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Tommy Truong: Running a dispensary is, is so difficult and I'm, I'm really looking forward to our conversation because you have done such an amazing job at Greenery Spot. On not only leveraging online to build brand awareness, but you guys have a really holistic view of creating a presence in the community.
Christa Peay: Absolutely.
Tommy Truong: Where did you start?
Christa Peay: Oh my gosh, where do I begin? So we are very lucky, and I mean absurdly fortunate that we serve such a great community. Um, I'm originally, actually not from the upstate New York area. I'm originally from DC uh, slash Maryland, and I come from a small town in Maryland, Quint City. And when I first moved here and literally before our doors even opened on Main Street, historic Johnson City, I was like, this is just like historic QUT City.
So it already felt like home for me. Even though I wasn't familiar with the area yet, and within the two years that I've been here, you would think that I have been a neighbor [00:01:00] forever. Everyone is your neighbor. Like you can walk down the street, they're gonna wave and they'll wave back and your friend will be like, do you know that person?
No. But they're just friendly. Like it's a very friendly community. So having that as a base was a great start to our success. Having connections with different people in the businesses around us. Having connections with our employees, bringing in their friends and families to come shop with us. So we got really lucky, truly just to be a part of a community that's already so close knit.
And then finding opportunities to engage with them in their regular environment. So we do our best at making sure that we are constantly aware of what's going on in our community events. We have a great relationship with our chamber. We have a great communication with our Johnson City organizers here.
So whenever there's something popping up, we always find a way to get involved. Everything volunteer down to the Christmas parade we're in.
Tommy Truong: So I know we, we spoke about earlier about how [00:02:00] important it is to build a partnership network with other. Businesses in the area. What was your strategy on creating a, I always think about it as I'm a customer at the Greenery Spot
Christa Peay: Mm-hmm.
Tommy Truong: and I'm also a customer at the local cafe or the local yoga shop. How did you blend in these experiences together?
Christa Peay: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. So we have started partnerships with them to do certain sort of events and promotions for our store and also just having our marketing materials there. Perfect example, when a Bit Bite, which is a delicious burger spot right around the corner from us opened. Of course, if people come to our store, they're gonna consume our products, maybe get a little bit of the munchies.
Wanna go get a burger next door. So when they first opened, we made sure to have all of our marketing materials there for them. If for any reason someone shopped there and they were referred by someone there, they could come in and be able to get a special offer to under like, I guess [00:03:00] not, I can't really say deal 'cause we all know deals are not a thing in the cannabis industry.
That's always a struggle. But we're able to provide special offerings for their accounts. So. We try our best to be articulate of who we are at our neighboring businesses, just by leaving marketing materials. But one of the coolest things that we did, uh, soul City Coffee, absolutely love them. I always tease, like some people say they're powered by Dunking.
We're powered by Soul City Coffee, and they were one of the first companies that truly reached out to us in the neighborhood to do collaborations with us, and one of their teammates is a yogi. So we did our very first yoga retreat with Soul City and a part of their community. So we were able to market through them, have all our flyers there.
Any customer that they had come in, they say, Hey, like our neighbors and I next door are doing this super fun community event. It's yoga. You get to learn about cannabis wellness and how it can enhance your wellness routine. It's a little bit of everything. [00:04:00] So when people see cannabis tied with normal community things, it makes someone engage with us a little bit more.
I think when we market ourself just as cannabis, it's just not enough. It's cool for cannabis. Cannabis is always cool, but showing that we're normal people helps a lot. So they're like, oh, if the place I get coffee from every day likes the people next door at the dispensary, like, okay, then I'll go check it out.
Or even right across the street from us as well. We have other restaurants where, um, people will come in that are from out of town. They're just stopping for a bite to eat, and they're like, where's your nearest liquor store? Where's your nearest dispensary? We are their go-to recommendation. Even right next door to us, we have a hair salon.
The girls come out, they take cute pictures of their hair near like our store. We have like a cute mural and they'll be like, oh, what's behind this mural? What's this business? And they're like, it's the Greenery Spot. So they're like, oh, let me check that out. So just always reminding people that we exist and giving that message to the businesses around us.
[00:05:00] Really, we were on foot week one, introducing ourselves to every single business on the street. Even when there's a new business like Enzos, we love Enzos Pizzeria. Those are our people. Also fuel by Enzos other than Soul City. They keep us fed, but we, we were one of the first people to come meet them and say, Hey, if this, if there's any way that we can collaborate and do things together, please let us know.
And right away they're like, please leave your business cards. Leave your business cards with us. We'll leave some of our stuff with you guys. A recommendation for a recommendation, we're in the referral business on Main Street in Johnson City.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, you made actually a really good point. How do we normalize the consumption of cannabis? And you are tagging in that with pretty much everyday life. People go to eat, people grab coffee, people do yoga. So you're not only doing that, but yoga is a health. And wellness. It's in the health and wellness bucket.
And I, I talk about this all the time. I feel [00:06:00] as though that everybody is going, everybody is going after the same market. So that's the red ocean strategy, right? We all know recreation and we all know medical cannabis. Everybody plays in that arena, and that's about a $40 billion market cap. But the wellness industry is 70 billion. And I feel as though normal people are interested in their health more than they're interested in getting high and playing video games.
Christa Peay: Exactly. I'm actually really happy you said that because. People always think cannabis like, oh, I don't wanna be stoned, I don't wanna get anything done. So in addition to being a presence to destigmatize cannabis, it's like this scary plant I always tease. It's not the plant for little Shop of Horrors.
It's not gonna try to eat you. It's not like that. It's a happy, healthy plant. It's here to make your life better. But with cannabis, there's so much more knowledge that people aren't aware to. So thank goodness that we have lovely vendors that always keep us educated. [00:07:00] Um, they come in on a regular basis and that's one of the key factors that we're connecting with our community.
Some people are like, you know what? There's so many brands I don't know where to begin. And we're like, you know what? We got you. So every single Monday we do staff picks. It highlights our new products. It highlights what products that go with a theme. Like Mother's Day was a big one, like instead of buying mama bouquet of flowers, get her the flowers she really wants.
Things like that. So we, we always find ways to show people like, look like we could be a part of your holiday, we can be a part of your barbecue. There's so much more to eat. They have cannabinoid profiles, there's terpenes that are special for each person. So when our vendors come in, our, our community gets to have that one-on-one interaction behind the brand where instead of, it just seems like some cool brand on the internet where they saw like a nice ad on social media like.
This is them meeting the face behind the brand, the people that are bringing the passion and the education to our community. So our customers always love the vendor visits. We do them predominantly towards the end [00:08:00] of the week and over the weekend when people have a little bit more of that free time.
But whenever we say there's a vendor visit, people pop up, they wanna learn about the products, they have a relationship with the brand, which feels more intimate. I feel like people like to buy from who they know. So what better way than have the brands come in And then same with us. They like to buy from us because they know us, they trust us.
They know that we're gonna point them in the right direction. We have such unique. Relationships with our customers. Like sometimes people have a customer and they just know them by name. We know their favorite color, we know their favorite terpenes, we know their favorite brand. We know their brothers and sisters names down to the high school they went to.
We have such a close relationship with our customers. It's more like a friendship where they're just buying stuff from us.
Tommy Truong: You've built a real, an interesting in when markets saturate and, and I talk, we, we think about this all the time, and why should a customer come to your store? Why [00:09:00] ultimately, at the end of the day. Stores house, pretty much the same product. Right? So what is that experience that they're getting, that they choose you over another, another dispensary.
And you've really built a community it seems like, of people that know each other, that want to be with each other. And you know, outside of cannabis, I'm sure you guys talk about so many other.
Christa Peay: Oh my gosh, so many. We have such a diverse group of people. I always tease that when I go to these rooms where there's people that are a little bit more, oh, I don't do cannabis. I'm like, I promise. We're not just a group of lazy stoners. We're professionals. Or professional potheads. I always joke professional potheads.
So once I say that, it kind of loosens them up and they're like, oh wait, like she has a sense of humor, like she seems like a normal person. It's like we always try to show that we're normal people. We have people that work with us that are parents. We have people that work from us that are completely different professions from, from cannabis, but they have those transferable skills that we're able to apply to our business and make it a success.
[00:10:00] Um, one of our guys
used to be a.
Tommy Truong: Was there a stigma? Was there a stigma? Was there a stigma when you guys first started of
Christa Peay: yes. Even
now.
Tommy Truong: two groups of people, right?
Christa Peay: Even now, it's, it's very 50 50. So I participate in a lot of our events where I'm very public facing. We'll pop up at an event, we'll have a table, we'll have a cannabis education book, cute little merch for people to have, and some people will walk by the table like, oh. That's weed and they just keep it moving.
And then some people walk by the table and they're like, you guys shouldn't be here. Like this is, this is a drug, like this shouldn't be marketed. And it's like, well sweetheart, this is a plant and it's legal in New York state and we are very much allowed to provide education to people. And it seems like you may not have the educational cannabis.
Like, please ask me any questions you have. And then they were like, oh, okay. Like she's being helpful. And then they start asking their questions. But there's always like. Some resistance with a certain group of customers, but for the most part, people are, they think it's very [00:11:00] cool, a good bulk of our customers.
I wanna say at least over 60% of our customers are over the age of 65. So this is a generation that's been patiently and excitedly waiting for cannabis to be legal. 'cause during their generation it was the devil's lettuce, the bad stuff. If you get caught with it, you go to jail. So like nobody wanted to smoke weed then.
But now that they've kind of been awarded the patience of legalization, they're excited. So there's some people that they just are afraid to try cannabis 'cause it's always been labeled as the bad thing. But now that it's not the bad thing and it's legal and there's stores that are selling it and there's hundreds, not even more than hundreds now, there's like at least.
500 plus brands on the market at this point? The it is, I feel like it's getting better. We definitely have some hiccups here and there with some folks. I would say the biggest challenge for us is venues. Um, we always try our best to find venues that are going to be cannabis friendly. Not necessarily for consumption, but just the fact that they know that when we're there, we [00:12:00] are the greener spot.
We are a cannabis brand, so we are gonna be doing cannabis education. I always know it's education forward, not consumption forward. We are a New York state. If people wanna go outside and smoke in an area where you can smoke a cigarette, we can smoke weed there as well. So that's really up to the venue.
But a lot of venues are kind of still. Afraid to make that jump and go full cannabis.
Tommy Truong: Uh, when you talk about venues, do you mean community events?
Christa Peay: Yes. So community events, we have kind of find our loophole where it's better to partner and collaborate than it is to go on your own. Just because in cannabis, like I said, there still is that stigma. There are some brands that are like, we don't even want weed associated with being at our venue. We don't even want you guys to post about it.
We don't want you to share it. And it's like, what? So we try to find those venues that are open to cannabis, that are open to spreading awareness and knowledge. And it's still a challenge, but I think people are becoming more [00:13:00] open, especially our farmers. Our farmers are awesome because they're like, Hey.
You guys are also in agriculture too. You guys grow a plant. You guys sell a plant, you're no different than us. So we have so much more luck within our agriculture community. They definitely recognize us as everyday normal people. 'cause they're farmers too.
Tommy Truong: When you started, uh, with the Greenery Spot, what were the opportunities that you saw from a marketing perspective that you thought, Hey, we should do this and it would greatly improve our brand presence?
Christa Peay: Oh my goodness. So many things. So first and foremost, I knew that we were gonna have good marketing through word of mouth. So we made an assignment for our bud tenders. Like, you guys are all local. You all live within 30 miles or less. Find 10 people, bring them here. So that was the opportunity right away.
Word of mouth. And then my second thing that I always ask people is, what is your digital presence? Because if you don't have one, people almost treat you like you're not [00:14:00] real. Like they wanna be able to go www.greeneryspot.com. Are these real people? Oh, it's a real business. They have a real website. Oh look, there's their license.
Like it. I needed that level of legitimacy for our business. And then that also led to our social media showing people that we are a real business, showing them footage of our store. Showing them funny interactions with our team, which we still post about and people really enjoy. So that's like one of the things that set us apart.
Like people say it's customer service, but it's also our team. I hate to sound so cocky, but I think I, we have one of the best teams in New York state it. The diversity and the personalities, the diversity and culture, the diversity and professional background before we got here, like everyone brings such a unique skillset.
To our team. So I love to market our team as much as possible, uh, so that there's the opportunity there. Marketing our team, marketing us on social media in that way. So we have that digital footprint, having our team bring in their friends and family [00:15:00] so their friends and family can tell their friends and family.
And then it just keeps multiplying. And then last, but certainly not least, developing partnerships within our. Media community here. We have a news channel here. We have a radio station. We have recorded radio commercials. We have done interviews to show the progress of our store. I am always so grateful for our local news, for always including us is so appreciated, but just having those immediate interactions.
We also had a connection with our Chamber of Commerce right away. Almost right before we opened and coming from an economic development background, I was so stoked that they were on our side in Teen Greenery Spot. They were at our ribbon cutting. They were at their day one of opening. So having the relationship with people in your community that can help you, that can be a resource to you that can send people your way, that was like a big deal for me.
So we checked out the boxes, digital footprint, making sure you know your network and your good resources, [00:16:00] and then word of mouth. That that was the, those are the top three things for me. It was very important.
Tommy Truong: I never really thought of local media. How did you guys approach? Was that just approaching them and telling them your story?
Christa Peay: so truly luck. 'cause so many people are just. Surprised and excited that weed is just legal in New York State. So when it first became legalized, so many news channels were picking it up. Like, what are these dispensaries gonna look like? What type of people are gonna, like, people had just had this. We have the demand of curiosity on our side, I should say, the demand of curiosity and people just wanting to know like what, what's behind the doors of an upstate New York dispensary?
Is it gonna be like Colorado, where it's like funky and edgy and cool? Is it gonna be like a medical dispensary where it feels like you're going to a doctor's office? So they, it was the curiosity that led people to us, and we were very fortunate for [00:17:00] that. The curiosity led them to us, but then getting to know our team, kept them interested in seeing where we were going to go.
And we've, they've come every single time there's an opportunity. They come for four 20. Uh, they came for our first year anniversary and also we had our radio company, um, Equinox Broadcasting, absolutely love them. Uh, they came in for our live stream of our two year anniversary, which was a lot of fun. Lot, a lot of fun and people were coming in like off the streets like, oh my God, we heard you on the radio and we heard that you guys are doing a customer appreciation.
I'm like, we are. Come in, come get your thanks. We even have a little munchy table for when you leave. They're like, really? Like just little things like that help where they're like, oh, I heard you on the radio. Or Oh, I saw a really cool social media post that you guys have X, Y, and z. Just things to get people excited.
We wanna keep people excited 'cause this is a cool opportunity to have. Legalized cannabis. I never thought of it in my lifetime. Even my mom and dad probably would've never thought of it in their lifetime, [00:18:00] but it's here. So we, we really got lucky that people were excited and curious and that gave us the ability to show them who we are and what we can offer.
Tommy Truong: How did you guys keep the buzz going? How did you keep the relationship with the media companies ongoing and create enough of a. Of a story for them to come back.
Christa Peay: Always keeping them up to date on how we are doing as a company. Uh, the number one thing that I was super, super excited about is we're still celebrating our two year anniversary. We have doubled in size for our team and our menu has doubled. So us always keeping in contact with our brands, keeping new products on our shelves, keeps us relevant.
Also, keeping those anchor products that we know people are always gonna crave, like $20. Ace. Edibles that are going to be effective. Having a spectrum of different potencies helps. So keeping variety has kept us interesting. We always have marketed that we have one of [00:19:00] the largest product menus in New York State.
We're very proud of that. Um, and then also making sure that we're keep, like I said, keeping those brands that are consistent and also keeping relationships with our local brands. I, our local brands have such a special spot in my heart. Um, one of the brands of which is Nanako, they are a family owned business here.
Everyone in Broome County knows who Nanako is. Before they had a hemp license that led to their cannabis license, which led to their processing license. They were just a regular everyday farm, growing your tomatoes, growing roses for your grandma's garden. That's what they were doing. So having that relationship with them and marketing like, Hey, we don't just have these big New York City brands.
We have local brands that are here. So hearing local stories entices the news that entices them so much. They love to hear how someone from their hometown is a part of a big brand in a big industry. So keeping them up to date on things like that.
Tommy Truong: wow. That's amazing.
Christa Peay: yeah,[00:20:00]
Tommy Truong: That's amazing. Do you, did you start partnerships with local businesses on day one?
Christa Peay: honestly, it. It really happened organically. Like we were very much like almost overwhelmed. We didn't even have a marketing person when we started. I started as a budtender and freelanced marketing on the side. I had my own business doing marketing before I moved here. So we had no idea that we were gonna get flooded so quickly.
So my role emerged quite within two weeks of being open. We were like, oh, like people are really interested in working with us and how lucky we were for that. On top of that, our CEOI always tease, he's like the mayor of Johnson City. He knows everyone. So when people found out that it was our CEO being the owner of Greenery Spot, they're like, oh, Chris Myers.
I've known Chris Myers since I played baseball with him. I've known Chris Myers since X, Y, and Z. Like I know the Myers family. So like they wanted to help right away just by liking people on our team. I said, we [00:21:00] really got lucky with our team. We got super lucky. Every single one of them has a whole cheer, a whole bleacher of cheerleaders on their team and that helps support our Greenery Spot team.
We really got lucky. I. I, I hate to say that it's just luck, but it's luck. We, we really got lucky finding these connections and just having the demand of curiosity and being able to uphold that and continuing to have updates to keep people interested
Tommy Truong: I, I love the, uh, the collabs. The collab. It can be endless, right? Yoga and smoking. That's, that's so clever. Everybody that does yoga should really, really enhance it, enhance that experience, uh, experience just a little bit with, with some green.
Christa Peay: Another fun collaboration. 'cause I feel like a lot of people don't know this. This is my nerdy little fun fact for today. A lot of people don't know that hop. That makes Delicious Beer is a cousin to cannabis, so we have done partnerships with local breweries as well. Um, [00:22:00] and also events that are beer driven, most popular in our hometown in Broome County.
That is going to be cans and c clams, cans and clans is an event that's been going on since before, since before I can even, since before any of the cannabis companies existed. Since before. A lot of even local regular restaurants have cans and clans is a big deal here. They've hopped around a few venues.
But is back at one of its home venues that is gonna be Airport Inn. We are there every Friday. We do not sell things there. As I mentioned, we are not sales forward. We are very education forward in our networking opportunities. So every Friday you'll see me there. Um, I have our table, I have merch to hand out to people.
Anyone can ask me any question they have when we're there. We like to act as your Mary Jane Matchmaker, so that way when you go into our dispensary. It's not overwhelming. You already have some notes. Like I talked to Christa and I told her I have a hard time sleeping and she told me about CBN, can you point me to your CBN products?
And that's what we are, we're at the event to be the introduction to [00:23:00] having an easier customer service experience once you come in. Because I know it's what, even when we first opened I was like, oh my god, these are a lot of products. Like this is gonna overwhelm people. We gotta be on our A game. We share notes.
That was one of the biggest things we did. Like there's no way we could try all products. By ourselves. So it was kind of like you take this category, you take that category, and we all exchange notes. I love vapes. Vapes is my bread and butter. Um, my husband and I actually have been in cannabis processing for over eight years.
That's what we know. So they come to me as the vape queen. We also have our dad, daddy concentrate King. My Greg, I love him dearly. Uh, we always come to him whenever we have concentrate questions and the rest of our team really fills in the gaps. We have some people that just do gummies. We have some people that do everything on the menus, so they're the jack of all trades.
But dividing and conquering the menu really helped us. Um, you're not gonna be able to try it all. It's just impossible. But
Tommy Truong: No, no, definitely.
Christa Peay: Knowledge, cannabinoid knowledge, that comes in handy quite a [00:24:00] bit 'cause then you can kind of understand the product without having to try it.
Tommy Truong: Have you, you've, you raised a really good point in these events, you're not there to sell product, but you're really there to create brand awareness and you're, you're doing it from a position of knowledge. IE come to us, we can direct you to. Um, what you need to learn about the plant. Your curiosity.
How have you seen these community events uh, translate to driving traffic back to the store?
Christa Peay: Oh my God, it's been awesome. So perfect example for our Kans and Clans event. I have people that come up to us and they're like, oh, Greenery Spot. Like, I feel like I've seen that somewhere. I feel like I've heard of that somewhere. Like, where is that? And I'll say, oh, we're on 2 46 Main Street, Johnson City.
And they're like, wait a minute. I go to UHS to get treatments, or I go to this barber shop to get my hair cut. Is that near that? And I'm like, yeah, we're right there. And they're like, oh my God, I'm there every week. I didn't even know you guys were there. I'm like, well now when you get a haircut you can come see us.
Or when you go get your morning coffee, you can come see us. So people. [00:25:00] Know where our neighborhood is. They just don't realize that we're in there. So that's already like perfect. They know where to find us, now they know that we're there. And then there's another niche of people where they're still not aware of what's a sticker shop and what's illegal dispensary.
'cause we're still kind of working on that. In New York state, they're shutting down the sticker shops in the illicit markets. So people are getting safe. Legal tested cannabis. That's a big deal for us. Safety consumption. I hold very near and dear to my heart. I know so many people that have been poisoned for bad batches.
Um, so I, I don't want that to happen to anyone else. Uh, so they're, they're always like, are you guys real? Are you legal? I'm like, yes, we're real. And then I show them our license number. I show them our ribbon cutting photos and the chamber being there and they're like, oh my God. Like, I didn't know there was a safe place.
To buy weed, like I can ditch my dealer, which is ironic 'cause that's literally our tagline. Ditch your dealer shop safe legal cannabis.
Tommy Truong: I love that we're at the infancy of, of the legal [00:26:00] industry.
Christa Peay: Right
Tommy Truong: And there's just so much, there's so much to, there's so much runway to be had
Christa Peay: there is, there is. Um, in addition to Kansas, one of the things that we have been able to do for people is like, Hey, if you meet us here at this event. And you come see us in our store, we'll give you something special. We can't say what the special is, but we'll give you something special just for coming to talk to us, just for being there.
And it can be something as simple as like a t-shirt with our Greenery Spot logo on it to something that the brands might want to give away to customers. So they, they're always excited to just know, like what the surprise is when they come into the store. Sometimes it's even a gift card to one of our local shops.
That's a good partnership thing. It's like, Hey, come shop with us. Get a $10 gift card for a bit Bite. Get a $10 gift card for Soul City. Your next Coffee's on us. We did that during Christmas. Our first 150 customers got a free coffee on us. So doing things like that we're
Tommy Truong: Well, that's amazing.
Christa Peay: Love that. They're like, oh, 'cause free is free.
Even if it's not weed related. You [00:27:00] still got a free coffee. It goes
Tommy Truong: and then it, it brings somebody to your partner and they hopefully get a lifetime client.
Christa Peay: Exactly. And then in in reverse, like there are so many times our restaurants will have someone come in and be like, they're visiting from somewhere to see family, and they're like. I wish I could get a pre-roll before I go to my in-law's house, or I wish I could take a gummy so I could sleep at this hotel.
And they're like, you know, the Greenery Spots, right? It's right there. And they're like, what? So they, the excitement that people have when they find out that we exist, I'm always super happy to witness when I say it's very, very slim. That we receive the negative people. And even when we do, even when we do have someone that doesn't smoke, we're like, Hey, you may not smoke, but I'm sure you know somebody that does send him our way.
Make sure that one of your friends is getting safe stuff from us. And they're like, you know what? Yeah, because my buddy so and so has arthritis and he's really wanting try those RSO companies, I'm gonna send him to you guys. So he is not getting those painkillers like it's awesome. [00:28:00] Like even if they don't smoke, they know someone that does.
So redirecting the traffic that way. Has been beneficial.
Tommy Truong: you've alluded to this and how important it is to have knowledgeable staff, particularly in your position, people are coming to you guys as experts to truly understand the plan. How had, how did you guys tackle that? You've doubled the skews in the store?
That's a difficult task to, to have, to have knowledgeable,
Christa Peay: Greg, you learn check-ins. We, our manager, Greg, is so great. He really makes an effort of reaching out to our brands and saying, Hey, if you guys have new products coming in, come to the store. Do a vendor popup where you can showcase the product. If it's a product where you can provide a demo, like. Say the brand has a new vape pen, they, of course, we can't do the vape in store, but we could go outside and say, Hey, this is how you're gonna do this.
Click this into here, press it three times. It's, they love the hands-on experience. They love being able [00:29:00] to come in, talk to the person that's actually making the product, and they tell them firsthand how it's made, how you can use it. Best practices, like it's awesome. Like imagine if you went to Wegmans and there was just a popup.
For a new sauce that you had never tried, it would be so awesome to have that. I would buy that sauce. People will buy from who they can see and who feels like a real person. 'cause quite frankly, it's, it's really sad to even say this. There are a lot of scams. In the market, even within the cannabis industry, there are things that we have to protect ourselves against.
'cause people are like, oh, this is a new industry. They're not privy in business. They're just gonna sign this contract and we can milk all their money away. And it's like, no, no, no. So people have been, you know, a little sketchy. AI's, real scams are real. So it's nice to meet real people, not just some fake person on the internet telling you to buy their gummy.
Tommy Truong: Oh my God, for sure. I've. You know, you mentioned your story and it kind of reminded me of my journey to Stuttgart [00:30:00] before, uh, about 10 years ago, I went to Stuttgart for work and I was with a coworker, and I remember spending the entire day trying to find cannabis. It was a nightmare. And, and when we found it, it, it was hallelujah.
But I, I'm so happy now that. Places like the greenish reed spot exists and where tourists can come in and you know, find a safe space.
Christa Peay: We are here. We're open every day except for Christmas. I mean, we are literally every single holiday we are there. If you run outta stuff at the 4th of July cookout, we're there. Run outta stuff. At Thanksgiving, we're there. We are open every day. We keep our hours as wide open as possible. We're open 12 hours a day.
If for some reason we think that it would be more beneficial to extend our hours for customers, especially during the holiday season. We do. So being available is a big thing. Uh, we always say if you have a question on the website, please don't be shy. You can call us. [00:31:00] You can definitely call us. We will answer your questions down to our receptionist.
We are knowledged.
Tommy Truong: What are some, uh, collabs that you guys are cooking up, or what are some events that you guys are gonna be
Christa Peay: Ooh.
Tommy Truong: in the near future?
Christa Peay: Oh, I wonder if I have the ability to share. Okay. Let me think. Let me think. Let me think. Oh, you know what? Because it's literally coming up right now. So we mentioned that beer and cannabis are nice little cousins, and we did our partnered event for cans and Clans, where that's literally marketed for having seafood beer.
So another thing that we've been doing is doing partnerships with events that I mentioned, our Wellness Forward. So we said we wanted to do a yoga retreat. We're gonna take it even farther. We're just gonna bring it all sports arenas, and that's, as most as I can say
Tommy Truong: Oh wow,
Christa Peay: we're than yoga. We're gonna
be. More sports partnerships.
I can actually give a decent example. We have a local team here in Broome County [00:32:00] and I can't say their names 'cause I know I get in trouble. But we have a local team in Broin County where they shop with us frequently and there's a partnership Bruin there where we should be able to say a little more in the future.
But we, you should be seeing
Tommy Truong: Oh, that's amazing.
Christa Peay: More locations where sports are a thing. That's a good hint.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Christa Peay: Maybe when you set a beer down, you see something with us on it. You know what I mean? Little hint. Because I know I can't give everything away. My boss will kill me. But yeah, we, we have, something's ruined.
They're ruined. So you may be seeing us more in the sporting arenas around here.
Tommy Truong: Are there any, uh, anything happening during the summer months? Are you guys gonna, is, are there any festivals, festivals that are coming in
Christa Peay: Absolutely. So we are doing hands and clams every Friday at Airport Inn and most recently coming up we will be a part of the Broome County Bike and Car show. That is this weekend. I'm so stoked. Uh, we actually participated in it last year as well. [00:33:00] I was so excited to be invited again because our team had so much fun.
I was like, we're being paid to look at cars. This is great. I'm being paid to look at cars and talk about weed with people. What a beautiful job we have. So cool. So we, we are doing that. We will also be involved again in the Broome County Christmas parade. That was a lot of fun. Last year we got our huge truck, we had our Greenery Spot banner.
We had our, um, Santas Ls walking around in the green Santa hats and having their. There's signs that say Shop at the Greenery Spot. And we were handing out candy and luckily on the route for the parade, you pass the Greenery Spot. So as soon as we clocked around the corner, we were pointing, that's us.
We're right here. Come over. We're still open even when the parade is over. People came. We got swarmed that day,
Tommy Truong: Wow.
Christa Peay: but so much fun. We're so excited to do it again. So excited to do it again. Um. [00:34:00] Yeah, so much more to come. I'm sure we'll be doing more holiday theme things. We do have a goal of doing some sort of holiday party community event.
Um, we are, it sounds hilarious, but we are right next door to the police station, which probably sounds a little intimidating for a weed business, but we actually have a great relationship with our police department. They make sure our customers are safe. They make sure they're not being solicited by anyone on the streets.
Make sure that they're getting to their cars safely, making sure that we're safe first and foremost. Um, just because, you know, like we're cannabis, so we do carry valuable. So it's good that they're there to make sure we're safe, our customers are safe. And then we also give back to our community. Through them, we do, um, donations for Shop With A Cop every holiday.
Tommy Truong: It is such a huge I, I think it's such a huge blessing to be next to the police station. For a legal store.
Christa Peay: Super safe space needs to consume, and you're in a safe [00:35:00] environment where you're surrounded by mom and pop businesses, some businesses that people have loved that have been there forever. We have a historic landmark in B County, which is Tony's hot dogs. There is a place that people have been going forever to get breakfast sandwiches and hot dogs right at the corner of our business right at the corner.
Tommy Truong: Christa. This has been such an amazing conversation. Before I let you go, how can our listeners find you and, and Greenery Spot?
Christa Peay: So we can be found at gr www.greeneryspot.com or simple as greeneryspot.com. Our social media is going to be @greeneryspotjc 'cause we're Greenery Spot in Johnson City. And we publish blogs every week. We publish staff picks every week to keep things interesting, so lots of content to keep you guys engaged and know what's going on in our store.
We always have new things, exciting things coming up and just keeping the momentum going. We're so honored to be a part of this community and we're so honored to be a part of [00:36:00] this podcast. This is so cool. Thank you so much for including us.
It's
Tommy Truong: know, I, I actually just remembered, do you have a minute?
Christa Peay: Yeah, absolutely.
Tommy Truong: Okay, so we're gonna do rapid fire questions. This is a new segment that we have in the pod.
Christa Peay: I love this. I, okay. Okay, I can do this. I love a rocket fire. All right, let's go
Tommy Truong: Okay. First question, are you a daytime or a nighttime smoker?
Christa Peay: all day.
Tommy Truong: flower, edible or vape?
Christa Peay: Vape.
Tommy Truong: Favorite.
Christa Peay: Blue Dream.
Tommy Truong: Blue dream. Why?
Christa Peay: It's my high school sweetheart. It's, I, they, they, if they, they're gonna laugh when they see that because, or when they hear me say it, because I always say it at work. Blue Dream is my high school sweetheart, 'cause it's the first weed that got me high and she's still my favorite strain to this day. If I have anxiety, she's there.
If I need a creativity boost, she's there. Blue Dream is my high school sweetheart. Forever.
Tommy Truong: That leads me to my next question. What was your first experience with cannabis? How old were you and what did you do?
Christa Peay: [00:37:00] Oh, my parents are not gonna like this answer. So for most of us, ironically we were in high school, the first time I consumed was when I was 15 or 16, and it was because I had an injury. I was, I like, I danced professionally for 14 years. I've done ballet tap modern. Um, theater, anything where you can tap and move around a floor.
I, I've done it, that's, I've danced for 14 years and I was doing a stunt where I had to throw someone up in the air and then catch them like this. And instead of them landing on the palm of my hand, they landed on my shoulders. And I literally closed, pinned across the room, like landed on my tailbone, couldn't dance for three weeks. It was awful. And I remember just being completely depressed, thinking like, I'm not gonna be able to dance again. I'm not gonna be able to perform like at the same capacity that I used to like this. Sucks. And my friend was like, girl, stop it. Just hit this weed. And I was like, I don't smoke. That's not my thing.
And she was like, [00:38:00] you need to, she was like, you are in pain. And I was like, I know, but like I, I don't really do that. Like I don't even drink. And she was like, this isn't like drinking. You're not gonna get hung over. Like, she like, it's gonna make you feel better. I literally took a hit and literally was like, it was like something clicked.
I was like, oh, this is how I am supposed to. Feel this is awesome. Like not only did I recover faster, they said I wouldn't be able to dance for three to six weeks. I was dancing literally in two weeks.
Tommy Truong: Wow.
Christa Peay: weeks. I was like ready to dance, like week one. And they're like, no, like give it some time, please. So by the end of the second week I was like doing my physical therapy.
By third week I was like, still like kind of like a rusty wheel, but like I was still ready. I was performing. I was learning the routine. And then by the end of the third week, I was back to performing and it was because of weed. And everyone was like, oh, like, what? What made you heal so fast? Like, what did you do?
Like, was it collagen? Was it, I was like, now I, I just, I said [00:39:00] yoga, but I was like, oh, I just did yoga. It was weed. Weed.
Tommy Truong: Well, now they know.
Christa Peay: weed, literally saved me. Like it, it cured so much inflammation in my body. It cured so much anxiety in my body that I didn't even know it. Existed and the rest was history.
I've been in love with wheat ever since. No one can ever tell me it's a bad plant 'cause it took me out of a bad place and kept me in a creative area that I've always liked to be in.
Tommy Truong: so with your extensive history wilkinson's, um, since high school, what is your best memory with the plant?
Christa Peay: Oh my gosh, my, so my favorite memory is actually more recent than anything. We had a Halloween party in partnership. With, um, one of our brands called Dank, and my favorite memory was my coworker bringing this joint that's literally like the thickness of this cup, just like a huge barrel of a joint and us going around.
In smoking it together at a bonfire. 'cause you had to, you had every type of person there. You had brands [00:40:00] smoking a joint together and sharing their stories. You had everyday people there that are just fans, like sharing their stories about cannabis. You had all dispensary owners from across the state sitting at a bonfire.
Everyone from, from all walks of life, from industry jeopardy, people sharing their love for cannabis. And literally it made me so emotional. I was like, oh my God. Like this is. Such a big deal, like this is so much bigger than the industry. It's the fact that this is everyone's dream come true just for cannabis to be legal in general.
So that is definitely a memory that sticks with me. A very close contender that sticks with me is we had a customer that was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. It was not working for her. She was having such a hard time getting her levels to where they needed to be, and we introduced her to RSO, which actually started as a cancer treatment for individuals and it helps with cell generation, helps with inflammation in the body.
It literally is like the holy grail for any sort of pain or inflammation you [00:41:00] can experience in life. You can use it from cancer treatments all the way down to like a migraine. It's so versatile. So we introduced that product to her and literally within a. Three month span. Her levels went from up here to down here, and her doctor was like, what are you doing?
Like, what is your diet? Is it something you're eating? She's like RSO. And when she came in and told us this, we all started crying because this is one of our regulars that we had some day one, we don't wanna see her go. We don't wanna see her go. We wanna see her be in good health. So the fact that we were able to help her just from product knowledge and a recommendation was such a.
It was a very moving experience for all of us. Truly like, and when she still shops with us to this day, that's my girly. I hope she knows I'm talking about her when I'm telling the story of this podcast. We love you girl. So happy that you shop with us. But yeah, we, we love hearing the. The stories of how whatever we recommended helped somebody like you guys recommended this C-B-G-T-H-C gummy for me, and now I don't have to take my Adderall anymore [00:42:00] and I have way more focus.
I don't feel bogged down or you guys recommended this CBN gummy for me. Now I'm getting the best sleep of my life. Instead of taking melatonin and feeling groggy the next day, now I actually have energy to keep up with my kids. Like we hear all these stories and the stories are like the highlight for me.
See what I did there? Little. Little cannabis pun, but yes, the stories, the success cus the success stories of our customers are always the highlight for me. I love hearing that whatever we gave them worked, that makes my day completely. We just wanna help. That's what we're here to do. We're here to help people.
We're not here to sell drugs. We're here to help people. We're community people.
Tommy Truong: That's amazing. Thank you. Christa, thank you so much for joining the pod. You shared so many, so many good tips that I think our audience can learn from.
Christa Peay: Oh, I love it.
Tommy Truong: Thanks for, thanks for coming on.
Christa Peay: Oh my gosh, thank you. I, I am so again, so flattered, honored to be included. This is something that's been on our marketing vision board since day [00:43:00] one, so this is cool. I should have mentioned that earlier. Podcast is also on our, on our list, so thank you for making that happen.
This is a major goal for
Tommy Truong: Well, I'm sure with a background like that, you're gonna start your own one day and let us know and we can
Christa Peay: It has been. It's been something people have asked like, when do we get a Greenery Spot pod? I'm like, give us some time. Maybe that'll be year three. Maybe that'll be the big goal. No, but this is amazing.
This is definitely the entry point for that. Thank you so much, Tommy. This is amazing. I could do this all day.
Tommy Truong: well, we have to have you back and, um, you know, gu Find Greenery Spot online. They're in Johnson City. Find them if you're there. And, uh. Thanks Christa. Talk soon.
Christa Peay: Talk to you soon. Thanks Tommy.
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