats posted relatively quickly. You can track it via their tools. PR is definitely not a switch. It's more like a snowball building momentum going down the hill. There's times where it could take months to tell or to land that compelling story in Forbes or tech crunch that you really want.
And Ross, working for that business insider story, it took quite a few steps, nearly a year of meeting the reporter. The pandemic in the middle of it, reporters are very busy people and newsrooms are shrinking. So PR is actually getting harder to do, because you don't have as many efficient the ocean.
You don't have as many reporters who can tell your stories. So the newsrooms are shrinking But in that same regard, because there's less of it, there's less supply, there's more demand, right? Like now if anything, getting a really compelling story in the front page of the wall street journal means even [00:19:00] that much more, in my opinion, because the resources are dwindling.
So they know that is definitely a compelling story to tell. And in the age of everybody having a voice Like still getting coverage from those significant publications I think is more valuable than ever.
And you mentioned also what stage? In a startup's life cycle, they should look for PR. I think it is helpful once they're like turning that corner past the idea stage and they started working on a product and they're ready to bring that product to market, or they're ready to announce that large round of funding something to indicate that they're ready to to go to the next level and have newsworthy announcements is helpful.
And I should probably explain, news.
Maggie Kelly: Please do, please do.
Mike Sanchez: yeah, as a business owner myself it's your baby and what makes something newsworthy? It's milestones that show a company's progress is like the best way to think about it. Hard numbers are always going to be, pretty newsworthy, especially financially.
If you've [00:20:00] raised out at oh, a hundred million dollars from Andreessen Horowitz yeah. That's pretty newsworthy. Someone's willing to take a bet on you. When you unveil, your new product and it's, especially if it's something that takes an approach that No.
one has done before, that's pretty newsworthy.
If it's a new CEO or like a really high level C-suite hire, that could be newsworthy. Where there's some confusion is if somebody says Hey, I just hired, like a new social media person, should we put out a press release? That's not necessarily. Because once again is that really like rare, distinct, like companies hire people all the time, but people don't always hire new CEOs or new CFOs all the time.
So I think milestones like that as newsworthy.
Ross O'Brien: And so I just want to be crystal clear, like I'm putting it in my words to, for everybody to hear. So just having an idea for a business is not news, right?
Mike Sanchez: Definitely not [00:21:00] ideas
Ross O'Brien: so it's execution. It's what have you accomplished? It's what, okay. Got it. Is everybody listening to that? So, so Mike, let's talk about the entrepreneurs at an, at an earlier stage that are going through the ideation now into execution. You talked a little bit earlier about with your experience and, big corporate, small corporate, et cetera.
And storytelling. And I think that's something that's really important. And it also, maps to how we get to know companies when they make presentations to us. And they tell their story about them as founders about the business and the story like you just pointed out is not, what can you go do?
It's what you've done. And the probability that something can happen in the future as a result of that. Right. So maybe you could talk a little bit. Some coaching. If somebody came to you and wanted to tell their story, and it's an early stage company, like what are the core elements to storytelling? What should they think about for their various audiences?
There's media, there's investors, there's employees and recruitment, et cetera. How do you think about storytelling and [00:22:00] distilling down? What are sometimes complicated businesses into something that is.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah, of course. First things first, like the information gathering stage is crucial and
transparency, I think is the most important thing. For entrepreneurs looking for PR the, the more that we know about what's going on the better and, being caught off guard by an announcement or a problem, or have you definitely.
Could probably be resolved if you would let us know in advance. But as far as coaching somebody up and storytelling, I think storytelling is actually it's complex, but simple. Humans have been telling stories for years and there's always, like a familiar theme to pretty much all stories I think can be broken down into two or three buckets, the hero story.
David going against a Goliath, that's kind of what the Steve jobs approach was like. Here's this 19 year old trying to take on IBM and followed apple kind of throughout their career. Even now that they've become the big giant, what their 1984 campaign or what have you. I think another [00:23:00] good way is to try to find some tension.
So,
Maggie Kelly: no.
Mike Sanchez: Or a different approach there that might be that differs quite greatly from the status quo. So Nali bio for example, is a really good one of here is a company who's trying to bring an approach that has a work for aspirin to the cannabis industry. And the tension that they're facing is, a lot of the regulations that are in place, a lot of the science, perhaps even some of the thinking like, oh, you can't.
Take this approach to this, you can't, try to jam a square peg in a round hole, but the hero making that happen. So little things like that are always helpful. And then finding what are the supporting pieces to kind of compliment your thesis? What are the statistics? What are the research that we have?
What are, do we have any customer case studies that show this is already working? Like those are all little details that ladder up to that big thesis of, what is exciting about [00:24:00] what you're doing? What is dramatic, what is new
or even just an interesting approach to an old problem.
Maggie Kelly: I appreciate you sharing that because what immediately, what stuck out to me immediately is some founders that we have relationships with. We have an interview with Paige and chain, the co-founder and CEO of T check. He starts with that personal story of why he's doing what he's doing. And it's a meaningful story.
It was a family member. There was a problem that she was having and he and his co-founders and his team are solving those problems for those individuals. An upcoming interview that we have with TJ stout or who is co-founder and CEO of holistic. Well, His story runs a similar line. There is a family member who meant obviously very much to him who had problems that he wanted to be able to solve.
Those are meaningful stories that they tell. And though I've [00:25:00] heard them tell them several times now, as soon as they start I'm enraptured and I'm game to listen to it all over again. So entrepreneurs, if you're
listening to. The personal element, working that in. If it's an awful one is worth doing, you'll have my attention every time, at least.
Mike Sanchez: and for the cannabis economy, it draws an empathetic response like Al Harrington and Viola also has another great story. His grandmother being in pain and she was very religious and, was very anti-cannabis until she realized, oh, it's not just the aspect of getting you high, but there's the medicinal side of the CBD side that, changed her life.
And I think those stories are probably what has changed the perception in the cannabis. Mindset, from the people in power to the general populace is the stories of knowing someone who maybe was addicted to opioids or maybe had terrible pain, a veteran who came back and, it was put on all these prescription [00:26:00] pills and just suffered tremendously tremendously from the side effects and found this plant.
It changes the narrative and the perception. of cannabis users, as just stoners are all this 1950s,
Maggie Kelly: there's a Hollywood perception. That's hard to shake
Mike Sanchez: yes. But if you can paint it as it, as cannabis users, being your neighbor, being your teacher, being your, your doctor, your, your friend, your parents.
your grandparents, then it's hard to paint everybody with that same brush.
Maggie Kelly: your pets,
Mike Sanchez: Yeah. Even your pets.
Maggie Kelly: pets.
Ross O'Brien: So, yeah, even your pet. So, so Mike, I want to drill down on the storytelling again for a second here then. So one of the challenges that I see a lot, and maybe you could talk about, are there some common mistakes or some common practices that you see that, that you think people should address? To my mind, it's.
Coming from a place where they feel that their business idea or the solution is so [00:27:00] complicated, they need an hour to explain, right? Like at a certain point, if you have the personal experience, every business can be distilled down to one sentence. And if it can't, I would argue you don't have a handle on your business yet.
Do, do you agree, disagree, or do you see that in your.
Mike Sanchez: No, I, I totally agree. You need to be able to tell your audience whether that be an investor, whether that'd be a journalist, whether that be, your, your.
spouse, you have to distill it in one sentence. And if you can't do it, then, then there's an issue. And even if it's saying, we're like Uber, but for cannabis delivery, we're like eczema for why?
Like people are visual thinkers. So. Find a way to do it. That's very simple. Whether drawing a comparison to something that's already happened or, a service that I don't know how to explain it, but just do it very as simply as you can. And if it takes, even more than two or three sentences And you already lost.
Maggie Kelly: [00:28:00] And I would say on that same line, if you were pitching me your business and I don't understand your idea, that's on you, not on me. And I find that sometimes when you ask a founder, okay. I'm not quite following you. Can you explain that again? There's a level of frustration of you. Don't get my idea. I can't explain it to you if you don't get it.
Just knowing that crafting that story is very important and it's not on the listener to get your idea. You're supposed to explain it in a succinct manner. So
Mike, if we switch gears you you've had your PR expert hat on, but you're also a founder. You're an entrepreneur. So. You can talk to us about PR all day long.
The ins and outs of the cannabis economy. We've had many thoughtful conversations with you over the years, but I would like for you as a founder, what is the hardest lesson you've had to learn?[00:29:00]
Mike Sanchez: I'd say two things. I am a founder, but I do, I don't do emergent layer 100% of the time because of, current family life putting my wife through law school. Also just being, I guess, fully afraid of taking the full plunge while someone else is reliant on me for the day-to-day. So I think that has been a challenge.
And also. This is going to sound really funny, but just marketing. Because of that has been an issue.
It's, it's hard to stand out in a very crowded space unless you're willing, unless you subscribe to the theory that any exposure is good exposure, in which case I'll do something ridiculous, like tying myself to a billboard in Hollywood, like Steve voted or, or have.
But I'm realizing the, the difficulty of running a startup. And I have great respect for people who do it. Full-time willing to drop out of college, but even more. So those who, perhaps are a little older and already had a [00:30:00] kid and had a family and, stability like stable job and still jump into the.
So I think that has been a challenge for me. And I'm kind of at the point where I'm about to, perhaps go a little bit more full-time, but as far as differentiating yourself from, especially in the services industry companies who've been around for hundreds of years and I've have defined your space that something that other startups deal with as well, because unfortunately it isn't really who has the best product or software or tool or what have you.
None of that matters if nobody knows you exist. And I think a lot of, a lot of founders, especially on the tech side, they just think oh, my software is so great. I don't need to, toot my own horn or I don't really need to promote it. The world should work this way. But the world's not fair.
Some of the biggest companies have really shitty software, but they won the PR battle and that's why they're the. 800 pound gorilla.
Maggie Kelly: So less than hint, hint [00:31:00] entrepreneurs be crafting your story now and seek out a really good PR person.
Mike Sanchez: Yeah. I think just people are afraid to, or maybe not afraid. They think they're being humble, not to brag. And don't think about it as bragging. About your sir, your solution or tool or what have you, because if it is, if it will make someone's life easier, if, if it will reduce people's pain, then you should want to evangelize it and think about it in that regard, you're doing people a favor by letting them know, you don't have to spend six hours, doing this task, you can do it in 30 minutes or with one click or you don't have to take opioids.
You don't have to do X, Y, Z. We're here to help.
Ross O'Brien: So Mike, why don't we wrap up with one question for you because this is the cannabis capital podcast. What was your favorite part of my book? Did I, did I mention, I wrote a book. I'm sorry, we haven't talked about it. The whole episode.
Maggie Kelly: [00:32:00] Don't feel compelled to answer that.
Mike Sanchez: I know I did read the book and I know, I think
Maggie Kelly: I
Mike Sanchez: I'm going to give you, I'll give you what you want, because I think this part's important, know, like the fact that entrepreneurs think that the cannabis economy is different and they have to pitch themselves differently to investors because they're in cannabis and it's, Pixies and fairy dust.
No, you're still a business at the end of the day. And I want to close with this too. You can have the best storytelling. You're going to have the best PR, but like you can't put lipstick on a pig, like focus on your business first, have so much success there that people have to pay attention because that makes my job easier and telling your story to reporters, because it's not a bunch
Ross O'Brien: I love it.
Mike Sanchez: Like trying to, to make it happen.
No it's already happening. This is already an exciting company. Look at their growth numbers. Like at the investors, they have look at the products, they just. And when pitching yourself to investors, they, they can't ignore, the tidal wave [00:33:00] that you've created.
Ross O'Brien: Spoken like a true founder of veteran founder to Mike. Thank you. Amen to that.
Maggie Kelly: Well, Mike, thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate all our listeners.
Ross O'Brien: Great. Thanks. My
Mike Sanchez: no problem. I'm super excited.