Interviews
In this fascinating episode of the Kaya Cast Podcast, we sit down with Matt Ritchey from Inner Circle for a deep dive into the concept of Masterminds within the cannabis business community. Matt helps us unravel the initial hesitation within the cannabis space and the journey toward understanding and embracing the Mastermind concept.
Matt further explains the 95% rule of challenges in business and breaks down the concept of secret sauce within an industry, asserting that what truly matters is the execution strategy. Talking about the significant mindset a leader needs to thrive in this industry, Matt emphasizes the importance of a growth and abundance mindset and creating a culture as a magnet for like-minded individuals. He gives practical advice on shifting away from a scarcity mindset, critical characteristics for identifying growth-minded individuals, and effective communication strategies within a team.
Matt ends the episode with strategic advice on how cannabis businesses can accelerate growth. He recommends surrounding yourself with skilled professionals and highlighting human capital's importance. He advises companies to be unattached and put ego aside to let the market be the driving factor. This episode is an essential guide with rich insights and actionable advice for cannabis business owners looking to scale.
Matthew Ritchey is a passionate and innovative business growth strategist with over 15 years of experience in driving impactful results for small and medium-sized businesses. As the CEO of InnerCircle, a vetted and private community for leaders and advocates in the canna and alternative plant medicine industries, Matthew empowers companies to unlock their potential and achieve long-term, sustainable success through carefully crafted growth strategies, operational improvements, and effective leadership development.
Adept at helping businesses adapt to the ever-evolving cannabis business landscape, Matthew is sought after for his unique ability to align companies with their corporate objectives, optimize their performance, and establish effective growth strategies that yield results. With a keen eye for identifying inefficiencies and an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement, he has built a solid reputation for leading businesses towards achieving their goals while fostering healthy company cultures.
Find out more about Inner Circle at:
Matt Ritchey: The key behind any industry, any product, any service is like having a community of people of raving fans that just love you, or that speak highly of you, or that want to collaborate or be a part of what you do, that is sort of the secret sauce I see for any leader is
to create the mindset, to create the culture, to create the team, to create the product and services that basically create the magnetism that really people want to be a part of.
Tom Mulhern: Welcome to the Kaya Cast podcast. I am your host, Tom Mulhern and I am so excited for this week's episode, which is my conversation with Matt Richie, who is the CEO of inner circle.
Inner Circle is a community of cannabis, business owners and leaders who are utilizing the mastermind approach philosophy mastermind groups to really help develop leaders. And we focus primarily on this type of leadership, but really you can apply this to any type of leadership development for your team, whether that's you as the business owner or, you know, your management, your bud tenders, developing a team is so important.
You don't have to use the mastermind approach that Matt shares, but having a system in place to develop your team to get your team from, you know, that scarcity mindset to a mindset of growth is so key. So I really hope you enjoy this interview with Matt Richie and the insights that he shares about leadership development.
Tom Mulhern: Matt Ritchie is a passionate and innovative business growth strategist with over 15 years of experience in driving impactful results for small and medium sized businesses. As the CEO of InnerCircle, a vetted and private community for leaders and advocates in the canna and alternative plant medicine industries, Matthew empowers companies to unlock their potential and achieve long term success.So Matt, welcome to the Kaya Cast I'm so excited to kind of jump into some of your leadership strategies and your mastermind strategies, all of that. but first tell me a bit about your background and how did you get started in cannabis?
Matt Ritchey: I had been working in the executive coaching space working with teams Facebook, Airbnb, some other fast growth startups that we were working with from 2014 through 2018.
And that type of work was something that I would had, you know, really loved doing. You know, transformation work, working with people to see the changes, to see their communication barriers drop, to see their results and their KPIs soar as far as being better communicators, being better team players, being better humans.
The vision was basically to offer up my, my skills and what I've been learning in other industries to this space, because it was in desperate need of leadership, trusted community and collaborative work efforts.
So we naturally just started to connect with people.
That's my background is really good connecting with people, hosting events, collaborative conversations, and then masterminds. If you're not familiar with the mastermind concept, something I've been participating in and hosting for over 15 years now. The mastermind concept is really just good people getting together holding space for each other.
And everyone gets what we call a hot seat, which is basically you get to get on and say, Hey, this is what I'm up to. this is what I'm needing. And this is what I'm challenged with currently. Do you have any resources or do you have any feedback on this currentchallenge that I'm experiencing?
We basically bring high level people together to ideate and mastermind on their biggest challenges.
The intention of this community is really to create leaders of high integrity so that we can steward the best of processes, the best services, the best products into the mainstream.
I want to dive a bit more into that mastermind concept.
Tom Mulhern: So how does the Mastermind concept work in the cannabis community?
Matt Ritchey: Everyone's looking for people have their back, right? We all want, want a community of people that we can trust, that we can, can lean on.
It's really just a community of people who have each other's back, who share resources, who have an abundance mindset. Like I say, it's not scarcity. It's not competitive. It's abundance and it's collaborative.
And honestly, most people just have never experienced it and just have a scarcity mindset around their ideas and their, whatever it is they're producing. And once you get around that scarcity mindset, most people are very open and actually find high value in the mastermind concept.
The only conversation I hear around leadership in this industry is how shitty it is and how they hate people that are leading certain companies and how, you know, yada yada, yada.
There's all this victim, negative, yada, whatever. And that's fine. 'cause there is a lot truth to a lot of that. We stand in places we can have impact and we don't,focus our energy on things that, that don't affect us or that we can't have impact on.
So we're here to basically be that community for these leaders, for people to grow and up level their game so that they can be the embodiment of what they want to see within the industry as opposed to just bitching about it.
Tom Mulhern: What is the most important mindset that a leader needs to have to thrive in this industry?
Matt Ritchey: I don't know that it varies industry to industry since I've worked in a few industries now. I think kind of goes back to that growth mindset, the abundance mindset, the belief and the perspective that I'm skillful, I have value that I can collaborate and connect with somebody and a one plus one equals three, right? A synergistic mindset. The scarcity mindset says, I'm going to do my own adding one plus one equals two and,build and build and build. And the growth and abundance mindset says, Hey, like who's synergistic around me, who in my peripheral, can I synergize with that can help me grow faster?
So the people I see that are most successful in any industry, but specifically even in this industry there are people who are open who are collaborative, who have that kind of growth mindset, who aren't hoarding all of their information or holding all of their, their community.
And I think that's the key behind any industry, any product, any service is like having a community of people of raving fans that just love you, or that speak highly of you, or that want to collaborate or be a part of what you do, that is sort of the secret sauce I see for any leader is
to create the mindset, to create the culture, to create the team, to create the product and services that basically create the magnetism that really people want to be a part of. And people want to be a part of something that they can feel like they can share in, right? They feel like they're a part of, that they feel like they can be, you know, engaged with.
And I think the best brands really, really build communities that really reflect that. And I think that's a top down leadership CEO or whoever's really starting that culture in the, in the company.
Tom Mulhern: So if there is this leader that has this growth mindset,what are some practical ways that these leaders can then incorporate some of these concepts
into their business to help it grow?
Matt Ritchey: If you were to instill thesynergistic mindset, collaborative mindset within that group of people that are building that business. And that can be like, say them knocking on doors to connect with other local businesses or, or, you know, connect your local groups to, to speak on stages or, you know, even invite other businesses that are ancillary to collaborate on marketing stuff like that.
So really getting into your communities. I think that's where most people will get the most traction. Of course, you can do a lot online. I'd say there's a lot more people to, to, to, you know, really dive into or to dip into that, that pool of people. But if you're able to do that, if you have a physical brick and mortar business, you almost have to do that.
As a leader, you can define who those synergistic partners are, communicate clearly with them so they can feel the win win, you know, high energy value, and then take action and say, whether that's a marketing campaign or that's an event. There's tons of different ways you can do it in a brick and mortar setting that's similar to what you can do in an e commerce setting.
And all of them are collaborative, all of them are, you know, growth and abundance mindset thinking, and it's really about connecting with the people who are similar to that. Like I say, you're going to find a lot of people who are not similar to that, who are still scarcity mindset, still, you know, in that old paradigm.
The industry is tough right now for, dispensaries, for growers, for ancillary companies, like it's so easy to fall back into that scarcity mindset.
Tom Mulhern: What are some like, maybe practical advice you can give to someone to shift out of that scarcity mindset and think forward and think, think synergistically and, and look around them and foster that growth?
Matt Ritchey: The people you surround yourself with, the five people spend the most time with is really going to identify what you think about, how you think about things and how you act upon things.
So if right now you're feeling like you're in a scarcity mindset and no one really wakes up and says, Oh, I'm in a scarcity mindset.
Because most people just don't know they're in a scarcity mindset, but if you were to identify that you are kind of cutting corners. You are not necessarily looking out for those win wins surround yourself with people who do and or are because that's the best way to learn.It's like a language, right? If you're gonna learn Spanish, travel to Mexico and get thrown in the culture for a year or a week or a month, and you'll learn Spanish a lot quicker than if you sit at home and do Rosetta Stone, right?
So find the community of people who are already doing big things or doing things that you want to be doing. That's my biggest thing, is like, whether it's a coach, whether it's a business person, whether it's anybody, like find somebody who has the results that you want and go, go find them. Or, you know, either hire them to, to work with you or, or, you know, hire them for a consulting session or take them to lunch or do whatever, find a group that they're a part of and find other connections like that.
The best way to get out of that scarcity mindset is to really surround yourself with people who lift you up. Because what I find is most people don't want to be in a scarcity mindset.
So when you're in that space, it's really challenging to make that shift. But if you're in that, that mindset of wanting to shift, really find a great group of people that can really lift you out of that and inspire you daily.
So we find we have a lot of solopreneurs of people who are, you know, they're the main person, they're doing 80 percent of the work. And they may have a team that does some marketing or they have a virtual team that does some tech work, but they're like the, you know, the ride or die only person in the company.
And when it's that, when that's the case, it's really challenging day after day, week after week, month after month to stay inspired, to stay in that, that energy. And you really need to have other people to bounce ideas off of, to, to even, like say, just to be inspired some days, sometimes I need to be inspired, right?
The five people you spend the most amount of time with is what shapes you.
Tom Mulhern: So, on a staff team, how can they identify people that would be perfect for this growth culture for this positive change that they're trying to bring to their business?
Matt Ritchey: Well, it takes practice.
You cultivate your own, right? You start your own and it always starts within. If you can't start to change other people or,ask people to do things that you're not doing like that as a leader, that just doesn't work. That's not leadership. So start within. And then when you're, if you're interviewing people or when you're talking to people, just listen, be a really good listener.
And the thing I listened for and the thing I'm trained in is language. It's like, what are they speaking? Are they speaking negatively to themselves? Are they speaking in future unrealistic terms? Are they speaking in, you know, victim negative past mentality? How are they speaking? Like what's the language they're using?
Are they saying they're trying things? Are they saying they want to do things? Or are they speaking in positive actionable language?
So when you really get that embodiment of who you want to be and the mindset you want tocultivate as a team, that's when you'll obviously start to attract them more, but then you'll be more attuned to,
Like, Oh, I can feel this person's energy as far as where they're at.
Tom Mulhern: Just one more question, what's one tip that you would have for a cannabis business to grow?
Matt Ritchey: The fastest way to grow your business is probably to surround yourself around, like say, really skilled awesome people in whatever industry you're in, and then lean on them for support.
Building that human capital team is the quickest way to really grow anything. Outside of that, if you're only yourself, you know, starting things off, find something and iterate it, just find, like say most people find something that they want to sell and they start to sell it in the way they want to sell it.
And sometimes that works. Some other people, sometimes people really love that. Other times you need to pivot or other times you need to really take that, whatever that first iteration is and build upon it and evolve it. And I think that's what a lot of people get kind of stuck on. They have a vision and they have a product they want to launch, but it's for them.
And so not always is your, your target market or your, or the customer really going to respond to whatever you want. So as you're starting to iterate, start small, like I said, get it out into the marketplace. Most people over analyze, make it want to be perfect before they launch it, and then they spend months, years, and lots of time and money to find out that it's not exactly what the market wants.
And so I just, I would say people get your product out there, get your service out there, iterate it, figure out what works best, really dial it in, really niche it into what is working. And then like say the human capital, as far as surrounding yourself around these, you know, these types of people that can really help boost your brain or boost whatever it is you're doing.
That's the goal that I see for any of these small businesses is really to have amazing humans around them with, with great skills. And then just be diligent and be unattached. I think there's a lot of ego into whatever we originally created, whether it be a service or a product.
So if you can really put your ego aside and let the iteration and let whatever's, whatever the market is telling you be a driving factor. That's going to get you there a lot quicker.
Tom Mulhern: How can people get connected to you and maybe some events that are happening this fall? Like, what are some ways that people can join the inner circle and really be boosted in their business by what you guys are doing?
Matt Ritchey: if you go to innercircle.biz, you can kind of check out what we're at. There's an apply button there. The application is super, super simple. It's a couple of questions and it basically gives you a 15 minute conversation with me.
Within 15 minutes, I can tell where you're at, what your business is, what your vision is. And if you're a good fit, if you're a good synergy for whatever our community is building here.
If you're here in Southern California, we host events pretty regularly. We might be in an event near you or in a city near you later this year and into 2024. You can check out our latest calendar latest events calendar right there.
We believe a rising tide lifts all ships, and we're really here to build the harbor for people to sail into.
Tom Mulhern: This sounds like a great community and, and this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate you sharing the concepts of Mastermind with me, and I definitely want to dig in more. I know Tony Robbins and other people are big into this, and so I'm, you've definitely lit a fire in me to find out more about this leadership style and growth style.
And yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time on the, on the podcast here.
Matt Ritchey: Yeah. I appreciate you having me, Tom.
Matt Ritchey: Well, I know that I really benefited from that conversation, especially the whole thought around finding those people that lift you up. Having those positive voices who are really going to encourage you to succeed is so key in business. Thank you so much, Matt for sharing. And if you're interested in being a part of the inner circle, make sure that you head over to their website. We've got links in the bio and sign up today. They've got a vetting process. They only let people in the community that really want to be there.
Tom Mulhern: Also want to encourage you to head over to the mgs website because Kaya Cast podcast and our company, Kaya Push have both been nominated for Emjays awards at MjBizCon and we're super, super excited and honored to be a part of this. So voting is still happening until October. 15th and you can go over and vote for us. And for your favorite cannabis business. As a way of just kind of saying thanks forwhat we've been doing here with the podcast.
Thank you so much for listening for subscribing, and we'll see you back next week with more conversations about how you as a business owner can grow, scale, and launch your cannabis business.
