============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================
[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:04] SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:08] SPEAKER_00: I am your Atlantic Canada host, Rivers Corbett.
[00:12] SPEAKER_00: And I am just thrilled to have as our guest today,
[00:17] SPEAKER_00: Terry McDonald Redel.
[00:19] SPEAKER_00: Terry has had an amazing journey as an entrepreneur
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: in the Atlantic Canada area.
[00:25] SPEAKER_00: And for those of you that have studied this region,
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: you will know her name, you will know her,
[00:30] SPEAKER_00: a little bit about her journey at the very least,
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: based on the same John New Brunswick.
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to get into a little bit of a bio
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: with regards to Terry.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: This is my first broadcast, my first podcast,
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: and just thrilled to have Terry as a guest.
[00:43] SPEAKER_00: For a couple of reasons.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: One is she's a great friend.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: Two, she's an amazing entrepreneur.
[00:47] SPEAKER_00: And three, a little bit of self-serving.
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: My company, Chef Toriel, is just part of the company.
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: We're with her company, civilized.
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: So we're just thrilled to continue on that journey.
[00:56] SPEAKER_00: So a little bit about Terry, the CEO and co-founder
[01:00] SPEAKER_00: of civilized worldwide.
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: It was founded in 2015.
[01:05] SPEAKER_00: And it is the first in the entire world, by the way,
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: ladies and gentlemen, directly from Atlantic Canada,
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: premium lifestyle brand that embraces and highlights
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: modern cannabis, CBD, and hemp culture.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: She, as the CEO, sees the company's strategy,
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: and the vision of the strategy, planning, partnerships,
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: executive, and financial management,
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: typical entrepreneur, all of the above is the answer.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: And of course, she's got an amazing team
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: that we've had the luxury of working with also.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: She's a serial entrepreneur.
[01:44] SPEAKER_00: Of course, a mom, we were just talking about the rush of the mom.
[01:47] SPEAKER_00: I got to take my kids here.
[01:48] SPEAKER_00: I got to take my kids there.
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: And as entrepreneurs, of course, we know all those pieces
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: associated with how you juggle all that piece.
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: Youth mentorship, international disaster relief,
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: it goes on and on and on and also very much about gender,
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: parity, and government.
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: Terry's belief is that the world will be a better place
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: if, as a global society, we remain open-minded
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: and respect each other's informed opinions.
[02:17] SPEAKER_00: So, Terry, I want to dive right in with that question right away
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: because we're dealing with not respect.
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: We're not dealing with open-mindedness
[02:26] SPEAKER_00: at all these days with regards to this COVID situation.
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: So, as a citizen of Canada and as an entrepreneur,
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: how do you navigate those conversations
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: with not only your community,
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: but also your clients and your staff as you move forward?
[02:48] SPEAKER_00: How do you still respect that with all this craziness going on?
[02:53] SPEAKER_04: Wow, that's a really great question.
[02:54] SPEAKER_04: So, first thank you.
[02:55] SPEAKER_04: Thank you for inviting me.
[02:56] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[02:56] SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
[02:58] SPEAKER_04: I'm looking forward to this conversation.
[03:00] SPEAKER_04: Sure, let me dive right into that.
[03:02] SPEAKER_04: And you know what, a lot of that sort of value set that belief
[03:06] SPEAKER_04: comes from the name civilized.
[03:09] SPEAKER_04: And to your point most recently,
[03:11] SPEAKER_04: having spent the last six years in California,
[03:16] SPEAKER_04: so Canadian living down on the west coast,
[03:19] SPEAKER_04: I would say often when people would ask me about living there,
[03:23] SPEAKER_04: we look alike, sound alike, Canada,
[03:27] SPEAKER_04: you ask, you think that we are very like-minded countries
[03:30] SPEAKER_04: and we are not.
[03:32] SPEAKER_04: So, from a political perspective,
[03:35] SPEAKER_04: gun culture, activism, you mean that there are a number
[03:39] SPEAKER_04: of different perspectives.
[03:41] SPEAKER_04: So, you know, certainly living through,
[03:44] SPEAKER_04: and I don't want to turn this into a massive political discussion.
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, just curious of it.
[03:49] SPEAKER_04: And, you know, watching through the Trump era of leadership,
[03:54] SPEAKER_04: it was just mind blowing me the uninformed opinions
[04:00] SPEAKER_04: and the fact that people would lock horns so readily
[04:03] SPEAKER_04: and how that's now even evolved into, you know, anti-vaccine,
[04:07] SPEAKER_04: and name an issue and there is a polar opposite opinion
[04:10] SPEAKER_04: and it's become a blood sport.
[04:12] SPEAKER_04: And frankly, a little junky,
[04:14] SPEAKER_04: but I'm always surprised about is that, you know,
[04:17] SPEAKER_04: these passionate people around policy and positions
[04:19] SPEAKER_04: have far more in common than they do not.
[04:22] SPEAKER_04: Given their-
[04:23] SPEAKER_04: So, there's so much more if we can just create a form for people to go out.
[04:29] SPEAKER_04: And for me personally, you ask about my team.
[04:32] SPEAKER_04: Well, I'll tell you, one of my partners
[04:34] SPEAKER_04: and I have very different political views.
[04:37] SPEAKER_04: And so, we actively engage in, you know, conversation where we listen.
[04:41] SPEAKER_04: We can agree respectfully to disagree on certain things.
[04:44] SPEAKER_04: And I just find that so healthy.
[04:46] SPEAKER_04: But you do have to be open-minded.
[04:47] SPEAKER_04: And, you know, even now how social media AI,
[04:50] SPEAKER_04: you're going to serve up what you like again and again and again and again.
[04:53] SPEAKER_04: You have to deliberately go to those platforms and channels
[04:57] SPEAKER_04: that are not readily being served up to you
[04:59] SPEAKER_04: because you're being fed everything you already believe in.
[05:01] SPEAKER_04: So, I think of making sure I was frequenting those other platforms,
[05:07] SPEAKER_04: websites, channels, to make sure that I was having a more open-minded perspective.
[05:13] Speaker UNKNOWN: So-
[05:13] SPEAKER_00: Love it.
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: Love it, love it, love it, love it.
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: Well, it kind of sets in very nicely with our conversation around community
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: because I want to talk about civilizing.
[05:21] SPEAKER_00: Civilizing is really about a community.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: And so, this is about storytelling.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: I want you to-
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: I want you to tell me the story of civilized.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: But I want you to start before it actually was born.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: I want you to give us that aha moment where you said,
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: this is what I need to do.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: Because I'm always intrigued with entrepreneurs.
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: It's those aha moments where you're-
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: all of a sudden you have died in it.
[05:48] SPEAKER_00: And your life is transformed.
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: What was that aha moment that got you and your partner to start civilized?
[05:56] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure.
[05:57] SPEAKER_04: It's so funny.
[05:58] SPEAKER_04: I'm probably going to be like this one when I say it this way.
[06:01] SPEAKER_04: But for those who remember the movie,
[06:02] SPEAKER_04: working girl and you remember the Melanie Griffith character and the elevator going,
[06:05] SPEAKER_04: where did you come with the idea of trash, radio, trash, radio?
[06:09] SPEAKER_04: And I always have a lot of things in common where you make that connection.
[06:13] SPEAKER_04: And so for us, you know, a little bit before, as you know, rivers,
[06:18] SPEAKER_04: you know, my partner Derek and I ran revolution strategy,
[06:22] SPEAKER_04: marketing communications agency out of New Brunswick, Canada for 20 years.
[06:27] SPEAKER_04: And really after those 10 years or so,
[06:29] SPEAKER_04: we turned it more into an incubator,
[06:31] SPEAKER_04: hired amazing talent to run the day-to-day operation,
[06:34] SPEAKER_04: the client accounts,
[06:35] SPEAKER_04: and then that allowed us to be able to look at other pursuits.
[06:38] SPEAKER_04: Because again, as entrepreneurs, you know,
[06:40] SPEAKER_04: there's always this other, you know, these other ambitions.
[06:43] SPEAKER_04: And in an agency business, it's Hunt Kill Eat, right?
[06:46] SPEAKER_04: Hunt Kill Eat.
[06:47] SPEAKER_04: And clients who have adopted a product model,
[06:51] SPEAKER_04: and like, holy cow, you can build it once and sell it many, many times.
[06:55] SPEAKER_04: And so we do that.
[06:56] SPEAKER_04: So after conferences, media, content,
[07:00] SPEAKER_04: we decided to get into the content creation business,
[07:03] SPEAKER_04: partnered with another great New Brunswick entrepreneur, Greg Hemings,
[07:07] SPEAKER_04: from Hemings House.
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: Great guy.
[07:09] SPEAKER_04: Great guy.
[07:10] SPEAKER_04: And so we ended up coming up with a bunch of creative ideas,
[07:14] SPEAKER_04: shooting two pilots, and we sold a show to course entertainment.
[07:19] SPEAKER_04: So that's what brought us to California originally.
[07:22] SPEAKER_04: We were moving, thinking we'd sell the show in the States.
[07:24] SPEAKER_04: There are thousands of broadcasters there.
[07:27] SPEAKER_04: There are really three or four players in Canada,
[07:30] SPEAKER_04: and as luck would have it,
[07:31] SPEAKER_04: the day I'm standing in the safe on Air Force,
[07:33] SPEAKER_04: we'll be with my family when we get the note from Boris that they bought the show.
[07:38] SPEAKER_04: Come to me.
[07:39] SPEAKER_04: It's staying, but continued on.
[07:41] SPEAKER_04: So,
[07:43] SPEAKER_04: we were in California as television producers.
[07:46] SPEAKER_04: We were shooting, producing this 20 episode series all across North America,
[07:51] SPEAKER_04: all delivered by amazing New Brunswickers.
[07:53] SPEAKER_04: We hired all of the talent and team from pre-production, writing, design,
[07:58] SPEAKER_04: you name it all from New Brunswick,
[08:00] SPEAKER_04: which was a phenomenal experience.
[08:02] SPEAKER_00: Living in California.
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: I love it.
[08:05] SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
[08:06] SPEAKER_04: And so I'll tell you,
[08:07] SPEAKER_04: I literally finished my job as a producer.
[08:10] SPEAKER_04: It was in January of 2015, and the story goes that I was out having dinner
[08:16] SPEAKER_04: with Derek, my partner at the time.
[08:18] SPEAKER_04: And he had always been a cannabis consumer.
[08:22] SPEAKER_04: Right.
[08:23] SPEAKER_04: Guy, healthy, always took care of himself,
[08:25] SPEAKER_04: and actually kind of gave up alcohol just really from my health perspective
[08:28] SPEAKER_04: many years before that.
[08:30] SPEAKER_04: So I'm in the restaurant having a glass of wine.
[08:32] SPEAKER_04: It's actually my birthday.
[08:33] SPEAKER_04: And he's not going behind the restaurant.
[08:35] SPEAKER_04: And he found himself standing by the dumpster with a vape pen,
[08:39] SPEAKER_04: sort of hiding.
[08:41] SPEAKER_04: This was in 2015.
[08:42] SPEAKER_02: All right.
[08:43] SPEAKER_04: And he came into the restaurant,
[08:45] SPEAKER_04: and we just started having this conversation,
[08:47] SPEAKER_04: and really likening it to this last mask that he was wearing as an adult,
[08:52] SPEAKER_04: who lives a completely authentic life, except when it came to cannabis.
[08:57] SPEAKER_04: And why was, why was there this stigma?
[08:59] SPEAKER_04: Why would we never go in our children to know that he was a cannabis consumer?
[09:03] SPEAKER_04: Meanwhile,
[09:04] SPEAKER_04: myself and everybody else in the restaurant is drinking low-dose poison.
[09:07] SPEAKER_04: The most stunning.
[09:10] SPEAKER_04: You're right.
[09:11] SPEAKER_04: And behind the restaurant, hiding.
[09:13] SPEAKER_04: And so, look, whether it was living in California at that point for a year,
[09:18] SPEAKER_04: this was before legalization in Canada.
[09:21] SPEAKER_04: I mean, Harper was still in power.
[09:22] SPEAKER_04: Totally.
[09:23] SPEAKER_04: Things were very early.
[09:24] SPEAKER_04: But that night, you know, it's funny, Derek stayed up,
[09:28] SPEAKER_04: and he had that what I often say is that kind of Jerry McGuire,
[09:32] SPEAKER_04: Manifesto, he's been so pretty,
[09:33] SPEAKER_04: and he wrote a treatment all about cannabis culture and the fact that so much of the culture
[09:39] SPEAKER_04: relates to stoner culture, which is a big part,
[09:43] SPEAKER_04: but Wafty smoked, but porn, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, you know,
[09:46] Speaker UNKNOWN: the very...
[09:46] SPEAKER_02: Chees and jobs.
[09:48] SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
[09:50] SPEAKER_04: But it's not the entire culture.
[09:53] SPEAKER_04: And so we're armed with that, you know, the way we've always done things,
[09:56] SPEAKER_04: I'm the dad and her.
[09:57] SPEAKER_04: And so we had the great conversation.
[10:00] SPEAKER_04: We were literally contemplating.
[10:01] SPEAKER_04: Do we pitch?
[10:02] SPEAKER_04: Do we go for a second season of Real Houses?
[10:04] SPEAKER_04: We had a few other pilots that we had shot.
[10:07] SPEAKER_04: I mean, what were we going to do next?
[10:08] SPEAKER_04: Continuous television producers?
[10:09] SPEAKER_04: But this idea of cannabis and just feeling the social movement at the time.
[10:14] SPEAKER_04: And it did.
[10:15] SPEAKER_04: It gripped us.
[10:16] SPEAKER_04: And so I hired and baronics, they'll just research Birmingham, Canada,
[10:20] SPEAKER_04: and commit to the concerts, across North America, because I needed to be convinced.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: I got this.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: Can I stop you there for a second?
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: Because this is so, so, so, so key.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: And so many entrepreneurs do not validate their idea.
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: They dive in.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: I've done it many times myself.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: Lots, lots of money along the way.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: Didn't validate my idea.
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: So you're now in, you've got a concept.
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: You got to high-ponses.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: You got to thesis.
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: And now you want to go test it to see if it's a reality.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: Did you spend your own money to do that?
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: And if I'm getting questions that are a little bit sensitive, tell me.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: Or did you get the government to help you?
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: Where did you get the resources to do this?
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: Research with this big company.
[11:00] SPEAKER_04: A little bit of both.
[11:02] SPEAKER_04: So our own money and the fleet.
[11:04] SPEAKER_04: And then again, there are fantastic programs, right?
[11:06] SPEAKER_04: Either through a co-a or different economic development agencies that will support it.
[11:10] SPEAKER_04: But 1000% validate your business plan, your strategy, your marketing approach.
[11:17] SPEAKER_04: I mean, cool.
[11:18] SPEAKER_04: That's a lesson you want to learn early on.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right on.
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: Cool.
[11:22] SPEAKER_04: And for me, it was the data that we now all know.
[11:25] SPEAKER_04: But when I say I had to be convinced, look, I was the typical, you know,
[11:30] SPEAKER_04: kidney 80s and 90s.
[11:32] SPEAKER_04: I grew up with Nancy Reagan and just say, no, and this is your egg and a front.
[11:37] SPEAKER_04: I thought cannabis is everybody's bad as sticking a needle in your arm.
[11:41] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[11:42] SPEAKER_04: And so seeing this research that talked about most cannabis consumers were older.
[11:49] SPEAKER_04: I income earning had children owned their homes.
[11:52] SPEAKER_04: And I'm going, this is fascinating.
[11:54] SPEAKER_04: They're such a demand.
[11:56] SPEAKER_04: And yet there was no content, no information, no education out there.
[12:00] SPEAKER_04: It was just the early early days of children with epilepsy who were seeing some benefits from,
[12:05] SPEAKER_04: from seizure treatment with certain forms of CBD and cannabis.
[12:08] SPEAKER_04: That's how early this was.
[12:10] SPEAKER_04: And then really once Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN did a completely on his perspective,
[12:16] SPEAKER_04: with cannabis, it seemed that the dominoes started to fall.
[12:20] SPEAKER_04: And we're not there yet.
[12:21] SPEAKER_04: We're still ahead of you.
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: I want to interrupt your second because I want to weave in, you know, the lessons of entrepreneurship as part of that.
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: So you did your research and then what's the demand that you saw? Because you talked just just a quick second ago.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: There was the demand for something. What was the demand that you recognized in that research?
[12:39] SPEAKER_04: Well, it was a combination of two things, right? You can approach it by we sat back ourselves and bundled together our 20, 25 years of experience as in advertising, marketing, branding,
[12:50] SPEAKER_04: content creation, digital. I mean, when you looked at all of that and then we said, what is in this industry right now?
[12:57] SPEAKER_04: The lack of information, the lack of education, understanding who the actual cannabis consuming and canocurious audience really was.
[13:05] SPEAKER_04: We knew that there was a gap that needed to be filled.
[13:08] SPEAKER_04: And one of it had to do serving information, entertainment, education, that for those, you know, adults who choose to have cannabis or CBD as part of a healthy lifestyle.
[13:19] SPEAKER_04: There was nothing responding. So we built it.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: Got it. So so we built it. So one is I'm just trying to set the stage. Yeah, how to hypothesis.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're beautiful. I can just see Derek hanging out by the dumpster in the back doing his vape, which vape.
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: I just didn't come into existence for me until my son a couple of years ago started to vape.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: So all new stuff. You're right in the back.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: Not to be told not to be spoken up, but we're getting trashed on alcohol.
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: And did the research now have got this whole model of, okay, so you went and you did it.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: You started to satisfy the demand. Talk about the first six months of that journey that you and Derek went through to one, broached the idea, let along going ahead with your executing your hypothesis.
[14:16] SPEAKER_04: Sure. So two things. One, what's interesting within the week of that, you know, dinner in January and this, uh-huh sort of a piffy about this potential idea.
[14:30] SPEAKER_04: The name Derek was at the gym. And again, it's funny. I remember together. This is the point. What's here? So he's at the gym and me and he said, I've got it.
[14:41] SPEAKER_04: And I wrote back. I said, got what? Instead of got the name.
[14:48] SPEAKER_03: Civilized and I went, yep. Nice.
[14:52] SPEAKER_03: That was it.
[14:52] SPEAKER_04: The options well researched. You are L searches, Troy Mark searches.
[15:01] SPEAKER_04: I love it. You could have had to spend, you know, a six figure budget to brand this focus group tested. No, that was the extent of the name. And it was so perfect.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: And you didn't have to hire a revolution to figure out what the nation been.
[15:16] SPEAKER_04: Derek being the strongest. We ever had.
[15:21] SPEAKER_04: Because coming up with that right name, doing it the right way and making sure you do have all the
[15:25] Speaker UNKNOWN: people who are going to be.
[15:27] SPEAKER_04: Copyright protections. That is pretty cool as well. Hell.
[15:30] SPEAKER_04: So then look, the first six months, um, I'll tell you what's great. And certainly I find this a great deal in New Brunswick that there are so many, um, people and mentors and peers and, you know, both Derek and I are graduates of the Wallifnows.
[15:44] SPEAKER_04: I think that's the, the InstaFund program and that has just been a phenomenal.
[15:48] SPEAKER_04: It's just a great group of like-minded entrepreneurs, peers, coaches.
[15:54] SPEAKER_04: And it could you, you know, access to some really talented people experienced entrepreneurs.
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: Well, you guys are, you guys are probably, I think you're the first class of graduates from the Walls McCain Institute. Are you not?
[16:06] SPEAKER_04: Derek was in the first one and I was in the second.
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: There we go. First two. I love it. Yeah. Love it. Very cool.
[16:12] SPEAKER_04: 16th or 17th year now, but, uh, yeah, we were. Yeah. You were.
[16:17] SPEAKER_04: But I'll tell you. So, you know, coming back with this idea. And so, uh, you know, how do you, how do you continue to validate this?
[16:23] SPEAKER_04: Um, it's amazing. I've learned that, um, you know, oftentimes when you go looking for investment, you'll get advice.
[16:29] SPEAKER_04: But if you go looking for advice, if it's a good enough idea, sometimes you'll get investment.
[16:32] SPEAKER_04: It wasn't the case, but, you know, a fantastic mentor and friend, Frances McGuire.
[16:40] SPEAKER_04: You know, we went to dinner. Derek and I just took a kick his brain and understand this would have been the first opportunity where we would.
[16:46] SPEAKER_04: Are bigger than something we could do strap ourselves.
[16:49] SPEAKER_04: And we just stand that that environment, that landscape. And so, Francis was fantastic in helping those early days of guiding us through programs like we run some small business investor tax credit program.
[17:01] SPEAKER_04: And, right.
[17:02] SPEAKER_04: Or that can, you know, be a huge advantage for having those high network individuals and new friends with become investors and then get tax credits.
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a great program. It's a great program. He's, he's now the, he's now the head of a co-host. You know what?
[17:15] SPEAKER_00: It's right.
[17:16] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it.
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, I love that you're weaving in those elements because part of the show is about how do we get support?
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: How do we connect as entrepreneurs around Atlanta, Canada? And you're just reinforcing that one with regards to the people,
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: but also the resources around that. So I love it. So, okay. So, uh, you got the name. So Derek's looking good.
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: Uh, you got the database. Peace happening. You got a name. What did you do next?
[17:43] SPEAKER_04: So the great thing about having, you know, revolution as a think you've ate as well is it allowed us to tap into farm or experienced talent and civilized alone could have been able to hire out of the gate.
[17:54] SPEAKER_04: But again, we were able to apply for payroll rebate programs within the province that allowed us to hire the kind of talent that we needed in St. John.
[18:05] SPEAKER_04: And then as we raise money as we were starting to produce content.
[18:10] SPEAKER_04: Again, it's always sitting back and looking through your network and even you know, LinkedIn is fantastic when you look through your network.
[18:16] SPEAKER_04: I mean, the idea of us taking those years of experiencing content, branding, marketing, all of those things.
[18:20] SPEAKER_04: But we certainly didn't have that broader media technology experience. And again, I was able to sit down and have a conversation with a great friend who's married to a new Brentsucker, um, Terry City who had been at Huffington Post.
[18:35] SPEAKER_04: He left half post and went to Buzzfeed. He's been at a number of, you know, the mainstream digital publishing powerhouses. And so, and he, he led on the revenue side.
[18:45] SPEAKER_04: So, you know, buy him a cup of coffee and to be able to sit and pick his brain. He was more than willing to share his experience, his observation.
[18:53] SPEAKER_04: No, and really help validate and help fill in some of those gaps because I didn't have that kind of experience.
[18:59] SPEAKER_04: He was so willing to help narrow that. So, you know, you can never be shy and a phone call a cup of coffee, you know, buy in somebody a beer and picking their brain. Do that.
[19:08] SPEAKER_04: You know, you need qualitative quantitative. You need data. You need research. You need conversation. If you're going to piece together the right strategy.
[19:16] SPEAKER_00: It's one of the special things I love about Atlanta, Canada. I mean, I've been at Maritime where all my life is the event. I've always said this as an entrepreneur.
[19:23] SPEAKER_00: And the rules that I played is we all want to help. We all as entrepreneurs want to give back. All you got to do is ask. We're not actually standing outside your door waiting for you to ask us.
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: But when you do ask 99% of the time, we will give you the time because it's entrepreneur to entrepreneur. It doesn't matter where you're in the state.
[19:44] SPEAKER_00: So I love that lesson that you're conveying here in our little space of the world that there's a lot of advice that's out there. You just got to go ask for it and you will get it.
[19:53] SPEAKER_00: So a couple of things to come out of where you are in your journey, a dove in with the content.
[20:00] SPEAKER_00: So let's just talk about investors for a second. What was the value that the investors saw to put their money behind the journey of civilized because it had to be more than just simply, OK, I'm going to go.
[20:16] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go provide a supply for a demand of knowledge. What's their return on investment from investing the time is easy because that's what we do.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: But the money piece, I mean, we all like to make money there too. So what was the ROI they were getting from investing in civilized at that early stage?
[20:35] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so we went out to raise a million dollars on a 5 million valuation and it was an idea.
[20:40] SPEAKER_04: I mean, you know, the beta site, but it's amazing when presenting the data as far as to make a two fastest growing industries at the time, cannabis and digital media.
[20:51] SPEAKER_04: In great data and really looking at it to say, you know, the analogy that we used, frankly, was Playboy.
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: OK, that's cool.
[21:02] SPEAKER_04: I love the analogy because Hugh Hefner was a feminist and Playboy has phenomenal content, amazing quality.
[21:10] SPEAKER_04: And so when you think about leading with content, I mean, Hugh Hefner did not invent the sexual revolution, but he had his head is it.
[21:16] SPEAKER_04: And he saw what was happening and he took something highly stigmatized, you know, brown paper wrapped pornography and decided to bring a premium content offering to that space with Playboy and grew it into a lot of money.
[21:30] SPEAKER_04: And then he went into this international brand with clubs and cafes and swipe you name it now.
[21:36] SPEAKER_04: Playboy makes all its money, most of its money on licensing.
[21:40] SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
[21:42] SPEAKER_04: With a smart digital quality content magazine.
[21:45] SPEAKER_04: That's how it started.
[21:47] SPEAKER_00: OK, so let's let's let's sway into that. I love this. I love where this is going.
[21:51] SPEAKER_00: So what are some fundamental lessons because what you're teaching people here is, OK, we found a brand that we resonated with.
[21:58] SPEAKER_00: Not only from a emotional perspective, but from a strategic perspective.
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: And we just started to study them another lesson about why we invent the strategy when it's out there.
[22:09] SPEAKER_00: So what were some fundamental lessons that Playboy taught you and Derek in that in that initial let's say two to three years now that you adopted and you considered as part of the key to your success.
[22:20] SPEAKER_04: Well, a lot of a couple of things. There were a number of different sort of analogies we looked at and by that Playboy is one that looked where marketers and when you are out raising money is selling its marketing this opportunity.
[22:34] SPEAKER_04: And so to have an analogy that as soon as you say, like you head's not you're like, OK, and you know, it's a little risque. It's a little.
[22:43] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so much.
[22:47] SPEAKER_04: I mean, we're talking about pornography and then cannabis. I mean, these are, you know, right away, the investors go to have an appetite for tell me more when you talk about Playboy.
[23:00] SPEAKER_04: Right. So really diving in and researching, but it's really interesting. The company is fascinating. And I was lucky enough.
[23:06] SPEAKER_04: Over the years because we actually ended up hiring Playboy's former chief content. Of course you did. Of course you did.
[23:16] SPEAKER_04: We did three young phenomenally talented, amazing guy and then for Corey and McQuain still at Playboy. I was able to meet Christie Huffner who ran Playboy for 20 years as the CEO, right, who have a broader.
[23:29] SPEAKER_04: She is a media maven. She is brilliant. She is the one who just completely is reinvented that company through the 80s and 90s and made it incredibly successful bringing in digital commerce, licensing,
[23:49] SPEAKER_04: and she's been a really good sounding board as we've built this. So, but it's all of those things, right. It's going back to your network. And, you know, it's fun.
[23:58] SPEAKER_04: You know, hiring. This is one of the things when you make sure you have the investment to hire the right talent. It's cliche. Every talks about surround yourself with really great people as a CEO. You shouldn't be the sort of person in the room. All that's true.
[24:11] SPEAKER_04: And so, when it came time for us to hire that chief content officer, we knew we needed the cream of the crop. We needed the very best. And so we hired a really expensive but worthwhile search for of New York to help us find this top candidate.
[24:27] SPEAKER_04: And what's interesting is they put up this profile of Corey as is this sort of the standard is this what we're thinking of and then.
[24:37] SPEAKER_04: And then so it is another one and another and Derek and I were both going.
[24:40] SPEAKER_04: You go, that guy's not available. No, no, we want that guy. And so it turned into a phone call that turned with a coffee where we all just really fell in like with each other and we ended up hiring Corey and he was, you know, just a fantastic contributor. I mapped out.
[24:57] SPEAKER_04: And so, literally, the entire engine was the entire engine. It was our, our, you know, reason for being. And so to have that quality content that attracted that audience to have all of those investors want to see again and again and again.
[25:10] SPEAKER_04: They'll continue to invest in you if you're hitting those milestones and metrics. And we were driving you for the first two years. We had to drive content. We said, we need to build a highly engaged, lucrative audience space. We can monetize that audience again and again and again.
[25:27] SPEAKER_04: But we have to stay true to commitment to grow the audience. And that's what we did.
[25:33] SPEAKER_00: And you did it with primarily investors from New Brunswick.
[25:38] SPEAKER_04: Early on. Absolutely.
[25:40] SPEAKER_04: But then we had five or five rounds of investment over the last six months.
[25:47] SPEAKER_00: Right. Well, and the reason I say that is because I, you know, I guess I, I want to keep reinforcing a beautiful place to start a business, a beautiful place to grow a business and a beautiful place to connect with people that want to support you again.
[26:01] SPEAKER_00: And it's not this, oh, I have to go to Toronto. No, you can get it in your own backyard to start and go. And yes, the world's your oyster now and everything's much, but much more wide open than it's ever been because of the pandemic. But I just love is this reinforcement reinforcement. Why not here versus why we can't do it here. So I just, I just love that. I love that. I love that.
[26:21] SPEAKER_00: What was the plan all along for creating a revenue stream again, RY, nice to have the viewership and so on. But where was the, where was the revenue anticipation coming from?
[26:35] SPEAKER_04: So early on we knew leading with content. And again, constantly staying up to date on the nuances and, you know, the complicated nature of the cannabis space.
[26:45] SPEAKER_04: We also knew that, you know, it's the regulatory environment is such where almost every traditional marketing and advertising channel was not available to cannabis companies.
[26:56] SPEAKER_04: Everything, right from television radio print billboard you name it not available. Because of the heavily restricted environment. I mean, just going to any sort of a government run or, you know, a hybrid community dispensary environment and look at the packaging and you'll see what happens when government gets involved in a product that absolutely needs to have far better packaging.
[27:14] SPEAKER_04: Yes. And so, you know, the way that brands in the space were reaching their, their end consumers was through content was through articles PR media, education, you know, I mean, we've done sponsored series with things like CBD for beginners or cannabis for beginners.
[27:36] SPEAKER_04: We've done ask a bud tender a series. We've done, you know, all kinds of different video series editorial and that's the way leading with education and then having that content sponsored. We knew that would always be the main way.
[27:49] SPEAKER_04: And then we really evolved again, like many businesses in the media space like Forbes and like so many. There's an event division.
[27:57] SPEAKER_04: And so we eventually started running events and, you know, created things like the world's cannabis congress where we know 600 of the global policy shapers thought leaders from the cannabis and CBD space and we brought them to Saint John, New Brunswick Canada.
[28:17] SPEAKER_04: You know, when you when you make sort of when you created invite only event.
[28:23] SPEAKER_04: Again, many years running agency running events and invite only event and you call some of those leaders who you know and invite them for free. Please be my guest, the top five or six key CEOs and players in the space. You treat them well and you post them.
[28:37] SPEAKER_04: Everybody else wants to come to your party.
[28:39] SPEAKER_04: So you, but you have to be disciplined and we said no, probably 90% of the time because we didn't want it to be frankly a bunch of sales people and people looking for jobs.
[28:49] SPEAKER_04: Great feedback afterwards is that these like we had Anna Clillin who led the task force to legalize cannabis in Canada. We had been sent a box, the president of Mexico and we had to see him.
[28:59] SPEAKER_04: You know, those were key notes for the first year and second year, you know, we had folks like Martha Stewart who came to us.
[29:08] SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about her for a second because that's made that's let's face that's that's the personality that is one of the most talked about in the conferences that you that you did.
[29:17] SPEAKER_00: Why did you pick her? Why did you invite Martha Stewart and it's nothing against Martha Stewart. It's just I'm intrigued with the brand Martha Stewart as it relates to what you and what value did she bring.
[29:28] SPEAKER_00: Because as others are listening here, I love the invite only and as they're trying to pick and choose people who they can bring to their events to build their brand out. Why Martha Stewart.
[29:37] SPEAKER_04: So with Martha, it was actually, you know, we wanted a mainstream need with civilized and again, there's a reason we're not.
[29:44] Speaker UNKNOWN: We're not.
[29:44] Speaker UNKNOWN: We're not.
[29:45] SPEAKER_04: Can a something green something leaf something we're civilized.
[29:49] SPEAKER_04: And what we've endeavored to do is always marry mainstream with the cannabis space and Martha Stewart embodies that probably better than anyone from that overall lifestyle space.
[30:01] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[30:01] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[30:02] SPEAKER_04: Cool transparency. She was also in partnership with canopy grows and canopy was one of our main sponsors for the event.
[30:10] SPEAKER_04: So we had our final keynote where we had Bruce Linton CEO of canopy growth. We had Martha Stewart.
[30:15] SPEAKER_04: And then Derek, our CEO at the time was moderating this conversation among the three of them.
[30:20] SPEAKER_04: So she was watching her line of CBD gummies and she had CBD pet products and a number of other things.
[30:27] SPEAKER_00: And she's wondering. She's already a fan of the industry. That's I guess that's where I'm trying to weave in.
[30:31] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[30:32] SPEAKER_00: Where was the connection. So she was already had a connection and you just added more food to it.
[30:36] SPEAKER_00: I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.
[30:40] SPEAKER_00: And so who picked her up a deer port?
[30:43] SPEAKER_04: She flew in on her own.
[30:45] SPEAKER_04: It's so funny. I was literally just going to tell this story. You know, these events.
[30:50] SPEAKER_04: She was running. There was a lot of the weather issues. There was a very real risk that she was not going to make it.
[30:55] SPEAKER_04: She was running and done around 45 minutes late. And we literally said, you know, when your handed lemons make lemonade.
[31:02] SPEAKER_04: And we literally with the hotel they were brilliant. We started serving like gin lemonade refreshments afternoon, just to pass with everyone as we were all waiting.
[31:15] SPEAKER_04: 45 minutes later and one or two gin lemonade cocktails in everybody was delighted.
[31:21] SPEAKER_04: Even though she came on stage a couple of minutes late, no one was alive.
[31:25] SPEAKER_00: You're brilliant. So many so many things I can keep talking to you about.
[31:28] SPEAKER_00: I'm about civilized, but I want to now want to want to quickly go anywhere on my big fan of the movie, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
[31:34] SPEAKER_00: And I know there's been a I'll call it an interesting journey associated with civilized which brought you back to where you are now.
[31:42] SPEAKER_00: We're going to finish off the show in that area. Can you talk about that? I'll call it that that pothole or maybe it's a bigger hole as to
[31:49] SPEAKER_00: where civilized was quote unquote sold and you had to deal with that and what ultimately happened that allowed us to now be back to talking to you as the CEO.
[32:01] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure. So interesting times in the industry, you know, 2016 through to 2018. There was so much capital and just it was it was just high high risk capital.
[32:13] SPEAKER_04: So once you hit 2019, you know, it was really a climate of mergers, acquisitions, everything you're seeing now, right?
[32:19] SPEAKER_04: I mean, and the analogy we always use is, you know, post-provision, alcohol prohibition, there were like 450 breweries that that popped up post-provision.
[32:31] SPEAKER_04: And 50 years later, there were four that had 90th market share. And it would be exactly the same.
[32:37] SPEAKER_04: And you can't even see those big, big players, many from a consolidated. So the same thing was happening.
[32:44] SPEAKER_04: We were approached to be acquired by Washington based data company. And, you know, as you go through the due diligence process and that was the strategy, it was always to build through to an
[32:56] Speaker UNKNOWN: economic point.
[32:57] Speaker UNKNOWN: We're going to be able to make sure that the public or being acquired.
[32:59] SPEAKER_04: So as we went through, look, despite their best efforts, they were out in that crazy climate where capital was drying up.
[33:05] SPEAKER_04: And they were trying to raise money that would have seen them acquire civilized and another smaller data company in the U.S.
[33:11] SPEAKER_04: We weren't able to raise the funds. And for us, because we were in an exclusive arrangement with them, and we weren't allowed to go raise capital on our own, we ran out of money.
[33:21] SPEAKER_04: And we had to pay for teens in California.
[33:27] SPEAKER_04: Creshing.
[33:28] SPEAKER_04: Creshing. And, you know, that said, I will often say that I've learned very little on my best days.
[33:37] SPEAKER_04: And, you know, you really don't know what you're made of until you're faced with really incredibly challenging environments.
[33:45] SPEAKER_04: So, you know, we'll see you in a few days in a period and we're like, okay, it's time.
[33:50] SPEAKER_04: So, strategy by step back, I looked at the assets we had.
[33:55] SPEAKER_04: We had a 10,000 piece content library and engaged audience.
[33:58] SPEAKER_04: Even though we hadn't posted fresh content in three months, I went to this audience, there means engaged.
[34:02] SPEAKER_04: The SEO is optimized and working really well. So I've got a content library.
[34:06] SPEAKER_04: I've got a fantastic audience that is staying true and loyal social media database.
[34:11] SPEAKER_04: I've got all of these assets. How can I relaunch and pivot and be super, super lean?
[34:16] SPEAKER_04: I had to deal with our main secured creditor and negotiate terms because there was no fresh capital coming in behind secured capital.
[34:24] SPEAKER_04: Managed them to, you know, give me another year and write down to like 10 cents on the dollar and lock that deal in to give me the runway to then go raise capital.
[34:33] SPEAKER_04: I raised fresh capital all from existing investors. I didn't have to fight the family.
[34:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nice.
[34:39] SPEAKER_00: I believe in you. They believed in you and I believe in the vision, but they believed in you as an individual.
[34:46] SPEAKER_00: And there's got to be a play in that during a new your humble woman, but there's got to be a play in that they believed in you as the leader.
[34:52] SPEAKER_04: Well, I look, I think that's certainly part of it. I think they believed in the plan I put in front of them.
[34:57] SPEAKER_04: The team I had assembled, how I was seeing assets and how my commitment to remaining very, very lean because we grew so big, so fast.
[35:07] SPEAKER_04: And the frenzy of the industry many have.
[35:11] SPEAKER_04: And so this approach now is back to we pivoted from a digital publishing and media company to a lifestyle brand that it takes mainstream and endemic cannabis and CBD companies.
[35:23] SPEAKER_04: And if you go to the site now, you know, it's live civilized calm.
[35:27] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[35:27] SPEAKER_04: And so platforms have that name and it very much is a focus on wellness, health, business.
[35:34] SPEAKER_04: And so if you look at those different categories, don't forget about food, Jerry. Don't forget about food.
[35:39] SPEAKER_00: It's part of the deal.
[35:41] SPEAKER_04: Because those ways that people are incorporating cannabis and CBD into the file.
[35:47] SPEAKER_04: So we've pivoted with that focus. I was able to repurpose much of the content, which had tremendous value when you own your library.
[35:55] SPEAKER_04: I mean, you hear it now full time in the headlines when you see musicians, you know, Taylor Swift, doesn't own our library.
[36:01] SPEAKER_04: Boney, your library is the most valuable thing that you can have. Content is expensive.
[36:06] SPEAKER_04: And people are informed, educated, you know, there's just such an un, like the demand for content is insatiable.
[36:15] SPEAKER_04: And we have this library.
[36:16] SPEAKER_04: So I repurposed a lot of it. I've got great contributors who are part of our team. We've got great partners and sponsors like Chef Toriel that are must with
[36:24] SPEAKER_04: brilliant content that we can then share.
[36:27] SPEAKER_04: And our number one strategy is we are here to serve our community.
[36:31] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[36:31] SPEAKER_04: The one anything we do anything we say, if we can't answer the question, how does this best serve our community?
[36:36] SPEAKER_04: Information, education, is it entertaining? Will it serve them? If the answer is no, we don't do it.
[36:41] SPEAKER_00: Right on. Yeah, pretty easy. Let me let me test with regards to that.
[36:44] SPEAKER_00: When I was running relish for my burgers, which by the way, I'd been through some downtime with that.
[36:48] SPEAKER_00: I had Turkish investors of all places who just came in and it just fell apart.
[36:54] SPEAKER_00: So I've been where you've been and that's so I had love that story is that you learn more of course when you're going through the hard times when you do the good times.
[37:01] SPEAKER_00: But, but I just love that whole aspect of how you turn things into opportunity from the ashes, not necessarily ashes, but you get my point.
[37:14] SPEAKER_00: Right now in the whole arena of your audience, is there a pocket?
[37:21] SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking. I'm wearing this geography.
[37:23] SPEAKER_00: Like, let's say, let's say we got to we get North American audience. We got Canada with legalized marijuana.
[37:29] SPEAKER_00: The United States with pockets of legalized marijuana.
[37:32] SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing where's the biggest consumption of the content that civilizes offering?
[37:38] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's interesting because you know, look, we started this company from St. John, New Brunswick because of the infrastructure and the network that we had access to in New Brunswick.
[37:50] SPEAKER_04: Yes.
[37:51] SPEAKER_04: We always focus on the US market from the very beginning.
[37:54] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[37:55] SPEAKER_04: Like the 80% of our content consumers are US banks.
[37:59] SPEAKER_04: It was never from Canada. I mean, it's great. We all said and done.
[38:03] SPEAKER_04: We probably have 75% of our audiences US around 10, 11% is Canadian and the rest is predominantly Australia, New Zealand, English speaking European countries.
[38:12] SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
[38:13] SPEAKER_04: Always in that focus, but you can never be having access and you can't say it enough.
[38:19] SPEAKER_04: Investment, yes, government support program, your network, the people who are one or two degrees separated from US and New Brunswick entrepreneur.
[38:27] SPEAKER_04: It's real. It's there. The talent having revolution where at that time our agency had probably 20 or 25 people.
[38:33] SPEAKER_04: People who we knew and trusted and so we could get brilliant creative digital web design, writing, research, all of these necessary things.
[38:41] SPEAKER_04: And then when we needed the kind of talent that frankly St. John isn't exactly the mecca for digital media.
[38:47] SPEAKER_04: I might have heard John loose from St. John.
[38:52] SPEAKER_02: Who knew?
[38:54] SPEAKER_04: Right. And so that kind of deep expertise in digital media, SEO optimization, audience health.
[39:00] SPEAKER_04: That talent pool was based out of LA, but all of our natural nuts, bolts are CFO, HR, all of those core, like those core corporate roles.
[39:11] SPEAKER_04: Those were in St. John, New Brunswick.
[39:13] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, love it.
[39:14] SPEAKER_00: Love it.
[39:15] SPEAKER_00: You were doing virtual stuff before virtual is really even cool. Is that fair to say?
[39:20] SPEAKER_04: You know, yeah, one of the earlier businesses that certainly won't get it.
[39:24] SPEAKER_04: You're going to get surprised.
[39:28] SPEAKER_00: Surprise back to that restaurant back to the same thing.
[39:32] SPEAKER_00: So I can talk about Tumblr now. Can I not? Because it's open.
[39:38] SPEAKER_00: So talk about, and then you've formed this relationship with this manifib is of a platform called Tumblr.
[39:45] SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about the journey of establishing one relationships that are that makes strategic sense?
[39:54] SPEAKER_00: Then going after we had one of the one of the big ones.
[39:58] SPEAKER_00: And what was that journey like as you brought them into the next stage of civilized and where you're taking it?
[40:04] SPEAKER_04: Sure. And you know, again, as an entrepreneur, I think you have to be open minded.
[40:08] SPEAKER_04: There are opportunities that are going to come to you.
[40:09] SPEAKER_04: There are those pursuits that of course we go after.
[40:13] SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it really is just being the right place at the right time.
[40:16] SPEAKER_04: And this opportunity really falls into that.
[40:18] SPEAKER_04: And interestingly enough,
[40:20] SPEAKER_04: look managing your networks, keeping people involved informed whether it is my informal network of folks like Christy Hepner.
[40:28] SPEAKER_04: And I mean, I don't want to overplay that at all.
[40:30] SPEAKER_04: But you know, there are little things where she's interested enough where she will make some introductions.
[40:34] SPEAKER_04: And so she's introduced a lot of companies that I'm talking to now where there could be some interesting strategic partnerships there.
[40:40] SPEAKER_04: But with Tumblr, what's interesting is that the same gentleman, Terry City, who I talked to over coffee a number of times to pick his brain on revenue strategy.
[40:51] SPEAKER_04: I was keeping him up to date that I had relaunched the company introducing Trisha, my business partner, who was instrumental in working with me on the strategy, pitching investors.
[41:03] SPEAKER_04: I was letting him know I said, look, we've relaunched the company.
[41:05] SPEAKER_04: I couldn't be happier. Check out the new site.
[41:08] SPEAKER_04: You know, he wrote back to me immediately.
[41:09] SPEAKER_04: And he said, that is really interesting. Do you have time for a call today?
[41:15] SPEAKER_02: I love it.
[41:17] SPEAKER_04: He was now a Tumblr leading their West Coast brand partnerships really more in the studio side of things.
[41:22] SPEAKER_04: But he said, it's really interesting here. He said, look, we have a core, we know that we have this large community, you know, Tumblr bloggers.
[41:30] SPEAKER_04: They have 40 million unique members every month.
[41:34] SPEAKER_04: I didn't even know Terry was at Tumblr. The last time I spoke to him, he was at Group 9.
[41:40] SPEAKER_04: He was now at Tumblr. And when we first spoke, I'm like, Tumblr Tumblr? He said, yes.
[41:44] SPEAKER_04: I'm a Tumblr Tumblr.
[41:47] SPEAKER_04: Well, it's made a state. If there are eight or nine platforms, you'd probably list Tumblr in the eighth or ninth position in terms of the platforms.
[41:55] SPEAKER_04: But what's interesting is that they were acquired by Automatic a number of years ago.
[41:59] SPEAKER_04: Automatic owns WooCommerce and WordPress.
[42:03] SPEAKER_04: So you've got this tech mammoth that was investing heavily in cleaning up Tumblr.
[42:08] SPEAKER_04: Tumblr went a little too not suitable for work kind of content. They cleaned all that up, hired a ton of experienced media executives.
[42:17] SPEAKER_04: And so armed with that, they've just, they've done their own reinvention and pivot.
[42:22] SPEAKER_04: And so what he said to me is, look, they have their own Tumblr blogs around lifestyle category,
[42:27] SPEAKER_04: fashion, music, activism, fandom, but they knew they wanted to do one in cannabis.
[42:32] SPEAKER_04: But they were looking at possibly partnering with another legacy media content provider in the space.
[42:41] SPEAKER_04: And you see the alignment.
[42:44] SPEAKER_04: What they want to do is be able to have quality content.
[42:47] SPEAKER_04: So before we go ahead and talk to our team, we can hire staff to start producing content or we can partner.
[42:53] SPEAKER_04: So we got to work. And so now civilized is the exclusive content exclusive.
[43:00] SPEAKER_04: Exclusive content provider for the cannabis.tumblr.com blog.
[43:05] SPEAKER_04: But what's great about that is we don't want it to be just civilized content.
[43:09] SPEAKER_04: It allows us to invite friends and other people who have done phenomenal things in this industry.
[43:14] SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, Max Simon with Greenflower and Gangea, he's focusing on
[43:19] SPEAKER_04: a program for cannabis. And he is, he's got, he has programs of 14 universities in the US teaching cannabis curriculum.
[43:29] SPEAKER_04: I mean, just growing stuff and he had his Instagram and YouTube accounts shut down 18 months ago.
[43:35] SPEAKER_04: So this is the reality. This is the minefield that we're all operating in.
[43:40] SPEAKER_04: So look, it lets us wrap our arms around folks like Max, great folks like Scott Jennings, pantries doing brilliant stuff.
[43:46] SPEAKER_04: And we can take this wonderful content both in demo content and then mainstream content with partners like you.
[43:53] SPEAKER_04: And we can deliver it through this cannabis.tumblr.com blog.
[43:57] SPEAKER_04: And we get to reach these 40 million tumblr.
[44:00] SPEAKER_04: Even members every month.
[44:03] SPEAKER_04: So it is huge. And the fact that here's the biggest ticker that just came out this week.
[44:07] SPEAKER_04: You know, when I mentioned things like Instagram accounts being shut down and other social platforms.
[44:12] SPEAKER_04: It's so restrictive and subjective, frankly.
[44:15] SPEAKER_04: How do you know where you have so few ways to reach your consumer and your accounts get shut down?
[44:22] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[44:22] SPEAKER_04: Where is the first massive social platform that will allow CBD advertising nationwide?
[44:30] SPEAKER_00: Wow.
[44:32] SPEAKER_00: Do they are they not running across government push back?
[44:37] SPEAKER_00: You know, interest groups or whatever they just said screw it.
[44:41] SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to put it up there anyway.
[44:42] SPEAKER_00: Like the branching style of doing business. Screw it. Just do it.
[44:46] SPEAKER_04: Well, and the interesting thing is everything of course has to pass that the rigor of compliance and advertising.
[44:52] SPEAKER_04: Not loose and reckless. I mean, they're still all the same.
[44:55] SPEAKER_04: Right.
[44:55] SPEAKER_04: This is what's so interesting, right?
[44:56] SPEAKER_04: I mean, literally county by county, you've got regulations on how you can work with remote testimonials, what you can and can't say.
[45:04] SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, the lawyers at Tumblr crafted a very detailed strategy legal position on what they will and will not accept.
[45:12] SPEAKER_04: But if you are a legal CBD company and you are able to distribute nationwide.
[45:17] SPEAKER_04: This is the only social media platform where you can advertise your product to those 40 million people.
[45:22] SPEAKER_04: And the real kicker with Tumblr. I'm just I'm such a dead man.
[45:27] SPEAKER_04: But when you dive into it, this is what's so amazing. You know what opportunistic of their membership anywhere between 50% and 83% of that Tumblr membership is not on any other social platform.
[45:37] SPEAKER_00: You told me that when we first started talking about tumblr, I was amazed at that.
[45:41] SPEAKER_00: I was just that was blew me away that that was the case.
[45:45] SPEAKER_00: And that in itself shows values for Tumblr, but but also value for civilizes that you get focused.
[45:53] SPEAKER_00: And there's value off of that whole platform.
[45:56] SPEAKER_00: So I just love that that hope is when why do you think that's the case?
[45:59] SPEAKER_00: Is it really about content relationship engagement?
[46:02] SPEAKER_00: What's what's you know with all the distractions? How come people are going across the street?
[46:09] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's interesting. I asked that exact same question. And the answer that they get back from the membership is that, you know, they don't want to be on Facebook scenes pictures of somebody's dinner.
[46:19] SPEAKER_04: No offense. No offense for those. You don't want to see.
[46:23] SPEAKER_04: You're going to see.
[46:25] SPEAKER_00: That's funny.
[46:27] SPEAKER_04: These are new bloggers.
[46:29] SPEAKER_04: I think there's some time to be really passionate about those areas of interest.
[46:34] SPEAKER_04: And there is everything they need within that community. It's not an Instagram community. It's not a Reddit community. It's not a Facebook community.
[46:41] SPEAKER_04: This is it is very creative storytelling means it's really, you know, it's it's a creative class.
[46:49] SPEAKER_00: So very quickly, what's the focus for civilized over the next two years?
[46:56] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great question. So we just launched a couple of months ago.
[46:59] SPEAKER_04: The focus is to continue to grow and nurture that audience and that community.
[47:04] SPEAKER_04: So we are committed to staying very lean and using strategic partnerships like what we've done.
[47:09] SPEAKER_04: Tumblr is one. Another interesting one. I won't go into too much detail, but there is one that we just signed with the National Front Association, which is five thousand members in the US.
[47:21] SPEAKER_04: So you think about an 80% of them are CBD brands.
[47:25] SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
[47:26] SPEAKER_04: You know, you know, we've got a great fee to be community within the National Emp Association and great fee to see community within Tumblr.
[47:32] SPEAKER_04: So it's really about the lean focus for we now own channels continuing to respond to those challenges that these brands have.
[47:40] SPEAKER_04: I'm always shocked. There is no. I can think of that is more in me of the ability to share and communicate.
[47:47] SPEAKER_04: It's a congested space. It's a confusing space. It's still highly stigmatized.
[47:52] SPEAKER_04: And people are curious. This isn't about cramming something down someone's throat.
[47:56] SPEAKER_04: But if your mother is curious and interested in perhaps a tea that might help her sleep or my room at toy to arthritis and cocaine.
[48:04] SPEAKER_04: I was taking so many pharmaceutical medicines to deal with it. And yet a CBD oil was the best remedy that she could have had.
[48:12] SPEAKER_04: But I'm curious. And they just don't know where to go for that.
[48:16] SPEAKER_04: Right.
[48:16] SPEAKER_04: And if they want to try something, that's what's fascinating. This industry has evolved from rolling a point, a one hitter, you know, a pipe with some weed in it.
[48:26] SPEAKER_04: It's not that personogenic smoking 20 year old with a bong in the basement. There's some of that. And it's great.
[48:32] SPEAKER_04: But this is edible infused CBD gel plants, topicals, it's for tea, it's for anxiety.
[48:41] SPEAKER_04: It is a plant that has been colossally misunderstood. And if people of them full circle back to her first question, if people are just open-minded.
[48:49] SPEAKER_04: And they feel like this is something they want more of a plant, please approach to what they put in their bodies.
[48:54] SPEAKER_04: They should research, investigate and experiment with cannabis and CBD.
[48:59] SPEAKER_00: And that philosophy is the perfect reason why you're the perfect person to lead civilized. And just an amazing journey. I know it continues. I like as a maritime or I'm proud to have you be from Atlanta, Canada and also growing from Atlanta, Canada.
[49:15] SPEAKER_00: I think I think the story is absolutely spectacular. So many so many different levels.
[49:19] SPEAKER_00: One personal question and then a couple of how do we get in touch with you, blah, blah, blah. So before we started this, she said, I just get back from taking three kids here and doing this and doing this and doing this.
[49:33] SPEAKER_00: As a parent entrepreneur, what's your recommendation for people who are trying to juggle all that? Is there a, let's just talk about what's Terry's formula for parenting as an entrepreneur.
[49:47] SPEAKER_04: It's a great question. And you know, it's funny. I was asked this a while ago, wrote a byline and included this. I don't really subscribe to this idea. I don't know if it's a woman thing. I don't often get on that soapbox. But the idea of, you know, you can't have it all.
[50:01] SPEAKER_04: I think you absolutely can have it all, but you have it.
[50:04] SPEAKER_04: You have to compromise and you have to ask for help. And so it's really, really important. So, you know, being an entrepreneur, there are things like people say, oh, it must be so nice or you're so lucky. I'm like, well, I work all the time, but I can work on my own terms too.
[50:21] SPEAKER_04: So I never, you know, I don't miss any soccer games. I don't miss those important things. But my children also see how much I enjoy my work.
[50:30] SPEAKER_00: I love it.
[50:32] SPEAKER_04: My job and they respect that they understand it. They, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where we talked business around the tables. So there's, you know, my children are very well informed. And even the question, you know, do your kids know what you do five, six years ago. I said, absolutely.
[50:45] SPEAKER_04: And by the way, I'm so proud of civilized. Like, oh, are you worried that they'll read the content? Like I encourage them to be totally wants to read it.
[50:54] SPEAKER_00: What a goofy question.
[50:57] SPEAKER_04: I want to totally.
[50:59] SPEAKER_04: Hey, you're 16 and 19. You should be consuming cannabis. Of course not. You should be 25. Look at this. I'm still a mom.
[51:08] SPEAKER_04: But balance it. You know what? I try to sleep well. I exercise and eat well. I do all the things that will allow me to keep my energy to certain level. I don't miss the soccer games. I adore my children.
[51:17] SPEAKER_04: I make sure you hear of myself because we all know this is a 24 hour day gig.
[51:23] SPEAKER_00: It is.
[51:25] SPEAKER_00: When the Richard Branson is one of my mentors, he doesn't know what he is, but he is.
[51:32] SPEAKER_00: He asks this quote. He asks his question one time at a conference. And I always ask him whenever I'm working teaching kids or whatever on Spaner.
[51:41] SPEAKER_00: I say, what's the number one thing you can do for the success of your business? And nobody gets the answer right. Nobody even amongst a, you know, a room full of veteran entrepreneur.
[51:53] SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to ask you, what do you think you kind of just alluded to it? So give your hand on that that you can do for the success of your business.
[51:59] SPEAKER_04: I think it's take care of yourself.
[52:01] SPEAKER_00: Take care of yourself. Take care of your health. Bang on. It's what he said. It's your health.
[52:06] SPEAKER_00: I've had I've had boats and depression. I've been sick and in the business doesn't get my attention.
[52:11] SPEAKER_00: So I love that I love that you brought that up as the final piece.
[52:14] SPEAKER_00: W-W-W-W livescivilized.com is the website. And I know you love it when people hang out with you on LinkedIn. What's your LinkedIn?
[52:27] SPEAKER_04: Absolutely. Find me Terry Ridley LinkedIn. Look follow us. Go to live civilized. Sign up for the newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Go follow us. I want to build our social audience.
[52:37] SPEAKER_04: We're here to serve you, understand you, whatever your questions or curiosities are. This is a place if you have any questions or observations on cannabis CBD or hemp.
[52:47] SPEAKER_04: We're you're go to.
[52:48] SPEAKER_00: I love it. You know when I started this podcast today, I think gave me all kinds of backgrounds to put into how I could put the background in the other flags of the planet Canada and all I kind of said, no, I'm going into the kitchen because I know Terry's going to be in the hot box.
[53:02] SPEAKER_00: That's.
[53:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's.
[53:06] SPEAKER_00: You're a rock star, my friend. Keep being all the amazing things you are and we'll look forward to the next time we chat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Namaste.
[53:15] SPEAKER_04: Oh, Rivers, thank you so much for the opportunity. You're very, very kind. I've enjoyed this. It flew by. Thank you.
[53:21] SPEAKER_04: Yes.
[53:22] SPEAKER_00: Cool. We'll catch up with you soon, my friend. Bye for now. Bye.
