Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Dawn Birch: Keep Pushing Forward - 139

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

When the world is against you, don’t give in and fold. Push forward! If you’re passionate about something, don’;t let anything stop you from reaching your goals. On this episode of Inside Look, Dawn Birch, founder and CEO of Urbal Activ, stops by the studio to tell us how she went from working for the White House to starting a massive CBD company. Dawn tells us how she was able to persevere and overcome her challenges even though it seemed like everyone was trying to shut her down!   “I saw that there was a problem and I wanted to be the solution.” “We went for it because we were passionate about doing some good and helping people.” “Step up. You got to find solutions.” - Dawn Birch   Here’s what you’ll discover: 09:49 - The importance of getting in front of a trend. 14:58 - What makes Urbal Activ different from the rest? 18:12 - The challenges of being an entrepreneur. 24:20 - Why didn’t Dawn quit when everything was against her? 26:28 - The secret to focus.   “Your purpose will change decade to decade, phase to phase.” “You’re going to encounter many adversities and challenges.” “That’s what entrepreneurs do, we figure it out.” “How much shit are you willing to eat to get to the outcome you want?" - Bedros Keuilian   --   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @dawnakiss7   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’ High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Visit: https://urbalactiv.com/   Listen on iTunes and leave us a review: http://bedrosmedia.com/itunes131   Subscribe to My Channel for weekly videos: http://www.youtube.com/bedroskeuilian/?sub_confirmation=1   Youtube: https://youtu.be/773dnwLSySM

It really wasn't about like, I'm going to make some money and I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know what it entailed being an entrepreneur. I didn't know what an LOI was. I didn't know what an NDA was. I had no idea. So we just went for it and we went for it because we were passionate about doing some good and helping people. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. My name is Bedros Kulian and this is an inside look.

And today we've got someone very special. Her name is Don Birch and she is the founder and CEO of Herbal. active, a CBD company that does not have THC. Correct, correct. We third-party test everything to make sure, you know, there's zero THC, and potency, purity, and purity and consistency are super, super important because we're in an unregulated market. Right, and you don't want to get people stoned. Exactly.

Fair enough. But, Don, before we talk about your success in CBD and the reason I've got you on the show is really a two-part. One, that as an entrepreneur, you're going to have many different phases of life. How about this? As a human, you're going to have many different phases of life. You're going to have different interests. You're going to have different passions. You might, even your purpose will change decade to decade, phase to phase, depending on what happens in your life. But also because CBD is just such a big thing right now. And so cannabis, CBD,

that whole market. But before you were ever in CBD and cannabis, you were actually at one point working for the White House doing something very unique. What did you do? Well, you know, in my 30s, into my career, which I'd studied for. I went to San Diego State, and I was a journalism and a speech comm major. I always wanted to be in television news production, so in my 30s I really pursued it. You know, it was everything from traveling to being,

really, I was more behind the scenes. I was not in front of the camera. Was that by choice? Did you actively decide that I want to be behind the scenes versus in front of the camera? Well, because I kind of entered into my career a little bit late, the idea of like being in front of the camera and having to go to small town after small town after small town,

try and make it just didn't seem realistic. And I really kind of like the behind the scenes, you know, stage managing, directing, and so forth. I really enjoyed that aspect. So for me, it was just a natural fit. And it was really exciting, very exciting. Gotcha. But what did you do for the White House? Well, it was a position, you do advance for the White House. And it sounds kind of nondescript. But advance means we actually go in advance of where the president is actually going to go or going to speak. And we work with Secret Service, kind of laying out their plan. where are they going to arrive, where are they going to walk, where is the press actually going to be located, where is the press room set up in case there's an emergency where he has to go and make a statement.

So you're kind of working with a lot of different departments to make sure that, one, it works well for television and also it works well for security and safety. Gotcha. So, but really the end outcome that we see as viewers, when we're watching television, we're seeing the president talk, like the byproduct of what we're seeing is someone who's working the advance position. Correct, correct, completely behind the scenes. It all looks very smooth and natural, but there's a lot of. lot of work that goes into it. That's fascinating. Have you ever been in a position where Secret Service is like, no, you can't do it that way? Oh, yeah, all the time. You're always having to kind of negotiate. It's like, no, this is a great shot. This is going to look great. So you're constantly in negotiating, you negotiate. Because public perception matters of the president.

Like, every time the president's on TV, as we see with Trump, like, ratings are either going up or down. Correct. And so you're trying to find that perfect position to help ratings go in the desired direction. Whether it's lighting or the position of the audience behind him or, you know, signs that are around and so forth. It all makes a difference in the presentation. Are there any strange, weird, funny, fascinating stories that involve the president, you and the Secret Service that you might want to share? Oh, wow. You know what? That's one of those, you know, I don't. In all honesty, I really don't have a good one of it when it comes to that. Even better. I was reading this book recently. It was written by a Secret Service agent,

but it was one of the ones who was in uniform. I guess they're kind of worked the outside of the White House. And he was talking about the Clinton administration and how the Clinton, administration had a very different way of... Okay, so I worked after the Clinton administration too, and the Secret Service had a lot to say about them in terms of maybe some things that they had, you know... That they were okay with? Yeah, and that they worked really long hours because the president liked to stay up and play a sex and have a good time.

Well, there you go. There you go. Hey, listen, this isn't a political show. I don't care if it's Trump or Clinton. I always say you are control of your economy, not Trump or Clinton. Trump or Clinton or whoever the next president is going to be because we're entrepreneurs, we're pioneers and we keep charging forward no matter what. So from there you went into, I guess, cannabis, is that, or did you go into news media next?

No, well, yeah, went into news media kind of paralleled with advance with the White House. So I did a lot of work with like MSNBC and Fox and it was always political driven. So it was always in preparation for like an election year and so forth, also did a lot of the, did a lot of like shows in terms of like exposing, like showing who's actually running and what they're really, their platforms are. You know, how to get to the White House kind of thing. So that was interesting. But you know, being from the Midwest and then after living out West, I really realized

seeing that like the further you went west, the further people really didn't care. Like I would talk to like my family and friends in Arizona and be like, oh, I was with this senator, I was with this person. They're like, who, what, where, when? And you just realize that it's, it is a real. bubble. It is a real bubble in Washington in terms of the who's who's of politics. Yeah. Yeah. So at some point you decided, though, I'm not going to work in production, and I'm going to venture out and be an entrepreneur. Well, that's really funny. I never really

looked at it like being an entrepreneur. So it wasn't an active decision? Like how I want to be an entrepreneur? It was never a conscious act decision. It was, uh, my husband and I were, you know, looking at the fact that cannabis was going medical in Arizona. And we thought my family lived out there and were like, oh, God, what a great business to be. And you could be helping people. And this is an up incoming businesses and be exciting. What year was this? That was in 2010. 2010. So right a couple years after the economy crashes, Canada's becomes legal in Arizona. Yep. And we're like, oh, this is a great business opportunity. Let's do this. And so we went to Arizona and we went through all the trials and tribulations of trying to get a dispensary license and a grow and everything else. And then

the governor put everything on hold. And we made this really big investment. So our grower that was in Cal, San Diego was like, well, while everything's on hold, why don't you come out here and learn the industry. You know, looking back and I don't know what we were thinking, but we did. We sold both of our homes. We moved from Chicago to San Diego. And, you know, all of a sudden, there we are with an indoor grow and outdoor grow, you know, and learning extraction.

And, I mean, if you were to tell me, you know, today that I was going to do that in 2012, I would tell you're absolutely crazy. And now that was a time when you can't see these days you just walk into, like there's a great dispensary off the 55 freeway here in Southern California near Costa Mesa called Peoples. and you just walk in, it looks like a beautiful Starbucks in there, and you just kind of, they have like the baristas, but they're not baristas, they're whatever, whittistas. And you just pick whatever you want and you walk out with it,

whether it's edibles or smokables. Back then, 2010, 11, 12, 13, that time, it was more of a, you had to have that license, right? Okay, so I did. Doctor prescribed license. Exactly. I paid, I think, with $500 to have, like, I could carry 12 pounds on me at any given time, supposedly, right?

We had all of our plants tagged legally. When I say legally, every, like, area in California has their own kind of rules and regulations. So you have to be very, very careful. You can still get rated, even if you're doing everything right, because it was still the Wild Wild West at the time. Sure. Matter of fact, even trying to sell our product, there's sometimes we'd go to a dispensary and they'd just been shut down. And then they moved across the street and they're like, hey, okay, we had to move. You know, so, I mean, imagine trying to recoup your money by, you know, these dispensaries that are up and closed and going.

out of business here and there because it was just, like I said, it was really still the Wild Wild West. Was it all cash-based at that time? Oh, yeah, it was, all cash. And do you have security around you? You know, we were really low-key, and it was actually pretty scary. I mean, it really was pretty scary. Really? Yeah.

I mean, there was times, a time we were sitting there. It was like sound asleep, and all of a sudden hearing the sirens and somebody on it, he's like, all right, move over, get down. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. So, you know, we're looking around. There's helicopters, and we're thinking we're getting busted. I mean, completely thought we're getting busted. But it was just like some guy being pulled over. You know how the hills are, so it was a road up there, and some guy was getting pulled over,

but we thought for sure we were getting ready. So was there a healthy sense of paranoia, maybe an unhealthy sense of paranoia the whole time? It was constant fear. Because the whole time, it was also federally legal, so you're probably wondering what are the feds going to come in here? Well, just even our electric bill. Like, nobody told us, oh, yeah, get your grow going, and your electricity is going to be $8,000 or $9,000 a month. That's a red flag. And that eats in dear profits too.

So all these things that, you know, this guy that, who was I to know what a good grower was anyway? I mean, here I was. I'm moving across, you know, to California because this guy says, yeah, come out and learn the industry. I mean, ridiculous. I mean, when I look back, but there was so much that I learned in that process. But never did I ever think I'm going out here to be an entrepreneur. Huh. That's fascinating.

You just saw that as a business opportunity, you said. Kind of like the tech industry. You know, like this is, wow, this is up and coming. I kind of felt like, especially when it started popping, you know, in different states, I'm like, oh, the kittens are out of the bag. I mean, there's no way of raining this back in, you know? It might not all happen all at once, but it's happening. Yeah. So, like, I want to be a part of it.

How important is it to see trends and to get in front of it? Like, it seems like what you and your husband then did really well is you, excuse me, saw an opportunity or a trend, and you really jumped on it. Absolutely. I think that's super important. And that's not to say that there aren't people and a lot of companies are way ahead of us. I mean, there are. And there's always going to be. And there's so many people in the mix right now.

I mean, you know, when you take a look around, pretty much you can find CBD oil pretty much anywhere you want. And that's what's really confusing, I think, for consumers is that, you know, CBD oil, not all CBD is created equal. So that's kind of where we make a real big difference in the industry. So we just kind of stay in our path and do what we do and try not to, get distracted by everybody else, basically repurposing the same products. That's what we're seeing. We're seeing a CBD isolate made in an oil,

and everybody's got a different label on it, and they're selling it for pennies, because it's an inexpensive product to produce. And not only that, they're not taking the THC out of it. So people that think that it's CBD and they're not gonna pop on a drug test, well, you will with 0.3% THC. Now in the supplement industry, that's called white labeling.

Is that what's happening here? Everywhere. I mean, we get it even approached all the time, to sell their products to us, and we don't. We don't repurpose other people's products. So everything that we sell, we make ourselves. Wow. You're now in the CBD industry, but you really started off in cannabis.

How did you make that pivot into CBD and why? Well, a lot of people kind of question that. Why are you going to leave, you know, the cannabis? Look at it. It's exploding. It's, you know, an enormous business. Such financial opportunity. It's also expensive to be in the business.

It really is, and people don't really understand that. But I think for us, the transition were two things. First of all, we tried expanding into other states. We just didn't have the manpower and the team behind us to kind of expand like that. You know, you've got other regulations. You really need people you can really trust in that kind of an industry. But even more than that, I was just, you know, we had a sick dog. We were experimenting with CBD.

And I just saw the positive effects. I was like, you know, there have to be more people out there than me that doesn't use cannabis that wants an all natural solution. So I thought, well, why am I focusing on? THC, what I should be focusing on zero THC solution, for those that don't want to be taking opioids, even more importantly, my mom who was taking like six to ten Advil or a leave a day. I mean, that's a very common scenario in this day and age. So if we could provide a solution where people didn't have to resort to those kinds of,

I won't even call them solutions, but to those kinds of medicines, traditional medicine, if you will. Which, by the way, not only tear up the stomach lining, but also have a massive negative impact on the liver. Exactly. Right? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, both tidal, Advil, all that stuff. So it's like, what about providing a solution where you were not only helping, but you're encouraging their own body to heal itself? You weren't providing a product that was going to mask the problem.

You were actually activating the body to heal the problem. I thought what, how remarkable is that? And how great would that be that I could help, not just people in Arizona or people in Chicago or people in the United States, but people worldwide. So my biggest challenge today really is the education part. How do I really express and get out the education piece of what makes herbal active different? I would say that is absolutely my greatest challenge for sure. Really?

Yeah. What platforms? Because we've got a lot of entrepreneurs, whether they're selling supplements, whether they're selling CBD or any other consumable product. And by the way, I'm a big fan of consumable products because that creates a reoccurring purchase, right? I mean, you sell a shovel. You're not going to go buy a shovel again until that shovel breaks. Right. But I love consumables where entrepreneurship is concerned because, and by the way,

that consumer could be software, could be the data that you have on your phone. Were you like aware of this that the consumable industry has money, greater amounts of money attached to it? Or at some point, things had to start making sense as an entrepreneur to you, right? Well, again, I never saw. Less employees, higher profits. I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. I saw that there was a problem and I wanted to be the solution.

That's what I really saw. I saw that I could be helpful. I could feel, I could do something actually felt really good about it. I didn't feel great about my life when I was working in television news production. You know, I just plugged along and did the same thing day after day. So when I got into this, it really wasn't about like, I'm going to make some money and I'm going to be an entrepreneur. I didn't even know what it entailed being an entrepreneur. I didn't know what an LOI was.

I didn't know what an NDA was. I had no idea. So we just went for it and we went for it because we were passionate about doing some good and helping people. Really ultimately is how it all started. Okay. Well, some of the greatest entrepreneurs on the planet see a problem and they realize. there's a better solution to it than what's out there today. And I always say that if you want to make more money,

if you want to have longevity in your business, find a problem that many people aren't solving. And the more sophisticated the problem or more complex the problem, the better solution you can provide, the more money you can charge. At the end of the day, if it's a simple problem, it's probably a simple solution and more people are doing it. And so what makes what you do differently as a CBD oil company?

Well, we really stay in our lane. We started off as a company, more of a daily supplement company. So for those that are looking for an all-natural active lifestyle, we feel like if you can have a good night's sleep, if you can wake up without brain fog, if your dog can walk around without that sore hip bothering them, you're apt to be more active. So we're trying to encourage an active, happy lifestyle. And people are more active when they feel better. Sure. So we don't look at, you know, CBD as a supplement just for like also being for pain and daily. issues. I also look at it as like a daily supplement because inflammation is a leading cause

disease. If we can alleviate that, who knows how much healthier we can be as a society? I kind of feel robbed at this point at 53 years old that I haven't had CBD in my life for all these years. You know, think about all that inflammation that I've had in my body all these years where I could have activated my own endocannabinoid system, if you will, to activate itself to heal. And people don't really understand that. And that actually goes back to that education piece. People don't really understand that. It's really activating your own body system to actually heal itself versus being a preventative or a blocking agent. Right, which is what current medicine does. Correct. Preventative. So let's talk about, you say, your greatest challenge that you're

dealing with, which one might argue it's a marketing challenge, which is getting your education out there. What's so hard about getting your education out there with all the different marketing and social media channels that we have. I think because the market is so submerged, and I think that I have not as a leader really done my best job at finding the right people to actually do that. I'm working right now and trying to find a good copywriter. My top three things right now, if I can have a solid copywriter, somebody that's solid in marketing, and kind of like art director slash art director, I think those are my two top right now that I think that we're actually actually move the needle to the next level. And we do some great things. Like we've advertised on two different podcasts

that we're a game changer, honestly, for the business. But both of them, we made sure that they were using the products well in advance at least a couple months because we wanted to see the effects because we wanted an authentic read, right? Authentic experience on that, not just, hey, here's Don CBD. You know, that was just not going to, that doesn't align with my values whatsoever. And it really, it really resonated with a lot of people. So we found a lot of great. success with that. But, you know, we're working in an unregulated industry. So it's not as easy as just going, hey, well, why aren't you just advertising on Instagram, Dawn? Or why aren't you on Facebook? I can't tell you how many Facebook ads and Instagram ads that they have denied me.

Right. So it's, you know, listen, we've gone, we went without merchant processing. We were strictly an online business for two months. That was a whole lot of fun. Let's see, last Christmas, right after Christmas, DHL, FedEx and UPS said they wouldn't ship with us because they were worried that we were all of a sudden going to start shipping cannabis. I mean, it's a nightmare. Even with, you know, the Farm Bill Act passing, we thought it would lighten up on all kinds of regulations. And I got to tell you, all it is tighten the screws

because all those higher-ups that don't know anything about the difference between the cannabis and CBD got scared. Sure. And then they tighten the belts on everything. And when they're scared, they just choose to not deal with it. Exactly. Yeah. So guys and gals, let this be a lesson to you as you're watching and listening to this episode.

You're going to encounter many levels of adversity and challenges. When you look at the shipping problem, DHS, UPS, FedEx, you look at the online merchants. They're like, hey, we don't want to touch you with a 10-foot pole. I'm not going to even process credit cards and then have you accidentally sell cannabis. So what do you tell an entrepreneur that says, well, you know, and then you look at Facebook, right? So now you're trying to market it. So like, look at the challenges you have to go through. You have to market this damn thing so that you can sell it and accept money.

So you need the marketing platform to stop denying your ads. and you need the credit card processor to go, dude, we get it, we'll process the credit card, we understand people aren't going to get stoned on this stuff. But then even if you market it and process the credit card, you need the shipping companies to go, hey, we feel warm and fuzzy about shipping your stuff. I mean, you're fighting a battle on three fronts,

and you've won and you're winning. But what do you say to someone that says, well, you know, I ran a Facebook ad and it didn't work for me, or I'm having problems keeping up with the demand for shipping. when they have such a very small problem, but they may get a big one. How do you deal with entrepreneurs who tell you that? I say step up. You got to find solutions.

We just don't exist about with problems. You know, it's always, I can't, this girl, she's been working from us from day one, and we had just this, we were on this podcast called the Spit and Shicklets. It's a hockey podcast, and we were getting like hundreds and hundreds of orders on this Monday, right? She comes up to you, she goes, hey, Dawn. I mean, we are like, we've never seen anything like that time. We'd only see like 100 orders a month. We're getting like hundreds.

I think it was like 600 that day, which was pretty significant. She comes up, she says, hey, I just want to tell you something. I'm like, okay, hey, I'm moving to California. Well, when are you going? I'm going in a week. Not only did we have this going on. We were just taking in a big private label pet treat order, which was like, you know, like a $50,000 order.

Well, I was like, I just looked at her. I go, I wish you all the best of luck. Because the reality was, is that about two months before she wasn't really doing her job. But I felt so dependent on keeping her on there because I didn't have a replacement that the universe just opened the door for me. And instead of being worried about it, I was like, all right, we'll figure it out. So you just have to roll with it. I know that sounds really simple. That's such a great example that you gave, though, because two months before you saw the signs of her not performing at the level of your expectations.

but as humans, we also feel bad. We want to give them, we have a little hope for them. We want to give them another chance. Sometimes we're held hostage by him because, well, I don't have anyone to replace this person by. And then she gives you the gift of, hey, I'm leaving in a week. And in that moment, sometimes we might read that gift as a, oh, shit, I can't believe you're going to do this to me. Well, I've got 600 orders coming in, and we're private labeling something for this pet food company.

But it ended up being one of the greatest gifts. And every single, in all honesty, you know, businesses involve, people come in and work and they're great, and then they move on and they do other things and so on and so forth. Every single time that someone has left for whatever reason, it's always been for the best. And my operations manager, Bree, she's fabulous and she always looks at me, she goes, you're not freaking out? And I'm like, no, this is good. We'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Yeah, FIO. That's what entrepreneurs do. We figure it out. So today you've got this CBD company that's obviously thriving. You're always testing to make sure there's no THC in it so people aren't getting stoned. What's the next move? Because I can't imagine that you're just going to, okay, I'm good. Things are going well.

There's probably something else on the horizon. What's there for? Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, we want to continue. We're having a lot of issues in Canada right now. We stopped shipping there. Our packages were getting seized. So we're really working to get back into Canada. It's about 30% of our business.

So that's a big market for us. We're working on some pretty big deals in Japan as well as in Italy. and we've got some other private label opportunities. But bigger than that, you know, we've had a lot of interest in franchising. I'm not sure that's a whole other beast to kind of tackle that, again, I know nothing about. So I'd have to bring in someone much smarter than myself to kind of take a look, figure out what that would actually look like. But, you know, I would like to continue to help people and eventually, you know, move on to something else.

You know, but this is right now, this is my passion, and we're working really, really hard to help as many people. And pets, don't forget pets, have as many people in their pets as possible, to live, you know, an active life. style, pain free. So let me ask you something, circling back to being entrepreneurship again, the credit card processing companies weren't that excited about you doing direct-to-consumer online. Was your answer, and I'm just guessing, was your solution to that, hey, I'm going to open up a storefront? That's interesting. That's interesting. We opened the storefront after that happened. So when we first, it was really funny, we first opened the herbal active. People were throwing stuff You know, FedEx was coming by, UPS is coming by, everybody wanted to do business with us.

Once we started blowing up and CBD really became like more of a common term is when they started kind of getting all nervous. When we actually moved our warehouse and opened the storefront because we, there was such a demand for our presence to have like a storefront in Arizona, we moved our warehouse down to Tempe. So we're in there where we've got our merchant processing going and everything and all of a sudden they drop us cold. So it's like, what do you say to somebody when they're already online?

Oh, did you? Sure, we'll accept cash or yeah. Yeah, send me a check. That sounds really great. But then we went on Square and we went on PayPal and then Square dropped us. And then PayPal dropped us. And then we had just gotten on Amazon and they dropped us. So we're just sitting here.

No merchant processing. Nobody's walking the door because I hardly even know us. And we've got no way to process. And we suffered through, gosh, it's our slowest time anyway. We suffered through a summer through that, which was brutal. So that was a whole summer-long process. It was a good two months. What was your solution to it?

Because I love how you laid out all the problems. Like it was PayPal, it was square, it was a merchant processor. Like, I mean, you were just lining them up. At some point, did you ever want to just throw your hands up and go, obviously this is a sign from God or the universe, I quit? Absolutely never. Why? Absolutely never.

It just wasn't an option. It's like, all right, we just got to keep going. So what was the solution? Well, we had a lot of people approaching us to, you know, go with their merchant processing company, but, you know, either their fees were so outrageous, or their holdbacks were so outrageous, that it wasn't viable.

But then we finally, you know, one of my partners found a company that it was still pretty painful. I mean, it wasn't cheap. It was a 10-day rears, which when you're not making a whole lot of money, that's really hard to wait 10 days to get your money. So that was pretty painful, too, but we got through it, you know? We really got through it. And I don't, there isn't a magic bullet.

I guess it's just, are you willing to kind of go through the muddy waters to get to the sunshine and the rainbows? or are you just going to give up? I always talk about how much shit are you willing to eat, and it really boils down to that. In any endeavor that you take on, how much shit are you willing to eat to get to the outcome that you want?

So for those watching and listening to this, and they're like, what do I mean the fees were expensive? Well, because when you have a business that they consider higher risk, they'll charge you a higher percentage. Minimum of 10%. Yeah, minimum. Right?

10% to process your credit card when really it might be as low as 2.3 to 2.7, 2.8. and you're paying 10% and what's a holdback? Why don't you explain to our audience with holdback? Well, 10 days. So that means that the holdbacks were somewhere more, but a 10-day holdback means that if you purchase from me today, I'm not going to see that money minus that 10% for 10 days.

Yeah. And that's actually pretty good considering some of the holdbacks we've had. When we launched our supplement company upstairs, Fit Body Boot Camp, we just launched a Truling Supplement Company. And because we've got hundreds of franchise locations, all of our franchisees, bought a crap ton of our supplements, supplements, and to Shopify and to our processing company, it looked like an overnight smash hit, which could be red flags.

For 60 days, they held back our money, which means that's money that we made, millions of dollars, that we couldn't really use, and we have to tap into other money while we're waiting sitting on that. And so those holdback fees happen often, depending on the industry you're in, and depending on how quickly you launch and how big that launch is. But again, you just persevere and you go through it. So are you currently hovering around 10% and 10 days? No, actually, we, you know, being with this company for a while, I think, believe we're down to 5% now. And then we're five-day rears, which is significant. Yeah. Significant.

Which is huge. Significant. You have tremendous ability to focus on the thing that you're after. So many other people have so many shiny objects that they're chasing. What's the secret to focus? You know, I think the secret to focus is that I don't get caught up or I've made a commitment to myself and to the company and to my vision not to get caught up in what everybody else is doing. I think it's really important to see what other people are doing. It's great. This is there. This company is doing this. There's companies that are making a whole lot more money than us. They're different. Their vision's different. Their message is different. Their branding is different. We stay really true and on our path. And I think that that's really paid off. We don't veer. And we stay. true to it. And, you know, there are people that call us up, you know, why aren't you selling gummy beers? Well, it's an inferior way to receive your CBD. So I don't, it just doesn't fit with my model, my vision. It doesn't fit with our values whatsoever. So try, you know, if you have a belief system and your product is something that you're really passionate about,

I think it's really easy to stay on track. I think it's really easy not to get sidetracked. But people do. They will try and pull on you this way and pulling you that way. But if you believe in yourself and you believe in your company and your vision, I think it's pretty easy to stay on your track. So what I'm really hearing you say is your ability to stay focused and on track where a goal or mission is concerned is, once you have a very specific why, your reason why is obviously very meaningful to you, and then you have your core values. Like, obviously, you can make more money if you sold gummy bear laced with CBD or CBD-based gummy bear. But you just said it. It's an inferior way to receive your CBD.

And so you just refuse to do it. So you have your core values. You have your reason why. and that sets almost like these rails, rails, right, that you can play within. And you're not going to get attracted to anything outside of those rails. And the big message here for all of us watching and listening to this is that, like, is there a reason why big enough? Is it very clear and specific, number one?

And number two, what are your core values? What are you willing to do to launch your and grow your business and brand? And what are you not willing to do to launch and grow in business your brand? And if you can find your core values and say, this is the line I'm not. not going to cross, whoever comes and starts putting that care in front of you and says, here's a line to cross because you can make more money, have bigger influence, bigger impact. No, I'm not going to play that game. So what would I, if there was a piece of advice, and I love ending with this, if there was a piece

of advice, you can go back 20 years and give you your younger self, knowing where you are today, and you kind of divulge your age, you're 53, you said. Yes, 53. You're an entrepreneur in the CBD world. If there's a piece of advice you can give to your 23-year-old self, what would it be? It would be, don't be cool, don't be too cool to learn. Don't think you're above it all. I mean, I wish I would have, back in my 20s, I wish I was taking other language.

I wish I was taking a business course. I wish I was doing a lot of different things that I could have been doing that would have cost very little money that would have helped prepare me for making better decisions in my life and maybe getting down this path sooner. So don't waste your time because it goes really, really fast. Amen to that. You know, it's something that's a great point to finish on is one of the 11 points of success that I was talking about and when I put up a social media point is if I can go back 20 years to my younger self, it would be take bigger risks and put in more effort. And that's really what I'm hearing you say is like invest more on yourself when you're 20s because we think, well, I've done enough.

You've never done enough. One time someone asked me, when's enough enough with all the success that I had created? and he had stumped me. And I was like, shit, maybe I'm greedy. Maybe I'm just chasing money. And then I went home and my wife's like, well, the answer is simple. Like, have you helped enough charities? Because we've adopted Shriner Children's Hospital, Toys for Tots, Compassion International.

Is there enough kids that you've helped? Is there enough, you know, kids have opened up Christmas gifts? I'm like, no. Like, there is no enough enough enough until every kid has been medically helped and has got a Christmas gift, it's not enough. And so to me, that was the thing. I needed to have taken bigger risks and put in more effort 20 years ago. And I think I would have been in a better place today.

Instead of at 45, I would have probably achieved this at 35, 36, 37. So, Don, what's the best way for our audience to connect with you to find you to learn more from you? Well, I mean, if you're obviously visiting Saudi Arizona, come by and see us in the storefront. We love visitors, and we do a lot of educating there. So it's a really great opportunity to get all your questions kind of answered in person. But otherwise, you can go to www.irbal active. that's U-R-B-A-L-A-C-T-I-E-O-E-D-com. Erbal-A-V-N-E-D-C-C-U-E-D-com.

Thank you so much, John. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode of The Empire Show. As always, if you like this episode, and I know you did, do me a favor and leave us a five-star review on iTunes. Leave a comment on there as well. Take a screenshot of this episode,

shared in your stories, and, of course, be sure to tag me and Craig Ballantyne and we'll see you guys later.