Season 2 Premier: HIGHER Buds Club! Featuring Jaime Lipowitz

Get ready for our Season 2 Premier!

Sheesh it's great to be back! 

It's an exciting trip as we chat with Jaime Lipowitz, founder of High Buds Club, and traverse her path from Snoop Dogg's media company, Mary Jane, and Canopy Growth, to creating the first monumental community of Bud Tenders. This episode is a treasure trove of experiences, as Jaime unveils the fascinating parallels she discovered between the cannabis and beauty industry, and her insightful realizations on harnessing the potential power of Bud Tenders in influencing consumer purchase decisions. Strap in as we uncover the story behind the inception of High Buds Club, and how it was fueled by Jaime’s transformative experiences at a Snoop show and a shop in Venice Beach.

The magic doesn’t end there. We delve into the journey of High Buds Club - the trials, triumphs, and everything in between. From the initial hurdles, to the exhilarating process of bringing the High Buds Club brand to life with the help of her friend. Jaime’s belief in the power of dreams and the importance of tenacious pursuit, echoes in her tale, offering rich wisdom and a hefty dose of inspiration.

This episode transcends the conventional, giving us a glimpse into the role of data and AI in powering High Buds Club. Jaime stresses the critical role of community feedback, and how her decision-making is guided by pre- and post-flight surveys. Not to forget her unique approach to navigating the competitive landscape, standing out from the crowd, and the significant role of Budtenders in the evolution of the cannabis industry. So, sit back, relax, and let us take you on this riveting ride. So tune in and ignite your imagination with Jaime Lipowitz's inspiring journey - it's a trip worth taking.

Chapters

• 0:01 High Buds Club Founder Talks Cannabis
• 7:23 From Beanie Babies to Entrepreneurship
• 20:34 High Buds Club Growth and Branding
• 31:19 Working With Budtenders, Building Brand Value
• 42:18 AI's Role in Data and Technology
• 53:16 Professionalism and Passion in Cannabis

Transcript

Intro/Outro (00:03):
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5... main engine start... 4, 3, 2, 1.

Sean Kady (00:13):
Woo. Welcome to season two, episode one. We're here in the back of the shop. I'm Sean.

Charlie Kady (00:18):
And I'm Charlie.

Sean Kady (00:19):
And this is HigherOrbit. Welcoming Jaime Lipowitz to the show.

Jaime Lipowitz (00:25):
Hi.

Sean Kady (00:25):
Jaime, welcome.

Jaime Lipowitz (00:27):
Thanks for having me.

Sean Kady (00:29):
If you don't know, you should know, Jaime Lipowitz is the founder of... has fostered one of the biggest, I think the biggest, community of budtenders.

Jaime Lipowitz (00:40):
I always like to say the first.

Sean Kady (00:42):
The first and the biggest, so those are two big ones, known as High Buds Club. I'm a member. I have been for a very long time. I don't know if you're aware of that. I actually used to be a budtender at Growers Retail, and that's when I first joined on to High Buds Club. And that's when it was before I ever knew you, and it was before I opened this store or anything like that.

Jaime Lipowitz (00:59):
Oh, cool.

Sean Kady (01:00):
Yeah, really early days I remember hearing about you and thinking about how cool the idea was, first. Two, how well-executed it was. And then, three, how cool it was to be a part of this dope community where there was nothing like it, and I could communicate with other people that were just like me and talk about all sorts of products that we were all interacting with. So you're a pioneer and a trailblazer on your own, so I'm really proud to have you on the show.

Jaime Lipowitz (01:25):
Thank you for having me. I remember meeting you. I think it was our first or second park hang in like 2021.

Sean Kady (01:34):
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, you have a great memory. Yeah, I think that was correct. I remember I had to say hi, because I was... just as somebody who's in sales, number one, and I know that that's where your history is, first and foremost. Sales first, for me, really important skill to have. Anybody that doesn't know that, if you're not selling, you're not trying. You're selling something always in life, so it's a very important skill to have. And then just this behemoth of you found this way to market in cannabis that no one had thought of, and I just really respected that and admired it and I had to come say hi to you at the park. I do remember that.

Charlie Kady (02:07):
It also fills a really cool gap of giving feedback in an area that I think most people are struggling to get info from, right?

Jaime Lipowitz (02:19):
Yeah. I mean, the reality is that the budtenders are the gatekeeper to most of this industry. They're the gatekeeper to the consumer.

Sean Kady (02:27):
Preach.

Jaime Lipowitz (02:27):
They're the gatekeeper to any insider on what's going to sell, what customers want, all of those different things. And I knew, just instinctively, that they were going to be frontline workers. The reality is dispensaries are very similar to Sephora in how customers come in and how... You're nodding. And how-

Charlie Kady (02:51):
I like that comparison.

Jaime Lipowitz (02:55):
And how-

Sean Kady (02:55):
[inaudible 00:02:56]

Jaime Lipowitz (02:55):
... things are sold. And so, in a Sephora, the beauty industry's vast, you have a million products and a million categories and all the different products under those categories, and it's similar to cannabis, right? We have all of these categories, and then every brand underneath it and there's hundreds of options. And so, in Sephora, a consumer walks in and you kind of have one of three consumers. You have the brand loyal person, who knows what they want. They grab it, they go to the cash, they leave. You have the person who knows the category they want, but maybe not the brand or the product, so I'm looking for a red lipstick, and the beauty artist will swatch three red lipsticks and you'll buy one of the three. So it's like coming in and saying, "Hey, I'm looking for a pre-roll. What do you recommend?" You give them a few options, they choose one. And then, there's the customer who maybe knows the brand or has heard of the brand, but they want you to validate that purchase. So, "Hey-

Sean Kady (03:51):
Totally.

Jaime Lipowitz (03:51):
... I heard the Carmel pre-roll's amazing, what do you think of that?," is the same as, "I heard the Makeup by Mario bronzer is good. Is there something better?"

Sean Kady (04:01):
Right.

Jaime Lipowitz (04:02):
And so-

Sean Kady (04:03):
[inaudible 00:04:03] Yeah, totally.

Jaime Lipowitz (04:06):
So we all talk about this industry being CPG and it is in so many ways, but the purchase journey for a consumer is so similar to beauty and by background before is beauty.

Sean Kady (04:16):
Ah, okay. There we go. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (04:19):
And so, I saw really early on just the similarities that I don't think many people picked up on. And so, I knew the power that the beauty artists at Sephora and Shoppers Drug Mart have in that consumer purchase decision. And in an industry where you can't market anything really very well, how do you get to that sort of niche community? I got into this crazy world right at legalisation in 2018, and I went to work for Snoop Dogg's media company Merry Jane.

Sean Kady (04:53):
I saw that. I did some research in my findings before I had you on, and I knew you were involved with Snoop's old brand before, in the early days.

Charlie Kady (05:00):
Wait, Leafs by Snoop.

Sean Kady (05:01):
Leafs by Snoop. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (05:04):
And so, we were the agency of record for Canopy Growth, which launched Leafs by Snoop, LBS, whatever we're calling it today. And I met Snoop's business partner and one of the founders, and we just clicked and he became my homie pretty quickly.

Sean Kady (05:22):
That's dope.

Jaime Lipowitz (05:24):
And then, a few months later, he offered me a job and it was too interesting not to take it.

Sean Kady (05:27):
Agreed.

Jaime Lipowitz (05:28):
And so, I spent the first year of legalisation working within the walls of Canopy and we launched Leafs by Snoop and we did lots of other fun, fun things at that time. But mostly I watched, I always say I watched, and Canopy was trying to build a platform called High Society, which-

Sean Kady (05:50):
Right, I remember that.

Jaime Lipowitz (05:50):
... was their budtender engagement platform.

Sean Kady (05:53):
I actually thought it was very educational. I actually remember that, just to speak to that, it was actually really good. Almost too educational, maybe just in the day of a millennial or something, it's hard to keep their attention. I thought it was great.

Charlie Kady (06:04):
There was a moment in time that we did that, right?

Jaime Lipowitz (06:08):
Yeah, yeah. But that was kind of my inspiration for High Buds Club, because-

Sean Kady (06:11):
There you go.

Jaime Lipowitz (06:12):
... I knew I could do it cooler. That was the thing, when you talk about corporate, and Canopy's corporate, right? They had major investment, and you're also only ever talking about Canopy brands. And I knew that, like I said, the budtenders were going to have a lot of power, and how could we connect to the budtenders across the board and be agnostic to any brand, and introduce any brand?

Sean Kady (06:40):
Let's engage, let's get them chatting, let's introduce them to products.

Charlie Kady (06:45):
All the other-

Jaime Lipowitz (06:45):
You got it.

Charlie Kady (06:45):
... brands.

Jaime Lipowitz (06:49):
You got it. And so, I also, in a previous world, have worked with lots of influencers, and so I knew that they were going to become influencers in their own right. And so, I wanted to empower that.

Sean Kady (07:02):
I love that. I did have a question that came to mind while you were chatting. I did some research. Where do Beanie Babies come into the picture? If that was your big start, I just feel like it's such a trending topic. I saw a documentary on Netflix recently, and I was like, "No way. Jaime Lipowitz used to deal in Beanie Babies."

Jaime Lipowitz (07:16):
I did, I did.

Sean Kady (07:17):
[inaudible 00:07:19]

Jaime Lipowitz (07:21):
Oh, that's so great.

Sean Kady (07:22):
[inaudible 00:07:23] Well, you don't have that one, but...

Jaime Lipowitz (07:23):
I don't have Beanie Babies anymore. The hippie Beanie Baby, obviously.

Sean Kady (07:27):
Just little memory of-

Charlie Kady (07:28):
I wish I didn't mangle mine. They're worth something now.

Jaime Lipowitz (07:31):
Well-

Charlie Kady (07:32):
You used to hustle them, right?

Jaime Lipowitz (07:33):
Yeah, so I don't know, I was maybe like 12 years old, 13 years old, and Beanie Babies were it.

Sean Kady (07:39):
Okay.

Charlie Kady (07:41):
You were like, "I can make a few bucks doing this kind of thing?" And...

Jaime Lipowitz (07:43):
I don't even know that I thought that. I think I'm just a natural-born entrepreneur, is the honest answer. And so, I had a Beanie Baby dealer as Bathurst and Sheppard. I couldn't even make this up if I tried.

Sean Kady (07:57):
Forget your shoe plug. Here's my Beanie Baby that I have in the back of a van in garbage bags and the whole bit?

Jaime Lipowitz (08:03):
No. The store is called All in the Cards, it's still there, and it's Bathurst and Sheppard in the plaza. It's like a post office. And they sold Ty products and they would get rare Beanie Babies in. And, like I said, I must've been like 11, 12, 13 years old. I made friends with the woman who worked there. And so, whenever they would get in shipments, and she would hold them for me and sell them to me first.

Sean Kady (08:27):
I love that.

Charlie Kady (08:27):
Nice.

Jaime Lipowitz (08:29):
And then, my uncle had a connection to buy them in bulk, and my brother and I would set up booths at Beanie Baby shows, and we would sell our goods.

Sean Kady (08:39):
I love this story.

Jaime Lipowitz (08:43):
I guess High Buds Club isn't my first business, that was my first business.

Sean Kady (08:45):
That was the first one.

Jaime Lipowitz (08:46):
Yeah, that was the first one.

Sean Kady (08:47):
That's a great story. What was the biggest whop you made, the biggest sale, I guess?

Jaime Lipowitz (08:53):
The Maple Beanie Baby. I'll never forget. I bought it for $100. And $100 when you're 12 years old-

Sean Kady (08:59):
[inaudible 00:09:00]

Jaime Lipowitz (09:02):
Right, in the '90s, also. $100 today doesn't go as far, but it was $100 and I sold it for $400, and I thought I was so rich.

Sean Kady (09:13):
That's dope.

Jaime Lipowitz (09:14):
That was the first big win.

Sean Kady (09:18):
And that's when you were hooked on entrepreneurship.

Charlie Kady (09:18):
[inaudible 00:09:19]

Jaime Lipowitz (09:18):
I think that's when I got hooked on sales. Yeah.

Sean Kady (09:21):
Ah, let's be clear. I love that. That's awesome.

Charlie Kady (09:24):
You mentioned something cool there, because you kind of just were elaborating on how we came to High Buds, and I think, obviously, you saw the opportunity. Did you just see it as an opportunity or was it like, "I want to make this into a business?" Because I love it from a business standpoint. It's so unique, in a sense.

Jaime Lipowitz (09:42):
Yeah, that's a good question. So I had been searching for a while in how to start a business, and I think what happens when you have a career is you get to a place in your career where it becomes really hard to say no to money, and you get comfortable and you have a mortgage and kids and life and commitments and all these things, and it becomes really hard to walk away from something steady. And so, I got to a point in my career where I was living in a nice little bubble, but I was bored, straight up bored. And I had worked at a media company for almost six years, and then I met the guys from Merry Jane and I always say that that experience set my soul on fire. I had been living in this world where everything was good and I was comfortable and I had no reason to quit or leave or do anything else, but I just felt like-

Charlie Kady (10:43):
Coasting.

Jaime Lipowitz (10:45):
... is this it? Is this what I'm going to do for the rest of my career? I can do more than this. And then, I went over to Merry Jane and that experience did not work out the way I thought it would. But like I said earlier, I watched. And I was in-

Sean Kady (11:02):
And what a cool experience, regardless?

Jaime Lipowitz (11:03):
Oh my god. I have this one memory, it's not even my best cannabis experience, it's one of my best life experiences, standing side stage at a Snoop show, his body guard hands me a blunt. There's this great picture I have of me smoking the blunt side stage, and that's not even a career thing, that's a life thing.

Sean Kady (11:26):
Totally.

Jaime Lipowitz (11:28):
So I've had lots of really cool experiences. But I was in Venice Beach, or rather in southern California, taking the Canopy team on a market tour, February of 2019. This is before retail opened up in Ontario. And we were in Venice Beach at a shop, and I'm looking around and I pick a vape pen to buy, and I picked it based on how it looked and the brand. I didn't know anything. And so, I said to the budtender, "Can I get that one?" And then budtender basically said to me, "Don't buy this one, buy this one." And I was like, "Okay, why?" And she's like, "Well, the price is the same, so I'm not upselling you, but I just think the battery lasts longer on this one, and the oil tastes better."

(12:14):
And I was like, "Okay, cool." So I buy this vape pen and the brand is Heavy Hitters, which I don't know if you guys know, but it basically looks like Ed Hardy threw up on a vape pen. It's not my aesthetic, not my style, and as a brand person, I was like, "This is not marketed to me," but I bought it. Why did I buy it? Because the budtender has power. It was just this like, "Ding, ding, ding. Oh my god, the budtender-

Sean Kady (12:45):
A light set off.

Charlie Kady (12:46):
That's so cool.

Jaime Lipowitz (12:46):
... is going to be the most important part of transacting, selling cannabis in recreational dispensaries." And I felt like I had a nugget of an insight that no one else had. And back in media career, we did some work at one point with WebMD.

Sean Kady (13:08):
I know them.

Jaime Lipowitz (13:09):
And WebMD we used to sell to GSK, pharmaceutical companies, media sold on a CPM, which is cost per thousand. And a standard cost per thousand is anywhere from... you can get inventory for a dollar, but something premium is about $20. We would sell a cost per thousand on WebMD for such a niche, niche, niche audience for a $300 cost per thousand. And so, I thought about that and I was like, "Okay, this is a niche audience, sure, but if I can build attention, attention is the asset."

Sean Kady (13:46):
Yes.

Charlie Kady (13:46):
Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (13:47):
And so, I just had all these things moving around in my mind around building an audience and empowering the budtender, and then also having it be a way to showcase brand, and I shouted it from the rooftops. No one listened to me. The Merry Jane guys basically told me to shut up and look pretty.

Sean Kady (14:09):
Damn.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:09):
And I had had enough. And so, I wanted-

Sean Kady (14:14):
They told you to shut up and be pretty because you're a woman? I have to ask.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:17):
My experience as a woman in this industry has been what everybody tells you their experience as a woman has been.

Sean Kady (14:23):
Fair enough. There you go.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:28):
And so, but that was the first time I had ever been treated that way.

Sean Kady (14:31):
Got it.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:31):
And so, as a salesperson, when you're a revenue driver, I've always had male bosses, but when you bring in money, they treat you very nicely.

Sean Kady (14:42):
Okay, I follow.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:43):
When you're a line item on somebody's P&L, they treat you differently.

Sean Kady (14:47):
Understood.

Jaime Lipowitz (14:48):
And that's what I learned. That was my first moment in my career of being a woman and being like, "Whoa, this is what women deal with," because I had never dealt with that before. And I've been the A player on every team I've played on, and it was the first time I was the D player and no one wanted to listen to me.

Sean Kady (15:08):
Interesting.

Jaime Lipowitz (15:09):
And I think that also drove me a lot of just like, "You're not going to listen to me?"

Sean Kady (15:15):
I'll show you.

Jaime Lipowitz (15:16):
What are you guys even saying?

Sean Kady (15:18):
A chip on your shoulder?

Jaime Lipowitz (15:19):
Yeah. I mean, I think every successful person has a chip on their shoulder. That's the reality. You need something to drive you. But I left Merry Jane, and I took the summer off and I didn't do anything. I sulked most of the summer. And this is 2019, and I came back, I travelled a little bit, and I came back and I knew that if I didn't start a business now, I was never going to do it.

Sean Kady (15:49):
Damn.

Jaime Lipowitz (15:49):
And I knew I had an insight that so few people had, and everyone told me to get a job, literally everyone. My mother told me to get a job. I still remind her of this, five years later. And the thought process that I went through was, "Well, okay, what happens if I fail? Well, if I fail, I'll go get a job."

Sean Kady (16:14):
That's it. I can relate to that.

Jaime Lipowitz (16:15):
So what am I going to go get a job without even trying? Because what happens if I don't fail? What happens if this actually works? And I think it was right place, right time. I think luck, in a lot of ways, was on my side. But High Buds Club really started. I really got to work four years ago now, September 2019 is when this nugget of this idea started to form. And then, I guess now that it's something, I can tell you how it came to be, but I built a deck. I didn't have anything. I didn't have any digital infrastructure, I didn't have a community, I didn't have anything.

Sean Kady (16:58):
You had an idea and you're like, "I'm going to build the deck"?

Jaime Lipowitz (17:00):
I built a deck with the idea, and in it it said that I had a community of 300 budtenders. That was clearly not true, but doesn't matter.

Sean Kady (17:09):
You got to fake it till you make it.

Charlie Kady (17:11):
[inaudible 00:17:12]

Jaime Lipowitz (17:12):
That was just it, and I went through a few iterations of ideas, and the problem that I wanted to solve was sampling, because I knew that the budtenders make $15, $16, $17 dollars an hour. A lot of the products at that time were much higher prices, $40, $50, $60, and how is a budtender going to work for four or five hours to buy a $60 product?

Sean Kady (17:39):
Agreed.

Jaime Lipowitz (17:40):
And so, I knew that the LPs would give them the product, but it wasn't compliant. And so, I how can I figure out way to make it compliant. And I just spent time with C-45 and I talked to lawyers and I figured out regulations.

Sean Kady (17:57):
I wanted to ask you about that. Yeah, thanks for sharing, because I was always so curious. I'm like, "How is she doing this?"

Jaime Lipowitz (18:02):
It's changed now, but at the time, there was nothing that said I couldn't buy a product and give it away. I'm a third party, and so-

Sean Kady (18:09):
You're not an LP, you're not-

Jaime Lipowitz (18:10):
That's right.

Sean Kady (18:10):
... a retailer. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (18:10):
That's right. And so, still to this day, there's nothing that says that, but maybe after... No, let's not jinx it.

Sean Kady (18:17):
We won't go there.

Jaime Lipowitz (18:20):
We won't go there. And so, I built a deck, like I said, that had this idea and I love getting things in the mail. I love my FabFitFun box. I love PR kits-

Sean Kady (18:34):
Deliveries.

Jaime Lipowitz (18:36):
... and deliveries.

Sean Kady (18:37):
I totally agree with you.

Jaime Lipowitz (18:39):
We're in such a digital world that sometimes it's nice to have tangible-

Sean Kady (18:44):
Even down to the-

Jaime Lipowitz (18:45):
... experiences.

Sean Kady (18:45):
... boarding pass.

Charlie Kady (18:45):
[inaudible 00:18:46]

Sean Kady (18:46):
I was always a big fan of that. You open the box-

Charlie Kady (18:48):
That's class.

Sean Kady (18:48):
... you got your little boarding pass.

Jaime Lipowitz (18:50):
Cool.

Sean Kady (18:50):
And just the experience was there, and the branding was always there, and it always just made you feel special to get a package like that in the mail. And you're like, "Oh-

Jaime Lipowitz (18:59):
That was the plan.

Sean Kady (19:02):
... [inaudible 00:19:01] I'm a budtender, and that's something to be proud of." Does that make sense?

Jaime Lipowitz (19:04):
Yeah. I wanted to make budtenders feel special and important. I wanted to give them a voice. I wanted to connect them and see how they could... All ships rise with the tide.

Sean Kady (19:19):
They really do.

Jaime Lipowitz (19:19):
I often think of that, and so they don't have a lot of power as an individual entity, but if you can come together, you can build cool things. You have influence. And so, that was sort of the original idea. Well, it's definitely evolved since then, but just going back, I built a deck, I sold it, a brand bought it.

Sean Kady (19:41):
On that first pitch, somebody did.

Jaime Lipowitz (19:42):
Well, yeah, it was somebody I had had a previous relationship with, so he knew me.

Sean Kady (19:46):
[inaudible 00:19:48]

Charlie Kady (19:47):
Oh, that's a good idea.

Jaime Lipowitz (19:48):
Yeah.

Sean Kady (19:49):
I would've invested.

Charlie Kady (19:50):
Yeah, it's a great idea.

Sean Kady (19:50):
[inaudible 00:19:52]

Jaime Lipowitz (19:51):
Yeah, yeah. Shout out Rob Borale, who worked at FIGR for a few years.

Sean Kady (19:55):
Love it.

Jaime Lipowitz (19:55):
My homie. But yeah, he said to me after the fact, he goes, "Jaime, I can't lie to you. I don't know what I bought, but I have a feeling it'll be cool." And I was like, "Thank you. Thank you."

Sean Kady (20:10):
That's impressive. [inaudible 00:20:13]

Jaime Lipowitz (20:12):
First sponsorship.

Sean Kady (20:13):
Yeah, sponsorship. Shout out to Sheesh Hash Sodas for being the official beverage of HigherOrbit. We'll be right back with Jaime Lipowitz from High Buds Club. Where can they find you? On Instagram? Is it @higherbudsclub.

Jaime Lipowitz (20:24):
@highbudsclub.

Charlie Kady (20:24):
@highbudsclub.

Sean Kady (20:32):
[inaudible 00:20:29] Charlie, anything else to add to that? We'll be right back.

Charlie Kady (20:34):
Shoot us a question. You can win a Riptip.

Sean Kady (20:36):
Shoot us a question. You can win a Riptip. Someone's already won one. Yeah, who do you want to see on the show? Suggest somebody that we can reach out to. Shoot us a question. We want to hear from you. Welcome back. We're at the back of the shop. Little morning show. I think I'm on my third cup of coffee. Let's go.

Jaime Lipowitz (21:09):
Yeah, you guys asked me to come at 9:00 pm, I was like, "A.M.?"

Charlie Kady (21:16):
I love it, no.

Sean Kady (21:17):
That's why we leave the option. Everybody's a little different.

Jaime Lipowitz (21:19):
9:00 pm, I'm out.

Sean Kady (21:20):
You're in bed.

Jaime Lipowitz (21:22):
I'm stoned, I'm at home-

Sean Kady (21:24):
Watching Netflix?

Charlie Kady (21:26):
Oh, in the evening.

Jaime Lipowitz (21:26):
And I can't come up with a thought.

Charlie Kady (21:29):
I love the honesty. That happens sometimes here, too. We smoke a little too much. It does happen. Where do we kick it off? You were talking about the business, which I think has grown massively?

Sean Kady (21:41):
Significantly, yeah, from that first deck, I think you said you had 300. And now, if I'm not mistaken, I did some research, it's just under 6,000 now?

Jaime Lipowitz (21:48):
Yeah. We're-

Sean Kady (21:48):
You're approaching?

Jaime Lipowitz (21:48):
... approaching it.

Sean Kady (21:49):
Wow. That's some staggering growth. So-

Jaime Lipowitz (21:52):
Yeah, it's been crazy.

Sean Kady (21:53):
At Sheesh, that's impressive. I'm going to say that one more time, because why the fuck not. Do you remember what your first box was?

Charlie Kady (22:01):
That's a good question.

Jaime Lipowitz (22:01):
Yes, so the first box, this is actually a good story, the first box we ever did was a 4/20 box of April of 2020, when the lockdown happened. And FIGR had signed on February and we put this box into production, and oh my god, the brand was so different back then. There wasn't a boarding pass or anything, but it was a FIGR box with a vape pen and a three and a half gramme jar. I just remember the jar was red. And-

Charlie Kady (22:40):
Cali Mist or something like that?

Sean Kady (22:42):
Oh, good guess. I like that.

Jaime Lipowitz (22:43):
No, that was when they had their numbers. It was like-

Sean Kady (22:46):
Oh, yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (22:46):
... number seven-

Sean Kady (22:47):
That was kind of weird.

Jaime Lipowitz (22:53):
... or something. And then, FIGR was like, "You can get other people, other brands if you want. We just don't want any other flower products or vape products."

Sean Kady (23:00):
Understood.

Jaime Lipowitz (23:01):
And so, Kingsway, which is a brand that doesn't exist anymore, came in and sponsored something. I can't remember what. And then, 48 North, Amy Weinstein, was working on Latitude at the time, and she gave us-

Charlie Kady (23:19):
I miss those products.

Jaime Lipowitz (23:20):
... like a-

Sean Kady (23:20):
I miss those products. They used to sell for us. The personal lubricant, I think they had. The sex oil.

Jaime Lipowitz (23:26):
Yeah. Sex pot oil, I think we put in maybe. No, I can't remember, but that was the first box. But it was April of 2020, we had just gone into lockdown and I was so worried about how I was going to get these boxes out, and it was 50 boxes, and I drove around Ontario for a week and delivered themself.

Charlie Kady (23:54):
No shit. I love that.

Sean Kady (23:54):
Bootstrap baby. I love it.

Jaime Lipowitz (23:54):
Yeah, because, I mean, I had no money and everything was in lockdown. And I just was like, "This is the first one we're doing-

Sean Kady (24:02):
It can't fail.

Jaime Lipowitz (24:03):
... it can't fail. It has to execute well." And so, I packed the boxes myself, I drove them around for like a week, and I met the members in person. And I have this one vivid memory-

Sean Kady (24:19):
Because you had them sign off and everything?

Jaime Lipowitz (24:25):
Yeah, yeah.

Sean Kady (24:26):
You're like, "Hey, I'm Jaime with High Buds Club and here's your box," kind of thing?

Jaime Lipowitz (24:27):
Yeah. And I have this one memory of Jordan Milner. I always tell him when I see him, he runs Spiritleaf, a couple Spiritleafs, and I have this memory, it was lockdown, and him and his girlfriend were at their house, and she was a budtender, too, Steph, and I dropped the boxes, two of them, and we stood across the street from each other and talked, because it was early COVID days.

Sean Kady (24:50):
Yeah, we had no idea.

Jaime Lipowitz (24:52):
And we didn't know. And now, whenever I see him it's like he's my OG. He's been with me through this whole thing. But yeah, that was the first campaign we ever did. And then-

Sean Kady (25:03):
Great story.

Jaime Lipowitz (25:04):
... I realised the community was on Facebook at the time, and I just saw the engagement. I saw how excited the budtenders were to receive these products, to talk about them. There was the element of feeling special and important. They got one of the 50. And I knew very quickly that Facebook wasn't going to work, because they started shadowbanning the posts in my private group. And I also didn't set up a digital infrastructure or anything. And so, after that first box, my focus turned into the CRM and how do we gather the community in a digital space that I can control. So that first year was all about building the network and making sure that it was a closed, private network, the data was safe.

Sean Kady (25:58):
Yeah, that must've been a huge part of it. I forgot how much that must've been involved, the security of all the information of all of these members that you have now, right? And this community in which you're trying to build trust with and-

Jaime Lipowitz (26:09):
Totally, totally. And the reality is you have nothing if you don't have any trust. If the members don't trust you, if they don't want to tell you things. And so, it was really clear to me really early that the member experience was going to be super important in making them feel safe in the community. They could say that they wanted, that they weren't being monitored, but also that whatever happened in High Buds Club stayed in High Buds Club, that it didn't... We haven't had a data leak, like any of the OCS.

Charlie Kady (26:46):
I love it.

Jaime Lipowitz (26:47):
Any of those things. So yeah, that was really what that first year, after that first box, FIGR signed on for three boxes that year, and I executed all of them. But that was really the first year, was just that. Then, from there, the buzz started. I think brands started to pay attention that I had an audience and that I had engagement and the budtenders were participating and excited. And end of first year, I want to say, we maybe had 300 members, 500 members.

Sean Kady (27:25):
There you go. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (27:25):
And then-

Sean Kady (27:25):
So it was true all along.

Jaime Lipowitz (27:28):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Speak it into existence.

Sean Kady (27:35):
Yeah, you have to.

Jaime Lipowitz (27:36):
And then, yeah, it just all started to roll.

Sean Kady (27:38):
What do you think has enabled you to kind of see that kind of growth? I'm still boggled. I'm thinking 300 to 500 to 6,000. And there's so many people trying to imitate you right now. We don't have to talk about them, obviously, we won't, but how do you separate yourself from them? What do you think has enabled you to have that success and grow at such a crazy pace?

Jaime Lipowitz (27:59):
Do you know why race horses wear blinders?

Sean Kady (28:03):
How come, Jaime?

Jaime Lipowitz (28:03):
So they can't look left or right.

Sean Kady (28:04):
You haven't been paying attention.

Charlie Kady (28:05):
Block out the nonsense in this industry.

Jaime Lipowitz (28:07):
Well, when you're the original, everybody's trying to emulate what you're doing, so why am I going to turn around and look at what they're doing?

Sean Kady (28:14):
Just keep doing what you're doing. Stay in your lane.

Jaime Lipowitz (28:16):
This is all-

Charlie Kady (28:18):
[inaudible 00:28:18] That's great.

Jaime Lipowitz (28:18):
This has all been my brainchild. It really is. It's my first baby. And it's all come from me, and also I think even just from getting it from nothing even to the 300 members, and then having people start to imitate it, gave me confidence that I was on the right track, and imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery. But just because you imitate doesn't mean you can execute.

Sean Kady (28:53):
There you go. Yeah, you said it first. I totally agree with you. I feel like that's a really important lesson for any entrepreneurs. Yeah, just fake it till you make it, if you have a dream and somewhere to go with it, just keep beating your head against the wall and bring it to fruition, so to speak. How did you come up with the whole... the High Buds Club branding, because I'm a big fan of that? We're a big fan of our branding, and is that all you or did you put a team together and... I know you have a marketing and branding history and background.

Jaime Lipowitz (29:21):
Yeah, so the original idea around the flights and the flight boxes and that, I had a designer and a friend of mine who I met at Merry Jane, Kai Henry, who is a visionary in his own right and a creative genius in many, many ways, he helped me in the early days and we got on a call with this designer that we both knew, a creative director, and Kai said, "What else goes high? What else gets high? Aeroplanes go high." And his thing was always around Top Gun. I felt like that was a little too masculine, at the time. But that was really the iteration around the flight lounge and we take you on a journey and all of those things. And then, from there, it's just evolved in so many ways.

Sean Kady (30:23):
It's so fun. It's very whimsical and I've always just enjoyed it, so I had to ask you. Yeah, very cool. Shout out to your team and however you came up with that. That's sick.

Charlie Kady (30:31):
It's very cool. I always get so fired up when I see one. It's like you said, that package coming through, and I was thinking about you delivering those first ones during COVID and how it must've made people's day.

Jaime Lipowitz (30:41):
Oh, people thought I was crazy.

Charlie Kady (30:42):
Who's this crazy woman knocking on my door asking for a signature?

Jaime Lipowitz (30:48):
Yeah, yeah. People would be like-

Sean Kady (30:49):
Making shit happen.

Jaime Lipowitz (30:51):
... "Thanks?" But some of those members I still know, I still chat with. It was the basis of it all, and I wouldn't be here without them, and I have so much gratitude and thanks for all of the people who not only liked the idea, but believed in me and wanted to support what I was doing. And so, yeah, my community's rad.

Sean Kady (31:16):
It really is, it really is. I'm proud to be a part of it.

Charlie Kady (31:19):
I'm very curious, because obviously you mentioned, in early days, it's probably like take what you can get, you see who you want to work with, but now how do you choose who you want to work with?

Jaime Lipowitz (31:33):
Vibes. That's my answer, is do I vibe with you? Because I have to work with you, I have to execute against this. I believe we're in a free, fair market, and anybody who's going to want to participate and support the budtenders, I want to give an opportunity to. But I've had conversations with people, and I'm just like, "You're never going to see the value in what I do. I don't think we're going to work well together, and like-

Sean Kady (31:59):
The expectations you're setting aren't being heard kind of thing?

Jaime Lipowitz (32:03):
Yeah, yeah. And I also, I hear from a lots of brands like, "Well, I have sales rep. What's the difference? I can just drop off product. Why do I need you?" And my job isn't to convince you what my value is.

Sean Kady (32:18):
Correct.

Jaime Lipowitz (32:18):
That's not my job. You either see the value in what we're doing and you want to participate, because you believe it's going to provide you value or don't. And so, if you're going to come to be and be like, "Well, the box costs X, Y, and Z to do," it's like-

Sean Kady (32:30):
They haggle you kind of thing, too?

Jaime Lipowitz (32:30):
Well, it's also like, "Okay, you could paint your own house. Does that mean you're going to?" It's exponentially cheaper to do it yourself than it is to hire a painter, but you have no expertise. I do.

Charlie Kady (32:45):
You have the network. Those are mutually exclusive. I don't even-

Jaime Lipowitz (32:51):
It's also the scale. They first campaign I did took me weeks and weeks and weeks to send out, like I said, 50 boxes outside of the deliveries. Now, I know how to do it and we have systems in place and all of that, but you're going to go into this completely... I mean, it's the story of the cannabis industry, people who think they can do things and they can't. But you're going to go into this completely blind, have no expertise and think that you're going to execute well. Good luck.

Charlie Kady (33:22):
I like it.

Sean Kady (33:23):
It's a good point.

Charlie Kady (33:23):
That's a nice flex. Really good one. I'm also very curious, because a lot of this is probably data driven, some of this decision making, you mentioned, of course, that early story back in Cali, them guiding your decision making, you must have a pretty good sense of how much of an impact that is. Care to share a little bit about that, just to reiterate the value? I mean, you don't really need to sell yourself, but-

Jaime Lipowitz (33:51):
Yeah, I mean, the data tells us a lot. So before anyone gets any experience, before they can participate in anything, they fill out a pre-flight survey. So we have three standard questions, and then seven questions that the brand can choose themselves, design themselves. And I've got some best practises on what those should look like. And so, before anyone gets anything, we have a baseline understanding of, "Do you like this brand? Have you ever tried this brand? What are your thoughts, opinions, feelings?," all those things. We deliver them an experience to their door.

(34:27):
Why I believe the experience is superior to anyone dropping off a sample or even showing up at a trade show, is you're shouting for noise. When you work with High Buds Club, you're on your own. You get to be front and centre, you get 100% share of voice of a brand experience. And in this industry, there's so few ways to actually create a real brand experience. And so, then, from there, you fill out the post-flight survey, and it tells us a lot. Did it move the needle? The best survey I've ever seen is Carmel. Carmel always is like a million... they always are-

Sean Kady (35:12):
Budtenders love them?

Jaime Lipowitz (35:14):
Love them, love them, love them.

Charlie Kady (35:14):
Shout out, Carmel. Yeah, they were on our show, so we'll shout them out. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (35:17):
Yeah, yeah. We like those guys. They've got vibes, and great product. But it tells me a lot. It tells me if the budtenders care, it tells me if they even know about the products. We did one with one brand, I'm not going to say who, but it's a fairly well-known brand. We sent out 300 packages, 60% of the budtenders had never tried that brand before.

Sean Kady (35:43):
That's massive.

Charlie Kady (35:44):
Wow.

Jaime Lipowitz (35:44):
And so, a lot of the reps think, brands think, "Okay, I can drop off a sample," but the reality is you're drowning in a sea of reps dropping off samples, and then how do you stand out? And, "Okay, thanks. Got it." And then-

Sean Kady (35:58):
Not to mention, if the sample doesn't make it to the person making the buying decision. You forget about that. But, I forget, I guess if the budtender-

Charlie Kady (36:03):
It doesn't matter. It's about the budtender.

Jaime Lipowitz (36:05):
But that's the other piece, so around the buying decision, that's something else. I have thoughts on distribution and all of that, but the reality is you want to use the budtender for sell through. So what I say often is sell in is not sell through. So yeah, you might go, you might hand a sample to a buyer, inventory person, and they bring in a case of your product. Okay, so what next? How are you getting that product sold? How are you gaining any kind of mind share from the budtender to remember that you exist, and then make it a recommendation.

(36:45):
And alongside that, where's the education around who they should be recommending your product to or what the sales triggers are? And so, I don't think brands are thinking holistically about how they're getting not just sell in, but sell through. Because, let's look at Ontario, there's what? Close to 1,700 stores at this point? So I've heard brands tell me, and I think this is ludicrous, but I've heard brands say, "We have 80% distribution." And I'm like, "Okay, but the 80/20 rule tells me that most of those accounts are dog shit." No offence, you can edit that out, that was bad.

Charlie Kady (37:25):
I love it.

Jaime Lipowitz (37:26):
And the reality is there's probably 200 to 300 stores in Ontario that actually matter for your business that are bringing in five, 10, 20 cases of your products a month and selling it and reordering it and selling it and reordering it. That is a distribution point. And so, within those distribution points, you should be investing in their budtenders, you should be making sure that their budtenders know you, know your products, you're giving them brand experiences, and you're educating them properly.

Sean Kady (37:57):
Yeah. I also had this thought, too, that by working with the High Buds Club, if you're a brand, you're really taking onus on a community that values opinions and feedback. And so, they're going to talk to customers and gather that feedback for you and bring it back-

Charlie Kady (38:13):
Focus group.

Sean Kady (38:14):
Yeah, exactly. It was just something I never thought of, too.

Jaime Lipowitz (38:16):
Well, so now brands, I have one that I'm working with, Auxly, I'll tell you, I'm doing something with Auxly through Hall of Flowers and Cam, who's their head of innovation and marketing, I think is brilliant. He has given me, just in our conversations, so many insights. And so, he's using the surveys for innovation purposes, not just did you like this, but what other-

Sean Kady (38:44):
What do you want?

Jaime Lipowitz (38:45):
What do you want? What other brands are doing something similar? And those are the campaigns that I love, because it pushes the needle. I don't need to launch another Shred competitor. There's so much noise, I want to do cool things, and I want to make sure that the data that we're providing our partners actually helps push the needle and is valuable to their business.

Sean Kady (39:14):
Yeah. Something else that I really loved, in an industry where I have like a million t-shirts and lanyards and whistles and shit that ill never use, I have, I want to-

Charlie Kady (39:25):
Useful things.

Sean Kady (39:25):
... say like 85% of my High Buds stuff that I got, and everything else, it was just because it wasn't for me, so I gave it somebody that I felt like would use it.

Jaime Lipowitz (39:35):
Sure.

Sean Kady (39:35):
So like-

Charlie Kady (39:36):
It was always something useful.

Sean Kady (39:38):
There's a value proposition in the swag that you put in the box, and I guess I just wanted to commend you for that and speak to that, I guess.

Jaime Lipowitz (39:45):
So I showed up this morning with my Deep Space Yeti.

Sean Kady (39:49):
You did, you did.

Jaime Lipowitz (39:51):
I have a no swag policy, in my life. So I go to these trade shows and everyone wants to hand me a t-shirt, they want to hand me a sticker, and I'm like, "No, thank you. No, thank you. I'm good."

Sean Kady (40:02):
I'm good. It's wasteful.

Jaime Lipowitz (40:04):
Because the reality is how many tote bags can I have? We're doing something next week and I purposefully did fanny packs, because I was like, "I love fanny packs-

Sean Kady (40:16):
Me, too.

Jaime Lipowitz (40:16):
... and they don't need another tote bag." And I think they're cool.

Sean Kady (40:20):
Fannies are cool again. No, that makes sense to me.

Jaime Lipowitz (40:23):
But when we talk about brand experience, High Buds Club is a true brand vehicle. And so, part of that is giving things that have utility to somebody's life. So the Yeti is a prime example. If you guys don't know Rich Navarro from Canopy Growth, he runs Higher Education, you should have him on the show, Rich is my homie for life. But Rich was really adamant in our partnerships around doing things that were high value items for the budtenders. So we did the Yeti, we did the Doja hammock.

Charlie Kady (41:00):
Oh, that was sick, too, actually.

Sean Kady (41:00):
The Cvault. I still have my Cvault [inaudible 00:41:02]-

Jaime Lipowitz (41:00):
The Cvault.

Charlie Kady (41:02):
There was a little bong.

Sean Kady (41:02):
Little bong, yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (41:11):
But like you said, I would imagine as an owner of a store, you get more swag than anyone else. You have 85% of your High Buds Club swag. How many t-shirts do you have?

Sean Kady (41:19):
A lot more than that. I actually just donated a lot to Value Village. I was like, "I'm never going to wear this." I mean, let's be honest.

Jaime Lipowitz (41:25):
Exactly.

Sean Kady (41:26):
So I think the intention is there, just like everything else you do with your curated experiences.

Jaime Lipowitz (41:31):
You got to be thoughtful-

Sean Kady (41:32):
You got to be thoughtful-

Jaime Lipowitz (41:32):
... and strategic.

Sean Kady (41:33):
... and mindful in this world.

Charlie Kady (41:34):
You make it memorable, right? I think you've mentioned a few times.

Sean Kady (41:36):
Remember to follow @higherorbit, remember to follow @highbudsclub. I almost did it again.

Charlie Kady (41:42):
And grab yourself a Sheesh Soda.

Sean Kady (41:43):
Grab yourself an ice-cold Sheesh Soda when you have the chance. We'll be right back with Jaime Lipowitz.

Charlie Kady (41:50):
I hear something.

Sean Kady (41:52):
Some humming?

Charlie Kady (41:53):
Yeah.

Sean Kady (41:55):
Alleyway? Oh, it's construction. It's a machine. Somebody's working, doing something. It's okay. And we are back. We back, back at the shop. 821 Queen Street West. Founder, CEO or High Buds Club, Jaime Lipowitz.

Jaime Lipowitz (42:13):
That's me.

Sean Kady (42:15):
That's you. Love it. I guess I'm going to kick off this last segment with... yeah, I just wanted to say let's talk about data again, maybe? And AI? Sorry, I kind of had a brain fart there. I'm not even that stoned. Usually, the night shows get a little... [inaudible 00:42:35]

Charlie Kady (42:34):
Are you ready for the third segment?

Sean Kady (42:36):
Yeah, I need the fourth coffee. That's it. But I know that you data to your advantage, and I understand that you do also use AI?

Jaime Lipowitz (42:45):
A little bit.

Sean Kady (42:46):
A little bit here and there. Do you want to explain how that kind of helps you do what you guys do over there?

Jaime Lipowitz (42:51):
Yeah, so some of our brand is done by AI, like some of the creative and that stuff. From just a founder perspective, I use AI for a lot of things. It's a really good feedback loop for me. So sometimes it's hard, when you have ADHD, to get started, and so sometimes I'll just use AI to get the words on the deck almost and start to form my ideas. I've used it for-

Sean Kady (43:21):
Like use it as an outline.

Charlie Kady (43:23):
Whets the palate a little bit.

Sean Kady (43:24):
Understood. Yeah, yeah.

Charlie Kady (43:24):
Get the juices going.

Jaime Lipowitz (43:27):
And then, I'll edit from there.

Sean Kady (43:29):
Iterate it yourself.

Jaime Lipowitz (43:30):
Yeah, exactly.

Sean Kady (43:30):
Interesting. I've always been intrigued by that. It's something that I haven't used personally, but I had a conversation with Charlie recently about we as retailers could utilise AI.

Charlie Kady (43:41):
Well, it must save you lots of time, in some capacity.

Jaime Lipowitz (43:44):
Yeah. I mean, it saves time. I don't think it replaces humans.

Charlie Kady (43:49):
Agreed.

Jaime Lipowitz (43:51):
In so many ways, I think this technology is so wonderful, but it's going to be around how humans use it, like anything. And so, if you're a person with skills and talent, I don't think you have to worry about AI. If you're not, maybe you do.

Sean Kady (44:10):
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, because AI can only do so much and I feel like it just can't give you the feedback that you need sometimes. Like you said, I think it can set a good framework for thinking about ideas and thoughts, but when you actually want to make them your own, it's very clear to me, sometimes, when something's written by AI.

Jaime Lipowitz (44:28):
Totally.

Sean Kady (44:29):
It doesn't possess that spirit.

Jaime Lipowitz (44:32):
Well, even captions for social, sometimes we'll push it through AI, and then a human will edit it, so that it sounds like it's in our brand tone and voice, and all of that stuff. But you still need humans, you still need humans. I don't care-

Sean Kady (44:48):
Yeah, you really do.

Jaime Lipowitz (44:48):
... what anyone says.

Sean Kady (44:52):
Yeah. I know you mentioned earlier that security, you didn't have any leaks, that's something to be super proud of. Is there any kind of technology that you utilised to make sure that that's how it stays and you lock it up? I guess you don't want to share too much of your secret sauce, but I just thought I'd ask you that.

Jaime Lipowitz (45:06):
Yeah. I mean, to be honest with you, I think technology, at this point, is a commodity. It's how you use it. So I'm not a technology company. So many people have tried to tell me to go raise money to build tech-

Sean Kady (45:20):
Interesting.

Jaime Lipowitz (45:20):
... and have proprietary technology, and I'm just like, "Nope. That's not what I do." I also think it would be incredibly egotistical of me to believe that I could go and build technology and go raise all this money-

Sean Kady (45:39):
It's expensive.

Jaime Lipowitz (45:40):
... when I've never built technology a day in my life and I know nothing about it. So, I mean, I'm delusional, but not that delusional.

Sean Kady (45:46):
So you have a partner for that.

Jaime Lipowitz (45:50):
So I just use... I white-label other people's technology and I've strung it all together for our system, and I think it works.

Sean Kady (45:59):
I think it does, too. I did kind of wonder the platform that High Buds is on, what tech is that? I was always curious.

Jaime Lipowitz (46:06):
It's a white-label-

Charlie Kady (46:07):
Yeah, remind us.

Sean Kady (46:07):
It's a white-label solution for social media kind of a [inaudible 00:46:10]-

Jaime Lipowitz (46:10):
It's for communities.

Sean Kady (46:11):
For communities. Okay, cool.

Jaime Lipowitz (46:12):
Specifically for communities, but what I liked about it was that I own all the data.

Sean Kady (46:15):
Got it.

Jaime Lipowitz (46:16):
There's no way of pulling the data out, unless it's pulled out by me.

Sean Kady (46:20):
Got it.

Jaime Lipowitz (46:22):
And so, it's a pretty good walled system.

Sean Kady (46:24):
Agreed. Very cool.

Charlie Kady (46:26):
I'll need to get a refresher on how to join that or maybe you can tell our listeners how to join.

Jaime Lipowitz (46:31):
Yeah. So you're going to go to highbudsclub.com, you're going to fill out a budtender application. We're going to ask you about your preferences. The reason we ask you those things, is so that we can customise your experiences. I don't want to send edibles to somebody who only wants to smoke flower. That kind of thing. And then, someone will verify your information, you'll get extended an invite into our private digital space. And then, from there, I always say it's a choose your own adventure. High Buds Club is what you make of it.

Sean Kady (47:04):
That's a good way to say it. Through building this giant community that you have, have you ever had any moments where policing it is an issue?

Jaime Lipowitz (47:11):
Yeah.

Sean Kady (47:11):
That was something I thought that might be. I mean, obviously-

Charlie Kady (47:11):
Conflicts in the community?

Sean Kady (47:15):
Yeah, especially when you have keyboard warriors and people aren't face-to-face.

Jaime Lipowitz (47:20):
I will say, everybody's been pretty respectful, because I kind of have a zero tolerance policy. We've had one incident where there was some sexual harassment accusations. We've also had store managers come on and ask us to remove members. They're not with my store anymore, I kicked them off the network. But that's not my job. Your internal conflicts within your stores is not my job. And so, we don't get involved in those things.

Sean Kady (47:58):
That makes sense.

Charlie Kady (48:00):
It's that bad energy.

Sean Kady (48:01):
You have your own rules and regulations you follow and you police it. Jaime polices it. There you go. I was telling him, is it you personally or do you... Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (48:09):
No, no. I mean, I have a community manager who monitors things. Oftentimes, if I see something, though, I'll just delete it.

Sean Kady (48:16):
Yeah, you just know that right away you don't need to-

Jaime Lipowitz (48:18):
I mean, I'm not going to email somebody to delete something when I could just delete it. We have really straightforward community guidelines. So early days, I think we had more problems, when we didn't have those community guidelines. But the member are really respectful. And for the most part, really kind to each other.

Sean Kady (48:41):
I was going to say, it's a way more conducive, positive environment than, let's say, a Reddit, which is pretty toxic and weird. I know it's different. That has some consumer aspects.

Jaime Lipowitz (48:53):
Well, I think-

Sean Kady (48:53):
A lot of the same folks-

Jaime Lipowitz (48:56):
I mean, I think it's a lot of the same folks, but I think you can hide behind a screen name on Reddit, where there's accountability and a visual. So, me personally, I know where you work, I know who you are, but other people can see your picture. You can put two and two together of who people are. It's not that hard. And so, I mean, just be nice.

Sean Kady (49:19):
Well, exactly, there's-

Charlie Kady (49:19):
Just don't be a dick.

Jaime Lipowitz (49:22):
Yeah. Don't be a dick and you will be fine.

Charlie Kady (49:24):
It's nice to have that positive loop of feedback and opinions, because-

Jaime Lipowitz (49:30):
But that's the thing, I do think there's an element, though, of honesty that you get on High Buds Club that's not rude the way it is on Reddit. And so, I'm often told by store managers, owners, also budtenders, I'm coming on here to see what the other members are talking about. What are they reviewing, because the reality is, there's only so much weed you can smoke. And so, everybody's dropping off, we talked about this earlier, dime bags in the stores. But it's not memorable and you're one of 20 who have dropped off a dime bag, and no one cares.

Sean Kady (50:09):
Agreed.

Jaime Lipowitz (50:10):
It's like, "So what? Who cares?"

Sean Kady (50:11):
And I will say also, for all you reps, don't leave those dime bags in the back of your hot car. It's not a good look, y'all.

Jaime Lipowitz (50:19):
No, it's not a good look. And so, often, what happens is members will come on to figure out what the other budtenders are trying, what they're reviewing. We get a tonne of reviews. We get 20, 30 reviews a day at peak, so that's quite good. And I'm told often, we use this to be able to curate the list of what we're bringing into the store for the week, what our buy is. So there's a huge value for brands who are working with us, because you're getting in front of 5,000, 6,000 budtenders and getting consistent reviews of your product, where you drop off a dime bag, no one knows. Who cares?

Charlie Kady (51:04):
I need to get back on there. I've always been a huge proponent... I mean, I know what I smoke. I tend to [inaudible 00:51:10] where it's pretty premium stuff, but at the end of the day, we're still selling to a broader market, and just because that's what I like doesn't mean that's what other people like or what they can afford. And so, crowdsourcing and getting that information, it's huge.

Sean Kady (51:25):
It's imperative.

Charlie Kady (51:26):
I've always been trying to find those nuggets and understand different people, right? Because a truth to me isn't a truth to someone else.

Jaime Lipowitz (51:33):
That's right, that's right. And so, I believe what this industry, where we need to go, is... I hate budtender education. I think it's really silly, to be quite honest with you, because you walk into a dispensary, and if you say to somebody, "Oh, I like lemon flavours and they jump into this like, "Well, limonene is this and it makes you feel this way," you've lost me. You've lost me completely. What I think we need to do better, and maybe this is just a different version of budtender education, but what we need to do better is we need to teach budtenders how to sell weed. And so, that's different than budtender education, cannabis education. And so, I think the brands who get it are really starting to create content and education around how to sell, and a lot of that comes through our members, is actually working with the members, getting them to try the products, seeing what they're saying about it, and giving them one or two nuggets of things that they can regurgitate back to an end consumer-

Sean Kady (52:42):
That's worked.

Jaime Lipowitz (52:42):
... that will close the deal.

Sean Kady (52:44):
Yeah, that's a great point. You know, Jaime, I kind of had this thought, Charlie and I are always trying to evolve as retailers and get better and really find a way to move this industry forward. What are you intentions with the High Buds Club to kind of move the industry forward and evolve? I'm sure you have big plans.

Jaime Lipowitz (53:04):
Yeah. I think the future of this industry really lies with the budtenders. I think the budtenders, in a lot of ways, are the most passionate members of this industry. I've been at this since the beginning, early days we had a lot of people come in who thought this was going to be the green rush and it was going to make their career, and they didn't care about weed.

Sean Kady (53:31):
No.

Jaime Lipowitz (53:31):
They didn't care-

Sean Kady (53:31):
To be honest, they care about money.

Jaime Lipowitz (53:31):
They cared about money and stock boom and all of that stuff and get rich quick, and I don't think that is the thing to evolve and industry. What I've also realised is that there's different skill sets needed at different parts of industries. And so, what I'm really good at is the zero to two million.

Sean Kady (53:56):
Yeah, okay. All right.

Jaime Lipowitz (53:58):
I'm really good at the building pieces. I don't think I'm a scaler. But from building, what you need is passion, and the budtenders are the most passionate members of this industry, bar none. And so, I think if we can figure out a way to fuel them and have them lead innovation, I think that's how this industry evolves and gets to that two million mark. I think we've often forgot you can't buy big. Canopy was famous for being like, "We're buying market share." You can't buy market share, the market will always decide. But I think if we're feeding the people who are at the front lines of the market, the market's going to evolve and that's where the real innovation's going to come from.

Sean Kady (54:40):
That's a great point. No, I think you're right, and I think that now that budtenders know there's no money in cannabis, all the people that really care about it are in it. So you're right, I think, about nurturing it and teaching these people to kind of go for it and dream big and-

Jaime Lipowitz (54:54):
But we also have to lead by example, and one of the biggest challenges I have is the lack of professionalism in this industry. I find it to be very frustrating. And so, I think that if we're going to really build an industry, we have to lead by example. And I think so few people do.

Sean Kady (55:13):
Yes, totally agree with you. I don't want to see any more emojis in any sales emails. I agree with you on that one. Totally. Bring some professionalism, bring you A game. If we want to move this thing forward, we all just have to be better-

Jaime Lipowitz (55:26):
I-

Sean Kady (55:26):
... to your point, right?

Jaime Lipowitz (55:27):
I've built a lot of this business on Zoom, right? Because we've been in lockdown and whatever, and I had a call last week, this really stuck with me, I had a call last week with content marketers, two different content marketers, and one is not from this industry and one is. And the one from this industry came prepared, she had everything ready. Her follow-ups have all been professional. I can see she's thought about what she's pitching me. The second one who's from cannabis came, her hair was a mess, she was wearing a tank top with her bra straps showing, and I thought to myself, "You wouldn't walk into my office like this, so why are you on Zoom with me like this?" And I think there's a lack of, like I said, professionalism, and if we want this to be a true multi-billion dollar industry where people make money, we have to grow up and we have to be professional.

Sean Kady (56:20):
We start acting like it. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (56:21):
And start acting like it.

Sean Kady (56:22):
Yeah, yeah.

Charlie Kady (56:23):
I think that's fair. I like it. Put them on notice. I agree. I mean, I'm sure you see it. You mentioned it earlier, kind of speaking to being a woman in the industry, so it's probably even more so, which must be incredibly aggravating, but we see it, too. Of course, not to that extent, but I like that you can put people on notice. You're not naming names. It's just general.

Sean Kady (56:44):
It's just stating facts. She's fucking spewing facts here. I love it.

Jaime Lipowitz (56:47):
Well, that's the joy of working for yourself.

Sean Kady (56:52):
Yeah. I'll remember that. Really glad you came on our season premiere of HigherOrbit-

Charlie Kady (56:56):
Season one-

Jaime Lipowitz (56:57):
Season two.

Sean Kady (56:58):
Season two.

Charlie Kady (56:59):
Episode one. I'm not even stoned.

Sean Kady (57:01):
Charlie's not even stoned. That's really funny, man. It's morning.

Charlie Kady (57:04):
Brought to you by Sheesh.

Sean Kady (57:05):
Brought to you by Sheesh. I wanted to say thanks for coming on, Jaime.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:12):
Thank you for having me.

Sean Kady (57:13):
Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:13):
This was fun.

Sean Kady (57:14):
And, I guess, let's call the Sheesh hotline, if you don't mind.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:16):
Oh, okay.

Sean Kady (57:18):
I feel like it's a good time to do that.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:19):
Okay. Let's do it.

Sean Kady (57:20):
Let's give them a dial. Let's ring it in. Let's call the Sheesh hotline. Have you tried Sheesh before?

Jaime Lipowitz (57:30):
Yeah.

Hotline Voice (57:30):
Calling the Sheesh hotline. Are you stoned? Press zero and tell us about it. Matter of fact, tell us whatever. Just hash it out. You might end up on our Instagram.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:44):
Hi Sheesh.

Hotline Voice (57:47):
Sheesh. Leave a message at the tone.

Jaime Lipowitz (57:51):
I'm not even stoned, and I couldn't even do this. Hi, Sheesh. It's Jaime from High Buds Club. I'm calling about your black cherry hash cola. Just wanted to say it's delicious and we'd love to work with you soon. Call me. Bye.

Charlie Kady (58:04):
Sheesh.

Jaime Lipowitz (58:09):
Cool.

Sean Kady (58:09):
There we go. Had to leave Matty a message, Matt, I hope you're listening. Is there anything else the listeners should know about you, Jaime, that we forgot to ask?

Jaime Lipowitz (58:19):
If you're not a member of High Buds Club, go to-

Sean Kady (58:21):
That's right. Yeah.

Jaime Lipowitz (58:22):
... highbudsclub.com-

Sean Kady (58:22):
Remind them.

Jaime Lipowitz (58:23):
... and fill out an application. You can find us on Instagram @highbudsclub and see y'all soon.

Sean Kady (58:30):
See y'all soon. Thank you so much for coming by, Jaime.

Jaime Lipowitz (58:32):
Thank you.

Sean Kady (58:33):
It was such a pleasure.

Charlie Kady (58:33):
Appreciate it. We got to open the shop.

Sean Kady (58:36):
We got to open the shop.

Charlie Kady (58:36):
Jaime Lipowitz, High Buds Club. Thanks for listening everybody.

Intro/Outro (58:38):
[inaudible 00:58:45]