#590 Amanda Goetz on Censorship in Payment Systems

Amanda Goetz is the founder of House of Wise, a luxury CBD brand for women, and half-time CMO at Teal. In this conversation, we discuss payment system censorship, CBD, distribution strategies, financial education, subscription models, astrology, and payment infrastructure. ======================= Did you know nearly 338 million dollars worth of NFTs were sent last year? And in 2021 that number is growing faster than ever. Looking to make your first NFT? Check out NEAR’s fast, scalable, low-cost, open-source platform. Learn why NEAR is the infrastructure for innovation at near.org: https://near.org/?utm_campaign=pomp ======================= Exodus is an absolute game changer in the crypto wallet space, and we’ve teamed up to offer an exclusive discount for you, as listeners of the podcast. Sign up for Exodus today using my promo code Exodus.com/pomp. This is a no brainer for both newcomers and crypto heavyweights - go sign up today. ======================= With 10M+ users, Crypto.com is the easiest place to buy, and sell 100+ cryptocurrencies. The Crypto.com Visa Card gives you up to 8% back instantly, and 100% back on Spotify and Netflix. Also, Crypto.com lets you earn up to 8.5% p.a. on BTC, and 14% p.a. on stablecoins. Get $25 when you download the Crypto.com App with code "pomp". Download the App now: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/pomppodcast2021 =======================

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Amanda Getz is the founder of House of Wise, a luxury CBD brand for women, and a halftime CMO at Teal. In this conversation, we discuss payment system censorship, CBD, distribution strategies, financial education, subscription models, astrology, and payment infrastructure. I really enjoyed this conversation with Amanda, and I hope you do as well. Before we get into this episode, though, I want to quickly talk about our sponsors. First up is NEAR. NEAR is an open source platform that accelerates the development of decentralized applications, overcoming high fees and slow speeds with its

• 0:47Anthony Pompliano?

  fast, scalable, low cost, and climate neutral blockchain protocol. This is why NEAR was recently awarded the climate neutral product label from South Pole. One transaction on NEAR consumes about 1,300x less carbon than a similar transaction on other chains. Learn why NEAR is the infrastructure for innovation at NEAR.org today. N-E-A-R dot O-R-G today. NEAR.org. Go check it out. Next up is Exodus. Exodus simply builds the most beautiful products in the entire crypto industry. Exodus is leading the world out of the traditional financial system by building those beautiful and user-friendly products. With its focus on design and user experience,

• 1:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Exodus has become one of the most popular and loved cryptocurrency apps. It's supported on both desktop and mobile, allowing you to sync your wallet across multiple devices so you can have access to your funds anywhere. You can instantly exchange around 100 different cryptocurrencies straight from your wallet. Interactive charts let you view an asset's price history and your portfolio's performance over time. And maybe the best part, Exodus is integrated with the treasure hardware wallet, making advanced security easy for everyone. Visit exodus.com/pomp for your free download, or search Exodus on the App Store or the Play Store. Exodus.com, or search Exodus on the App Store or the Play Store.

• 2:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Last but not least is crypto.com. With 10 million plus users, crypto.com is the easiest place to buy and sell 100-plus cryptocurrencies. Crypto.com has a Visa card that gives you up to 8% back instantly and 100% back on Spotify and Netflix. Also, crypto.com lets you earn high rates of return on Bitcoin, stable coins, and other types of crypto assets. You can get $25 when you download the crypto.com app and use code POMP as well. Again, go download the crypto.com app and use code POMP and you'll get $25 for free. Go to the description, click on the link there, and it'll take you right to the promised land. Crypto.com app, use code POMP, get $25. Click on the link in the description. All right, let's get into this episode with Amanda. I hope that you guys enjoy this one.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs POMP Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of POMP Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by POMP or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 3:23Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, guys. Bang, bang. I've got Amanda here. Thank you so much for doing this.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks for having me.

• 3:27Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, let's just get started. What the hell is CBD? You start a company and there's CBD gummies. I don't know what that is. So what exactly is CBD?

• 3:35Speaker 02

  Okay, cannabis, cannabinoids. You know what cannabis is. Most people think of THC. Right. THC gets you psycho, the psychoactives gets you high. CBD is a component of that. And if you grow a hemp plant, it can turn into high THC, which would make it marijuana. If you harvest it before it hits that point, it's CBD.

• 3:56Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, you lost me. This is like science stuff.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:59Anthony Pompliano?

  When I think of weed, as somebody once told me, if you say marijuana on the internet, that means you're a cop. So weed.

• 4:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Weed is made up of THC and CBD?

• 4:12Speaker 02

  Exactly. So if it has high THC, low CBD, it's weed, marijuana.

• 4:18Anthony Pompliano?

  All right.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  If it's-

• 4:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Then no marijuana, that's a cop.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  If it's low THC, high CBD, it's hemp.

• 4:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Okay. And then what you put into the gummies is-

• 4:29Speaker 02

  Is hemp derived.

• 4:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Hemp derived CBD, and then you mix it with other things and we'll get to what those all are. Uh, but the idea is CBD has what impact on the body versus THC?

• 4:38Speaker 02

  So we have an ECS, an endocannabinoid system.

• 4:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Which was just discovered in the nineties. We didn't even know that we had this and it helps regulate a lot of different things, right? Um, and so CBD is a really cool adaptogen, meaning it will help if you're overstimulated or understimulated, it will adapt to that.

• 4:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. So if I'm overstimulated, it'll bring me back down to kind of the, the regression to the mean.

• 5:00Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 5:00Anthony Pompliano?

  If I'm understimulated, same thing, it'll bring me back. Okay?

• 5:03Speaker 02

  Exactly. And so we mix it with active ingredients, like you were just saying. So, because CBD acts as a really powerful carrier and heightens the effects of the active ingredients. So for example, melatonin, people take melatonin, we've mixed it with really good quality, full spectrum CBD. Full spectrum means it has all the terpenes in it of the plant. So it actually has what we call the entourage effect. It actually helps with efficacy.

• 5:26Anthony Pompliano?

  So I eat a gummy.

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 5:29Anthony Pompliano?

  That gummy, basically there's like two different compounds that team up. The CBD is like, hey, we're coming and then we're going to bring the melatonin.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 5:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Like get on my back, I'm carrying the squad, we're going in. All right.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Perfect.

• 5:41Anthony Pompliano?

  And then the melatonin gets there faster, better, et cetera.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  Higher potency, efficacy, et cetera.

• 5:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Potency. I like that word. That's like a wizard word. Potency. All right. So there's higher potency. And that means that if I was going to take melatonin versus if I take it via the sleep gummy that you have, uh, I will actually get a better effect from, or, or a more um, kind of broader effect from the CBD enabled melatonin versus just without it.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Yeah. Another example is the sex gummy.

• 6:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  Okay. So the CBD helps calm your brain.

• 6:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Helps a woman get in the mood, right?

• 6:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Because that's usually the hardest part is like turning your brain off to get in the mood.

• 6:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  And then-

• 6:18Anthony Pompliano?

  What do you mean turn your brain off?

• 6:19Speaker 02

  So you're not thinking about your freaking to do list.

• 6:21Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Okay.

• 6:22Speaker 02

  And you can actually like get in touch with your body.

• 6:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  Um, and then the active ingredients then start to kick in and helps with like lubrication, stimulation, et cetera.

• 6:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  And so again, the CBD kind of leads.

• 6:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Helps calm the brain, helps with calm, focus, et cetera. And then the active ingredients heighten that as well.

• 6:40Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. It's like active ingredients, jump on my back, we're going. Alright, so you have a sex one, you have a sleep one.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  Stress.

• 6:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Stress, what's that one?

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Has L-theanine, which is an amino acid that helps with focus.

• 6:51Anthony Pompliano?

  I know what that is. Okay, alright. Um, and so the whole idea here is I can take, let's say, the sex one. If I'm going to sleep or wanna have sex, if I wanna go to sleep, I take the sleep one.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 7:03Anthony Pompliano?

  Um, and if I want, if I feel stressed, I could take the stress one.

• 7:07Speaker 02

  Yep, yep.

• 7:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Can I take multiple ones in the same day?

• 7:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. Can you die from CBD?

• 7:12Speaker 02

  No.

• 7:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. Really?

• 7:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Alright, that seems.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  You, you would have to take an immense amount and like they don't even, you can Google it. It's really hard to find an accurate answer of how much. And you would never, from our products, like there, it's smaller doses.

• 7:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. So like you, you would literally have to like inject it into your veins and like for days.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:35Anthony Pompliano?

  And then maybe, only maybe.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 7:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. So, do people take like, in the morning I feel stressed, let me take this. Oh, now I wanna have sex, let me take the sex one. And now I wanna go to sleep, let me take the sleep one?

• 7:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, hundred percent. Yeah, and that's what we're focused on is routines and intentionality throughout your day. And that's why, I mean, the CBD landscape, the reason I started is because it's so fragmented and really confusing. Like, all the questions you're asking are like scientific and rooted in like understanding what a cannabinoid is.

• 8:03Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm a scientist, most people don't know that.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  Exactly. Um, and so in your spare time, and so when I looked at the landscape, I like, I'm a single mom, I have three kids. I was an executive at a company. I didn't have time to understand what products were out there. I wanted to know, like, I am not sleeping well. What's gonna help me? I am having anxiety attacks during the day, like what's going to help me? And so we're a function first formula. We talk about what's the end outcome versus just trying to teach everybody the components of a hemp plant.

• 8:33Anthony Pompliano?

  You wanna sleep, take the sleep, right? Okay, got it. Uh, when you think about this. There's all kinds of issues, right? So most people right now, like this is about the point where they're like, all right, he said some funny jokes. She has these products. What the hell is she doing? Talking about CBD gummies on a podcast who just talks about Bitcoin? One of the things that the CBD industry shares with Bitcoin and crypto companies is all of the legacy infrastructure. They really haven't made up their mind yet. They don't really like it so much and they can't outright just say like, you guys are bad people because they're not. Instead, they just make it really hard to do business. The infrastructure becomes difficult. Maybe talk through like the technology stack that you tried to use, what the challenges are and then where you guys are now.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's interesting. The entire industry buckets everything cannabis related into an MRB, a marijuana related business, despite the fact that CBD products are federally legal.

• 9:27Anthony Pompliano?

  You see, just sorry to interrupt you real quick, but you see marijuana, it's like literally the cops are like involved somehow. Like marijuana related business. They're like, oh, bad people, marijuana.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Right, right.

• 9:36Anthony Pompliano?

  They don't call it weed related businesses.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  Coming to your house. Yeah. So, um, so when I started, I was literally having to get on the phone with people that sounded like car salesmen, that they were e-merchant brokers because I couldn't use, if you're building on Shopify, like you're a normal D to C company, which we have part D to C distribution, I can't use Stripe, which is Shopify's preferred payment.

• 10:02Anthony Pompliano?

  So Shopify will let you operate if you are a

• 10:05Speaker 02

  You have to get approved.

• 10:06Anthony Pompliano?

  A weed related business. We'll go with WRB. Weed related business. I'm not a cop. I'm not a cop. Weed related business. But Stripe, the payment processor will not process payments for these MRBs.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 10:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  So we then had to find out what's our options. So we went through Square, but they have a very, very small allowance of CBD companies. And you have to go through extreme, we're VC backed company. So we were able to get into their beta program. But then you have to Shopify won't pass directly to Square. So now you gotta put in a third party handoff.

• 10:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  And then there's e-merchant brokers, like what is

• 10:48Anthony Pompliano?

  What is an e-merchant broker? That sounds like a shady industry.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  It really is.

• 10:51Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, what is that?

• 10:53Speaker 02

  It's just the handoff between a payment platform.

• 10:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, you use car salesmen, so that's where I'm getting the shady.

• 11:00Speaker 02

  It's literally the car salesman that's like, I'm trying to sell you this car. They're trying to be that middle man of the shopping cart and the payment.

• 11:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, which Stripe basically killed that industry.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 11:11Anthony Pompliano?

  If you can use Stripe.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 11:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Makes sense. So when you start doing this, were you able to get up and running at first and then they quickly shut you down? Or like, do they not even let you get up and running because they realize?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:22Anthony Pompliano?

  The M word is part of this business?

• 11:24Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 11:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  So and it's whack a mole. Like, I literally will get down the line of an SMS platform. And then they'll be like, oh, wait, wait, wait. We just looked at your website. Your CBD. Sorry, we can't, we can't support you. And the same with like fundraising.

• 11:36Anthony Pompliano?

  For text message?

• 11:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:38Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, it's probably because the word marijuana, cops, like I'm telling you. I'm telling you, they know that that M word is gonna pop up.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  They think I'm just like, yeah. So it's that, it's fundraising too. Like, I've learned that I am just super transparent upfront. It's like, we are a CBD company. We're helping, you know, women. But if I tried doing the like, female wellness angle, they find out. And then I've gone down this path, and now I have to come back and find new solutions. So.

• 12:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Because there's certain banks and other types of financial institutions that will make it very difficult for people to invest as well, not only for you to process payments, but investors, etc.

• 12:15Speaker 02

  Exactly. And also, where their money comes from. Like, if their LPs are in the Middle East, they, I have like, the double whammy, because I'm cannabis and sexual health, which in the VC world, sexual health was just made a category so that you could actually size the market and have comps. That was just three years ago. And so a lot of LPs that are coming from different parts of the world, if they're in that fund. I can't even talk to them.

• 12:40Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, dumb question. Middle Eastern LPs religious or they just don't like sex? Or what's going on there?

• 12:47Speaker 02

  I think-

• 12:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Or combination?

• 12:48Speaker 02

  I think it's still patriarchal societies.

• 12:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  So-

• 12:51Anthony Pompliano?

  So not necessarily directly a religious thing as much as it is like a societal and cultural thing. Okay. And they're putting pressure or having the docs-

• 13:00Speaker 02

  They just have vice clauses.

• 13:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Okay.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  Literally, they're like, yeah.

• 13:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. So you've raised capital. How much?

• 13:08Speaker 02

  Uh, to date, 2.5.

• 13:09Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. 2.5 million dollars. And the whole idea is you're going to take, uh, what right now is three products. The sex, sleep and stress, all S's, very, uh, very good alliteration there.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  Thanks.

• 13:18Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, and you basically use CBD in these products, in the gummies, and you go and you sell it on the internet. Except for there's one twist.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:26Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm fascinated by this. And the first time I heard this, as I'm assuming most investors, they go, this is either shady or this is genius. And like, I don't know how to underwrite it.

• 13:39Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 13:39Anthony Pompliano?

  But what you basically do is you have, uh, like Tupperware style distribution. I didn't understand this until literally before the podcast, so I'm cheating now. Part of this is because you're getting shut down by the payment processors.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  And we're getting shut down by Facebook.

• 13:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, explain that.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  You cannot, so we are ingestibles. Many CBD companies-

• 14:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Ingestible means I can literally eat it.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  Put it inside your body. Yep. Many CBD companies will launch a topical, I mean, like a cream or something. And then they'll run paid ads for that.

• 14:11Anthony Pompliano?

  And that's cool if it's a cream.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 14:13Anthony Pompliano?

  All right.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  But since I'm fully focused on efficacy, I, I wanted just ingestibles. Facebook will not let me run any paid ads because we're ingestibles.

• 14:23Anthony Pompliano?

  So you can have a Facebook page, you can have a personal profile, but you can't run paid ads?

• 14:28Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. Is Zuck not like weed? He probably is marijuana. He's a cop, like.

• 14:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Love you, love you. Sorry, just kidding. But like, I mean, what's up with that?

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:39Anthony Pompliano?

  So CBD, anything that goes in the body or is it specifically targeting weed slash CBD slash THC?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, anything ingestibles.

• 14:48Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, so this isn't specifically this subsector of ingestibles. It's anything that you put inside your body, they aren't cool with?

• 14:55Speaker 02

  Right, okay, now I get your question. Yeah, it's just CBD ingestibles.

• 14:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Obviously, you can't do THC because that's not federally legal.

• 15:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  You can't run paid ads to THC.

• 15:02Anthony Pompliano?

  THC not allowed federally.

• 15:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, but CBD because it's an ingestible. But like, there's nootropics, there's other people like, that are running paid ads.

• 15:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Can you do alcohol? Paid ads for alcohol?

• 15:13Speaker 02

  No.

• 15:14Anthony Pompliano?

  No.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 15:15Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, interesting. That changes my opinion a little bit. If you could do paid ads for alcohol, then I'd be like, that kind of is like hypocritical.

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:23Anthony Pompliano?

  If you can't do paid ads.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  But you can run paid ads for Viagra.

• 15:28Anthony Pompliano?

  Huh.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  So how's that different?

• 15:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Can you?

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:32Anthony Pompliano?

  But is that prescribed?

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Hims and hers.

• 15:33Anthony Pompliano?

  Is that prescribed by a doctor?

• 15:35Speaker 02

  Hims and hers are not prescribed. And they have.

• 15:37Anthony Pompliano?

  No, but don't they, oh, maybe not. I don't know. I don't know enough about it. Uh, but I wonder if there's like a prescription component of it in terms of if it's prescribed by a doctor, then like it's okay somehow? I don't know.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  No, it's.

• 15:49Anthony Pompliano?

  The alcohol thing is interesting.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Maybe we'll get some data on, uh, on that before the end of the, uh.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  We like pause.

• 15:54Anthony Pompliano?

  The, the podcast. Um, all right, so you can't use Facebook ads to get distribution.

• 16:01Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 16:02Anthony Pompliano?

  The payment systems are all basically screwing you.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:05Anthony Pompliano?

  So then explain this distribution network. I'm fascinated by the idea of, uh, innovation and ingenuity comes out of necessity.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 16:15Anthony Pompliano?

  You're like the classic case for this.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I grew up in the Midwest, small town.

• 16:20Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. Everyone in the Midwest says that.

• 16:22Speaker 02

  My town's eight hundred people.

• 16:24Anthony Pompliano?

  That's very small. Okay, keep going.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:27Anthony Pompliano?

  I think my high school is bigger than that.

• 16:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, so everyone sold, you know, Mary Kay, Roden and Fields, you name it, right? Those are MLMs.

• 16:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Dumb question. What are, what are those?

• 16:41Speaker 02

  So, an MLM.

• 16:42Anthony Pompliano?

  No, no, no, uh, Mary Kay?

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Makeup and Roden Fields Skincare and.

• 16:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it, got it. Like, they're brands.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  Exactly. So, and Tupperware is a good example, right? So what is an MLM? Multi-level marketing.

• 16:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  Meaning, you make more money as you recruit people below you. And it's the reason why it's called the pyramid scheme, right? There's somebody at the top who started, recruited their friends. Those people had to recruit more friends. And what happens is the person at the top gets a percentage of each of the people under them. So the person at the top's making a ton of money, people at the bottom are making nothing.

• 17:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Is this illegal?

• 17:14Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 17:15Anthony Pompliano?

  It is illegal.

• 17:16Speaker 02

  It is, but there are loopholes and there are still tons of MLMs out there and they're predatory on low socioeconomic households.

• 17:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  Because less than 1% of women in MLMs make money.

• 17:27Anthony Pompliano?

  What is the loopholes that people expose?

• 17:32Speaker 02

  It's, I think, in how they register.

• 17:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 17:35Speaker 02

  In, in their like corp docs, etc.

• 17:38Anthony Pompliano?

  There's some sort of legal finagling they do. So it's not so much the operational components, it's more of the legal components.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 17:43Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. I always think of MLMs as, uh, when Bill Ackman went after, uh, whatever the, uh, the Sheik company is.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Herbalife or something?

• 17:52Anthony Pompliano?

  Herbalife, yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:53Anthony Pompliano?

  I watched the documentary, I'm, I'm hip, you know? But, uh, like, that's basically one of his arguments, right? And I have zero understanding of like, what's real, what's not in the documentary and all this stuff. But the whole idea was like, he was saying, hey, this is basically taking advantage of the lowest socioeconomic classes.

• 18:12Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 18:13Anthony Pompliano?

  And like, I don't know, the documentary seemed that way, but who knows?

• 18:16Speaker 02

  Right. So I studied MLMs because I'm from the Midwest, lots of people sell them. I'm like, what is drawing women to these things? And it came down to really two key components. They wanted to be a part of something that was like a brand and a mission that they stood for. And they wanted to make money and they were being sold this idea of making money. So what wasn't working, that what actually makes them predatory? Huge upfront costs and monthly minimums. You have to buy $500 worth of product every single month. Whether you sell it or not, they don't care. Right? Um, and then the recruiting part, which feels disgusting. It's like, join my team, come over. And then you start to like lose friends and it's very alien-y. So if you break it down to what the core component is, women have influence and they talk about products to their friends.

• 19:01Speaker 02

  I was walking around the design district yesterday and someone was like, oh my God, I love your sandals. Where'd you get them? And I was like, oh, they're so these, like, here's the link to Instagram, whatever. That's how we find out about cool brands because you talk to your friends. So if we boil that down, that's my entire distribution strategy. I have women who try the product. If it helps them, they get an affiliate link, they talk to their friends, they host parties. They want to talk about these things that have been. By society stigmatized, like, we aren't allowed to talk about sex. It's taboo. And then we're also compartmentalized. It's like, oh, you have your, your friend group that you talk about parenting with, your friend group that you talk about careers with, and then you have your like, your close friends you talk about sex with. We're creating a brand that kind of realizes that women are multi hyphenates and that we're-

• 19:45Anthony Pompliano?

  What was that word?

• 19:45Speaker 02

  Multi hyphenate.

• 19:46Anthony Pompliano?

  What is that?

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Like, you can be a mom, you can have sex.

• 19:48Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, okay.

• 19:49Speaker 02

  You can like, and, um-

• 19:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Moms don't have sex. Keep going.

• 19:53Speaker 02

  How did we become moms?

• 19:54Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Keep going. Please keep going.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  And in tapping into-

• 20:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Love you, mom.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  Hi, mom. Um, and tapping into the fact that we're influential with our friends. And, and so that 65% of our sales comes from what we call wise women, and they are not only coming to us for these products that are helping them, but then we have this entire education and community that is teaching them. So as they're making money, so average woman makes about a hundred dollars a month, rather than being like an MLM that's like, now you can go to Target or go buy more Starbucks or whatever, we're like, wanna learn about Bitcoin? Let's talk about cryptocurrency. What is it? Let's talk about blockchain, et cetera. And so they're, they feel a safe space to ask all the questions. And that's my end goal is to get more than whatever. It's like 10% of women holds, you know, wallets. So-

• 20:47Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. So hold on. Let's go back for a second. Uh, the difference between, I think I understand this. MLM and what you're doing is in the MLM, if I'm participating, my goal is not to sell products. My goal is to sell people to become a person and then go sell products. But really, I don't want them to sell products. I want them to go recruit more people. And it's basically like, I just built an army of MLM folks. I don't know if anything ever gets sold, but like, I have a bunch of people underneath me.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  Well, and they all have monthly minimums, so they have to keep buying the product. So it doesn't matter if they sell that product, they're responsible for that monthly minimum.

• 21:21Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. And that's like, probably a lot of money.

• 21:23Speaker 02

  That's most of their sales.

• 21:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Okay. What you're doing is you're saying, don't go recruit anybody. Instead, here's an affiliate link, no different than if I went and a company gave me an affiliate link and I tweeted it.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 21:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Versus if I said, hey, five friends come over and then like, I'm gonna like, tap on the phone for you and buy this shit.

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 21:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. And so really, the biggest difference is-

• 21:48Anthony Pompliano?

  The affiliate model, which is what you're doing, but it's trying to use human connections, friendships, etc. Create like a safe space of community, whatever. Okay. Once they buy the product, is it a one-time purchase? Or is it a subscription purchase?

• 22:04Speaker 02

  So we literally just launched subscriptions this week. So people can.

• 22:08Anthony Pompliano?

  So you do either one?

• 22:09Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 22:10Anthony Pompliano?

  I have multiple friends. The reason why I know a little bit about this weed stuff is.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Not marijuana.

• 22:17Anthony Pompliano?

  No, no weed. Is I have multiple friends who have taken the gummies and people that folks on Twitter will know.

• 22:25Anthony Pompliano?

  And they swear by them.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:27Anthony Pompliano?

  And like one of my friends is very, very health conscious to the point where like one time I had to ask him. I was like, I think I noticed like you don't drink either. And he was like, no. And then I was like, you don't eat carbs really? And he was like, not really. And then I was like, okay, well, what about this weed thing? He was like, oh, it's very healthy. And he like explained it to me. And it was a whole idea of like the melatonin and the CBD may help them go to sleep. And so what I'm fascinated by is if you're getting shut down by, let's just call it. And this is an over generalized term, but big tech, right? Whether it's Facebook not allowing you to do payments, Stripe not allow, or I'm sorry. Facebook not allowing you to do paid advertising, Stripe not allowing you to do payments, whatever. You almost have to recreate this model. And so it sounds like you're using some like sketchy people to help you put together the

• 23:14Anthony Pompliano?

  payment infrastructure, not because you want to use them, but you're being forced to use them as like brokers and stuff. Which we'll get to in a second. But then also from a distribution standpoint, you've almost like created this whole different, different distribution plan. Some of it is like old as time, like affiliate model is old as time. It's just that you're now infusing education, community, etc. together. And it seems to be working.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Why don't, why doesn't everybody use?

• 23:40Speaker 02

  I get DMs all the time from D to C founders being like, how do you do this? How are you managing them? And so we see an opportunity there as well because there are.

• 23:48Anthony Pompliano?

  How are you managing them?

• 23:49Speaker 02

  There are some very bootleg like different softwares that we you duct taped together and you have to have really smart devs to make sure that everything passes through. Cause now it's not just like affiliate link tracking through one payment platform. As a reminder, I had to like put that middle man in so that affiliate conversion has to track through like three different platforms.

• 24:10Anthony Pompliano?

  So Why don't you just take dollars like cash, hard cash, just be like, hey, just paying cash.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  I mean, that's why have you ever gone to a dispensary that's like, yeah, most the old school dispensaries were like just cash because of that reason.

• 24:22Anthony Pompliano?

  I was joking when I said that, but like, that actually makes a lot of sense. Because literally they couldn't do any payment processing. So it was cash only.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 24:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Man, and no wonder everyone was like, oh, these are like bad people because they're only doing cash. But it's like, no, you're forcing us to only do cash.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. So why don't you do cash?

• 24:39Speaker 02

  Cause we're digital, like we want to make sure that it's scalable and doesn't feel shady. And who's using cash? Like women aren't walking around with like,

• 24:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Like Sally down the street just got like a safe full of cash. And she's like,

• 24:51Speaker 02

  Sally, I got some sex gummies. What, you got a hundred?

• 24:53Anthony Pompliano?

  The cat, the cops show up and they're like, hey, we heard this marijuana parties going on here.

• 24:57Speaker 02

  This is just CBD, but we just want to make it really, really shady.

• 25:02Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. So you're doing digital payments and people can use credit card, debit card, all the normal stuff, right? But the affiliate link is the key to this whole thing because that's how you ensure that whoever recruits their friends as buyers, not as anything else, right? And basically all the affiliate link.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 25:21Anthony Pompliano?

  If you can track that all the way through, then you're able to pay them.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 25:24Anthony Pompliano?

  How do you do the split? Like, how much do you guys take first? How much do they get paid?

• 25:28Speaker 02

  They get a high, like it's 20 to 25% affiliate commission, which is higher than most affiliates. Because that's the money that I would have to pay Google and Facebook to acquire sales.

• 25:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  So I just, Redid my entire model to say, I'm not giving a dollar to Google and Facebook. That is going to women who are supporting this mission.

• 25:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. So basically, uh, thinking all the venture capitalists who hate the fact that, you know, 20 to 80 cents of the dollars that they, their companies fundraise go to Google and Facebook is basically just a tax on the startup industry through paid marketing. You're now saying, well, why don't we just give it to the actual people who need it?

• 26:06Speaker 02

  And it's a higher ROI because those people are also content creators. I get so much more out of them. They'll content create, they, they want like our seed round announcement, like got so much amplification just from all the wise women. I have 500 women who are so-

• 26:20Anthony Pompliano?

  500?

• 26:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:22Anthony Pompliano?

  That are doing the parties?

• 26:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:23Anthony Pompliano?

  There are weed parties happening in this country that y'all don't know about. Let me tell you about these weed parties.

• 26:30Speaker 02

  Sally's got a lot of friends.

• 26:32Anthony Pompliano?

  They ain't got no cash, but they got weed. Alright, so wait, what, like, how does this happen? I'm a woman and I see this and I'm like, I need to, I want to participate.

• 26:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, I want to make money. I have friends. They want weed.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  They want to learn about Bitcoin, like all the things.

• 26:47Anthony Pompliano?

  As much as I'm joking around, right? They, they want these products. I think that I want it. I think my friends want it. I contact you like through the website or like, like walk me through, how does somebody become a wise woman?

• 26:58Speaker 02

  Yeah. They literally go to this website. They go through the flow. They, we approve them. They get an affiliate link and then they go through a full like education about what is CBD? Exactly. We have a full Slack channel that all of our wise women are in. And the cool thing, that was the most surprising thing since launch. We've been live for six months. I was like, okay, we'll see if women want to talk about these products, et cetera. What I didn't realize is this community that was happening kind of behind the social media wall. And I realized that there's a lot of things that Twitter can't do for women where a lot of women don't want to talk about their sex lives in the public eye, but they want to talk about it in a group of people that can support them, et cetera. So this idea of a community that they can reach out to, but then what I'm learning,

• 27:42Speaker 02

  because I'm a marketer, I've been marketer for 15 years, a lot of marketers have come in. They're teaching the women how to create awesome content. It's like- I don't understand how to make a Tik Tok. Somebody will jump in and be like, okay, here's what you do. You film it this way and they'll create a video, et cetera. And so they're teaching women life skills that are like, marketing is life skills.

• 28:04Anthony Pompliano?

  I was just gonna say, you gotta say marketing is a life skill because people will persecute you on the internet. You say Tik Tok is a life skill, even though.

• 28:10Speaker 02

  Tik Tok is not a life skill, but it's.

• 28:12Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, maybe if you can make money on it, then hey.

• 28:15Speaker 02

  True.

• 28:16Anthony Pompliano?

  It's a career, right? Whatever.

• 28:19Speaker 02

  But marketing is a life skill.

• 28:20Anthony Pompliano?

  For sure. Everything is marketing or sales and sometimes both.

• 28:25Anthony Pompliano?

  When they come in, do you see anything interesting in the data? So you have 500 women that are holding the kind of parties. It's not just parties, I'm assuming they're also doing other things because it's just an affiliate link.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  It's social media, et cetera.

• 28:40Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you see anything that gives you a inclination as to who will be more successful than somebody else? Like, is it a certain geography? Is it household income? Is it a certain education level? Is it like you have a lot of followers on the internet? Like, what do you see?

• 28:55Speaker 02

  It's intention.

• 28:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, interesting. What does that mean?

• 28:58Speaker 02

  Someone who's dedicated and talking about it regularly. I mean, it's just like ad impressions. You need to see an ad like six to seven times.

• 29:05Anthony Pompliano?

  So it's really like authenticity.

• 29:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:07Anthony Pompliano?

  Right?

• 29:07Speaker 02

  And so if you, that's what we're looking for. Like when we look, think about influencer programs, right? It doesn't matter how many followers somebody has. It's how much engagement and what kind of engagement are people asking like, oh my gosh, where did you get this thing? Are they truly, truly invested and feel that emotional connection to the creator? And that's the core component of all the wise women. It's like, if they actually tried the products and they slept better, like your friend, and he's like, I, I sleep so much better with this thing. You're now more inclined to try it, right? And so it's first step one is just letting them try the products, seeing how they feel. And when they get a better night's sleep or they were able to handle their anxiety or their kids were being crazy and they felt better during that,

• 29:51Speaker 02

  they talk authentically about that and then it leads to sales. Doesn't feel like it's a hashtag ad, like sponsored post.

• 29:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Can men join?

• 30:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, we have wise men.

• 30:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Is that allowed?

• 30:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, we have wise men, yeah.

• 30:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Alright, and they hold parties too?

• 30:07Speaker 02

  They're, maybe, maybe, I don't know, I don't know what's happening with the wise men. They, they're tweeting about it, they're telling, they're posting on Instagram and they're selling, like, a lot.

• 30:19Anthony Pompliano?

  A lot. Do men or women sell more? Probably women, right?

• 30:22Speaker 02

  We just have, we reach more women, yeah.

• 30:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I'm like on average.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  Men are buying the product. It's like degree deodorant, their whole marketing campaign was like, "Strong enough for a woman, made for a man," or, is like-

• 30:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Strong enough for a man made for a woman?

• 30:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Huh. And so I guess part of this then becomes, you have to have the right products, right? You have the right branding, and the distribution becomes really interesting. Why not have people pay in Bitcoin? To like completely remove the, because basically what you're talking about here is like, this is the crux of what Bitcoin is. It's uncensorable money. Nobody can tell you, you're not allowed to accept Bitcoin for payment because of what company you are, who you are, if it was what religion, or, nobody can tell you what to do. If you want to accept it, you can accept it.

• 31:06Speaker 02

  I don't disagree with you. I think step one is under, hitting my demographic, which is millennial women, helping them understand what is crypto, yeah. Because they can't buy it if they don't even know it or trust it. So, step one is, we're doing all this education around what is Bitcoin, what is the future of currency? And then giving them the option, "Hey, you made a hundred dollars this month? One in fiat, one in Bitcoin."

• 31:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  So, that's step one to me.

• 31:33Anthony Pompliano?

  Because it's almost like what you're really doing is, you're helping people generate income, and then, once they get the income, you're trying to help educate them in terms of, like, financial empowerment.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 31:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Right? Yeah, it's fascinating because really, you could imagine that corporations or employers, if they were sensical people, they would basically be empowering folks through education.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Huh. Alright. And then, once people understand Bitcoin, then they could pay in the future, whatever.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 32:07Anthony Pompliano?

  It blows my mind that Bitcoin and CBD THC etc.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  Haven't converged.

• 32:14Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, they're in the same bucket because from a societal standpoint, they're still kind of fringe type things. But people who live on the fringe, people who are forward-thinking, people who are comfortable with like the highest degrees of innovation. I think both of those things are like no-brainer stuff. Like, yeah, of course, the government's gonna make marijuana legal, right?

• 32:36Speaker 02

  Right.

• 32:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Versus Bitcoin, like, yeah, of course, that's gonna be a thing in the future.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 32:39Anthony Pompliano?

  It's almost like the legacy system, they're the ones who don't get it yet.

• 32:43Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 32:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Huh. Okay. What's next?

• 32:48Speaker 02

  What's next is continuing to grow the brand.

• 32:51Anthony Pompliano?

  That's key for more weed parties.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  More weed parties. Not weed. CBD. And honestly, looking at this technical infrastructure and getting ahead of it because they're... Like I said, I get a ton of inbound asking, like, how do you manage? The future of D to C is going to be a little bit more shifting from big tech to the people who are your ambassadors community. Community has been a buzzword in the marketing world for like the past two years. Like, how do you build authentic community? If you're actually doing that, then how do you activate them as salespeople? As more and more brands do that, there's not good software out there. And so how do we really kind of stay ahead of that?

• 33:31Anthony Pompliano?

  This is a wild idea, and I just had it, so I could be completely wrong.

• 33:35Speaker 02

  Hit me.

• 33:36Anthony Pompliano?

  The wise women are basically retail locations.

• 33:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's the future of brick and mortar.

• 33:40Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, you just built a retail chain, it just happens to be their mobile brick and mortar.

• 33:45Speaker 02

  I've said this before, yep.

• 33:46Anthony Pompliano?

  And they literally do it inside their living rooms.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  The future of brick and mortar is humans.

• 33:51Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I'm sure that the woke crowd really gets mad when you say that because they're like, you know, we're humans and like, we have feelings. But with all of that said, uh, yeah, like, that's basically what happened. They're like, they're the store manager.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Of your store in wherever, Illinois. And they just don't have a place that they go to work, they just invite all of the customers into their living room.

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Our company is named after Brownie Wise, who created the Tupperware party.

• 34:18Anthony Pompliano?

  Who?

• 34:18Speaker 02

  Brownie Wise. She's the woman who created the Tupperware.

• 34:21Anthony Pompliano?

  That's her first name, Brownie?

• 34:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:23Anthony Pompliano?

  For some reason, that makes a lot of sense. You'd be the Tupperware party creator and your first name would be Brownie.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:28Anthony Pompliano?

  What is her story?

• 34:30Speaker 02

  She wanted to empower women after the war to make money in their households. So created this idea of selling Tupperware from your home. Earl Tupper, who is the creator of the storage thing, when Brownie asked her, asked him for a raise and executive position, et cetera, he ended up firing her because she had already made this movement. He sold the company three months later and she got nothing.

• 34:54Anthony Pompliano?

  And she had created the idea of the Tupperware parties.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, the idea that women have influence over their friends.

• 35:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I mean, that's like a no, right? What, what?

• 35:02Speaker 02

  Right.

• 35:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Isn't it known? I thought this was like.

• 35:04Speaker 02

  Not before the Tupperware party, not from like a commerce perspective.

• 35:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, but, but isn't it, uh, is it a statistic that women control the household?

• 35:15Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 35:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Spending like, like there's all the kind of data that suggests like, if you basically convince the mother of the household.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 35:22Anthony Pompliano?

  Game over.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 35:23Anthony Pompliano?

  And that's why the two most important demographics, if you're building a technology company to get into is, uh, teen, like teenage to like young twenties females who then share, talk, whatever. It's not physical products like, hey, you said like, somebody asked you where your sandals, it's, did you see this new app? Did you whatever? Like it's a very collaborative nature and recommendation. And then moms.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  And the moms.

• 35:48Anthony Pompliano?

  It's like actually the guys are the second.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  All my friends, I, I ask them, I'm like, what laundry detergent do you use? And did, is it the one your mom used?

• 35:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Is it?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Because their mom uses, so they use it.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:59Anthony Pompliano?

  What else is there where like, there's a lineage of if your mom used it, you use it?

• 36:03Speaker 02

  I'm sure that there's a ton. That's a good question.

• 36:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Like, I wonder if like deodorants or toothpaste or what, like.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Right. Toothpaste would be a good one.

• 36:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Like you just grew up.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. Whatever your mom grabbed off the shelf.

• 36:14Anthony Pompliano?

  That's crazy.

• 36:14Speaker 02

  Do you use the same toothpaste that your mom bought?

• 36:17Anthony Pompliano?

  I honestly, I don't know what my mom ever bought. Uh, the, the thing that I always go back to is, uh, the best thing my mother ever did, was at the age of maybe.

• 36:29Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know, probably by the age of 14, 13, my brothers and I all, when we hit that age, we knew how to do our own laundry. And that's like my mom's big thing was like, you have to do your own laundry. But here was the thing was, uh, the problem that you don't understand is if you have five boys and you've taught them how to do your laundry, that sounds like a great idea, then they want to do their laundry every day. Because that's my favorite shirt and I need to wear it tomorrow. And so literally they know how to use the machine. So they just go put this one shirt in.

• 36:57Speaker 02

  The water bill is like, uh.

• 36:59Anthony Pompliano?

  So then you have to start to be come up with rules. Like, hey, there's only so many times.

• 37:04Speaker 02

  That's like building a startup, honestly. It's like, you don't know what you don't know until you make a decision. And you're like, okay, now I need SLAs around this stuff.

• 37:10Anthony Pompliano?

  And then of course, if your sons are all able to use the laundry room at free will, even within the rules, fistfights just randomly break out. Like your brother walks down the stairs and next thing you know, you're just fighting. And your mom breaks up. He's like, what are you guys doing? And you're like, he's wearing my socks. And she's like, how do you know that you're socks? And you're like, because they're black. She's like, but he has black socks and not those black socks.

• 37:36Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Like, that is literally what happens. And then, of course, you get smart and say, okay, well, let's all buy different pairs of socks. Like we all know, whatever. Then shorts, then that's my T-shirt. And oh, but that one, inside the tag, I wrote my name. There is no tag in this one. You cut out the tag, like, let's fight.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh. I wonder if you guys still wear the same color socks that you bought as like a kid.

• 37:59Anthony Pompliano?

  No, we have a running joke. We all just wear black T-shirts. That's it.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 38:03Anthony Pompliano?

  And so now as semi-adults, uh, it still would be confusing, uh, but we have, we have separate homes now.

• 38:10Speaker 02

  Right. Yeah. Separate washing machines has solved this problem. But if you guys go on trips.

• 38:16Anthony Pompliano?

  How, how old do you have to be to use the CBD?

• 38:20Speaker 02

  We say 21.

• 38:21Anthony Pompliano?

  21.

• 38:22Speaker 02

  That's the federal.

• 38:23Anthony Pompliano?

  And so does this infiltrate into colleges?

• 38:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we do have, we've, we've never targeted that demographic yet, just because we believe that again, moms have a lot of influence and we wanted, we started this in the pandemic. Like I raised two rounds in the pandemic because I saw all of my mom friends turning to alcohol because of stress.

• 38:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Yep.

• 38:44Speaker 02

  And I wanted to give them an alternative that they could trust because the alcohol, as we know, like it doesn't serve you, affects your sleep, affects your head, gut connection, et cetera, and anxiety. So we started with that, but yes, a hundred percent could go to colleges.

• 39:00Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, it, it's, uh, it's really interesting when you start to think of all the groups where they're already like very high degree of connections, high trust, and then kind of built in recommendations, whatever. Like I remember, uh, in college, uh, there's a group of friends of mine, uh, if anyone got into anything, like, hey, man, these shoes are really comfortable. It was like bam, literally everyone.

• 39:22Speaker 02

  So a demographic we're, we're talking to now is hairstylist because you sit in that chair as a woman for like three hours and you talk about everything.

• 39:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Really?

• 39:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:33Anthony Pompliano?

  Man, see, I don't think guys do that. I don't think guys really talk to the barbers. No, they talk to each other, but they don't talk to the barbers and not so much.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 39:39Anthony Pompliano?

  It also depends what type of barber shop you go to.

• 39:40Speaker 02

  Okay. But hairstylist, you're in the chair for a while. And so they, we have a couple of people who are like, I'm just gonna start selling it to my clients because they're stressed. They're telling us how stressed they are and they're gonna make money.

• 39:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Again, I don't know what I don't know. So this is a wild question, but women go to the hairstylist, sit in the chair, then tell a random woman that they don't really know, like, yeah, I'm super stressed and like, just like start sharing?

• 40:04Speaker 02

  Your hairstylist is not a random person.

• 40:06Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, I didn't understand that. Got it.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  You literally.

• 40:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Cause you go to the same one every time?

• 40:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, yeah, guys don't do that. I just cut my own hair, like whatever.

• 40:13Speaker 02

  No, that person knows your like intricacies of your life.

• 40:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Really?

• 40:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. Cause you go there like, if, if you're like me and blonde and you're going like every eight weeks and.

• 40:24Anthony Pompliano?

  So you just see them over and over and over and over again?

• 40:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:26Anthony Pompliano?

  And then you trust them because they, you trust them with your hair. So like if they tell you to get adjustables, then like you're whatever.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. So there's lots of these, like, it's all about, exactly, but it's all about that trust factor. Like, who do you confide in for recommendations? And we are tapping into those network effects.

• 40:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Are there other groups that you're, that you think could be interesting?

• 40:47Speaker 02

  Oh, we've been talking to-

• 40:47Anthony Pompliano?

  What about priests? I feel like the priest could just be like, "Hear ye, yah, yah."

• 40:52Speaker 02

  It's really funny because I do refer to religion a lot of like, how do you assemble a cult-like mentality? And it's like, "Study religion."

• 41:01Anthony Pompliano?

  No, literally, if the priest went up in front and did his sermon, it was like, "By the way, get some CBD." Like, they would all go buy it.

• 41:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:07Anthony Pompliano?

  They, they're, he's already like, "Put 10% of your income in this basket." And people would just fork it over, like, as if, like, oh, I don't know. They'd have no clue where the money goes. But they're just like, "Here's some cash."

• 41:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then they're like, "Eat this flesh and blood and, yeah."

• 41:22Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. But even that's like, all right, that's part of the religion piece, but like, I've always been fascinated since I was a little kid. And they would pass that basket around in Catholic church.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  People are just like-

• 41:30Anthony Pompliano?

  And people would just put cash in, and then it would go to a random person. And I used to always be like, "I know they're taking it." Like, I don't know who that is, but like, like, it's some kid. Like, you're telling me that kid's carrying around a couple hundred dollars in a basket and he didn't take a dollar? Maybe he didn't. I don't know. But like, to me, inside of the church, and this is, we've seen the bad side, right? Like, obviously, there's been all the, the negative stuff, uh, um, with priests in the Catholic church or whatever. But like, there's just this element of like, once you got inside those walls of a church, I don't want to say all rational thought left, or like, like, uh, independent thought. But there was this sense of like, "I trust the people here. I trust the message. I trust whatever." And like, if priests told people to go get CBD, I guarantee they'd go get it.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  Potentially. Not, not my demo-

• 42:16Anthony Pompliano?

  You sound not as excited about getting the priest.

• 42:18Speaker 02

  I'm not going after priests.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  I don't think they'd be aligned with my core mission of empowering-

• 42:23Anthony Pompliano?

  No longer the house of Jesus is the house of wise.

• 42:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a different house, pomp, like, very different house than we're going after.

• 42:30Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm just saying. All right, what other groups?

• 42:33Speaker 02

  Um, we think a lot about massage, like where you go to get massages. I think that's

• 42:38Anthony Pompliano?

  Same dynamic as the hairdresser.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  Where you're, well, and also like where you're going to relax. I think yoga studios, et cetera, where you actually are trying to like get in touch with your body and feel your body. So.

• 42:49Anthony Pompliano?

  And so basically if people go ahead and they buy the product at the yoga studio, the yoga studios make an additional income.

• 42:55Speaker 02

  We focus on the, the teachers, like someone who's an independent, they, they are a yoga instructor, et cetera. We focus on the individuals first because that's our distribution strategy.

• 43:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, I didn't understand this, but, uh, my amazing, loving wife has a, a person, but a, a, a instructor person.

• 43:16Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, who she used to go to the classes and, uh, I don't really know what goes on there, but she comes back and says like, it was a good workout. Like, okay. Um, and then during the pandemic, the classes moved on zoom.

• 43:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:29Anthony Pompliano?

  And I made the mistake of one time, walking into the room while this was all going on and, uh, fascinating. They're all like talking to each other. Like I, I didn't really understand it, but they were like doing the workout. No, it was like a, like a regular workout. No, like, but like weights or whatever, like whatever. And she's like leading it and there's like

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:48Anthony Pompliano?

  music playing or whatever. And she's like, kind of like yelling into her computer and then just like going to everyone else's room. But I was just like, oh my God, like this is church.

• 43:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Like literally if she was like, everyone go buy CBD right now. They'd all just run and go do it.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  A hundred percent. If you look at like the numbers of religion and how it's going down, but then like new industries are going up, it's replacing, people want a sense of belonging and this like cult-like mentality of being a part of something. And I think fitness kind of took over in the last couple of years.

• 44:17Anthony Pompliano?

  What's your take on astrology? Is this real?

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Every time Mercury's in retrograde, I swear something happens, but literally.

• 44:25Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know what that means. That was like another side. That was like another language.

• 44:28Speaker 02

  Literally like everyone go dating nowadays. It's like, should we pair on cosign? And I'm like,

• 44:34Anthony Pompliano?

  What is that?

• 44:34Speaker 02

  It's an app that tells you if you're compatible.

• 44:37Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm out.

• 44:39Speaker 02

  So I don't know. I don't.

• 44:41Anthony Pompliano?

  I've seen people in the tech community be like, this is all garbage. Like, it's literally a scam, a fraud, whatever. And then I've literally seen them also at the same time defend religion and also at the same time defend any sort of group dynamic that seems to be like astrology.

• 44:57Speaker 02

  So I view astrology as it's a mechanism to be able to talk about yourself in a way that lets others learn about you. And so kind of like Enneagram or Myers-Briggs or whatever. It's like, oh, you're an ENFJ. So like, how do you react in this situation? And it allows you a framework to talk about it. It's like, oh, I'm a Libra. That means I care about balance. And so then I talk about how I achieve balance in my life. I think all of those things are just like rooted in self-awareness and wanting to get people to connect with you on a deeper level. That's how I view it.

• 45:35Anthony Pompliano?

  So I buy all of that for the most part. What is your birthday thing?

• 45:40Speaker 02

  What's my sign?

• 45:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, that's what I was supposed to say. Sorry.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  I'm a Libra.

• 45:45Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm embarrassing myself right now. Okay. What does Libra mean? I cannot believe somehow I am talking about this right now.

• 45:53Speaker 02

  I feel like we need to look up your sign.

• 45:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, no, I know what mine is.

• 45:55Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:56Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm positive what mine is.

• 45:57Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:58Anthony Pompliano?

  And but go ahead. You explain first and then I'll tell you what mine is.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  I'm a Libra, which means, well, and also there's lots of different ways you can say it. I'm a Libra and Libras care about justice, balance and doing right.

• 46:11Anthony Pompliano?

  And what does that mean? Like, do people who are not Libras care about doing right? Is everyone else a scumbag?

• 46:17Speaker 02

  I don't know, because I don't know if I fully believe in it. But I think it's a way to talk about like, okay, I believe in justice and balance and here's how I approach it. But what are you?

• 46:28Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm a Gemini, and I have no clue what that means other than.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  If I was an astrology girl, I'd be like, yeah, I knew that. I knew you were a Gemini.

• 46:36Anthony Pompliano?

  No, here's the best part. I have no clue what a Gemini means, except for Polina one day goes, do you know who else is a Gemini? And I was like, who? Kanye West, Donald Trump, Elon Musk. Like, she went through this whole list and I was like, oh, my God, I don't want to be a Gemini.

• 46:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Like, the list is absurd. So my, my brother who you met,

• 46:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, my youngest brother is also a Gemini.

• 47:01Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 47:01Anthony Pompliano?

  And, uh, we're, we're pretty similar or whatever, but I'd like to think that's just because we're cool, not because of some star bullshit on the internet.

• 47:09Speaker 02

  We're doing CoStar, I'm gonna see.

• 47:11Anthony Pompliano?

  But, but my whole thing is just, uh, the astrology thing is very similar to religion to me, which is also very similar to, uh, school, where there's a, a trust, which seems like a lot similar to like what you're doing, right? Which is just like, if you get people together and they trust each other and they, uh, put value in the recommendations that they make.

• 47:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:34Anthony Pompliano?

  What's the difference between saying, hey, you're born in this month, let me do, or maybe tarot cards are different. Okay, whatever. Same thing. It's all the same to me. You know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Oh, now you're gonna have this outcome in life. And if you start to think that, like, same thing with, hey, do you want to get better sleep? It's just,

• 47:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:51Anthony Pompliano?

  one's a physical product that actually has science behind it. The other is like, you know, woo woo stuff.

• 47:55Speaker 02

  I disagree. I think that,

• 47:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, yes. Alright, why?

• 47:59Speaker 02

  One is who's in control.

• 48:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, what does that mean?

• 48:03Speaker 02

  I want women to feel in the driver's seat of their lives.

• 48:06Anthony Pompliano?

  Because in the astrology world, they're just whatever the world tells them.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Transferred this way, so you're gonna have,

• 48:12Anthony Pompliano?

  What is mercury? You keep saying that.

• 48:14Speaker 02

  There's a phrase, I think, mercury in retrograde, which means that,

• 48:18Anthony Pompliano?

  That sounds like a rap song. Go ahead.

• 48:20Speaker 02

  And it means like technology will always like, I can't, can I say fuck? But like, um, it'll just be like fucked up for the entire week that mercury is in retrograde.

• 48:28Anthony Pompliano?

  Mercury in retrograde?

• 48:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:31Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm just gonna start dropping that on the podcast randomly to people.

• 48:33Speaker 02

  Do you like, is mercury in retrograde?

• 48:35Anthony Pompliano?

  No, no, that would be too intelligent. I'm just gonna randomly say it. Like, the next podcast I record, be like, yeah, mercury in retrograde.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  See if the next person knows what you're talking about, though.

• 48:44Anthony Pompliano?

  The next person actually probably will, because I know exactly who's coming in next, but go ahead.

• 48:49Speaker 02

  But so, for me, I want women to feel empowered and in control. Astrology, religion is all relinquishing control to another power, another thing. I wa- I'm saying, I need help with my libido. I'm gonna do something about it.

• 49:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. It's an action oriented versus a reaction oriented. If I tweet mercury in retrograde, what do we think happens?

• 49:11Speaker 02

  People will say not for another three days or something.

• 49:14Anthony Pompliano?

  Wait, what?

• 49:15Speaker 02

  They'll tell you when it's gonna happen.

• 49:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, it's like a time event?

• 49:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, it happens.

• 49:20Anthony Pompliano?

  How do I measure when it's gonna happen?

• 49:22Speaker 02

  We could Google it right now.

• 49:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, but like, how does Google know? Like, is it like, uh, like, is it something to do with the sun or something?

• 49:29Speaker 02

  Something to do with Mercury.

• 49:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Like the planet?

• 49:31Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 49:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, my God, get it out of here. No, not out of here. There's a thousand planets. There's nothing. Why is Mercury the one? Why isn't it Pluto in retrograde?

• 49:41Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 49:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Listen, for all of you listening at home who are watching this right now, the state of disbelief on my face says everything. There's people who literally are gonna end three days. I think the life's changed because Mercury's in retrograde.

• 50:00Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool. So I'm gonna start saying it now. Okay. Where can people go find House of Wise on the internet?

• 50:09Speaker 02

  Um, houseofwise.co.

• 50:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Houseofwise.co. They can pay with cash.

• 50:14Speaker 02

  They can.

• 50:15Anthony Pompliano?

  Credit card or debit cards.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 50:18Anthony Pompliano?

  It all works. No one can shut you down as of right now.

• 50:20Speaker 02

  Not right now.

• 50:20Anthony Pompliano?

  We're gonna get everybody on Bitcoin eventually.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:22Anthony Pompliano?

  And then if they want to sign up to be a wise woman or man, but wise woman, then they can go.

• 50:28Speaker 02

  Houseofwise.co, they'll, they'll see it there.

• 50:29Anthony Pompliano?

  All right there. Okay. Three questions and then you get asked who want to finish up. What's the most important book you've ever read?

• 50:35Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 50:38Speaker 02

  Waking Up, Sam Harris.

• 50:40Anthony Pompliano?

  What's that about?

• 50:41Speaker 02

  Spirituality, mindfulness, intention.

• 50:44Anthony Pompliano?

  No Mercury in retrograde.

• 50:46Speaker 02

  Mercury in retrograde. Um, just living life presently and, and actually being in the moment. That's why it's called Waking Up. I, I really like Sam Harris. Um, so yeah, I'll stick with that.

• 50:58Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. Second question. Eight sleep. Uh, I sleep on it. I love it. I, super cold, eight, nine hours a night.

• 51:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:06Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, I'm like religi- like they've converted me to the sleep religion. Uh, what is your sleep schedule?

• 51:12Speaker 02

  I go to bed every night at 9:30.

• 51:14Anthony Pompliano?

  9:30, okay.

• 51:15Speaker 02

  And I'm a 5:00 AM-er.

• 51:16Anthony Pompliano?

  5:00 AM, I'm not doing public math, that's seven and a half hours, give or take.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:21Anthony Pompliano?

  And what time do your kids wake up?

• 51:23Speaker 02

  Seven.

• 51:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, so you have like time, that's like a whole day without any kids, alright. Uh, third question is aliens, now we're talking about Mercury and retrograde.

• 51:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, by the way, Plana's gonna love the fact that, I don't know what that is, but I keep saying it. Uh, I might text her that when we get done and not say anything else.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  He was gonna text me and be like, "What the fuck did you guys talk about?"

• 51:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, uh, do you believe in aliens?

• 51:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:45Anthony Pompliano?

  Why?

• 51:47Speaker 02

  There's different universes and solar systems out there, why would we believe that we're the only living being?

• 51:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Have you seen an alien?

• 51:56Speaker 02

  We're getting released UFO data all the time.

• 51:58Anthony Pompliano?

  But UFOs aren't aliens.

• 52:02Speaker 02

  I have never seen an alien.

• 52:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Alright, I, neither have I, but I think they're out there, I think they're out there. But I just don't, uh, I haven't seen, alright, what one question you have for me?

• 52:12Speaker 02

  What is one belief that you've had in the beginning of your podcast journey that has been changed? Because of guests?

• 52:20Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't change my mind, that would be blasphemous. Um, what's one thing that I believe that I've changed my mind on?

• 52:31Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know, I'd have to think about this to have a good answer, um.

• 52:39Anthony Pompliano?

  I would say that

• 52:43Anthony Pompliano?

  it's not so much I've changed my mind, maybe as much as, uh, I've developed a deeper appreciation for aspects of the world that I think people kinda like intuitively know is bad, but until you talk to an expert in that space, you don't understand how bad it is. So, criminal justice reform.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:06Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, yeah, there's people who are locked up, right, like that probably shouldn't be, that's like the initial kinda elementary analysis of the situation.

• 53:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:12Anthony Pompliano?

  Then you go learn about it, you're like, "That is really, really screwed up."

• 53:15Speaker 02

  I mean cannabis, we're talking about cannabis, like 40,000 people are still in jail for something that states are making millions of dollars doing the exact same thing.

• 53:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, they get put in a cage for a plant, it's nuts, it's absolutely nuts. Uh, so I, I think that's probably the biggest thing, it's just like-

• 53:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:33Anthony Pompliano?

  The intellectual curiosity that it like curates of like, hey, when you hear about something that's like interesting, if you go dig deeper, it's gonna be 10 times, you know, bigger than you thought. That's both for like innovation and like technology, but also for like societal, positive or negative things. And so I think like, just like, that's my favorite part of the podcast is just like, it pushes you to like, keep learning.

• 53:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:56Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. House of Wise.co. You can sign up. You can buy. You can do all kinds of stuff. All right. What is your Twitter account?

• 54:03Speaker 02

  Amanda M. Getz, G O E T Z.

• 54:06Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. Go Ets is how I pronounce it, but okay. All right. Thanks so much.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  Thanks, Pom.