THE SUMMARY

Featuring an interview with James Zachodni, Co-founder of Dope Magazine and Farechild Events, and one of the ultimate party-throwers in the cannabis industry. We'll be previewing the upcoming MJBIZCON week in Vegas and all the happenings around town, including Farechild's "Shangri-La" event.

THE CO-HOSTS

David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans

THE SPECIAL GUEST

James Zachodni, Co-Founder, Dope Magazine & Farechild Events

THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

David Paleschuck 

Greetings and welcome to Episode #3 of Branding Bud Live. The weekly live stream that's 100% THC | 0% WTF. I'm David Paleschuck, founder of the Branding Bud Consulting Group, and author of "Branding Bud: The Commercialization of Cannabis", the first book on cannabis branding. I'm joined by my co-host, Adriana Hemans, a consumer insights and cannabis expert. Hi Adriana. How are you?

Adriana Hemans 

Hi, David. How's it going?

David Paleschuck 

Good. How are you today?

Adriana Hemans 

I am so happy to see you. This is going to be an awesome show today. I also want to mention that we're going to drop a link on the events page so that people can find it. Make sure that we're all going to the right place at the right time. How's your week going?

David Paleschuck 

My week is going super well. I'm super excited about this show. And I'm excited that we're one week away from MJBiz. To be honest with you, I'm pretty amped about that.

Adriana Hemans 

It is the 11th year of MJBiz. And if you've never been to MJBiz, it is such an epic event that's really like wall to wall, nonstop, almost impossible to navigate your way around. This is my fourth year. And it just gets more insane every year.

David Paleschuck 

It does, it really does. And I'm, I'm super excited about it. I’m pleased to introduce today’s guest. He’s not only one of my favorite industry people, he is the Co-founder of DOPE Magazine and Farechild Events along with Dave Tran, and one of the ultimate party-throwers in the cannabis industry. Some of his parties and events include The Dope Cups, The Dope Industry Awards, and more recently - post-pandemic - the Farechild parties including last year's MJBiz’s Zodiac Party, and this year's Shangri La Party. Please welcome, James Zachodni.

James Zachodni 

Hey there! How are you guys doing?

David Paleschuck 

Good. How are you today?

Adriana Hemans 

You must be so busy. So thank you for taking out 45 minutes of your day to hang out with us super appreciate it.

James Zachodni 

Of course, of course, anything for Dave. He's the longtime homie. It comes in waves. So you know, we have a little downtime, but a lot of busy times. So we try to not overwhelm ourselves too much. It's all about planning. And once you've done this a million times, it's just going through the cycles and the processes we're all used to. So nothing we can handle for sure.

Adriana Hemans 

That's awesome. So James, just to kick us off with let's hear about you, and how you got into the industry, what you're passionate about? Yeah, a little bit about your background would be great.

James Zachodni 

Yeah, well, you know, I kind of, you know, as you get older, you kind of reflect more on sort of, like how you got to where you are like the path you took. And it's kind of funny, because you always wonder how things would be different and things have gone different in your life. But, you know, for me, it was kind of obvious, I didn't really put two and two together till later. But when I was in high school, I was coordinating, like, parties at my high school, which weren't just like, you know, house parties, were actually like renting out the high school as a venue as like a third party person. And then you know, bringing in a DJ and, you know, selling a cover at the door and all the things and I remember I was like 16 or 17. We had a party is my first one. So we had to design the flyer, and we had to, you know, put the DJ and do all the things and we ended up like I think making you know, a couple $1,000 on covered $5 cover charge at the door, whatever. But it was, a pretty epic night for our bunch of high school kids. And now thinking back to that I was pretty much the same thing I'm doing now. And, you know, I've kind of done a couple of circles around and a couple, you know, figure eights throughout my life, to kind of land back to where I kind of started. But it's kind of funny, because I was always my passion. I just didn't realize it until you know, not too long ago. I mean, that's kind of always been my thing was like bringing people together, just kind of, you know, creating an atmosphere, creating a vibe. And then just kind of enjoying the moments that are created from those, you know, events and stuff that I that I might be able to produce. I'm a very, kind of memories and moments kind of guy of just kind of always wanting to like capture those because really, you know, at the end of the day, that's what we have, right? When we all you know, sit back and we're 80 years old, you know, hopefully and we sit back and just think about our lives. It's like it's about those moments that you'll remember forever. So I think that's kind of my sentimental reason for doing what I do. And but you know, as far as you know, you know, angling and cannabis, it was really, David Tran, who was my partner at Farechild. You know, we were in the nightlife world together for a long time, he owned bars and nightclubs, I opened up a nightclub and, you know, we kind of went through the cycles of nightlife and all that stuff. And I started the magazine back in 2011, called D-List Magazine. And at the time, Dave, you know, ran up ran a few bars in Seattle. So he, you know, we he was the first phone call, and I needed an advertiser, I was like, Hey, you want to advertise his brand new magazine that no one's heard of, and probably isn't very great. Yeah. And he was like, Sure, man, I'll do it for you. So, you know, he kind of, you know, gave us that first, you know, initial boost of confidence that we needed and started the magazine. And we started throwing parties together at his nightclub for the magazine, which were called the golden ticket parties, which became sort of an institution in Seattle, this is a once a month invite only party that became pretty much you know, the thing to go to every month and we did it for 36 straight months. So we did 36 street parties. And every month we bring out different artists and tad, and it became this whole thing and during that timeframe, cannabis popped up is becoming possible, you know, business model for us and David jumped on it right away being an entrepreneur he is and jumped on getting a dispensary with a with another group. And of course, you know, right when they got their dispensary, he was like, what where do I advertise my dispensary at and there was no Publications at the time. So we were just like, well, let's go. Let's go ahead and start a magazine for cannabis. And so I had the template to do a magazine, so we started dope magazine. And that was kind of how that all began. So it was a very serendipitous sort of thing that all kind of came together but then of course the end the part of our worlds that we really enjoyed was the events in the in the parties and cannabis was lacking that pretty heavily back in 2011. So we took our expertise of that world mixed with the magazine world and then we kind of created dope with the really strong you know, event side of it, which was a big Part of our, our business models, it's day one. So. So that's kind of how it all started. And you know, did the quick, you know, I guess you see, you know, story of how I got where I am now.

Adriana Hemans 

I love that I love how you put that it's all about making memories. I'm sure there's a lot of people who on their deathbeds will be having flashbacks of memories from Farechild events and other MJBiz events. So you're doing a service to all of us. Thank you.

David Paleschuck 

It's funny that you mentioned making memories. I was sitting at a table at the Dope Industry Awards, which was a black tie event. So everybody was all dressed up from the industry. And there was a picture taken. And I was having a conversation with Ed Rosenthal with Dave Tran. We were all kind of leaning in, having a serious conversation – although I'm sure it was not serious at all. I have a photograph of that moment embedded in my memory. Many of my memories are from your shows. You had a hot air balloon. Was that at the Zodiac party?

James Zachodni 

Yeah, that was our very first Farechild MJBiz party in 2019. So it was a few months before the pandemic. So yeah, December 2019. So that was the “Dreamhouse” party.

David Paleschuck 

I always remember different things. But one last visual that I have are the lasers, as you entered into the Zodiac party. And it just looked like a wave. And I remember walking into what I felt was a wave. You've always had a great way of creating great entry ways into the parties. You’ve found a great place for yourself, because you leverage your talents in ways that people really enjoy. And that's evidenced every year by everybody clamoring to get into the parties. It's pretty amazing. Thanks, James. I love to hear about people’s backgrounds and how they leverage their experience and passion into the industry. 

Speaking of passion, we have a super passionate audience, that we always encourage to participate. To that end, we always have an audience participation component and today is no different. Today’s it’s called, “What The MJBiz?”, where we engage the audience. Let’s do it!

According to MJBiz, now in its 11th year, how many people attend the annual cannabis conference?

A. 10,000
B. 15,000
C. 25,000
D. 35,000

James Zachodni 

I don't think I know the answer, to be honest with you.

David Paleschuck 

10,000 people sounds like a lot; but 15K or 25K is even more. 35,000 people sounds like a of people!

Adriana Hemans 

It's almost like trying to imagine what a million looks like. Or like what a billion looks like. It's hard to visualize a such a huge number.

David Paleschuck 

Well, and I'm not a super big team sports fan. But James, isn’t it around 40,000 people for a really big Seahawks game?

James Zachodni 

I think it's closer to like 50 or 60,000 people, that stadium holds a lot of people. So, yeah, but even that's hard, because you're just like you looking around and you're this, like, it's hard to understand how, like, I can look at like a room I could walk into, like, you know, like an event and I can quickly be like, there's 1000 people here, you know, like, but when you're talking on a scale of like, 35,000, that's harder to guess is when it's spread out across all these rooms and, you know, different breakaway areas and stuff. It's a hard thing to even like, imagine how many people that Yeah.

David Paleschuck 

Well, let's do it. Now in its 11th year, how many people attend the cannabis conference? The answer is D. 35,000 people attend the cannabis conference! That's pretty amazing. You know, so, and I'm curious to know how many people actually thought it was that big, but that's quite a big conference. I, you know, I don't have the stat, but I'd be really curious to see like, how many people come to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, which is like a probably, you know, a behemoth, the, the sort of behemoth of the show or iconic show, but I'm curious about that. But 35,000 is a lot of people coming into Vegas to you know, participate in all the all the varying cannabis events.

James, before we get into MJBiz is specifically and just talk about that. You know, I'm, I'm curious about, if you would just chat a little bit, you know, when you started to talk about it earlier, you engaged basically created Farechild and, you know, which is a cannabis events company. There's a platform to it as well. But, actually throwing the parties you started this, right before the pandemic? And, you know, would you just talk about what that's like, because I think, you know, a lot of people either own businesses or either they were starting businesses, but you know, they were still able to sell products online and shipped through the mail, and they were able to do certain things that you basically couldn't because you're an events company. So would you just talk through that struggle, and how you've come out of the pandemic, and had all these events, and, you know, the whole flowers and MJBiz, and, you know, doing what you're doing now, which is basically selling out these parties, you know, where you have anyone that's anyone in the industry basically showing up? Could you talk us through that?

James Zachodni 

Well, yeah, like you said, timing wasn't great. It definitely wish, you know, Time Machine wise, we could have done it a little bit differently. But honestly, it kind of worked out, okay. Because I think at the end of the day, we, you know, got the business Incorporated, I think it was March of 2019. And that's when, you know, shortly after I left dope, because we, you know, we sold to high times at the time, so that was a, you know, kind of the exit strategy was there for me. So we got out and then, you know, quickly wanted to get something going again, you know, I'm not really a downtime kind of guy. So I wanted to kind of just jump right into something as soon as possible. So, again, with the events being our world, and our love and our passion for so long, it just made sense to sort of go right into that and not kind of messed around with anything else that was kind of, you know, other things that we did like media or any of that stuff. So there was definitely a long, not a long, sorry, period of time to really think about starting Farechild. And so we started it, we did our first event in 2019. So very quickly, after we have started, the company, produced an event called it's lit. And that was a really fun, like, kind of culinary meets cannabis sort of party on 420 where we did a bunch of infused foods and kind of uh, yeah, it's really cool. And then after that, you know, we kind of had some downtime to sort of work on the business. And then we did MJBiz, like, we just talked about the “Dream House” event in December of 2019.

And then, of course, the pandemic started right around, like, was it March or something? I mean, we're in San Francisco actually producing a party in February for a client out there and we started getting these weird phone calls and people being like, that's really weird and Seattle, nobody's on the streets. It's getting like, you know, everyone's kind of being weird. We're just like, Okay, I came back literally did a like a conference with all the Seattle like, you know, regulation people about like cannabis events and then boom, you know, a month later is locked down. So we had a party plan for 20 He on 2020 Like everyone else in the world, right? Because I was like, little big for 20. Right? It's for 2020. I was like, Ooh, so cool. The whole month of April will be cannabis. You know, it's for 20 for the whole month. And yeah, that got ruined really quick. So we, quickly, I think I was on a vacation out of the country. So as Dave, I think he was in Mexico, and I was in somewhere else. And we quickly gotten a phone call, we're like, we got to pivot. Because, you know, we have all these sponsors that were lined up for this live event. And we had to come up with a new idea real fast, like talking like, within like, five weeks. So we pivoted to a virtual event, which was we call it chronic relief, which was a quick sort of a way to sort of do a virtual event, but still raise money for charity, which we thought was important at the time because of the pandemic and the food, you know, kind of shortages going on and you know, people losing jobs and blah, blah, blah. And so we you know, looked at that as an opportunity to sort of give back in so that was our quick pivot during the pandemic, we raised 1000s of dollars for Feeding America, through our thing, it's kind of like a you know, I want to do like the old school Jerry Lewis telethon sort of vibe, but you know, virtually right, not that like phone calls, and you know, sad stuff. So we set it all up, got it launched in five weeks, we have Whoopi Goldberg, we had, I mean, just tons of celebrities came on and donated their time to just kind of jump on and do a little skit do a little, you know, promo, or whatever they're doing. And it was great. And we just had a lot of fun doing that. And then we did, we helped with another virtual conference during the pandemic.

And then, you know, we came back at the end of, I guess, at the beginning of 2021, to start doing live events, again, with our golf tournament, which was one of the very few things that you could do in pandemic times, because it was outside and you know, it wasn't, you know, 1000s of people that have jammed in a room, you know, so it was kind of this perfect storm for the perfect event and everything during that time. So that was chronically part two, because again, we gave back to the Washington cannabis association for that one. And, you know, I guess we just use the pandemic to really kind of refine our business really work on the platform, the ticketing platform is obviously the big kind of, you know, technology piece of what we do. And then you know, be able to build that out and get that going during the pandemic give us some downtime. So we weren't just like event like we usually are. So it really just gave us time to kind of breath and just get the business set up properly. So while it was terrible for live events, there was definitely some silver linings. Definitely.

David Paleschuck 

That's very cool. Yeah. That was it was quite enjoyable. Now that we're warmed up.

Adriana Hemans 

Now that we’re warmed up, don’t forget to check out David’s book, “Branding Bud, The Commercialization of Cannabis”, the bestselling book in two (2) categories (“Branding & Logo Design” and “Green Business”) on Amazon. You can find out more and purchase the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Branding-Bud-Commercialization-David-Paleschuck/dp/1936807513

David Paleschuck 

Let's get back to the show. Shall we?

Adriana Hemans 

So James, I'm curious to hear more about what people might expect when they show up at this event. What do you have in store for us at Shangri La this year?

James Zachodni 

Oh, man, well, it's you know, it's kind of the, the model we always do, which is kind of invitation only large scale event, probably expecting around 2000 people, it's held at the same venue we've done for the past two years at the industrial, which is an indoor outdoor space. So we have a large, you know, kind of a lot next to the indoor, and we do 10,000 square feet inside. So this year, last year, during zodiac, we couldn't do the indoor because of COVID, right, so we use the indoor sort of like a pass through to then go outside. And that's Dave, where you're talking about the lasers sort of walking through that tunnel and getting that first kind of like visual, you know, kind of like, we wanted to be sort of like you're transporting into a different world sort of vibe. And that was what we were going through, because we always, you know, when I when I kind of dream up these events, and I kind of want to, you know, think of how to sort of bring something to light because I think, you know, in this day and age, people expect more, right? You can't just open up a cocktail lounge and throw a DJ on and be like, it's a party, you know, it's fine, right. But like, the expectations that people have now for live events, you know, in the world of social media, and, you know, sharing everything and, you know, creating these moments, like we talked about, like you got to kind of go above and beyond.

So, when I'm when I'm designing these parties, it's really about storytelling, and it's about sort of creating a, like, a little bit of a journey, right? Like, where you, you go there. And there's, it's not just I walk into a room, and there's a bunch of people standing around talking, right, like that's, you know, that serves its purpose, but for what I enjoy doing, you know, I love movies, and I love producing movies, like I always wanted to be a producer when I was little. And so I always thought think about parties as sort of like you're producing a movie, right? Because you, you have, you have a lot of elements that a movie has, right you need a producer, you need a director, you need actors, you need a soundtrack, you need, you know, all of those things that kind of movies have. So we definitely take that I take that as an inspiration when I create movies to or not create movies, create parties, to kind of use that same the same thought process as the movie producer would. So it's really just about bringing all the pieces together.

As a producer, that's your job or you hired the director, you hire the actors, you hire the sound, guys, you do all those things, and then, you know, kind of putting it together so it makes sense. And you know, theming is obviously a fun way to do that because you actually can kind of lean into something that's not just, you know, a party, right? You want to kind of lean into a theme so your sponsors can get involved. So the guests can get involved, you know, so kind of brings everything together harmoniously. So this year was Shangri La. You know, just, you know, that theme was interesting because I always have kind of a running list of just ideas of themes and stuff like Zodiac was actually idea, I thought about four years ago. So I love that idea. Yeah, well, we did. I was very much like, I'm really surprised. There's not more Zodiac parties. So that, you know, I do a little research online. And the only person that ever did like a themed Zodiac party was Diane Von Furstenberg, which I thought was interesting. Because it was just like, out of all the themes, Zodiac should be a pretty popular theme you would think, right? Because it's such a universal thing that you know, everyone can kind of get involved in. But the only party I found when I was researching that ever was done with a true Zodiac theme was Diane Von Furstenberg. I mean, there might have been like, some random birthday parties here and there across the world, but like, as far as like a, you know, a highly kind of curated and produced party.

Adriana Hemans 

It showed like so there were 12 sections, and it like spatially mimicked the outline of the Zodiac, but then, like, each section was themed around the, like, personality traits of that zodiac sign. Yeah. David and I are both Capricorns, we had to run over to the Capricorn section. And people kind of like found their people there, it was fun.

David Paleschuck 

We had pins as well, when we walked into the party that everybody had their, you know, chose their zodiac sign pin, which was cool. And just to call out I mean, for those, those folks probably can see it, but we have some photos of the events up, you know, that James is talking about

James Zachodni 

so you can see the Zodiac symbol on the left, which we had we had designed by our friend Derek Muller, he did a great job of sort of like making a really beautiful logo and you know, again, creating a party it's about creating a brand also right it's not just again, like I said, just throwing an evite out and expecting people to show up right, this is like literally like we created like, we are creating a brand. So a logo, a color packages, you know, the whole nine yards, that like any brand would want to go to market is what we do as well.

So that logo, you can kind of see the, you know, the shape of it, that was the actual shape, if you guys remember of the, the build out with all the 12 zodiacs around it. So if you look down on that thing, it was that exact shape. So we built that all out of trust. And there's a lot of hidden things that we did that I think maybe people didn't even notice is like when we would do announcements, you know, through our, through our socials or our emails, they were always done at 1212 or, you know, we're using all these Zodiac numerology and different little weird things that we just kind of did that, you know, it's kind of fun, if people pick up on it, or they don't pick up on it, we just really just wanted to sort of like, really lean into the whole Zodiac theme a lot. And like you said, they we had a, we have partners create, you know, pins that you get a check in with your zodiac signs, we wanted to create a little bit of social lubricant.

So you're wearing your Capricorn pin, you see another Capricorn be like, hey, it was, you know, just kind of create that little bit of social lubricant, that is really fun at parties, but there's the laser kind of entryway that you're talking about Dave, and I think that was fun, too. We had a moon at the end of it with, with just kind of like showing that your kind of going into the, this different world of the zodiac. And, yeah, just moments like that. And again, that year, we had to figure out a way not to keep people lingering inside because of COVID. So it had to be just like a quick go through and get outside, you know, sort of thing. So I think that was a really cool way for people to kind of just walk right in and just they just kind of get drawn down that, that that corridor to go outside. So yeah, a lot of fun.

David Paleschuck 

I studied architecture and interior design, and environmental design. Typically people there are a number of things that architects, and designers use, something called the moth effect, which is being attracted to the light and the way people enter into a room. Everybody always wants to enter higher up and walk down the staircase – basically, a grand entrance. And you've captured that in all of your parties, as you're, as you're stepping from reality into, you know, into a different space, you know, into an altered space. You know, and that's, that's pretty amazing. I know, this is about the MJBiz preview, and we're willing to the show already, I'm curious, you know, to ask two questions, really, but rolled up in one, what's the importance of your event or like this big event that brings people together, but even I guess, higher up if we if we escalate? What is what's the importance of MJBiz is what's the importance of 35,000 people coming together to, you know, a cannabis conference? You know, how does that bring, you know, relevance and weight to the industry?

James Zachodni 

I think it's changed a lot over the years. And like you said, Dave, you're at one of the very first ones and so was I right, there was definitely a different world back then if you remember, there was a, as far as I remember, I was I forget what hotel was that I went to it was like the parents or somewhere, right somewhere like they just they just rented out like a pretty standard sized ballroom, right. And there's rows of tables, right. And it wasn't branded, all beautiful, like people weren't dropping six figures on their activations. Right, it was just like, I remember going to tables, and there's like two guys sitting there with a sign that said, we're investing in cannabis, right. And literally, that was the whole setup right there just do sit there all day long, and just talk to people about their companies and investing. And there's a couple of brands very, very early day brands that were there.

So I think MJBiz is, you know, 2012, or whenever that, you know, the first years where that was, like, you know, what the interesting needed at the time, right? It was, hey, how do we get started, you know, like, we need seed money, we need resources, we need these things to really grow our business and create it. And then I think as time went on, right, it became more of what we're used to because the industry has grown right. And, you know, brands that have been around now for 10 plus years don't need to go and, you know, showcase their brand as much as they did, you know, five years ago, right? It was because back then you're jockeying for sort of market position, you're trying to like, you know, be the big dog in the in the, you know, you know, Ms. MSO, we're so I think now it's really kind of about the relationships, and it's about bringing, you know, potential partners together. And don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of opportunity for new markets to really learn a lot at MGBs. Because I do, we always got to remember, you know, us Washingtonians have been in it for a long time, you know, since the very beginning of 2012, as far as legal markets go, but you know, all these new markets that have only legalized over the last year or two years, they're still very, like, what do we do? You know, who do we talk to you? What are the machinery I need to get?

Or what are the branding companies I need to talk to, or, or packaging or whatever, right? So there's still a lot of that, but I think for us old heads, you know, we, we now go to really kind of reinforce relationships to kind of, you know, just kind of solidify things that maybe we can just do better in person than on Zoom calls, or, or emails or whatever, and I think we're for our party, you know, it's really about that, because, you know, we do this, you know, as sort of like our love letter back to the industry, right? We don't, we don't do the MJBiz party to make a big profit and you know, to be transparent with you, it's really, it pays for itself, and we just kind of do it to really just keep our you know, keep our name out there, but also to bring people together to create these opportunities for them. And honestly, there's more, I guess you would say, case studies, even though not like an official case study, but people having really great business relationships start and are parties, to the point where some of our sponsors are just like, you know, hey, we got our booth in MJBiz, it was great, you know, we met people, but honestly is like, I've never had more business relationships formed, then doing your event and having those face to face, more relaxed conversations. Because I think when you're standing at your booth, and everyone's just doing the whole business shuffle, here's my card, here's your card, you know, yeah, you know, here's my, you know, or, you know, it gets very sort of transactional. But at parties, I think there's that more kind of looseness and more kind of like actual meeting the person and not like speaking to their representative, you know, it's more like you get to know the real them when you're maybe consuming a little having a cocktail, whatever, right, its kind of loosens everybody up. So I guess I would say, you know, I think our party serves a very important purpose in terms of solidifying those relationships, as much as MJBiz has for creating the initial conversations that people have.

David Paleschuck 

Right. You know, you mentioned something which I think is really important is, you know, is that this is essentially MJBiz is an end your party, right, but it seems like your party is more for industry insiders that have been around for a while, but MJBiz is really a hub, you know, for people to come and learn. And the truth is, and you hit the nail on the head, we've we live in Washington State in Seattle, we have been absolutely drowning is in California, the three of us have been absolutely spoiled in terms of almost a decade in a regulated market.

Adriana Hemans 

The old heads, as you said, wear that title proudly, I'll be an old head all day.

David Paleschuck 

So it's important for us to come back full circle, that there are new markets and that those people in those new markets come to MJBiz to learn about it. And you know, and I think just, it's important to call out that with 35,000 people coming to the show, this show is massive, and there's so many things that are at the show from lights and soils and nutrients for cultivators all the way through to packaging and branding services, accounting and legal services. You name it, you know, and so it's quite impressive and quite overwhelming. And so one of the things you know that we'll drop off later, you know, that will Put later, at the end, this will leave some resources, you know, you know, for folks to sort of better understand how to work their way through the show, you know, the newbies that have been there. And then even just some of the, you know, hot parties happening, which will drop a little bit later as well, you know, so if people want to make it into, you know, the nightlife and the after party scene, they could do it. But it's, it's important for us to realize still how fragmented the industry is, and that this is one of the biggest event or the biggest event, you know, brings, brings people together. You know, so I'd like to just throw out a quick question, you know, as we is, you know, you and I, and the agenda, and the folks that typically, you know, listen in are all focused often on branding, or the, the interplay of branding with products and operations and business in general.

So, MJBiz has just recently, I guess, the year, the year before last, or maybe the year, right before the pandemic, you know, they brought in the whole of flowers, and I think that was a way of sort of getting closer to the retail brands, you know, where his Hall of Flowers was, again, you know, soils, nutrients, lights, agriculture products, packaging products, but not necessarily, no brands really showing up there. Right. So when they packaged with when they partnered with Hall of Flowers, all of a sudden, there was an area where there were cannabis brands showing up. And that's even going to happen more so this year, because it's been expanded. So would you? Would you talk about that? The question here is, how important is branding in the cannabis equation?

James Zachodni 

I think it's important to sort of look at it, how they did where they're looking at. I think trade shows, in general have a very, have started to have a bad habit of sort of just throwing everyone in this room as far as like vendors go, and, you know, booths and stuff, and doesn't really have like a clear, I guess you'd say, like identity as far as like, why am I going to the show, right? Like, yeah, you can go around, like you said, you're going to see just a bunch of machines, and all these different things that you may not even apply to you, if you're, you know, in a different, you know, segment of the industry. So, I like the idea of sort of breaking off in a different area to kind of be more focused on brand. And I think that's important, because I think there's nothing else really that's bigger in this industry right now than brand because you got to separate yourselves, right. And as things get bigger, and more markets, open brands, as you know, David, you know, this is something you and I probably talked about, you know, to exhaustion in many closed room doors during the dark days. But I do think there's, you know, just something there to make sure that everyone, you know, understands that branding is so important, I think by MJBiz, taking that step to create this sort of brand focused area, you know, I think that's great, because I do think, you know, you can get lost in the sea of, you know, unbranded sort of machines in that world, right, when you go to MJBiz, but hey, if I, if I want to open a retail store, I want to start a new, you know, product, like, where do I go for that, and now I can kind of go into a more focused area where they're really, you know, showcasing some of the top brands that are out there. So I do I do like that relationship, I think it was a smart pivot for him to business sort of, you know, kind of start moving more that direction and not moving the direction completely.

But you know, segregating those two out a little bit more, so I can be a little bit more focus, because it's overwhelming when you go there. I mean, you're going rows and rows and rows, it feels like, you know, football fields have just boots, and boots, you know, so, you know, it's kind of like, you know, how can I just go to the area I need to go to and not be kind of overwhelmed by everything else. But, you know, I do, I do have to commend MJBiz, too. And just to kind of pivot back to the party side of it is that they, you know, when they got acquired by emerald, it was an interesting move, and everyone's kind of, oh, you know, what's going to happen? What's going to change? You know, and I think the essence of MJBiz has pretty much stayed the same as far as it becomes the destination, cannabis, you know, kind of weak and stuff like that.

But I do think that, you know, they started opening their eyes more to understanding why parties are important, and after parties are important. And, you know, I'll be the first to tell you that we tried for many years, it's sort of like, reach out to them and, you know, create a relationship to be part of the ecosystem of MJBiz, because we're like, hey, we know that people come to MJBiz, and may not even go to the conference. They come for the parties, you know, and I think that they were kind of naive to that for a long time, you know, early on, and now they're starting to be like, you know, what, maybe we should lean into this a little bit more, and they now started kind of this affiliate umbrella of, you know, parties and events that are, you know, say not, you know, MJBiz official, like they're doing it parties, but third party sort of affiliated parties, which I think is great, because I do, you know, we always wanted to sort of show that we support MJBiz, and we understand that, hey, we're only there because of them, you know, we're not going to just publican party in Las Vegas for no reason we're piggybacking off of what they do. And you know, this is the first year that we actually have an official relationship with them. So they're doing you know, ticket giveaways that do their socials and different things like that. So it's really exciting to finally, you know, see that, you know, they see us as a valuable partner, because they understand that people really do love going, and MJBiz is not just for the conference, but for the parties too.

Adriana Hemans 

We just completed a LinkedIn poll just to see how my network feels about it. And 33% said, The after parties are their favorite part. So we're not alone in focusing on this one as the most important aspect.

David Paleschuck 

And I think it's, I think it's really awesome that, that there is now a bridge and a connection between, the Farechild events and MJBiz. And that, and that both are recognizing how important it is, and that is the industry. But, absolutely, more people are talking about what party they're going to then then what booths are they are they showing up to. James, we've, we've come to the end of our show, and I just want to thank you so much, for not only what you continue to do, but for what you have done, you clearly left a mark on the industry and continue to do great things and, and nothing but respect for you. We really appreciate it. And we're looking forward to seeing you next Thursday night in Las Vegas.

James Zachodni 

Yeah, we'll be there. And yeah, Thanks, as well. You know, this is awesome platform, and I anticipate many more awesome shows that I'll be tuning into. And, yeah, we'll see you at Shangri La and everyone else who's going to be there? Hopefully, I'll be able to, you'll see me flying through the crowd like usual and give you a quick high five and a hug and off to more fires to put out so it's not for a lack of me wanting to hang out and party. But you know, you can find my partner David Tran to take shots and have a great time. But I'll be I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but all for the greater cause of throwing a great night and creating those memories. So we'll see you guys there for sure.

Adriana Hemans 

Thanks, James.

David Paleschuck 

Thank you so much, James.

Adriana Hemans 

Well, that went by fast.

David Paleschuck 

It always goes by fast, doesn't it?

Adriana Hemans 

We’ve posted a few links in the chat. One is our first timers guide. If you're going to MJBiz for the first time and want some guidance. Another link is to a list of after parties. Good luck siphoning through because there's a lot of them. David and I will not be going live next week because we will be at the MJBiz event and then we're going to be eating some turkey the following week, as it’s Thanksgiving. We'll be back in three weeks.

David Paleschuck 

That's right. It’s just crazy that December is upon us. On Thursday, December 1st, our guest will be Brett Puffenbarger, VP, Greencheck Verified. He is a cannabis influencer and LinkedIn heavy hitter. Find out more about Branding Bud Live on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@brandingbudlive). and more about our consulting services at (https://www.brandingbud.com).

Adriana Hemans 

Once again, don’t forget to check out David’s book, “Branding Bud, The Commercialization of Cannabis”, the bestselling book in two (2) categories (“Branding & Logo Design” and “Green Business”) on Amazon. You can find out more and purchase the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Branding-Bud-Commercialization-David-Paleschuck/dp/1936807513

If you missed any of our episodes on LinkedIn, you could find them on our Branding Bud Live YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@brandingbudlive). Find out more about our consulting services at (https://www.brandingbud.com). Thanks, everybody.

Have a great rest of your day. Bye!