Cannabis entrepreneurs from Hollywood to Wall Street. As the founder of one of the cannabis industry's largest strategic communication companies, Lewis Goldberg has his finger on the pulse of the cannabis industry. He joins Dan Humiston to talk about interviewing the newsmakers who are building the legal cannabis market on his podcast, The Green Rush. He also shared a sneak peak into a new, innovative series that will premiere in 2022. Produced by PodConX Potcasters - https://podconx.com/podcasts/potcasters Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston Lewis Goldberg - https://podconx.com/guests/lewis-goldberg The Green Rush - https://podconx.com/podcasts/green-rush
Cannabis entrepreneurs from Hollywood to Wall Street.
As the founder of one of the cannabis industry's largest strategic communication companies, Lewis Goldberg has his finger on the pulse of the cannabis industry. He joins Dan Humiston to talk about interviewing the newsmakers who are building the legal cannabis market on his podcast, The Green Rush. He also shared a sneak peak into a new, innovative series that will premiere in 2022.
Produced by PodConX
Potcasters - https://podconx.com/podcasts/potcasters
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Lewis Goldberg - https://podconx.com/guests/lewis-goldberg
The Green Rush - https://podconx.com/podcasts/green-rush
PC Green Rush 2
Dan Humiston & Lewis Goldberg: [00:00:00] All right, everyone. Thanks for joining us. And welcome back. We have another great show in store for you today. Lewis Goldberg is here to talk about his show, the green rush Lewis. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to get to talk about something I love and the green rush, which I've done now for three years with Anne Donohoe and Nicole pitch and Shea Gunther is truly something I, I love.
I gotta ask you this because you're the principal at K CSA, which is one of the largest strategic communication companies in the industry. Four years ago, you must've been so busy. What prompted you to take on more work to start the podcast? So Ann and I were in Los Angeles visiting a financial services company and just kind of kicking around ideas on what we were doing generally and what was going on with our cannabis practice.
And she said, Hey, I got approached by a [00:01:00] production company for us to do a podcast. What do you think? And I said, I think it's a great idea. And I want you to. And she said, no way, I will not do this. You have to do it. And I also said, I'm not going to do this alone. Let's do it together. And w we did, I approached my two business partners, Jeffrey Goldberger, and taught from her and they thought.
This was a great idea as well, from a marketing perspective for us as an agency and providing access to our clients to a media platform, our media platform to tell their story. And it has been truly an amazing experience for each of us. Started off as a producer and has now become one of the co-hosts to create something that has been impactful in the industry, but also to our own individual professional development.
And, at some point you'll get a chance to talk to Nick or to Anne, especially Anne on how it has helped her take her [00:02:00] creativity and give it a a venue to grow and, and be expressed. And it's been awesome. Well, and you've also given a lot of people in the industry. Platform to talk about what they're doing and to spread the w their thoughts or their ideas.
You've had such a wide range of guests, which I am. I'm envious that some of the great people that you've had an opportunity to sit down with , one of my favorite stories. Is your Mike's Tyson story. You've done a couple interviews , with the world champion. How did that happen? Yeah, I mean, it's really funny. When we started the green rush I wrote a list of people who I wanted to talk to. , and Mike was definitely among the top two or three, him actually the top three.
Mike Tyson, Kevin Smith and Cheech Marin. And we've interviewed Mike Tyson and Kevin Smith and Cheech hasn't yet come on. He will, he will go to get him, but at one point when I was active on social media, I just kind of put it out there. Hey, does anybody know how to get to Mike Tyson? He's got Tyson ranch.
I want to interview him for the [00:03:00] podcast. And turns out my sister is friends with. Communications person, his publicist. And I reached out , to Jackie and she said, yeah, I can make that happen next time. You're in LA, come out and we'll set you up on an interview. So I went to Tyson ranches offices and they're really cool and interesting.
And I sat down in the studio where Mike records hotbox. . And I had brought my equipment with me. I brought my, my, my ex, my, my recorder, all that his sound guy goes, I got it. Don't worry about it. And the great, so Mike and I are there. We have an hour conversation. Our Intuit guy comes and goes, I think.
Oh, that means you didn't get it. We just talked for an hour. You want me to do it again? He goes, yeah. Do it again, Mike. You'll do it again. Just do anything. Don't worry about it. So,, we have basically the same conversation again. And guy's got it for you. No worries. I'm going to email you the files.
No problem. And he didn't get it. He got no sound.[00:04:00] It was just like the way I describe it is imagine painting a masterpiece of watercolors and a little kid comes up with a bucket and throws up the water against the, your masterpiece. It was the most interesting, fun, engaging, revealing conversation I had ever had.
In the industry and nobody got to hear it. I mean, I did and I cherish it. So I went home and then was able to come back out a couple of months later and sat down with Mike again, this time I recorded it and still there were audio problems. , the sound isn't the way I would like it to be. But at least you can hear the majority of the conversation.
Yeah, we have from that actually maybe you could set the clip up before. Sure. So, Mike Tyson is the baddest man on the planet, right. And nobody thinks of him as this brand ambassador and Teddy bear. And my experience with him was this is a kind gentle, spiritual open soul.
And , this little bite [00:05:00] talks about what he's had to deal with about his past perception versus who he is today. Today, but how do you making your brand bigger and then changing its perception to who the person you are today versus who you were in 1989 it's during the time I was fighting a person with the movie, a commercial or anything went and touched me with a 10 foot pole, but fifth avenue, they call him, they went and took me.
My reputation was horrible. Things have happened. And most of those people were grown adults when I was a kid, 1920s, when they were in their fifties and now they're gone. And the people that will look at me now, they don't look at me. It was Mike Tyson, the baddest man on the planet. They looked at me and the guy said, hang on.
That is. What a great opportunity. And I tell you, when I went there, I was nervous about meeting him because it's my Tyson, right. Like I know, and I am physically small [00:06:00] person. I am a towering five foot seven, and I am a soft, 165 pounds. And like site's huge. He's five, nine, maybe five 10, but he's still Mike Tyson.
And he was kind and gentle and soulful, and it was truly a gift to get a chance to spend literally three or four hours with him talking about things that he cared about. Cannabis, his family, his reputation, psychedelics. I mean, these are things that he's passionate about. And
I am lucky to have had the time that I had to. Well, and we're lucky too, because you have a really unique style of interviewing where you're able to get the person comfortable enough to talk beyond the sound bites. And that was really apparent in the one interview that we actually listened to where you were able to get him to talk about more like that particular piece.
, I don't know that I've heard that before, and I think that came from your interview style and the fact that, you did three interviews with him and he was pretty comfortable with you. I think that makes things a [00:07:00] lot. Thank you. I that's a kind compliment. The whole idea behind the green rush was to give it enough.
Not to make it a 10, second or 20 minute or, short interview. It was to allow the person to relax into a conversation, to reveal things that go beyond the soundbite. And it's my job to train people, to speak to a sound bite. Right. I do public relations for a living, but that's like not, doesn't make for an interesting interview.
It makes for, I delivered a key message. I know I've done my job, but okay. So what. I like the longer interview, right? I like somebody who's going to spend an hour and a half, two hours, sometimes three hours. Like listen to Tim Ferriss.
, the way he interviews people, it's just like, you're having a conversation , it's a way to reveal. And when somebody is transparent and vulnerable and honest, that's what I want. That's cause that's what I want to listen to [00:08:00] you get, well, you're a good listener.
That's I mean, that's the key to that last phrase. You're a good listener. So you take the convert. Well, you tend to take the conversation where the guest wants it to go. But you're able to get it to a point were, it's still interesting for the listener. So beyond the sound bites want to switch gears here for a sec because you talk to me about a format change that you're about to make , for the podcast.
And I definitely want to give you an opportunity to talk about that. Maybe share with our listeners , where you'd like to take this project. You're also a good listener. And I appreciate that. And it's, it's always a, like I enjoy talking with you because it's not, again, formulaic.
It's like, let's have a conversation about something that's interesting to the both of us. When we started the green, right. There were very few podcasts out there that were interviews with players in the cannabis space. Maybe three or four and they were really good, but there were really only three or four and our entrance into it with a focus specifically on the financial components of the cannabis industry was unique.
It's no longer. [00:09:00] Right. There are lots of companies out there that are interviewing people and we're going to continue to interview guests, but we are also going to start to do things like seasons, where we tell a narrative story over the course of eight episodes, what happens? How do we get to where we are?
Like a multi-part story that is, much more pure journalism or documentary journalism than what we've been. And it's still going to be revolving around talking to the people who have made or are making the key decisions that are driving the cannabis psychedelics and even, maybe energy or the food system forward, but it's just not going to be a one-on-one.
It's going to be stitched together. So if you think about listening to planet money, or you listened to other NPR shows, that's what we're aspiring to be. Cause we want to be storytellers. I love it. I really do, because you can still do the interviews. It's just that the interview doesn't turn into a sales pitch.
It's [00:10:00] like this interview is going to be about. This topic, you fit into this topic here. I'd love to continue the conversations, but have your input from there. I think you're onto something I really do. When do you plan to opening the first season? Probably sometime in the new year.
We're in the writing now. We'll probably start interviews. End of October, November and all of November or December, we'll be editing and stitching them together. , we're not rushing. We want , to create something just different, like it's great to sit and talk to the CEO of an MSO about what's going on.
And, and yeah, like I said, we're still gonna do that. But there's so much more happening that you can't get from one interview. And there are so many people who don't know, the global perspective of what's happening.
Where'd the money come from. How did it get there? What is the regulatory structure ? Because we've been involved in this, we can report on it from our own perspective. And we're going to talk to all the [00:11:00] people who were there, from in 19 95, 96, and in California, the first illegal dispensaries, we were going to talk to the regulators in Washington state and Oregon, Colorado, the first states that went adult use, like, how did this happen?
Right? Yeah. I'm 51. And I remember that when I was young, my exposure to consuming cannabis was going into, Washington square park in New York city and buying a dime bag today. We can walk into a beautiful. Retail dispensary and like, how the hell did that happen?
I know it. I know it. I know it. That's going to be great. One thing that, comes out when I listened to you this way, I still enjoy talking to you is because you enjoy the creativity. You talked about putting together a watercolor painting, and. I can just see the wheels spinning.
You don't know where this is going, but you liked the process. And I say that to aspiring podcasts there's all the time is that. You got to make this [00:12:00] fun. It's gotta be enjoyable, but make it unique, make it yours. And that's what you're doing. And that's what you've done so well with the green rush.
And I can't wait , for greenwash 2.0, because this is going to be even more fun and I'm really looking forward to it. We are out of time. Lewis, I'm sorry, but , I want to ask all of our listeners to check out a new episode of the green rush every Thursday on all podcasts sites, including pod connects Really look forward to first of the year the new format hopefully first I'm going to hold you through it. I'm going to hold it and do it. Louis. Thanks for being on the show today. Thank you so much, Dan.