It’s no surprise, we love podcasts! So, we’ve put together a list of our 5 favorite podcasts with the most valuable takeaways for business leaders, aspirers, and entrepreneurs.

Studies show you are an average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. To be successful, you must surround yourself with successful people. One way to get access to high-quality mentors (for free!) is through podcasts!

Here are a few that helped me up my game.

1. Masters of Scale – Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Ried Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies for zero to gazillion in ingenious fashion.
2. Building a StoryBrand – If you’re frustrated because you struggle to get the word out about your product or service, the Building a StoryBrand podcast will help. Fans of the podcast are ecstatic about the fun and entertaining way Donald Miller brings you practical advice about clarifying your message so customers will listen. Don and the StoryBrand team are the world’s leading experts in harnessing the 2,000 year-old proven power of story formulas to get people talking about your brand. Get your message out, grow your company, stand out in the marketplace, and have a blast doing it!
3. The Chase Jarvis LIVE show – Chase Jarvis is a visionary photographer, artist and entrepreneur. Cited as one of the most influential photographers of the past decade, he is the founder & CEO of CreativeLive. In this show, Chase and some of the world’s top creative entrepreneurs, artists, and celebrities share stories designed to help you gain actionable insights to recognize your passions and achieve your goals.
4. Titans of Industry – Titans of Industry is a podcast where host Nate Disarro talks to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields, uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. These are future hall of famer’s, award winners, and community game-changers that have stories you want to hear.
5. School of Greatness- Since its launch in January 2013, the School of Greatness podcast has grown rapidly to be one of the top-ranked Business and Self-Development podcasts in iTunes. It regularly appears in the Top 50 of all iTunes podcasts and gets downloaded over 4 million times per month. Episodes range from interviews with incredible world-class game changers in entrepreneurship, health, athletics, mindset, and relationships, to solo rounds with the host, Lewis Howes, and the once a week listener-favorite, the 5 Minute Friday format.

Unknown Speaker 0:00
A large portion of Americans don’t have a bank account. They keep their money cash. I saw how I grew up and how my friends grew up. And I thought there was a huge disconnect between the banks and the communities that they should be reaching what I’m really passionate about helping the unbanked and the underbanked it cost them more not to have a bank account.

Unknown Speaker 0:16
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro, and welcome to Titans of Industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I sit down with Miguel Lopez the chief community officer at Encore Bank, and a board member of multiple community organizations. Miguel talks about being a first-generation immigrant from Mexico and how education was his ticket to a great life, how serving his community and encouraging diversity has become one of his greatest passions, and how he’s part of a leadership team that has been referred to as the Avengers of banking. I also want to say congratulations to Miguel and being selected in the inaugural class of the future. 50 business leaders in Arkansas, an honor that multiple guests on this podcast have been selected into. Now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, our team at content Titan wants you to know that we understand the challenges business leaders and marketers are facing right now with moving to a more virtual world. We are experts in taking human connections and turning them digital. From virtual Events and Video presentations to promotional content and advertising. We are here to help guide you through the process of staying in front of your audience and making your life a little bit easier. People tell us all the time that they are lost and don’t know what to say or do and we exist to help your business continue to move forward, virtually. So if you’re ready to take your business and content strategy virtual, our Titans are ready to help. Let’s get your business back to business.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
Now here’s my conversation with Miguel Lopez

Unknown Speaker 1:59
Miguel Love that we get the chance to sit down and have this conversation. I’ve known you for a few years now, I think the first time we met was an interview we did a few years back with just communities of Arkansas. And I’ve known ever since then kind of your involvement in the community. And you’ve been a part of a lot of boards and things. And I mean, I gotta admit, you’re not that old to be doing all the things you’re doing. So I’d love to just jump in with you know, give me kind of your, your background. How did you get involved in all these things? And where are you at right now?

Unknown Speaker 2:28
Yeah, so I was actually, I was born in Mexico, as my name will give it away. And my parents had some businesses in there and we’re doing pretty well. And then like, 94, the economy just tanked and my parents were, they just didn’t want to be there anymore. So they literally sold everything they had, and upgraded them our family to go to the US and in search of the coveted American dream. And I was about two or three at the time, and we landed in California at first and parents didn’t really like it. We had an aunt that still lives in Sherwood Arkansas to this day. And you know, always I think in life, we can always pinpoint those moments that were just, you know, pivotal in your life. And for me, that’s one of them. When that answered, you should try Arkansas. You know, we didn’t know where it was, I didn’t have any connections except that and, and we moved here and it was the best thing that my parents could have ever done for us because Central Arkansas has been a dream for us. And moreover, every dream I’ve ever had Central Arkansas has helped realize it for me. And I say all that to say, you know, my my wanting to get involved. That’s kind of my way of giving back. You know, my mom always said our rent in this world is service to others. And you take where I come from and what Central Arkansas has given me, my family. It just almost kind of feels like an indentured servant, right? So I’m always finding ways to kind of plug and play and help out wherever I can. And that’s why I’ve just kind of always been involved because to me, it’s not only fun, but it’s a good way of finding yourself is through service I found and just to give back to this community that’s given us so much.

Unknown Speaker 4:05
That’s awesome. So what’s what’s your career path into this point? How have you kind of made your way to now being, you know, a vice president at a bank?

Unknown Speaker 4:14
Yeah, you know, I can’t, I never thought I’d be in banking at when I first got into banking. I jokingly said, the only qualification I had to be a banker was that I had a bank account. And I just never really didn’t know what I didn’t know any bankers. Um, at the time, I was working for the Chamber of Commerce doing economic development, and I loved it. And I had a friend, friend and now friend that reached out and said, Hey, you know, we’re looking to hire, you know, a guy that could do X, Y, and Z. And I just so happened to fit those molds. And I said, Man, I’ve never thought about banking. And then as you know, learn more about it. I realized that banking is just super rewarding career because you’re helping people with some of the most sensitive issues in their life, right their finances. And once I did it, and I was at first community at first and loved And then had the good fortune of hearing about encore and the work that they’re doing. And I just jumped at the chance to be part of Team encore and kind of help provide a true community kind of boutique bankfield to Central Arkansas and some of the other regions we’re going into.

Unknown Speaker 5:17
Everybody’s got a bank account. And everybody sort of chooses a bank based on certain criteria that maybe it’s the one closest to their house, maybe it’s the one they know somebody that works at or they like the colors of the logo the most. Who knows why people choose

Unknown Speaker 5:29
the toaster, right? That’s right, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 5:30
So talk about your role there and how that helps kind of develop this sense of community banking.

Unknown Speaker 5:38
So my title is a chief community outreach officer. And effectively what that means for me is I’m kind of the guy that’s out in the community, waving the flag for the bank, but more importantly, kind of hearing the needs and the wants of the community, and then relaying those back to the C suite of the bank to say, Hey, here’s some things we can be doing. And a lot of what I’m really passionate about is helping the unbanked and the under Bank, you know, for someone like yourself, I’m sure it’s never dawned on you to not have a bank account, right? Your parents had one, they open your checking account when you’re a little kid, you’ve always had a bank account? Well, there’s a large portion of Americans that don’t have a bank account, they keep their money, cash, or they go to cash checking places. And it’s actually a detriment to them. Because if you ask them why they don’t have a bank account, more often than not, they’ll say I can’t afford it, right? They think it costs money. But in reality, it costs them more not to have a bank account, because every time they get to check cash, they’re paying fees, right? Or every time they go get alone instead of going to their bank, or they go to the payday loan guy, and it’s super expensive. And that’s something that’s really near and dear to my heart. because growing up Hispanic American, my parents really didn’t have a bank account, right? Of course, when we moved here, we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. So we didn’t really need a bank account. But what I realized was, you know, I saw how I grew up and how my friends grew up, and I saw there was a huge disconnect between the banks and the communities that they should be outreaching and that’s kind of been my My rally Kraft for the past couple years to say, Hey, we as a bank, we’re going to make a concerted effort to reach out to this demographic to let them let them know a couple things. One, we want your business, right. We want your trust, and we want to be your partner. And I think you have to do all those three things in unison. And the more I saw it, the key to upward mobility in America is you have to have a strong financial partner, be your bank or your credit union, preferably your bank and preferably encore bank. But you need that strong bank in your corner so that you can come in and say, hey, I want to buy a car. I want to buy a house. And it’s no secret that the easiest and fastest way for Americans to build generational wealth is through homeownership. Well, if you don’t have a bank account, or if you’re not monitoring your credit, it’s gonna be really hard for you to do that. And unfortunately, that disproportionately affects communities of color, black and brown. So in my role as to answer your question more directly, that’s kind of what my role is right to help and kind of be the eyes and ears for the bank and go out in the community and kind of be a bridge More so than anything between both communities.

Unknown Speaker 8:03
I love that. And I think for you personally, you’ve taken it on as a mission to sort of blend that professional career and your personal agenda of service to others. And how do you do that in the community? And so, like I said, You’re on several boards that I know of, and and that comes from your dedication to being a servant, and a servant leader. And so how do you kind of mix the two into your everyday world?

Unknown Speaker 8:30
It’s a great question. You know, part of part of me being in this role is to be out in the community and letting them know that, you know, encore bank is here to help and we want to be a partner. And, you know, I love serving on those boards because it allows me to do two things, right allows me to give back to the community but it also allows me to be out there and in pressing flesh with some of the most influential people in the city. Which, you know, doesn’t help doesn’t hurt rather from a business development standpoint. So that’s kind of the way I do it, but also it’s just, you know, I think In order for if you look at any community in America, right, I think they have a couple things, right? They have other big university public university, they’ve got hospitals, and they’ve got a strong bank. If a community doesn’t have either of those three things, they’re going to be in real trouble real soon. And I think the good thing about literati is we’ve got tons of really good banks, right? And I think encore is at the top of that list. So how do we continue to be top of mind for people so that when they have a question or a concern, they can reach out to us, and we can start building some true meaningful relationships.

Unknown Speaker 9:31
I love it. I think the first time we met was through this project with just communities of Arkansas, which, you know, I think right now, in 2020, we’ve got a lot of things to talk about. One of the biggest ones is diversity and inclusion. And we did a project a few years ago that talked about all the all the same things, and that’s something you’ve been passionate about. So talk me through sort of what that looks like for you as a Hispanic American and someone who has made it there. job to include people who are oftentimes, unfortunately left out of the conversation. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 10:06
I’ll start with a real quick story on why I like to do what I do and be as visible as I can. You know, I get asked to go speak at high schools quite often for Career Day, and something I relish. Now, one particular day. This was actually a middle school, I was there, and I’m talking about career day. And that day, of course, is pre COVID. So I had a suit and tie and the whole, the whole jazz. And I’m talking about you know, why I love banking. And my job in this Hispanic kid in the front row just shoots his hand up in here. And he goes, where are you from? I said, Well, you know, I live and share with relevant West litter og, but you know, Mexican, which is what he was getting that what he asked, and he looked at me like I was lying. He’s like, No, you’re not. Yeah. And he starts talking to me in Spanish as if to catch me in some elaborate lie. So boom, I hit him with my Spanish and he’s just like, whoa. And I said, Why don’t you believe that I’m Mexican. And he said, Mexicans don’t wear suits to work. And man that that hit me hard. And I just looked at him and said, you get a good education. You can wear whatever you want to work, lab coat, hardhat, suit tie, whatever said your limitations are only the ones you said to yourself. And as I was driving home, it just hit me how just you can’t be what you can’t see. And maybe that kid never thought he could be a banger because he never saw himself wearing a suit, or he probably never seen anyone in his family worse, you know, that he did. I’d like to think that maybe he’s, you know, his horizons have broadened a little bit. And for a lot of people, candidly, I’m the only Hispanic they know. So it’s kind of like a pressure that I put on myself to always put my best foot forward. Because especially now, it’s no secret that, you know, hate crimes towards Hispanic Americans have increased substantially over the past couple years. For for reasons I think we all know. So that’s something that I’m always cognizant of, you know, found the only Hispanic person that Nate knows, I have to talk you know, really well and I have to dress really Well, and I have to be on my best behavior. It’s probably an unfair pressure that I put on myself, but I do it anyway. Because I think that’s how you change hearts and minds of folks. Especially but but I say all that living in, you know, in the deep south and saying earlier that it’s been, you know, the best thing for my family. And I think that’s somewhat of a cognitive dissonance here in the last couple years on on that, but that’s why I’m so passionate about it, because I know firsthand that it’s just important for people to to see and moreover, you know, being on all these boards, I think one of the reasons that I get asked to be on them is because I’ve provided a different lens and a lot of them right, I’m a first generation American, I’m an immigrant. English is my second language. I just bring so many different lenses that candidly make us a stronger board because if you have 12 people in the room from the exact same background, same college, you kind of get stale ideas, right. And there’s no there’s tons of data that shows that the more different the room different the ideas you can be in I think we live in a world where we want different ideas, we want different perspectives, because that’s what provides, you know, really deep and meaningful conversations.

Unknown Speaker 13:08
I love that. And I know there’s not a, it’s a very complex problem to solve. With some of the things going on in our country, I think we’ve seen a lot of positive movement and progress. But from the chair you sit in, being out in the community, seeing so many different vantage points and having a unique perspective, to speak to. What do you see is a step forward? How do we continue to move towards equality and everything kind of feeling more equal than I think a lot of times, it is,

Unknown Speaker 13:43
you know, I think we’ve made some strong headway in that. And I see that when I’m in boardrooms that are, you know, pale, male and stale, and they look at me and they say, we’ve got a diversity problem. Right. And when they say that, it’s like, wow, if they’re starting to get it, that’s a huge bonus for us. And I think it’s incumbent upon folks like myself that are privileged to be in that room and have that said to him to say, Okay, how can we help them out? How can we help diversify their board? How can we bring different ideas, and diversity isn’t just you know, black and brown, it’s also income. It’s also shared experiences, it’s also demographics. So I think that’s one of the ways that we do that is when when someone reaches out and says, Hey, you know, we’ve got a diversity problem. First, just congratulate them for realizing that because for a lot of folks, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Right. Some people were, you know, as one of my buddies says that they were born on third and thought they hit a triple. And for them, it’s it’s hard to kind of realize that, you know, a lot of what you have is just by virtue of who your parents were. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You should be proud of that. But if you have a position of power, and you’re in a place where you can bring systematic change, I think you should make every effort to do so.

Unknown Speaker 14:56
That’s powerful.

Unknown Speaker 14:58
Sometimes, I evaluate my own circumstances and want to feel like I have a well rounded point of view because I grew up in a town called Plano, Texas, which, on almost every list, it’s one of the top five cities in America to raise a family, you know, gross income, it’s just one of those cities, that just is pretty much where everybody wants to feel like they’re from. And I went to a high school that had a lot of diversity to it. I mean, people of every race, every ethnicity, and, and I felt like I had a good understanding of the world because of the fact that I grew up in that environment. But then, as I’ve obviously become an adult and traveled and done all these things, you realize, well, just because I was around people of a certain race or people that thought differently than me doesn’t mean that I still didn’t have certain privileges that they didn’t, but I didn’t realize that at the time, and it took me a while to even acknowledge that like you were saying that acknowledgement is the first piece of it, especially when it comes to The business world, I think we have a lot of work to do still. When I talk to people, and you know, you have a position to fill, and you’re looking at resumes, I would like to think people aren’t looking for race or age or gender. But I think a lot of times, there’s probably certain positions based on the company culture, the community, the client base, where those things become a factor. How do we eliminate those factors?

Unknown Speaker 16:28
That’s a great question, you know, to to example, on your high school experience, that’s what the huge that’s the main difference between diversity and inclusion, right. And the best example that I can give is you get a glass of milk, right? And you add chocolate syrup, right? That’s diversity, right? But if you don’t start at all the chocolate milk just stays at the bottom, and all the milk stays at the top right. So you’re diverse, but you’re not inclusive. It’s not it’s not chocolate milk until you get the spoon and you stir it up and then you make chocolate milk. That’s where the inclusion comes in. Right. So go into high school. That’s diverse is great, but you know, it’s saying, hey, I want to go make friends with the Hispanic kids, or Hey, I want to go make friends with the African American kids. That’s really where you get the the beauty of it, I think I mean, just imagine, some of my best friendships are with folks that come from different backgrounds. And I, of course, that’s easy for me to say, cuz no one really has a background that I mean, not as many people have the back on that I come from. But in the business community, you’re 100%, right. You know, I’ve had folks that say, well, I’ve, you know, I’ve tried to hire minorities, but I can’t ever get them. Where do you what do you put it at? Well, you know, I tell people, I’m a country club, or I tell them that and I’m like, well, man, you’re in the wrong place. Right? Or, you know, you just have to have more intentionality behind that, right? You have to go to you have too much like in my role, you know, I can’t, I can’t just sit in my office and expect for the Hispanic community to come bank with me just because I’m Hispanic. I’ve got to go out there and pound the pavement and press the flesh and let them know that I won’t do business the same way an employer should do say, hey, I want to hire a more diverse workforce, right? But He’s got to get out of the office and be involved in the community, but also reach out to friends that you know that have those because I think one of the biggest beauties of literary work is that as a city, we’re big enough to be a metropolitan city. But we’re still small enough to have that small hometown feel. And that’s one of the things that I’ve benefited substantially from that is, you know, you do right by one person, and they’ll let their friend know. And the next thing you know, you’ve got more friends than you can ever imagine. And I think that’s how you in the business or that that’s how you do it, you just have to have more intentionality behind it. And I give up the first time, right if you if you have a position and you But to your point, right, you want to make sure you hire the most qualified person, regardless of skin tone and color, but you can’t just get away with it by putting it on LinkedIn, and hoping that you know, you have applicants of color that apply. Knowing that, you know, that might not be the best place for him. I’m not saying it’s not but you just have to try different things.

Unknown Speaker 18:54
All right. So talking about sort of advancement, where things are going what are some Things that you’ve seen sort of shift and change, especially in COVID. Right now, you know, I mean, obviously, we were talking off camera a minute ago about funny little memes that are out there. And the things that change the world faster than anything may not be somebody’s innovative thoughts and ideas. It’s a global pandemic, and it forces us to be more technological. But there’s pros and cons to that, because especially if you’re talking about people who have never banked before, now you add technology to the mix, and they may not have access to that technology. So what are some of the things that you’ve seen from an advancement standpoint, where the industry is going that you are involved in? And then what challenges does that present? On top of it?

Unknown Speaker 19:38
That’s a great question. You know, harking back to this great quote by Charles Darwin, who said, it’s not the smartest that survived. It’s not the strongest that survived. It’s the ones that are most willing to that. And I think that is still true today, even more so back then. And especially as it relates to, you know, to COVID. Right. And I say that being a banker in an industry that historically moves at The speed of smell, right? I mean, we’re, we’re risk averse by nature. We’re conservative. We, you know, I’ve got customers, it’s still balanced their checkbook and God love them. And I think that’s one of the beauties of being at encore right now is you know when we all kind of got together and as we hire, we are intentional about hiring folks that don’t say things like we’ve always done it this way, or that’s how I’ve learned to do it. We’re intentional on hiring folks that want to think outside the box and want to genuinely provide something that isn’t out there. And you know, our slogan is, you know, building something better and we genuinely believe that we can and I think COVID was a prime example of that right? I think it it was a stress test to our model to see you know, if it worked, but that was one of the beauties of it is here comes this pandemic came out of nowhere, and now we’ve got it respond to it. And I think one of the best examples I can give you is PPP, right? We were able to fund 100% The applications we received on from PPP, which kept about 1100 Arkansans on the payroll. And that’s what gets me excited every morning as being able to be there for for our customers and our community. It genuinely felt at the beginning of it like we were economic first responders, right? You had businesses calling you saying, Hey, what’s this PPP do? How do I apply? Do I have to pay it back? I’m about to layoff these people. If I can get this loan. It’s a lot of pressure on a banker, right? Which historically, everything moves slow and you dot your i’s and cross your T’s. And then this happened and like, we’ve got to learn about it. We’ve got to inform our customers, and then we got to give them the funding. But I think our team handled it exceptionally well by the by the metrics that I’ve stated. And that to me, is what banking is all about is you know, I always tell folks, you know, as a as a smaller, more boutique bank, we’re not going to be in every corner. We don’t want to be but we’re going to be in your corner if you call us and I think we During the pandemic, that we were able to prove that to a lot of folks,

Unknown Speaker 22:04
that’s great. And 100% funded is monumental. I mean, I know that early on, there were a lot of complaints from business owners saying we can’t get the funding, we need to be able to continue, you know, paying our people, which is most important. But I know a lot of banks did a great job of really fighting for their customers. But it was it was such a challenging situation, because again, nobody had ever faced it. And I think the the people that really rose to the top were the ones who had great leadership behind them. So from a leadership perspective, you know, being in the C suite of the bank yourself and and having strong leaders around you, what are some of the things that stand out as far as how you guys really move ahead and take care of your customers?

Unknown Speaker 22:49
Yeah, you know, I think one of those is just being open to new ideas. Right? If you look at Bank, I would venture to say banking in the last five years has changed more than it did in the last hundred years. Like I said, You have to have leadership’s that are okay with saying I don’t know, right? Or, I don’t know. But let’s hire someone that can help us implement that. And that was one of the beauties of us at encore is our C suite. I mean, you’ve got three of the sharpest bankers in the state and Chris Roberts, Philip Jett and Bert Hicks. And, you know, I was super comfortable where I was prior, but it wasn’t until I met with him and sat down and they kind of shared with me their vision and mission for the bank and what encore could be that I was like, sign me up, you know, let’s, let’s let’s do some good for the community and grow. But I think some of the characteristics is, you know, being open to new ideas, not being not being scared to take risk, right, which is counterintuitive to everything a banker does, because what I always tell people is Yeah, bankers are risk averse. But we’re not never going to take risk because that’s what a loan is. It’s always a risk. You just have to know, monitor safe and soundly. And I think we just have to apply those same principles to adapt New technologies, right? One of the things that we’re focusing on now is online account openings, right? You know that I think the days of folks going over to your corner branch and you know, opening a bank account and getting a coaster or a toaster or whatever, those days are long gone. I think folks want just quick instant account access. And we’re doing everything we can to make sure that we provide that for the customer that wanted

Unknown Speaker 24:23
my single business monitor is just be easy to do business with. And I think especially now, more than ever before, that means don’t put a bunch of paperwork in front of me, don’t make me come do something at a certain time. Don’t call him one 800 number. Exactly. I

Unknown Speaker 24:37
was talking with a customer or a potential customer at the time. And he said, What’s your customer service? Like? That’s what his main concern was. And I said, Man, you’re looking at it. You got my cell phone, you call me. And that’s when he was kinda like, Whoa, you know, because he’d come from a big bank that you know, he didn’t have a relationship and he called him one 800 number. And this is a big time guy and For me to just say to him, call me What takes What do you need? We’ll do it for you. I think that was kind of a wow factor for him.

Unknown Speaker 25:07
That’s awesome. When you think about your own growth and development, what are some things you do to stay sharp and kind of improve yourself?

Unknown Speaker 25:17
That’s a good question. You know, I think there’s kind of a dual pronged, there’s a professional and the personal and I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. But personally, I make sure that I take care of my body. And that sounds stupid, but I think it’s so important to exercise daily to have a good diet, to meditate and to sleep well. You want to be physically there every day, right? Every day you wake up, you know, I like feeling good. I like being alert. I like being attentive. I also like to just stay stay up to date with you know, with anything that’s going on in the banking world, right. So I read, there’s a great website for all the bankers out there called the financial brand and it just has these current up to date banking articles. I’m also constant Reading a book because to me it’s it’s kind of a I think overall well being is a three legged stool right? your spiritual well being whatever that is for someone whether it’s you know, religious or not, your mental well being right wouldn’t be mentally healthy and your physical well being right and i think at least I personally try to everyday exercise those three whether it’s praying in the morning, morning workout reading a book at night, you’re constantly exercising those things because one of the things that I think a lot of folks don’t realize is that success isn’t a big you know, big aha moment I think success is is boring. It really is. It’s incremental, good habits that you do daily. And that’s not going to sell a lot of books. It’s not going to be sexy to say hey, all you have to do is do this every single day of the rest of your life where people want I’ve seen is they want you know, the magic pill. Hey, if you do this one thing, they this one thing only you’re going to be successful. That’s what they’re looking for. In high school. My high school football coach was my son was my history teacher because he No, it’s the south and that’s how that works. And he said, Lopez swears he said, Lopez, you’re Mexican, right? And I said, Yes. And he goes, can you kick? And I said, is the pope Catholic? He said, You’re such a smartass come out for the kick the football team, we need to kick our kicker had just graduated. I’ve never I’ve never touched the football at this point, right? I’m Mexican. I play soccer. But I to his point, as as stereotypical as it was, he was right. I could kick and I should have been practicing. I wasn’t great. And I told him, I said, coach, I’m no good. I’m not great. He said, I don’t need you to be good. I need you to be consistent. And for whatever reason, that stuck with me, because I was never a great kicker, but I was consistent. I would. I couldn’t kick a 50 yard field goal, but I could hit it down the uprights every time from for the extra point. That’s what he was wanting. And I say that to say in life, that’s what people value the most is consistency, right? I don’t care if you can do one good podcast now. I want you to do 50 good podcasts. And I think that’s one of the things in life that’s helped me is just you have to be consistent, right? You always have to be, you know, even if it’s a bad day, or even if I don’t want to work out, or even if I don’t want to read, just have to be consistent, because as the old quote goes, water cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its consistency. And I think that’s kind of my main takeaway.

Unknown Speaker 28:23
Yeah. And it goes to the same mantra of everything is a marathon, not a sprint, right? I mean, you think about somebody running a marathon, if they hit mile 15 success to them, maybe mile 16, but they haven’t crossed the finish line. They’re just looking at that one next thing, whereas a sprinter, I mean, 10 seconds, three races over. And now what, you know,

Unknown Speaker 28:44
I did a half Ironman two years ago, and I just randomly woke up when I was trying to set like goals for myself and I had just graduated from my undergrad I was about to start grad school. And I wanted something to keep me hot and bothered in between because that’s just how I operate. You know, people say I will On a one month vacation I’m like, Man after like four days I need something stressed me out. I don’t know what it is. So I signed up for this Ironman. And I get to Chattanooga. And literally the moment I jumped in that river I wanted to get out. I mean, it’s like that Mike Tyson quote, everyone’s got a plan, they get punched in the mouth, Wham. I mean, it hit me. And I was like, I didn’t drive eight hours to just get out of river so I swam and almost died in the river but got out the bike was fine cuz I’m a cyclist and I love that and then when I but I got a little too aggressive on the bike and when I started doing the running portion, the half marathon literally the moment I got off my bike, both my hamstrings just gave out I mean, I had cramp and I was on my knees and some volunteer comes up behind me and throws table salt in my mouth. And literally just pushed me and I’m surprised I didn’t just fall on my face. And I just walk I mean, I you know, my would frustrating thing. My cardio was great. I could have ran it, my legs and given that I literally walked half marathon, which is the most embarrassing thing But didn’t give up. And what I loved about that is, you know, I think anyone people people get impressed when I said it a half half Ironman. And to me, it’s really not impressive because anybody could do it. I mean, if your life depended on it, Nate, you would find a way. But it’s doing it when your life doesn’t depend on it, that I think it’s impressive, right? When you have no reason to do it, but the fact that you’ve set that goal, and I thought about that every step of those 13 miles like, man, I should just quit and I’m like, you’re not gonna quit.

Unknown Speaker 30:28
When it goes back to the interconnectedness you mentioned, the mental, the physical and the spiritual, because, you know, your physicals done, right. I mean, literally, your body didn’t want to go any further. But the mind you trained your mind, strong enough to say, you know what, we’re gonna make this body do what we want it to do.

Unknown Speaker 30:44
I never thought about it that way. But yeah, you’re 100%, right, because you know, those three things are, I like to think well balanced on my end. And one of those gears gave out but the other two are still there. And that’s a

Unknown Speaker 30:53
good way to look at Yeah, well, and we just had Brian Mears on the podcast CEO of Allegiant health centers, and he talks about, you know, the the interconnectedness of those three things and how a lot of times when it comes to people going through mental health treatment, kind of the, the old way of doing it is we’re just going to prescribe you a pill. And you might talk to somebody and we’re just going to treat that mental piece. But we’re going to forget about the physical and spiritual even though it’s all connected. So we’ve got to look at all three in order to fix the one man

Unknown Speaker 31:19
that’s so important right now, you know, run out with COVID It’s no secret, you know, the media tells you you need to wear a mask, which is great. And you should the media tells you need to socially distance, which is great, and you should, but what’s frustrating for me is they’re not telling you, you need to exercise more, you need to eat better, you need to get outside get some vitamin D, they’re not telling you those three things and not to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but there’s no there’s the data shows that if your BMI is like 42% or higher, and you get COVID it’s not gonna be good, right? So if you know that, why don’t you rectify that right? And it’s easy for me to say because I love to work out but that’s one of the things that I’ve started doing in light of COVID. I went vegan about three months ago. Just because there’s tons of research that shows that your immune systems better your metabolism systems better. And if you got this disease that debilitates those three things, why not get on the on the on the attack and boost it up so that if and when I do get COVID, right, hopefully I’m either asymptomatic or I just get them out head sore, and I’m fine. And I’m not I’m not on a breathalyzer. Now, I could get it and die from it. Right? But so Can anybody least I’m going to do is do what I can, on my end. And I think if you look at in America versus other countries, 42% of Americans are overweight, versus China. 6% of Chinese are overweight. So that’s something that I think that’s why unfortunately, it’s hit us so bad is because as a country, we’re just so unhealthy. And I always pride people in that take good care of their health because, you know, your body is your vessel. It’s so important. It’s the one body you get, you know, take care of it. But also a few expect, you know, to do a lot of things To be high producer, you’ve got to have a well oiled machine. It’s like a race car right? If you want to win that race, well you better get the oil change, you better gas it up, but keep the tires nice and threaded. Same with your body.

Unknown Speaker 33:12
Yeah and all back to that same point. Oftentimes our weight our health, our physical well being is directly related to our mental well being, you know, if we want to be in shape, we just have to do the things to make it happen. It’s it’s not a physical thing as much as it is a mental thing.

Unknown Speaker 33:32
Well, and you know, it’s funny, especially with COVID you know, they shut down the gyms for a while, and I’m a guy that goes to the gym just about every day. And then I started thinking I was like, I don’t need the gym, right? You know, do 50 air squats and see if that’s not a workout or do 100 push ups at the house? And I think one of the one of the good things I think a lot of one of the silver linings rather of all this is I think a lot of people are starting to get out right? I mean, if you go ask any bike shop in town, they can’t keep them on the shelves because I think Folks are just craving social interaction in a socially distant way. But also they’re just craving to get out of the house and stretch their legs. And I think it means more bike sales and more people using the bike trails. And that’s a silver lining for sure.

Unknown Speaker 34:16
Remembering to be to another point, and that is the people we surround ourselves with. Help us be who we want to be, you know, they say you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you’ve mentioned a lot about the things you do to take care yourself physically, you know, the people you’re around on a professional level. So talk to me a little bit about some of the people in your life, some of the Titans in your world that, you know, you kind of look up to and help influence your day to day,

Unknown Speaker 34:42
man. The first and foremost at the top of any list is my mom. I’m a huge mama’s boy. But but to her credit, she is the best mom in the world. And she would always tell me this grown up in Spanish, she would say the Macomb Kenan does direct kinetise which in English translates to tell me who you’re hanging out with and I’ll tell you who you really are. And I’ve always thought about that right in high school and I had friends that started getting into drugs or starting doing stupid stuff I just kind of out of my life, because that’s not who I am. That’s not who I wanted to be. And to my mom’s point, that’s not who I want to be associated with. But to answer your question more directly, I realized really early in life, growing up as an immigrant with no social capital, that it’s really important to know people and to pick a good mentor. And I’ll give you one really funny example the very first time I got to meet President Clinton was at a fundraiser here in town and I for whatever dumb luck on my end, I knew the guy who was hosting the fundraiser so I got to be invited but as a as a volunteer. And you know, they’re giving out the volunteer task and I’m no idiot, I want to I want to connect with these people, right? I’m a nobody I know that but I don’t want to die, nobody. And they were given out the task and I wanted it the one that would give me the most face time with somebody. And they’re like, who wants to drop the gun? cart. Boom, I shot my hand. Oh, right. My God, my job that day was to drive this golf cart in this huge house and drive the the guests. Right. So to me I get face time with these movers and shakers. I was like 18. And as fate would have it, one of those was President Bill Clinton. So here is one of those pinch me moments, right. Here’s an immigrant from Mexico that had no reason to be here driving one of the presidents of the former president knighted states to this event. And I guess by virtue of where I was that night, he thought, you know, I was somebody and he shakes my hand. And he goes through your parents. And I was just, I was starstruck. I was like, there. Nobody said, I didn’t know what to say to him, because, you know, he was expecting me to sell there. Jimmy Bob, who ran your gubernatorial campaign at four. I was like there nobody. And he was like, Huh, and I was like, I’m an immigrant. I’m just volunteer. I got super nervous. I don’t even know what I said. But something along the lines of you would known and he said, will tell I said what it was that day when I left and I was like, Man, it’s super important in life to be around people that can mentor you and can value you and can help guide you and a lot of the a lot of the biggest breaks I’ve had in my life are bar or by virtue of people that I knew. So to answer your question, my mom is the first one right because she she’s my North Star. She talked to her four times a day and she’s just really gave me a sound foundation for my life and kind of help keep me keep the train between the tracks. But also I’ve got a two really good close friends of mine, Wei rakhee, who is a mentor and a friend and and Sam karski, young. interior point we know all three of us come from very diverse upbringings, three of us are brown, the three of us, they’re entrepreneurs. I’m a banker. So I do a lot with small businesses and entrepreneurs. And I just love the bond and fellowship that we have because we constantly push each other right? They push me to the make better, you know, business ideas and push them to make better health ideas. I mean, we all kind of just feed off each other. And it’s a beautiful thing to have someone that, you know, you’re not related to. There’s really nothing connecting you there. But that but that fellowship in that bond. And the those are folks that just kind of keep me grounded, but also lift me up when I needed. And in the banking world, I just think the world of you know, my colleagues at encore bank, and the team we’re building is just really impressive. I when I first joined encore bank, I got a call from one of my friends. And she said, Are you just doing encore? And I said, Yeah, they made a mistake and hired me. And she said, You guys are building the Avengers of banking is what she said. And I think it’s before I joined that she thought that, but I kind of was taken aback and I was like, you’re right. We are because we’re literally picking the ones we think are going to do the best job as opposed to just fill in a position right. And we’ve got a couple positions that we just haven’t failed because we haven’t found the person that we’re like, yes, take that ball and run with it. So those are some of the times in my life but more than anything my mom for sure because she’s just the best person ever.

Unknown Speaker 39:07
I love it. So what do you guys see coming next? what’s what’s on the big to do list? What goals do you have personally that you want to achieve that, you know, you’ve kind of set for yourself.

Unknown Speaker 39:16
So I think professionally, the goal was, you know, we’re getting ready to expand into some newer markets, bigger markets, we’re going to be in Fort Worth here soon. So professionally, I want to make sure I do right and earn my keep and can do good in those markets. And then Personally, I’m always just setting new goals. I want to do another Iron Man, which is sounds stupid, but I just I’m always I need something to work towards. I’m in banking school right now, which I got two more years of that. So I hope to finish that and graduate with honors. And a lot of that is just continue doing what I’m doing. Just continue to be involved in the community continue to be active and invest in my personal and professional health. We’ve talked a little bit about you know, the fact that you’re on some boards around town, talk to me about that. Some of those boards, what do you what are you doing to help with those organizations? So I’ll start and I’ll preface by saying that when I picked the zoning board, it really has to be something that’s really near and dear to my heart. I’m not I want to get on board just because, you know, it’s a good board to be on if I’m not passionate about it, I’m not really going to be a good board member. And when I take on the board member responsibility, I take it full on I mean, I, I live, eat and breathe it and drink the Kool Aid, because that’s just who I am as a person, right? I like to wave the flag. And I’ll start with the one that we’re at right now, which is Arkansas Repertory Theater. I love the arts. I know I think of all the art platforms, I think theater is most impactful. I think it’s the most deep. I think the reason we as humans gravitate to arts is because it helps us answer that age old question, right? Of what is it to be human? Why am I here? And I think when you’re in the theater, you see those, you know incredible professionals on stage, acting out, it almost transcends you like no other medium has. Right and, and it helps you for one that one incident time make you feel the most human right because the stage isn’t big, right? It’s not big at all, but the trip they take you on is right. It’s impossible to quantify. And I don’t think there’s a lot of platforms that allow you to do that. And when I was asked to join the rat board, I was tickled to death to do it because I believe so much in the theater. But also, we talked about no big cities, and I think every major city has to have a strong theater to really be proud of itself, right? If you’re, if your community can support and keep a theater alive, it says a lot about your community says that you guys care about the arts, and then it’s a pretty cultured city.

Unknown Speaker 41:49
And the rep is you know, the the main theater as I see it, right. And there’s some other great local theaters. But to me, the bell cow of Little Rock is this beautiful facility that we’re in with you know, We’ll try set the helm who I mentioned who introduced you earlier? And he’s one three Tony’s I mean, how lucky are we to have a local guy run our theater that happens to have, you know, three to three Tony’s if you need it. So that’s one and then another one that I’m super passionate about right now is goodwill of Arkansas. We recently this about three years ago started the first and only adult High School and this is huge. It’s not a GED program. It’s an actual High School. Our students range from 19 to 67 years old. And I’ll show you one story. The very first graduation we did, we had six graduates, it was at Philander Smith College. And we were you know, I’d kind of gotten to know the students because of you know, I’m on the board and they give us an update. And as one of the graduates was walking across the stage, she’s a single mom of three kids. And by happenstance, her three kids are right behind me. And as she’s walking across the stage, man, those three kids got up and started yelling, go, mommy super proud, and Xenon bawling. I mean, I don’t know her well, I don’t know these kids, but I’m crying because the generational impact that we just had on this family, right, those kids because they saw their mom graduate are more likely than ever to graduate from high school because their mom did. In fact, there’s data to back that up. And now she can go and get a higher paying job to then provide for these kids. And that’s when I became some sort of a zealot about this program. Because about one that thing, it’s like 15% of our Kansans don’t have a high school diploma. Right. And if you look at your earning capacity, versus having one and not having one is huge, and we already live in a pretty, pretty poor state. So we’ve had three graduations so far, one of our students went from making $9 an hour to making $20 an hour like that, just because she had a high school diploma. She bought a house. So I’m super proud of the work that we’re doing at Goodwill because we also have a reentry program where we hire folks that are Coming out of prison coming out of jail, giving them a second shot I live because I think one of the most humane things we can do is give people another chance, right? We all make mistakes. And then when you listen to their stories on how they ended up in jail, and how they ended up from dropping out of high school, now that could have been you and man, I mean, just dumb luck, the water broke in our favor, and we didn’t have the upbringing they did. Or we didn’t get caught with a knucklehead friend that ended up having a bunch of cocaine on him. That wasn’t our story, their story, but just because that’s the story they came from. I mean, that’s how they’re gonna end up. And we’re working right now to get some money from the state to expand. Our goal is to hopefully have about four to six of these schools across the state. We’ve got one in Little Rock. We’ve got we went open one in Northwest Arkansas, South Arkansas, and that’s kind of my my next big project is do everything I can to make sure that I’m being a good board member. I happen to be the chair this year. So it’s got a lot more pressure, but I’m just You’re so passionate about that, because I wouldn’t be where I’m at today, Nate, if it wasn’t for the education that I got, right. I mean, it was just dumb luck that I happen to go to a really good High School, Seven Hills High School. And that ualr was a stone’s throw from where I grew up. Just dumb luck. I mean, I just I’d like to say it’s because I’m smart, and I deserve it. No, I just dumb luck that my parents moved to that city. And when it was time to go to college, I just went to the closest one because I didn’t want to leave home. I couldn’t, I was helping support my family. And I just went to a world class University, right, and I got a great education met some good folks in the capital city. And that’s why I’m so passionate about it. And my goal is to make sure that I can do everything in my power to help help them out as much as I can. Awesome. I love

Unknown Speaker 45:43
it. Well keep up the good work. You’re definitely making a huge difference. Want to move into some quick hit rapid fire questions? First is one that I asked the governor last week. Netflix or the news?

Unknown Speaker 45:57
I’m a big news guy. Yeah, I just to a fault, right, I should turn it off. And just what I do is I put the news on and I mute it and then I read a book. So then I’m flipping pages, I just look up and see how the world’s falling apart.

Unknown Speaker 46:11
That leads us to our next one. What is the best or latest book you’ve read?

Unknown Speaker 46:15
The best one that I’ve read lately. It’s kind of an old book by now, but I just can’t put it down. It’s called leadership by during Doris Kearns Goodwin. She’s a phenomenal historian. And she profiles for great presidents, LBJ, FDR, Lincoln, and I can’t think of the other one, and how they were just how they dealt with very turbulent times, and how leadership helped us get through that. And I think we’re in a world now where we were desperately dying for sound and stable leadership at any level, whether it’s the highest or the city level. And one of my favorite stories in that is Abraham Lincoln, who just has an amazing, amazing life story. And, you know, he grew up poor he grew up not, you know, son Have a lager. But he knew that education was his ticket. And anytime I read books, I tried to find someone that I connect with. And he knew that education was his ticket. And his English wasn’t good because he was, he was poor. And he found out this is in the book, he found out that one of his neighbors five miles down the road had the source. And he walked five miles to borrow that book, so that he could better his English, and then walk five miles back and gave it back. Now Nate, I know some friends that have access to every book in the world on their phone, and won’t read in a blink and walk 10 miles there and back to get one book. And I just love that story. Because I’m a big I’m a big reader. But it just shows that you know, as my mom always said, you know, those that can will always find a way and he’s definitely got it found a way. That’s awesome.

Unknown Speaker 47:51
What is part of your daily routine? What do you have to do every single day,

Unknown Speaker 47:56
man, I’m a creature of habit to a fault. I need to be more sporadic. Every Now again, but typically wake up around five. And if the weather’s good, I’ll wake up and go ride my bike in the morning. If it’s not, then I’ll go to the gym and workout. Have a nice protein shake by like, seven 730. I’m at the office by eight work. And then after work I usually go do something fun whether it’s tennis or golf, or just you know, riding my bike again in the morning. It’s not necessarily a workout, it’s more of a mental workout, right? I don’t have much time so I just kind of I just if you workout first thing in the morning, your day starts on a whole nother level right you just ahead of the game. And then at night, it’s more kind of Alright, let’s actually get some, some good cardiovascular activity. And around nine o’clock, I usually turn off, you know, the TV, light a candle and just read until I pass out and sometimes it’s not 30 sometimes it’s one in the morning. It just depends on what I’m reading and what’s on my mind.

Unknown Speaker 48:55
In the age of COVID people have altered their routines a little bit. Do you have any new Formed habits that you’re either proud of or ashamed of.

Unknown Speaker 49:03
Yeah, well, I told you I went vegan three months ago. So I’m super proud of that, because I never thought I could do that, you know, if you look at the Mexican diet, it is very cheese and meat heavy. And my mom was like, What are you going to eat? And three months into it, I feel great. I don’t have heartburn anymore. I just just an awesome thing. So I’m really proud of that. And I’ve just done a lot more stuff outside, you know, but historically, I would just go to the gym because it’s air conditioned. And I got a bunch of friends there. But now it’s I’m really starting to see just how beautiful our state is right? A mountain biking a lot. So I’m going to these neutrals I’ve never been before. So I’m proud of that.

Unknown Speaker 49:41
Awesome. If you were to write a book, or put a billboard out with a message arm, what would it be?

Unknown Speaker 49:47
Man, I would, I would probably just say it gets better. And just leave it at that. I look back at the life that I have now. In the upbringing that I had. It just it just feels like two different lives. They just, you know, I remember going to kindergarten, remember my mom put me in the bus and just kind of saying no have fun and I didn’t speak any English and I just remember being mortified that you know, I’m going to get to school I’m not gonna be able to communicate and and then I get to school elementary and the door opens and my ESL teachers waiting right there for me. I mean, she did let me get off the bus. And just the the elation that I felt you know that he or she is just for me to help me out. And then she learned English and all that now I think of the life that I live in. It’s just like, man, it just it just feels like two different lives so that I think that’s my message and you know, I got bullied in high school because I was Mexican because I had crooked teeth and all that. And you know, right now bullying is so rampant but I always tell new any chance I get to the kids that are getting bored. I’m like, man, it gets better. Right? You know, don’t don’t confuse that temporary pain for permanent pain. And being bullied by someone that peaks in high school isn’t the worst thing, trust me in 10 years, you’re gonna be better off than. So that would be my message because, you know, and in life we think it’s, I think pain is a is a beautiful thing. And that sounds like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth. But when you’re feeling pain, whether it’s heartbreak, or whether it’s bullying, whether it’s financial troubles. God, it makes you feel alive, right? It takes away the numbness of monotony, right because if nothing if nothing ever goes wrong, you almost kind of go stale, right? And sometimes it just takes a gut check whether it’s a heart ache or something to let you know, man, as bad as it is, I’m alive. And this is just part of the journey. And it’s easier to say it when you’re not going through it. But, you know, once you get on the other side of whatever that is, you realize that you’re stronger for it. So that’s kind of my, my, my, I’m just my message right was it gets better, whatever that is that you’re going through, it’s gonna get better. But you just have to process the pain. Beautifully said,

Unknown Speaker 52:11
favorite musician favorite artist when concerts come back. Where are you going? Who are you going to see?

Unknown Speaker 52:15
Man? I tell you what. That’s a really good question. My favorite artists of all time are the Beatles. I think music Pete with with with those four guys, in particular Abbey Road or the White Album. And when Paul McCartney came the first go around, I was cheating bought nosebleeds, right? I mean, I say gee, they’re expensive tickets. But man, I haven’t been in a concert so long. If he comes back I’m paying whatever it is to be front row just to see Paul, you know, maybe one last time. Just because the Beatles had it right. Think of all the the hits they had and they never had a curse word in the other songs and all their songs are about you know, love. And I mean, their first song ever was I want to hold your hand. Think about that. I mean, just have it. How naive these guys were. That’s they made a love song about holding someone’s hand and you listen to this stuff nowadays I sound like an old man, but you listen to stuff nowadays it’s like well, we’ve come a long way since those hold your hand is

Unknown Speaker 53:11
over. And now you this answer might have changed over the last few months, but favorite food, favorite restaurant? What do you have?

Unknown Speaker 53:17
Man? That’s a great question. So I recently went to the preacher son in Northwest Arkansas, and had the most amazing vegan dish I ever had. It was a roasted cauliflower with a chimichurri sauce. Quit it and so good. But my favorite local restaurants probably trios, and you know, Kathy’s a dear dear friend of mine. Her lobby is still closer, her restaurants too close, but takeouts good. But man, I just I yearn for the day when I can go back in the restaurant and see hundred people I know, and break bread over some delicious food. And just to give Kathy a big hug so that that’s my favorite restaurant.

Unknown Speaker 53:54
What’s coming soon enough. Any last thoughts, any ways that you in any messages you Want to put out there for anybody?

Unknown Speaker 54:01
No, I just I want to thank you for the service that you’re doing. I love the podcast. I love the guests. I think it’s great how just super broad it is, you know, one day, listen to the governor, and then next year, listen into a dumb banker like myself. So I think you do a good job of keeping it interesting. So just kudos to you and I wish you success and everything you got coming.

Unknown Speaker 54:20
Thank you. I really appreciate that. Keep up the good work. You’re definitely making a difference out there and and people are seeing that So congrats to you on future 50 leaders of Arkansas

Unknown Speaker 54:30
Hey, likewise to you man, for sure that I heard they got to 49 and couldn’t pick a 50 and they call him that’s where my No.

Unknown Speaker 54:38
They reached in the bottom of the balance and Miguel Lopez No, No way.

Unknown Speaker 54:41
No way top of the list for sure. Well, Miguel, thanks so much. I appreciate you being here.

Unknown Speaker 54:44
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 54:47
If you like this episode of titans of industry, head to content Titan dot CEO slash podcast for more episodes or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. And if you know of an industry Titan that’s doing amazing things like There’s no one social media or through our website so we can tell their story. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Unknown Speaker  0:00 

It’s natural that the longer you’re engaged in a fight, there’s frustrations and it’s hard to see an end to it. So people just want to live their life and express themselves and more normal way. But we’re going to get through this and we’re in a good position to win this fight.

Unknown Speaker  0:16 

Hey, it’s Nate Disarro and welcome to Titans of Industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields, uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I went to the Arkansas State Capitol and sat down with Governor Asa Hutchinson, the governor discusses juggling the unexpected demands of leading the state through the pandemic while working to still accomplish his goals, why he’s been inspired by Arkansans, and why perseverance is the theme of his life. We even covered some of his personal daily routines, including blues music, and his love of basketball. And now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, our team at Content Titan wants you to know We understand the challenges business leaders and marketers are facing right now with moving to a more virtual world. We are experts in taking human connections and turning them digital. From virtual Events and Video presentations to promotional content and advertising. We are here to help guide you through the process of staying in front of your audience and making your

Unknown Speaker  1:20 

life a little bit easier.

Unknown Speaker  1:22 

People tell us all the time that they are lost and don’t know what to say or do and we exist to help your business continue to move forward, virtually. So if you’re ready to take your business and content strategy virtual, our Titans are ready to help. Let’s get your business back to business. Now, here’s my conversation with Governor Asa Hutchinson.

Unknown Speaker  1:46 

So, Governor, I appreciate you jumping in here today. I want to start with a perhaps a unique question which is there’s been a couple of public sensations that have happened over this last several months. One of those is Tiger King and the other When is The Last Dance? Of course the documentary series about the Chicago Bulls. First of all, have you seen either one and secondly, specifically about the last dance? I know your basketball fan? Have you taken anything away from that? I did watch the last dance. And of course, you love it whenever there’s a good Arkansan like

Unknown Speaker  2:20 

Joe Kleine was in that Scottie Pippen, of course. So that but you know, what I took away from it is, whenever you are playing or living or wanting to excel at that level, the importance of excellence, and it had demanding it is and, you know, the leadership for Michael Jordan on the court, but Philip Jackson, I mean, he had he had to adjust you know, whenever you have real leaders on the court, you had to let them lead. And so so I loved is just is to me, it was the pursuit of excellence in basketball, but of course, you can apply those principles to anything in life. So I love my sports and I love watching it.

Unknown Speaker  3:03 

I love it. Yeah, I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan in the 90s. Of course, like most people, and I thought that documentary series did a fantastic job of pulling out a lot of the things that we just didn’t really see. And I love seeing our Kansans as well, I was a big Scottie Pippen fan, and Joe Klein’s just the nicest guy, but alright, so public service, you obviously chose a life of public service. Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to get into public service to begin with?

Unknown Speaker  3:29 

Well, public service was an avenue that allowed you to make a difference in your community, and in the affairs of life. And, you know, I, I’m a lawyer by profession, and so, you know, as a lawyer, you’re serving the system of justice, but you’re also involved in the community. And so that naturally led me and gave me some opportunities in politics, but what motivated me was just simply if you want to make a difference, Hear in this time, while you’re alive in the political arena, you impact public policy, you impact individual lives. And I saw that as an avenue to do that. And, of course, it wasn’t an easy path for me. And so, you know, I’d get knocked out of the saddle on a political race. And I’d go back to the private sector. And so while I’ve had a career in public service, I’ve also had a career in the on the private side. And I’ve enjoyed both of them. So very, very blessed to have both those unique opportunities.

Unknown Speaker  4:36 

And from a partisan standpoint, how is partisan politics changed from the time you entered public service, and where is it now? You know,

Unknown Speaker  4:44 

That’s, that’s a good question. And you look at the history of our country, and it’s always been partisan. And there always been tough, tough elections and campaigns that they’ve slugged at each other. So politics hasn’t changed that much. But what has changed is the is the participation in it. And so it’s not just the candidates now, but as the media that’s engaged in partisan partisanship, and then it is the public on social media. So you have got just a higher level of intensity in that partisanship. And it’s not just partisanship in terms of the political parties, but it’s partisanship in terms of just political divide in general. And so it is social media. It is the media is participation, which is helpful by the public, but it just, it takes it to a new level, and it is a challenge for our country and anybody who participates in it.

Unknown Speaker  5:48 

And I assume, you know, one of the things that obviously, I don’t think you planned on when you were brought into this office, but this global pandemic we’re dealing with has obviously added to the partisan nature of The way people feel like it should be handled. But this wasn’t on your to do list, I would assume.

Unknown Speaker  6:04 

Oh, it wasn’t even on my imagination list. No, it wasn’t on my to do list at all. I was elected to be the jobs governor creating jobs in Arkansas, bringing industry here, lowering taxes, which we’ve done all of those things. But then this is a curveball that you didn’t expect. And it’s interesting that you mentioned that you know, there’s been a partisan taint to it almost or divide. And, you know, it didn’t start out that way. I remember in March or you know, where our country was united our country was, was really together in a concern for it and the actions that we we should take it then it became first divide on whether you ought to shut everything down shelter in place, and then it was divided about whether you open it up, back up or not. Then there’s a divide on The mask and and and it’s that’s frustrating that there is that kind of division. But it’s it’s natural that the longer you’re engaged in a fight, there’s frustrations with it, I really think some of that shifts reflecting frustration and it’s hard to see and into it. And so people just want to live their life and express themselves in a more normal way. And that makes it doubly challenging. But we’re going to get through this. America is a great country. Arkansas is great, got a great spirit, and we’re in a good position to win this fight.

Unknown Speaker  7:35 

I love that. And have you seen any successes that you’ve been proud of throughout this time? things that, you know, our Kansans have done? Well, things that the leadership team has done?

Unknown Speaker  7:44 

Well, sure. Absolutely. I mean, I think not shutting down the Arkansas economy was absolutely the right decision. Because you know, there’s a lot of pressure to do that. But the states that actually did that The the virus has come back just as strong as the states that didn’t. And so it’s, it’s, we would really hurt ourselves a lot of people would have lost their jobs and been unemployed had we shut down the economy to that extent, but also is just, you know, the spirit of our Kansans really listening to leadership has been inspiring to me, you know, words make a difference in what you say and how you say it. And you know, my daily, almost daily news conferences that talk about where we are, what we’re doing, meeting the challenges, I think that’s been a success story in terms of transparency and sharing as much information as we can with the public.

Unknown Speaker  8:45 

So even though it may look and feel like dealing with the pandemic is sort of taken on a full time role, like leaders in most organizations, you still have other jobs to do and jobs that you would prefer to do. So what does that look like? How have you been able to continue to be Do the things that you want to do.

Unknown Speaker  9:02 

Well, you’re right. There’s a lot of other things going on that are important for a governor to deal with today. You know, we’re looking at budget issues for next year. We’ve been looking at the legislative session, what economic agenda items we want to drive. What I enjoy is being on the phone talking to CEOs trying to get them to look at Arkansas. That’s been hampered a little bit because you can’t travel as much. But you know, I’ve been on the phone and that’s been a nice avenue of have other successes, but it’s also about the Computer Science Initiative that I started as governor that we’ve been really the number one state in terms of the first state to mandate Computer Science at every high school. And, and and really the pandemic and the necessity of whether it’s online education or whether it is doing telemedicine, all of that hinges upon good computer science skills, and software development. And so that’s been something that’s been a continued success, even with the pandemic.

Unknown Speaker  10:15 

And on a good day, being Governor’s a tough job, even if the pandemic wasn’t a part of your situation. So what’s something that you’ve done or you do personally to kind of stay motivated and keep your team motivated to move forward? Like you mentioned a minute ago, you know, a lot of people are frustrated, because we just don’t know how long this is going to go what the situation is going to be a month from now, six months from now?

Unknown Speaker  10:35 

Well, at the very beginning,

Unknown Speaker  10:39 

in March 11, when we had our first case, I remember Dr. Nate Smith, called me aside and says, this could go on for seven months. And that just stunned me and I said, Well, don’t tell anybody that if, and in fact, it has gone on. And, and so that’s been challenging, and so with that, knowledge that we’re in this for the long haul, I asked my staff, make sure you take some time off. Make sure you get some time to yourself and because you’re going to burn out on this otherwise, and I, one of my favorite authors, Henry Van Dyck has a book the importance of a day off. And so that’s something that I believe in, you got to go fishing, you’ve got to do whatever relaxes you. Because this has really been stressful for my team, and really, particularly the medical professionals that are out there.

Unknown Speaker  11:37 

So what are some of the things you do to unwind to de stress? I know, like I said, I think your basketball fan like to play basketball a little bit.

Unknown Speaker  11:45 

Yeah, you I know people think, well, you’re too old play basketball, but I never stopped. And so I had a group that we played full court basketball, up until the pandemic started. And so we played every week, and that’s In my point of relaxation, now, what have I done since then, while we’ve had this, we haven’t been able to play full court, competition, basketball. And so I’ve got a basketball goal at that residence and I go out there and shoot just about every evening. And it’s just shooting, but it’s so relaxing to me. Nothing beats the squish of the net. And so do that that also actually increased my exercise routine just because I had to have it. If I don’t have that, as I start the day, then I have a hard time making it through the day. So relief in times of stress, you find yourself becoming a little bit more disciplined on things that help you to be stronger. I love that.

Unknown Speaker  12:46 

So as a leader, every leader is faced with a balance of leading with expertise and authority, being confident in what you’re leading towards. But then also with empathy and compassion and ensuring that the people you’re leading don’t get run over by the process, do you naturally lean one way or the other? And then how do you kind of maintain a balance between the two?

Unknown Speaker  13:06 

Well, it is an important balance. And you have to identify with as a leader with the emotions with the stress that people are going through, you have to recognize it. And and so that’s the reason that we recognize our, our nurses and our healthcare workers that have been on the front lines for so long. You know, recognizing the stress to the unemployed and the efforts to get unemployment compensation or, or pandemic unemployment assistance to them. But as you as you look at this for so many months, emotion only takes you so far. And really what the people of Arkansas and everyone responds to are simply the facts. They don’t need to always be preached to they don’t need to, you know, have all of the emotions They just need to have the facts and information so they can make good judgments. Now, that’s the balance you have to have. But, you know, I have to remind myself that there’s a lot of people that are hurting out there, and that are stressed out there. And, you know, whenever you look at starting school this year, teachers are worried I understand that identify with that. And you’ve got to make sure you never lose sight of, of what people are going through in these difficult times and identify with it. And that’s the balance you have to try to work through.

Unknown Speaker  14:38 

What’s one of the hardest things that you try to communicate to our Arkansas business leaders that maybe they don’t understand? This is really what what we’re after this is what we’re trying to accomplish?

Unknown Speaker  14:50 

Well, what is so difficult is that everything we’re going through and asking people to do almost seems unAmerican. I mean, I didn’t run for governor and get elected or I didn’t get involved in politics to put restrictions on businesses. You know, it’s not my philosophy didn’t come natural to me to use government action. You know, I’m a conservative republican and I resist government authority. And that’s, and that’s uniquely American, and it’s Arkansas. And so you’re telling people, you’re going to be issuing a mandate, you have to wear a mask. I mean, that hurts, and but it’s necessary and so but it’s difficult to communicate exactly why this is important. People understand it, but they, they education always works a little bit better, but sometimes you have to do that government action. And so that’s part of it. But it’s also about businesses. I mean, whenever you look at with barber shops and salons, it had to be closed and restaurants had to be put restrictions on and, and it felt so good whenever we’re able to lift some of those inside. Get back in business, you know, we want to support you. And you know, and now, you know, we’ve had our cases go up some. So now the pressure says, Well, you got to go back you got to turn back the tide and put some of those restrictions back in place. I’m saying no, you can’t do that. You just got to resist that we got to live through this. You got to work through this and and navigate our wells way through this. So this is hard because it’s, it’s not what we think about when we think about the freedoms that we enjoy.

Unknown Speaker  16:32 

Is there anything you want to say to business owners and leaders of businesses that would maybe help them think a different way or so that restrictions don’t have to be put back on things

Unknown Speaker  16:42 

actually, the businesses have, by and large, just about every one of them. they fully understand what we have to do for safety. The most important thing to them is their customers and to keep their customers safe and confidence and coming in whether it’s a restaurant or whether it’s it’s a club Thing store. And so what we’re doing is helping them. And actually, if we do put in a we did put in a mandate to wear mask, businesses, thank me saying that makes our life easier because we don’t have to be telling them because, you know, it’s something that everybody has to do. So businesses, by and large, have been very, very supportive and understanding of that. It is difficult when you’ve got a customer that comes in and say, I don’t want to do that and you can’t make me. You know, you just sort of have to live with those circumstances. It’s unfair. But businesses have been very, very supportive. So my word to them is Thank you. You understand it and you’ve worked very hard to protect your place of business and your customers.

Unknown Speaker  17:47 

And speaking of masks, anybody that watches the press conferences, sees that you have almost a different mask every day. Do you have a favorite? Is there a theme that you like to go with on the masks

Unknown Speaker  17:57 

typically me I lost my favorite mass Go but no i today I wore the mule riders mass from Southern Arkansas university so that was cool. I like to wear the sports one. I actually have a basketball mass that’s that made it looks like a basketball and so the day that I spoke on sports, nobody picked up the clues but I had a basketball mask on and I had basketball cufflinks so I was sending a signal Hey, let’s let’s look at doing sports this year.

Unknown Speaker  18:31 

I love it. Well speaking of sports, that’s a big issue people you know miss all the things that we get to go do as a you know, community. What should people know if they haven’t heard elsewhere about sports coming back this fall?

Unknown Speaker  18:45 

One how important sports is to our high school students. I just met with so many coaches, administrators and teachers and they say, you know if if you don’t have sports This year, we’re going to be losing students. They’ll be dropping out of school. And so it motivates them. It gives them the challenge and discipline in life that they need. It’s a safe environment for them. Even though it’s a risky environment with that adult supervision, it can be a safe environment. So you have to understand how important it is. Secondly, you have to understand that there’s going to be positive cases, they would be positive cases among teenagers, whether you had sports or not, because they go to the lake, they go to the swimming pool, they go to a friend’s party, they hang out. And so there’s going to be cases. It’s just now you have they’re engaged in the sports world. And so we’ve got to understand that perspective. But it is important, it’s going to be challenging for us, unimaginably challenging. But as one student athlete says, if we don’t try, we don’t have a chance. And so we’re trying.

Unknown Speaker  19:53 

That’s great. What do you feel like is one of your greatest accomplishments so far in office and what do you what goal Do you still have left undone.

Unknown Speaker  20:01 

We’ve accomplished a lot in the last six years. And whenever you look at the fact that we’ve lowered our income tax rate, which is probably one of the great accomplishments, because that’s so hard to do, lowering the individual income tax rate, next year down to 5.9%, leading the country in a comprehensive Computer Science program that will change lives for so long. You know, the fact that we have done a lot in our child welfare system protecting the most vulnerable. Those are things that give me a lot of joy in what we’ve done. There’s a lot more to accomplish a lot more to do. And one of them is in November, we want to pass a historic highway funding plan for Arkansas to help build our infrastructure to continue the growth. And actually during this pandemic, it is even more important than ever that we have that continued investment in our infrastructure and an economic growth that creates jobs. I think that we can obviously do more in terms of strength in our economy. We have a lot of growth in Northwest Arkansas but I like to see those industries that are coming to south and east Arkansas as well. We’ll be able to work on those things. So a lot left to do in my time as governor.

Unknown Speaker  21:21 

The name of the podcast is titans of industry. So obviously, you know, your leadership and the ability that you’ve shown the state of how you lead doesn’t come from doing it all by yourself. So who are some of the people who are some of the Titans in your own life that you kind of look to or get advice from or have always looked up to in your world?

Unknown Speaker  21:38 

Well, I know everybody cites Sam Walton, but we learned so much from from his leadership, and you know, his style of leadership and management by walking around and go into the store and listening to the customer. That’s ground truth and and his enthusiasm the hands so he’s been just a mentor in terms of business. And leadership style. You know, and then, you know in terms of politics, of course, I think of Ronald Reagan, that he was a consistent conservative whether he won or lost and he lost a few races. But he stuck with his principles. And He always was an optimist. He put a had a smile on his face, he could work with anybody. And he believed the best days of America were ahead. Those are two guiding lights for me as I think about

Unknown Speaker  22:30 

people who have mentored me.

Unknown Speaker  22:32 

Alright, I want to move into some rapid fire questions just real quick off the cuff answers. Best or latest book that you’ve read.

Unknown Speaker  22:41 

I really enjoy reading books and that’s a respite for me. I love history books. Of course the book on Ulysses Grant by Ron turnoff I enjoyed but the latest one and you’re gonna make fun of me a little bit but I just picked it up when I was getting away, up and down. peda gene, and it’s a book on Julius Caesar. And I’ve never read in that period of history. And one thing, you know, that you see in there is that they made a mistake because they voted everybody free grain, free bread. And once you do that, you can’t ever get it back. But that’s a book I’ve enjoyed as well.

Unknown Speaker  23:22 

Most important part of your daily routine.

Unknown Speaker  23:25 

Well, I mentioned getting up getting an exercise, but it’s also having a time of quietness and reflection and prayer. You know, if you don’t have that you don’t have the right perspective as he goes through the day. But it’s the exercise. It’s a it’s a personal time. And then I’m speaking of and I tell you, my wife, we just celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary and we go for a walk every morning. So that’s part of our routine as well and kick them off together.

Unknown Speaker  23:55 

That’s great. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received or given

Unknown Speaker  24:00 

You know, it was just come from my dad. And it was not just a phrase, but it was just what he taught me is and Don’t get cocky, we’re all the same. And he believed in my mom believe you treat people the same no matter their title, no matter their position, no matter their wealth, we’re all the same and that that sense of calmness is important for me as I go through life,

Unknown Speaker  24:27 

if you ever write a book, what would the title be or the subject

Unknown Speaker  24:31 

of the book be? I’d have to be perseverance. Anybody who looks at my political life, most people would have given up poker most people would not have run the second time for governor after losing the the first time around after having lost more than one statewide race. So it’s perseverance. And that would be the title I think of the book that I would write as sort of a theme of my My life and and hopefully as an encouragement to others

Unknown Speaker  25:05 

when we get to have concerts again, who are you going to go see who’s your favorite musician or artist?

Unknown Speaker  25:10 

You know I love and I’ve really grown to appreciate the blues music going to hell in a Blues Festival and of course so I like Levon Helm. I can’t go hear him because he’s passed away. I like the folksy music that comes from people like Joe. Rosanna cash, Johnny Cash, his daughter that sings bland folksy blues, so those are some of my special ones. But you give me some of those 60 rockers I’ll go if they’re still around that that’d be a good wake up concert as well.

Unknown Speaker  25:51 

And you have a favorite food or restaurant, something you’re always in the mood for.

Unknown Speaker  25:55 

You know, I like the all American restaurant You know, the the comfort food, you know, you give me a good chicken but a bunch of Black Eyed Peas and turnip greens and corn on the cob and fresh sliced tomatoes. That’s a meal you can live for. So those kind of restaurants I like. And finally, Netflix or the news, news. I do like to watch the movies. Well, we found a little biography section that we can watch biographical movies that we’ve really enjoyed. But I’ve got to watch the news. I like to see what’s going on. But it’s the broadcast news. It’s not, not quite the partisanship. You see later in the evening. I like that broadcast news at 530.

Unknown Speaker  26:45 

I love it. Well, Governor, are there any last words anything else you got open mic, anything you want to say to anybody out there? Well

Unknown Speaker  26:51 

seize the moment. Everybody’s got opportunity. And I’ve been blessed and and seek your opportunity as well. And I appreciate All of the opportunities that people Arkansas have given me in my life.

Unknown Speaker  27:04 

Thank you so much for the opportunity to do this. Great to be with you. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker  27:09 

If you liked this episode of titans of industry, head to content Titan dot CEO slash podcast for more episodes or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. And if you know of an industry Titan that’s doing amazing things. Let us know on social media or through our website so we can tell their story. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Unknown Speaker 0:00
If you have a child with epilepsy, the last thing you want to do is go to Colorado and buy a bunch of indica. That’s really high in THC to give to that child. It’s the wrong medicine, right? Whereas if you have a PTSD soldier coming back from Afghanistan, he might really benefit from some of that. So you really have to look at the plant, look at what it’s producing and see how you can use it in the medical field.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro, and welcome to Titans of Industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I sit down with Brad Fausett, co owner and co CEO of green remedies Group, a cannabis cultivation and refinery company rooted in Arkansas. Brad talks about the difference between hemp and marijuana, how he consults with organizations all over the country to bring consistency and quality to the industry and how his PhD in soil chemistry gives him an advantage to create some of the best and most beneficial strains of cannabis. To meet vastly different medicinal needs, from CBD products to cannabis solutions for your pet, you will love this conversation covering all things

Unknown Speaker 1:08
green. And now let’s

Unknown Speaker 1:10
get to the episode. But before we do, it’s important to know that whether you’re a small business owner or the face of a multibillion dollar industry, your organization has a great story to tell, and content Titan wants to help you tell it. We are a digital content creation powerhouse built for the 21st century, providing all in creative strategic production post production and distribution services for at 360 degree 24 seven worlds. In our world, Titans are passionate, creative doers. They have the experience to take your project from start to finish, minimizing your involvement so you can focus on what matters most running your business. So if you’re ready to take your content, strategy and production to the next level, our Titans are ready to help. Now here’s my conversation with Brad

Unknown Speaker 1:58
Fossett.

Unknown Speaker 2:01
Brad, thank you for jumping on the podcast with us. I’m excited about this one, our Titan of cannabis, as I like to call it. Just walk me through the process. How did you end up in this role that you’re in right now which is which is kind of an interesting story as well. So we’ll get to that. But how did you get into the cannabis world?

Unknown Speaker 2:19
Well, thanks for having me. It’s a really long story. I had a an interest in agriculture as a kid and always wanted to be in agriculture. And when I was in college really focused on soils and row crop production and actually got my master’s degree in soil chemistry and most of it was revolving around rice because here we are in rice country. You know, it’s college. So there’s a lot of cannabis in college and I ended up getting kind of involved with a lot of the cannabis back then. And a lot of people over time started coming to me and asking me for pain management into life. care you know, just trying to smooth out the services, you know of the pain that they had to deal with every day. And I think that’s really where you know my start and my interest in it started.

Unknown Speaker 3:12
So master’s degree in soil management, soil chemistry, soil chemistry, and that took you into the agriculture world. Yeah working in the rice industry and I mean so

Unknown Speaker 3:23
I was in rice and I got a job with Gerber foods and started working out in Colorado and of course cannabis is really big in Colorado and then I came back to Arkansas and I worked for a fortune 500 company here and and it was a great experience but I was still involved in cannabis the entire time I was still had people calling me going, you know, I have lung cancer and I can’t smoke this joint that I got from my buddy, what can I do with it and I would help them make brownies or help them make gummies or, you know, get it to where they could get the medicine that they needed. Most of these people did not want to take a lot of the They’re really strong prescriptions. And this was something that was mild and manageable for their everyday life. So I mean, again, it was all agriculture. You know, I really loved looking at the bird’s eye view of agriculture and seeing if we could fine tune the agricultural process here and make it a little better. What I really wanted to do was reduce pesticide and herbicide use and really dial in the fertilizers, you know, through a variable rate and use drones to help do that, you know, we were doing LIDAR and multispectral and hyperspectral analysis and overlaying these ortho mosaics of multispectral analysis over a LIDAR image, and by doing so we could fine tune our data points to where there was almost zero error. So we could see within centimeters and we could see bugs, we could see diseases, we could see them on big levels because we were up in the sky. And it wasn’t just drones, it was drones, planes, helicopters, satellites, it was any kind of data I could get. It was really more data analytics. Drones are just a great tool for it.

Unknown Speaker 5:03
Fascinating. So somebody who in college, learned a lot about soil chemistry, maybe grew some cannabis in the basement and ends up doing aerial surveillance and data analysis for correct. Some of the Lord, that’s an interesting journey for sure.

Unknown Speaker 5:20
So in 2014, I was at the Cannabis Cup in Denver, and I competed and I did really well. And then later on when Arkansas medical started coming up, we applied. We started that venture in 2016, so four years ago, and we’ve got a group and we have a dispensary license that we’re hoping will be issued soon here in Arkansas down in the Hot Springs area. We’re in the top 40. I have picked up several consulting gigs and some of those are with the cultivation. Some of the cultivators here. also deal with a lot of the cultivators in Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada. California, Arizona, I’m kind of all over the place these days. I even have business down in Baja, Mexico, for the CBD side because it’s really starting to take off in Mexico as well.

Unknown Speaker 6:10
I love it. Alright, so 2016 big year in Arkansas, the applications become available. But nationally, where was the national scope of medical cannabis and that whole industry at the time?

Unknown Speaker 6:24
Right, then, you know, you kind of had that transition on the west coast, from medical to recreational, you know, we’re still trying to catch up out here with the medical. And you know, my goal and my focus has always been medical more so than recreational. But cannabis is cannabis. So I mean, even on the recreational side, it has its benefits, especially from a tax revenue perspective and adding jobs and a new, a new form of business, right,

Unknown Speaker 6:48
like I live in Colorado until 2012. And it had just become legal there. And they were obviously on the front end of that.

Unknown Speaker 6:55
They weren’t Yeah, then when California where the front

Unknown Speaker 6:58
Yeah. So So kind of Give me just a brief timeline of, you know, the front end innovators in the states that took it first and then kind of where we’re at here in Arkansas now and the rest of the nation, wow,

Unknown Speaker 7:11
the the whole industry is shifting, you know, I mean, the more and more momentum this industry gets the bigger you know, the bigger players are starting to get involved. The mom and pops are starting to kind of go away and, and it’s a it’s a very money intensive, you know, industry. It takes a lot to grow and secure and manage in and comply with regulations. So it takes a lot of money. It takes the right people that can monetize that whole system. And so the mom and pops are kind of going away, they can’t really compete in some of this. I know, some of the guys that I consult with out in California, they were looking at a million dollars, you know, a license renewal, just for the renewal. And that’s, you know, you can’t do that as a mom and pop you know, So we’ve watched it kind of evolve. And now here we are in Arkansas. And it’s like in its nascent stages, like we were back in Colorado in 2012, and 2014. So it’s, it’s interesting. I’m really interested to see how it evolves here in my home state.

Unknown Speaker 8:15
And, you know, I’ve had minimal involvement basically from, you know, coming out to the farm and then seeing refinery, and yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:24
the refinery, see,

Unknown Speaker 8:27
but it’s not what a lot of people wouldn’t envision, as, you know, just kids in their basement. Putting together No,

Unknown Speaker 8:34
this is a high tech industry. Yeah, we’re real scientists. Yeah. And we have compounding pharmacists on staff and we run everything through the doctors and for the pet products, we try to get everything vet approved and and we try to do the right thing you know, we really want to help

Unknown Speaker 8:49
so break the industry down for me, it’s it’s a little bit complex. It’s kind of hard to wrap our minds around. I think as the lay person as a person, just kind of looking from the outside in and A lot of people there’s still a stigma with the industry. But if you break it down to not just dollars and cents, but kind of practical like how does the NRA come

Unknown Speaker 9:09
together before my grandmother died last year she you know, questioned me a whole lot about the same thing you know, like break this down for me, Brad, I just don’t know. So I think the easiest way to do that is to first do that clear draw the line between hemp and marijuana, it’s still cannabis it’s still part of the same family it still has a lot of the same medical benefits but you know, there is that line there. The the legalities of hemp is a little bit easier to regulate through and you know, marijuana is marijuana, it’s going to be highly regulated.

Unknown Speaker 9:41
So just real briefly, what’s the difference from hemp?

Unknown Speaker 9:44
So there one thing that qualifies me to grow a hemp crop versus American one a crop is the point 3% THC threshold. So if I break the point, 3% THC threshold I’m in marijuana if I am below point, 3% THC In hemp, I have hemp farms and you know compliance is always you know, top priority on those farms you’ve got a lot, a lot counting on that, that analytics. So cannabis, it has cannabinoids, there are many, many, many cannabinoids and each cannabinoid has a different medical benefit. But let’s think of it like a chain. If you pull on a chain, you know it’s a chain, right? It’s it’s all together it works. You start breaking the links up and taking one link out of that chain. The chain no longer works. And cannabinoids are very similar, you know, they like to be together and they work really well together as a medicine The moment you start breaking it apart, they don’t really work as well together. They call it the entourage effect. It’s actually coined by Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Russo actually, out of Seattle, both coined the entourage effect back in, you know, 2010 2011 somewhere in there.

Unknown Speaker 10:55
Interesting. I like to think of sort of the way it all works and the different strains and all this kind of stuff like apples, you go to the grocery store, you’ve got a bunch of different types of apples. Each Apple tastes a little different. If you don’t know anything about them, you’re not going to know which one you like better. Which one’s better for apple sauce versus apple pie or whatever. So is that kind of how

Unknown Speaker 11:16
well having grown a lot of apples for Gerber foods? Like that’s a great analogy. So yeah, you have the eating apples, you have the processing apples for applesauce or food, big products and then you have like the apples for apple juice, right? They are all very different. Yes. And cannabis is very similar to that.

Unknown Speaker 11:35
What’s the difference in certain types of cannabis or like how does it work differently kind of like sour apples versus sweet Okay,

Unknown Speaker 11:43
so it’s back to that cannabinoids, right and the different ratios of those cannabinoids so really what it comes down to it comes down to what’s called an interview science. You have to breed a plant to get the cannabinoid structures that help the the condition on the back end. So first For instance, if you have a child with epilepsy, the last thing you want to do is go to Colorado and buy a bunch of indika. That’s really high in THC to give to that child. It’s the wrong medicine, right. Whereas if you have a PTSD soldier coming back from Afghanistan, he might really benefit from some of that or if somebody’s coming off an opioid, he might really benefit from some of those higher THC. So you really have to look at the plant, look at what it’s producing and see how you can use it in the medical field.

Unknown Speaker 12:25
All right, now let’s walk through the process. How

Unknown Speaker 12:27
do we go from a seed to a plant that has the right makeup to a finished product walk me through kind of how that whole thing very, very, very long and complicated. And the reason the main reason for that is you’ve got an industry that’s based off of genetics in a basement so in you know the hemp for victory back in the 30s you know, they they had all this hemp and a lot of it was for medicine. Some of it was for rope, some moves for you know, but they had all this metal And that they were making back then out of it, and then they banned it well, when they banned it, you know, everybody went to their indoors basements, you know, back 40s, you know, wherever they could get away with it and not not be criminally prosecuted for it. So the over the years, they kind of changed the genetics so that they worked better in a basement setting or a bedroom setting or some closet, you know, short little plants that you know, produced exactly what they wanted. So now here, we have this industry kind of opening up and we’re, we’re basically left with that breeding program. And we really, what we find is that there’s so much genetic variability when we crack seeds that you have to do what’s called a fino hunt. So let’s say for instance, I cracked 100 seeds, I got 100 seeds in a greenhouse, and I’m cracking on them, seeing what’s in them, and I pick one out of that hundred, the rest of those 99 just kind of go away. They don’t have what I’m looking for, but that one might have what I’m looking for. So then that one gets pruned. treated real well goes into a cloning program, we produce a mass of the clones. And then from there we start our breeding. And that really allows us to dial in exactly which cannabinoids that plants going to produce that we’re looking for. And with the growth habits that we really want for whatever growing environment because sometimes you’re going to put it indoors or greenhouse and then of course, if attempt it needs to be able to sustain that outdoor heat and pests and diseases and everything else. So from that we take our, our flowers, and you know, for the dried the floral industry for the flower industry, we dry and cure really, really slow. So that’s a nice smokeable product. And then for the extraction portion of it, we take what’s left or even some of those those top buds and we start extracting either using ethanol or co2 or even butane can be used as a as a solvent and we pull all that oil off. And then we wrote to evaporate off anything that’s left over and get all the impurities out of it. There’s actually some chemistry techniques that we can use to really clean up the oil and make sure there’s nothing in there but the medicine that we want. And then that oil or that extract can now be used in a number of different products. For instance, you know, we do a sunblock and a sap and dog treats you know, out of the hemp and then on the THC side we do vape pens and gummy bears and you know, your typical thing.

Unknown Speaker 15:24
So, now that we’ve got this raw product, talk me through the process of what you do to turn it turn the oil and that raw product into your finished products. Is this something that happens in a processing lab or facility? How do we get there? So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:40
it’s very much a processing lab. It’s very much a cleanroom. So we try to make sure that when we’re processing that there’s, you know, no dust super clean, every every hair on your body is covered. We don’t want to have any of that kind of stuff in our product. We make sure everybody wears gloves. Especially right now with COVID and everything it’s really important to wear your face mask and your gloves as you’re working with these products and PBE super important in the lab, obviously.

Unknown Speaker 16:10
And that’s always been the case it’s always

Unknown Speaker 16:11
been not just a COVID-19 to COVID thing Yeah, but it’s always it’s always the case. And anytime you’re you’re selling stuff to the public, you want to make sure that you’re giving them you know the quality every time and that’s that’s one of the things that really sets me apart here in Arkansas is we have a lot of guys in the cannabis into they’re starting to get into the cannabis industry here. And they’re really looking at quantity more so than the quality and I really want to be that guy that everybody knows in the state as yeah that’s the quality

Unknown Speaker 16:44
and and not all CBD is created equal.

Unknown Speaker 16:47
Not all CBD not all THC, not any cannabinoid is created equal. That is

Unknown Speaker 16:51
correct. How do we determine or no good quality bad quality good grower bad grower?

Unknown Speaker 16:58
Well, unfortunately, labeling Requirements aren’t quite there. Now we’ve tried to do a really good job with our products to make sure that we put the ingredients in there let everybody know exactly what we do we have a story behind most every product in and I always feel I never released something until I feel good about it until I’m ready to give it to my mother. I’m not going to release it right so it’s a good good qualifier.

Unknown Speaker 17:21
Right.

Unknown Speaker 17:23
So I i’m really looking at all of those things to make sure that our quality is right that the products right before we ever get out there now I’ve seen a lot of people they’ll order isolettes from China who knows how pure that stuff is, if it’s really good, how much fillers in it and then they’re just making you know, their CBD products and selling probably a lot more of their products than I am all over the United States. They have a great sales team. They don’t have a great and a lot of quantity but they don’t have a good quality product in any time back to that chain of the cannabinoids. Anytime you try to break those links off, you’re going to lose some of them. Benefits of that medicine. Or for instance, I’ve got family members that are pilots and they’re really worried that they won’t take anything that I give them because they’re Oh no, if I test for THC at all I’m, I’m done. Okay, I totally get that. So there are some uses for the isolette. But you just don’t get the same benefits from just using the isolette I believe in the whole plant medicine and keeping it full or broad spectrum is what we call it. Full Spectrum being that first pass it’s like the first squeeze out of the out of the plant, and then further refined in it to a broad spectrum to kind of remove some THC get the CBD where we want it. That’s that’s really the best medicine out there. Once you go to isolate, not all isolate is even created equal. And that’s something that I’m actually working down in Arizona to help a really large company streamline the supply chain of a CBD isolate because they found after buying stuff off the market, nothing was the same. The quality just wasn’t the same. And it should be But it’s it just wasn’t.

Unknown Speaker 19:01
So how do we get there? How does the quality become consistent? And the same? Is that is that obviously not an easy process? But is it a manageable process?

Unknown Speaker 19:09
So we’re still in that transition from the garage, right? I mean, as we move in, and really get the right companies involved in this industry, I think we’re gonna see that evolution, we’re gonna see the regulator’s come in and actually say, Okay, this is how we want to, this is how we want to see it. This is how we want it extracted, this is how the consumables need to be. And once that’s laid out, it’ll just be the roadmap for us to follow. And I think we’re really looking forward to it in the industry in a lot of ways. I mean, nobody wants more regulations, but in the end, it’s going to help the industry and that’s really what what it’s about. So,

Unknown Speaker 19:41
so we’ve got a complex industry, with mad scientists and PhDs in you know, agriculture industries, kind of out there consulting and growing and putting this stuff out to market. If you look at it and take the word cannabis or marijuana or whatever you want to call it out of it. It’s a very Well run professional science. But there is

Unknown Speaker 20:03
so much science. I think a lot of people don’t realize how much science we really put into this. What we don’t what we really lack in the industry, and luckily enough, I’m with a group that that has this is that, that upper management, that real business acumen that gets you to the next level as a company. And without those people, you know, it’s just another grower in a basement again, you know, so luckily, I’m with a good group that has that structure has that accurate. I have an investment group behind me that believes in this and believes that this is the right medicine, it’s been really interesting to watch the evolution of even the investors how and how they learned the industry,

Unknown Speaker 20:44
back pain, all these things that people live with, sometimes chronically. Sometimes they’re isolated events. We go to the doctor doctor prescribes a medicine. Sometimes it’s an opioid we get hooked on the opioid Is there any kind of long term big picture relief that CBD products can help with some of that. And is the medical community. Afraid of that?

Unknown Speaker 21:06
I think there’s always going to be a place for the pharmaceutical community and the right, the right medicines, right? I think opioids will probably always be used and will always be needed in some way or another. I think we’ve over prescribed them. And I’ve seen I’ve had a lot of people actually come to me personally and go, Hey, I need some products to help me get off these pain pills. I just can’t seem to kick the habit of them. And, and the pre rolls and some of the THC products have really helped those those people get off of those. And I think the medical marijuana program here in Arkansas has the potential of really helping our Kansans kind of break that opioid cycle, you know, is the medical community worried about it? I would think they would be more excited. It’s another tool in the toolbox. You know, the endocannabinoid system is a very amazing system. We have our own system to take care of these, these these problems in our body. This this plant and all it does is activate that system by activity. Those internal processes really allow I think the the the doctors to have another tool in the toolbox,

Unknown Speaker 22:06
there’s still a stigma with the cannabis industry, for sure. I think a lot of the country has sort of accepted it. But there’s still a lot of people that it’s, this should not be right. And obviously certain states are still struggling with that on their own right. And then there’s the medical use versus recreational use. There’s so many reasons why this is sort of a stigmatized industry still, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 22:28
we could sit here all day and go through the conspiracy theories. But you know, when it comes down to is, there is a stigma, the war on drugs was a total failure, that should have never been a drug in the war on drugs. I think we could have completely eliminated the importation of all those drugs back in the 60s 70s and 80s. By allowing cannabis to be in the market, but it wasn’t and here we are, and, and now we’ve got to move forward with that. So the stigma that’s a really hard one, and that’s been a tough one for my family, too, because my family has been, you know, they’re they’ve got great jobs and they’re not ever going to take anything that’s illegal ever. And a lot of my family grew up believing that marijuana was a drug. And when they found out that I was in the cannabis industry, I had to kind of, well, this is him. This is for horses. This is for dogs, this is for people and then you have marijuana, you know, and so you had to really break it down for for these guys to get them to understand that, hey, this isn’t going to get you high. This isn’t going to alter your mind this is just going to relax your shoulders or this is going to take that ankle pain away. Or if you’ve got a horse, hey, go ahead and use this on its knees You know, we’ve got great horse products. So that’s, you know, you start breaking that stigma when you see those kinds of things happen, but to really help people then you have to really look at it and and try to break that stigma and and use the plant for what it’s here for.

Unknown Speaker 23:56
The industry is getting bigger, a lot of money behind it. money behind a fortune 500 companies trying to get their piece of that money and industry and innovation and new products to market. How big does this thing go? I mean, the alcohol industry obviously is huge right? players, right? I’m running the biggest Superbowl ads back when we had football free COVID and

Unknown Speaker 24:19
NASCAR just jumped on the cannabis wagon as well. They’re gonna start allowing some advertising. We’re just in some meetings out there for that. How big does it get? Well, there’s two different sides of that coin. You’ve got, you know, the alcohol comparison and the recreational marijuana. And I think there’s uh, you know, tax revenue is huge from something like that. And I think every state needs to look at that option from you know, legalizing recreational and putting it right in line with alcohol would be great for our tax revenue. From a medical standpoint, and from just an overall population health standpoint, not just for people But for our livestock and our food sources, I see cannabis in the endocannabinoid system really providing a lot more benefits than we’ve really given it credit for. And I think what you’re going to see over time as we get more and more cannabinoids into our system consistently maybe through a beverage or an edible or you know everyday consumables, we might have to start to have some of these cannabinoids added. We might see lower inflammation, we might see lower anxiety and lower stress rates and people maybe heart attacks will go down maybe strokes will go down. We don’t know. We weren’t allowed to really look at this for so long. And this is the first time we’re really getting able to put the science behind it but everything that I’ve seen and everything that I’ve I’ve really witnessed with my own eyes is that there has been nothing but good that has come out of this down to feeding our cattle hemp seeds or feeding chickens hemp seeds so now the cannabinoids are The meat and are part of the whole food supply in the food chain system. I think you’re gonna see a benefit in human populations from from consuming that. I think, you know, hey, happy cow is a happy cow, it’s gonna taste better, you know. And if it’s fed right and is happy, then it’s always going to be a better steak. And I think the same is true for chicken and plants and anything right? So the more we can get the cannabinoid in our food supply, the better we’re going to all be.

Unknown Speaker 26:34
And again, that’s just biological science. That’s

Unknown Speaker 26:36
just biological science, the endocannabinoid system, it’s everywhere. And this is the only plant that has cannabinoids.

Unknown Speaker 26:44
So if we were to somehow marry the, the benefit of that with another plant that doesn’t have stigma associated with it, there wouldn’t be an issue. Right,

Unknown Speaker 26:52
right. You know, there’s a lot of comparisons with hops and stuff like that. There are I think there’s some cannabinoids and hops and there’s, there’s some cards That have, you know, very limited, but there’s nothing that compares to cannabis on the cannabinoid concentrations and production and being able to pull that out of a crop and supply it to the population in general, I think you’re just gonna see benefits. I don’t think there’s really anything negative that’s going to come from that.

Unknown Speaker 27:15
All right, talk to me about some of the players in the industry. every industry has big players on a national level international level. I mean, are there certain people setting the standards around the country from a company standpoint or industry leaders, thought leaders, people that you pay attention to? Obviously, you’re consulting with a lot of these companies. So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 27:35
I have a lot of mentors. And some of these guys are incredibly smart guys. And they’ve been in the in the cannabis world for a long time as well. But as far as the companies go, you know, we had a big push by some really big Canadian companies to really build up their stock prices and try to make it go bigger and bigger. You know, Anheuser Busch was bought by constellation and constellation owns Have some very large grows probably the biggest in the world up in Canada and they’ve got some roots here in the United States. But it’s been a little different to get established here in the United States than it was in Canada. But as far as the real big runners that we’re still waiting, we’re still waiting for the big guys we really are. nobody’s really come out and clearly been a leader with quality. There’s been some good ones for quantity but I’ve yet to see the right quality coming out of some of these bigger operations.

Unknown Speaker 28:29
And now there’s there’s also industries being created around the cannabis industry such as my friend Elizabeth and Michael that is a principal with bud agency marketing specifically to marketing is huge in the cannabis. It’s a whole different kind of marketing and seems Yeah, and then you’ve got Dan roto with a Baka that’s doing FinTech for in the financial pieces and interesting world if you want to,

Unknown Speaker 28:54
you know really streamline the process and, and have a good regulated environment to work with them. Then we need to get the feds involved a little more and start allowing trade and start doing more banking and investments and everything else just needs to open up at this point.

Unknown Speaker 29:11
So what is the issue there? If I didn’t know anything about it tell me about like, Why Why is there an issue? Fine. It’s still

Unknown Speaker 29:16
federally illegal. So it can’t you know, none of your money can be fdic. Yeah. So basically, if I go to a dispensary that selling CBD and I pay 50 bucks or something that $50 can’t go into an FDIC insured bank is that as far as I understand, no, still now, there are banks that are allowing some banking. So we are allowed to take cards. I don’t think we can take credit cards yet. I think it’s still just debit. But I again, I’m not the finance guy. Understood.

Unknown Speaker 29:45
All right. So being a leader in this industry, somebody who is is constantly looking at what can we do new and different and innovate, but it’s a new industry to begin with. So there’s a lot of people out there that have similar thoughts. How do you how do you streamline those things? How do you work with other people In the industry, and create a more streamlined process and allow the industry to move forward working within the federal regulations.

Unknown Speaker 30:08
So a lot of that is just the throughput, right? Its supply chain and throughput if the demands there then we have to increase our throughput of the processing facility. Right now we have the ability to take care of basically ourselves and in our farms and our gardens and maybe a few others but but we don’t have especially in Arkansas, we just don’t have the infrastructure for you know, farmers that want to grow CBD hemp flour to go take it to a large scale processor and it be efficient and in the pay we actually work out right. I mean, I think everybody lost money last year in the hemp industry, the ones that one were just really survivors more than anything, or they were breaking the rules just openly and we we don’t do that. We We try to fit right in those regulations and be super compliant because I don’t want any ripples You know, I’m right where I need to be. I don’t need any ripples So, but we’ve watched it happen in the industry where people just are blatantly ignoring the law so that they can turn a profit and then others that try to play by the rules end up losing. But last year was a weird year. You know, the 2018 Farm Bill kind of blew him out of the water. I mean, I’ve been I’ve been growing hemp since 2014. Oklahoma, and to come to Arkansas last year and grow for the first time it was, you know, under the 2018 Farm Bill was just a little is a little crazy.

Unknown Speaker 31:40
So walk me through that what what was the issue there?

Unknown Speaker 31:43
So actually Arkansas didn’t comply with the 2018 Farm Bill, they still had they still were going to comply to the 2014 Farm Bill under a pilot research program. So we we when we applied for our the hemp licenses here in Arkansas, we kind of followed the same practice as we did in Oklahoma. We’re looking at different genetics, genetics that would be better for processing pest and disease resistance to reduce fungicide loads. And then, you know, just kind of dialing all of that in this industry has to have a workforce and finding people with experience and qualifications to do what you need them to do. There’s not a long list of people with resumes that date back 1520 years that you can draw a major experience on. Well, it’s even more complicated than that because they experienced that we do have come from dry weather. And you come down here to Arkansas, it’s a whole nother growing environment. I remember when I was in college, Dr. Curt round, one of the best professors of the University of Arkansas told me he goes well, but it’s Arkansas. Everything grows well here, including your diseases and your weeds and the bugs and everything goes well here. And he’s right. You know, everything does grow well here. It’s Arkansas is the most challenging Place in my opinion. Now I haven’t tried Alabama or Florida yet. But Arkansas in my opinion is one of the hardest places to try to grow. humidity is high. The bugs are really thick here the weeds grow as fast as the crop. It’s a real challenge. It’s a real challenge.

Unknown Speaker 33:19
What’s next on the big goals list? How do you measure what you want to do next how you grow the business where where you take it.

Unknown Speaker 33:26
So next time, I mean we’re we’re waiting on our dispensary license. We’re hoping that gets issued you know very very soon and and then the gloves come off. We’re off to the races here in Arkansas for the dispensary. I do have some consulting to do some cultivators here in Arkansas to try to improve their quality. I have some very big things going on out in Arizona in Nevada for very large scale production for again back to like constellation type of companies and Just the development, the overall development of really my strains, I’m trying to develop strains that are adequate for, you know, different kinds of conditions or different kinds of production. You know, what I produce for smoke isn’t the same thing I’m going to produce for oil. When I produce for a horse is definitely not the same thing I’m producing for a PTSD soldier. So I’m really dialing in those strings. I think right now, my seed banks up to about 200 varieties that have already been hunted and found really dialed in. You mentioned seed bank, you obviously take your seeds and you grow them. Is that something you also sell to other growers? Is that something is how does that work within the industry? Does everybody develop their own strains or own seeds? Are you working to get those consistencies built out and become known for certain things? There are definitely some leaders in the street, the seed industry and and we were right up there with a lot of them. We’re trying to develop different strains for different additions like I said and and it’s not just seeds it’s clones as well. We had a big contract with EZ clone this year. They’re a national company under grow life I think their their trade name on on the market is is pot pH o t i think is what it is kind of funny. But we had a big contract with them and we produce clones for him but the clone market wasn’t there. There wasn’t a whole lot of farmers buy in this year. And I don’t think you know, most of the farmers around here are still kind of row crop minded. And agronomic and this isn’t an agronomic crop just yet unless you just want to grow rope. And we do have some of those crops as well. We have a really great rope crop going right now in like village Arkansas with a very large row crop farmer. But when it comes down to it, most of this is produced on a horticultural basis. You know, we’re it’s a hoard crop. So we’re taking clones and we’re trying to do you know, 500,000 a million clones and then go take a transplant and Put it out in the field. And the reason why is because that plants already been hunted, it’s already been analyzed for compliance, we don’t have to worry about genetic instabilities, we know exactly what we’re putting out. And that’s, that’s the route we’ve chosen to go right now. Now there are some, some autoflowers being developed that are kind of interesting. And that’s a much more row crop kind of thing. We are looking at combine harvests this year on some crops to see how that can be done and how drying is going to be affected by cutting the crop that way that will never be a smokeable product that will only be an extractable product. And then we still have, again, back to the you know, the top of the cream of the crop, the top of the top will always be you know, steamed dried correctly. 60 degrees 60% humidity, you know, all the right conditions and, and just dial in exactly what we were looking for.

Unknown Speaker 36:55
And that’s all grown indoors. highly controlled environment. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 36:59
a lot of love. Most of the smokeable is grown indoors highly controlled environment there are some of the hemp products that we have that that come out of the field but they have to be a certain kind of field. We can’t have dirt roads around it, I don’t want dirt my product, you know, there’s got to be zero sprays. I don’t believe in smoking, pesticides and herbicides. You know, once it’s extracted, I can clean a lot of that up, you know, so it’s not near the same issue. But when it comes to the raw flour, I want to make sure it’s done right.

Unknown Speaker 37:28
How do you stay motivated in an industry like this that’s constantly changing, constantly being adapted and, you know, everywhere you turn, I’m sure there’s another roadblock that you have to work around. Most people

Unknown Speaker 37:39
tell me they can’t keep up with my pace.

Unknown Speaker 37:43
And most people that work with me go, Okay, I need a break. You know, I just don’t ever have breaks. I don’t think my mom tells me all the time. I work too hard. Moms are good at moms are good at that. Yeah. You know, I really don’t know. I just wake up in the morning. And I know my end goal is to get that dispensary license going in Arkansas. And my end goal is to make sure my THC farms in Oklahoma are far superior to anybody else’s. And my end goal is to make sure I’ve got revenue coming in from these consultant agreements all over the country to make sure my guys are paid. You know, I’m more worried about my employees than I am me ever. But that’s, you know, that’s what I wake up in the morning and think about before I think about anything is, you know, what do we got to do to make sure everybody’s going to get paid, make sure everybody’s better today than they were yesterday. And that’s my job every day.

Unknown Speaker 38:37
When I think just segue into our current state of affairs, you know, here we are July of 2020. And a lot of business owners, that’s their mentality. A lot of industries. A lot of people have been hit hard. And of course, a lot of people have lost their work. There’s been certain subsidies that have helped people out but from business owner perspective, a lot of people are going through that right now. And there’s a lot of mental challenges that I know a lot of people are dealing with and you know, has that something you’ve been affected with is there

Unknown Speaker 39:07
we haven’t we haven’t had to be honest until I come to live rock I don’t even know COVID exists. I don’t watch the news I don’t listen to news on on the radio I’m always on the phone or I’m just driving from one farm to another. We’ve kind of lived in a little bubble throughout all of this you know, I mean it was right in the middle of planting season you know, we had outdoor crops to get out and this has been kind of crazy. But you know, we’ve had we’ve got 50 milligram CBD elderberry gummy bears great for you know, if you do get sick, what a great product to take. We’re looking at maybe doing some vitamin D additions to some of those because we’ve heard that you know, vitamin D is very beneficial for COVID. And, and I do believe that CBD You know, there’s the we’re still waiting on some of the science on it, but I do believe CBD has some effects on getting your endocannabinoid system to help you fight. That virus so I think our industry is sitting at the top right now of the COVID crisis because I think we have the ability to really be able to help without having to go through, you know, human trials of a vaccine and all that we have the ability to actually help people right now.

Unknown Speaker 40:15
So we’re not saying it’s proven, right, we’re saying, take your CBD take your CBD

Unknown Speaker 40:19
isn’t gonna hurt you. It’s like the same thing with elderberries. Right, it’s not gonna hurt you.

Unknown Speaker 40:24
So walk me through some of the products because and the brands that you guys represent, because I know you’ve got a holding company, multiple brands underneath that.

Unknown Speaker 40:30
Yeah, so we’re completely vertically integrated company and we have a hemp division and we have a THC division and then we have an Arkansas dispensary. And then we have a delivery company that we’re hoping the medical marijuana commission will approve in the next couple weeks. So we’ve got quite a few things going on. And then I’ve got what I focus on the most really is indigenous seeds, and that’s my genetics and the string company. We do most of our development of the strains out in in Oklahoma because regulatory issues and then and and I can do THC there you know in open air out there so it works out pretty good and then as we move into different states you know we we really look at what the market needs and which ones to really focus on from there. So talk me through the rest of the brands that yeah so the brands really we have hawgs hemp brand,

Unknown Speaker 41:22
not all THC 98

Unknown Speaker 41:24
non THC CBD hawgs hemp farm is a farm by Morton. We’ve got about 60 acres. I think we got 30 acres planted this year, greenhouses and refinery on site that’s hogs hemp refinery, and it does dog treats and horse savs and horse treats and sunblocks and human savs and then we do some pre rolls out there and right now the ones that are really moving are the sunblocks the horse savs and the dog treats seem to be the big winners right now.

Unknown Speaker 41:58
Talk to me about The sunblock because it’s kind of intriguing to me that we have CBD sunblock, what’s the benefit there?

Unknown Speaker 42:06
Your skin will feel amazing. That’s, that’s for sure. So we gave a bunch out to some people that were going to go camp out on the buffalo river for three days and we all knew how burned you’re going to get in a canoe on the buffalo River. First a summer, you know, you haven’t had that first summer burn yet. So we gave some to some people and they put it on and they they came back and I think they were wider than when they left. And I was like, wow, that stuff really worked or did you even go and they were like, this stuff really works. And I was like, well, it’s a sunblock, it’s not a sunscreen, you know? And, and that was really just the goal. You know, I wanted something for my, for my skin and my kids to be able to put on before they go swim and that’s waterproof and safe for them and all organic and I can look at the ingredients and know that it’s not something I can’t pronounce as a chemist. You know, it’s just the simplicity of the product makes it so good.

Unknown Speaker 42:57
And there’s a lot of conversation right now around sunscreen and Some of it how harmful it is for you and things like that. So is this a positive in the advancement of sunscreens? I Yes,

Unknown Speaker 43:06
I would. Well we went back in technology. You know when you’re talking about cocoa butter and coconut oil and a little bit of zinc oxide, I mean we kind of went back to the stuff your mom put on your nose, but we made it so that you can it spreads it dries it doesn’t, you know, make your nose wide anymore. And it works really really well.

Unknown Speaker 43:24
So so that’s hogs hemp. Yes, brand. Yes. And I need to look for that

Unknown Speaker 43:29
you do so hogs hemp refinery online. We have an online store. You can buy any of the hogs have products there that are grown right there just in beartown Arkansas, some laurelton ha WG ha WG That’s right. So it’s an old Hog Farm right. So we had an old Hog Farm. We’ve got a we got a mascot. You got to come out and see pretty soon her name. Her name is birdie for bird town, Arkansas. She’s a guest about five months old now and probably wait And about 181 90 and she’s just a sweetheart. And so she got real bark. She’s She’s white and black and so she gets real burned on the pink parts. And so we go out with our sunblock and we put sunblock on her and she just loves it and then we give her we’ve made her some, some CBD treats to try to see how she likes someone. She loves them. We use a lot of our stocks from the field and we grind them up for her bedding and it’s just it’s a great it’s just a great place.

Unknown Speaker 44:28
Speaking of CBD treats, dog treats, so our pets are benefiting from CBD as well. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 44:34
so we even took some of our dog treats and send them over to some vets that we were friends with and went through the recommended dosing because we started looking in the market we were like, that seems really high for a dog, you know, and that’s just and then we realized that hey, they’re not giving them full of broad spectrum medicine. They’re gonna isolate so we started really playing with the full spectrums. And the broad spectrum I have refined oils and adding it to a cod. liver oil which is really good for skin anyways, and we infused it in the cod liver oil and started making these treats and we realized that dogs that had anxiety would just sleep through their stress and dogs that had back pains were acting like they were puppies again and it’s been really cool it’s been a really cool process to watch the animal products really take off

Unknown Speaker 45:22
so if my dog scared of lightning Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 45:24
yeah. Thunder lightning. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 45:26
give him a little CBD infused dog bone and helps him a lot. Yeah. And it’s a beautiful brand shout out to our friend Carlton. A few beautiful design work great job.

Unknown Speaker 45:36
Few has been excellent to work with always has been excellent to work with. This isn’t even the first company that I’ve worked with few with they’ve done branding for several of my companies as an entrepreneur. I’ve gone through a couple of different branding exercises with few and I can’t draw this decent stick man. You know, I can’t I have no artistic ability at all. I mean, people ask me all the time. What do you want this to look like? And I’m like, I am No idea. That’s just not my deal. You know? Yeah. Aren’t didn’t choose me the plant chose.

Unknown Speaker 46:07
Love that. And of course, but he’s at kill also a titan on the show. So appreciate him being here. All right, I want to run through a few little quick questions I like to ask everybody. First is what’s your favorite or latest book you’ve read or listen to? Are you big reader? How do you obtain new knowledge? I mean, I read, I don’t really read books, I read scientific studies. Okay, so I’m not like the person that lays in bed at night and reads a novel. I’ve got way too much going on to sit down that long. Yeah. But I’ll run through some scientific papers and kind of look at research. And that’s really what I spend my time reading about.

Unknown Speaker 46:43
What’s my favorite one lately? I’ve been really intrigued by, you know, different types of extraction. So I’ve been really reading into the different types of extraction that that we can look at, that aren’t on the market right now and trying to develop something there. That’s a little safer. Some of the extraction processes can get a little tricky and can be you use some pretty volatile chemicals sometimes in the extraction process and I think there’s some ways that we can get around that and I’ve been reading a lot about that.

Unknown Speaker 47:14
You’re a data guy you’re dating. Yeah, so you’re reading for the numbers not for the ultimate daily routine. What do you have to do every single day? Are you wake up and go exercise kind of person? Are you a swim

Unknown Speaker 47:27
a lot? Yeah, I swim a lot. My kids you know, are getting into swimming. I actually just taught my middle child the other day how to swim. So that was great. Took the floaties off. I’m working on my three year old now I’m going to get on by the end of summer, he’s going to be swimming like a fish and he’s almost there. My daily routine really is just my family and my children. You know, I mean, I spend as much time as I can with them as I can before I leave for work and then when I get home, I just turn my phone off the best I can and Focus on them. I love to cook with the family. And so we’ll go out by the lake and we’ll cook and swim and almost every night I’m swimming.

Unknown Speaker 48:09
Nice. Now are you cooking with CBD as well? Is that an additive to connect? Can I cook with that?

Unknown Speaker 48:15
You can but when the heat just degrades, it’s so much it’s just not gonna be the same. Good to know.

Unknown Speaker 48:21
All right, what’s a relatively new habit that you formed? what’s what’s something you found yourself doing these days that you either from getting older because I know I look at myself, I’m like, Am I turning into my dad? Or is there anything beneficial that you’ve added to your, your daily routines lately? daily routines, you know, my wife works out every day. Every day. She’s like a bodybuilder.

Unknown Speaker 48:48
And so, you know, I try to just keep up with her. I try to cook something good every day. You know, I mean, there’s something about just getting everybody at the table. I think that’s something that’s been lost in so many families. And that’s something I’ve really, really tried to focus on with the kids

Unknown Speaker 49:06
love that. If you were to write a book or an article and publish it, what would what would it be titled? What I’m working on it? And

Unknown Speaker 49:14
yeah, I’m working on it. I’ve got a really interesting story in the cannabis world and how it kind of evolved from the 90s and where I am today, and I’d love to share that story with people. I think it would be you know, I talked to people all the time that the kind of followed similar paths with me like one of my you asked me earlier, you know, about some of my influences in the in the industry and, and one of them’s a really good friend of mine, who’s an astrophysicist from Raytheon, who’s now one of the biggest cultivation guys in Colorado. He quit, you know, Raytheon and went and started running his own gardens, and then I came over and consulted with them. And we’ve done a lot of really large scale design work, and he said, Man, you ought to write a book based on everything that’s gone on in your life. You know, I mean everything that you’ve seen in this you, he’s like, you’re the one that’s been all over the country. One of my friends that I grew up with is a publisher over a discovery channel and he’s like, let’s do a let’s do a documentary. You know, like, I was like, man, they already kind of have that. But you know, let’s do something different. Like a string hunters here in Arkansas. Right? I love it.

Unknown Speaker 50:19
Love it.

Unknown Speaker 50:21
So you cook a lot. You have a favorite food. A favorite dish that you’re always making are going to azulay

Unknown Speaker 50:26
it’s my favorite dish to cook. It takes all day

Unknown Speaker 50:31
for the special occasions, all right, and what what about music? You drive into the farm? Got got some music on the radio. What are you listening to?

Unknown Speaker 50:41
Oh, gosh, I don’t know. I’m not really an artsy music kind of person. But I mean, I like I like everything I like I’m so eclectic. When it comes to music. I like it all.

Unknown Speaker 50:52
Alright, how can people find out more about the brand? How can they get involved with what you’ve got

Unknown Speaker 50:56
going on? Well definitely hogs hemp refinery for here in Arkansas. And people outside Arkansas can order we can we can ship as a matter of fact we just had our first international shipment not too long ago to Italy so that’s pretty cool it’s hemp so it can be shipped it can you know it complies with all the regulations when it comes to the THC if you’re anybody’s over in Oklahoma please look for you know some of the brands out there I’m gonna buds is the biggest one that we associate with and that that I grow for out there and in Oklahoma you know in the West Coast there’s several brands that I’ve consulted with but I would have to say you know the Nevada market has the most of my stuff in it. And then here for THC in Arkansas look for green remedies dispensary to open up pretty soon I I have a feeling we’re gonna give these guys a run for their money in this industry.

Unknown Speaker 51:51
I love it. Well, Brad, thanks for being our Titan of cannabis.

Unknown Speaker 51:54
Thank you so much for having me. It was fun.

Unknown Speaker 51:57
Yeah. If you like this episode of tight Have industry head to content titan.co slash podcast for more episodes or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. And if you know of an industry Titan that’s doing amazing things. Let us know on social media or through our website so we can tell their story. Thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai