Navigating the Green Wave, Mastering Cannabis Licensing and Market Dynamics With Dalton Valette, the Senior Project Manager at Canna Advisors

Join industry insiders Eric Schneider and Isaac Bock on Navigating the Green Wave, your essential podcast for expert insights into the cannabis industry’s most pressing challenges and lucrative opportunities.

This session features Dalton Valette from Canna Advisors, a leader in cannabis consulting, who unpacks the complexities of licensing, business planning, and compliance in the cannabis sector.

Each episode is a deep dive into the dynamics of cannabis entrepreneurship, from groundbreaking regulatory changes to innovative business strategies.

Whether you’re pioneering a startup or steering an established company, our discussions are tailored to help you understand the nuances of the market, enhance your operational tactics, and drive your business forward.

Transcript

00:00 Eric Schneider
This is the Roots to Risk Podcast hosted by Eric Schneider, alongside Isaac Bach. Roots To Risk brings you insights, the latest stories, and long form discussions about the cannabis industry. You’ll hear interviews with industry leaders and their perspective on current and future trends, how they’ve built success and what challenges they have faced. Our goal is to facilitate candid conversations and provide informative content for the cannabis community at large. Let’s go. What’s going on, Isaac? How we doing?

00:31 Eric Schneider
Another Roots to Risk podcast on deck. Fresh cut for Mr. Bach.

00:35 Isaac Bock
Yeah, I like it. I, I’m intentionally turned out pretty good, but PSA to anyone listening, don’t be sending emails when you sit down in your barber’s care for the first time ’cause miscommunications can happen. So

00:48 Eric Schneider
That’s just a note. If you work with Isaac, you get emails even when he’s in the chair getting a haircut. Always on. Yeah. Love it. <laugh>. <laugh>. Anyways, we got another great one on Deck, one of our partners and and longstanding organization in the cannabis space, Canada Advisors. Specifically we have Dalton from the cannabis advisors team. Dalton has a background in ethics compliance, having worked in industries such as data privacy, healthcare and advertising.

01:23 Eric Schneider
Prior to entering the cannabis space, Dalton has helped clients with financial modeling, business planning, and licensed pursuits needs in over a dozen medical and adult use states. He’s a graduate of Drew University has a master degree and law degree from University of Colorado. He sits on the CIA’s risk Management and Insurance Committee. In addition, he’s an elected official for his hometown of Colorado as the chair of the Home Rule commission, vice chair of historical commission, and can almost certainly be found watching the latest movie at his local A MC.

01:57 Eric Schneider
Love that. Another Colorado friend. Yeah. Mr. Isaac. Yeah, I feel like we’ve been having a decent amount of Colorado people on the podcast, which I like Colorado folks. Yeah, so

02:06 Isaac Bock
That’s great. No, it’s good and it’s definitely good. We have a little bit of a presence here now, so can get out and meet these, these people in person, which is good. But definitely looking forward to, you know, Dalton’s insights on it. I think the, the consulting space, especially in our industry and helping with licensing and business planning for new applicants who might not have that background is a vital one. So definitely be good to hear his insights.

02:32 Eric Schneider
Absolutely. Well, let’s bring him in. Hey Dalton, how we doing? Thanks for joining us on the Rooster Risk Podcast. Appreciate you.

02:39 Dalton Valette
Thank you so much for having me on.

02:43 Eric Schneider
Absolutely. So just quickly, we’d love to get an understanding and learn a little bit more about Canada Advisors, what you all do in the space. You know, Isaac and I are, are fairly familiar in working with you all in in previous endeavors, but you know, for our audience, just provide some context in the CAN advisors and then we’d love to learn also a little bit about your journey into the cannabis space.

03:06 Dalton Valette
Absolutely. So can Advisors is the premier consulting firm in the cannabis space. Not that I have any bias or anything there, but we help clients with financial modeling, business planning and license pursuits. We’ve worked with clients in over 35 different states across the country and medical and adult use markets and really licensed pursuits are kind of our bread and butter. We’ll guide clients through the entire application process, make sure that they are submitting compliant, well thought out plans to whatever regulatory body is going to be reviewing or grading their applications.

03:42 Dalton Valette
And we’ll also help them post licensure with any sort of service needs that are necessary to make sure that they remain in compliance with states and their regulations. Because we always know states are changing them constantly. We want them to succeed, keep their doors open and keep their licenses.

04:01 Eric Schneider
That’s awesome. And how, and how about yourself? What, what was your previous background? How’d you, how’d you get into working at Canada Advisors and you know, how how’s that experience been?

04:11 Dalton Valette
Yeah, and as far as my own background, I have a master’s of studies and law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law. I worked in ethics and compliance, so you’ll see me bring that up a couple of times on this podcast. And I worked in data privacy, healthcare and digital advertising prior to Canna. I’d worked at really large companies and businesses beforehand and was really looking for kind of a change of pace and was looking for something where I thought I could meaningfully give back and use my expertise to help a lot of other individuals.

04:44 Dalton Valette
And one of the best things with this position is really being able to see individuals succeed in the cannabis space in general. Being able to see them finally have their dreams of opening up a cultivation farm or a dispensary in whatever state they’re hoping to operate in.

05:00 Isaac Bock
That’s awesome. I guess what are some of the differences from, you know, other industries you’ve worked with through your background and you know, the cannabis space, especially early on for you?

05:11 Dalton Valette
I think what makes cannabis so fascinating is it’s constantly changing. You are constantly seeing new states with different regulations thrown out on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. It keeps you on your toes more than anything. Other industries, a lot of times things can run slowly and yeah, in cannabis, we know states can often operate slowly, but if one state is operating slowly, you can be rest assured basically that another state is going to be well on its way to issuing new licenses or putting out some new regulations or entering a new marketplace, be it medical or adult use.

05:46 Isaac Bock
Yeah, no, and definitely and given you know that you guys operate in, you know, all of the states that have a legal cannabis program, what are some states that you found more difficulty through the process and versus others and how are some of the new states IE our, our corporate at Home of New York doing comparatively <laugh>?

06:05 Dalton Valette
Yeah, I mean from my own experience, funny enough that you bring up New York, that it was probably one of the most frustrating states. I don’t know if I’d say difficult, the application itself for submission wasn’t too onerous, but the state just constantly changing things. The Office of Cannabis Management oftentimes giving confusing or contradictory information just constantly kind of made things frustrating through the process. The end result wasn’t that difficult for applicants, but it was just kind of a tiresome and lengthy process more than anything.

06:41 Dalton Valette
We had very robust applications for states like Illinois in the past and other states like Alabama and Texas and Florida have also been fairly lengthy and difficult. But New York is one that comes to mind is co constantly kind of at the forefront of my mind too, just for everything that’s been going on with their rollout of their adult use market.

07:06 Eric Schneider
And, and for, for CAT advisors, are you working pro like mostly with newer applicants that are looking to open up for the first time or is it a lot of existing businesses looking for expansion? Combination of both, like what does that look like?

07:22 Dalton Valette
Primarily it’s new individuals who are looking at getting into the cannabis space, but we’ll absolutely work with people who might have already been licensed, are looking for expansion or even looking for mergers and acquisitions or exit plans from the market too. Or just looking at even brand development. They’re looking at kind of bolstering sales or updating their processes will help with anyone and everyone across the board really.

07:48 Isaac Bock
Yeah,

07:48 Eric Schneider
Those are, those are the services kind of like after licensing that you were referring to?

07:53 Dalton Valette
Correct. Yeah. So let’s say you’re a cultivator up and running and you just had kind of a change of hands in business and you’re looking to hire some new personnel who have expert cultivation knowledge will help find individuals and we can even guide you through the hiring process there.

08:12 Isaac Bock
Definitely. That makes sense. Got it. Yeah. And I guess, you know, when companies are looking to expand even within states, I think one of the unique things about cannabis is, you know, individual municipalities have their own requirements. So is that process easier on your end when you have kind of an existing application for a given state or just basically everything for one, one municipality get thrown out the window when they’re trying to open a second location in a different municipality?

08:40 Dalton Valette
Yeah, we’re constantly staying on top of different municipalities in some of our active states. We’re actually eyeing California right now. There’s a couple of municipalities that are gonna be opening up and we will tune into all the different meetings. If there is kind of a state application that generally does help and kind of guide municipalities because a lot of time these municipal government officials might not be cannabis experts. They not be living and breathing cannabis as often as we all are in the industry. So they’ll rely on kind of what the state has done, but you will often see additional restrictions put in place or they will potentially hire consultants to guide them through this and put into place maybe additional odor mitigation plans for instance.

09:24 Dalton Valette
And then if a client is gonna be operating in that municipality, we try to make sure that they’re going to be in compliance with zoning laws in any sort of additional plans that they might need to submit.

09:36 Eric Schneider
Got it. And you know, one thing and, and I guess one question that I had is how often do you find that individuals will, you know, complete their own application versus using folks like yourself and you know, what are the, the pros and cons, you know, of doing an application by yourself? Right. You know, I think some operators are just very conscious of cost and and want to be able to to put forth their best foot forward, right?

10:07 Eric Schneider
But you know, w where I guess do you guys really like come in and and add value whereas an app, an applicant just doing the application by themselves?

10:19 Dalton Valette
Yeah, I always think it’s best to at least have a consultant review some different plans. If you’ve written plans on your own, it’s always good to just have a second pair of eyes, kind of review them, make sure everything is in order, which is another kind of service or offering that we will have for people if they really are conscientious of the costs that are associated with hiring. A full-time consultant will review applications and make sure they’re complete and make sure you’re not missing anything that a lot of people might overlook potentially in the application process.

10:51 Dalton Valette
But I always typically recommend that people at least have someone with some cannabis knowledge review all of their applications. Again, I have my own biases and I think it’s great if you can work with a consultant kind of through the beginning to the end to make sure you’re submitting everything in a timely and up-to-date fashion.

11:09 Dalton Valette
But one of the things that I’ve seen a lot of times is individuals kind of going it on their own and then getting a deficiency or being disqualified if there’s something that really easily could have been corrected or amended if they just had someone review the application at least prior to a submission. Or some people think they can kind of rush everything at the last minute. Let’s say there’s a 45 day window for submissions. They’re gonna wait until day 43 to submit everything and then, oops, I forgot I needed to do fingerprints or a background check and that’s just gonna take more time.

11:45 Dalton Valette
And then they miss the application window and that’s something you really don’t want to be in a position and you’re basically wasting a potential opportunity to get into the cannabis space and get licensed because a lot of times states won’t detail when the next application window is going to be. So you could be waiting maybe a couple months, which would be in a more ideal scenario, but you could be waiting a year or even longer before the next application window opens. Yeah,

12:10 Isaac Bock
And I mean for some of the listeners who might be earlier on in their journey into the space, what are some of pitfalls that you’ve noticed are pretty consistently overlooked or you, you have caught in reviews of applications or kind of help point out to people as you’ve signed the process?

12:27 Dalton Valette
Yeah, one of the things I think you really need to look at is financial modeling in general. Making sure that you have a good estimation of the overall costs of the business and the profitability. I think a lot of people, maybe a bit more pre covid, kind of assumed I’m gonna open up a cannabis shop and it’s just gonna be a walk in the park. I’m gonna be making money left and right. We all kind of realize that’s not the case. It is a business. There will be highs and lows in the industry. It can be a bit more difficult nowadays to find investors, for instance, who are going to be maybe helping to prop up individuals in different states through financial backing.

13:05 Dalton Valette
So making sure that you have a really good cost breakdown is important. A lot of times states require some sort of financial documents too, so making sure that you’re well prepared and advanced there. And another thing that I think is also overlooked is just making sure that you’ve taken risk mitigations, making sure you’ve taken all the steps that are necessary for a regular successful business to be profitable licensable as well, such as risk management tools, risk assessments, insurance needs, attorney fees as well.

13:41 Dalton Valette
And that you’re staying on top of these additional costs that yes, might be expensive at the onset but can save you a fortune in the long run.

13:52 Eric Schneider
Yeah, and we’ve seen that a lot as well. Like, you know, specifically on the insurance side, just trying to have conversations early and often with operators just to at least provide them with some context into what the rough cost is gonna be. Right. So that they can not, not that it’s an immediate need, but more so to your point, trying to understand all the costs that go into the business because it, it can be a, a pretty lengthy list and you just wanna make sure that you have the transparency into that and understanding what to expect, you know, if you do win the license.

14:25 Eric Schneider
Right. Yeah. ’cause you know, I was, I was at a, a meeting earlier today with a New York Association and you know, someone made a great point. It’s like the licensing process is really challenging 1000%, but it’s not as difficult as actually operating a dispensary. Right? Yeah. And so I think it, it’s really important to just set yourself up for success after the fact, right <affirmative> and just trying to be as proactive as possible.

14:54 Dalton Valette
Yep, absolutely. And I think we’re seeing this more and more, I think with each passing year as cannabis as an industry just becomes more legitimized. I’m sure there’ll be even more of a reckoning when if rescheduling happens. But you do need to take all those necessary steps as any sort of other commercial business has to take. You have to make sure that you have legal consultation on any sort of fields, especially when you’re entering such a highly regulated market as cannabis.

15:24 Dalton Valette
You wanna make sure your accounting is taken care of, your HR is managed, you have policies and procedures and SOPs in place that you have insurance for anything cannabis related, but also non-cannabis related such as fire and health and safety checks, any sort of vehicles that you might have for delivery or distribution. These are all things that will really come into play once you’re actually operating or nearing the first day of operations.

15:53 Isaac Bock
Yeah. I guess how have some of those conversations been with, you know, kind of the post-licensing clients you guys work with on the rescheduling? You know, have people start thinking about what the operation process would look like and how are you all viewing it on your end moving forward?

16:11 Dalton Valette
Yeah, I mean we’re definitely anticipating rescheduling to be happening. I think the federal government has been making pretty clear moves that this is kind of the general direction that is going to happen. Obviously there’s a lot of discussions about rescheduling versus descheduling and the pros and cons with each of those, but that’s a whole other kind of can of worms. So you can dive into, at least from our clients, we’ve worked with a lot of clients on the east coast in particular, so they kind of think about the interstate commerce ability that could have paved the way with rescheduling.

16:46 Dalton Valette
Will you be able to actually go to Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and actually get cannabis products from each of those and freely be able to distribute between each of these different states. That’s kind of at top of mind. And then of course after rescheduling, I think a lot of people are eager to see some two 80 e developments and additional banking reforms in the cannabis industry. ’cause I know that’s one of the biggest headaches with a lot of cannabis operators is just the banking and financing side of things.

17:14 Eric Schneider
Yeah, absolutely. How, how would re rescheduling or descheduling do you think like impact the, the licensing process? Do you think it would make it more stringent now that we potentially have federal government bodies entering into the, the conversation? Do you think that it would lighten things up from a requirement standpoint, you know, order your thoughts?

17:37 Dalton Valette
Yeah, so I, we’ve had a lot of different discussions on what we think will happen and it really kind of boils down to, it depends <laugh>. Yeah. Which is a very lawyery response. But we still have so many states like Colorado, California, who will be ahead of the federal government if it is rescheduled more than anything, you’ll be able to go into medical locations, doctors will be able to actually prescribe cannabis, but that’s not going to be as impactful as other states like Wyoming, where there’s absolutely kind of no cannabis market and suddenly they’ll be able to have this option.

18:15 Dalton Valette
So we do think there universally is going to be some additional requirements from the federal government, especially on these existing medical operators in different states and the new medical operators in new states as well. But as far as the dispensaries that are in the adult use market, for instance, we don’t know necessarily what impacts are going to have. And I think one of the biggest things is just kind of judging the administration itself that’s going to be prioritizing descheduling or rescheduling to, I don’t think if we had, let’s say more hostile current federal government, we would even be having conversations about descheduling or rescheduling.

19:00 Dalton Valette
But this is kind of the direction that the federal government is going in now. So we do think they will take kind of a hands-off approach with the adult use state and try to just create a, at least a bit more uniformity on the medical side of things.

19:16 Isaac Bock
Yeah. So I mean, I guess no one really knows what’s gonna happen within November elections, but obviously it could have huge impacts on our industry. <affirmative>. Do you think that if things continue like it has to be done this year or if there’s a, a change in the president’s office, it’s gonna be kind of off the table if it’s not done in 2024?

19:36 Dalton Valette
I think, I mean I have a bit of a political background myself. I think if Joe Biden is really eyeing reelection in 2024, he will try to get this done before the election because that is something that will stick in the mind of voters in particular. There will be a lot of kind of mechanisms that still need to go into place. I don’t think you’ll wake up one morning and suddenly, wow, it’s, you can go anywhere and get cannabis even if you’re in the most conservative of states. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Each state has kind of different laws on what they might have to do to create a new infrastructure in place.

20:13 Dalton Valette
Some states, the legislature still has to meet and create a framework and they have maybe like a 30 day window to do so and pass some regulations. So it’s not gonna be an overnight change to the industry, but we would see some serious impacts nationwide. But I do think this will probably, from a political media standpoint, it would generate a lot of votes and interests because a lot of people don’t maybe know the ins and outs of cannabis itself unless they’re in the industry itself.

20:46 Dalton Valette
But I can easily see headlines touting cannabis rescheduling, this is great move and some of the first kind of real federal action that we’ve seen on cannabis in quite a while.

21:00 Eric Schneider
Yeah, I mean even the, the framework that we have now, right? Like local municipalities can opt out. You’ve seen that across the board. You know, I’m, I’m from Long Island originally. I think only like three or four towns have actually opted in, which is not surprising. So, you know, to your point, just because there’s overnight regulation doesn’t mean that it’s gonna dramatically shift. Right. <affirmative> and also too, like, I don’t know, I think be careful what you wish for a little bit. Yeah. You know, in terms of having now additional cooks in the kitchen and regulators coming in that don’t have as much experience, you know, as much as state regulators that already have a stood up program.

21:43 Eric Schneider
So it, it’s definitely gonna be interesting to see. And definitely keeping a, a close eye on it aside from, you know, a a lot of the, the things that we’ve talked about in terms of the licensing process, you know, rescheduling versus descheduling, what, what are some the things that you’re excited about in 2024? You know, what is, what does Canada advisors bullish on in 2024 and in the coming months?

22:09 Dalton Valette
Yeah, there’s so many states actually that we’re working on right now and that are really kind of pushing forward with different licensing rounds in particular, we know New York is going to be having some additional rounds coming up. I’m really excited personally for the consumption licenses that they’ll be issuing and having an application window for Virginia is making some good headway too on their kind of adult use legislation. And they’re going to be having a medical license that’s going to be available shortly enough.

22:39 Dalton Valette
Ohio has been busy. Kentucky, Delaware, we’re gonna have additional rounds in Maryland, Minnesota. There are countless states that are kind of coming online soon that we’re excited to be working in. And it’s fun kind of staying on top of all these different regulations too as they got gradually trickled out and kind of can see the differences in each of the states. That’s one of the things that I really like seeing some of the different qualifications for social equity applicants for micro licenses if the state is gonna be having that and guiding people through those general processes.

23:13 Dalton Valette
But I do think 2024 is shaping up to be a bit busier of a year than 2023.

23:19 Isaac Bock
Yeah, and I think one of the hot topics that you mentioned is the consumption lounges, I think how you view that long term within the industry. You know, obviously there’s some states that are assigned to roll out that program. Minnesota obviously has, there are legislations in place where people can consume in various ways. So how, how has that been kind of adopted with some of your clients and what’s the, you know, long-term view on that from your guys’ end?

23:45 Dalton Valette
Yeah, one of the things that I’ve always recommended to clients is when it comes to a consumption lounge, I think they’re great. I love going to them. There’s a couple of great ones in Colorado too, and I’ve been to a couple actually in Spain, which was really fascinating to go in and kind of see. But one of the things is, especially I think post covid, a lot of people really want to, if they’re going out and they’re going to spend AIG hopefully a significant amount of time there, you wanna make sure that it’s an experience that you’re giving something of quality that goes just beyond kind of the product itself.

24:17 Dalton Valette
Obviously each state kind of has their own regulations on can you have it kind of within or nearby a dispensary space? Does it need to be really separated? Do you have to bring in certain products to consume in this location too?

24:31 Dalton Valette
And that just varies on a state to state basis, but when you’re in the location itself, you really want to prioritize making it something memorable, making it a comfortable environment for people to kind of want to come back to. Because there are a lot of times too that this might be the only spot that people can actually go and safely consume cannabis products. So you wanna make sure that you have very, very well trained staff and create an environment that is really much kind of an experience place. I think in the olden days you could easily just kind of put up a couple of walls and slap a coat of paint on it and call it good.

25:10 Dalton Valette
I think now you need to actually start really thinking about what’s the general feel the environment going to be like for individuals and how are you going to kind of cultivate that and then spread the word about what this location actually has to guarantee for individuals coming in there maybe for the first time or maybe the 50th time.

25:30 Eric Schneider
Yeah, no, I think it’s, it, it really needs to be like, like true hospitality, right? Yeah. And not just like a transaction to your point, right. <affirmative> and, and and you’re starting to see that even, you know me in, in New York, like the dispensaries are just, I feel like a lot of them are very, very different. I, I saw one where like, it was like a New York bud and it’s literally New York Bud Way and it’s literally a Subway. Yeah. That is like carved out and that’s where the, the products are held and it’s just like a very cool experience if you go to like Union Square Travel Agency, it’s very different from anything that I’ve seen.

26:08 Eric Schneider
And I feel like even on the retail side, we’re starting to see like, not even like with consumption, really trying to create an experience for like, yeah, you want to go in and buy cannabis, but you also want it to be something that’s memorable, exciting and you want to come back to, right, yeah.

26:25 Dalton Valette
Which,

26:25 Eric Schneider
Which definitely we’re, we’re starting to see more and more of an emphasis on rather than just a quick place where you can get your cannabis and be about your day.

26:34 Dalton Valette
Yeah, exactly. And one of the things that we talk about with clients, especially in states like New York where we know there’s going to be a ton of dispensaries, there’s not as many dispensaries as we were maybe hoping for at this time of year when we first heard that New York was entering the adult use market place. But I do think when you’re starting to kind of build out your operations and trying to stand out, you wanna try to look at the different niches that you could potentially fill, look at kind of your area, look at the potential competition that you might be facing and see, well what am I going to do to stand out?

27:07 Dalton Valette
How can I offer something that’s maybe a little bit different than what others who might currently be operating in are offering right now? And I think that just goes back to kind of brand development, being comfortable with the products that you’re going to be selling and making sure again it, that it is kind of an experience because you can get a customer who goes in and makes maybe one quick purchase, but you really want to, especially in some of these municipalities, have people who are comfortable and confident returning to the business and coming back to it and recommending it to their friends and family.

27:42 Eric Schneider
Yeah, absolutely. And, and this has been a great one honestly, to just get a firsthand understanding of the process where candidate advisors can assist, you know, new applicants and existing applicants, not only prior to getting a license, but even after the fact. Are there any other, you know, one or two nuggets that you, you want to give the, the viewers to take away and, and offerings that Canada advisors can provide?

28:08 Dalton Valette
Yeah, I mean definitely I’ve touched on this a little bit before, but make sure that you’re taking all the necessary steps to run a business. I think a lot of people might get sheepish or nervous about entering the cannabis space because they might not personally have that much cannabis knowledge, at least working in the cannabis industry itself in a professional capacity, you can always fill those knowledge gaps with people, adding those to your team, adding people who maybe have been a general manager in a different state or maybe in a current state that you’re in.

28:40 Dalton Valette
You can build that cannabis knowledge through hiring different people. So think about your own kind of business background and bringing that expertise to the table and honing in on that. And then also I would say a really critical and important step step is kind of doing a thorough SWOT analysis, making sure that you’re assessing all of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

29:05 Dalton Valette
Because a lot of people might talk about all the different strengths that they can bring to the table, but prior to any sort of application or licensing that you’re gonna be doing, you do wanna look at the weaknesses that you have and explore those with a very critical eye and see, well how can we potentially change these from weaknesses into opportunities or strengths as well. So I think having a critical eye, oftentimes that does require a consultant, I would say, to come in and just be forthright with you and say, you have a lot of great knowledge in this area.

29:40 Dalton Valette
Let’s see if we can fill this knowledge gap here or make sure that you’re actually taking the necessary steps here. So it never hurts in my experience, just to reach out to individuals in the cannabis space with that hands-on knowledge who can guide you through the process.

29:55 Dalton Valette
Some people are able to just do this process a little bit more easily on their own. Maybe they have a lot of highly regulatory knowledge in the background that they can bring to the table, but a lot of people might have zero or very little experience in maybe even the business sector in general, but have this dream and ambition of bringing a dispensary forward. So that’s when it’s really critical to reach out to a consultant to see what are the steps that I need to be taking? Is it too early? Is it not early enough to take financial modeling or business planning or start adding people to the team?

30:30 Dalton Valette
That’s when someone can kind of look at the timeline in your respective state and say, alright, at this stage you really need to be considering, let’s say real estate or at this stage you really need to start writing the different plans themselves. So that’s where a consultant can hopefully come in and at least guide you through that process.

30:49 Eric Schneider
Yeah, and you’ve had demonstrated success, right? And, and have seen failures, successes, <affirmative> and everything in between. So it’s just, you know, and that’s only, it’s only knowledge that you can attain by having boots on the ground and have done it right. And, and so we, we definitely commend you guys for being early movers in the space and, and helping applicants get up and off the ground. You know, what you guys do for the space is, is tremendously important and, and we really appreciate it.

31:18 Dalton Valette
Well thank you. It’s great to actually be able to contribute and help individuals and get their businesses off the ground and hopefully it might even sound naive or a little bit overly optimistic, but kind of get some dreams actually made into reality because a lot of people might have been thinking about having a dispensary for years and years and years and never thought that was a possibility, possibility. And now they’re actually able to make that a reality if they take the necessary steps and address kind of all the areas that they need to to make it possible.

31:50 Isaac Bock
Awesome. Thanks so much Dalton. We really appreciate your time.

31:54 Dalton Valette
Of course. Thank you so much for having me on. It’s been a pleasure.

31:59 Eric Schneider
Another great one in the books different angle than we’ve had previously. I don’t think we’ve had, you know, a consultant on, you know, specifically helping and aiding with the, the application phase really a critical part, right? I think and can be overlooked. But you know, as he was advising and discussing on the podcast, just like the, the pitfalls that he can see that are just easily correctable, right? And if, if you don’t have that outside counsel, that trusted advisor to help guide you through that, you know, it’s tough and you know too, right?

32:33 Eric Schneider
Like sometimes as a business owner, like you just put blinders on. Yeah. You focus on like your strengths and, and not necessarily the weaknesses. So you just need that, that outside assistance to help guide you and you know, make sure that you don’t stumble over your feet prior to, to even getting that license and being operational.

32:50 Isaac Bock
No, a hundred percent. I think you know, the conversation about some of the more common missteps, like those are all things that yes when you’re thinking about a business you need, but when you’re actually running a business, like it’s kind of falls to the lower priority phase, which you and I are very familiar with from time to time. So I think he provided great insight. You know, the conversation around where the industry having was definitely interesting and good to hear that how they’re advising their clients with some of the new potential legislation that may be coming out.

33:23 Eric Schneider
Absolutely. And I think a lot of it, you know, it’s no fault to the opera. I mean these applications and submissions are so robust, right? It’s, it’s easy to, to just have like a small error but you know, any deficiencies that need to be corrected it, it just takes away from you potentially getting a license and, and so, you know, Canada advisors can definitely help alleviate that and it was great to, to hear from Dalton and what they’re doing in the space and how they’re excited for 2024 as are we right?

33:56 Eric Schneider
More states continue to come online. I know sometimes there can be some negative sentiment but we continue to push forward and march on, you know. Yeah,

34:05 Isaac Bock
Absolutely. And I mean on the application side, like we see it with insurance applications where people kind of miss something and you know, have to go back and have a conversation about it, which in the application phase to gain your license, you don’t actually have the benefit of that ’cause the state’s not gonna look to look out for you in many senses. So definitely good to have someone from a third party at least take a look before you hit submit on those sorts of things.

34:29 Eric Schneider
Absolutely man. Well another great one in the books and looking forward to the next

34:33 Isaac Bock
Absolutely.