Editors’ Note: This is the transcript version of the podcast. Please note that due to time and audio constraints, transcription may not be perfect. We encourage you to listen to the podcast, embedded below if you need any clarification. We hope you enjoy!
This week we are breaking down franchising opportunities in the cannabinoid industry with an educational focus.
We discuss:
– Transitioning from Pharma to Cannabinoid industry
– Franchising opportunity in the cannabinoid industry
– Industrial vs horticulture Hemp
Franny’s Farmacy provides safe access to high-quality hemp straight from Franny’s Farm and its growers located in the Asheville NC area to customers in all 50 states. Because of Franny’s Farmacy’s transparent, vertically integrated seed-to-sale product line, the company has grown to be one of the most distinguished hemp and CBD brands in the U.S. with dispensaries along the east coast.
https://www.instagram.com/frannysfarmacy/
https://www.instagram.com/frannytacy/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwBk6cAzY7MujVgXRS1KgRA
https://www.facebook.com/frannysfarmacy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/franny-tacy-4903518a/
This show is presented to by 8th Revolution:
At Eighth Revolution (8th Rev) we provide services from capital to cannabinoid and everything in between in regard to the hemp & cannabis industry. Our forward-thinking team can diagnose, analyze & optimize every detailed nuance of your company to keep your business safe, smart, and profitable. Our flexibility and experience combined with ongoing research create unique insights into how to best grow your market share. Contact us directly at [email protected]
Bryan Fields: @bryanfields24
Kellan Finney: @Kellan_Finney
[00:00:00]Bryan Fields: What’s up guys. Welcome back to the episode of the dime I’m Brian Fields. And with me as always is Kellen Finney. And this week we’ve got a very special. Frannie Chasey, founder of Franny’s pharmacy. Frannie. Thanks for taking the time. How are you doing today?
[00:00:16]Franny Tracy: I am fantastic. And what a pleasure to be here with you, Brian and Carolyn,
[00:00:20]Bryan Fields: we’re really excited to dive in.
[00:00:21]Kellan Finney: Tell him how are you doing? I’m doing really good. I’m excited to talk to frame. You’re chatting for the show and are both share the same all mater at NAU. So a little shout out to my Alma mater and let’s go,
[00:00:33]Bryan Fields: but before we dive in for any it’s really important before we get started just your current location as it stands right now, what state are you?
[00:00:41]Franny Tracy: I am in North Carolina, Asheville, north, Carolyn,
[00:00:44]Bryan Fields: the other east coast. That’s exactly what I was going on the record, another east coast. So you guys may share an all mater, but the east coast, it is. Yes, sir. Frannie. Before we dive in, it’d be great for our listeners to get a little background about you and how you got into.
[00:00:59]Franny Tracy:[00:01:00] Yeah. It’s really a lifetime of a story, but I was in pharmaceuticals. I went to forestry school at NAU, but way back, about 30 years ago. And ended up in pharmaceutical career though, from there, I always said farm at a farm unhealth care industry. I bought my farm 10 years ago, way before hemp was even on the radar.
[00:01:22] And then in 2017, We went, we had gone through years of trying to get an industrial hemp pilot program. I ended up being the first female farmer to plant him, even though I was still in pharmaceutical career. So it took a few years and that’s pretty much how I transitioned and now have vertically integrated operations.
[00:01:43] From farming to manufacturing, distribution, and franchise.
[00:01:47]Bryan Fields: So before we expand that, some of those, I love the concept of farmer to farm. Can you share a little bit about, more about specifically what that.
[00:01:56]Franny Tracy: Sure. So on this 15 years in pharmaceuticals and [00:02:00] the nickname that has stuck with me as the hippie and high heels, or they called me the anti-drug route.
[00:02:06] So I’m always been very involved in the health and nutrition side of everything. I just kept it at first. It was farm at a farm and there’s a whole blog and story about it. And that’s when my Ted talk came out. I was trying to get out of pharmaceuticals and really get in the real health care industry.
[00:02:23] And that’s where my heart and passion has always been. And in the first year I grew was actually for food and fiber until I figured out there is not a market for that. And there’s not one coming soon and really dug in. Started learning about CBD for the, on the medical side and that’s, what’s legal here.
[00:02:43] And so that’s where we got started.
[00:02:45]Bryan Fields: Was there any hesitation to go from pharmaceutical to ham, obviously, given your location and then the industry moving from pharma to the hemp industry. Was there any kind of hesitation or backlash when you made that?
[00:02:54]Franny Tracy: There’s not any hesitation on my part. I had just been waiting, but there was a little bit of [00:03:00] backlash, but in a way, so much support.
[00:03:02] That’s still part of the reason we were successful is all the physicians send them. Then their patients to us to be able to have a trusted, reliable, high quality. But by all means there’s, we had DEA flying over our farm and we had people, we had to put up surveillance.
[00:03:20] Nobody knew what was going on. Because I was the first in North Carolina, but North Carolina was only the fifth state to grow. So I was on the news all the time. We even had vice TV here. People were like, what are you doing? And why are you so out there? Even my family, we’re from the south.
[00:03:37] I have a family that fiscal ministers and engineers, so they are so sweet and kind and supportive. Even though they were like, am I going to get high? Isn’t this what’s going on? I’m like, it’s a topical, my, my first degree I have a master’s in education and a PhD coursework with Smithsonian Institute.
[00:03:58] So putting that [00:04:00] education behind all of this was super, super important to me. And, Yeah. That’s still under scrutiny. I, if I cared, what other people thought we wouldn’t be talking today?
[00:04:10]Bryan Fields: I’m glad that you shared that, especially given your location. So have you seen a shift, like from when you got started to now where people have opened up to the concept has been more acceptable to the potential opportunities that hemp brings and some of the benefits that.
[00:04:23]Franny Tracy: Yes, absolutely. We’re really blessed because our market and a lot of people that come to us are people that are being referred. So by doctors and physicians and people that they trust, it’s a little bit different from, say a smoke shop or something, or somebody would go in, we are very focused on health and wellness in all aspects.
[00:04:44] And the interesting enough, our market population is about 50 50 women to men and also like ages 35 to 65. So there’s been a huge awareness and [00:05:00] we’re just a place where people can trust that it’s okay to go into and learn about. Yeah,
[00:05:07]Kellan Finney: I have a question has, was at the dialects and that whole movement in the mid 2015 to 2018.
[00:05:13] Did that have a, did that play a role in kind of your transition from pharma into the hemp industry? Yeah.
[00:05:20]Franny Tracy: Good question. I actually knew about all of that. When it went into research trials, when I was buying my farm. So seventies, anybody ever knew about it, I was informed and I was like, oh finally, they’re starting to do research on.
[00:05:35] And I had a young son then. He was in his early teens and so very impressionable and so forth, and an athlete he’s actually a world-class athlete or half iron mans. And so he’s never really been huge in the cannabis and it’s part of the propaganda. And I was always trying to teach him the reality of this.
[00:05:56] I marked, then I said, watch in seven [00:06:00] years, we’re going to have our first pharmaceutical drug with cannabis in it. And yeah, that’s what makes me sound good in business. I see the future.
[00:06:10]Bryan Fields: Oh, then I’m going to have to ask them what’s going to happen in seven years.
[00:06:12]Franny Tracy: In seven years from now, we will absolutely cannabis will be deregulated legal.
[00:06:19] And it’s going to be just like 10 years ago when I was talking about GMOs and nobody knew it. It’s going to just be everywhere in our normal society and it will have it. It’s just, that’s where we’re going to be in 70.
[00:06:34]Bryan Fields: Completely great. I know. I want to go back. I apologize for jumping and I got excited when you made that up.
[00:06:39] I really liked that you had a focus on education. I think that’s so important just given all the challenges geographically and sometime of the information that’s hard to know. And I was on your website and I saw the focus on education. One of the areas that I really enjoyed was the quiz aspect, where it allowed you to not necessarily get your hand held through the process, but go through the steps that you would have to walk through that.[00:07:00]
[00:07:00] Is that a big opportunity for you where users come into your website and they feel comfortable doing that and sharing information, you can make the recommendation. Can you shed more light on that?
[00:07:09]Franny Tracy: Yeah, absolutely. And also, let me say an Asheville. We were the first city in all of the United States to deregulate and remove CBD from our restricted medications list.
[00:07:22] And this is all because I’m a researcher and scientist, when it really comes down to. Yeah, let me say, I just got distracted from the question. Education is huge. We’re very limited in what we can actually say. So the quiz allows the person to engage and help them understand what are they looking for?
[00:07:41] What are they. Hugely successful. And at the end, we give the first customer a 20% off coupon to try the products that they have gone through discovery to learn, but really more important than the education. Two of our franchise owners are pharmacists. And trust me, a pharmacist is [00:08:00] only going to the best and highest quality place.
[00:08:03] This next weekend, like in our grand opening, we have a new corporate office trainings that are for franchisees in Asheville. And with that grand opening we have doctors, pharmacists, nurses. We are constantly doing panels to connect people, especially when it comes to children. It’s, with experts that they can, could talk to, to help find what is right.
[00:08:27] It’s customized, it’s a healthcare product. Anything else it’s going to react different in everybody’s bodies and actually pharmaceuticals do too we’re individuals. So we have to help the individuals. And that’s what it’s really all about. The only way I make money is to help other people.
[00:08:47]Bryan Fields: So important.
[00:08:48] So let’s talk about the franchises. How does that work? That’s new to me. I’ve never heard anyone in the space doing that. Kellen. I’m curious if you have any, can you share a little bit about the fringe?
[00:08:58]Franny Tracy: Absolutely. So it [00:09:00] took me forever. Not forever. It took so long, so many challenges to figure this out.
[00:09:04] And there was nobody to help me along the way I was the first nobody. And in all of this, again, the only way I succeed as a human and as a business person is to help other people. So as I discovered this, and as I build relationships, it’s all about collaboration to make this available to other people.
[00:09:26] This is so new in the industry. The more is more. It’s all better. So it’s not business as usual. You can’t bank get insurance. You can’t use PayPal or square. It’s not like being able to set up a business. In one, I had 11 businesses before this. I was like, I got it. And nobody better than me. And beyond that and education, you have to have training and systems.
[00:09:51] This is. So to set people up for success. This is why we ended up franchising the model. We have [00:10:00] training when they come in to sign up with us, we show everything. They actually stay in lodge on the farm. They eat food that we grow on. The farm that we have in our pharmacy, they visit manufacturing, distribution.
[00:10:12] They learn the. Because that is the best way to deliver anything to people. And so when it’s so new and all over the internet, because it’s unregulated, you could see and read anything you want. Why not learn where we back it up? It’s not, this is seeing, is believing here. And, we’ve all made it through COVID it was willing.
[00:10:36] And now we’re set to explode. Again, we have an amazing franchise design model that incorporates hemp wood and sustainable building materials. The farmers that are growing that were part of the farm research that I helped start years ago. It’s amazing. It’s so integrated. There is not one step. It is so big, so huge.
[00:10:59][00:11:00] Nobody can do that. Alone that we have the executives, the support team, franchise support and everything figured out so that we bring people in and they’re still overwhelmed. And we’re telling them what to do. It’s a lot. It is super a lot, but we got to set people up for success. We look over 95% of every dispensary that open has closed.
[00:11:23] They don’t realize that their spanking issues or that PayPal is going to keep $16,000 that they took from us and never returned. It’s it’s a lot, success helping again, helping others. That’s really what it comes down
[00:11:38]Bryan Fields: to so important. And as you perfectly said, it’s humbling, right?
[00:11:42] The ability to say, I’ve done this before, I can figure this out. And then you dive into the space and you’re like, what is happening here?
[00:11:49]Franny Tracy: Oh, yeah. I tell everybody, listen, I fail forward all the time, because in all my franchise knows, we run all the pilots for new products and [00:12:00] orangy and everything at corporate, before we roll it out to them.
[00:12:04] And I was like, oh, if there’s a mistake to be made. Okay. The risky one to do it, all, that’s what I do. And that’s what makes me, I speak all over the country too. I’m like, Hey, I’m going to tell you I know exactly what to do and what not to do. And I’ll tell you both and you can choose whatever you want.
[00:12:26]Bryan Fields: That’s a fair way of describing Kelowna. I want you to come in here from a franchising standpoint, how valuable that must be to have a partner like Frannie kind of walking. Some of these operators, especially getting started. We’ve had conversations with people who are wide-eyed and think, Hey, I’ve done X, Y, and Z.
[00:12:39] Before, this transition will be seamless. And what it’s found out is it’s been a little harder than they anticipate. So expand on that.
[00:12:45]Kellan Finney: Yeah, no completely. There’s so many mistakes we made in this space and a lot of people Who have successfully run other businesses, coming to the space with their spreadsheets.
[00:12:54] And they’re like, look, how much money I’m gonna make? Like this cell over here, it’s going to do this. And then they get in [00:13:00] get involved. And it’s just a completely different world. It’s like the wild west, right? Like it’s not regulated. Like you’re trying to do the right thing. And you’re almost shooting yourself in the foot from a business perspective.
[00:13:10] And so having a partner. From a franchise perspective to lean on is a first that hasn’t, at least from my knowledge, hasn’t been available to anyone else trying to get into this space. And it sounds like this isn’t your guys’ first rodeo. There’s multiple iterations of learning. And so for any kind of talk, talk us through the process of your, the first time you guys started educating people to where you are now and like how.
[00:13:36] How big of a hill was that to climb from changing the iterations of teaching people and how everything kind of changes on the fly in the industry right now.
[00:13:47]Franny Tracy: Yeah. I like to refer to it as dynamic every damn day, you’re going to wake up and something’s different from growing to, every single step along the [00:14:00] way, it has been amazing and interesting even from when we took our first crops to make our first distillates and isolates and products.
[00:14:11] To where we are now and how even this, we have an alchemist’s that’s been working with us and our products, but in order to take my crop that I grew to market, I was like, oh goodness, I had to bring in a chemist and I call him an Alchemist because he’s so high vibe and evolved to be working through all this stuff.
[00:14:32] And now what does that look like? I helped start a non-profit women in hemp. The executive director of that came from the bottled water industry. Everybody thought she was crazy. We knew that these nanos solubles water solubles at the beginning were a joke. We’re the ones testing that stuff, all that stuff.
[00:14:54] If it’s not emulsified, it cleans to the outside. There’s no testing. It’s unregulated. [00:15:00] 80% of the drinks out there with CBD or any effective. And my franchisees want to have those drinks. Trying to explain to them like the research doesn’t back it up, when D eight became hot, I’m like, We were out there and we test everything and I was like, y’all have pesticides in this.
[00:15:19] So let me tell you this. We tested 131 D eight products. You are not how many passed the test. I’m not having pesticides heavy or heavy metals. Can we guess, or mold? Yes. Yes. 2 0 3, 3, where they were associated and, or grower. Because when we set up our three-year trial at the beginning, which I’m not having to deal with the, the farming aspect of it anymore, we grow a hemp too.
[00:15:51] We have a hemp history tour and a garden here on our farm, but it was the liability of being a public space and grow. [00:16:00] We had to move, grow elsewhere. And that was part of the women in hip. The researchers, it’s all under another program, that’s monitored under NC state. Now I don’t even have to worry about that, but because of that, that led to we didn’t, we weren’t the first release da we want the first, but we are the best because we’re one of the few that can say, guess what?
[00:16:23] You want to smoke that and have that variety from our bud bar. You’re not smoking pesticides. Or heavy metals. So those are just a few examples of what’s coming to light right now. We’re in research, I have researchers and we have chemists and we have testing and that’s what we do. So we don’t need to be first everywhere.
[00:16:41] We always need the best trusted, highest quality. And if it’s not one thing, it’s another, that’s a rabbit hole. We could go down before.
[00:16:50]Kellan Finney: Yeah, I was going to say, it’s gotta be, it’s gotta be shocking to you coming from pharma to be like, and not seeing this as like [00:17:00] standard in the industry, because the amount of tests that pharma does is even more obnoxious.
[00:17:05] Right.
[00:17:06]Franny Tracy: And so my rotation, I did rotations every year and my favorite was manufacturing. Again, like in forestry school, they didn’t have a sustainable agriculture back then. So it’s pretty much, I had a bachelor of science with forestry and ecology. I’m used to having microscopes and nerdy, magnifying glasses on and looking at it.
[00:17:28] I love that stuff and I’ve got to be able to back it up. I’m one of the few brands out there that has a. My name is on every product, every company, everything I do. And so it is, there’s nothing to hide behind. There’s no anything else. I take responsibility for everything. And so when my name is on.
[00:17:54] We’re just going to be as OCD about everything
[00:17:56]Bryan Fields: as you should. There’s a trust and expectation when it [00:18:00] comes with brands and positioning, where, when someone sees your logo and your name, there’s an expectation behind that of quality and safety that you have to stand behind as the face of the brand, which is like another layer of challenge.
[00:18:15] From a franchising standpoint, can you expand on how that would work? Do they get an opportunity to license for any brand or is it more of the operational expertise? Where, how does the franchising actually work?
[00:18:26]Franny Tracy: So I’m glad you asked that at the beginning of this year. It hit the press everywhere when I had it’s actually, I’m celebrating now one year of taking over as CEO because of some of the values that were in conflict, I bought my partner.
[00:18:41] And the first thing I did was release the revival of retail and the franchise model and went through all software development and program to give our franchisees that all have brick and mortar locations. And we’ve just been through two years of COVID and [00:19:00] retail is top 10% of online sales. We created unique URLs and QR codes that they begin to function more as an independent.
[00:19:11] But yet they have the entire franchise support. So the more they send to e-comm, the more money they can make there, we diversified their income streams, which is. So I had cords only telling me they would do live interviews that would not send me questions or do anything in advance. So I declined that based on my attorneys and publicists.
[00:19:32] Sure. But spoke everywhere. I got picked up everywhere because that is what we’re doing in this company. We are creating we’re coming out of a new area. Super progressive. I live in one of the most liberal towns. Nobody’s idea of work is the same. How do we empower people this year? We’re restructuring the company internally.
[00:19:56] So that next year we eventually become an employee owned company who better to [00:20:00] run the business. I picked the. I choose the leaders and eventually it becomes employee owned and that extends even to our franchise. So it is progressive. It is future. I love earlier. You were saying, do people love you? Or are you under scrutiny?
[00:20:16] Both. And some people have both, they’re like, what are you doing? And this is genius and you are crazy. Yes. All of it, and the franchisees are right now, we’re in our core group and they know this is how we build our business. Like a plant growing it with roots.
[00:20:37]Kellan Finney: I have a question. Can your franchisees carry other brands?
[00:20:42] You encourage that? How, or if they have a new product idea, do they come to you? How does that whole dynamic.
[00:20:48]Franny Tracy: Yeah we do not at any means carry a competitive brand because I do not believe there is any brand out there that could compete with us. And we are a brand [00:21:00] on that note. There are certain things that we do carry that are we have amazing collaborating partners.
[00:21:07] We don’t get all. We buy all our flour from farmers, no brokers, again, part of our values and mission. Drinks. It doesn’t make sense for us to distribute drinks. They’re heavy, they’re breakable and LA. So franchisees have independent relationships with their drink vendors. Although there’s often the same Arcana cafe has brought in some things and we do have different collaborators that have products that we do not, and I’m not going out there to white label a product and say, Hey, I did.
[00:21:39] We collaborate with them. So there’s some co-branding opportunities and our franchisees are definitely the ones. Listen, they’re hot on it. They want the next new shiny object to every day, all the time. And I’m like, we’re working on it. Y’all know it’s got to go through R and D. So that’s, what’s exciting about the launch of our Canik cafe.
[00:21:59][00:22:00] It’s been an R and D for six months, all the different foods, all the different trials we have are, 22 person group here in Asheville that does all the analysis. Then we have other ones that’s just the taste retail side of it. So there’s really fun. Collaboration’s the, that are happening with different people.
[00:22:17] Supplying our ingredients. We have victory hemp that we work with. So it’s more about collaboration’s and instead of competitive products, there’s just not, no reason. And it’s just as super excited. We’ve got 24 new products that we’re launching this year. We just trademarked our new molds for our gummies, which are super branded to Franny’s pharmacy.
[00:22:42] Really high end and vegan, all natural. Gummies out there, people love gummies and they’re so full of crap by putting that in their body, it has red food coloring in it for God’s sakes. We’re still supposed to be health and [00:23:00] wellness, no matter what. So we use spirulina and peach juice and tumeric, and these great things to, to produce a great product that can actually be healthy.
[00:23:13] I answer to your question.
[00:23:15]Bryan Fields: Can we just expand on cafe, you know what that is so that our listeners have some context?
[00:23:21]Franny Tracy: Yes. It’s super exciting because the first time I grew up, it was for food. So Arcana cafe, when we launch our first phase, one is the baked goods with teas. We have a whole chakra tea blend, so that goes.
[00:23:37] That we have coffee and a great baked goods. So some of them have CBD in it and some of them do not. They are using hemp flour, hemp seeds, hemp milk, and one of the favorite inciting things that will roll out at the end of Q1 is pasta and Prada. One of the divisions of Franny’s farm [00:24:00] foods, that’s creating hemp.
[00:24:02] So we have a gluten-free hemp gnocchi with a dinner theater. That’s an educational dinner theater with all these New York actors that are in it. It’s so genius. We’re going to have one on coming up then to launch a bunch of the new food stuff to put the education in it, but make it fun. Fun fun.
[00:24:23] Kiana cafe is cheese, coffee, baked goods, scones, cookies. We have hemp nugs that are super nutrient dense. So these are actually helping wellness food that tastes good. It’s exciting and pasta and sauces are all coming soon. We have a Franny’s better Cheney partner. Oh, it’s so delicious. And it’s vegetarian too.
[00:24:52] No eggs in it for the binding because hemp protein is so nutrient dense that has so much protein, [00:25:00] that it is the binder and you don’t need eggs, so you can make amazing things. Gluten-free and.
[00:25:06]Kellan Finney: You’re making me so hungry right now.
[00:25:08]Bryan Fields: I get a bag. I have some questions. How does this work? Kellen. I asked you first, right?
[00:25:13] Like how, what’s going on here? I have an understanding of Pampa. Like how do we incorporate into food? Like for any Saint, can you give some more context? I’ll
[00:25:20]Kellan Finney: let Frannie take over from here. Cause like I cook with HelloFresh. If we’re going to be honest, eligible bachelor chef shout out.
[00:25:30] So I’ll let Franny explain the actual process of incorporating the hemp into it. But it’s the hemp hearts, right? For any, is that the.
[00:25:39]Franny Tracy: Yeah, that is actually it. And there’s so much amazing education that we’re putting around this because people don’t understand that the female plant is the one that creates all the beautiful medicinal buds and throughout ancient history.
[00:25:55] Actually the men would grow it, but as soon as they harvested, they were no longer [00:26:00] allowed to touch this beautiful female plant. As it got transitioned into the medicine So the female plants are short and bushy and they produce these Brene buds and that’s what we’re using for all the medicinal stuff. We press it, use it for oils, make distillate and everything for all our products, the male plant is tall and straight and has a big Cola on the end of it.
[00:26:23] That starts with a bunch of little white balls that turn into sync. Does not have CBD in it, but it has a ton of Omega’s. It is super rich, nutrient dense protein food, like many other seeds. So they harvest that top Cola with all the seeds in it, take the seeds and you seeds, and then send it through a processing and each stage it gets finer.
[00:26:50] So you end up with a arena, a frame, a week texture, and then you end up with a flower F L O U. So that’s what all the food is made out of [00:27:00] no CBD, but super nutrient rich and dense health food. So there’s so much that, that’s the biggest thing. People are like, I’m confused. Hemp oil for cooking and hemp oil too, for medicine.
[00:27:13] There so much. And so very exciting as we’re building all our assets in Q2, there will be a huge brand, these farm foods launch, and we expect a lot more education to come into this because food is love this.
[00:27:29]Bryan Fields: And I’m glad that you broke that down. Cause I think it’s so important to separate that information and to explain for others because I’m hearing that and I believe I understand, but hearing you separate, it makes a ton more sense and it’s really.
[00:27:40] But the benefits of the differences in the plant. So continuing on that path and de-stress hemp thoughts on that becoming more of a mainstream style.
[00:27:50]Franny Tracy: Yeah, absolutely. It’s the same thing that I was talking about before and the contracts, which everybody should understand since we live in the most extreme contrast ever.
[00:27:59][00:28:00] So industrial hemp is very different from horticultural hemp. I say it’s a difference between a horticulture, which is small managing a. And that’s what we do with the female plant and on the medicinal side of it, and then mass agriculture is the industrial. So how do we bridge those?
[00:28:18] There is so many trials that we’ve been involved in that are allowing us to bridge the medicinal into industrial right now, very difficult to get the quality and industrial is field grown. It’s outside. So think too about these large farmers that are interested in that they have no grant money, no government money, no state funding.
[00:28:40] It’s all on their own dime. You figure out or transition. So they’re not, and you can’t grow a food product. You cannot grow a medicinal product. There is no way you can ever grow the hemp on contaminated soil. It, we have grown it on organic soil where it has still [00:29:00] come back with pesticides or heavy molds from our rain, from the water system that is not able to ever go into an adjustable product.
[00:29:10] So industrial hemp, we will see will end up being fiber. It’s the next model that’s growing is. In him and in cannabis. So this is why we have a Franny’s fashion too, and a Franny’s foods, but all food and all medicinal stuff to get to industrial capabilities has to be grown on good soil because it’s a bio remediate or in hemp is going to pick it all up.
[00:29:38] So we’ll see fiber and textiles and rope and building materials. That’s what’s going to emerge the industries out of industrial hemp. This is why some of the first people that have been involved with it, we were buddies growing together with nobody else did our partners and we are a dealer for him.
[00:29:58] Would an amazing [00:30:00] example of an industrial hemp for the entire community. Within 95 miles is growing a product to be produced in the same.
[00:30:10]Bryan Fields: Kaelyn. I know you’re a big industrial hemp fan. You want to kinda take
[00:30:14]Kellan Finney: that? I’m a huge fan of it. I think that there’s just so many.
[00:30:18]Bryan Fields: The benefits
[00:30:18]Kellan Finney: to the human society pivoting away from more from crops that require more resources and don’t yield as many applications, right?
[00:30:28] Like cotton, it takes up a ton of land and we just make clothes out of it. Versus if you replaced that same. Amount of land with industrial hemp, you would not only be able to generate fiber for those clothes, but you’d also get what’s called herd. So it’s like the center of the hemp stock, right?
[00:30:45] The fibers like the outside of it. If you’ve ever seen a weed stem and you’ve been picking off little fibers, the fiber that makes clothes sits on the outside of the stem of a large hemp plant. And then the inside is like Paulo would, but there’s a. Specific [00:31:00] ratio of like air inside of that wood that creates a high R value, which is your, the way that we measure installation.
[00:31:07] And I’m getting there, but like when you take that and make, say hemp wood, or even like hemp Crete now is another popular building. Yeah, medium for it. It creates this product that has such a high R value. So then you don’t need to then go and use fiberglass and generate all these other toxic chemicals to insulate the house, to make it energy efficient.
[00:31:29] So there’s a ton of just nuance benefits associated with the plant that people have even having even started to scratch the surface of from helping humanity.
[00:31:41]Franny Tracy: It is so astounding. And so listen, we release our design article coming up soon, and it’s going to have videos about exactly what you were talking.
[00:31:52] How do we get to a hemp wood product that you’re using and building materials? And another thing you’re going to love this too, is [00:32:00] carbon sequestering. We have major issues. We can reverse this stuff, talking about ResearchGate. I love this. I love it. That’s part of the heart and soul of farming and what, how our farmers are going to save our world, because it’s not just here.
[00:32:18] We’re going to return one day to the value of everybody recognizing and honoring farmers, which right now they are the poorest in this country. They are the unhealthiest in this country. They worked so much, and it is a labor of love. And I can assure you as much as I have on my farm and everything I’ve ever done as a passion.
[00:32:41] When I worked through pharmaceuticals and was feeding chickens every morning and goats, and it is truly a labor of love. And for everybody, it is also a labor of service for the. Because we are saving environments and [00:33:00] soils and continuing to do something. It’s going to be very interesting.
[00:33:03] This is the first year we’ve had a farm census in five years. And what we’ve seen in the last 15 years is that now we’ve went from 50% of farms being owned by individual people and families to now six, 6%. We have lost our farms. ‘
[00:33:25]Bryan Fields: cause, it’s not, it’s hard. What is one hemp statistic or fact that would shock an everyday person?
[00:33:33]Franny Tracy: I think knowing that there’s 450,000 plants. Cannabis is the only one that has, that provides cannabis when consumed by human with 300 cannabinoid receptors that fit together 450,000 other plants out there. [00:34:00] And cannabis is the only one that has what was made and designed in how ever we were creating.
[00:34:09] For plants and animals and our community and everybody, everything to live together that fits in the human body that shows we were born to be together, humans and cannabis,
[00:34:21]Kellan Finney: the walking key.
[00:34:25]Bryan Fields: What research that you have said re or read about or anticipate reading about in the next, let’s say three to five years gets you most.
[00:34:38]Franny Tracy: Oh, most excited. I love all the research. So along the way, what we’re already finding out is there was only CBD. And now, already in these past few years, we have, are identifying all these individual cannabinoids. So I love the entire fact of the research [00:35:00] is isolating each cannabinoid, finding out what it means as an isolate on its own, and then putting it back together to see how it reacts better with its, other parts to create.
[00:35:13] We are creating an entirely new healthcare system. So I can’t even pick one. It’s just the cannabinoid research as we continue to isolate.
[00:35:26]Bryan Fields: Since you’ve been in the cannabinoid industry, what has been the biggest misconception?
[00:35:30]Franny Tracy: That, oh gosh, it’s because I’m involved in so many. I think one of the biggest misconceptions is everybody figures that, I’m rich being in this industry and that’s why everybody’s getting into it.
[00:35:44] And that’s why 95% of the businesses have failed because they don’t realize any business is gross. Like a plant. You got to have roots. You just there’s no. Get rich quick scenes here. And. [00:36:00]
[00:36:00]Kellan Finney: Unfortunately, if only if
[00:36:04]Bryan Fields: I know before we do predictions, we ask all of our guests, if you could sum up your experience into a main takeaway or lesson learned to pass onto the next generation, what would it be?
[00:36:16]Franny Tracy: Plants and plant medicine are true healthcare, and that is our future to open your mind. Research heart pockets to support real health care and real wellness. We’ve got a long way to go.
[00:36:40]Bryan Fields: All right. Prediction time, Franny, five to seven years from now. What will CBD and hemp franchising.
[00:36:53]Franny Tracy: It’s going to be very normal. I expect that Brandy’s pharmacy is going to be a [00:37:00] internationally recognized brand. Right now we have international connections, but it’s not necessarily legal there yet. And that this will be a global opportunity that we have led. And it is not, everybody’s going to want to get in.
[00:37:15] It’s not going to be as affordable as it is right now to take the risk it’s going to be standard. And what you’ll see with Randy’s pharmacy is that we are an enterprise or. As we integrate food and fiber and everything into our dispensary models. It’s not just going to be medicinal. All of the industry that we are creating will catch up, to bring a lot more products into the market.
[00:37:46] We will see every major brand and retailer bringing him in some way to be a part of their product line, because it will be. It will be the norm in about seven years, five years. I think that [00:38:00] in between five to seven is going to be that next shift and franchise are going to be normal.
[00:38:07] It’ll be normal. And you won’t see as many of the mom and pop, not as, CBD is everywhere now that it will be regulated and they’re going to take it out of the gas stations so that people can’t go in and find stuff that’s cheap. That’s filled with shit, literally. You can get theses in any of this stuff.
[00:38:26] Birds fly over these crops. So just, we still got a long way to go, but in five years we’ve already seen 38 states have legalized marijuana. So that’s going to be part of this as well.
[00:38:43]Bryan Fields: Five to seven years from now.
[00:38:45]Kellan Finney: I agree. I think that it’s going to be standard and I think that unfortunately for a lot of modern. Shops that are just trying to stand on their own and there to whether their little storm I don’t think they’re going to make it. I think that it is going to be [00:39:00] adopted by the CVS is, and the Walgreens, even right now, Walmart, right?
[00:39:05] If you’re in a certain state, you can go to Walmart and you can buy hemp herd. That is Tatler right. So there’s hemp, cat litter out there that Walmart is selling currently. So there’s. The product skew at these large established companies are only going to increase. And so I believe that it’s going to be interesting to see the dynamic between companies that got involved early.
[00:39:31] Versus the companies that are going to come and get involved post normalization, if you will, which I think Fanny Frannie is right on the, hit the nail on the head in terms of that timeline of being like five to seven years. And so that is going to be a really interesting. Consolidation event, if you will, where say CVS doesn’t want to build out an entire product line.
[00:39:52] They’re going to come in and purchase an existing company would be my guests. That’s my prediction. What do you think, Brian?
[00:39:58]Bryan Fields: I think with franchises, [00:40:00] you have write the pros and the cons. And I think when you’re evaluating a business and you’re maybe a little more reluctant to a franchise, you have to think about the massive benefits that.
[00:40:08] The educational aspect, the fact that Franny’s likely failed the bazillion and a half times, which has led her database of information to be extremely helpful so that the new franchisee doesn’t have to make those same mistakes. And I think that some of the operators we’ve spoken with that maybe taking those wrong turns, if they would’ve taken the franchise path and worked with.
[00:40:27] They likely would have saved themselves, tons of headaches and financial burdens in those mistakes. Because like you were saying for fanning, it’s so costly for the farmers and to make those decisions, you don’t sometimes get a second chance. And, understanding that is a really big challenge, especially as everyone gets that wide-eyed approach as they, they want to rush into the space.
[00:40:46] And at the end of the day, you have to make sure that you’ve got the right capital investment, but you also understand the path forward is going to be changing. Yeah,
[00:40:53]Kellan Finney: I think you hit on a really important thing there that we haven’t really discussed, which is the community, if you’re just out there on your own and you’ve run [00:41:00] into an issue, like you could make the right decision, but it’s always helpful to be able to turn back to someone who’s going through or experiencing the same thing and be like, what do you think?
[00:41:08] Even if it isn’t an issue that Franny has dealt with, I imagine her background and being in the same business model is super helpful. Just to talk to someone about those.
[00:41:18]Franny Tracy: Yeah. It sets people up for success and saves them. They each have their own rep that they have access to all the time that is going to help them communicate.
[00:41:29] And we have weekly calls, where our executive team is always meeting with them. One other really cool thing. And this is great cause it’s so business focused, but I’m going to reiterate what I did in my Ted talk in 2018. The first time I publicly spoke and. It was illegal then. And I was getting threats that the DEA was going to come burn my farm, my frog.
[00:41:52] And I said, at the end of this, that I believe that this crop is going to save our agro economies. [00:42:00] So it’s more than just franchising and went back to what we were talking about earlier. Kellen, carbon sequestering. We’re going to see a revitalization across the entire country for agro communities and growers and farmers that we’ve never seen before.
[00:42:15] It is never going to be a profit driven. It’s never going to be as profitable as tobacco. There never will be again, but it revitalizes business and industry that connects us to the. And that is a new opportunity for businesses. As I have converted and seeing so many farms, we have helped convert them into him that too is a business.
[00:42:39] And it’s so beautiful. How it all. All is one, but so many different parts, just like our human body. We’re all in this one, meat, Zack, but it takes a whole lot of moving parts and Oregon’s inside to make it happen.
[00:42:53]Bryan Fields: Amazing. So Frannie for our listeners that want to learn more, they want to get touch.
[00:42:57] Where can they get.
[00:42:59]Franny Tracy:[00:43:00] So I’m everywhere. You can even ask, somebody asked Alexa the other day who is bringing Tacy. Oh, Alexa, pause. Sorry. She’s but Brandy’s pharmacy.com and we spell Farmacy, F a R M a C Y in the barman pharmacy. Brandy’s pharmacy.com. Is really the host and home for where everything is.
[00:43:21] But if you want to stay on the farm, you can go to Franny’s farm.com. You can look me up as a female entrepreneur. I have my whole perspective on just business and not spray any tasty. And we are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere. And also in March, you can send me all over the country. I speak all over the country.
[00:43:43] Keynote speaking, and at alternative products expo in Fort Lauderdale at the beginning of March. And NOCO at the end of March. And I think that’s when we’re all going to be listening to this. So come see
[00:43:54]Bryan Fields: me. Yeah. We’ll link it up in the show notes. Thanks so much for taking the time. Thank you for.[00:44:00]
