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Speaker 1: After twenty two years of being a titan on Wall Street and starting his own firm, Tony Kassai is walking away What to send the Ugly side Hook. Being on the inside, we'll interview insiders and other titans of all types of industry, offering advice and sharing stories of it.
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Speaker 2: First, this is another episode the.
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Speaker 3: Inside of Show. Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the inside investor Tony k We're the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
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Speaker 4: Hello. I don't know where you're at, what you're doing, who you with, what you call, what your sign is, or what day of the week it is for you, but over here it is Financial Fridays. A Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one. Who you know is the number one source for everything cannabis. I'm Tony Kaine. Thank you for listening to our show heard all around the world in over one hundred and eighty countries. Please check out our website at Cannabis Talk one on one, and while you're there, check out the link for the super sexy new magazine we got out. Feel free to call us at any time and leave us a message at one eight four to twenty nineteen eighty. Don't forget to check out our ig pages, guys at Cannabis Talk one oh one. My boy Blue is the number one Christopher Wright and my podcast popays a lot of guys I like to call him. Joe Grande is at Joe Grande fifty two and you can find me at the Insider Investor. Now, you guys know why I created Financial Fridays right. It's because I after twenty years of Wall Street, I got sick and tired of seeing the little guy get screwed over. I want to empower you guys to get your mind right and your money game tight. Now you all know that my number one rule money is that your health is your wealth, and you cannot be truly wealthy if you're not healthy. Guys, that's why I send all my friends to my good friend doctor Chalmers. Do not sleep on this man. He's become a friend of the show. He's treated a lot of the guys I know. Blues got help from him, Chris has got help from him. The whole crew is. He's been a big help and he's the guy that really fixes all your health issues. Guys, don't sleep on the man. Chalmerswonness dot com. Call him a direct A two one four four four six fifty three hundred and while you're there, check out his new tech talk that just dropped. It's about curing the opioid addiction issues that we have in this country by using medical grade cannabis. Now, speaking of health, guys, I got a confession to make with you, as a grown ass man, I do not have health insurance. Now. Why is that? It's because a insurance sucks, right, it's boring and it's confusing as all hell. And with everything that's happened here in California, with the regulations and the changes, it's really important for me to bring on guests and people that can empower you more importantly, somebody that can save you with money and get your answers answered. Now, the other thing that's really important to me is I want to bring on people and products that I cannot only endorse, but that I use personally. That's why I brought on a fantastic person here today. You guys, welcome to the show today. This guy's name is Kat She's from a company called Rising Tide Health Services. It's a company that's now been curated not just for only for cannabis talk one on one, but the entire cannabis community. I know it sounds too good to be true, but without further ado, please welcome my good friend Kat to the show.
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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
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Speaker 4: First of all, I know that you came back from a very special tree.
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Speaker 2: And what was this, Well, I did just get married and have my honeymoon.
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Speaker 4: Okay, all right, congratulations to that guys. Another round of the flu. Where'd you guys go for the honeymoon?
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Speaker 2: We were in Spain. We did a road trip around Spain and pretty much ate and drank our way through Spain, so I had to roll me back pretty much. Wouldn't you get back Sunday? Just a few days ago?
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Speaker 4: So I know, well, I appreciate that you came out. I know we got MJ Biscong coming up. I know that it's open enrollment for healthcare. For healthcare as well, so even though you know when you may ask me, why don't you have insurance? And like I said, mainly outside of the reasons I mentioned, But when I did have it, i'd go in and I had Kaiser, and I hear bad things about Kaiser. Now I'm not married, I don't have a baby as far as I know, as far as you know right in this country. But no, I you know, when I did have insurance, I would find that I would go into the doctor if I was sick or something would happen, I'd go through all the stuff I didn't hit my deductible, and five thousand dollars later, I'm like, well, this sucks. I could have just gone to urgent care and spent a couple one hundred bucks. But you know, I know that it's important. I know that from a catastrophic standpoint, it could be really painful. And when when the group that introduced me to you, you know, when I found out about it, I said, well, listen, I know there's also a huge need in the cannabis industry. And when I was insurance licensed and had all my financial services licenses, it was really hard to get life insurance if you said you're a cannabis smoker, a cannabis consumer, or that would really gouge you on the rates. So when I heard about you guys, you know, we got to know each other. It's been about two to three months since you guys approached us, and one of the deals that we made was we. You guys said, look, if we're going to be the exclusive partner for cannabis talk one oh one, be the voice of authority for insurance, we're going to provide an entire suite of products and services and back end for the cannabis community. So is that what we've done.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Absolutely. Then to your point, insurance is boring, right, it is confusing, and it is expensive. And for those people at home that are working in the cannabis industry, that's what you should be doing. If you're a grower, be an expert grower, right, you don't need to be an expert at healthcare insurance benefits. And that's where we come in, Right, we're the experts. And no one should go without coverage, right, like no human in this country, no person should not have coverage. And to your point, you know you have traditional insurance and I'm not going to name names of anyone, but you know I've experienced that myself. That's one of the reasons I wanted to work with Rising Tide is because I've had insurance where you're paying a premium and then you go to the doctor and then you pay your you know, copay and then you haven't hit your deductible and then you get a bill for going to see them and what's your max out of pocket? And you're just like, what the f it's confusing, I don't want to spend all this money. And then you don't go to the doctor. So maybe you're not getting care or you're waiting till something's really painful or bad, and that's not how you should live, Like, that's not how we should be set up. And so we really came in to make a difference in people's lives because it's important.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know that. That was one of the things that appealed to me was there's basically two categories if fuel of people that you guys are going to service for us now, right, So we got the dispensary owners, the ancillary businesses, anybody that's got a company that's got a certain number of employees. You know, you shared with me a fun fact that I didn't even know that there's this huge penalty that will loom over somebody's head if they have a certain number of employees. Can you first talk to the people that own the company and then from there we're going to go to the individual like me who needs insurance.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. So if you are a business owner that has W two employees, once you hit fifty employees, your government mandated to sponsor healthcare benefits and if you don't, you're going to start getting penalties per employee per month, and it's a lot, and it's something that you don't want to deal with, right. So number one, you should offer benefits because it's the right thing to do right ethically. You want your staff to be healthy and be able to work right. And then number two, it's going to help your bottom line because it's expensive. And so we offer group W two plans. And so as a business owner, you know, you come to us and we have expert benefits consultants that will kind of walk you through everything. And we offer major medical insurance. So that's your traditional insurance that a lot of people you know, are aware of and know. We also have innovative health share options. We have a clear share option, which is a non insurance option that's kind of like a health co op. Right. It functions really great and saves people a ton of money. And then if none of those plans work for you for some reason, we can sell plans that are on the Healthcare dot Gov. Right, So we really offer anything somebody could need, whereas say you go to a company, they only offer what they have, right, And so we have that plus plus and I think that's what really kind of stands us apart is you're going to get better benefits and they're going to be equal or lower cost. And so for a business, yeah, right, I mean that's what we want to save some money, I know exactly. No one wants to pay more for less, right, And I feel like that's happening a lot of the world in general, right, just getting gouge left and right, exactly. And so you know, our plans save business owners and average of four thousand dollars per employee per year.
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Speaker 4: That's massive. And you do that math on fifty employees, you're looking at over a quarter million dollars, you know, just there.
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Speaker 2: And you know we have companies that have taken that money and given people raises and bonuses, or they've gone, hey, you know, we're gonna now cover your family, not just you as an individual, or roll it back into your business and keep growing, right, Like no one just has extra money, and it's like, oh shoot, I shouldn't keep this, right, it just helps everyone in general.
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Speaker 4: And you know the other thing I like is you put your money where your mouth is, right. A lot of people can just say, oh, I'm the cheapest or I cost less, et cetera, et cetera. And something you shared with me is you guys actually fund and provide at no cost, which I love. That's free, right free. You'll have somebody that will look at a plan and they'll either tell you, look, you have a great plan, We can't help you. We'll talk again next year and that doesn't cost anything, or here's how much we're going to save you and here's the better plan for less money. Is that accurate?
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Speaker 2: No, one thousand percent? And that's what was something that was really motivating for me to work with the company is we're people first, right Like the company was founded with small businesses and individuals in mind, because those are the people that get stiffed basically right in the whole healthcare industry. And so it was important to make sure that we're offering better benefits at a lower cost and then making it not confusing, because it is confusing, and you need an expert benefits consultant to look at your plan because every person's healthcare journey is different, right, so whatever you need in terms of prescriptions or doctor visits is going to be so different from me. And that's something that they can go through and say, hey, yeah, this plan is the best one for the money for you, or we have these innovative plans that will work, and so they can just walk you through that whole journey. And the fact that it's open enrollment coming up is you know, the best time. So just so you guys all know, you can sign up for benefits with us any time of year. As a business, you can set your own open enrollment period. As an independent, you can come to us. So we will help anybody any time. But the fact that it's open enrollment right now, that means there's more healthcare dot gov options as well, Like the whole suite of insurance and healthcare is open right now. And this is when people are thinking about it, right. It's like this is the time that businesses are trying to make a move to save money or they're like, hey, I should offer benefits to my employees. Let me look into it. So this is the kind of time that it's in people's mind. And so I'm so glad that we're talking now, because you know, our goal is to get people's lives covered right like as many as we can, because no one should walk around worrying if they break their leg, is it going to put them into bankruptcy. You know, we talked about the sixty five percent of bankruptcies in the United States come from medical debt.
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Speaker 4: Now that's a massive fact and I did not know that, and that is that should really hit home with everybody's six You know, there's ten people here in the studio audience, six of them will experience bankruptcy because of right, it's a shame, you know, it's a shame of the state of the country that our healthcare system now is, you know, approaching third world countries if you don't have the proper thing. Talk to me a little bit now about the individual like myself. Right. So, and by the way, you guys have gone all in with us with cten on one on one and creating again this cannabis vertical for us. You guys are going to be at Mjbiscoon with us. You're posting the after parties with us. So if you guys have any specific questions about Kat, she's got an army of experts. They're going to be at mjbiscong with us And what's the website.
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Speaker 2: It's Rising Tide Benefits dot com. And so you can go there as an individual. There'll be a tab to click individuals, you can get a quick quote if you want to kind of see some options, and then you sign up with a benefits consultant for the free call and then they can go through everything with you. And then as also as a business owner, we have four groups and you can set up a call to like talk about what kind of rates you'd want to pay, because we work with businesses and there's so many ways you can slice it, right if you want to cover the benefits for your employees and pay for them, or you want them to pay a portion or all of it right there, we can work with any business in any way like that. So it's really kind of a no risk call, right Yeah. And in this day and age, you want to recruit and retain the best talent and so.
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Speaker 4: It's a tight job market out there, so this is a huge tool that I think an employer could use. And to your point, it doesn't even mean that they're sponsoring the premiums but they're just providing you a platform to tap into.
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Speaker 2: Is that accuracy exactly? And then they can pick between our health shares and our major medical and so we have so many different options that we can make a plan work for whatever that company is right. And so that's what's great about us is just there's so many different operatams and so many different ways to do it, and that gives a lot of options for people without that fear of having to spend so much money or getting tied into something that maybe who's this.
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Speaker 4: Light for that? I love it. I love it. When we come back, I want to hear about your journey because I love highlighting female entrepreneurs. You definitely know your shit, especially when it comes to financial services. I think it's an industry that's predominantly been male dominated. I want to hear about your journey and how you got into the industry. We'll be right back on Cannabis Talk one on one.
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Speaker 3: We'll be right back with the Financial Friday five on Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the Insider Investor Tony k. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the insider investor Tony k. It's now time for the Financial Friday five.
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Speaker 4: Have you checked out the new edition of the Cannabis Talk magazine. If you have a go to your local smoke shop asking where the magazine is. If they don't have one, tell them to get some better yet, hit us up we'll send you a copy. Or go to the website at Cannabis Talk one oh one and click the link up brand new, super sexy magazine. We're back here with Kat from Rising Tide to Health Solutions, which has now been created for the cannabis industry. They are the exclusive voice of authority with everything insurance when it comes to healthcare. Kat, welcome back to this segment. Now here's what I got for you. You know, when I was at Morgan Stanley, and I think I shared this with you when we were talking earlier. There was about seven hundred of us that got hired in two thousand and one nationwide, and out of that seven hundred, only about seven females were in that graduating class. And I could tell most of them more smarter than the boys, but very rarely were their ideas heard. You know, they were obviously obviously overstepped on and I saw that kind of not glass ceiling, but just that male dominance, if fuel, And tell me a little bit about you know you were you were on TV before you were TV personality on Extra Extra I think.
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Speaker 2: Back in the day.
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Speaker 4: I know you don't like to talk about it, but yeah, how do you go from that to something as glamorous as insurance?
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Speaker 2: Your valid points? You know, to your point actually about females in the industry versus males.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 2: What I do love and I have to say giving credit to kind of the world that we live in now is that's going away a lot. And I see that in so much business and just kind of personally as well. So that's one thing that I got to say, is like the tide is changing. But you know, being in my forties now to day myself everyone, you know, I started back in doing some TV hosting, such a fun job. You know, I didn't see a path to make the money that I wanted to in the timeline that I wanted, right, And I have an international business degree, went to San Diego State. It has a fun time time and I thought, you know, I love doing business, I love working with people, and so I transitioned into fashion into sales and then I really kind of like the creative part of marketing, so that was kind of my path. So you know, really you can put your head to something and you can make it happen. That's what I'll tell people, like men, women, whatever, Like life is gonna be hard early or it's gonna be hard later, right, So like choose your heart, right. So, like I went to school and I like would start at the bottom of a company and work my way up, like don't be too good for anything, you know, be in the weeds, right, and then work your way up. And still now is like an executive, I'm not too good to be in the weeds, right, And I think that's important, is having that like wanting to learn and like having the humility to do whatever you need to make it, you know.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. And I always tell people, you know, especially for people that have heard my old show or even some of the early shows that I've done here, you know, I talk a lot of shit on the financial services industry because I've seen the ugly side, right, but there's a lot of positives about it, and I can't you know, express that enough because it's one of those few industries that is recession proof. Right, when people are hurting, if there's a war, whatever the hell's going on in the country, people still need insurance. People still need life insurance, health insurance, et cetera. And when times are good, same thing, right. So it's one of those few industries that if you have a skill set, it's always going to be in demand. It's always in the top three most you know, most profitable career paths if you will, so as long as you can handle it. And it definitely just takes sales marketing, and I think it is to your point absolutely, I'm really happy that you're right. I do see a lot more mix. I see a lot of more female executives in I.
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Speaker 2: Mean, in our company was one of the reasons I wanted to work there. There's so many just smart people in general, and a lot of smart, badass women, and I just found that really inspiring. And it just it didn't seem like when they're the hiring process was on that it mattered your gender and it shouldn't, right, but I really felt that in our company, And like you were saying, you know, insurance, yes, not the sexiest thing that you could imagine, right, But I wanted to do something that was bringing good in the world. And you know, we talked about this a little bit. I'm turning into this hippie that doesn't want to create trash in the world and trying to use less single use plastic and all these things. But I wanted to work at a company that has a mission. I was doing something good and because people, I mean, I've experiencing myself, like paying these medical bills that feel like they're crippling you or you don't want to go to the doctor. I'm like the number one person that's like, unless my arm is falling off, I am not going to the doctor. And so I didn't think I should live like that and other people should live like that. I mean, how much do you think it costs to spend two months in the ICU.
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Speaker 4: Gosh, you know what a good friend of mine was in there. Yeah, he spent probably like twenty thousand a day, So you're looking at sixty days one point two one point six million dollars exactly.
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Speaker 2: So I'll tell you a quick story. One of our members, bless his heart, I won't say his name just for privacy reasons, but he got COVID and he was in the ICU and it led to heart failure. He was in there for I know, poor guy, like two months, right, he was, you know, obviously stressed out about how much it was going to cost. He was on one of our plans. It was two million dollars and he paid his max out of pocket, which was twenty five hundred bucks with no other headaches, no other headaches. And so that's the kind of thing that you should have, that security in life. I mean, we should get a security and more things like that.
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Speaker 4: You know, you mentioned something else earlier, and I want to make sure we don't miss that. Because I was talking a good friend of mine, actually a friend of the show, Danny Galvez. Shout out to Danny, and he's gone through one of his close family members has going through something really serious and for the past month he's kind of checked out. And I said, what are you doing. He's like, I'm trying to help him just navigate, you know, getting therapy, getting chemo, to getting this, getting that. And he said it takes it took him three weeks from diagnosis to even get the guy in for treatment. I said, what's the headache? And he said, these fucking insurance companies you know, and you told me something that I thought was really unique. I haven't had it in any health care plane that I've ever had. And what is that the little coordinator person that God forbids something happened to you know, my cousin right now? What's what's the steps that I would do as opposed to what Danny's going through?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's it's it can be such a nightmare. And so my heart goes out to him and we hope you're okay, sending all the love. But in terms of yeah, what we offer it's a white glove care coordination service. So if you need a surgery or something's coming up, we have a dedicated team that will help coordinate your care so that your benefits are covered, right and so that you you don't have.
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Speaker 4: So what happens to a lot of people, Sorry to catch you up, but yeah, they go to the hospital, right, they get all tile and alls eighty five dollars for a fucking pill, right, and then they come out and they get this huge belt and they'll say, okay, ten percent, scutter the other ninety you're going to go bankrupt. And what you're telling me is that that whole thing will get coordinated behind the scenes before I go in.
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Speaker 2: Yep, and yes, and so I would say, you know, it's a case by case basis, but for the most part, depending on where you live and if there's providers, you know, we won't stop you from going to see anybody that want, right. That's one thing that's great about us. We have large ppo networks so that you're not stuck seeing doctors you don't want to see, like that's really important. You should go to the people that you want to see. But in terms of care coordination, we can set things up so that it's covered by your benefits and then you don't have to worry about it, which is like I think, you know, when you're going through something with an illness or surgery, the last thing you want to do is be worried about money. You want to be worried about getting better or not worried, right, And so that's where we come in. It's a free service, it's white Glove, and we just really try to take care of our members.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. No, and I got to be honest with everybody. You know, when we started doing this program, I got and after the first couple of shows, they were a big head now I got hit by a lot of people and obviously being in the industry, Oh, I want to sell life insurance on your show. I want to do this, I want do that. And it was really important for me to be aligned with a company that has similar values. And when I met your CEO, Jason over the first Zoom and I stall haven't met him in person, but it was really cool for me to see that. I said, hey, man, there's a need in this community. And I think the cannabis community has almost been overlooked the way they are with the banking industry right where we keep getting stepped on, and when it comes to life insurance and healthcare, I think it's just people are going towards the path of least resistance, which for me is to not have insurance. And when I said, hey, if you're going to do this, do it right so that we can really measure the metrics of how many people we can help in this community. And that's where you guys said, we'll give us a month or two and we'll create a whole new website and company that's the same thing. It's not a fly by an identity, but now we can actually take care of the cannabis community. And that's you know, the guy moved quick and that was less than what two months ago.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And so to Jason's credit and Doug, his father, and Matt who founded the company, they're such good guys, amazing business people, really big hearts and just really smart. You know, it's very difficult to create healthcare benefits with our health shares, and then not only that, creating actual insurance major medical plans is not an easy thing. That's why you don't see a lot of insurance companies. Besides, like the big ones that you hear of right, they don't pop up left and right like a gas station because there's so many government regulations and things like that. So just to even be able to create that, I think it's just something that I tip my hats to them about. And the fact that they did it to make you know, more more care for less cost is not something that usually happens in the world. So being able to you know, get mental health space, like mental health help, you know that zero cost, or telemedicine that zero cost, like lower prescription costs, these are the things that affect bottom lines for businesses and for people. And so yeah, creating something like that is just been huge, and so it was really important to cover anybody that we can. And then an underserved community like this. It's like, you know, I've lived in California since nineteen ninety six, right, so I'm a hardcore California. I've seen the whole industry change and the fact, like it was boggled my mind when you told me that, you know, companies won't cover people like they will just deny them benefits for working in the cannabis space. And that's ridiculous. And it's the fastest growing industry I think one of them, right and so and one of the hiring a ton of people. So why not protect people?
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Speaker 4: Right?
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Speaker 2: And as we talked about, it's not just growers, it's people that are doing roofing and lighting, and these can be I would imagine somewhat dangerous of jobs. At times, people fall, they hurt themselves. And so you shouldn't I mean, smoke a joint. I'll help you, but you should also be able to go to the doctor and get care.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know you mentioned mental health. That's something that's really close to the show. You know, we've had some amazing guests talk about their experiences with suicide, dodging suicide, losing somebody to suicide. And I do remember when I had Kaiser, when I was going through my really dark times, you know, I try to reach out and it was like a two month waiting list. Then you go and the person's like eighteen years old with pimples on his face, and I'm like, dude, you know, thank god I wasn't suicidal, and if you were a call nine one one, you know, and it was just such a such a shame because I wasn't really hurting that bad to the point where I was even considering hurting myself, but I just felt bad. I remember looking back, and you know, there's a lot of people hurting right now, especially with the lockdowns and these kids coming out without having seen their friends. And tell me a little bit more. You said something about no cost tele themed How fast is that? How does somebody you know get to that within the plans?
00:23:01
Speaker 2: For sure? So we work with talk space for mental health help, and so you can get virtual mental health help a lot faster than you know, a two month wait there are you know, you can also go see doctors, and there's different costs based on different plans. So that's something you know, if you needed that, which I think we all do need that, you know, you talk to an expert benefits consultant to see which is your best plan for that, but just having that kind of basically on speed dial, right, so if you need help, and it's something that we should all be doing, and you shouldn't get to the point right where you're feeling suicidal to actually get care, like that's that's not something anyone should experience. And so offering that was really important for us because mental health is important after the pandemic. Like you said, you know, we're all weird and wonky in different ways, so like getting a tune up and optimizing yourself is something that we should all be doing.
00:23:44
Speaker 4: Excellent. Now, you know, if somebody is listening at home, whether they're female or male, and they're in an industry that they feel they've kind of maxed out, they're not passionate about it, and they're listening to you and they're like, man, I think I could do this. What's your best advice on how to get into the industry?
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I think first of all, find like company that you care about and you know, has values that align with you. And so you know, ours I think is great, and it's an industry that I think you do a lot of training on, right, And so it's kind of like financial services that you want to get a job and become a broker and go help people's lives, like, you know, apply to us, right, apply to Rising Tide, Like we always need people, and it's just yeah, it's an industry that you can get training on and that you can like build your book of business and like really grow. Right. So we have people that work directly with independent contractors. We have call center people that like help you know, employees of companies go through all their benefits. You know, we have people to go to events. But there's so many different things to do within the industry. And at the end of the day, like you said, people always need healthcare whatever else is happening in the world.
00:24:42
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Now, I love the fact that you're here talking about all this because I think it's much needed. We're going to take a break right now. When we'll come back, we're doing the Financial Friday five with cap Rising Tide to Healthcare Solutions. We'll be right back here on Financial Fridays on.
00:24:54
Speaker 3: CT one on one We'll be right back with more Financial Fridays with the Inside Investor Tony Ka. Make sure you follow Tony at the Insider Investor. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the Inside Investor Tony k. Make sure you like, follow and subscribe to the show.
00:25:19
Speaker 4: Now you're ready to turn the typical into something special, you guys, check out loranoils dot com. They are one of my favorite people here. They come to the studio often, they're going to be at MJ at biscon Chef Heidi always comes in. She's got natural, all natural, non cannabis ingredients they've used to make us cookies, chocolates, fudge. It definitely is not conducive to my diet, but I will tell you everybody in the show loves them loranoils dot com. We are back with Misscat from Rising Tide Healthcare Solutions that's been created specifically for Cannabis Talk one on one in the entire cannabis community. They're going to provide you, guys, healthcare plans not just for individuals, but for companies as well. And it's a very low pressure, low sales approach, low knowledge approach. You call you say hey, I need help, they'll run you through the plans, and if you already have a plan, they'll let you know if they can do better as all right.
00:26:08
Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. And for individuals, just so you guys know, there's an average savings of about ten thousand dollars a year per person, So we can really I mean, that's why I always encourage everyone just take a phone.
00:26:19
Speaker 4: Call, just one phone call.
00:26:20
Speaker 2: No, no right, pressure, No one's going to force you to do anything, but I think we should all know, like, you can save that money. And if you're a business owner, you're saving four thousand dollars per employee per month. That's just a lot of money that you're going to be doing better things with your life. Buy Lorraine oil. I want some of those that fudge. That sounds delicious.
00:26:36
Speaker 4: Now you know, they're also going to be at MJ Bescon. We're going to have their whole team out. They're going to have a booth in our village. We're going to be doing a special show out there as well. Now, before we let you go, we're going to do something called the Financial Friday Five. We're gonna ask you five questions. Go ahead and feel free to either rapid fire and give me a little explanation. Okay, your first question is, kat is, what was the best investment you have ever made?
00:26:57
Speaker 2: Oh God, that's a good one. I've got a nerdy one and a fun one.
00:27:01
Speaker 4: Could I do both?
00:27:02
Speaker 2: Okay? Number one was fixing all of my teeth. Like, I know that sounds so nerdy, but like I had all the you know, the Mercury Fellings and that those are so.
00:27:12
Speaker 4: Bad for you.
00:27:13
Speaker 2: I know, I know you guys. I'm like, oh shit that. I know that's a nerdy one, but honestly, that's a part of your health. I know I'm working in healthcare, but like you can get gum disease, which gives you heart disease from having bad dental work. I didn't know that, So that's fascinating. And then on the fun side of things, I really believe in having your own activities and keeping that no matter what, you do, something that's not related to work or your relationship or anything else. Right, And so I've just always invested in horseback riding. I never grew out of the wanting a pony pays a lot, and so but now I learned to play polo and which is so fun, so fun.
00:27:51
Speaker 4: So you do the whole little swingy thing.
00:27:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well smaller ponies are better for polo, but yes, and you actually ran into each other and stuff. But like that, I know, it's like it's an investment in myself though, because that's my mental health.
00:28:04
Speaker 4: Right.
00:28:04
Speaker 2: I go and I don't think about what bills I have to pay. I don't think about work, I don't think about my husband, don't think of anything. I'm just focusing. Horse is going, yeah, exactly, And so that to me is like freeing and mind clearing, and so I will say that's a good investment in yourself. Like could I have bought a house with that money? Probably?
00:28:21
Speaker 4: That is an expensive sport I imagine, or just even horseback riding in general. Right, do you own any horses?
00:28:26
Speaker 2: I don't, because that's a whole other level, right, And so at some point I would love to, But in La it's so hard to drive to those places. So at some point I will give me a raise.
00:28:36
Speaker 4: Do you play at the Empire where they have Is that the closest polaric goal.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: You can play there? I'm not good enough yet that's a goal. But I actually play arena polo, So it's in a smaller because those big fields are like nine football fields. Right. We play arena polo, which is on dirt because there's not a lot of grass in California because we have no rain here, and so it's like a like a size of a football field and so there's walls and stuff. So I play up in the valley.
00:28:58
Speaker 4: Y it's but few shots of tequila or try that one. I'm going to try that all right. Question number two, what is your worst investment?
00:29:07
Speaker 2: Oh, worst investment probably renting.
00:29:12
Speaker 4: You know, it's yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker 2: Like it's just you feel like you're throwing your money away and then you don't want to do anything in the house because you're like it.
00:29:18
Speaker 4: Was either or houses. Though.
00:29:21
Speaker 2: Oh you guys, maybe I shouldn't be on financial don't listen to my financial advice.
00:29:26
Speaker 4: No, that's actually really good. In fact, I always tell the young kids, you know, when they say, what's what's the number one? You know, what do you recommend I buy? If I'm going to buy one thing? And I always say, have you bought a house yet? Especially because you can buy one with first you know, first person home buyer assistance, and there's so many programs for somebody that's just going to buy that first house. Better you can buy a four plux rented out. So I firmly believe real estate. You know, I'm not a big fan of the market anymore, but real estate is the one spot where any wealthy person you've ever want wanted to emulate. Ninety percent of time, it's real estate. It's not that they're an astronaut or financial. Real estate that really made their empire.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Oh if I could go back in time, man, stocks and property.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: You and me both, right, And so I figured that I'll let you know. So number three, what is the best present you've ever bought yourself? Cat?
00:30:11
Speaker 2: Oh, the best present I've ever bought myself. Oh that's a good one, I would say. I would just say travel. In general. I'm more about experiences than things like I don't own a fancy purse. I have a ten year old Prius out there. I mean, I should get a cooler car, but I just I'd rather have experiences, so like going to Spain or going to visit my friends, right, I just I lean into that because at the end of the day, for me, you have your memories until they fade potentially. But I just like that over material goods. Yeah.
00:30:38
Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting because we've asked that question pretty much to every guess we've had on financial Fridays, and most often than not, you would think that women are more materialistic and they're the ones that are going to say a purse or this and that. But it's the women that always say experiences or something like that. It's the dudes that are like Ferrari or McLaren you know.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: I mean I can afford that, I would. I wouldn't mind a Rolex.
00:30:57
Speaker 4: There we go and the truth comes out, all right. Question number four, cat is what is the best present you would buy someone else You've ever bought someone else?
00:31:05
Speaker 2: Oh? Best person I've ever bought somebody else. Okay. I like to do things that are personalized. So I had a boyfriend one time. I made him a like metal cutout or I didn't make it. I commissioned a metal cutout of his like logo for like his belt, you know. But I like to find things that are like personal for people and like lean into that. But if I had the money, I'd buy everybody their dream car. Yeah, I hate that would be so cool.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: Your husband right now is like I didn't get a belt buckle.
00:31:32
Speaker 2: You'll get the dream car. We're working on that again. I need a raise.
00:31:36
Speaker 4: What's his dream car?
00:31:37
Speaker 2: Oh God, I should know this and I can picture it in my mind. A sports car is It's like an old school sports car, Like I can picture it, but I can't tell you. Sorry.
00:31:46
Speaker 4: That's that's where I fall apart. James Bond car or something one of those like school classes.
00:31:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like an old school class. It with not that class. It's cooler than that. Failing here, you guys, failing.
00:31:59
Speaker 4: You've made it to the ask question of the financial Friday five. Here we go. Okay, if you could buy one thing for yourself and money was not an object, what would that be like?
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Does it have to be something that exists in the world.
00:32:10
Speaker 4: It can be literally anything.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: Okay, So could I like get a teleportation device?
00:32:14
Speaker 4: You can have whatever.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: That's what I would. I want to teleportation device.
00:32:19
Speaker 4: I love it. You know what. I call that a private jet because you can literally go anywhere you want. It gives you so much freedom and a few times I've traveled in private it's that.
00:32:29
Speaker 2: Spring where they like bend space and time, you know.
00:32:31
Speaker 4: Like the terminator where he goes to sea Like, yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: Like doctor Strange has one. I think it just like does a circle and you can like change space and time like that would be great, you know, which we would be.
00:32:40
Speaker 4: I think muscuts probably working all that.
00:32:41
Speaker 2: Run, that's true, probably right?
00:32:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, before we let you go, is there anything you want to share with the audiences? There are a special message that you want to send to anybody?
00:32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, first of all, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. You know what I would say to everybody at home and in the cannabis industry is you shouldn't go broke for health care, right, and you should have healthcare. And that's where we come in again, like we talked about, you know, you guys don't need to be the experts. My team are the experts. You should save money so you can do what you want in your life and then not have to worry if something comes up, you know, And that's where we come in. So we're just here to help. And like we talked about, you know, it's a no cost thing, so just call and make sure what you have is what you need, or if you don't have coverage, get coverage. It's open enrollment. It's when everyone's thinking about it, like now is the time to do it. Come visit us at mjbiscon, get a call going and just you know, protect your future.
00:33:30
Speaker 4: I love it in the website one more.
00:33:31
Speaker 2: Time at Rising Tide Benefits dot Com.
00:33:34
Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much, Kat you guys. I want to think a few people here. It is not easy to put on the show. There's a huge force behind the scenes. I want to thank Flew, Joe Grande, Adrian Amir, The Two, alex Is, Mondo, Madison, Teddy the show Dog, Daniel Connor, Elbert, Kitty, Kinky cam Back, Good god they stuck that in there, Kinky Cambaxter, Beach parcel Aar, Ali Muffins, Sunday, Cassie Ruby, God Brother Pitt, Happy Birthday, Rube by the way, Mark Garnes, Chris Frank, you know, Jennifer and Elvis. You guys, thank you so much for listening to Financial Fridays here on Cannabis Talk one on one with my boy at Blue Joe Grande, the world's number one source for everything cannabis. I'm Tony Kassidan. You guys can always find me on IGF The Insider Investor I'm gonna see you guys next Friday. Remember to keep your wallet tight, keep your mind right. We'll see you on the inside. See soon. On Cannabis Talk one on one.
00:34:19
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Financial Fridays with the Insider Investor Tony Ka On Cannabis Talk one oh one, the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
Speaker 1: After twenty two years of being a titan on Wall Street and starting his own firm, Tony Kassai is walking away What to send the Ugly side Hook. Being on the inside, we'll interview insiders and other titans of all types of industry, offering advice and sharing stories of it.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: First, this is another episode the.
00:00:21
Speaker 3: Inside of Show. Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the inside investor Tony k We're the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
00:00:30
Speaker 4: Hello. I don't know where you're at, what you're doing, who you with, what you call, what your sign is, or what day of the week it is for you, but over here it is Financial Fridays. A Welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one. Who you know is the number one source for everything cannabis. I'm Tony Kaine. Thank you for listening to our show heard all around the world in over one hundred and eighty countries. Please check out our website at Cannabis Talk one on one, and while you're there, check out the link for the super sexy new magazine we got out. Feel free to call us at any time and leave us a message at one eight four to twenty nineteen eighty. Don't forget to check out our ig pages, guys at Cannabis Talk one oh one. My boy Blue is the number one Christopher Wright and my podcast popays a lot of guys I like to call him. Joe Grande is at Joe Grande fifty two and you can find me at the Insider Investor. Now, you guys know why I created Financial Fridays right. It's because I after twenty years of Wall Street, I got sick and tired of seeing the little guy get screwed over. I want to empower you guys to get your mind right and your money game tight. Now you all know that my number one rule money is that your health is your wealth, and you cannot be truly wealthy if you're not healthy. Guys, that's why I send all my friends to my good friend doctor Chalmers. Do not sleep on this man. He's become a friend of the show. He's treated a lot of the guys I know. Blues got help from him, Chris has got help from him. The whole crew is. He's been a big help and he's the guy that really fixes all your health issues. Guys, don't sleep on the man. Chalmerswonness dot com. Call him a direct A two one four four four six fifty three hundred and while you're there, check out his new tech talk that just dropped. It's about curing the opioid addiction issues that we have in this country by using medical grade cannabis. Now, speaking of health, guys, I got a confession to make with you, as a grown ass man, I do not have health insurance. Now. Why is that? It's because a insurance sucks, right, it's boring and it's confusing as all hell. And with everything that's happened here in California, with the regulations and the changes, it's really important for me to bring on guests and people that can empower you more importantly, somebody that can save you with money and get your answers answered. Now, the other thing that's really important to me is I want to bring on people and products that I cannot only endorse, but that I use personally. That's why I brought on a fantastic person here today. You guys, welcome to the show today. This guy's name is Kat She's from a company called Rising Tide Health Services. It's a company that's now been curated not just for only for cannabis talk one on one, but the entire cannabis community. I know it sounds too good to be true, but without further ado, please welcome my good friend Kat to the show.
00:02:54
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
00:02:56
Speaker 4: First of all, I know that you came back from a very special tree.
00:03:00
Speaker 2: And what was this, Well, I did just get married and have my honeymoon.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, congratulations to that guys. Another round of the flu. Where'd you guys go for the honeymoon?
00:03:10
Speaker 2: We were in Spain. We did a road trip around Spain and pretty much ate and drank our way through Spain, so I had to roll me back pretty much. Wouldn't you get back Sunday? Just a few days ago?
00:03:20
Speaker 4: So I know, well, I appreciate that you came out. I know we got MJ Biscong coming up. I know that it's open enrollment for healthcare. For healthcare as well, so even though you know when you may ask me, why don't you have insurance? And like I said, mainly outside of the reasons I mentioned, But when I did have it, i'd go in and I had Kaiser, and I hear bad things about Kaiser. Now I'm not married, I don't have a baby as far as I know, as far as you know right in this country. But no, I you know, when I did have insurance, I would find that I would go into the doctor if I was sick or something would happen, I'd go through all the stuff I didn't hit my deductible, and five thousand dollars later, I'm like, well, this sucks. I could have just gone to urgent care and spent a couple one hundred bucks. But you know, I know that it's important. I know that from a catastrophic standpoint, it could be really painful. And when when the group that introduced me to you, you know, when I found out about it, I said, well, listen, I know there's also a huge need in the cannabis industry. And when I was insurance licensed and had all my financial services licenses, it was really hard to get life insurance if you said you're a cannabis smoker, a cannabis consumer, or that would really gouge you on the rates. So when I heard about you guys, you know, we got to know each other. It's been about two to three months since you guys approached us, and one of the deals that we made was we. You guys said, look, if we're going to be the exclusive partner for cannabis talk one oh one, be the voice of authority for insurance, we're going to provide an entire suite of products and services and back end for the cannabis community. So is that what we've done.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Absolutely. Then to your point, insurance is boring, right, it is confusing, and it is expensive. And for those people at home that are working in the cannabis industry, that's what you should be doing. If you're a grower, be an expert grower, right, you don't need to be an expert at healthcare insurance benefits. And that's where we come in, Right, we're the experts. And no one should go without coverage, right, like no human in this country, no person should not have coverage. And to your point, you know you have traditional insurance and I'm not going to name names of anyone, but you know I've experienced that myself. That's one of the reasons I wanted to work with Rising Tide is because I've had insurance where you're paying a premium and then you go to the doctor and then you pay your you know, copay and then you haven't hit your deductible and then you get a bill for going to see them and what's your max out of pocket? And you're just like, what the f it's confusing, I don't want to spend all this money. And then you don't go to the doctor. So maybe you're not getting care or you're waiting till something's really painful or bad, and that's not how you should live, Like, that's not how we should be set up. And so we really came in to make a difference in people's lives because it's important.
00:05:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know that. That was one of the things that appealed to me was there's basically two categories if fuel of people that you guys are going to service for us now, right, So we got the dispensary owners, the ancillary businesses, anybody that's got a company that's got a certain number of employees. You know, you shared with me a fun fact that I didn't even know that there's this huge penalty that will loom over somebody's head if they have a certain number of employees. Can you first talk to the people that own the company and then from there we're going to go to the individual like me who needs insurance.
00:06:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. So if you are a business owner that has W two employees, once you hit fifty employees, your government mandated to sponsor healthcare benefits and if you don't, you're going to start getting penalties per employee per month, and it's a lot, and it's something that you don't want to deal with, right. So number one, you should offer benefits because it's the right thing to do right ethically. You want your staff to be healthy and be able to work right. And then number two, it's going to help your bottom line because it's expensive. And so we offer group W two plans. And so as a business owner, you know, you come to us and we have expert benefits consultants that will kind of walk you through everything. And we offer major medical insurance. So that's your traditional insurance that a lot of people you know, are aware of and know. We also have innovative health share options. We have a clear share option, which is a non insurance option that's kind of like a health co op. Right. It functions really great and saves people a ton of money. And then if none of those plans work for you for some reason, we can sell plans that are on the Healthcare dot Gov. Right, So we really offer anything somebody could need, whereas say you go to a company, they only offer what they have, right, And so we have that plus plus and I think that's what really kind of stands us apart is you're going to get better benefits and they're going to be equal or lower cost. And so for a business, yeah, right, I mean that's what we want to save some money, I know exactly. No one wants to pay more for less, right, And I feel like that's happening a lot of the world in general, right, just getting gouge left and right, exactly. And so you know, our plans save business owners and average of four thousand dollars per employee per year.
00:07:48
Speaker 4: That's massive. And you do that math on fifty employees, you're looking at over a quarter million dollars, you know, just there.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: And you know we have companies that have taken that money and given people raises and bonuses, or they've gone, hey, you know, we're gonna now cover your family, not just you as an individual, or roll it back into your business and keep growing, right, Like no one just has extra money, and it's like, oh shoot, I shouldn't keep this, right, it just helps everyone in general.
00:08:12
Speaker 4: And you know the other thing I like is you put your money where your mouth is, right. A lot of people can just say, oh, I'm the cheapest or I cost less, et cetera, et cetera. And something you shared with me is you guys actually fund and provide at no cost, which I love. That's free, right free. You'll have somebody that will look at a plan and they'll either tell you, look, you have a great plan, We can't help you. We'll talk again next year and that doesn't cost anything, or here's how much we're going to save you and here's the better plan for less money. Is that accurate?
00:08:38
Speaker 2: No, one thousand percent? And that's what was something that was really motivating for me to work with the company is we're people first, right Like the company was founded with small businesses and individuals in mind, because those are the people that get stiffed basically right in the whole healthcare industry. And so it was important to make sure that we're offering better benefits at a lower cost and then making it not confusing, because it is confusing, and you need an expert benefits consultant to look at your plan because every person's healthcare journey is different, right, so whatever you need in terms of prescriptions or doctor visits is going to be so different from me. And that's something that they can go through and say, hey, yeah, this plan is the best one for the money for you, or we have these innovative plans that will work, and so they can just walk you through that whole journey. And the fact that it's open enrollment coming up is you know, the best time. So just so you guys all know, you can sign up for benefits with us any time of year. As a business, you can set your own open enrollment period. As an independent, you can come to us. So we will help anybody any time. But the fact that it's open enrollment right now, that means there's more healthcare dot gov options as well, Like the whole suite of insurance and healthcare is open right now. And this is when people are thinking about it, right. It's like this is the time that businesses are trying to make a move to save money or they're like, hey, I should offer benefits to my employees. Let me look into it. So this is the kind of time that it's in people's mind. And so I'm so glad that we're talking now, because you know, our goal is to get people's lives covered right like as many as we can, because no one should walk around worrying if they break their leg, is it going to put them into bankruptcy. You know, we talked about the sixty five percent of bankruptcies in the United States come from medical debt.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: Now that's a massive fact and I did not know that, and that is that should really hit home with everybody's six You know, there's ten people here in the studio audience, six of them will experience bankruptcy because of right, it's a shame, you know, it's a shame of the state of the country that our healthcare system now is, you know, approaching third world countries if you don't have the proper thing. Talk to me a little bit now about the individual like myself. Right. So, and by the way, you guys have gone all in with us with cten on one on one and creating again this cannabis vertical for us. You guys are going to be at Mjbiscoon with us. You're posting the after parties with us. So if you guys have any specific questions about Kat, she's got an army of experts. They're going to be at mjbiscong with us And what's the website.
00:10:48
Speaker 2: It's Rising Tide Benefits dot com. And so you can go there as an individual. There'll be a tab to click individuals, you can get a quick quote if you want to kind of see some options, and then you sign up with a benefits consultant for the free call and then they can go through everything with you. And then as also as a business owner, we have four groups and you can set up a call to like talk about what kind of rates you'd want to pay, because we work with businesses and there's so many ways you can slice it, right if you want to cover the benefits for your employees and pay for them, or you want them to pay a portion or all of it right there, we can work with any business in any way like that. So it's really kind of a no risk call, right Yeah. And in this day and age, you want to recruit and retain the best talent and so.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: It's a tight job market out there, so this is a huge tool that I think an employer could use. And to your point, it doesn't even mean that they're sponsoring the premiums but they're just providing you a platform to tap into.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: Is that accuracy exactly? And then they can pick between our health shares and our major medical and so we have so many different options that we can make a plan work for whatever that company is right. And so that's what's great about us is just there's so many different operatams and so many different ways to do it, and that gives a lot of options for people without that fear of having to spend so much money or getting tied into something that maybe who's this.
00:12:00
Speaker 4: Light for that? I love it. I love it. When we come back, I want to hear about your journey because I love highlighting female entrepreneurs. You definitely know your shit, especially when it comes to financial services. I think it's an industry that's predominantly been male dominated. I want to hear about your journey and how you got into the industry. We'll be right back on Cannabis Talk one on one.
00:12:17
Speaker 3: We'll be right back with the Financial Friday five on Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the Insider Investor Tony k. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the insider investor Tony k. It's now time for the Financial Friday five.
00:12:41
Speaker 4: Have you checked out the new edition of the Cannabis Talk magazine. If you have a go to your local smoke shop asking where the magazine is. If they don't have one, tell them to get some better yet, hit us up we'll send you a copy. Or go to the website at Cannabis Talk one oh one and click the link up brand new, super sexy magazine. We're back here with Kat from Rising Tide to Health Solutions, which has now been created for the cannabis industry. They are the exclusive voice of authority with everything insurance when it comes to healthcare. Kat, welcome back to this segment. Now here's what I got for you. You know, when I was at Morgan Stanley, and I think I shared this with you when we were talking earlier. There was about seven hundred of us that got hired in two thousand and one nationwide, and out of that seven hundred, only about seven females were in that graduating class. And I could tell most of them more smarter than the boys, but very rarely were their ideas heard. You know, they were obviously obviously overstepped on and I saw that kind of not glass ceiling, but just that male dominance, if fuel, And tell me a little bit about you know you were you were on TV before you were TV personality on Extra Extra I think.
00:13:44
Speaker 2: Back in the day.
00:13:45
Speaker 4: I know you don't like to talk about it, but yeah, how do you go from that to something as glamorous as insurance?
00:13:52
Speaker 2: Your valid points? You know, to your point actually about females in the industry versus males.
00:13:58
Speaker 4: Right.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: What I do love and I have to say giving credit to kind of the world that we live in now is that's going away a lot. And I see that in so much business and just kind of personally as well. So that's one thing that I got to say, is like the tide is changing. But you know, being in my forties now to day myself everyone, you know, I started back in doing some TV hosting, such a fun job. You know, I didn't see a path to make the money that I wanted to in the timeline that I wanted, right, And I have an international business degree, went to San Diego State. It has a fun time time and I thought, you know, I love doing business, I love working with people, and so I transitioned into fashion into sales and then I really kind of like the creative part of marketing, so that was kind of my path. So you know, really you can put your head to something and you can make it happen. That's what I'll tell people, like men, women, whatever, Like life is gonna be hard early or it's gonna be hard later, right, So like choose your heart, right. So, like I went to school and I like would start at the bottom of a company and work my way up, like don't be too good for anything, you know, be in the weeds, right, and then work your way up. And still now is like an executive, I'm not too good to be in the weeds, right, And I think that's important, is having that like wanting to learn and like having the humility to do whatever you need to make it, you know.
00:15:09
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I always tell people, you know, especially for people that have heard my old show or even some of the early shows that I've done here, you know, I talk a lot of shit on the financial services industry because I've seen the ugly side, right, but there's a lot of positives about it, and I can't you know, express that enough because it's one of those few industries that is recession proof. Right, when people are hurting, if there's a war, whatever the hell's going on in the country, people still need insurance. People still need life insurance, health insurance, et cetera. And when times are good, same thing, right. So it's one of those few industries that if you have a skill set, it's always going to be in demand. It's always in the top three most you know, most profitable career paths if you will, so as long as you can handle it. And it definitely just takes sales marketing, and I think it is to your point absolutely, I'm really happy that you're right. I do see a lot more mix. I see a lot of more female executives in I.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Mean, in our company was one of the reasons I wanted to work there. There's so many just smart people in general, and a lot of smart, badass women, and I just found that really inspiring. And it just it didn't seem like when they're the hiring process was on that it mattered your gender and it shouldn't, right, but I really felt that in our company, And like you were saying, you know, insurance, yes, not the sexiest thing that you could imagine, right, But I wanted to do something that was bringing good in the world. And you know, we talked about this a little bit. I'm turning into this hippie that doesn't want to create trash in the world and trying to use less single use plastic and all these things. But I wanted to work at a company that has a mission. I was doing something good and because people, I mean, I've experiencing myself, like paying these medical bills that feel like they're crippling you or you don't want to go to the doctor. I'm like the number one person that's like, unless my arm is falling off, I am not going to the doctor. And so I didn't think I should live like that and other people should live like that. I mean, how much do you think it costs to spend two months in the ICU.
00:16:48
Speaker 4: Gosh, you know what a good friend of mine was in there. Yeah, he spent probably like twenty thousand a day, So you're looking at sixty days one point two one point six million dollars exactly.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: So I'll tell you a quick story. One of our members, bless his heart, I won't say his name just for privacy reasons, but he got COVID and he was in the ICU and it led to heart failure. He was in there for I know, poor guy, like two months, right, he was, you know, obviously stressed out about how much it was going to cost. He was on one of our plans. It was two million dollars and he paid his max out of pocket, which was twenty five hundred bucks with no other headaches, no other headaches. And so that's the kind of thing that you should have, that security in life. I mean, we should get a security and more things like that.
00:17:32
Speaker 4: You know, you mentioned something else earlier, and I want to make sure we don't miss that. Because I was talking a good friend of mine, actually a friend of the show, Danny Galvez. Shout out to Danny, and he's gone through one of his close family members has going through something really serious and for the past month he's kind of checked out. And I said, what are you doing. He's like, I'm trying to help him just navigate, you know, getting therapy, getting chemo, to getting this, getting that. And he said it takes it took him three weeks from diagnosis to even get the guy in for treatment. I said, what's the headache? And he said, these fucking insurance companies you know, and you told me something that I thought was really unique. I haven't had it in any health care plane that I've ever had. And what is that the little coordinator person that God forbids something happened to you know, my cousin right now? What's what's the steps that I would do as opposed to what Danny's going through?
00:18:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's it's it can be such a nightmare. And so my heart goes out to him and we hope you're okay, sending all the love. But in terms of yeah, what we offer it's a white glove care coordination service. So if you need a surgery or something's coming up, we have a dedicated team that will help coordinate your care so that your benefits are covered, right and so that you you don't have.
00:18:35
Speaker 4: So what happens to a lot of people, Sorry to catch you up, but yeah, they go to the hospital, right, they get all tile and alls eighty five dollars for a fucking pill, right, and then they come out and they get this huge belt and they'll say, okay, ten percent, scutter the other ninety you're going to go bankrupt. And what you're telling me is that that whole thing will get coordinated behind the scenes before I go in.
00:18:51
Speaker 2: Yep, and yes, and so I would say, you know, it's a case by case basis, but for the most part, depending on where you live and if there's providers, you know, we won't stop you from going to see anybody that want, right. That's one thing that's great about us. We have large ppo networks so that you're not stuck seeing doctors you don't want to see, like that's really important. You should go to the people that you want to see. But in terms of care coordination, we can set things up so that it's covered by your benefits and then you don't have to worry about it, which is like I think, you know, when you're going through something with an illness or surgery, the last thing you want to do is be worried about money. You want to be worried about getting better or not worried, right, And so that's where we come in. It's a free service, it's white Glove, and we just really try to take care of our members.
00:19:29
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, and I got to be honest with everybody. You know, when we started doing this program, I got and after the first couple of shows, they were a big head now I got hit by a lot of people and obviously being in the industry, Oh, I want to sell life insurance on your show. I want to do this, I want do that. And it was really important for me to be aligned with a company that has similar values. And when I met your CEO, Jason over the first Zoom and I stall haven't met him in person, but it was really cool for me to see that. I said, hey, man, there's a need in this community. And I think the cannabis community has almost been overlooked the way they are with the banking industry right where we keep getting stepped on, and when it comes to life insurance and healthcare, I think it's just people are going towards the path of least resistance, which for me is to not have insurance. And when I said, hey, if you're going to do this, do it right so that we can really measure the metrics of how many people we can help in this community. And that's where you guys said, we'll give us a month or two and we'll create a whole new website and company that's the same thing. It's not a fly by an identity, but now we can actually take care of the cannabis community. And that's you know, the guy moved quick and that was less than what two months ago.
00:20:28
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:29
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And so to Jason's credit and Doug, his father, and Matt who founded the company, they're such good guys, amazing business people, really big hearts and just really smart. You know, it's very difficult to create healthcare benefits with our health shares, and then not only that, creating actual insurance major medical plans is not an easy thing. That's why you don't see a lot of insurance companies. Besides, like the big ones that you hear of right, they don't pop up left and right like a gas station because there's so many government regulations and things like that. So just to even be able to create that, I think it's just something that I tip my hats to them about. And the fact that they did it to make you know, more more care for less cost is not something that usually happens in the world. So being able to you know, get mental health space, like mental health help, you know that zero cost, or telemedicine that zero cost, like lower prescription costs, these are the things that affect bottom lines for businesses and for people. And so yeah, creating something like that is just been huge, and so it was really important to cover anybody that we can. And then an underserved community like this. It's like, you know, I've lived in California since nineteen ninety six, right, so I'm a hardcore California. I've seen the whole industry change and the fact, like it was boggled my mind when you told me that, you know, companies won't cover people like they will just deny them benefits for working in the cannabis space. And that's ridiculous. And it's the fastest growing industry I think one of them, right and so and one of the hiring a ton of people. So why not protect people?
00:21:59
Speaker 4: Right?
00:22:00
Speaker 2: And as we talked about, it's not just growers, it's people that are doing roofing and lighting, and these can be I would imagine somewhat dangerous of jobs. At times, people fall, they hurt themselves. And so you shouldn't I mean, smoke a joint. I'll help you, but you should also be able to go to the doctor and get care.
00:22:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know you mentioned mental health. That's something that's really close to the show. You know, we've had some amazing guests talk about their experiences with suicide, dodging suicide, losing somebody to suicide. And I do remember when I had Kaiser, when I was going through my really dark times, you know, I try to reach out and it was like a two month waiting list. Then you go and the person's like eighteen years old with pimples on his face, and I'm like, dude, you know, thank god I wasn't suicidal, and if you were a call nine one one, you know, and it was just such a such a shame because I wasn't really hurting that bad to the point where I was even considering hurting myself, but I just felt bad. I remember looking back, and you know, there's a lot of people hurting right now, especially with the lockdowns and these kids coming out without having seen their friends. And tell me a little bit more. You said something about no cost tele themed How fast is that? How does somebody you know get to that within the plans?
00:23:01
Speaker 2: For sure? So we work with talk space for mental health help, and so you can get virtual mental health help a lot faster than you know, a two month wait there are you know, you can also go see doctors, and there's different costs based on different plans. So that's something you know, if you needed that, which I think we all do need that, you know, you talk to an expert benefits consultant to see which is your best plan for that, but just having that kind of basically on speed dial, right, so if you need help, and it's something that we should all be doing, and you shouldn't get to the point right where you're feeling suicidal to actually get care, like that's that's not something anyone should experience. And so offering that was really important for us because mental health is important after the pandemic. Like you said, you know, we're all weird and wonky in different ways, so like getting a tune up and optimizing yourself is something that we should all be doing.
00:23:44
Speaker 4: Excellent. Now, you know, if somebody is listening at home, whether they're female or male, and they're in an industry that they feel they've kind of maxed out, they're not passionate about it, and they're listening to you and they're like, man, I think I could do this. What's your best advice on how to get into the industry?
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I think first of all, find like company that you care about and you know, has values that align with you. And so you know, ours I think is great, and it's an industry that I think you do a lot of training on, right, And so it's kind of like financial services that you want to get a job and become a broker and go help people's lives, like, you know, apply to us, right, apply to Rising Tide, Like we always need people, and it's just yeah, it's an industry that you can get training on and that you can like build your book of business and like really grow. Right. So we have people that work directly with independent contractors. We have call center people that like help you know, employees of companies go through all their benefits. You know, we have people to go to events. But there's so many different things to do within the industry. And at the end of the day, like you said, people always need healthcare whatever else is happening in the world.
00:24:42
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Now, I love the fact that you're here talking about all this because I think it's much needed. We're going to take a break right now. When we'll come back, we're doing the Financial Friday five with cap Rising Tide to Healthcare Solutions. We'll be right back here on Financial Fridays on.
00:24:54
Speaker 3: CT one on one We'll be right back with more Financial Fridays with the Inside Investor Tony Ka. Make sure you follow Tony at the Insider Investor. Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one's Financial Fridays with the Inside Investor Tony k. Make sure you like, follow and subscribe to the show.
00:25:19
Speaker 4: Now you're ready to turn the typical into something special, you guys, check out loranoils dot com. They are one of my favorite people here. They come to the studio often, they're going to be at MJ at biscon Chef Heidi always comes in. She's got natural, all natural, non cannabis ingredients they've used to make us cookies, chocolates, fudge. It definitely is not conducive to my diet, but I will tell you everybody in the show loves them loranoils dot com. We are back with Misscat from Rising Tide Healthcare Solutions that's been created specifically for Cannabis Talk one on one in the entire cannabis community. They're going to provide you, guys, healthcare plans not just for individuals, but for companies as well. And it's a very low pressure, low sales approach, low knowledge approach. You call you say hey, I need help, they'll run you through the plans, and if you already have a plan, they'll let you know if they can do better as all right.
00:26:08
Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. And for individuals, just so you guys know, there's an average savings of about ten thousand dollars a year per person, So we can really I mean, that's why I always encourage everyone just take a phone.
00:26:19
Speaker 4: Call, just one phone call.
00:26:20
Speaker 2: No, no right, pressure, No one's going to force you to do anything, but I think we should all know, like, you can save that money. And if you're a business owner, you're saving four thousand dollars per employee per month. That's just a lot of money that you're going to be doing better things with your life. Buy Lorraine oil. I want some of those that fudge. That sounds delicious.
00:26:36
Speaker 4: Now you know, they're also going to be at MJ Bescon. We're going to have their whole team out. They're going to have a booth in our village. We're going to be doing a special show out there as well. Now, before we let you go, we're going to do something called the Financial Friday Five. We're gonna ask you five questions. Go ahead and feel free to either rapid fire and give me a little explanation. Okay, your first question is, kat is, what was the best investment you have ever made?
00:26:57
Speaker 2: Oh God, that's a good one. I've got a nerdy one and a fun one.
00:27:01
Speaker 4: Could I do both?
00:27:02
Speaker 2: Okay? Number one was fixing all of my teeth. Like, I know that sounds so nerdy, but like I had all the you know, the Mercury Fellings and that those are so.
00:27:12
Speaker 4: Bad for you.
00:27:13
Speaker 2: I know, I know you guys. I'm like, oh shit that. I know that's a nerdy one, but honestly, that's a part of your health. I know I'm working in healthcare, but like you can get gum disease, which gives you heart disease from having bad dental work. I didn't know that, So that's fascinating. And then on the fun side of things, I really believe in having your own activities and keeping that no matter what, you do, something that's not related to work or your relationship or anything else. Right, And so I've just always invested in horseback riding. I never grew out of the wanting a pony pays a lot, and so but now I learned to play polo and which is so fun, so fun.
00:27:51
Speaker 4: So you do the whole little swingy thing.
00:27:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well smaller ponies are better for polo, but yes, and you actually ran into each other and stuff. But like that, I know, it's like it's an investment in myself though, because that's my mental health.
00:28:04
Speaker 4: Right.
00:28:04
Speaker 2: I go and I don't think about what bills I have to pay. I don't think about work, I don't think about my husband, don't think of anything. I'm just focusing. Horse is going, yeah, exactly, And so that to me is like freeing and mind clearing, and so I will say that's a good investment in yourself. Like could I have bought a house with that money? Probably?
00:28:21
Speaker 4: That is an expensive sport I imagine, or just even horseback riding in general. Right, do you own any horses?
00:28:26
Speaker 2: I don't, because that's a whole other level, right, And so at some point I would love to, But in La it's so hard to drive to those places. So at some point I will give me a raise.
00:28:36
Speaker 4: Do you play at the Empire where they have Is that the closest polaric goal.
00:28:40
Speaker 2: You can play there? I'm not good enough yet that's a goal. But I actually play arena polo, So it's in a smaller because those big fields are like nine football fields. Right. We play arena polo, which is on dirt because there's not a lot of grass in California because we have no rain here, and so it's like a like a size of a football field and so there's walls and stuff. So I play up in the valley.
00:28:58
Speaker 4: Y it's but few shots of tequila or try that one. I'm going to try that all right. Question number two, what is your worst investment?
00:29:07
Speaker 2: Oh, worst investment probably renting.
00:29:12
Speaker 4: You know, it's yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker 2: Like it's just you feel like you're throwing your money away and then you don't want to do anything in the house because you're like it.
00:29:18
Speaker 4: Was either or houses. Though.
00:29:21
Speaker 2: Oh you guys, maybe I shouldn't be on financial don't listen to my financial advice.
00:29:26
Speaker 4: No, that's actually really good. In fact, I always tell the young kids, you know, when they say, what's what's the number one? You know, what do you recommend I buy? If I'm going to buy one thing? And I always say, have you bought a house yet? Especially because you can buy one with first you know, first person home buyer assistance, and there's so many programs for somebody that's just going to buy that first house. Better you can buy a four plux rented out. So I firmly believe real estate. You know, I'm not a big fan of the market anymore, but real estate is the one spot where any wealthy person you've ever want wanted to emulate. Ninety percent of time, it's real estate. It's not that they're an astronaut or financial. Real estate that really made their empire.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Oh if I could go back in time, man, stocks and property.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: You and me both, right, And so I figured that I'll let you know. So number three, what is the best present you've ever bought yourself? Cat?
00:30:11
Speaker 2: Oh, the best present I've ever bought myself. Oh that's a good one, I would say. I would just say travel. In general. I'm more about experiences than things like I don't own a fancy purse. I have a ten year old Prius out there. I mean, I should get a cooler car, but I just I'd rather have experiences, so like going to Spain or going to visit my friends, right, I just I lean into that because at the end of the day, for me, you have your memories until they fade potentially. But I just like that over material goods. Yeah.
00:30:38
Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting because we've asked that question pretty much to every guess we've had on financial Fridays, and most often than not, you would think that women are more materialistic and they're the ones that are going to say a purse or this and that. But it's the women that always say experiences or something like that. It's the dudes that are like Ferrari or McLaren you know.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: I mean I can afford that, I would. I wouldn't mind a Rolex.
00:30:57
Speaker 4: There we go and the truth comes out, all right. Question number four, cat is what is the best present you would buy someone else You've ever bought someone else?
00:31:05
Speaker 2: Oh? Best person I've ever bought somebody else. Okay. I like to do things that are personalized. So I had a boyfriend one time. I made him a like metal cutout or I didn't make it. I commissioned a metal cutout of his like logo for like his belt, you know. But I like to find things that are like personal for people and like lean into that. But if I had the money, I'd buy everybody their dream car. Yeah, I hate that would be so cool.
00:31:28
Speaker 4: Your husband right now is like I didn't get a belt buckle.
00:31:32
Speaker 2: You'll get the dream car. We're working on that again. I need a raise.
00:31:36
Speaker 4: What's his dream car?
00:31:37
Speaker 2: Oh God, I should know this and I can picture it in my mind. A sports car is It's like an old school sports car, Like I can picture it, but I can't tell you. Sorry.
00:31:46
Speaker 4: That's that's where I fall apart. James Bond car or something one of those like school classes.
00:31:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like an old school class. It with not that class. It's cooler than that. Failing here, you guys, failing.
00:31:59
Speaker 4: You've made it to the ask question of the financial Friday five. Here we go. Okay, if you could buy one thing for yourself and money was not an object, what would that be like?
00:32:08
Speaker 2: Does it have to be something that exists in the world.
00:32:10
Speaker 4: It can be literally anything.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: Okay, So could I like get a teleportation device?
00:32:14
Speaker 4: You can have whatever.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: That's what I would. I want to teleportation device.
00:32:19
Speaker 4: I love it. You know what. I call that a private jet because you can literally go anywhere you want. It gives you so much freedom and a few times I've traveled in private it's that.
00:32:29
Speaker 2: Spring where they like bend space and time, you know.
00:32:31
Speaker 4: Like the terminator where he goes to sea Like, yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: Like doctor Strange has one. I think it just like does a circle and you can like change space and time like that would be great, you know, which we would be.
00:32:40
Speaker 4: I think muscuts probably working all that.
00:32:41
Speaker 2: Run, that's true, probably right?
00:32:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, before we let you go, is there anything you want to share with the audiences? There are a special message that you want to send to anybody?
00:32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, first of all, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. You know what I would say to everybody at home and in the cannabis industry is you shouldn't go broke for health care, right, and you should have healthcare. And that's where we come in again, like we talked about, you know, you guys don't need to be the experts. My team are the experts. You should save money so you can do what you want in your life and then not have to worry if something comes up, you know, And that's where we come in. So we're just here to help. And like we talked about, you know, it's a no cost thing, so just call and make sure what you have is what you need, or if you don't have coverage, get coverage. It's open enrollment. It's when everyone's thinking about it, like now is the time to do it. Come visit us at mjbiscon, get a call going and just you know, protect your future.
00:33:30
Speaker 4: I love it in the website one more.
00:33:31
Speaker 2: Time at Rising Tide Benefits dot Com.
00:33:34
Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much, Kat you guys. I want to think a few people here. It is not easy to put on the show. There's a huge force behind the scenes. I want to thank Flew, Joe Grande, Adrian Amir, The Two, alex Is, Mondo, Madison, Teddy the show Dog, Daniel Connor, Elbert, Kitty, Kinky cam Back, Good god they stuck that in there, Kinky Cambaxter, Beach parcel Aar, Ali Muffins, Sunday, Cassie Ruby, God Brother Pitt, Happy Birthday, Rube by the way, Mark Garnes, Chris Frank, you know, Jennifer and Elvis. You guys, thank you so much for listening to Financial Fridays here on Cannabis Talk one on one with my boy at Blue Joe Grande, the world's number one source for everything cannabis. I'm Tony Kassidan. You guys can always find me on IGF The Insider Investor I'm gonna see you guys next Friday. Remember to keep your wallet tight, keep your mind right. We'll see you on the inside. See soon. On Cannabis Talk one on one.
00:34:19
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Financial Fridays with the Insider Investor Tony Ka On Cannabis Talk one oh one, the world's number one source for everything cannabis.
