Berner on Beating Cancer, Who Owns Cookies, Josh from RAW Beef & More

30:16yeah was that wise? Like when I'm reading that in the book, I'm like, holy shit, he just gave up 40 % in situations where I guess it was probably useful to you because you didn't really have the capital. Yeah, I don't really have the capital in order to have the knowledge, right? So at one point in time, cookie was just kind of like a concept, but it's just a hoodie with a design. By giving that first 20 % away, I got cutting. So I got backpacks, wallets, beanies, belts. I got rolling trays. I got all the accessories. My brand went from just a printable to a whole line overnight, right? And then you got all this stuff going.

30:48you're doing five million dollars a year or whatever maybe you're kind of popping then what was the next step let's get into wholesale let's get this shit popping let's get into boutiques and stores and zoomies and stuff like that so by giving that 50 to the sales rep right he was able to take that shit from i think he took it from like five million we hit like 60 million dollars a year in clothing so i feel like it was a very smart move at the time to to go ahead and do what i did because it really scaled the company yeah definitely um so how do you but what's your outlook on bootlegging at this point because there's been a couple different times over the years where I interviewed somebody and they were wearing a cookies fit and the people informed them in the comments that they were wearing fake cookies.

31:24I think it's the biggest form of flattery. I think it's like a great cheerleader. I feel like if people are wearing your clothes and they're going to the extent of like making fake clothes and then you know you're popping still. I feel like when it gets quiet you got to be worried. Yeah right can you even tell what's fake and what isn't fake? For the most part yeah I mean I don't know every single piece that's fake and what's not but you can kind of tell like by like shady logo placing and shit like that. Yeah, but they have to be pretty good at this point too, right? Because if it was your full-time job to bootleg other people's designs, you'd probably be able to get pretty close.

31:52I just thought about 80 % of cookies right now. I ate 5, 80. 80, okay. That's good. Do you think that those rumors, though, come from the fact that the business model that you guys kind of designed for the dispensaries was that you would rather take a 5 % cut of profits than own an actual percentage of it? For sure, yeah. I think a lot of people, they misunderstand what it is. You have the IP of a company, which is the whole heart and everything. When you sell a company, you sell your IP. So I own a majority of the IP for the company. When it comes to individual operations, I don't own that. That's all in design, though.

32:29If we ever want to go public on the NASDAQ, we can't be plant-touching. We can't own dispensaries. We can't own grows. And that's the way the bigger play went in. We want to go public on the NASDAQ. yeah so i kind of built my company like that so while you might go to a dispensary i might have like you might they might see public feuds or partners stuff oh he doesn't even own it well i don't own the individual assets but i own the business that actually licensed their business to the assets right so it's like it's just it's kind of confusing we have a very confusing business model but it all makes sense one day people like i get it i get what you did yeah i had somebody say to me at one point they're like you got to understand this a couple years ago they're like You got to understand that with Berner and Cookies, he's kind of biding his time right now because of the federal situation that it's like Berner would probably like to be growing cookies at a more rapid rate.

33:18Obviously, the lawsuit, everything kind of gets in the way of that, I'm sure. But they kind of explained it to me like cookies can't grow to what it wants to be right now because of the federal situation. So they sort of need to bide their time and find stuff to do to keep the brand relevant. but ultimately the play for the brand is going to be getting it legal on a federal level. Yeah, because here's like a bird's eye view strategy. So if I want to go raise hundreds of millions of dollars from day one, right, to go build my grows out personally so I can actually have my people in there growing our product and doing everything hands-on, vertically integrated, right, I would have went from that percentage I have all the way down to this, right?

33:58Okay, it would have shrunk big time. But if I were able to license my brand out to people, grow the revenue, get a bigger valuation, right? So now if I raise money, it's going to go like this instead of like this. If I can go out there, get a bigger valuation, plant my flag everywhere. One day we IPO, we raise money for cheap. Then we go build our own facilities. It's a whole different ballgame. I believe in transparency. I tell my fans what it is. I'm like, look, dude, we're building right now for a bigger play. And if I can go raise money for cheap, if I go public, I can go raise$100 million and barely dilute and go build up my facilities the way I want to, we'll redial it in.

34:33We'll work backwards if we have to. It's going to suck. In the meantime, certain markets might not get the quality that we can produce if we had it in our own hands, but we're building our company big. And so I feel like sooner we're going to have a situation where I can possibly IPO, go raise money for a great price, and go build my shit out myself, and everything will be dialed in the way I want to. I also have a chance to find the best partners in each market. I've been able to do a bunch of research, right? So it's hard sometimes for people on the ground to understand the bigger play, the bigger view, I know exactly what I'm doing.

35:02I did not want to dilute back in the days. If I were to raise$100 million to build my shit out, like my brother Ivan at Jungle Boys, he does his stuff himself. He was able to build himself his stuff. It took a little slower for him. He actually controls his destiny, which I really appreciate. I'm going to be there one day soon. I said, I'm going to have to go do it and dilute it so hard. Yeah, because even reading you do a little bit of an autopsy or a funeral for med men in the book, I forgot about med men. You were seeing that logo everywhere for a year or two there. and it's just like another example of a big corporate company that tried to do their thing in the weed space and it didn't really work they went too big too fast they didn't have the heart they didn't have the people inside the company that are passionate about cannabis people believe it or not I've been throwing fits about a lot of things regarding cookies for a long time but I didn't really have my control where I wanted to be right now the reason why I say I own 80 % it's a very long story to be in the next but I have control right now I finally got it back so it's gonna be good yeah i mean you'd rather have control and a larger percentage of it than you know go really really big and have a small percentage because you kind of you've experienced that to a certain extent yeah i've experienced i already went through that and like things put out the way they did now i have control back on my hands i really plan on building this thing out the right way yeah i know i know what we did right i know what we did wrong i know what i really really want to do you know so so is there a future like say 10 years from now i think we all kind of assume that in 10 years you'll be able to go to the the 7-eleven and buy some weed is that weed gonna suck does it have to suck because market forces will just make it the average person probably doesn't care enough to purchase high-end weed i think that for a majority of brands it probably will suck yeah especially because you know the way that things work in business if it's going to be federally legal a bunch of people will be able to raise money and the banks will be open and people will start a bunch of bullshit companies but so long as i'm alive and even after i die i'm putting plays in place that's going to ensure that there's quality firebrand because i really want to be i love weed bro i bond with people all around the world with weed and i kind of got my go i got my start by having great weed right so why don't i switch up later if there's a way to do it the right way you have to be smart about you have to actually really care about it right yeah because i mean i never go to dispensaries so you probably have a way different experience than me but i've had people tell me that when you go to the dispensary the most popular strains are not the the best weed it's it's way more low quality shit yeah i feel like you know people go to dispensaries that there's two different people that go to dispensaries people are just looking for a value yeah they're looking for a value buyer and there's people looking for like the best small batch freshest quality shit i think the way the laws are designed now it's really hard to put really good fresh products on the shelf yeah unless you're doing in-house you know from a to z she just has to the way that they make it get from from farm to shelf is crazy as the laws suck yeah so like the legalization for the rec market has that overall been a negative for the quality of weed.

37:51A hundred percent. Like back in the days I was able to buy shit from right there from whatever vendor is bringing it into me. I could put it on the show right there. Deli style. Out of jar. Boom. Here you go. Now you have to go take it. You have to package it a certain way. You have to list it at a certain time. You have to bring it and distribute it a certain way. It's just really f***ing things up. All those rules just really get f***ing away of it. It's terrible. What do you think the free market approach to it would be like though if there was just no regulations? Do you think there would be like similarly terrible outcomes?

38:20Maybe, but I think there's a way to dial in. I know what they want to do. I think there's a way that you sat down and listened to make it a lot easier for the operators or for the customers. It'd be a lot easier if they just sat down and listened to someone like myself or someone like Ivan from Jungle Boys or someone like Dave from Preferred. If they listen to people that actually know what they're doing, there's a way they can kind of get the regulation they want, but also give the customer a fresh product. Yeah, because sometimes people give me weed and then people I'm with will be like, no, these are all spray packs.

38:44And up until a couple of years ago, I didn't even know what that was. and so they're kind of like sort of showing me, showing me the weeds, seeing like look how weird it looks, right? I'm not even like knowledgeable enough to really be able to make that call on my own, but I guess that's the kind of thing that's the ultimate thing that comes around from this, right? I think there's a world to like have the testing in place and make sure people are not ingesting some bullshit. Yeah. I think the time it takes to get this product and to put it on the shelf is the problem. I think they just put too many steps in the way.

39:11Yeah. Damn, that makes sense. You should still be able to test and regulate it for sure. It should be easy. No, definitely. so what what advice would you give to somebody who was trying to start a weed brand in this day and age given that like so many of the techniques that you use to build up hype for cookies back in the day really sound kind of archaic in today's market yeah it's even tough for me right now to reach people i feel like the first advice i give you is make sure you really love what you're doing make sure you really love the weed game make sure you really love weed first thing first right second thing would be find a standout menu don't just go get the same shit everyone else has find something that makes yourself different how you do that go find a breeder find a breeder that wants to work with you make sure you have a real genex i guess the third thing would be like find a way to connect with customers outside of social media because i think today's travel today's weed brand is having the hardest time to reach people because social media is it's just it's i can't i can't post anything about weed i can't talk about weed i can't do shit about weed x you could do a little bit but the algorithms say are not on our side so find ways to connect with people outside social media and i feel like social media as a marketer is already just because Because it's so flooded.

40:18It's so hard to reach the people that actually go out of their way to follow you. Like even on Instagram reels, you know, 80 % of what you see is people that you don't follow. And then you add on top of that the censorship angle and the fact that it's just incredibly hard. We came up in the golden area of social media. Like the arrow where I pop cookies off, it was all free game. No one really thought about algorithm or who you're reaching, who can reach. And like this shit was popping. Now it's fucked up. Yeah. That goes for everything too. Even trying to promote the book, it's been tough. Really?

40:46because it's just hard to make posts about a book really do well. It's just hard to reach people. Bro, first of all, I've been stuck at 1.9 million followers for over five years. That's insane. You're telling me the Forbes cover, the Adage Award, the Clio Award, all the shit I've done in life didn't boost my shit at all a little bit. I talked to someone very high up in meds like, Byrne, you should be at like 13 mil right now. It doesn't make any sense. The way your page is growing in the back end is just stuck. It doesn't go anywhere. What's your account status look like? It's all green. Oh, it is.

41:17You can be shared with non-followerers. Because I had mine, so I couldn't be shared with non-followerers. I was in the same position for about two years. I finally got to someone. That's the person I got to. I met him. I'm like, look, dude, I'm not trying to do anything here. I'm not trying to do anything except understand why am I being so fucked. I don't post anything. There's just some very, very deep research from the back end of my page. I was getting snacked. I don't know what the fuck was hitting me. It was like a nuclear bomb hit my page. I'm like, look, it's higher than you expected. It's not like one of these guys is like, oh, take your page for 20 grand.

41:45It's bigger than that. There was someone high up paying on my shit. Yeah. We got it all green. It's been all green since, but I'm not reaching nobody like that. Yeah. Because I got out of that, and it feels like I'm not losing followers at the same rate, but it doesn't feel like it's growing in the same way. No, it's not. I think there's some good old boy club up there that gets to decide who gets to see people and who doesn't. Yeah, it's crazy. But at least we're not dope as Yolo, who's been through 30 accounts. I feel bad for my guy. He gets clipped no matter what. you know he's got a different level i don't understand now i can't get a cookies account popping for life for me a store opened up a page it'll be gone like within 30 seconds so that's one thing you know what my conspiracy is i think that someone was able to get you know how ai kind of flags certain things yeah i think someone was able to put the logo of my business inside of a program that just flags right away wow that's interesting because even when i post the clothing it is super shadow man yeah super it's just clothing yeah it's well i i know a dude who made like an El Chapo doll and he was getting like the AI knew what the fuck he was trying to do and they were blamping him for that left and right and that really made me like holy shit yeah it's a different it's a different level of it's Manny right now for sure yeah so like what okay so I was thinking about this is that it feels like social media and the idea of doing content that is really going to like reach a large audience from a marketing standpoint just does not work in the same way that it used to it's kind of like so now all brands are trying to do marketing tend to go towards stuff like events stuff like anything where you can get any kind of real life interaction just because that seems like it has so much more meaning it's like very very hard to do anything online that will scale and actually be effective from a marketing standpoint obviously there's exceptions to that especially when you're talking about like real real massive celebrities but it feels like now it's like smaller gestures and things that can kind of connect with people on more of a one-to-one basis as opposed to like real scalable viral content because everything that's viral is not like the kind of stuff that makes you want to buy something you see you see clips of Aiden Ross and Neon and all these guys non-stop but like it doesn't uh create that mentality of like oh I want to buy this it's more of just like you know it creates more fame and Notoriety, yeah.

44:04Yeah, I mean, so from your perspective, what actually moves the needle? Marketing. I feel like organic. I feel like cell phone clips move actually more than overproduced clips. I noticed when I do a cell phone clip behind the scenes or something, it pops away more than overproduced content. I feel like definitely call to action. Like, yo, I got this book. Who wants one? Okay, there'll be other content, right? There'll be other comments. I feel like call to action definitely works. I feel like right now my whole thing is in person now. i just want to pull up like on my tour where i sold a bunch of books because i just did meet and greets i partied with local bookstores on the tour and what i did my mean greet mean creek came with a book and we just bought the books from a local bookstore so you have to get creative on the way you sell things now you know yeah yeah i mean because it's like you do an in-store appearance at a dispensary or whatever and let's say you get to shake hands and sign an autograph or take a photo with 500 people which actually 500 is so many people don't really realize that but like a hundred person meet and greet if you spend five minutes with each person is like many many hours of time you know but then you're also like creating content for social media through that and that's kind of like yeah i think i think like real life moments like clipping up that like in like documenting real life things like i was talking about like i'm really excited about like producing like a real featured like a real high-end documentary about where i'm at with the cookies right now we're about to take it to the next i really want to document i wish i would I've documented a lot more in the past, but I feel like I'm documenting about where I'm at right now with the business, what happened to the business, how I'm going to take it to the next level and avoid those same kind of things.

45:39I feel like that would be super fire. I feel like the clips I can get from that, I feel like the moments I get, you know, sharing people through that is going to be super effective. I feel like it's better than like posting on Instagram. Hey guys, we just opened up Minnesota to come pull up. It's like, nah, I'm going to show we went to what we went through to open up Minnesota. Yeah. Sit down with the partners, show the grow, build out, show that we're actually doing things in house. And like, i will just show the different levels of shit and i feel like that's like the best way to reach people yeah it's crazy too though because it's like you can make the most informational educational content imaginable but then you still have to find the hook that's going to make people actually watch the reel or click the youtube video or whatever and that is a it's a tricky thing you know i'm very curious i have a movie coming on uh in the summer uh that kind of like i produced myself and I shot an SF and I think it's gonna be dope I'm trying to figure out how the market this movie because like traditional marketing is just shot I'm like okay do I'm gonna clip farmers I want to put in front of people and get the reacts like what I want to do to roll this movie this is a big deal for me yeah cuz even like you know traditional movies the the rule is that you got to spend as much as you spend making it marketing I'm scared of that yeah I already put two million dollars on my movie and yeah I was like kind of like get shorty I'm like that was gonna make a movie and boom it's gonna be easy it's good i've been seeing this movie for two years dog the majority of it you filmed two years ago yeah it's been done for it's been done for almost like two years now damn and so your main concern is marketing are you like doing a lot of editing well i found no it's already edited i found the right partner i found a big studio partner with it took some time to do that but i feel like now now i have this partner like when i get my release date how am i gonna roll it out that's what i'm trying to figure out yeah definitely i mean when you think about like a movie i hear about movies all the time that you know i i they spent 50 million dollars marketing it and i don't find out about it until i see some random controversy related to like the actress from the movie saying something rude to a reporter or some bullshit like that and then that also makes you think like oh okay so how much of this stuff is planted or paid for like do they have like some random viral moment that then they dump money into pushing that narrative because that's the kind of thing that somebody like me was really not invested might actually pay attention to for sure you already know they got sneaky ass tactics for sure yeah that's uh the crazy part is that that might be what's necessary to really push the movie create some drama on my movie yeah definitely um okay so how do you look at opening a dispensary as a business in 2026 because i feel like there used to be so much enthusiasm around it 10 years ago and now when i look at it it just feels like this is just not something that almost anybody is eager to take part in no i mean opening a store now is very dangerous uh the way i look at it now is just really just self-space like i'm really looking at putting more wholesale efforts out there like really starting to be you know beat the block up there's big chains out there have done a great job the family stores they want to take that they want to take that mission on you know so i feel like i'm just i'm looking at like more i'm more focused on products this year probably new genetics smaller batch drops if we if we do open up a store i'm looking at like just opening a store to have shelf space i'm not really worried about making money on that store just more using that store to push product um do you because like one thing that you say in the book and it's kind of common knowledge for anybody who knows what the weed game is that marketing is basically everything but you're somebody who came in the game with a real real understanding of the genetics and the different types of weed and stuff and that that's something that clearly like that's one of the first things that you mentioned like what what's the balance of that of like knowing that the quality of the product is so important but then also knowing that putting it in the right colored bag is probably going to be the thing that really draws people to it right color bag the right like the right rollout of it the right logos for the right like bag design you see people getting hella creative now with bag designs it's like new york they're selling shit that comes like toys and memorabilia and items like that so i feel like you have to kind of like there's a fine balance of like Like, you don't want to be the guy that has a one-time sale.

49:37Like, you sell it because it looks cool, but it's just trash. For me, I'm old school. I'm a real smoker. I feel like I really like to base my brand around genetics. Like, right now, we're really pushing blueberry caviar. That's just really popping from me right now. I feel like I'm less interested in packaging, even though I kind of, like, started the whole wave with packaging and had, like, a great, you know, branding for our brand. I feel like I'm really focused on the weed. Like, we have clear bags right now, like sandwich bags. Okay. Like, old school glad bag, and we're just trying to let the weed talk.

50:05That's just my approach right now in 2026 because I feel like I can't really keep up with kids with packaging because two things. One, it's a lot to keep up with, and two, we have much bigger eyes on us. If I do something with packaging, everybody, oh, regulations say you can't do that. You have to take it off or that, this, and that. Everyone else, they can just do whatever the fuck they want. We have so many fucking eyes on us. It's insane. Damn. Yeah, so I think that it really, if you're going to put some out in 2026, make sure it smokes. Yeah. Damn, yeah, because when I think about it, I've seen every kind of packaging to the point of true absurdity, you know?

50:38Yeah, me too. I can't do anything fun at all. Like, I design like shit that's not even edgy at all. Like, oh, no, that all against regulation. I'm like, what the fuck? What about this over here? Well, yeah, no one's looking at that right there like that. I'm like, fuck this fucked up. Okay, with all these regulations, does it not make sense at a certain point for you? I don't want to suggest anything illegal, but I watched a YouTube video about the dude from Bape who like at a certain point was bootlegging his own clothing and making huge amounts of money from like selling on the black market, which makes sense.

51:09If you know that people are going to bootleg it, maybe you could just bootleg it yourself. Unfortunately, I probably got a bunch of feds waiting for me to do that. They're probably just waiting for my day to do that. I just sit back. I think that we have a big advantage of our other brands in the sense that we're global in different countries and stuff like that. So I just got to keep the shit hot, keep the genetics interesting, and keep the menus fresh. Does it still feel like the law enforcement is very concerned with you, or does it feel like you're past that? I don't think they're concerned with me because I don't do anything, but I do have PTSD from back in the days, big time.

51:40Yeah. Yeah. But you never had any, like, serious cases? No, I never had. I've never been to jail. But, you know, just like they were f***ing me for a while. It's in the book. Yeah. They f***ed me for a while. Yeah. But it doesn't sound like it got as bad as it definitely probably could have. No, no, I'm good. I just understand when you're a bigger, just that we're a bigger target. that goes for everything else too the second i try to make me a little brown bag money about brown i'm gonna take him down make an example of this yeah definitely okay what about like the influencer space because that's one thing that you speak on in the book is that you are having some of the most relevant influencers rappers etc of that era of we're talking about you know 2010 to the 2016 type era and these are people who you know you're really able to like organically get them to promote and push cookies and now when i think about it like i know people who've tried to pursue you know clothing endorsements for the biggest streamers or the biggest rappers and it definitely feels like a different uh ball game at this point just because so many of these uh people kind of know that they're worth six figures to put their endorsement on something well how do you approach that i talk about in the book too i think if it's not organic if it's not real if it's not just happening naturally it probably won't work even if you pay someone a million dollars to rock your shit they're gonna treat you like a trick yeah you know where at one time take a picture for you they're gonna post it themselves people don't want shit they're getting paid for they want shit that they want to be a part of right i feel like there's even i can't talk about who it is but i have a huge collaboration with cookies right now from someone i didn't think would even put us like huge huge huge huge i'm like this dude i don't even think he'd ever with us but he wants to do it he wants to get in that space he wants to do something with us I'm like man that's huge but it's real it's organic right it's not I'm not paying him to do shit he's it's a we're gonna break bread evenly so I feel like if you can find ways to connect with people that have juice that have some kind of platform just make sure it's organic not saying like not discouraging people like don't go pay people or don't don't get influencers on deck it just it's hard when it comes to brands I feel like it was kind of tough especially clothing you know yeah I feel like you should just find ways to push it in people's hands and see if it sticks yeah do you think like like a weed brand that is also a popular clothing brand, is there always going to be some sort of contradiction in the people's minds with that?

53:59Where like something that's weed oriented is always going to not seem like a supreme or like a designer luxury brand to them? Like is there some? I don't think so because I was able to do it. If I could do it, they could do it. You know, if I could do it, you could do it. So someone gifted me a sweater on tour and it was like with a weed bag and the sweater was flowers. I brought that shit for like three days. It was amazing. yeah i feel like if you just put your heart into it don't skip no corners make some dope to dope shit that stands out it could particularly pop is it weird because with cookies it's such a big brand that if you guys are going to really go out of your way to work with somebody it's typically going to be like a really big name big influencer whereas you know i do feel like sometimes the the cosigns that you get from like more underground figures can be the ones that are actually popped you off yeah that moved the needle but at a certain point you guys are so big that it's hard to pay attention to sort of like micro influencers yeah i kind of lean on folks that really have their eyes on everything for shit like that like i'm i would prefer a bunch of micro influencers honestly because they're the ones on the streets getting busy and like if they blow up with you it's big like if they're you know people are like people look at like whiz and currency back in the days rock and diamond it was big it was big they were big but they weren't like they are now you know so it's like you want you want young artists to kind of grow with you yeah i feel like if i could i mean i love to work with micro influencers yeah no definitely we're about to launch our ladies line here so like i've been waiting to do a female shit for cookies for a long time and i feel like i want to do that like that i'm going to get like people that buzz like ladies that buzz like you know small buzz micro influencers for that for sure i don't go after like a cardi b or a nicky like i don't go after someone big it wouldn't make sense i want to go get like young people out there making moving shaking and shit like that right because i mean i have i've seen that where you know i've seen weed brands kind of go all in doing a collaboration or with a really big artist that they probably have to pay a million plus dollars how many times has it ever worked though ah yeah it doesn't work dude yeah it doesn't work because again i'm a rap cat if someone comes to bring me a bag i'm into it right there but when they leave unless it's something super special i'm not really going to be it's not my shit i got paid to do it when you get paid to do it, you do your job and you leave.

56:12Not saying I'm not going to do a good job for them, but someone brings me something like, burn, I f*** with this. People bring me shit all the time. I actually f*** with it. So if someone brings me something like, yo, this is the new shit going, man, what's up with this? I want to be involved. They'll probably get more out of me than if someone says, here's 10 grand, post this for me. I'm down to do that business all day. If you want to bring me the bag, cool, but I'm just trying to give people advice. When you approach someone with something dope, naturally, it'll go a lot farther than if you pay them.

56:36Yeah, yeah, definitely. What about buying, billboards or if you could buy TV ads. Do you feel like that's the future of weed advertising or it doesn't work? I would never do that. Why? I just feel like it just... The amount of money you have to spend for a billboard campaign or a TV commercial you could use giving product to bud tenders that actually are selling your product. You could use that money to people like your staff here. You got dope ass people around here smoke. But if I was going to use money, I'd come... Here you go. Putting product in people's hands is probably the most effective marketing.

57:09I thought it was like you think like a billboard campaign is probably going to be like 10 to 80 grand even a couple hundred grand which we can give away for a couple hundred grand yeah but it's like it scales right like it creates like a familiarity with people in their mind with the name of the product that you might not ever be able to get doing like sort of hand to hand marketing right yeah but no I made fun of MedMen for doing a huge billboard campaign it doesn't make any sense I can get more action from like sitting down with you talking about weed you know yeah but to be fair MedMen which I have never been to and I don't go to dispensaries but I'm familiar with the name because I guess I saw it on enough buses and billboards you know.

57:45But seeing it and actually like spending money on it are two different things. Yeah and really that kind of advertising at least in my mind makes it lame. Yeah I feel like it's hard if you want to go after customers give away product. If you want to go after clout go do a billboard campaign. I'm trying to make some money. Right because okay there was at one point where I was talking about doing a weed line with somebody or whatever and they were talking about marketing and they're like we need to have our product be available from all the top like trap weed dealers like the guys who pull up on wrappers in the studios and sell them weed and i was really kind of surprised that he even saw that as being an important avenue and because from my mind that's so micro it's so small but at the same time i guess those are the people that you want to have your people putting people's hands they're putting shit in people's hands that's what i'm saying like hand to hand is a way to go yeah yeah they'd be smart saying okay i'm gonna give these guys x amount of money to go put shit in people's hands when they pull up to a studio or something like that yeah no yeah it's just like when you when you look at that it's like oh okay we've kind of been through this whole like social media marketing era where that was the only thing that people could think of and now it feels like maybe we're at another point where the hand-to-hand.

59:00I mean, think about like for the Amigos. I love the Amigos. Shout out to the Amigos. You know what I'm saying? They promoted cookies hella naturally. I never did no business with them on that. It's like they were fans of the Bud. They were getting blood put in their hands by other people, not me. They were rapping about cookies. That shit blew up. Yeah. So I feel like it's just that natural shit really works. Yeah. Okay, so I got to ask you about this because we've talked about it on the podcast quite a bit in the past, But where did things go wrong with my boy Josh from Raw? Are you guys still at odds?

59:31You still have never had a conversation? I mean, look, I'm willing to sit down with the guy. He's not willing to sit down with me. I don't know what it is. I'm not going to try to understand what it is. I just feel like that guy is very territorial in his space. Maybe that's why he's winning. I don't know. But I feel like I'm a hippie at heart. The guy, I don't want no problems with this guy. I have enough problems that we discussed today. But Josh is just not willing to sit down with me. Last time I saw Josh, I pulled up to him At an event at Champs I went up to him, I said, listen bro I have no problem with you man, give me a fucking hug Give him a hug I said, bro, I don't want no problems with you anymore Let's stop We both got money, this is ridiculous There's enough room for everyone Let's figure out a way to fucking break some bread, I'm over it I got a call from the trade show next week And said, listen, you cannot go around that guy anymore You can't I never went back to the trade show again I'm like, bro, this guy is not he's not willing to let whatever weird energy out there he's not willing to let it go bro you set it up I'll stay with him right here anytime on the path forward for peace because I've been at it with him for a long time and you guys were on good terms up until you debuted a rolling paper the vibes brand and that was just basically as soon as that came out that just kind of deaded the relationship it just got weird and I'll tell you like I told him Josh you're the biggest in the game brother like I'm a fan of yours and what you built.

1:00:53Vibes is not even a threat to anything you're doing. Vibes is just something I want to do because I'm the weed guy. I have a grinder company. I have all kinds of different kinds of apparel. I just want to do a paper. So I'll say it publicly. I have no problem with Josh. I would love to speak to Josh. He's not willing to speak to me. And all this nonsense the last five years is ridiculous. I look up to dude. I was a fan of his. I tried to do business with him. I think the problem was he was not willing to let other people and I think they hear the same story from other people I'm an entrepreneur I'm a hustler by heart I just wanted to try to make some bread and I feel like if you could understand he's the big dog he owns that space 100 % guys like me that he thinks are problems they're enemies or threats there's nothing like that I'm not a threat to him I'm not an enemy to him I'm dealing with fighting billionaires right now I'm worried about fucking Josh but the energy there is weird and open invitation anytime to sit down on a podcast I've told multiple people that.

1:01:49I guess I see it from his perspective where he felt like he, in a lot of ways, brought rolling papers to the mainstream, right? So let me tell you like this. I'm the first big brand of cannabis, right? What if I was acting like him to everyone else? Yeah, exactly. Bro, I welcome everybody to come break bread with me. I welcome everyone to build their brand. I give people advice. I wrote a whole book on how to f***ing build your brand. When you gatekeep something like that, it's going to be a f***ing... It's just not right. So my whole thing is like, I get what he's saying, but again, it makes no sense.

1:02:18Even if he did feel that way, he's a big dog. He's the biggest. He's the biggest. Like I told him last time I spoke to him, you're the biggest, you're the best. None of us could ever touch you. Be comfortable in that. Remember who you are. Don't be jaded because I'm trying to do a paper. I'm not doing a paper company that hurts you. I could never get close to you. I know no one could ever get close to this. There's young trappers out there with major motion. They're making waves, but bro, they ain't done with cookies. I'm very comfortable at night with that. you know bro I see with a lot of women bro you have confidence brother maybe old boy doesn't have any confidence I don't know but I'm very confident in who I am or what I bring to the game I wish he was confident in who he is and what he brings to the game like all of us as outsiders we look at him like he should have maximum confidence in the brand hundreds of millions of dollars a year of rolling paper and he owns the whole game yeah cause like I interviewed him and then at a certain point I like looked up his net worth somebody mentioned in the comments or something and I'm like oh you got multiple hundreds of millions.

1:03:15Like I didn't realize. If I was Josh, I would embrace all these people like myself or Dope Buzziola or other people that want to do Rolling Papers. I'd be the Coca-Cola of that. Well, you think you got smoked for Dope Buzziola too? I don't know. Well, I think I heard him mention in that in a video though. Maybe. It clicked on a clip. The point being is if I'm the plug, right? If I'm the plug, if I'm daddy in that space, right? Yeah. I would be Coca-Cola. I'd say, listen, you're going to go do your own thing. Let me manufacture it for you. Let me sell it for you. Let's break some bread together.

1:03:42keep everything in one house yeah it's crazy because i was in the bmx game for so long and that's a game where everybody's making the same shit you know you make a grip a tire a pedal i mean they're all like two percent different from each other they got a different logo on the side maybe it's a different color this month or whatever but it's all the same shit and all those companies get along because at a certain point it's like listen we're all in this game we're all trying to turn a profit or do something good for this community it and and at the same time it's very cutthroat you know you you come up with a new style of seat every other company is going to want to copy the style of seat because they're all fighting for the same market share but at the end of the day if you really care about the the culture of the thing that you're supporting here it's like you know you got to be able to look at you still talk to josh now i haven't talked to him in a while but he'll still hit me up on social media here and there yeah bro wants to have you come down let's sit down let's let's break some bread let's let's smoke a jay let's let's figure out what's going on i will try that i'll try to lewis farrakhan that situation well you think he's like telling himself stories about you being a bad guy at this point like you got to kind of build it up in his head like that i'm an easy villain for him i mean everything that goes wrong with his life is because i mean i have not thought about the guys that just brought him up i don't really focus on my babies and building my business back up and releasing my movie and my book and i'm big dog in my space he's big dog in this space i wish we could just talk but he's it's i guess it's past that i don't really know but i don't see what i'm gonna give a i just think it's funny because i know if you hit him up he'd come up with the whole story why is like i said that he's a really bad breath you know there's got to be a similar line on it though too because i i might not have ever known that you had a rolling paper company if it wasn't for that beef yeah as a person who's not really in the market i mean you know my whole thing is like bro there's there's plenty out there for i want to never gatekeep in the industry no one should do the same i feel it yeah i mean in the podcast space i feel like there's so many people that like want to beef over territorialism with the podcasting space but the way that always works out better is to have a relationship like me and Vlad or Ak or whoever where when you when you take the higher road and you take the bigger path I I love to see young entrepreneurs I like to see people eat I like to see people build their things like I feel like you're like that too I see working with a lot of podcasters I see you in beefs as well but like you're more welcoming to people than you are like you I did this first you know yeah bro if you're good at what you do you're fine I mean you accept at a certain point that this is something that the same reason why I want to do it is going to be the same reason why other people want to do it you know you're not the only guy who likes smoking weed a lot of people like smoking weed so there's gonna be a bunch of rolling paper companies for sure like right now in my space there's there's a uh a brand popping called toad venom right i just we hear say i want to see it i want i'll keep hearing about like let me see who got it back for me i embrace i like that shit like that yeah i like to see people emotion because bro i've already done it yeah and as soon as you shut off everybody else all of a sudden your cosign seems inauthentic because as soon as you say cookies is the best weed and every other type of weed is dog shit and I don't want it anywhere near me, the average fan is going to look at that and say, well, I know that's not true because I know there's this guy down the street that he makes some dope ass weed too and Burner's a fucking liar if he acts like they don't.

1:06:47I've never been like that, never will. In fact, when you go to cookie stores, it's like 75 % other brands. It's like 20 % cookies, bro, at the most. I like other weed brands. I like weed. I'm a weed guy. It's cool. Much love to homie. hopefully one day it comes to his senses i'm not the problem no definitely um okay but so did you you actually managed to gain some kind of daylight when it comes to the the social media censorship stuff right because you you at a certain point your instagram deleted and you you created like another one and stuff but then i noticed you got it back was there ever a moment where through instagram or meta you were able to like come to some degree of like okay they're not going to keep attacking my account?

1:07:26I went to the CEO. Okay. I went to headquarters. I'm a big dog, too. They actually gave you a meeting? Yeah. That's pretty big. Yeah. Sat down with the top dogs over there. I was like, look, dude, I understand your regulations. I don't post weed. I don't post anything for sale. I don't do any of that. I'm a family guy. I run multiple businesses. Look at my page and tell me I've done anything wrong. They looked at it and said, you've done nothing wrong. Matter of fact, your account's more attacked than anything we've ever seen. We don't understand what the fuck is happening here. and it's funny because I've never told this story.

1:07:55I connected with the top dogs at Meadow. They got my page back and went down. Got my page back and went down. Got my page back. They're like, bro, this is the seventh time in two days. I'm like, guys, I'm telling you. This is like the top dogs bringing my shit back. And they couldn't explain why. They couldn't figure it out. Yeah. So the last time, they did something that's kept it on. And I noticed my reach is not the same. And this is not, I can't pay Meadow. It's a multi, whatever fucking business it is. they just understood I wasn't doing anything wrong and there was some weird foul play happening in the background because when they bring it back in front of them they brought it back, we're sitting there talking, boom, down.

1:08:30I'm like, how did that happen? I didn't even do anything. Okay, cool. They got it back. I leave. At night's time, boom, down. I'm like, guys, I hope you're just witnessing that. We do witness this. This is fucking crazy. I don't understand what the hell was happening. We can't talk about it. So it's some weird shit, but yeah, it's fixed now. That's dope. Yeah, it's just crazy i don't know i pulled up i pulled up to silicon valley i'm like that yeah yeah damn that's that's unbelievable um okay is thca valid yes what are your thoughts on its place in the market is it just as good as regular weed it's the same shit it's just growing in a hemp farm right there's the republicans legalize weed and there's a major loophole in the farm bill and people just don't want to understand it but we understand it very well and uh i wish i can get my hands a little more busy in that space i just don't have the time or the bandwidth i'm fighting a lot of good fights right now but it's very valid damn that's uh interesting to hear you say that because i feel like i i personally have just started messing with it at least with the edibles and stuff and from my perspective it's like damn this shit is great it's the same shit brother yeah if you went to a dispenser right now and bought 10 products probably seven of them would test the same way the THCA test, but the difference is it was not grown in a licensed hemp farm.

1:09:48That's it, brother. That's it. It had to be grown in a licensed hemp farm. It had to test for a certain way. A lot of stuff that we smoke day to day, we test that way. Do you think it's not going to be legal for long? Because I understand there's like some. Oh, they're about to clip that shit, yeah. They are? Mm-hmm. Damn. So you think that's. Probably got like another year. Really? Wow. That's crazy. Yeah, it's wild. I interviewed the dude from. K-Smokes? Yes. Yeah. And he painted the picture for me, but I think that was before they knew that that legislature was kind of coming down the pipe.

1:10:17Yeah, it's about to be a wrap for that. I think I wish it wasn't. It was tight. Damn. So are you actually tapped in with when federal legalization could come around? Do you think we're better off with Trump or a Democrat? Well, I don't know. I don't have no clue when it could happen. I wish I did. But I feel like we're better off with this whole generation being out the way. I feel like we have to grow a little older, and we have to wait until people like me are UN position. Yeah. I feel like that whole generation that's in office, whether it be Democrat or Republican, has been brainwashed and has bigger powers paying them not to do certain things.

1:10:47So I feel like it's going to take someone like me or you and whoever we went to high school with that wants to be a politician to be in position. That's interesting because, I mean, on one hand, Trump is supposed to be pro-business. He's not. Yeah, well, on the other hand, the Republicans in general, I guess, don't really love weed or whatever it represents. There's a big lobby behind it, why it's not legal. Yeah. Yeah. And, damn, that's crazy. Um, okay. How important would you say like perception is in terms of, uh, your success? Cause I, I, I feel like, you know, I noticed there was like posts going around about you being on that sort of top five, uh, richest rappers list.

1:11:26And I was, I just found that interesting. I'm like, to what extent do you think that you appearing to be enormously successful is, is beneficial in the eyes of the consumer? it's good and bad I mean then people everyone wants a loan and shit like that people just think you have more than you actually have liquid I found out that the way they make the list is they look at people look at their businesses their assets things they own and they kind of value them like that I thought this whole time that you know Kanye West had a one billion dollars cash not the case at all has x amount of cash he has x amount of properties and he has a business that's about it like that that's why they said I'm worth 425 million because my liquid my assets and also what my business is valued at that time and moment so they do a lot of um a lot of due diligence it's like a like a two or three month thing they have to go to your business managers and go to your banks and your properties and they have to look at your business and run value like you can't just print that shit like it's not just a lie they have to do a lot of due diligence on that so i think it helped i think it hurt yeah because it's like on one hand you are a rapper and you kind of have a lot of fans and customers who i think are invested in the idea of somebody being extremely successful but then the other side of things it just seems like it opens up to you to a lot of criticism i'm i'm a dude from norcal you know what i'm saying that still lives out there so you're tangible you're talking people would touch you and they oh you got 425 million bucks like no it's not it's not i don't have that just sit in the bank it's my business sells one day that's why i'm gonna be you know you value that and whatnot my actual equity of the business whatnot so yeah you see that a lot on social media too where they want to tell you like elon must lost you know 100 billion dollars today it's just equity goes up yeah the value of his company goes up and down it's pretty cool to be featured on a list so i mean this is real shit yeah yeah definitely supposedly just to be like you're a rapper but you got the money through something else and that's yeah someone tried to tell me oh you know you're a rapper i got 46 albums out dude i make millions of dollars a year for my music you're lost well how am i different from those guys those guys spread their wings when's the last time dr j put out a good album yeah and most of the rappers realistically if you were just rapping then that's not gonna get you on one of those the reason why those people are on those lists is they spread their wings yeah i guess drake is kind of like the i'm surprised he was on the list but he's like the one dude who really has pretty much stuck to music for the most yeah but you would think drake's worth like a billion dollars but i think drake wants to be low-key about his income that's what i've heard yeah yeah i'm sure he could easily claiming to be a billionaire.

1:13:56I don't think he's ever said it. He got to be, though. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, Jay-Z, Kanye, and like, Billion, couple billion club, like, Jay-Z's, or Drake's got to be right there. He got to be, bro. He's been eating for a long time. Yeah. One of the most interesting anecdotes in the book is about you basically turning down both Diddy and Jay-Z when they tried to invest in cookies. So, give us a little bit of a rundown of how that went with Diddy first. he knows what he wants in life he's gonna be very persistent he's very passionate about trying to get a deal done but for me i was like i already kind of got my audience i already kind of have my identity as a brand and you know there's no disrespect to diddy but i just didn't feel right and that was before all allegations and shit like that but i just didn't feel right at the time and what year was this uh it was like 2021 2022 or something like that like max financial hysteria everybody thinking the weeds of the next giant thing he was juice on it he was juice on it i just i wasn't really into the deal but he was very persistent on trying to set up meetings so i took out of respect to me no matter what people say about diddy he's a boy in the space of like he's makes he makes waves he makes things pop and yeah back in the days i looked up to him and jay-z and 50 and and and just on their business you know the way they did their business so i i took a meeting out of respect i wasn't really interested into it jay-z was a little tougher for me because that's Jay-Z.

1:15:19He's very polite. He's very respectful. He wasn't as aggressive in trying to get a deal done. He kind of just put it out there. It didn't really work for both of us and kind of moved on. Never heard from him again. But I mean, that dude, he's a very smart deal. I would love to be able to figure something out with him, but it didn't really make sense at the time. Yeah, because that's like a crazy co-sign right there to just be the guy who's doing business. The rapper in me is like, I got to deal with Jay-Z. I'm making the worst mistake of my life. I told my partners, we got to figure it out with this guy.

1:15:45Like, man, We shouldn't sell our company to him right now, dude. I didn't want to sell my company to him. I thought it would be cool to figure out a way to work with him some way, shape, or form, but it didn't work. Yeah, but so Diddy didn't seem like he went on some sort of revenge campaign? No, he was cool. He was like, look, man, just throw me 10 % real quick for being an influencer for a brand. I'm like, no, that ain't going to work. He was on it, and then he kind of just dropped off. I didn't talk to him again. I think he unfollowed me or something. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that is kind of how it is with the big entertainers slash celebrities slash millionaires like them.

1:16:19They get super jazzed up and excited about something, and then they could just very easily move on to the next thing. Acorn tried to get a piece of cookies, too. Really? What year? It's like shortly after that. You could have dispensaries in Acorn City. Yeah, but I feel like a lot of people wanted to work with us, and I've been blessed to work with a lot of powerful people. I've been blessed to be able to turn down some powerful people as well. Because, like I said, Jay-Z's company is no longer around. It's not because of him, obviously. It's just because of people he had around him, I feel like.

1:16:46Yeah. And just, like, overall fame and money is just not going to get you to the point of creating a coveted weed brand. I work too hard for cookies. Yeah. I can't let it go like that. And really, like, I won't even throw out any names or anything. But you can think about so many people who are really influential people in the culture slash in the weed game. who tried to do weed strains over the years that really didn't amount to anything if i if i was a clout demon i'd break down some of the biggest names in the game bro and just that approached me try to do something i was like nope nope nope you know but things like gary payton worked it was like the number one you know selling strain of weed in north america and that started as a bootleg yeah started as a bootleg somebody was bootlegging it similar to like obama runs yep they just did it because they thought it was interesting yep i met up with gary made official popped it off but like I feel like it's tough you know the rapper in me the fan in me wanted to work with a lot of people that approached me but it just didn't make sense it didn't feel real definitely what's your relationship with the guys from Runts like at this point because when Young LB came on here you kind of told the story of why things didn't work out yeah it's cool look man those are my homies they try to they try to do something with us and they didn't understand the long play and I don't I'm not upset with them for that I got nothing but love for them I was there when they birthed Runts I used my platform to help build them up as people.

1:18:07Ray Bama is someone I used to date his sister when I was a kid. You know what I'm saying? I helped them really get light. LB was around me at a very young age too. You know what I'm saying? We came up around the Jackets. So I feel like I got nothing but love for them. It's all cordial. It's all love. I wish they would understand the bigger play, but I don't expect anyone to understand like a vision that's not even close to being done yet, you know? Yeah. They're going to do their thing. I know LB's building jokes up. I know Ray's working on Fire Society. I don't really know where Runts is at today as a crew, but they did damage.

1:18:34They did their thing. Yeah, because even a couple of years ago, I was never 100 % sure on exactly what that was, but it felt like they kind of lost control of Runt's. Something happened. I mean, look, bro, business is tough. And business is tough when you have multiple partners. That was like a crew. Think of it like a band. Bands or groups always have some kind of weird breakup shit going on. So I feel like it was tough for three personalities to be in one crew like that. But I got a number of love for them, bro. They know they have an open arms invitation to where I'm at anytime. Definitely.

1:19:05What, the next like great weed brand, what kind of environment do you feel like that will come from? Or like what would be the things that really allow them to shine in a crowded marketplace? I think I'm seeing a couple right now pop off. I think it's just based on genetics and being in the right place at the right time, just like cookies was. You know, you have something good that no one's ever seen before. You put it in the right hand at the right time, it's going to blow. Yeah, okay. Yeah, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that will probably be watching this, so I guess they'll be having it. For sure, man.

1:19:34Stay consistent. Find something that makes you stand out. Yeah, definitely. How are you feeling about the music at this point? You still got a few more albums in you? 100 % about to knock out one while I'm here in town. I'm just doing things that make sense for me right now. Me and Babyface Ray got a record that's doing like 100 ,000 plus streams a day. Oh, shit. It's going crazy on some very natural, organic shit. And then I got a couple other artists I'm really focused on working with. So I just want to do things that are fun at this point. Like I said, I already got 46 albums. Yeah. I could retire right now and make a living off music.

1:20:04That's a blessing. So I'm just going to keep going and do shit that makes sense for me. Definitely. So you said you're going to do one while you're in town. Do you have lyrics written or do you just kind of go off the top? No, I'm going to go when I leave here. I sit down. Like I said, I get nervous high, pull up a beat, and just speak. For me, it's like a journal. It's like whatever's happening right now. Yeah. I guess that's a good thing, too, about having a sort of laid-back flow like yours. You're not worried about cramming words in there. I'm also not pressured to make a bigger record or try to get on the radio.

1:20:32I just do what I want to do. It's cool because I can go back to my albums and listen to what kind of zone I was in at the time. So I was taught as an independent Bay Area artist to pull up, write your music right there on the spot, get it done, and I just drop it. That's it. What's popping from your perspective in terms of music coming out of Northern California? Right now, the One Umbrella shit is going crazy. Who's that? It's a group. A low ye. You got... Oh, okay. All Black, you got Isaiah Bang, you got a couple other people, and that shit's fire as fuck, bro. Oh, I got to get on that, man.

1:21:05It's really good. I've been listening to it a lot. That shit, Lil' Bean, I believe, is in there, too. That shit's just fire, bro. All Black. He just came on because I was listening to some old Draco, and he was on it. Yeah, I think One Umbrella got a big wave right now. Their whole album is fire. Them as a crew being outside making moves, it's just fire to see. I love to see when a group album is not just an album recorded, like sending verses and type shit. These guys are rolling out. They're front row to basketball games. They're on private jets. They're in the streets. They're really rolling their album out right.

1:21:33We might be in the new age of the group because that's what Denzel Curry's doing too. He's got a group where they set for a bunch of other people. It feels like it's hard to make people care about rap these days. Yeah, it is. So maybe the group thing is going to bring people back or collective. Yeah, my boy Young Chatter is out there in the lobby. He's fire as fuck too. He's got a dope ass album. He's doing his thing. I'm juiced about him too. I'm curious to see where he goes with it definitely so okay I pay attention to a lot of different niches and it feels like there's a sense in hip-hop that hip-hop is kind of dead in a sense that BMX world feels like that shit's kind of dead skateboarding I'm always seeing podcast clips of them talking about how that shit's dead does it feel like the weed game is sort of in a similar moment where there's just like a lack of attention or excitement about it or you think that weed is kind of meant to survive those sort of downturns if you're lazy it's going to be dead.

1:22:27I just, I did a meet and greet recently. I sold, um, 300 and, um, 350, 356 grams for like 20 G's. I sold less than the P for 20 G's. It's the respect I put on it. It's a brand new, brand new strain. No one even seen it. I did two grams, like I had to like, uh, four grams, like a hundred bucks or something like that or 200 bucks. But point being is like, if you put the right respect on your pack, if the pack is something that no one's ever seen, if you roll it out right, if it's limited, if it's truly a small batch, you can actually make money on it the weekend's not dead people just they're scared but what about the enthusiasm that people maybe had five years ago that does that feel like it's kind of waned a little bit or is there still that excitement and interest in it um it's definitely it's definitely kind of whittled out you have to understand like the whole ppe money was insane yeah there was a time where melrose is doing like nine million dollars a month so like nine mil a month that's insane yeah and i think people kind of ramped up for that and got excited about that and then it kind and went away and people are scared i mean look i wouldn't be fighting for this brand i wouldn't be sitting here today writing a book about the brand if i thought the ship was dead it's just very alive i just have to put in a little more work yeah no definitely it's just uh when it comes to the weed game i feel like it's maybe kind of similar to the rap game where for a while there i felt like people were very impressed by sort of gimmicks and cheap thrills and that would weed that's probably similar right in that there'll be people i was doing really dope shit there's so many dope cultivators i went around the whole country i went all across the country on my tour and people were bringing me incredible weed every single stop i went to small cultivators small batch cultivators in boston new york and you name it michigan there's people with fire out there and i just i say keep going keep growing great weed and weed brings people together when you have something super special they'll come buy it no if you're selling some like some like re-rock in a plastic bag with some cheesy ass arr yeah maybe you won't be that hot but if you got some fire ass weed it's growing right and some fucking putting the right hands it's definitely i feel like ai has kind of spoiled graphic design for me on a personal level like not that every shirt you see is ai but i've seen so many ai shirts or ai graphics online that like it's hard for me to look at like a godspeed shirt and not kind of feel like i'm looking at ai even if it really was a graphic there's a balance of ai you have to embrace the artists because without artists There's nothing and a great artist can use AI to help their job make it a little bit easier.

1:24:49But AI is only going to be directed by a dope artist to make it dope. I feel like in 2026, you have to kind of adapt with change. Don't do everything AI because it's lazy, but use AI to your advantage in certain scenarios and have a dope person behind it directing it. Yeah. I feel like there's like 2016, every day I was getting so many packages of clothes from brands that were trying to pop off. And it doesn't feel like there's that flood of graphic design. The second one you're going to see what you feel right now is we're in a real recession. People probably won't admit it, but like, bro, clothing is down.

1:25:21Music is down. Live events are down. Weed is down. Alcohol is down. Stock is down. Bro, people ain't really spending money right now. So if you're doing something, if you're building a clothing brand, if you're selling weed, if you're doing a podcast, if you're doing anything, you have to do it to your best ability because people are going to be very picky on what they spend money on right now. Yeah, it's going to be weird when the economy inevitably has a bit of an upturn. It's going to be weird to see where all that money goes. Yeah, I can't wait. Yeah, because I mean, I feel like a lot of it feels very convenient for me as a person who like, I don't want to go out and drink.

1:25:53So like alcohol clubs are kind of dead. Like, all right, this is great for me. Clubs are fucking done, dude. That's why I was here. But you ain't been that kind of guy for a long time. I don't drink. Yeah, I've been drinking in 18 years. 18, shit. Okay. Nah. Damn, that's impressive. All right, so what else you got coming up? What else we need to know about? I got the book out right now, Becoming Legend, audio book and physical books right now. I got a movie called Splash City coming out this summer. I'll announce the partner here soon. It's a big studio. Shout out to them. And then I'm about to do a bunch of short story content with them as well, like baby films, like small films, like short films.

1:26:31Nice. Now, Justin Bieber's song is Swag City or is that Splash City? It's not Splash City. Oh, okay. You sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Okay. If he has any, holler at him ASAP and get some promo code. Bieber Burger. Justin Bieber City. What is it? I don't know because I can't type for some reason. Okay. That song is just called Yukon. Oh, yeah. That's the one everyone likes, yeah. Now, Splash City is dope. It's all about bipping. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. When's the last time you bipped? I don't bip. It was happening big time in my city, so I'm like, I'm going to make a film about this shit. Yeah, okay. Yeah, it was crazy for a while out there.

1:27:09Wait, okay. Yukon lyrics

1:27:17slide city close okay yeah yo burner I'm glad we got to connect man huge fan yes sir so much respect everybody this book if you want to be an entrepreneur if you want to make something out of yourself it could definitely be the kick in the ass that you need yeah sir I think it's fair to say shout out to burner cookies etc no jumper coolest podcast where a like comment and subscribe. Drop a comment. We'll be reading them. And shout out to all our members. Appreciate it, man. Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole Zero Sugar Energy drink thing.

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