Leading a National Hemp Business

Brandon Gadles joins Jack for a conversation that goes far beyond hemp. What starts as a raw discussion on accountability and victimhood quickly turns into a sharp breakdown of toxic employees, business lawsuits, leverage, and the kind of mindset it takes to protect what you’re building. Brandon also shares how watching CBD and THC products help his mother through cancer treatment became the catalyst for launching Boston Hemp, giving the entire conversation real weight and personal conviction. From there, the episode opens up into lessons on distribution, product education, and scaling in a category that still carries stigma. It’s a grounded founder conversation about pain, clarity, and learning when to cut problems off before they spread.

Brandon Gadles

Boston Hemp

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Host: Jack Moran

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Transcript

Brandon Gadles 0:00

And it doesn't matter what part of society you're in, everyone has it's like perpetual victimhood and recreational outrage. Like everyone's upset about something and constantly kind of benefiting off that victimhood in a weird way, but it's a terrible mindset to have if you're in business. Like you don't see a lot of work. Yeah, yeah. You know, when you're bidding for, oh, I didn't get it because of this, this, and this. Like no one wants to do cancer. Cancer.

Jack Moran 0:31

Literally cancer. When you start talking like that, the second I hear that language, I'm like, you're not gonna make it like that.

Brandon Gadles 0:36

You're not gonna make it. No, you don't even want them on your working for you.

Jack Moran 0:40

Welcome to Shaking Hands, where we provide the platform for entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their stories in order to hopefully influence others to get out of the rat race and chase their own dreams. If you have any recommendations for guests or questions that you want to be asked, please don't hesitate to reach out. Anyways, if you enjoy the podcast, please like, comment, subscribe, and share in order to keep the podcast growing. Otherwise, I'm your host, Jack Morandon, and this is Jake and Hans.

Brandon Gadles 1:17

But when I look at pictures of my mother, and I hope she never, you know, hears me say this, but she they looked so old, man. My father with like the long mustache, you know. I'm like, you got and then you find out in the picture they're like 26.

Jack Moran 1:31

Yeah, what the fuck? It's gotta be stress, too, like stress induced. They probably had a lot more weight on them. I don't know. Maybe uh uh maybe social media is good for us and it's uh keeping us young. Keeping us looking young. I don't think so.

Brandon Gadles 1:43

I think it's no, it doesn't seem like it's too good for us, but it's got its advantages, and we gotta take accountability too. There's no I was watching this thing with Mark Zuckerberg. He's on the goddamn in front of Congress and uh blaming him for getting people addicted. And it's like, well, he's a business, like he wants you to use his product. You know what I mean? How about a little accountability from the parents? Or you know what I mean? I I don't know how you you guys feel, but that's how I would feel. Like, I don't I don't my nephew comes over, there is no fucking iPad or TV without doing shit.

Jack Moran 2:20

Yeah, yeah. I think there's just like that's just kind of like the culture, Western culture is blame shifting. Yeah, you know, it's like whose fault is it? It's like that's very low control, and it's not really gonna lead to you getting the outcomes that you want when you're externalizing blame. Like if you take internal accountability and say, what could I have done differently? Then you'll start getting different, you know, results. Yeah. Yeah, but like just pointing fingers to everyone else gives you very low control of your environment.

Brandon Gadles 2:45

And it doesn't matter what part of society you're in, everyone has it's like perpetual victimhood and recreational outrage. Like everyone's upset about something and constantly kind of benefiting off that that victimhood in a weird way, but it's a terrible mindset to have if you're in business. Like, you don't see a business with that attitude. Yeah, yeah. You know, when you're bidden for it, oh, I didn't get it because of this, this, and this. Like no one wants to do cancer. Cancer.

Jack Moran 3:16

Literally cancer. When you start talking like that, the second I hear that language, I'm like, you're not gonna make it like that.

Brandon Gadles 3:21

You're not gonna make it. No, you don't even want them on your working for you. Yeah, you don't want the victim working for you, you know.

Jack Moran 3:29

Because what happens is then they that victim needs to get reassurance for their like confirm their negative reality that they're having. So they start going to others on your team and like loathing with them, and then you start seeing the clubs forming, you know, within the company. Like, is there a club here? You know, we got the victim club?

Brandon Gadles 3:50

That's so true, dude. You know, and it spreads like a cancer. Yeah, very quick.

Jack Moran 3:55

I think I've gotten, and I'm sure you have this too, like, you get like a sixth sense for it. Like, I can smell it when there's a cancer like within the company or when there's a negative mindset, you can feel that energy shift because your company is almost becomes like an appendage of you. You know, so you can feel that energy shift very quickly when something changes with your workforce or something even can changes in the market. You develop this like intuition for it. So I can smell it when I talk to someone in the company and I'm like, there's something different today.

Brandon Gadles 4:27

Yep.

Jack Moran 4:27

Where is this coming from? And then you come to find it's oh, it's the new employee that's like being a crybaby about like, you know, and I'm empathetic to those people, but it's what they don't realize a lot of times is like that mindset is the reason why they're not getting the outcomes that they want. It's not my fault. Yeah, it's not the company's fault, it's not the world's fault. It's like maybe it is, but you're not gonna get any different outcome if you keep thinking that way.

Brandon Gadles 4:53

No, you have to see it differently. Yeah, they and they're gonna go to the next job or start their next business or whatever the fuck they do.

The Employee You Can't Fix

Jack Moran 5:01

They're and the pattern keeps happening.

Brandon Gadles 5:04

Exactly, dude. It's so true. And I in uh my biggest mistake that I made in business uh was trying to fix it, sniff it out, and then I'm trying to fix it. It is impossible to put that back in the box when it goes in that direction. So once you have uh that one member of your team, you know, especially if they're an important integral member of what you have going on, once it goes south and they have that that uh what is it, contempt uh for you or to scent or whatever whatever the word is towards you, it's over. You can't fix it, man. I tried. I had uh a guy who worked for us and and you know, he was an important piece to the team, a four-man team at first. I did I bent over backwards to fix it, you know, and couldn't. And even when he left, he left and ended up suing us, you know, which was uh you know a frivolous little lawsuit about um unpaid wages or something dumb, you know what I mean? And i it was like there was just no fixing it. And I had handed him you know thousands in cash and upped his pay, and and then I knew I needed to get him out of the office and away from the team, and I was getting ready to just be like, hey, listen, go home. I'm gonna pay you. When you do work, we'll pay you for the work you do at home. And before I could even do that, he quit, left, and sued.

Jack Moran 6:41

Well, that's the best thing that can happen when they leave on their own accord.

Brandon Gadles 6:44

Exactly, exactly. It was the it was the best way, but I did not want it to end that way.

Jack Moran 6:49

Yeah, it's like once that human nature starts showing and like it's deeper than any you know amount of money is going to solve. It's like it's that contempt, it's like an ego, um, it's an envy. And it's like you can give them an extra $1,000, you can give them an extra $10,000. That mindset doesn't stop until they have your entire business. They want everything.

Brandon Gadles 7:12

Everything.

Jack Moran 7:13

Everything. Yeah. They might say, oh, I can be getting a little bit more, but it's because their mindset, that envy that they have, want they want what you have. Yeah. All of it. It doesn't stop. It's like, and so that's why it's like so important to recognize that quickly. And like, I think that we all kind of have that human nature a little bit deep down where you have those biases where you think that like I'm doing the most work in this relationship. And all of that is just like, it just contaminates the spirit of the deal. And you have to be like kind of hyper-conscious and self-aware to realize when that's happening and say, like, this is counterproductive and not let that interfere with the partnership. But finding people that have that self-awareness and are conscious of that and can suppress that for the overarching deal instead of serving their like short-term, like or or or like reassuring themselves is very difficult to find. It's like, in my opinion, I love the saying like hire slow, fire fast.

Brandon Gadles 8:09

Yep, yeah, and it's true. It's you know, and it took me all the way up until that scenario I had just uh shared with you to realize that. You know, now it's you come in and I can assess really, really quick if you're gonna work or not. And when it starts to not work, it just cut it right off.

Jack Moran 8:29

How do you assess that? Like if a person's gonna work within the culture or within your team?

Brandon Gadles 8:33

The the overall attitude, like someone like Connor comes into your business, that's gonna work. You know what I mean? You can just tell by his overall attitude, his work ethic, his uh his sacrifice uh in certain situations. He he he's uh not total, totally ego-based in any way. You know what I mean? He's not just like consumed by his own ego. And it's like uh my partner uh business partner Kevin, fantastic example, you know, all those characteristics uh that like a guy like Connor has, and it and it's worked in everything we've done has worked. The funny thing about what we were talking about earlier with people when you do cut them off, oh my god, every time I've gotten rid of them, uh it's such a weight off your shoulders. Like the weight off my shoulders, uh, the clarity, the cognitiveness comes back, and the business excels.

Jack Moran 9:25

You know, it's it's like a black hole. It just like is a void for your energy, and there's so much negative energy, and you're thinking about like how it's gonna fuck pieces of your business, and like they're consuming all this time and this thought energy that could be going to productive stuff. And it's the compassion, like you you're probably a compassionate person. So you want to help them, you want to drag them along. Um, and then it, you know, it ends up like how I've been able to justify not holding those people on because I am compassionate and I want to help them out. Someone said to me, like, when you're putting energy into these people that don't deserve it, you are um you are depriving the rest of your team who does deserve it of that energy. So I looked at that and I'm like, it is really a bad thing. Like, like these people are depriving all of these other people that do, you know, really deserve it of positive energy. So it's a disservice to everyone else to keep them around.

Brandon Gadles 10:21

It truly is, yeah. You're doing them uh uh a favor in a sense, too. You know, if they're rotting away in your business, uh not only is it hurting you, it's hurting them. Yeah, you know, and once you get rid of them, they can sort it out elsewhere, but they they rarely do. If you check back in with them, I mean, I don't what do they do that into their 50s and 60s? You know, some people they live their whole lives in that negative spiral, and and you can't it's amazing to me, you but you cannot live that way, you know. Um, but every time I've removed them from the business, it it's been amazing to see uh liberate business. Yeah, yeah, it's like the best feeling in the world. Yeah, you know, it's awesome. It was amazing, uh, especially when the case was settled, too, you know, because that costs money and you're just like, whatever, just go. Yeah, that's brutal.

The Psychology of Lawsuits

Jack Moran 11:11

I've been in three lawsuits in the past couple years, and it is not fun. That's another thing that a lot of negative energy goes towards. I mean, it's a part of business, yeah, but it sucks. It's an interesting world to navigate, like the leverages and like the psychological strategy that goes behind. It's not as cut and dry as people think, the legal system. Like, there's so much that goes on before that actual trial happens. 99% of these cases um settle out before it even reaches the trial. So, like, really, people put so much emphasis on that like trial law, but it's really that like before two-year psychology that happens beforehand where like the chess game happens.

Brandon Gadles 11:51

You're like whittling each other down and positioning, and yeah, and it's funny, 99% do not even make it to the courtroom. And it's really designed uh in a way to settle out of court. It's designed you know uh negatively towards the business. Like the business is always going, not always, but in my case, it wasn't a matter of uh winning, it was a matter of like how much am I? He's saying an outrageous number, and I'm saying a low number in return. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like I owe him nothing. He's gonna be a good thing.

Jack Moran 12:27

But the trade-off is spending 200 grand in legal bills to get to that nothing, exactly. Yeah, and you're not gonna recuperate that from him, probably.

Brandon Gadles 12:34

Yeah, you know, and that's what it feels like. It's just this like, all right, and eventually you come with like I can't spend any more money on going back and forth with my lawyer. I'll just give him the 40 grand see you later. You know what I mean? That's that ends up how it ended.

Jack Moran 12:48

And that's how a lot of people don't realize either. It's not like you versus the the your adversary, it's like a three-way game of like you, the adversary, and the attorneys who are playing their own game. Yeah. And like they're, you know, serving their own self-interest. So there's like a big psychology game with your own attorneys, like how you speak to them so that they're negotiating properly on the other side, because you don't know what's going on behind closed doors with your attorney and their attorney. They're striking deals like, hey, they're talking like 300 grand they're willing to settle out for. So why don't we rip attorney's fees from them for the next like you know, year and a half if they've got that kind of money?

Brandon Gadles 13:24

Isn't that crazy? It's nuts. A lot of in the average person doesn't even know that that part exists. You know, that part exists, like that part is a real thing. Where and the attorneys know each other. Yeah. Nine out of ten times. They know each other and have had other cases together. Yeah, absolutely. And they're just like a a third party to what it has nothing to do with truth in in reality of law until you get to the courtroom. Which almost never happens. Never happens. Yeah.

Jack Moran 13:52

So that psychological game is like, that's what I've learned is like you've got to really communicate confidence to your attorneys, like that you're willing to go all the way, so that they come with that aggression to the other side. And then the other side is saying, like, if they're willing to go all the way, is it worth it for us to spend this amount of money if we don't have a case in the first place? Um, and if you say to your attorneys, like, you know, we really were desperate to settle out, then they've got you by the balls. By the balls, you know.

Brandon Gadles 14:21

So that is so true, man. Yeah. And that's the worst position you can ever take. Yeah, absolutely. Is that? And I'm sure there's a lot of people who do, you know, say that. Oh, just get this, I'll do anything just to get this to go away. Right then, they're just like, oh, we fucking got you. You know what I mean?

Leverage Changes Everything

Jack Moran 14:37

And it works with anything, like you can't be giving people that amount of leverage. It's like if you figure out that that is the whole game of life, is like who holds the leverage? Once you hold the leverage, you can do good things, you know, and if you have good intentions, it's great. But it's like, I don't want you know, someone else, my adversary, to have the control over the deal or the control over my outcomes in any situation. Like when you can internalize control, like hopefully the people who figure out to internalize control have good intentions. Um, but you definitely don't want to be the one that doesn't have any control.

Brandon Gadles 15:09

In in any negotiation, I'm sure you have heard this, is like the ability to walk away. And that's usually anyone who has that ability to like confidently like, all right, that's usually when the other side of the table, right? Yeah, because that's the leverage. Yeah, you can walk away, you do have the upper hand. Yeah, uh, most people can't do that.

Jack Moran 15:29

As soon as they sniff that you're relying on that decision, then they've got you by the boss.

Brandon Gadles 15:34

Yeah, the the legal shit is something I never and I will at some point. I wish I could never get involved with ever again. Yeah, I hated that, man. Oh, I was because you're running two businesses. Exactly. Exactly. It's two businesses, and that shit was so there were there were days I would spend more time on that than my actual business. And that's horrifying if you're on if you're a business owner.

Jack Moran 16:00

Absolutely.

Brandon Gadles 16:00

And it was like an all-day consuming thing, and it's very negative, very negative, yeah. There's nothing positive about it. Yeah, that's so true.

Jack Moran 16:11

So, what's um like what do you got going on right now? Uh tell me about your business and how you got into it.

Building Boston Hemp

Brandon Gadles 16:17

So right now, uh, I'll start with uh Boston Hemp Inc is our uh is our main cash flow in main business me and Kevin operate. Um as you know, it's all like hemp products. We have a lot of THC products now too, as uh THC is extracted from hemp, not actual cannabis, although they're they're one and the same, you know what I mean. So it's kind of a legal loophole for people to get low milligram THC products uh without having to go to the dispensary, for instance. You know. Uh we started in 2018 when the farm bill was passed, the original 2018 farm bill, and we have been off to the races ever since. I mean, in our it took our second year we hit a million. Wow. Yeah, and then since then we've compounded on that, grown our distribution network, and and it's been awesome, man. People love people love uh having an all-natural alternative, you know. Now more than ever, with the I mean, I read a statistic, seven out of ten people are on some sort of pharmaceutical, you know. And uh now more than ever they're looking for natural alternatives. You can see it like I even go to my father's house and he's drinking that um mushroom coffee. You ever seen that stuff? Um he's a Boston guy, bulletproof or whatever, no, no, or mud water, not mud water, not bulletproof. Uh man, I wish I could think of it because he started in Boston. Really? Uh yeah, yeah, and he's absolutely killed it. My father had uh four or five bags delivered to the house last week when I was there. Yeah, he absolutely loves it, and it's nice to see that people are kind of going in that direction where they will uh go in the all-natural direction, you know, because pharmaceuticals are horrible, and I think people are more aware of that now than ever.

Jack Moran 18:16

Yeah. What have you seen to be some like good alternatives that have come from the hemp culture that can be utilized in replacement for something maybe artificial?

Natural Alternatives to Pharmaceuticals

Brandon Gadles 18:25

Uh a good example would be anxiety meds, for instance. Like uh a lot of people will use CBD and low dose THC for their daily anxiety, whether it be actual anxiety or social anxiety or whatever it is, as opposed to using Xanax. You know, and I think that's awesome. I mean, we have thousands of people who who rely on on our product. Um, there's some people with schizophrenia, you know what I mean? That's another thing. Where uh I don't know if that's a good thing. I think you should probably consult with your doctor, but they'll call up and and they are rely, they are relying on it, you know, like fanatics towards it. Yeah. And uh I think it's good to see. And maybe may and it may not even be for the schizophrenia, maybe it's just to quell that anxiety while they go through whatever they're going through. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um I think that's I think that is the best part about being in this industry is you know you're helping people, you know, you know you're helping them. Um and and then you have, you know, the other percent who just want to get high, and that's fine too. Yeah. Can you smoke weed and run a business? I do not smoke weed, no. Um I can't do it either. Snoop Dogg can do it, though. Yeah, you know, Wiz Khalifa can do it. Um they seem like aliens to me. I could never be high and do what I do.

Jack Moran 19:51

Yeah, I've tried to do it, but it just doesn't work. Yeah. Or for me at least.

Brandon Gadles 19:55

Well, with with marijuana, for me, it's like um I overanalyze and overthink and kind of start to give myself anxiety personally. Yeah, you know what I mean? Where I'm like, oh my god, this is overwhelming. Uh, it amazes me that people have the opposite effect. Yeah, they take it and they're like, all right, I'm ready to go on with my day. I don't know if it's my genetic makeup. I'm obviously in the distinct minority, uh, but I I do not get high. I do like CBD, though. I love it. For what uses? Calms me down, like before this. You know what I mean? Even though I'm not like an overly anxious person, um it gets rid of that little bit of procrastination or that lag I might have. I just take it, I'm calm, I'm ready to dominate today.

Jack Moran 20:46

But you don't really like feel when I take CBD or if I've I've taken C B D, you don't like it's not like smoking weed where you feel like, okay, I feel like I know that this is working. Yeah. You know, CBD, it's like very subtle, if not anything, but you can feel that effect for sure.

Brandon Gadles 21:01

I can, yeah. And it like washes over me. So with flour, uh CBD flour that has very, very low amounts of THC in it, when you smoke that, oh God, you feel it right. Just wash over you. It's a very, very relaxing, and that's what that's what the tinctures are supposed to. I think they're supposed to give you that feeling. You know what I mean? That that nice washes right over you to get that warm feeling. Yeah. You're in no way high, but you feel relaxed. Very relaxed.

Jack Moran 21:34

Give me like the kind of like scientific breakdown of like, like if you had to give me the analysis of the different hemp products, um, like different cannabinoids, like different uh disciplines of of the hemp products, um, you know, how would you go into that?

Brandon Gadles 21:51

So like what what do you mean? Like what what product would you use for certain situations?

Jack Moran 21:58

Yeah, different effects and like you know, I know there are like you know, THE, delta nine, delta eight, all these different things. Like, what are the different effects?

Brandon Gadles 22:05

Or are you there there it's either like psychoactive or non-psychoactive? Uh, a lot of the cannabinoids that are like CBD, CBG, are really a lot of them are just anti-inflammatories. And now they're doing studies, which is really, really cool to see uh a lot of anxiety, believe it or not, is coming from uh being inflamed. And they're trying to make the correlation of why, you know what I mean? Why inflammation can actually cause anxiety in certain people. What I think is cool is uh that CBD is like I think Texas University did a study where it was like 20 times the anti-inflammatory of Advil without the uh stomach issues, which is awesome. So your body recognizes it's naturally it's not ripping through your lining and it's it's giving you the anti-inflammatory properties of Advil times 10 or 20. Interesting. Isn't that cool? That is really cool. And I wish more people knew about it and I wish it was sold um like we sell it. We we were putting it in uh you know how you go to the corner stores and you over you see the opened box and you can grab the two pack of Tylenol? Yeah. You should be able to go in and buy the two pack of CBD you know what I mean? Why can't you? Is it illegal or no no it isn't it's just never caught on it was never as popular through distribution as it should be I think probably price point it's hard to compete with how cheap someone like Tylenol can get their stuff on the on the shelves. So you can go in probably grab one for what 50 cents 25 cents you'll probably not be able to to get CBD that cheap you know which sucks.

Why CBD Cream Works

Jack Moran 23:47

I personally do not have a good relationship with THC. It doesn't work very well for me but I've been utilizing the CBD creams a lot for just like like pain from working out and it's amazing. It's awesome. My grandmother um she had really bad sciatica um that she like got surgeries to you know fix she was taking percocets like very strong perk percocets and you know she said nothing ever relieved the pain except taking CBD cream was like she found it later in life but like some miraculous way this little jar of CBD cream has a higher effect than like a perk 80 yeah some intense narco narcotics in in it's uh you can put it right on it too so when you're taking like pain meds or opioids you're just taking it and it's like just making you almost ignore the pain.

Brandon Gadles 24:39

Uh the CBD cream is cool because it's going directly on if you have knee pain it's going directly to your knee and getting rid of the inflammation and working. My mother uh had lung cancer. When they did the radiation through the back it killed nerves and she had nerve damage from the laser or whatever it is going through the back to get the cancer. And same thing um she would take all the pain meds they could give her and it would work to a certain degree where she could go to sleep or forget about the pain for temporary moments but nothing worked as good as uh the CBD cream and that's we have a roll on and it works. The problem is it only works for 30 45 minutes. She just reapplies it and she's good you know and and it's because it's like right on the spot she's not forgetting about the pain it's actually attacking the pain. So so how does your guys' business model work is it a storefront or you guys like uh are doing online sales or a combination of both yeah so we do online retail um and then we have you know the people who will come in and buy like we'll sell by the pound some people just buy the pounds of our THC flour uh CBD flour you know whatever they want and then we have the distribution through convenience stores and whatnot so sometimes we sell directly to the convenience store and then other times those convenience stores will go to the distribution centers that we're also in and they'll buy from them.

Jack Moran 26:14

What's the best channel for you guys?

Brandon Gadles 26:16

Uh for cash flow uh it's nice when people come and buy by the pound I love you know when they come in and drop that type of cash but the most consistent uh would be like to the distribution centers.

Jack Moran 26:32

What do you want to grow the most?

Brandon Gadles 26:34

Where do you see the most potatoes distribution distribution to just be in as many corner stores as possible throughout the entire nation.

Cracking Retail Distribution

Jack Moran 26:41

How do you structure those deals are there like large conglomerates that have access into them or do you have to go individually to it it's individually through those.

Brandon Gadles 26:50

So it's really strange how the convenience thing is set up. So if you go in when we were going store to store when we first started we would go in ask for owners you know like hey we're so and so we have this brand new product our T A uh CBD flower would love to get it on the shelves with you and you know you you hit that whole sales pitch. And then you find out the guy running the cashier actually owns the store. Then you find out the guy who was running the cashier at that store that day actually owns like 13 stores. No way it was very it was very very cool to see how that works. And then they will you know we built relationships with the stores throughout Brockton and Boston and then they will introduce you to their friend and get you into the distribution center which will service two 300 stores. You know what I mean? And it's all very very individual it's a it's like an underworld almost it's it's very strange. There's no um big corporate conglomerate that is just the target of distribution centers for convenience stores.

Jack Moran 28:03

And I've I've seen it with um it's interesting I've seen it with um like alcohol chains or the the alcohol business like a lot of people think that the battle is getting on the shelves but then what they don't realize is that person who has the store becomes like your salesperson. So just getting it on the shelf is one thing but getting for them to display it properly getting them to articulate that product you know so that they can move it as a whole mother beast.

Brandon Gadles 28:34

It is yeah yeah and we have one chain that we work with which is uh King's Smoke Shop for instance and we would we have an awesome relationship with the owner of that chain they're all the way from here down to Virginia and you go in and we're like they're just selling and selling and selling and selling it's because of that they we built such a good relationship with the owner that he is relaying to them like hey put this on the shelf I want to hear this is what it does. You know what I mean then we're going to drop it off to the stores telling them building relationships with them and now they are specifically selling your product they're very very knowledgeable about it and that's where you see like you said that's where the sales just pop up. And that chain would outsell anybody for us. You know they're like our best chain that we do business with and it's because exactly what you just said.

Jack Moran 29:30

Yeah you're almost better having like a few really quality relationships where they're really converting than having you know 10,000 relationships that you know they have no clue about your product and you don't have that you know quality relationship with them.

Brandon Gadles 29:46

Aaron Powell Where it's just sitting there and no one knows what the hell it is.

Jack Moran 29:49

I mean look at all these like if you go into a liquor store like there's a million products in there but like people go for the Bud Light you know or they go for the you know the name brands. The little like random like brewery is not going to get as much attention unless you know that owner is advocating for it or it has some good marketing or you know the branding pops out or something it's it's being displayed and getting that attention.

Brandon Gadles 30:12

That is true. And even even now when I go I don't drink very often at all but when I go out I like subconsciously having in my head like what are you drinking? I'll get a Heineken I don't even think about it just kind of comes out now. You know you know what I mean I don't even know why it ended up being Heineken but like you said they go in they grab their Bud Light and they're out the door and I don't even think a lot of them know why.

Jack Moran 30:35

Yeah it's just ingrained in them in the marketing and everything that's like yeah it's so true.

The Pain behind the Brand

Brandon Gadles 30:41

And to get if you're a small brewery like oh my God that must be very very difficult and they have to go in and we do a lot of um when we first started we had posters and informational packets and all that but how many customers really read those like there is nothing better than having uh an employee who knows about your product they don't even work for you but they have a vested interest in whatever reason to sell your product yeah absolutely and that comes from building business relationships you know and that's what we did with that place King specifically it's amazing. How'd you get into this business? I got in because when my mother was diagnosed with cancer um she couldn't eat couldn't sleep and she was going through chemo and uh the only thing that worked for her literally from the first time she took a one-to-one ratio C B D T C gummy she said order me a pizza from poopsies order some pizza from poopsies which is this little place in Pembroke very popular great great pizza and she I went picked it up brought it back she ate it a whole little bar pizza to herself you know and then fell asleep for like four hours and it doesn't sound like a lot you know but for someone going through what she was going through it was unbelievable to to see that and it was right then where I was like holy shit I'm gonna I'm gonna start this business like I other people need to know this exists because I had only read about the benefits of THC while going through chemo and I'd only read about it but I never once I saw it it was like I was like holy shit like it was immediate uh the first time she ever took it and she has not stopped since and she's in remission now but she's still utilizing all the all those products she loves them loves them and it was hard to get her to even take that first dose uh you know how it was with they bit into the propaganda for so long it was like very very difficult to get her to uh experiment so to speak and when she did there was no turning back it was amazing to watch wow that's awesome so how did you go from this like inspiration and seeing that there was a need to like actualizing it into a into an actual business uh right from there within a week I had you know started the filing and then buying the products what was it like navigating that regulatory landscape very difficult yeah it was had you had business experience before that I had owned a smoothie bar before that okay so yeah I had my own business um so that was a huge advantage actually because I knew how to go through the you know a lot of people stop and I'm gonna start my own business then they start with the filing and they deal with that and they're like you know what fuck this because it is a headache it is a headache um a lot of they didn't know how to regulate it at first so it was hard going in with a whole display rack of stuff that looked like marijuana that didn't get you high and getting them to put it on the shelves. What I did is I got it uh liability insurance and took all the liability off the store owner showed them the insurance uh reassured them there was no you know very trace amounts of THC in the product no one's gonna get high and when we first started in Brockton we were just putting it on shelves for free you know and then we'd come back check in on it check in on it check in on it and it it was like we were blessed because it uh 75% of those stores are just selling like immediately a lot of people had told me oh no one's gonna want to smoke something that doesn't get them high who the fuck's gonna smoke that and I'm thinking in my head like cigarettes is like a multi-billion dollar business like why why wouldn't someone you know and it may not have gotten them high but it definitely relaxed them and did and did something for them because the rate at which it's sells is amazing it's incredible. It's undeniable at this point that that it's a a super solid product even the hemp flower. Even the hemp flower yeah how has the hemp industry changed over the years uh you saw a lot of the fly by night disappear so there were a lot of fly by night capitalized uh businesses that didn't necessarily go about things the right way you know what I mean they just kind of set up shop sold however much they could and then got out they weren't testing their products they weren't insuring their products so right now is probably uh the ones who started when we started we were one of probably the first five the ones who are still there and still surviving like Charlotte's web or cornbread hemp uh you got the best of the best now and and then the state caught up with regulation in a way too so it's way safer it's way uh less fly by night uh black market type it's it's more corporate in a in a sense you know what I mean where are you guys sourcing your products from so we go so we have the ability to we grow our hemp in Vermont uh so Vermont would be where the majority of our CBD indoors comes from no out all outdoors 6,000 yeah is that the standard industry standard most people do it outdoors for hemp yeah yes definitely gotcha and Vermont has the climate for it Vermont's great yeah Vermont has some of the best growers in the country the climate is nowhere near as good as like if you were growing marijuana not the best climate but a lot of it's for extraction and CBD and oil and cream so it doesn't it doesn't matter what the actual flower looks like um for us smoke a smokeable flower which is still a big uh hit for us it it it would look better if it was from Oregon aesthetically but I mean it does the same thing so people in between hemp and THC when people are getting high for whatever reason they want it to look beautiful they like the ritual of breaking it down the smell of it but when it comes to hemp there's less uh they're less neurotic about it they just kind of oh that looks good I'll I'll roll it up and smoke it and I feel calm.

Jack Moran 37:19

You know what I mean? Are hemp and marijuana two completely different plants or is it like the male and female version of the plant or no same thing.

Brandon Gadles 37:27

The same thing uh the the only thing that is different is the hemp is genetically predisposed to being low in THC. So once it's below that 0.3% it's it's hemp. There's no difference gotcha between between the two of them.

Jack Moran 37:42

So what is the climate condition or the environment to get a good product?

Brandon Gadles 37:46

What are you looking for it wouldn't it wouldn't matter as long as it's grown by someone who knows what the hell they're doing like in Vermont for instance they know how to grow the flower.

Jack Moran 37:58

So the aesthetics wouldn't matter they're just trying to grow it high in C BD so it doesn't matter like if it's in the mountains or if it's in a valley or if it's humidity or it wouldn't matter looks wise.

Brandon Gadles 38:08

It would it it it won't matter potency wise for what you're doing especially when you instruct extract it. Interesting well I never knew that but when it comes to marijuana it matters and it matters big time.

Jack Moran 38:18

When you grow it inside the reason marijuana's grown inside is because you have complete control over the environment with changes the smell the aesthetics you know genetics play a huge role too but when you're growing indoors it's you got you're the you're playing the hand of God almost yeah yeah so uh kind of final question to wrap this up what is one thing that you have learned through your journey that you wish you knew before I I'm gonna go back to what we started with.

Cut The Cancer Early

Brandon Gadles 38:51

I don't know if he ended up getting that on tape but what we started with is cut the cancer off. You know what I mean? That was the biggest thing I learned in business was when you see that start to metastasize, cut it, get rid of it and and move forward. That's the number one thing I learned and I and I think you have learned it as well.

Jack Moran 39:11

Yeah that's great advice if uh people want to inquire with you or want to utilize your products or find your company where can they find it?

Brandon Gadles 39:19

Bostonhemp.com you can go right to our website we're at 90 Rockland Street in Hanover Mass. You can come by talk to us anytime we have all products in-house as well so you can even buy a product off us there and um you you can see us in over 1000 convenience stores nationwide.

Jack Moran 39:39

Fantastic well I appreciate you coming on it's awesome. You know it Jack thank you very much for that appreciate you guys