Pro Surfers expanding from a local reginal cannabis to a national cannabis brand The large-scale, big investment, cannabis model is being challenged by the more efficent mirco model. Tyler Smith, Russ Smith and Bill Shevlin join Dan Humiston to talk about the creation of 3 Bros, their authentic, vertically-integrated Santa Cruz brand and their plan to expand their micro-model nationally. Produced by PodCONX
Pro Surfers expanding from a local reginal cannabis to a national cannabis brand
The large-scale, big investment, cannabis model is being challenged by the more efficent mirco model. Tyler Smith, Russ Smith and Bill Shevlin join Dan Humiston to talk about the creation of 3 Bros, their authentic, vertically-integrated Santa Cruz brand and their plan to expand their micro-model nationally.
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Tyler Smith: [00:01:01] And it's really just been more of a marketing strategy and we do have it available online. You can buy it and get it. I love rolling up wherever and just seeing someone rocking the red shirt or hat and people that don't even know they don't know that I'm with the brands and I just see them and I just run double Shaka's and I'm like, it's really cool. Yeah, it's great. It's been good.
Tyler Smith: [00:01:21] And it's always helpful, I think, to develop stuff that people wear continuously from MJBulls Media.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:30] It's the Raising Cannabis Capital show. I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show, how these former pro surfers are expanding their Santa Cruz micro vertically integrated model. Nationally.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:53] Today on Raising Cannabis Capital, we have a full house.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:57] Tyler Smith, Russ Smith and Bill Shevlin from three Brose are all here. Guys, welcome to the show. Thank you, man.
Tyler Smith: [00:02:05] We appreciate it. You're shooting. Well, I'm psyched to finally have you on this show because three Brose is a legitimately an authentic Cannabis brand, starting with you guys to where you're located, to how you're building your company. It's like three brose is straight out of central casting. I mean, this is a legitimate company. Tyler, what inspired three guys or three brose that grew up surfing in Santa Cruz to start a Cannabis brand?
Tyler Smith: [00:02:33] I mean, I think that's what inspired us was the fact that we enjoyed branding Sangita, I guess being explain to our viewers we were partizan companies and we got to see these companies built from the ground up. So we kind of had that like a branding and marketing stand still. And I feel like we were able to spin that Italian brand. And I think we went as artists and it was just we wanted to have our own businesses and, you know, work together and saying Cannabis really it's cool because it's like you said, it's you and your brother.
Dan Humiston: [00:03:04] Right. And another friend I grew up doing this and, you know, it just kind of just seems like a natural progression. Like this is your community, this is your deal and now make it into a business. I think it's so cool. And I've been spending the last few days watching your videos on your YouTube channel, and they're really cleverly produced and super funny. You have a cool video about the cultivation facility, Russ. Can you tell us about your cultivation facility?
Russ Smith: [00:03:30] So it basically is not a big empty warehouse that needs a ton of work. We just started it room by room, really, and that's how we paid for the next room, which previous to harvest for the room before I say I mean, basically me and Mark and Tiger just slammed in a little tent, just put plants in and then put ourselves under the gun, have to build the place out.
Russ Smith: [00:03:50] And that's how we funded all this stuff. So that's kind of how we pressed ourselves up against the wall to get this thing going was just put the plants chain in. This room's not done. By the time these are badged, we're failing. We had no option, really. So you say you flip that room, you harvest that. You dry. You sell it. You'd been there. You have enough money to pay for an extra room. We built out about 150 lights worth of rooms just off of that concept.
Dan Humiston: [00:04:15] Wow. Russ, you're the chief marketing officer. Right. And I got to say, kudos on your logo and your product packaging. I mean, it is it's tight. The whole design of everything you're doing is is really consistent with the brand.
Russ Smith: [00:04:29] I think Tyler should be speaking to the marketing more. So I honestly just changed my signature on the email, the coordinator. I've had to completely immerse myself back in the grow. So I would take that on time.
Tyler Smith: [00:04:41] So when you when you start a company in your three rows and you start with a tiny little bedroom in the corner and then you grow weed, put it in a pound, sell the pound, get the money. So that's what we were to start. You know, with that said, all three rows that weren't a lot of hats over the years. And we continue to do so and we're trying to, like, dial that in and bringing Bill and who's actually like a real CEO. We joke that he's the CEO and I'm the CEO. So I'd really like that's kind of the reality of where we're at. We've just been slugging it out every day saying this and we'll talk.
Dan Humiston: [00:05:11] No, we're talking about doing everything all at once. Yeah. Tell us about the dispensary.
Tyler Smith: [00:05:16] So, yeah. With the dispensary, it was a good friend of ours, EPD Tile Shop for a number of years. Right. We grew up right on the West Side. It was an industrial zone, but all of a sudden, like coffee shops and wineries and restaurants and everything started to like kind of build up around us and becoming more of like the hot spot for the West Side. You know, Kyle, stop and start right there in the middle, grinding it out in lights, like we always joke that this would be a great spot for a dispensary. And so when the time came and the city said, hey, we're opening this up and here's the areas where you can do it, and you put out their map and there is this tiny sliver of industrial space on the west side. It was like literally one city block. And we were right in, you know, man, that worked out great. It was great. So, like, we went down and applied. We put together a beautiful application and we made sure that we had everything super dialed and we got awarded the license. And, you know, that was definitely really amazing for us. The shop's doing really well and it has been a lot of work that we're super fortunate to have one and be deemed essential at this time and still opening and able to get people what they need.
Dan Humiston: [00:06:20] I saw the video about it and it's just like I mean, it's it's a really cool location. Again, it's tied to the brand. It looks like the brand like I would expect your brand dispensary to look. And I you know, I keep coming back to it's like the sum of all the three brose parts is really what makes it such an authentic brand in your apparel line. This kind of caught me off guard. Your apparel line really completes that brand. I because I wouldn't immediately think of an apparel brand as an integral part of a Cannabis. Business branding strategy. You feel like it's really helped build a three Brose brand.
Tyler Smith: [00:06:55] I mean, I think anytime you can get a T-shirt on somebody and it's got the right logo and the brand and they're out there walking around and people see that the more T-shirts and hats and the out that are out there and they're cool and people like the brand, you know, that's just more visibility for it. You know, at some point, hopefully, we'll get to the point where we actually make money selling it. But it's really just been more of a marketing strategy. And we do have it available online and you can buy it. I love rolling up wherever and just seeing someone rocking a three red shirt or hat. That's kind of people that they don't know that even with the brand, you know. And I just see them and I just throw double Shaka's and I'm like, yeah, that's really cool. It's really cool.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:32] I want to take a quick break to play a preview of a special Cannabis and Korona report.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:37] But first, I'd like to think one of our sponsors, Sencion Pixel, the Cannabis and CBD Hemp industry's leading marketing and design agency. After three years of working with CBD Hemp companies, Sencion Pixel has developed a strategy to improve your Instagram marketing. They figured out how to grow a real audience that engages and converts to sales at the end of the day.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:59] Go to a sencion pixel dot com or click on the link in the show notes to learn how sencion pixels hirable. All in one marketing and design department can amplify your company's communications.
Mat Trautt: [00:08:12] We basically say all of our previous roles and then we can apply anywhere from a point to two point three of Rosin's to the outside of our patrol. And the reason we did this is infusing the inside actually creates the very harsh. So you have to really understand what Strader Rass and you are using to use it on the inside and the amount that you can actually use the outside to lean on Thursday to hear another episode of Cannabis and Korona with Matt Shrout from Classic.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:47] Now let's get back to today's show.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:51] Bill your brain must be exploding. Just listen and all this stuff. Are you going to fund this?
Bill shevlin: [00:08:56] We've looked at the market and one of the things that I think everybody's seen in the market is tens of millions or hundreds of millions are, in the Canadian case, billions of dollars coming in, building large facilities that are super hard to bring online and super hard to scale and get everything to market.
Bill shevlin: [00:09:14] Well, we have a proven system that's profitable.
Bill shevlin: [00:09:18] That shows we can go in there, put a ten to fifteen thousand square foot operation completely integrated, and show how to run it profitably from day one and have a brand that's already known in the market and a system in place. And so that's kind of our plan is to create that cookie cutter type opportunity that really creates a high quality, high end product and gets it out into the general public in a scalable manner where you don't have to put in 50 million dollars into a facility and build one hundred thousand square foot cultivation, 20 million dollar lab. You can do it much more affordably and be profitable six months and eight months.
Bill shevlin: [00:10:01] And depending upon how you scale minutes, you're building a national brand strategy.
Dan Humiston: [00:10:05] It's pretty cool idea. Will you be raising money to help with all the things you have on your plate?
Bill shevlin: [00:10:10] Yes, we have taken some private investor money on our dispensary, my site. And so we've built a model to be able to duplicate that. And we've actually been talking to a few people about investing. But we've also been set up by groups in other states that are in the process of licensing and trying to license that they're looking for brand partners or operators that know how to cultivate or manufacture. And so we are raising capital in that market, but we're trying to find the right investors in the right opportunities into each market. It's really more about building the brand, doing it profitably and doing it with partners that we want to work with and have fun with as opposed to, you know, trying to make 100 million dollars in cash out and screw the industry.
Russ Smith: [00:10:58] You know, and also with Bill here, these works in the sustainable energy industry. Because to be honest, you know, growing Cannabis is it takes a lot of energy. So how do we get off the grid, so to speak? And we're heading in that direction with Bill and what he's, you know, the Mavericks renewable energy that he's good doing.
Dan Humiston: [00:11:15] So I think that's all ties into with the entire movement.
Bill shevlin: [00:11:19] Coming from the surf background and the surf community, especially here in Santa Cruz. Sustainability really is first and foremost, and we do it in a way where we can still make money. But we're not doing it in a way where we make money by putting others or the planet at risk, so to speak.
Dan Humiston: [00:11:36] Yeah, I'll keep all your information will be available to our listeners in the show notes, and it'll also be available at MJBulls.com. And you know, what we should probably do is have you guys back on and we can do a show on things that you're doing to enhance your sustainability and setting an example for the entire industry. I think we could build a whole show on that.
Dan Humiston: [00:11:56] Guys, I wish we had more time for this show, though, but we have to wrap things up. So thanks for being on the show. Made it clear she shared it. I'm going to keep my eyes out for some three bro sweatshirts in Colorado for sure. Hindraf, I know the address. I'll send you a picture when I see you. Thanks for my.
Dan Humiston: [00:12:14] Today's show was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, like all 36. The country's premiere block chain payment processing platform that's providing dispensaries and its customers with a safe and secure payment option other than cash. To learn more, go to ULP 36 dot com. Today's podcast was produced by MJ Bles Media. The industry's premier Cannabis podcast network with original music produced in part by Jamie Humiston.
Dan Humiston: [00:12:41] I'm Dan Humiston and you've been listening to the Raising Cannabis Capital podcast.
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