Taking an explorative journey into the emerging Cannabis industry. Whether you are an experienced enthusiast or simply evaluating if there is a place for Cannabis in your life, WeedBudz Radio is the best place to start. Ry Russell joins Dan Humiston to talk about building a community of pioneers from the industry to help us understand Cannabis through the lens of science, policy, and entrepreneurship. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/ry-russell https://weedbudzradio.com/
Taking an explorative journey into the emerging Cannabis industry.
Whether you are an experienced enthusiast or simply evaluating if there is a place for Cannabis in your life, WeedBudz Radio is the best place to start. Ry Russell joins Dan Humiston to talk about building a community of pioneers from the industry to help us understand Cannabis through the lens of science, policy, and entrepreneurship.
https://podconx.com/guests/ry-russell
PC Weedbudz
Dan Humiston: [00:00:00] All right, everyone. Thanks for joining us. And welcome back. We have another great show in store for you today. Rye Russell is here to talk about his podcast, weed, bud radios. Rye. Welcome to.
Ry Russell: Hey, thank you so much, Dan. It's a pleasure to be here and it's great to see.
Dan Humiston: It's great to see you too. , I love how you use three words to describe weed buds, radios, guided journey through marijuana discovery, education, experience, and empathy. Maybe you can start off by applying those three words to the first time you smoked cannabis.
Ry Russell: Oh man. The first time I ever smoked cannabis, I would say my friends were the ones with empathy and I am so grateful for them. I it's funny. I don't get to share this a lot. But since you asked, I'm happy to, I was she's 21 1, I believe. And at the [00:01:00] time I was the youngest drive-in movie theater operator in the country.
And I decided for some reason that's what I was going to do for my college career. And so . The one time that I was partying with my friends, because whenever you're starting a business, especially at that time, it's all business. And I did not really party. I didn't drink, I didn't smoke. , I didn't have time.
My friends convinced me to take a night off and we were playing video games. I think. And I was really good. I, nobody could beat me at that or NBA. And so my friends had a couple of drinks and then another buddy rolled a joint and he handed it to me and said here, like this up, I'll be back. It was small.
I had seen my friends smoke cigarettes and such, and they smoke an entire [00:02:00] cigarette. Well, I didn't know anything about either one. And so I lit the joy and I puffed on it until there was nothing left. And five, 10 minutes later, my friend came back and he's like, where's the chewing? I said, well, you gave it to me.
I smoked it. And he's just looked at me and he said, How have you smoked before? And I said, no, he said, well, you, you share that. Like, we were all going to have that four or five friends. And I said, well, too bad. And he said, stay right there. And he went and got me a giant cup of water. And I'm just wondering what all the Hublot is all about.
And it started to hit what it was all about. And I'm sitting there. And I'm drinking the water. And I said, I I'm good. Let's play video games. All of a sudden my character just runs across the screen and runs out of bounds. [00:03:00] And they're like, oh no, like it hit. And I'm sitting there and they're like, why are you paying attention?
And I said, Yeah.
it doesn't matter. What's happening. You'll never beat me. And he's like, Okay.
And then maybe two minutes after that, I told everybody to shut up, stop talking and they're like, what's wrong? I said, I'm listening to my heartbeat. Dan. I swear to this day I was totally in tune with my body and I could hear my heart beating and they're like, oh no, I don't know what to do.
They know my mom was a nurse, so they're like, can we call her, what do we do? Like they had never experienced somebody like first time, really getting high. Ultimately, they called another friend who came and picked me up after I yelled at them also that I'm listening to my heartbeat, but after a lot of water in a good night's sleep, all was over. Okay.
[00:04:00] Dan Humiston: Such a funny story. You got the education you got to experience and your friend showed you some empathy. Great.
Ry Russell: there.
Dan Humiston: , it's great story. What's even better is your delivery. And I remember saying when you were on hump Barron's I was like, this guy is really funny. You kind of remind me of that Charlie day guy from always sunny in Philadelphia, horrible bosses.
I don't know if anybody's ever said that to you.
Ry Russell: No, but I'll take it.
Dan Humiston: Do you find using humor sort of helps your guests open up a little bit more?
Ry Russell: It's funny because I'm more humorous when I'm a guest on other people's shows. My friend. Think I'm funny. Strangers think I'm serious in my family thinks I'm crazy. It's one of those things where, when I, the host, I'm a little bit more stoic and I'm a little bit more about the entrepreneur and about the business and about the experience.
But sometimes when I get on this side of the microphone, that's what I really get to be me, which is just it's loosey [00:05:00] goosey, just try to have fun, but. Also, I am a business entrepreneur and so those worlds collide in the cannabis industry so beautifully, and I'm just so grateful for being in it.
Dan Humiston: Oh, I say that all the time. The thing I find most enjoyable about being a host is how inspired I get from, I mean, cannabis entrepreneurs are like next level. I mean, you've done over a hundred interviews. You still get inspired.
Ry Russell: Every day. I did an episode earlier today and listening to the advocacy again, it goes back to the empathy part of wheat buds. And I love entrepreneurs that operate out of empathy, empathy for the marketplace, for the consumer. For being in this business and then for their people, I cannot stand entrepreneurs that do not put their people first.
, how do you put your customer first, if you don't put your people [00:06:00] first? And so absolutely.
Dan Humiston: Yeah, I get fired. So speaking of inspiring, you brought along a clip from one of your shows. Maybe you can tell our guests what they're about to do.
Ry Russell: Yeah. So this was an amazing individual. I met on clubhouse, Antonio Harvey, one of my favorite gas. I say that about all of my guests, but he has a lot of history. He was in the NBA. There was a lot of restrictions around, how the plant is utilized in the league. And it was really special to have him open up to me and share how he learned about cannabis, , what that journey was like for him.
And then he's just such a brilliant entrepreneur now in the industry that I really see him practicing what he preaches.
Dan Humiston: , let's play the clip and we talk a little bit about it afterwards here. I come from a very athletic family. My dad played in the NFL. My older brother played in the NFL. I was able to get lucky and play in the NBA. [00:07:00] So towards the end of my career, my older brother who had been utilizing cannabis.
For pain relief during the end of his NFL career turned me on to cannabis. But even then I couldn't really smoke because I was still playing and long story short, I finished my career and went into broadcasting. And throughout that, I continued to utilize cannabis for sleep, man. That's a great interview.
How did how'd you connect with Antonio?
Ry Russell: So I connected with in Tonio on clubhouse and it was actually really special. We had a clubhouse networking opportunity and, a full room. People from all walks of life, from all around the world. And he and I started talking, he connected with another athlete who was getting ready to transition professionally from his career into retirement.
And I asked Antonio to connect with him and just [00:08:00] provide a little bit of mentorship or guidance to him about what that looks like, because in , any business, but especially in sports. What you do 24 7 it's who you are and transitioning out of that is such a challenge for athletes.
And so Antonio did it so gracefully that I wanted him to mentor this other individual. And he said, yes. And then he reached out to me and said, that was really insightful of you to make that connection. Thank you for doing that. And I look forward to. Helping guide that journey for that individual.
And then we just started talking about what cannabis meant for him, how he was looked at when he went into broadcasting , and then it found out that he was getting heavily invested in the space. And then there was a transition there as well. What was really special is we just really connected on so many different things.
Family values, business values, people values that [00:09:00] we actually had a really special opportunity come up where he and I on clubhouse with two other amazing entrepreneurs. We broadcast at the super bowl sponsored by a large cannabis company. And so we did an entire clubhouse, the entire Superbowl. And talking about the game, talking about the plant, talking about athleticism and athletes, utilizing the plant, what a surreal opportunity , for a little podcast, or like me to sit next to, a 10 year plus veteran of broadcasting and sports.
It was just such a surreal opportunity.
Dan Humiston: That is great. That is, that's a good story. Clubhouse has been really helpful for the cannabis industry. I think , one of the most helpful platforms and you met him there, I'm sure you've met a lot of your other guests on clubhouse, but I encourage other podcasters , to look to clubhouse.
That's a great networking tool. I know it's worked for you.
[00:10:00] Ry Russell: Yes, absolutely. It was something that caught me off guard. It was like cannabis. I had never experienced it and I got high on the first try. I hoods on there and I think I went for like eight hours the first time I ever used clubhouse. So absolutely. It's just a great platform to connect with people from all around the world.
Dan Humiston: You're like everybody be quiet. I think I can hear my heartbeat. And they're like, oh man, well check out weed, bud radio on all major podcast sites, YouTube and pod connects where you can also apply to be a guest. Ray. Great catching up. Thanks for being on the show today.
Ry Russell: Always a pleasure seeing you, Dan, it's been great being here. Thank you so much.