"Investing in Cannabis: The Innovative 'Spark Tank' Gary George, the founder of the Real Cannabis Entrepreneur Conference joins Dan Humiston. to shares how he started the conference out of personal necessity after finding a gap in the cannabis event space. He wanted to provide attendees with practical, real-time insights and actionable information from industry experts who are actively involved in the cannabis business. Gary discusses the unique "Spark Tank" segment of his conference, where cannabis entrepreneurs pitch their businesses, and attendees can invest in real-time through crowdfunding. He emphasizes the importance of curating vendors that align with the audience's interests and ensuring sponsors receive a strong return on investment. The conference is scheduled for October 5th and 6th at the Doubletree in Newark, New Jersey, with a focus on networking and bringing together key players in the cannabis industry. Produced by PodConx
"Investing in Cannabis: The Innovative 'Spark Tank'
Gary George, the founder of the Real Cannabis Entrepreneur Conference joins Dan Humiston. to shares how he started the conference out of personal necessity after finding a gap in the cannabis event space. He wanted to provide attendees with practical, real-time insights and actionable information from industry experts who are actively involved in the cannabis business. Gary discusses the unique "Spark Tank" segment of his conference, where cannabis entrepreneurs pitch their businesses, and attendees can invest in real-time through crowdfunding. He emphasizes the importance of curating vendors that align with the audience's interests and ensuring sponsors receive a strong return on investment. The conference is scheduled for October 5th and 6th at the Doubletree in Newark, New Jersey, with a focus on networking and bringing together key players in the cannabis industry.
MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Gary George - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garygeorgenj/
Real Cannabis Entrepreneur Conference - https://realcannabisentrepreneur.com/
Recorded on Squadcast - https://squadcast.fm/
[00:00:00] Today on the MJ Bulls Raising Cannabis Capital Podcast, we're joined by Gary George, the founder of the Real Cannabis Entrepreneur Conference. Gary, welcome to the show.
Hey, Dan, thank you, man. Thank you so much for having me
I'm really excited to talk to you about this. I mean, for our listeners know that I was, my future life, I was involved in trade shows. So we're birds of a feather on this one and you have a big, you have a big show coming up on
october 5th and 6th. So it's really coming up fast. We're right on top of that. It's in Newark, New Jersey
Yep. New York, New Jersey, right at the double tree, right at the airport, man. We're the biggest ballroom north of AC that we had to upgrade to it to fit everybody. And last year we still overflowed the parking lot. , get there early, ladies and gentlemen.
And stay late. Well, you have a history of selling these shows out. So this won't be your first one. And you've, this is your 11th show and you have a history of selling , these bad boys out, but you have a unique. Approach to these conferences, like some of these conferences try to be something for everybody, but you figured it out.
, and I give you so much credit because the approach that you do, [00:01:00] you can tell everybody , if you come to one of your conferences, what do you expect to take away from that?
Oh yeah, man. I'll tell you basically how it all started. It came out of personal necessity, me looking for exactly what it is that I created back in the day. I was going around my wife and I decided we were going back. We were going to get into the cannabis industry. We started traveling around, going to all the trade shows, going to all the conferences.
When I got. There it was so different from what I was used to because I own a 27 year old digital market agency. I'm a marketer. I speak from the stages for a lot of marketing conferences all across the country. And I was thinking I was going to see the same thing in cannabis came there. All of a sudden, everybody's talking about their dog, how much money they made and not telling me the one, two, three of exactly what I was used to, how this is how I did it.
This is how I did. And I said, wait a minute, this is a big gap. And after I continued to look for the gap and couldn't find it, my marketer light bulb went off and said, Gary, stop looking, man, you got a problem. Make some money off of it. Create your own. Solution to the problem. And that's what real cannabis entrepreneur conference is all about.
It's the solution to my own problem. Ladies and gentlemen, that's it.
it's so smart because people need to know the, like you said, the one, two, [00:02:00] three, how do I get into this industry? Everyone wants to know how they get it. They don't care about policy. They don't care about all this other stuff. They just want to know like the nuts and bolts. How do I get in? How do.
And then when you go to, you go get the professor talk from the other conferences, a lot of them were giving me a lot of big overviews and a lot of book now. And I said, no, I want the guys that are doing, I want the guys that are in the trenches. This is cannabis, man. This thing moves way fast.
And that was before I didn't even know it moved as fast as what I know now, but knowing what I know now, man, 30 days, a 30 day old information is extremely dated in cannabis, so, So we, you need those people in the trenches to tell you in real time, because anybody who's outside of the trenches to teach you something old, that stuff is already gone and outdated.
That's why I bring guys doing it in real time.
yeah, for sure. Because they, not only are they doing it real time, but , these are the people that are on the ground actually doing it. You're not talking to a CEO of an MSO. Like, like these are people that actually do it every single day. And they can tell you , how they raised money, how they did whatever they have to do.
Right. Right. And each one of them has their own unique stories and [00:03:00] independent ways that they approach the industries and things that they did and all of those stories really helped. From a motivation perspective, as long as you, as well as people learning, because I make all of my speakers. One thing I do with all my speakers, I say, guys, I need you to do the Ted talk.
I need you to wear in Jersey, baby. We talk fast. So don't worry about it. Go fast as you could do cram it in as much information you can cram in. I make them do that. And I say, guys, I want you to do something you never did on stage before. I want you to cover this. I want you to cover that. I go through.
Extensive detail with my speakers, talking to them on the phone, talking about what's going on in their business. And I say, oh, that's a really good point. Let's talk more about this. Let's talk more about that. So I'm not the guy who event promoter sits back and invites the speakers and comes and say, Hey, come on, jump on the stage.
No, we have several conversations. I'm helping them. I'm a copywriter, so I help them with the titling and this and that. And that's why we are, when our presentation come and everybody leaves together, they say, Gary, I learned more at your conference than I did at two, three year accredited universities.
It's got to make you feel great. It's got to make you feel great. I said, I saw a list of your speakers, Cheryl Murray Powell, one of the smartest women that I know
Oh yeah.
, she's great. , going through your list of speakers. These are [00:04:00] real players.
Oh yeah, we got the top of the line. I mean, we've been doing it for so long and everybody knows us from helping the community. Again, it's my wife and I who created this whole thing. It's a family movement. My daughter does green zone real estate. You'll see her on the stage. My son is going up for the, be the youngest dispensary owner.
I've got him going through the whole day. My other oldest son's in my marketing firm with me. So everyone knows my whole family. They know everything that we do. So it's a different kind of flow. Everyone who's got a license in New Jersey knows us personally. They got it because of us got introduced.
So many people said, Gary, I wouldn't be even here if it wasn't for you. So, people come and approach our show very differently. Because it is a real New Jersey family oriented movement for real.
Yeah, that's so cool. That's so cool. And I liked it. I liked the one segment that you're doing called spark tank. Can you tell everybody about that?
Oh yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the best for segments. One of my favorite segments, our cannabis business pitch, right? Well, this is our version of shark tank. Ladies and gentlemen, we call it spark tank, right? Cause we're cannabis. We got to spark it up. So we get the best guys in business guys have come up with some really unique ideas, go up and pitch on stage.
Right? But this year we got something even more [00:05:00] incredible. I've been working on this for three years and I finally got the partnership with main vest. com. The only platform that allows cannabis crowdfunding. And we are going to not only have them pitch the investors in real time, I'm But people will be able to invest right on your phone, sitting in the audience home, watching virtually in real time.
The first time a cannabis conference, baby, where we're going to have live real time investing, baby, I can't wait for spark tank. Can't wait.
, so, so , while the person's making their presentation, you bring it up on your phone and you're like, all right, I like this company. , it's crowdfunding. I'm going to, I'm going to buy some shares in this company. Right.
right now. All the unaccredited guys can sit there with as little as 50 bucks, 20 bucks, whatever you got, man, throw it in a pie, something you're supporting, right? It feels good because you're supporting a movement that you want to see when, and at the same time, you're also an investor in it and in place to get it.
Actual return back on your investment. So it's a no brainer. If there's something you believe in, it's something that's great. Something we need to see go out there. We're going to, we would do it anyway, just support it for nothing, but this is actually paying you back something for your support. So it's a no brainer for everybody around.
Right.
Yeah. And think [00:06:00] about all those people that worked at a Walmart, like 30, 50 years ago, where they're cashiers and they got like a couple shares of stock and all of a sudden now they're millionaires. This is the kind of stuff that could happen. You're at one of these shows. You can you can't hit your wagon to somebody that you think is going to put in 50 bucks or something.
And next thing you know, you're
thing you
you're on a yacht.
exactly you got in early on. The next Facebook, you didn't even know it. Right. Just sitting in the audience and you
That's so cool. That's so cool.
It is a great segment. Great segment.
I love it. I love it. Great idea. It's the first I've ever heard of it. , the other thing I like about what you're doing is that , you don't just like open it up to anybody as far as vendors go, , you really curate who you're going to have as your vendors and tell us a little bit about your strategy as to what type of vendors you have and why you select those vendors.
definitely. Good question. I always tell everybody, I said, guys, I'm not an event promoter. I'm a marketer. I think totally different from every event promoter you've ever known in your life. You're going to learn things from me and you're going to see me do crazy stuff. You've never seen before. [00:07:00] And I tell all my sponsors that to get to prepare because that's the way I really do it.
And when I'm doing it, I'm all about ROI because I'm a marketer and that's my real calling card is return on investment. It's not how many people I get in the door. That's cool too. I like to brag about how many people I get in the door. But I need to go to my vendors afterwards, my exhibitors, my sponsors.
And I go back and ask them questions like, Hey, how many clients did you get? Hey, how many referrals did you get? Hey, what's the lifetime value of those clients? Hey, what's this? What's that? I'm the marketer who's going to add up all those things and say, wow, look how much you got back from this particular experience, right?
Cause I'm the one who could calculate it. And most business owners, they don't really calculate it in real time. So I help them and I calculate it and I look at everything and say. Look at the return that you got back 300, 400, 500 percent on your dollars. And all my sponsors say, Gary, that's the best thing ever.
You know what I'm in every year. And we sell out 70 percent of all of our sponsorships before I sell one ticket to the public every single year, because all my sponsors know they get crazy return. They're never going anywhere. And I have to leave open a 30 percent just so I can bring in some new blood and not, be boring and that kind of thing.
And but the other thing I will say Dan too, is. [00:08:00] I can't select these guys because I'm making sure that it's perfectly aligned with what my audience wants. That's my secret sauce. I'm a marketer, so I know how to pair it up. You just don't put anybody in there that doesn't have a demand. It has to be somebody that I know has a demand, so I won't take anybody with a checkbook in a post.
You cannot get in real Canada like that. It has to be a perfect fit because I need to brag about the return that I made. For you as a sponsor. So I make sure that I've vet everybody appropriately and I'm telling them at the same time, I'm protecting you at the same time when I reject you, because I know, because I want to make sure you get that return.
So let's find another way,
, I love that strategy. I mean, I've been to so many trade shows and all of a sudden in the middle of them is a rec massage chair
right.
where, what are you doing here? You have nothing to do with what we're doing in this trade show.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Well, I think that's a great strategy.
I love the spark tank. What a great name. Well, just to remind everybody the conference has taken place October 5th and 6th at the Doubletree , in Newark, New Jersey, get there early, cause [00:09:00] it's going to sell out quickly.
And,
right.
, I'm going to have links to the, to your website. On our website, and also in our show notes. , so anybody that's listening right now, just click the link on the show notes. You can get tickets right online. So it makes it super easy.
And when you're there, you gotta say, Hey, I heard you on the podcast Gary. That was a lot of, it was a lot of fun having you on the show today. And I wish I could be at your show this year, but count me in for next year.
oh, absolutely. Dan and everybody, you guys can go out, man. Get your tickets. Now they're 30 percent off until next week. Go to real cannabis, entrepreneur. com, real cannabis, entrepreneur. com. Get those tickets, man. Yeah. Like I said, this is going to be a big blast. 40 plus speakers, a thousand plus attendees, man.
We got the best of the best in the room. All of the best networking that you could imagine. I'm bringing guys in from all over the place. I got a lot of my guys that are doing it big on the West coast that are coming here. A lot of them that were responsible for policy in Ohio. A lot of my guys that were responsible for policy.
Seattle. We got a nice smorgasbord of some very important people in the building as well as all the municipalities. They're all my friends. I've been talking to all these municipalities [00:10:00] working on getting all these retailers going in New Jersey. And so I made friends with all of my city officials.
They're all going to be in the building. I'm a big up the North, big up the Plainfield, big up to all my city officials, Trenton, that'll be in the building, real cannabis entrepreneur. And last year we had the secretary of state came in the building. So with guys. Come on out, man. Real cannabis, entrepreneur.
com. Get your tickets. Don't real cannabis, entrepreneur. com. October 5th and six.
All, all right. Gary, thank you very much. It was a lot of fun.
Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it.