Okay. Thank you all for joining us. It looks like we now have a quorum. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is 4.03. Can we take roll please? Yes. Mayor Rogers. Council Member McDonald. Here. Council Member Rogers. Present. Thank you. And we'll now go to public comment. This is a time when any person may address matters, not listed on this agenda, but which are within the subject matter of the jurisdiction. The public may comment on agenda items when the item is called. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. If you would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand and you will be called. I'm not seeing any raised hand, Council Member. Thank you very much. We will now go to item three, Department of Reports 3.1, Water Smart Expo 2022. Staff will provide an update on the 2022 Water Smart Expo, including the events, purpose, state location and associated activities and provide a presentation here. It looks like we have Ms. Heather will provide the report. Is that correct? Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Take it away. Well, let me share my screen. Can you all see my screen now? Yes. So it is not in presentation mode though. No. There we go. Well, thank you. My name is Heather Villas. I'm a sustainability rep with the Water Youth Efficiency Team. Thank you for having me here today, Council Member. I'm here to invite you to our annual Water Smart Expo, which will be held on June 29th this year from 5 to 8.30 p.m. It'll be at the Old Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa, the normal Winstonite night market. This will be the first time we've had our Water Smart Expo in the past two years due to COVID with all the public events being canceled. We're extremely happy to be back with the community again. This is our annual water efficiency event that we've held since 2003 to help educate the community on water conservation both inside and outside of their homes. We plan on advertising it through film search, social media, radio, newsletters, print ads, as well as other local partners we have. At the event, we'll be handing out free drought kits. The drought kit includes side tasks, disaster codes for weeks, shower heads, hose novels, faucet aerators, and information on our programs. We'll also have our full staff there, so customers can ask experts about low water use plants as well as see our displays of water efficient things such as rain barrels, gray water set up in some unclear toilet things to teach them how to fix leaks. We also plan on having a children's area where they can make buttons and some other activities. And our goal this year is to focus on signing up customers for the Water Smart Portal. We hope to engage customers in using the Water Smart Portal to look at their water use data as well as that leak, alert, and threshold that we can fix with faster. Some of the vendors that will be there for the representing the city will have the hydration station, which is back at events again as well. Stormwater, water billing, which will be helping with the portal sign up, environmental compliance, and of course, we'll have water use efficiency, and we'll have a couple booths there. As far as outside vendors go, we'll have Sonoma County Energy Independence Program, Sonoma Water, Alt Water, which does gray water and rainwater installation locally, Sonoma County Waste Management, Army Farms, and the Master Garner Garden Sense Program. All of these vendors focus on sustainability. As I said before, we'd love to invite you to our Water Smart Expo on June 29th from 5 to 8.30 p.m. downtown Santa Rosa. Thank you, any questions? Yes, Councilwoman O'Connell. Thank you, Councilwoman Rodgers. I just wanna say thank you for your really cute logo of the drought is still here. It actually was really eye-catching on the information that went home in my last water bill because I think people have heard about it for so long that having that little logo and this event, I think, is gonna bring it all back. So I just wanna say thank you to staff for your clever work on your graphics and also to make sure that people know that we're still working really hard on making sure that we do our best to combat this drought. So thank you so much and thanks for the exciting event. I'm hoping I'll be able to attend. And I am definitely excited and I cannot wait to attend. And I hope that we have a host of community members that are down there attending. Last time I went to the market, there were so many people there. So I hope that there are a lot of people that are engaging in what we have to offer because we have a lot of information and not to mention a lot of supplies for people to take home and try out at home to help save water. So thank you so much Heather for joining us today. Like to see if anyone else has any comments or questions. So if you do, please raise your hands regarding this item 3.1. Any participants? I'm not seeing any raised hands at this time. Thank you. Moving on to item four, new business 4.1, Regional Climate Protection Authority, Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy, a call to action. And we have a couple of people here. It looks like we have Tanya joining us and we have Ross, correct? Correct, yes. Well, thank you very much for joining us and I will hand it over to the two of you. Thank you. Thank you council members very much for this opportunity to share with you an update on our Sonoma Climate Mobilization Call to Action. My name is Tanya Narath and I'm the director of climate programs for the Regional Climate Protection Authority. And with me is my colleague Ross Clintonen who is our marketing and communication specialist. And Ross has agreed to share the presentation with you today. So Ross, when you have a moment to share the slides, that would be great. So, next slide please. So the purpose of our presentation this afternoon is to give you an update on RCPA's work to mobilize the resources and funding that we need to support Sonoma County's very ambitious climate goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. So today's discussion is really intended to give you an update on the work that we're doing with the Sonoma Climate Mobilization and to hear your thoughts and certainly to gather your support for the work that we're doing. And so we're working to build on our mobilization strategy and start putting this strategy into action and really looking to build support in the entire community for the efforts that we're undertaking and also to define a shared community vision for what a healthy, livable and climate resilient Sonoma County will look like. Next slide please. So the time to act is now. I don't think I need to tell this audience that we're all very well aware of the impacts in Sonoma County and beyond of climate change. So there's no question that change is happening between the drought, wildfires, flooding, extreme heat. So it's really evident in Sonoma County and beyond that we need to take action to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Next slide. So the good news is that Sonoma County has long been recognized as a leader in climate action. So back in 2016, the image here on the left is a certificate that Sonoma County and the RCPA received from the White House. We were chosen as a climate action champion for the work that was done leading up to the development of RCPA and the climate action planning and implementation work that had been done. And then more recently, we were recognized as a county for being the first county in the country to have all jurisdictions adopt climate emergency resolutions. So we received some kudos from this mobilization organization for that action. And so our goal is really to move forward aggressively as we can to meet the challenge that we've set in front of ourselves to meet this 2030 goal. Next slide, please. And we feel the RCPA is uniquely positioned to launch this call to action because we have a really unique role in Sonoma County. We're the only agency of our kind in California that was created specifically to facilitate collaboration and coordination of climate efforts across Sonoma County. So through the work that we do with Santa Rosa and our other member jurisdictions and partners, we leverage resources, reduce duplication of efforts and coordinate plans because we all know that we can make progress much faster when we're working together. Our board of directors, which is the same as of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority enables collaboration and accountability across the county. So we have representation from all jurisdictions and the oversight of our board ensures that we balance city and county perspectives which is really important in this work. And then finally, we also work very closely with a number of partner agencies including Sonoma Clean Power, Sonoma Water, the Ag and Open Space District, Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and we represent Sonoma County in the Bay Area Regional Energy Network. Next slide, please. So as I mentioned, it's clear that climate change is impacting us here and now. And so I'd like to kind of switch gears and talk about what we are doing to better prepare for and address these climate impacts here in Sonoma County. Next slide, please. So this is some background, really leading up to the adoption of the Sonoma Climate Mobilization Strategy. So as you may be aware back in 2016, there was the release of a Countywide Climate Action Plan which our CPA led the development of. And that plan outlined a number of actions at both the county level as well as for each of our local jurisdictions to achieve a reduction target of 25% below 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. And then in 2019 to 2021, all of our local jurisdictions and the RCPA adopted the Climate Emergency Resolutions. And as part of RCPA's Climate Emergency Resolution, our board directed staff to work with our local partners to develop a new climate strategy that would take us to a new goal for 2030, which is this carbon neutral by 2030. So clearly all of our local policymakers and the community at large have recognized the urgency of taking stronger action and that really led to the development of the mobilization strategy which was adopted by our board in March of 2021. Next slide, please. So just a quick snapshot in terms of the data around our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and looking at a comparison between this new target that Sonoma County has chosen to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the goal that the state has set which is to be carbon neutral by 2045 through that executive order that's highlighted there on the right. So the graph on the left shows our inventory updates that have been done through 2018. So that's the red line. And then that purple line shows the targets that were set as part of that 2020 plan that was released in 2016. And so that was aiming towards the same goal as the state has which is to be 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. So for us to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, we have to really pull that dot up and achieve that 80% below 1990 levels by 2030. And then the remaining emissions would essentially be absorbed through increased sequestration. So that's why you don't see that green dot going all the way to zero because we don't feel like that is really realistic. One last note on this is that our CPA is currently working on our 2020 countywide GHG inventory update and expect to release that later this summer. And so that's gonna show us how we're doing relative to that 2020 goal to see whether we achieved the 25% below 1990 or where we're at relative to that number. Next slide, please. So now I'll just give a brief overview and talk in a little bit more detail in subsequent slides about the mobilization strategy. So this shows at a high level the strategies that fall into four different initiative areas and several different sectors. So these all are designed to achieve the 2030 goal which again, it's a very stretch goal, very ambitious goal. And we really feel that achieving this goal is going to require transformative change across our entire community because essentially we are switching the fuels that power our economy, if you will, from fossil fuels, gas and oil to renewable 100% carbon-free sources. So it's a big transition that we need to make and we feel that this is really only possible if we're all working together across local government, nonprofit business community to focus our actions and secure the resources that we need for success. Next slide. So now I'll go through a little bit more detail about each of these strategy areas. So first in terms of looking at our buildings and the energy that powers our buildings, we have two main areas of focus here. One is what we call the all electric buildings campaign which is to accelerate the electrification of our existing buildings and to electrify all new buildings. Now Santa Rosa has taken a big step forward in this area with your adoption of your all electric reach code. So that's kudos to the city of Santa Rosa for taking that action. And so your next step is really, and across the county is to look at how do we electrify our existing buildings which is obviously is the bulk of the buildings that we have out there in the community. So to decarbonize our buildings, we need to phase out the use of gas as quickly as possible and replace all of the gas burning appliances that we use to heat our homes, cook our food and heat water with appliances that are powered by clean electricity. And then second, working with our partners in Sonoma Clean Power and Healdsburg Electric continuing to clean up our electricity supply and moving to 100% carbon free electricity. So I mentioned the reach codes. That's an action that Santa Rosa has already taken. Your all electric reach code. And we're also looking within our CPA to work with our members and partners on strategies for electrifying existing buildings. Next slide please. So then switching to transportation which as you're probably aware is roughly 60% of our emissions in the county come from our transportation system. So this is probably one of our more challenging areas to reduce emissions in. And we're looking at two main areas of focus to achieve the shift that we need to make. First is to what we're calling our drive less Sonoma County campaign making it easier to get around without a car basically shifting our trips from driving to bicycling, walking, taking transit and then other forms of micro mobility like the e-scooters, electric bikes, et cetera. And then rapidly replacing gas powered vehicles for the electric vehicles. So one of the actions that is underway in Sonoma County across a number of our jurisdictions and I know Santa Rosa is looking at this as well is adopting bans on the construction of new gas stations. We have three jurisdictions in Sonoma County that have approved gas station or new gas station bans and then four more are working on bans. Coming up in the fall the Sonoma County Transportation Authority will be working with local partners to develop a new county wide active transportation plan that will be looking at ways to create a network of safe, low stress bike and pedestrian pathways. The RCPA is looking at ways to secure new funding for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. This will be really critical to make sure that folks who live in multifamily housing and other workplaces will have access to charge electric vehicles. And then lastly to work with our local jurisdictions to look at our electric vehicle charging infrastructure codes and what requirements we can place on new construction, for example, to increase the number of EV charging or EV ready spaces that we have in those buildings or in those parking lots. Next slide please. So next up is Zero Waste by 2030 and I know that Santa Rosa again has been taking action here from a policy perspective. So this is an area that our partners at Zero Waste Sonoma are really taking the lead on developing a number of model ordinances such as the disposable food service wear and polystyrene foam bands and working with local jurisdictions to implement these ordinances. And then most recently Zero Waste Sonoma received a grant from the County of Sonoma's Climate Resilience Fund to support the development and implementation of a construction demolition and deconstruction model ordinance. And we're expecting a draft of this ordinance to come out I think later this summer, perhaps early fall. Next slide please. So now switching gears to carbon sequestration. I mentioned that this is a key component of achieving our 2030 goal because we recognize it's a pretty tall order to reduce our emissions as far as we need to and we don't think we can get all the way to zero by 2030. So we'll need to find new ways to sequester that carbon that we're not able to prevent from being emitted. And so we have a couple of strategies in this area. First and maybe the obvious one is to protect what we've already stored in the ground. So keep the carbon in the ground and then work on strategies to capture more carbon in our soils and plants. And then lastly to scale up the infrastructure that will support the sequestration. So we know that we need compost and we need the workforce to spread the compost and to implement the other strategies that can increase sequestration. So a couple of areas that we're working on currently with our partners, we've just recently kicked off an effort to do a survey of urban tree protection ordinances and to support our local jurisdictions that want to look at strengthening those ordinances with some, whether it's a model ordinance or a particular language that could be included in those tree protection ordinances. And then second, we're partnering with a number of local organizations on a project that's again funded by the County of Sonoma's Climate Resilience Fund to implement a project of applying compost on multiple properties in both the agricultural and community settings. So those are two areas that we're working on in sequestration. Next slide, please. And then in terms of resilience and adaptation, again, recognizing that climate change is already here and already impacting us, we know that we need to increase our resilience to climate change impacts and adapt to a never-changing environment. So the first area is really to look at ways to increase the resilience of our electric grid to both meet current needs as well as prepare for what we know will be increased demands from the electrification of our buildings and transportation systems. Now, a lot of this is really beyond the scope of what our CPA is able to address, but certainly working with our partners in our local Sonoma Clean Power in Hillsburg Electric and the work that they're doing to advocate at the state level for changes in funding to strengthen the electrical grid. And then there's some local projects that could be looked at here as well, such as implementing microgrids to basically be able to island off of the grid if there are power outages to be able to still provide the power that we need. And then second, to continue working on ways to become more resilient to climate. A lot of great work has been done in Sonoma County already related to this. So really working with our local jurisdictions and partner agencies to implement a variety of different plans and strategies around resilience. Next slide, please. So then the last piece of our mobilization strategy and really this is a fundamental and foundational element is to make sure that equity and community engagement are really a fundamental part of how we develop and implement the solutions to the climate crisis. And this is really a large part what our call to action campaign is really about. We know kind of technically speaking and programmatically what some of the solutions need to be to achieve our 2030 goal, but we don't necessarily know how to get there and the details behind some of that and the priorities. And so we really want to engage the entire community to understand those priorities, to have the community be part of developing those critical solutions. So this is again, a foundational element that needs to go through everything that we do. Next slide, please. So looking at what it's going to take to be successful to achieve our ambitious climate action goals. Next slide, please. So we kicked off our campaign our call to action campaign in April with a public workshop, virtual public workshop. And one of the questions that we asked the audience of that workshop is what is your vision for a healthy, livable zero emission community? And this is a word cloud of the inputs that we received at that meeting and hopefully you'll recognize at least a few words or phrases that resonate with you. So really something that we're trying to get a better sense from the community at large about what is our vision for what this community can look like in the future when we tackle successfully tackle the climate change issues in front of us. So next slide, please. And then thinking about what resources are needed to achieve this vision. Obviously funding, we know that we need more money to hire the workforce needed to purchase the new appliances and equipment and do the transformations that are needed. We also need a trained workforce to implement the solutions. Some of the new technologies are not so new technologies anymore actually, but things like heat pumps are not necessarily common out there in the industry. And so really training up our workforce, some great job, local job opportunities to do the retrofits and to replace the appliances to weatherize homes, et cetera. We also feel like we need creative thinking and new ways of solving problems. And we need again to involve our local leaders and experts in the key climate sectors who really have been working on these issues for a number of years and have some great ideas that we wanna make sure are factored into the solutions that we're working on. And I guess bottom line, we know that local government can't do this work alone. We need to fully engage our entire community to successfully respond to the climate crisis. So next slide, please. Next slide after that. So talking about our next steps with the campaign. So this is a high level timeline of what we're embarking upon. So the first and foremost, we know that we can't wait any longer to take action and we haven't been waiting actually, but we need to continue implementing the mobilization climate solutions that we have funding for now. So with the resources and funding that we have, all of our local jurisdictions are working on a variety of climate related actions, including of course the city of Santa Rosa. And so that work needs to continue and accelerate. And then in parallel with that, we are again launching this outreach and engagement campaign to develop the community's vision and also climate solutions and ideas for reaching that 2030 goal. And then moving into 2023, starting to get more specific in terms of, what do those solutions look like? What are the priorities should, are there new ideas around transportation and ways that we can provide mobility solutions that we're not, maybe not even thinking about now. And then what are the ideas and the priorities around the types of funding options that we should be considering to bring in the resources to Sonoma County that are needed for all of these solutions. And then finally in 2024, our goal is to have the funding options identified. One, two, three, I don't know right now what those options will be. Certainly there are a number of different ideas on the table, but to be moving forward with those and securing community support to bring in that funding for our climate solutions. So I think Ross we're ready for the last slide, which is really how can you get involved? How can residents of the city of Santa Rosa get involved? We do have a short survey that we're inviting folks to take which is an opportunity to start providing some feedback on the mobilization strategy and the actions that folks would like to see us take. When you complete the survey you'll be invited to join our mailing list so that you receive news and updates on the call to action and the mobilization strategy. We invite you to spread the word in Facebook. So there's a link to our Facebook page. And then lastly, we're really interested in getting out and presenting to more community groups and organizations.  So that concludes my presentation and I welcome your questions and comments. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Do you have any questions? I actually have a couple of questions if I may. Go for it. So one of the questions I had was around, I know we have a ban on gas stations but just out of curiosity, does that include emergency needed gas stations? Is there a special permit process? So say at a fire station or even out at the airport where they put in gas stations for Henry I or tankers that come in. I just was wanting to know if you had clarification on that because it sometimes is a question that I get answered. Yeah, yeah, so that's really, I think that's a very important point. We certainly don't want to take any actions that would impact our ability to respond to emergencies. And so again, to emphasize this is a ban on new gas stations and as the city of Santa Rosa, for example, as you're developing your specific ordinance or ban on new gas stations, that's really your opportunity to look at your emergency needs and to maybe carve out exceptions if you envision that you're, for example, building new fire stations in the future, that there would be a process to ensure that they had access to the fuel they needed. So definitely not an all out ban on every potential way of delivering gas but really up to the jurisdictions. And while RCPS working with each jurisdiction to share common language, there are unique circumstances. And I think this will especially hold true at the county level where they do have rural areas that will need access. So great question. Thank you for that. And I appreciate that and wasn't sure maybe language needed to be included in those premises specific for emergency response. And then my second question is on implementing the micro grids, I have a extremely like lucky opportunity to work with Oakmont, who is really working hard to put on in a micro grid and thought perhaps your group might be willing to talk to them and to assist them in any ways because that specifically is a community that when the power shutdowns happen and they are really impacted at a high level. And so I like the idea of doing micro grids and specifically I know just in my district that is one that I know of that they're trying to get through but do you see any sort of blockades happening for these micro grids to go in? And is there something that we can do as far as policy goes to ensure that they are assisted if that is our goal not only to be really responsible with our climate and our emissions but to make sure that we have those opportunities because I'm feeling like they might have some blockades and I would like to be able to remove them. So this is an area that we haven't spent a lot of time on yet to be honest but our partners in Cinema Clean Power would certainly be a potential resource for you. I think that one of the big barriers that we'll all run into is funding. So obviously it costs money to establish these micro grids. I think there are some technical issues that would need to be potentially addressed. So really depending on the situation but would be happy to follow up with you in the community and to bring in partners as needed to share information depending on kind of how far they are into their process but definitely would be happy to talk further with you and the community members. Thank you so much, that was it for me. All right, so we will bring it to the public for public comment to see if there's any public comment. If you wish to make a comment please raise your hand at this time. Council member Rogers are not seeing any raised hands at this time. Okay, thank you. I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank both of you for coming and to just echo what you said that we really do have to work in collaboration because no city or entity is silo and we're so close together. We really have to work as a region if we wanna make an impact. One city will make a ordinance or do something and hopefully the rest of the cities are close to follow to do the right thing and do what needs to be done but we really all need to step up to the plate and know that this is real, it's not made up and we really just need to start to push forward and maybe a little bit more aggressively than we have been doing and if our weather is not testament enough to show us that this is definitely real for all the people that have been saying that it is not real, that climate change and these things are not real, it's definitely real. So in community engagement. So I like that even in the presentation that you gave today, the way that you broke it down it was broken down in a way that people that don't know very much could grasp onto the presentation. So thank you very much for giving that presentation and I know that people can get it from the agenda but if people don't go to the agenda where are they able to find not only this presentation but additional information that would be on the website that you provided. Yes, rcpa.ca.gov. And are you constantly providing additional resources or how often are you in the community? I would say we're just gearing up so that's our request to let us know if there are groups that you'd like us to present to. So yeah, every opportunity that we have we are getting out there. And we also have a community, we have a climate action advisory committee that we meet with once a quarter. And so that's an important group that provides input to us as well but definitely want to be out meeting with as many folks as we can. Okay, perfect. Well, again, thank you so much for being here today. We'll be moving on to our future agenda items. 5.1 presentation for future agenda items. Thank you. Hi, I'm Tasha Wright and I'm here to provide a little information about our future agenda items. But first I want to say thank you very much to Heather from the Water Department for her presentation on the Water Smart Expo that's really, really exciting. So hopefully we'll see everyone on June 29th. And I just want to say thank you to Tanya and Ross from RCPA for that great presentation. And that was wonderful that you provided the QR code for the survey. So hopefully folks can go ahead and do that and take advantage of the opportunity to provide some information to RCPA. And finally, I just want to say congrats again to RCPA for getting the recognition from the White House. We are so incredibly fortunate to have an organization like that in our community that serves our folks. And we are just amazing. It's just amazing that we have that in our community, that we have the opportunity to work together all the cities within the county and move forward. We are the only one in California that does that for that coordination. So that's something that we can all be proud of and for sure that RCPA can be proud of as well. So going on to our future agenda items for July, we have Recology coming to talk about their programs and an update from them. And then we will have an update on SB 1383 from our own Joey Hennowitz and he'll talk about compliance and the zero waste update. And then we're also going to have a little report out on this cool cities program. We've had a lot of requests from the community about what the city of San Rosa is doing around that. And so we want to provide an update on that. We do not have August locked down yet, but I'm looking at a couple of exciting things. And you can also see the pending schedule date. That too is available through our agenda. From today, you'll have the link on that agenda. So that's all I have for now and great to see everyone. All right. Well, that looks like we are on item six, which is adjournment. So thank you everyone for joining us and everyone have a wonderful afternoon. Bye-bye. Thank you.


In October, Cal OES traveled statewide to Sacramento, Menlo Park, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and San Diego. At each of these stops, earthquake experts encouraged Californians to learn life-saving tits. On top of learning about earthquake preparedness, participants were able to take a ride on the simulator that gave them an experience of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. The tour also raised awareness about California's nation-leading earthquake early warning system and the profound efforts to give California families and businesses advanced warnings before the shaking starts. We currently have early earthquake warning at all of our stations. We get anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds early warning. The earthquake warning is very strong-shaking, expected in less than 10 seconds, stable to open. That technology is being used to automate protective actions such as slowing trains, recalling elevators, shutting off water and gas valves, as well as notifying personnel in school and medical settings. And it's already opening firehouse doors. So the alarms at the station go off, they tell you there's an earthquake coming and they actually give you a countdown. And then also part of that automation is it opens the bay doors so that if the station gets damaged or wrecked, we can get the fire equipment out to go serve the public. All that tech is impressive, but it's the power of our partnerships, the human element that makes the biggest impact. We're so appreciative to Cal OES and the State of California for the many partnerships that we have. And this is just a really great example of how we help more than 10,000 people a year who walk through our doors seeking the support that they need to change the arc of their lives and preparing them for what is inevitable in California, which is a big shake, is part of just helping our community be ready to support themselves and their families when something major happens. And everybody needs to be prepared, including folks who are on the margins and vulnerable communities. The tour wraps up with the great California Shakeout Drill and emergency exercises like this one in Southern California. The anxiety. This is a mandatory evacuation drill. Chaos. The raw emotion of living through an earthquake. It all played out in real time during a full-scale drill at Santa Monica College in support of the annual Great California Shakeout. In an earthquake where it happened right now, I think I'd be really afraid to be in the position where I was found. So I think it's good to spread awareness. Cal OES, in coordination with state, local and federal partners, participated in the Shakeout Drill, practicing how to drop, cover and hold on, or if in a wheelchair, to lock your wheels, cover and hold on. Ultimately, earthquake preparedness is about doing key steps to, in advance of an event, to be prepared, right? And one of the ways that we do that is through the Great California Shakeout. And this is a drill that allows everybody in the community to practice, drop, cover and hold on. Nearly 10 million Californians registered for this year's drill. Additionally, more than 44 million people worldwide practice earthquake safety in their schools, businesses and at home. Earthquakes are a low-frequency but high-severity event, and we need to prepare now. So we developed that muscle memory by having this annual drill. You don't just have to do it annually. You can do it with your family, with your school, with your community more frequently than that. Here in Santa Monica, the Great Shakeout Drill is another important reminder about the importance of earthquake preparedness. This could happen anytime, anywhere in California. I think preparedness is something that is a learned behavior, and you have to be educated on it. So if we're going to be able to respond appropriately, it's a community effort. Earthquake early warning, powered by Shake Alert, sounded the campus alarms at 10.20 a.m. to initiate the drill, soon followed by a test alert to My Shake app users. This first-in-the-nation warning system allows Californians to receive crucial seconds of notification before shaking occurs. You never know when you may be visiting a high-risk earthquake area, and that's why it's so important for you to just be prepared now. And I always tell people that everybody likes to go to San Francisco or Los Angeles for travel, for tourism, or you may have family that may live there, and you may be the difference maker between them being prepared or not. There are three ways to get alerts through the Earthquake Early Warning California system by downloading the My Shake app, through your Android phone known as Android Earthquake Alerts, and through wireless emergency alerts. Enhanced technology has added yet another tool to a growing list of available resources. Preparedness, though, is irreplaceable. Have a family plan, build an emergency kit, and know where to go, what to do, and how to protect yourself, your family, and your community. It's not a matter of if an earthquake will strike, but when. Family and I have a little earthquake kit, but we haven't like, we haven't restocked it in a while, we probably have to check it. But yeah, I'm definitely going to be more cautious, more aware of it now. To learn more about earthquake preparedness, go to earthquake.ca.gov. And for the latest from Cal OES, visit us on all of our social media platforms.


President Bola Ahmed Tinglubu seeks revs 500 billion era palliative approval for subsidy removal. Nigerian students face tough times in the UK as tuition sores by 60%. And then we are going to also look on the program here at the headlines from some of our major national dailies. A very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on the breakfast. My name is Nyam Gul Akgaji. It's a wonderful Thursday morning and we do hope that your mindset this morning is how to have a side hustle if you don't already have one because we talk business on Thursday. Even if the topics may not be business, any Thursday that you tune into breakfast know that we are thinking about how you are going to be financially more stable than you are right now. And if there's a possibility we'll talk to you about how to make your business work by talking to relevant people that will help us understand the business environment. Once again good morning to you and welcome to today's edition of the breakfast. And very quickly now we go to some of the things that are trending on social media and everywhere else. One of them is that the US is holding a pre-departure orientation for 700 Nigerian students. The US is holding a pre-departure orientation for 700 Nigerian students. The Embassy in Abuja and the US Consulate General in Lagos have hosted a pre-departure orientation for approximately 700 students who are benefiting from the 2023 US Missions Education USA Advising Services in Nigeria. These Nigerian students will soon depart for study in the United States including 73 Opportunity Funds recipients. Nigeria is the 10th largest contributor of foreign students to the United States. A statement by the mission added that last year alone over 14,000 Nigerian students were enrolled in over 1,000 US higher education institutions. The Education USA is a US Department of State supported network of over 430 international students advising centers across the world that provide information and guidance to on this US higher education admission processes. And this means that like a lot of people say if you have to travel abroad the biggest mistake is not to know what to expect when you get to that country of your destination. And so the US has made this possible for students that are intending to go to the US to know what it takes to get admitted into schools and what to expect when you get to the US and you want to study. It's what they call advising centers for all the students. It's not like they have given scholarship to the people who are going but if you need to go to America this and this is what you are supposed to expect and this and this is what you're supposed to do when you get to that country. So it's a very good thing because some of them will be hit by culture change or culture, the difference in culture and so many other things that could lead you into trouble or could make your life unbearable if you don't have that first hand information. So if you must be a student you get this advice free of charge as it is from the US. But it also speaks to how much education tourism we do here in Nigeria that is from Nigeria to the US. In the US alone, last year alone, 14,000 according to the statement that was released, 14,000 Nigerians paying school fees in dollars through all these schools in America because they want to obtain higher education. And that also is just telling us a minute fraction. There are others in the UK as well. There are others in Canada. There are others even like now we know in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Russia, in Germany. In fact, one Nigerian just emerged with first class in German university and all that. So we know that our students, our children, our compatriots are elsewhere studying. If US alone will have 14,000 you can imagine how much of this foreign currency we are losing because maybe the educational system back home is not what it should be. Anyway, we'll move to another item and court orders a remand of Trinity Guy in Agodi prison till August. Do you remember Trinity Guy? A magistrate court in Yagaonku, Ibadon. I hope I got that right or your state capital has ordered the continual remand of skit maker and prankster Abdulahi Marouf Adisa, popularly known as Trinity Guy in prison for allegedly sexualizing a minor in a viral skit video till the next adjoined date slated for August 3, 2023. The trial court who made this ruling on Tuesday also ordered the remand of Isyaka Ahmed, 40 years old, and his wife Rufait Ahmed, 29 years old, who are the parents of the alleged minor. The police had arranged the prankster in Court in June and charged Abdulahi alongside the parents of the victim with conspiracy and sexual abuse and exploitation of a 10-year-old girl in the Kuala neighborhood of Ibadon on December 17, 2022.  Even it violates section 35, subsection 1, and is punishable under section 35, subsection 2 of the Oyo State Child Rights Law 2006 as well as simultaneously violating the sections 516 of the criminal code laws of Oyo State 2000. Now remember there has been calls for this regulation in the skit industry, in the entertainment industry, somewhat, you know, people making money. Yes, I know that, so it's a kind of empowerment, it's a kind of employment and all that. People get entertained by the skit makers, but there's always so much that you can do, only so much that you can do and not overstep the bounds. In the case of Trinity guy, he has been napped by the police, he's in court, he's being remanded in prison, but he seems to be just a fall guy in this whole issue. There are a lot of other people that need to face the music as well because a lot of them, when they do these things, do not even take into consideration the health issues that the victim may face, the emotional issues, the psychological issues that the person who these things have been done to might face. I've seen videos where someone was claiming to try to carry a bowl of water and then it's just planned that when you go to help him carry this bowl of water, he pours the water on you. Does he know what you're going through?  Does he know whether you're going to the hospital because of one condition or the other? Does he know whether you have a heart condition that you cannot be triggered by anything? What if somebody loses their lives? Who will have to face the music and all that? So these things need to be regulated and whatever relevant body needs to do this should act fast. Trinity guy today may be facing the music, but he's not the only one. So we should look inwards and make sure that if it is for fun, it should continue to be fun and not subject some people to shame. The other day we saw a video where people were actually doing rituals and they brought a victim and dropped on the road and they danced around the victim and people were laughing. They were saying all these skit makers and all that and then they entered their vehicle, zoomed off and the person that they dropped, the victim that they dropped was not in her senses anymore and that was when people realized. So how do we know when it's a skit and when it's not a skit? You could stand and say, okay, this is a skit without knowing that actually something is going to happen to you and you may just lose your life. Who do we hold in cases like that? So whoever needs to regulate these needs to act fast. If fireworks will be banned because there's a possibility that when you're shooting your fireworks someone else might be shooting real ammunition and robbing somewhere else. It's a security issue. That's what the police said to us. So fireworks are no longer the knockouts as we call them are no longer there during the festive period, Christmas period precisely that people use all those things. So if you can ban that because of the effect it might have because of what it might blanket so that we do not get to know then why not look into this? I'm not calling for a ban but I'm calling for regulations so that we know. In the broadcast industry we know that there's something called NTBB, not to be broadcast. There are some things, there are some guidelines that should be given skit makers so that they don't step on the rights of others and do what is not supposed to be done. Well, there's so many other issues that are trending on the social media. If you are in this day and age I'm sure that you surf the web, you go to the internet and you see a lot of things that need to be talked about. So we will be discussing so many things today. We'll be discussing one of them is the fact that the president has asked for money for palliatives and when we get our guest this morning we'll be talking about that issue right now. And if you ask me my question is do we need palliatives or we need to revisit whatever is giving rise to the palliative because sometimes there's a possibility that from experience the money that will be spent on palliatives may even be more than the fuel subsidy that has been said to have been removed. So if that is the case then was it a wise decision to remove the fuel subsidy or not? We'll find out from the expert when the time comes. In the meantime we'll just take a short break and then see what the weather says. In Ajah axis of Lagos state it's already raining, it was raining very early this morning. When you get to as far as Leganza, VGC and so many other areas it was drizzling. Maybe now it's a downpour, I don't know. And a lot of people while coming to work were praying that it should not rain on VI because sometimes when it rains on the roads you have ankle deep, shin deep water puddles that you might not want to enter and then when you're going to your office you might need to just remove your shoes and put your legs in the dirty water if you don't have a car. And if you do have a car there's a possibility the car might just stop on the way because the water has entered wherever it enters in the car and makes it stop. But that's the situation we find ourselves. We do hope that solutions will be found for all these problems that we seem to be having especially here in Lagos as we try to make ends meet every day of our lives here in Lagos. You wake up very early, you go home very late and then you have to do that as a cycle. Some people have just one day to rest and that is a Sunday and then they have to go for service. Stay in the church till four o'clock, there's no rest for all of us. It used to be said no rest for the wicked. Are we all wicked in Lagos because we don't seem to have any rest for ourselves but God will help us and we do hope that solutions like I said will be found. The new administration has come, the new sheriff in town is doling out a lot of things. Laws here, cutting down here, adding here and all that and all that. In six months we'll see how this will settle down. Let's see if we'll celebrate Christmas this year applauding the government for doing well or we'll celebrate Christmas this year for the people who used to sacrifice a cow. We'll now be looking for a little chicken to do that or maybe just two chicken laps to do that because we've seen cases where people fall from the high rungs of the ladder to the very low. Now almost everybody is poor. Well, but God will help us. So let's take that break and see what the weather says if it is possible and then we'll return to look at the major headlines. Stay with us.


How are these brands building their own identity? How do they become meaningful to a consumer? How do consumers feel like that should be what we like to call them love marks, right? We all have love marks in every product category, whether it's your computer, your shoes, your shirt, your hat, your watch. In cannabis, those love marks haven't been developed. To get in the consumer's minds, and again, it's not rocket science, but marketing does work if it's done well, it's a true strategy, right? And again, what you do in Southern California isn't going to work in Oklahoma. Right? If you're a multi-state operator. Or what you do in Southern California, you're not going to even work in Northern California. I mean, it's saying, so you've got to think about adapting to market conditions, to household incomes, to ethnicities. I mean, it can get costly, but there's ways to do it that you can do repeatable assets that add a little bit of local flavor. It's a brand based on trusting quality, on education, on holding new consumers' hand, on curating experiences for them. I would say our platform, FlowerTown.com, is kind of our long game. Someone's opinion may contradict yours. Where's my friend, Alan? It's all about your perspective. Who are we, and what is the nature of this reality? Five, four, three, two... What's up, everyone? Welcome to Simulation. I'm your host, Alan Sokian. We are on site at the beautiful New West Summit, the Cannabis Tech Conference. We are now going to be talking to Dean Waters. Hi, Dean. How are you, Alan? Thank you so much for coming on our show. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. Super pumped for this. Dean's background, for those that don't know, he's been executing successful media and marketing strategies for a variety of Fortune 500 companies for over the last 30 years, and most recently he's founded FlowerTown, Platform and FlowerTown Agency, to educate new consumers entering the marketplace and also give cannabis brands the proper marketing tools for normalization. Dean, I'm so pumped to jump in. All right. So, first, on the strategies for successful media and marketing that you've been doing the last 30 years, and also how that has bled into FlowerTown and what you're doing now. Yeah. Well, you can imagine that media marketing strategies have changed over the last 30 years, because there was a time where there was a cable box, and that's where you consumed media, and that's how you watch television, rating points were kind of decent. And now you're dealing with like massive fragmentation, right? So media and accountability is greater than it's ever been. I worked in the cable industry for, gosh, well I started my career as a media buyer in like 89, 90, was super young, I didn't go to college, I was going to go to a college, and then I decided he was either trying to make some money, just super aggressive as a young person, or go away to school, and I took the option of going to make some money. I was fortunate enough to work for a mentor at that young age, and then from there I parlayed that experience and worked in the cable industry. I worked for the first cable interconnect in the country, which was the first time a cable company would consolidate a marketplace to compete with the broadcast stations. So that was coming called AdLink, joined AdLink in 1991, and it was the first interconnect in the country that would consolidate a marketplace like the LA Media Market, which is five counties, which is 65 cable systems with a single feed to compete with broadcast stations. Groundbreaking at the time, and every market now has an interconnect, but again, viewing has changed over the years. After that, I left my corporate job, I was there for roughly 14 years, and it was a part of a start-up called Local Television Network, LTN, modeled after CityTV from Canada. I was there for roughly two years, I was a part of the team launching this, it was super interesting, it failed for all the wrong reasons, but it bit me as an entrepreneur. So from there, I decided not to ever go back to my corporate job, I proved myself and to others that I could actually, that short-sint those two years at Local Television Network was actually really impactful for me personally, but also showed me a path of doing things with big, big brands without needing to be selling MTV. So I started my own company called Vimbi. I spent the first year working in the office of my mentor who was my first job in media, and I was there for about a year, building my deck, building my business model, started hiring a couple people personally, I self-funded the company for about three years, roughly two and a half years. And from there, I had a transit, it was a time where like Mani and RIPE TV and VBS, which was Vice now, but VBS back then, everybody was imploding, they just, you know, video in the web wasn't happening, brands weren't sponsoring, and then I met Mark Burnett, and Mark Burnett was fascinated by the business model that I was building. And Burnett, you know Mark Burnett, the voice survivor, the apprentice. Burnett met me, and he was fascinated and enamored by my business model of like he could never pull off these types of productions and be a foyer into culture in America at the time, Vimbi was a destination website for lifestyle. So we were huge in action sports and music, you know, indie rock, hip-hop, street art, car culture, super interesting, fun, a lot of my passions growing up in Los Angeles. And we would do even a million views in a couple hours, but it wasn't happening on Vimbi, it was happening in Myspace and every blogger, but I couldn't run ads, and it was, you know, it was a tough, tough time to try and build a platform. Long story short, I met Mark Burnett, within nine weeks I became the Mark Burnett content studio, and literally overnight we became this crazy brand studio. I abandoned Vimbi as a destination, which in hindsight was a mistake. I should have kept with it based on where, you know, Vice is today and some of these other competitors that have built content companies. But regardless, I had this crazy run with Burnett for about nine years. I learned a ton. I literally became the gold standard for content and digital and series at the time and really kind of working with some of the biggest brands in the world. We just had an incredible run. And then December of 16, Mark Burnett got purchased by MGM. MGM made us an offer, quite wasn't where we thought our valuation was. We made them an offer, we brought our equity back. And it freed me up to go after cannabis. And I had started exploring cannabis a year prior and had some ends with some friends that were consulting big, big brands and, you know, got enough information, enough knowledge to kind of do my own thing, kind of be dangerous. There's people I met that I just, we didn't align as far as just what I needed to do what I wanted to do. And it wasn't about, for me, it wasn't about money. It was about insight and connections in the industry. So I went off and I kind of recruited my own team. I'm some of the best creatives and strategists that I've known in the industry. And at the time, VinB, which is my core company, still in existence, I completely stepped out. I raised some money and a hard new team. And I put some new executives in place at VinB so that I could, again, step out and do my own thing. So in December of 18, or excuse me, January of 18, we went out and raised some money. And I recruited my team. Everybody came on board. And March of 18, everybody quit their jobs and we started Flower Town. Flower Town is a brand that took 12 months to build. The first 12 months was really about building the brand, building kind of what we're going to stand for. Our mission didn't come until eight months later, as far as where we ended up. It's a brand based on trusting quality and education and holding new consumers hand and curating experiences for them. I would say our platform, FlowerTown.com, is kind of our long game. There's all sorts of opportunities that we're getting along the way. I should take a step back. In June of this year, I solidified my next round with Kohn Resnick, who's my new partner, who is one of the largest professional services in the country. They're forward-facing in cannabis.  Cannabis is new, but their growth trajectory is amazing. And they're doing business with over 160 plant-touching brands. So it creates a really interesting opportunity for us to collaborate with them. Some of the brands they're working with and kind of mine some marketing opportunities with some of those players. So we, you know, in March of this year, we went consumer-facing in FlowerTown.com. It's, again, it's a marathon. It's building a platform that's not easy. We also launched our creative services and some things that have really gone into effect May of this year, bleeding into June. And so we're working with brands. We kind of built this toolkit to help brands reach new consumers. We're also, you know, so within the FlowerTown.com platform, we've launched a product directory, which is products that we endorse and brands that we endorse that we like. The next phase of that is brands coming in and subscribing to our brand pages. Right now there's a bunch of product pages. Now it's kind of bringing a really kind of, you know, informational approach to the new consumer to empower them with knowledge about these brands. And then we have a dispensary directory which will be launching in the fourth quarter, which right now there is one on FlowerTown. The new one's launching, it'll look more like Zaggot. Not Yelp, a little bit more premium and a really good experience for the consumer. And, you know, we social media obviously shoots for everybody. We launch an influencer network. We aligned with a company called Open Influence that has the engine that we need for, you know, for post mortem data for clients, delivering all the data they would need, all the analytics that they need. And we can give guarantees, which is exciting. And the industry hasn't been used to that to date. And we've kind of created a consumer journey that's safe for influencers to get involved with Canada's brands through education. So FlowerTown comes in as an educational component. Influencers would say, oh my God, I discovered this topical. It's amazing from Elsa Recovery. I found it on flowertown.com. Check it out, swipe up. You arrive in a story about this topical based on fitness. And so if you want to shop, you can click and then you'll go to that product page where you can find a dispensary to purchase that product or you can say learn more and go to another page on FlowerTown to learn more about that product. It's super interesting. We kind of cracked a code. The issue is it's a $30,000 minimum for the industry, which for a lot of brands is a lot of money right now, right? But we are discovering brands that do have bigger budgets, a lot of multi-state operators that want to do things differently that, you know, we're starting to have more bigger conversations about that. You know, we're working with brands on creative development through our creative agency, which is flowertownagency.com. And that's been kind of our low hanging fruit right now, just based on our expertise, knowing consumer markets, helping them with strategy, helping them with campaign ideas, you know, doing, you know, brand stories, founder stories, storytelling, you know, the biggest, most important thing right now for brands is to let consumers understand who they are and tell stories that are authentic and sincere and things that they can connect with through kind of on their own time. Yeah. Yeah. Whoa. Sorry, that was long ago. It's such a cool journey, though. Yeah. Wow. I'm really interested in learning about a couple things here. Let's start with some of those strategies. When you were doing these, you know, these big deals with brands and you were figuring out the marketing and the strategies for them. And then you, where did, where did your vision, so tell us about that and then also where did the vision of the emerging cannabis market, how did that, how did the bug bite you of that? When did it do that? And yes, it tells us about that. But again, you know, whether it's media strategy or content strategy, all that happened at certain kind of points in my career. You know, when I launched VINB and we, you know, became partisan Mark Burnett, it became about content strategies, content marketing, not advertising, but content marketing, reality-based stories to help brands connect with consumers through sincerity marketing and just stories that were important to consumers that would allow us into their single page feed, you know, called Facebook Grants, whatever it might be and programming those screens accordingly. And then there were authentic stories that were, that were passing content along to consumers that was helping them connect with those brands. Well, it was, it was helping brands connect with some, with consumers through authentic storytelling and stories that weren't hard hitting, that it wasn't advertising, it was stuff that actually they were interested in. And then whether it was paid for by or we could integrate a product into a story, we would always put creative first. Yes. And with that had a tremendous impact. Yes. So there's this, in a sense, it goes brand authenticity to the customer, brand wants to distribute authenticity to the customer and then have the customer go, I trust that brand, I'm going to pass along that brand. I'm going to try to share it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I like it. I like that. That's so and that's actually a, that's probably the core part of the future of content is exactly.  They, they've figured out a way to kind of create their own network, whether it's Netflix or Amazon or whatever they're doing and kind of curate their own network. And therefore, you know, if you're, if you're delivering ads to them or content marketing that's meaningful that fits their lifestyle becomes acceptable, right? So that was the key was how do, how do we do things in a way to let a big box retailer or let, you know, a large CPG company kind of tell stories that are, you know, speaking to her or him based on kind of their likes and their interest. And it's, you know, you get good over time, right? You start figuring out what that looks like in stories that work and things that really move the needle. But, you know, it's just some process. And then prior to that, as far as media, in the cable industry was just, you know, we were competing against broadcast stations. You had to put together media plans and things that were impactful and can deliver on par with, you know, some of the big broadcasters. Yet we were, we were selling qualitative, you know, initiatives and doing things differently than having quantitative ratings. Because back then the cable industry didn't do well with rating points. And with cannabis, what led me to cannabis was a life long, you know, love for the plant, a lot of personal stories, things that I've encountered along the way and obviously living in California, which has had some sort of medical recreational for over 20 years. Right? You're kind of in it. It's actually very immature. And you get exposed to a lot of information. And it just came a time in my career that as a CEO, I'm more of a visionary. I'm not so much the operations guy.  And, you know, cannabis became clear to me what was happening. And yet it was the adults hadn't entered the room not to put down the industry. And the core of the industry has done incredible work to get everybody where they are today. But there's, you know, marketing sophistication. There's understanding of consumer marketing. There's an approach for consumers' best practices that haven't been embraced. You know, that is important to really, I mean, there's no science. I mean, there's a science behind marketing, but it's not rocket science, right? There's things in every consumer market that happen in that work and good marketing sells things. So, you know, we came into this industry saying, you know what, it's just, you know, with love for the plant, my career, everything that I've done, and rolling it into cannabis as well as some of the people that I love the most in this industry that wanted to join and do this with me, has been like, you know, we're having the most fun. I didn't have to interview people, right? I knew who I wanted to work with, and thank God they all wanted to, you know, work with me. And we never worked together because it was a new venture. And now we're, you know, getting people that want to join us because they see our vision and what we're doing and the work that we're putting out. So it's really exciting. OK, so let's hit on, you have this 30 years of experience that is also then being, then now translated into the cannabis industry. You are then being able to help provide all these unique insights on the content strategy, on brands being authentic to customers in this new emerging market of cannabis. And there's a lot of people that want to know exactly how to do that. And so what is going on, you gave us a little bit of this earlier, what exactly is going on that so many people aren't aware of yet? And what is Flower Town doing to help address that? Well, I mean, it all comes in the money, right? And every, I would say, most brands in California are in a fundraise, right? They're just, they're trying to survive. They're out raising money, they're trying to get to the next level, whether it's going to another state, whether it's upgrading their cultivation center, the manufacturing, whatever it might be. Marketing is not a primary goal, but yet you've got commoditization that's happening, right? There's thousands of brands, and you've got these retail stores that have limited shelf space, right? So a lot of these brands are just trying to make it through, where we always say at Flower Town that if these brands started working with us 12 months ago, granted, we weren't really consumer facing at the time, their worlds would be much different. But it also takes real money to do that, even though we've adjusted our thinking and our budget parameters based on this industry being so nascent and kind of people just getting their feet with marketing. But we always say like a month in cannabis is six months anywhere else. Even in the last month, we've seen massive changes, right? Consolidation's happening. MSOs are buying everything. MSOs, again. Multistate operators. Multistate operators. They're just, they're becoming big quick, right? They're in an acquisition mode, they're just, you know, and they're all vertically in it. Which conglomerates that are vertically integrated? Yeah, which ones? Which MSOs?   I mean, some of them are 12 plus states. You know, it's impressive what they're doing, you know. So when we looked at what VIMBY represents a company that I built with local infrastructure and local expertise of market understanding. And we look at our team that we brought in through Flourtown, which are experts on group spending models. You know, whether it's dealer associations or strategists that work for large CPG companies that, you know, are just some of the most brilliant people in the country when it comes to strategy. And we start looking at some of these brands that are emerging that are operating in multiple states, but yet they can't do anything nationally because of the federal government. So they have to market state by state. But local's really important, right? So the next phase for Flourtown is localization of her platform. So Flourtown, Chicago, Flourtown, Detroit, right? Because local's really important. People identify with it. And you've got to look at each state individually because there's no national platform, right? You can't do anything nationally. But then you look at the NSOs, the multi-state operators, and they also need to be relevant to local markets, right? Once they look at their marketing strategy, it's, well, how do we do this affordably? But yet, you know, we need to identify with these markets because people are sensitive, whether it's skin color accents, household income, you know, city versus rural, whatever it might be, that there's dynamics that you can't assume one size fits all. So it's a complicated balancing act that we all kind of grew up in the industry doing. So we know how to do it. And now it's about educating brands and letting them understand our capabilities because it's pretty unique for the industry and things that we can do on the creative agency side as well as the platform side. So you have to know what the different cycle and demographics are of people across different states. You have to know what different brands want at just a $10,000 budget for a marketing product or at $100,000 or a $1,000,000 budget. You have to know how to create. You said there's components of Flower Town. Again, let's go through the components of Flower Town again. So we have our platform, FlowerTem.com, which is a consumer-based platform. And it's guiding that new consumer from story discovery all the way through their first transaction. And this means if I have, is this everywhere from if I've never experienced an edible or something all the way to educating me on stuff like that, here are some good things. We don't use certain words. We don't say weed. We say cannabis. We don't say joint. We say pre-roll. We'll never show partaking. We feel that as things normalize as in the spirits business, you don't show partaking. I think there's ways consumption on video or in pictures. So we focus on images and story lines and titles that are approachable to that new consumer. We're not going to show dabbing on FlowerTem. It's intimidating. It's a device with a blow torch that new consumers are like, whoa, that seems extreme. So we make stories approachable. But our approach with FlowerTem.com is a cannabis and approach always, whether it's lifestyle-based, whether it's educational-based, there's always a cannabis component. And then the lifestyle. Yeah, whatever it might be. But we focus on education, discovery. We always recommend products. Then we link the product pages on the platform. From there, we'll help you find the dispensary locally that we can buy these products. And then we kind of start our retention or loyalty programs. OK, so I'm on FlowerTem because of really, again, it's based on this brand, that when I go to FlowerTem, I know that I'm getting a cannabis and experience, that there's something around lifestyle or something around education that I'm learning about this process. Or we might even do a feature on a retail store that we really like. They really like that. That's a really cool experience. Because not every retail store makes it on FlowerTem. One, you have to be legal. But two, you've got to have an experience that we deem premium. There's still some retail stores that you walk in through their lobby, and you feel like you're waiting to see your kid in jail. There's some guys that are doing it well, and those will always endorse. So it's a balancing act, and we have a filter for products and retail that we deem kind of good for the new consumer. That makes sense. You don't want someone that's first approaching cannabis to walk into one of these, like you said, it does kind of, it's crazy, just being behind a piece of glass with a little slot underneath to dislike it, something that you can't even see at all behind it. Versus big, beautiful, experience design that is friendly and will bring it out to you, will open it up, will let you play and look at it, talk to you about it. And retail experiences that don't have tinted windows. When you drive by, you can see in the store. That's what you're expecting, any retail experience. I think people have been hiding in the shadows or just being quiet based on the vulnerability of security and different things that I think that the tide's starting to turn. So it's like revealing the veil on the emerging market, like making it more and more publicly facing as it progresses, we're moving the veil. So that's kind of what you guys in a sense are doing. We're trying to, but at the same time, and I was saying, some of our early revenues are coming from helping brands through our creative agency and helping them with strategy and helping them with brand stories and helping them kind of discover an interesting scalable path of assets that are repeatable and things that are attainable based on cost, but yet we can add volume and thought and things that help them connect with new consumers. Because a lot of what's happening in the industry today is a lot of brands are focused on the retail store. They're focused on the bud tender. I mean, even they should, because that bud tender needs to talk about their product. They're focused on that last kind of step before purchase versus, well, how do I create marketing strategies outside the dispensary? How do I get consumers, when they walk in the dispensary to ask for my brand versus being told about my brand, right? And sometimes bud tender is based on who's taking care of them might skew a certain product because whether they have an interest or not and hopefully they don't, but certain people have certain taste, right? But if some people, because all of our bodies react differently to products, need to discover stuff and get knowledgeable and smart outside the dispensary. And with that comes a cost, right? And Flower Town will always do that based on not skewing any opinions based on who's spending money with us, so brands need to market on their own. But it's just brands finding that balancing act as things are being commoditized and it's now it's time for brands to emerge that I think some of them are starting to realize that. Some of them are just trying to make it through and get purchased and some of them it's become as a sprint and we're kind of in it for the marathon because it's not a short game. It's definitely a long game. And it's, you know. Yeah. What do you recommend for brands trying to communicate authentic content to customers in this massive attention economy? Even in the space at large, like even cannabis of course, like, you know, taking really high quality pictures, uploading those to your Instagram and engaging with the people that are commenting, you know, using the right tags, right? Starting to post videos on TikTok, you know, stuff like this. So yeah, so tell us about. Well, I mean, I think there's a massive issue in the industry of recycling the core, right? Everybody's chasing the core, whether it's publishers, whether it's brands, they're in the dispensary, they're within their feeds, they're taking nice, beautiful colored pictures of that really sweet, you know, bud or whatever it might be, but how many buds do you want to look at? You know, how are these brands building their own identity? How do they become meaningful to a consumer? How do consumers feel like that should be what we like to call them love marks, right? We all have love marks in every product category, whether it's your computer, your shoes, your shirt, your hat, your watch, you know, in cannabis, those love marks haven't been developed because there's no real consumer. And that's the opportunity for brands that get it and realize I'm going into, I'm going to start marketing the consumers. I want to reach that new consumer. I'm going to define my marketplace. I'm going to define my pricing structure. I'm going to define who I am as a brand. I'm going to define, you know, my package. I'm going to, you know. What does a love mark, yeah, look like then? Like, give it to you. It's just brand recall, right? Brand recall. Like I can, oh, like when you see the swoosh like Apple's your love mark. Like that's your computer. Your phone is an Apple too.  Pixel, but pretty much, yeah. Okay, yeah. Okay, but no, but I'm saying, you know, you're wearing Nike's, might have Adidas too, but those are shoes you can identify with, right? That's, that's your persona, your car. So this is the brand recall, like go back to get your pair of shoes when you go back to get your next cannabis experience. We've done a lot of man on the street, right? Cause we've got this unique infrastructure of filmmakers all over the country. And we've done just man on the street on brand recall.  Tell us about your shoes or, you know, tell us about cannabis. What's your favorite product? God, it's like, wah, wah. Like people just date their, the brand recall is very low. I like that. Brand recall is then the key. Did you talk to people about- That's like a show too. What's your favorite interview show? Wah, wah, like if they can pick and be like, oh, I love watching this interview show, then you're doing a good job because people are being captivated by your- But that, you know, to get in the consumer's minds, and again, it's not rocket science, but marketing does work if it's done well. It's a true strategy, right? And it's targeting, and again, you can't, what you do in Southern California isn't gonna work in Oklahoma, right? If you're a multi-state operator. Or what you do in Southern California, might not even work in Northern California. I mean, same, so you gotta think about adapting to market conditions, to household incomes, to ethnicities. I mean, it can get costly, but there's ways to do it that you can do repeatable assets that add a little bit of local flavor. But you know, localism, but you know, beyond, before you get to the content strategy, or I would say developing content, there's a whole brand strategy of building that brand and that identity. That is important that even if you were at the dispensary level and a brand had 10 ambassadors, you know, if you asked each one of those ambassadors, give us the brand story. Without a true brand book or a mission statement, would you get the same story? Probably not, right? And so you've got a bunch of things floating in the marketplace that are confusing. Even the founder themselves, if they have elevator pitches with different people, are selling the story differently, usually, yeah. So it's a lot of basics that are, but then you have cannabis brands that are, you know, if it's a 10 step process to actually selling a product, and they're like, I have momentum, I'm at step five. I'm not gonna start over. So we'll recommend, we get it, we'll step in, but we should parallel path, building some fundamentals as you go outside dispensaries and you start reaching new consumers. You know, when you reach them in their terms, the thought process is different. You're dealing with a massive stigma, right?  I mean, it's real. And then you're dealing with people too that would take something from you or you, but they're still not willing to walk into a dispensary to make that first purchase. Well, how do you get them comfortable with that? Right? It's all, I mean, we're huge about education. The industry, I mean, California legalized marijuana and there's no educational campaign, right? There's nothing that's speaking to the public. I mean, the state did release a budget, it's very small. It's not gonna be effective, it's almost invisible based on how expensive California media is, but you know, that's one of the biggest things, it's just education. And we're believers in Flower Town that, you know, education is marketing. You can take an educational idea and make a marketing campaign out of it, and it's not gonna seem lame. And then it provides value to people. Yeah, and you become that. Do a brand recall. That thought leader of like, wow, that guy's holding my hand. That brand is, you know, then there's the element of like using Flower Town as a filter to reach a new consumer and brand's getting behind us because our voice is a voice for the consumer. We're not plant touching without a retailer. We're there to be the arbiter of quality control and safety and trust. So there's an interesting play of brands coming to our world and reaching the marketplace that way of, you know, there's an oil brand that we're gonna do with the vaping crisis and we're kind of just putting ourselves right in the middle of it right now. And we're gonna do a mini doc on, from the plant all the way to the fielding cartridge and what a legal process looks like, right? But the brand's like, we don't wanna release it on our own. We wanna release it through Flower Town, because it'll be more meaningful.  It's actually gonna be, you know, an educational piece of content coming from Flower Town, which is that educational platform. This is big. The idea is like, can you disseminate content to people that brings them education and value that is not trying to sell your own agenda, but rather just in a sense, you're not trying to feed them your own products. You're getting in the heads of the consumer, right? You're becoming that resource, that brand that's responsible. Yeah, you're doing the educational part. So that way they themselves become more educated through you, you become the brand that they trust and then you can then work entrusted with other brands and deliver content that they think, okay, I trust this brand now, so I'll trust this recommendation. And I'll let them into my social feed, right? Cause I like the stories they're telling me, and I'm connecting with them. And they seem like they're actually have my best interest. I like how you say I let them into the social feed. Cause that's what it is when you follow or subscribe or whatever it's guarding you. People are curating their own media experiences. Media's never been like this ever, right? People are curating their own media experiences. My kids never watch live. I mean, they might watch an award show or a sporting event, but my kids watch Netflix. They watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it. When they want to watch it. And they don't see ads. And partly there's some nuance there because the supercomputers pointed at their face but of the two billion psychometric profiles that's been trained on. So there's some nuance there, your little avatar on the server that is Dean Waters.  So Dean, this has been very interesting. We ask a question at least on the way out of every show. The question is, what do you think is the most beautiful thing in the world? What do I think is the most beautiful thing in the world? Well, God, I'd be remiss if I didn't say my kids, right? Cause they're beautiful and it's one of the biggest gifts. Hi, you know what man? When I vacation, I go to beaches and I go up surfing my whole life. And that's where I prefer to put myself is on an island somewhere on a beach and enjoying my friends and my family and kind of doing that.  But to me, that's the most beautiful thing in the world. I mean, aside from my kids. Thank you, Dean. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. And thank you everyone for tuning in. We greatly appreciate it. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below in the episode list as you're thinking. Also check out the links in the bio to Dean's work into Flower Town. Check those out, share them more with your friends, families, corvus, people online. Go support New West Summit as well. Their links are below. Support us and the other artists and entrepreneurs in your community. Support them, help them grow. And go and build the future, everyone. Manifest your dreams into the world. We love you very much. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you soon. Thanks, Allen. Thank you, Dean. Thank you. Thank you. Cool. That's it. We're good.


Item number SCP-231-7 See Addendum regarding SCP-231-1 through SCP-231-6 Object Class Keter Site and Personnel Requirements Under Special Order of 05, the following addendum is attached to the beginning of the file for SCP-231-7 All personnel assigned to SCP-231-7 must rotate out for one month of psychological counseling after two months on-site SCP-231-7 is to be kept at an undisclosed location All personnel assigned to SCP-231 will be transported there blindfolded from Site-19 by a route including no fewer than seven different forms of transportation including but not limited to aircraft, automobile, underground tunnel, and Removal of the blindfold during the transport process is grounds for immediate termination Personnel assigned to SCP-231-7 must undergo heavy psychological testing before being cleared to enter the site Individuals must score at least 72 points on the Milgram obedience examination Be unmarried, have no offspring, and express nothing less than total loyalty to the foundation Normal psychological screening procedures against access to disorders are waived so long as the Class D personnel in question has the mental capacity to carry out procedure 110 Montauk as needed Personnel who expressed sympathy towards SCP-231-7's plight and or expressed a desire to rescue or sympathize toward SCP-231-7 will be transferred to another project without delay Any actual rescue attempts will be met with immediate termination Personnel who have served on the staff of SCP-231-7's containment team are not required to divulge that information to others No official record shall be kept of the names of any staff assigned to SCP-231-7 nor will said service appear in the personnel files of said staff While on site, individuals assigned to SCP-231-7 will be issued concealing helmets with integrated voice changers to protect their identity On-site staff are not to remove said uniforms in the presence of other staff members Off-duty hours are to be spent in private quarters alone Six Class D personnel are to be assigned to SCP-231-7 each month for the purposes of carrying out procedure 110 Montauk Violent criminals are not to be used for this purpose due to the possibility of accidental fatality during the 110 Montauk process Special Containment Procedures Following repeated escape and suicide attempts and based on the failure of containment for SCP-231-1 through 6 Containment of SCP-231-7 has been amended to the following SCP-231 is to be contained within a soundproof holding cell adjacent to holding cells for 6 Class D personnel assigned for the purposes of procedure 110 Montauk Cameras will monitor every inch of the cell at all times and must be manned 24 hours a day Malfunctioning monitoring equipment will be replaced without delay by psychologically screened staff Doors will be magnetically locked, openable only by positive action by the control and monitoring facility This includes all doors linking the main holding cell to those of the 6 Class D personnel SCP-231-7 is to be kept restrained to a hospital bed at all times except for the purposes of procedure 110 Montauk Hydration will be provided through IV drip Feeding will be carried out twice per day through feeding tube by approved medical personnel who have not taken the Hippocratic Oath Under no circumstances are narcotics, anesthesia, or other unapproved medications to be administered to SCP-231-7 Procedure 110 Montauk is to be carried out at least once every 24 hours by Class D personnel During Procedure 110 Montauk, at least one security clearance 4 slash 231 staff member must monitor the procedure by camera at all times Although the sound may be turned off if the vocalizations of SCP-231-7 become too distressing Following the procedure, all Class D personnel must return to their holding cells or explosive collars will be detonated Data expunge per order of 05 on information moved to I's only document 231-110 Montauk Access to 231-110 Montauk is limited to personnel with security clearance 4 slash 231 Description SCP-231-7 is a female between and years of age With SCP-231-1 through 7 were retrieved from Following a police raid on a warehouse owned by an organization called the Children of the Scarlet King See article on In the Newspaper, Police Raid, Satanic Sex Cult, Save 7 24 hours after the rescue, SCP-231-1, real name Went into labor pains, giving birth 3 minutes later to SCP-231-1, causing an event resulting in over confirmed casualties Foundation personnel immediately took possession of remaining SCPs 231-2 through 231-7 and based on notebooks recovered from the cult Institute of Procedure 110 Montauk to prevent future occurrences Addendum 231-A, current status of SCP-231 units SCP-231-1, deceased Killed during initial recovery operations while giving birth to SCP See casualty report for event 231-alpha for more details SCP-231-2, deceased Killed during attempt to remove fetus of second SCP specimen resulting in immediate event See casualty report for event 231-bravo for more details SCP-231-3, deceased Self terminated following a prolonged period of distress caused by implementation of procedure 110 Montauk SCP-231-2, immediately underwent a event See casualty report for event 231-charlie for more details SCP-231-4, deceased Attempted to administer SCP-500 Although successful in that all traces of SCP were expelled from the system Expelled remains immediately underwent a event Using numerous casualties including SCP-231-4 herself See casualty report for event 231-delta for more details SCP-231-5, deceased Botched application of procedure 110 Montauk resulted in SCP-231-5 giving birth to SCP-1 hour later Which then underwent a event See casualty report for event 231-echo and report on destruction of site 231-alpha for more details Recruitment profile of class D personnel was revised to minimize possibility of a second botched procedure 110 Montauk SCP-231-6, deceased Killed during escape attempt aided and abetted by agent Who had been exhibiting heightened stress levels due to prolonged exposure to SCP-231 Obtained possession of SCP- and attempted to use said weapon to rescue SCP-231-6 and SCP-231-7 Agent was killed in the resulting firefight but a stray round resulted in the termination of SCP-231-6 as well Fetus of SCP-231-6's SCP- then underwent a event In the wake of this incident 05 level personnel voted by unanimous decision to amend personnel policies See casualty report for event 231 Foxtrot for more details SCP-231-7, as of SCP-231-7 is successfully contained at site Addendum 231-B, text of missive by 05 Dear friends, it has come to my attention that recently, certain rumors have surfaced regarding SCP-231 Due to the drop in staff morale, I have decided to address some of the more prevalent points Yes, procedure 110 Montauk is as horrible as you have heard Which is why only class D personnel are authorized to carry it out Yes, it does involve brutal No, assignment to SCP-231 is not intended to test your loyalty to the foundation, your tendencies toward Or anything else No, SCP-231 is not a punishment detail Yes, there are staff members who have been on SCP-231 and have successfully transferred out of it by their own request No, not everyone who's worked on SCP-231 is terminated upon leaving the project Yes, staff members who have been assigned to SCP-231 are allowed to take a class A amnesic before leaving the project if so desired Yes, false memories are then implanted No, none of the supposed methods for recovering or detecting false memories work Yes, there are some of you who have worked on SCP-231 and don't remember it No, we have not given up on trying to save SCP-231-7 But research in that field must be carried out with the utmost of caution Based on the increased potency of each subsequent event associated with each subsequent SCP specimen There is a strong possibility that SCP-231-7's event could result in an XK class end-of-the-world scenario This information is corroborated and notebooks recovered from the cultists C document, 7 brides, 7 seals, SCP-231-adjunct B No, putting the poor girl out of her misery is not an option Neither is drugging her She has to be aware of what is going on for 110 Montauk to work One final note The Foundation does many distasteful things in the completion of our mission But our mission is important enough that the price is one we must pay Containment of SCP-231 is one of our most dangerous duties Not because of any direct danger to ourselves, like SCP-682 But because of the danger that our resolve will fail That we will allow ourselves to either let down our guard due to sympathy for the suffering of an innocent Or that we will allow ourselves to become monsters through the performance of monstrous acts Just do your jobs and save the philosophizing for the shrink Sincerely, 05 Don't believe it when they say they're trying to save her Why would they bother? They've got exactly what they want, exactly where they want it Addendum 231-C, Update 231-7's emotional response to Procedure 110 Montauk appears to be reduced recently Despite proper execution of said procedure Increasing danger of SCP undergoing a b... event Two options have been proposed One, develop a new containment procedure with higher emotional response than Procedure 110 Montauk Two, administration of a Class A amnesiac to SCP-231-7 Allowing for a return to base emotional response state Said memory modification is to be administered during execution of Procedure 110 Montauk To maintain a heightened emotional state following memory reset Please advise, Dr. B Addendum 231-D, Decision Carry out option 2 at the first available opportunity 05 Addendum 231-E, Aftermath Option 2 was carried out SCP-231-7's emotional state returned to 100% efficacy Dr. B subsequently committed suicide due to heightened emotional stress Will continue analysis of efficacy of treatment Dr. B Addendum 231-F, Continued Analysis of Efficacy of Treatment After some analysis, I've determined that it's not necessary to perform memory modification every time Procedure 110 Montauk is carried out In fact, it is better to delay for some time before re-administering the agent Analysis of Subject 231-7's emotional response indicates that efficacy of Procedure 110 Montauk seems to peak between the third and fourth performance of the procedure The dread of anticipation of events seems to heighten emotional response for a time before familiarity with the procedure begins to lessen the efficacy of treatment My recommendation is that Class A amnesiacs be administered once a week during Procedure 110 Montauk The calendar has been modified accordingly Dr. B


He stands for Truth, Justice and the American Way, but what if the Man of Steel went down a different path? Ladies and gentlemen, this is Matt Rogers. Rightburn is the well kept secret project of Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director, James Gunn. We now know that David Yurovsky, who also worked alongside Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy will be taking the helm of directing, and after a teaser trailer release this week we now have plot details. DC superhero fans might find it rather familiar. The trailer shows almost exact shots and even font from the Man of Steel trailer, and my obsession with Superman and horror means I couldn't ask for a more perfect movie. Brightburn stars Elizabeth Banks as a mother who wishes for nothing more than a child, when one crashes down from on high. They raise the child as their own and realize his origins weren't the only thing abnormal about him. It's the typical story of him not fitting in because of his newfound powers, but this is where it gets interesting. Instead of saving kids on a bus, this Clark Kent starts terrorizing locals. But my favorite part of all this is although he's donning the signature red cape, he's wearing this haunting makeshift mask, obviously intending to strike fear into the hearts of his victims. Because of all the symbols he's been drawing it appears to be demonic intentions that all this is stemming from. Production and details on this film have so far been kept almost entirely under wraps. Back in July Gunn teased for the announcement of the film at San Diego Comic-Con, but around that same time he was fired from penning guardians of the galaxy Volume 3 due to some previous offensive tweets, which led to the panel at Comic-Con being cancelled. Gunn and Elizabeth Banks previously worked together on the cult horror Slither, that time with him directing. Gunn had this to say about them once again working together. Quote, Since Slither she's since remained one of my best friends in the world and I've been fighting tooth and nail to work with her again. She's the perfect partner to Yavo, the H Collective and myself in creating this very special project. End quote. Brightburn comes to theatres May 24th 2019 and I couldn't be more excited. At this point it could go either way though. Films like this can easier go wrong than right, but this premise is too perfect for me to keep my hopes in check. But let me know, what do you think? Is an evil Superman a fresh retelling of a well known origin story or despite its differences is it just too similar to an all too familiar story? I'll be chatting with you guys in the comments but until next time this is Matt Rogers and that is all.


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