 Welcome to Connecting Hawai'i Business on Think Tech Hawai'i. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting, and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawai'i is currently live streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com, as well as on Think Tech Hawai'i's Facebook and YouTube channel. And for viewers out there who are watching us live, you may email us questions to questions at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Today, I am excited to introduce, well actually, let's go to the show title, Introducing Chokunugs Hawai'i with CEO, Josh Naito, and COO, Leslie Naito. So Josh and Leslie, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Of course, we're staying in the boxes. Josh, let's start with you. Tell our viewers about yourself. So I have five years of marketing background, whether it was from entering Shredda High School to starting my own media and marketing service. And I met Leslie through real estate photography. And then you should go to her. And here you are now, Leslie. It's your turn. Tell our Think Tech Hawai'i viewers about yourself and your background. Okay. So I'm born and raised from Waianae, the island of O'ahu, and I was a realtor. And that's how I met Josh. Before that, I have lots of experience in the culinary industry, so that brings us full circle to what we're doing here today, which is Chokunugs Hawai'i. I stumble on that word. I don't know why. Chokunugs Hawai'i. What is Chokunugs Hawai'i? Let's pull up the first photo of that logo. So people can get an idea. And Josh, let's launch into it. What is it? Okay. So Chokunugs is Choco, as in chocolate, nugs, as in nugs of cannabis. And so it looks like this in the bottle, logo. And they actually look like this. So they're made from white chocolate, green tea, coconut granola, and almonds. And Leslie made them taste great because at the end of the day, if it was a novelty gag and it didn't taste good, then it would kind of suck. Oh, yeah. That's the product. And so for people out there, they can likely see something that looks like cannabis, but it isn't at all. Is that correct? Right. So that's part of what makes it so good. So a lot of our demographic, I thought was going to be my generation or like young guys and girls that are going to like the idea of having a fake cannabis product, right? But actually what started to happen is when we went to these farmers markets and craft fairs and whatnot, they started to attract a different crowd, which I was very surprised about. And that crowd was 55 plus Japanese older women. And for me, that was just something that I didn't really think would attract that crowd because for the most part, they're supposed to be super sweet, super not outgoing. And that's like the stigma behind that crowd. And as such, what happened was you'd hear things like, oh, I'm going to give this to my grandkids. And I was like, what in the world? Like, why would you do that at first? But then it started to become this thing where it's like, it's non-offensive. It's just chocolate. So they're totally fine with giving this to their grandkids because even though we do say you have to be 18 to purchase the products, but there is no legal right to card a person for purchasing. And the thing that people like, the first thing that they see and say is cute. No one says that about the real stuff. So that's always a fun thing. What were your folks' thoughts when you were doing your market research? Since I know when I talked to you folks previously, you did a lot. Your market research came in the form of how many craft fairs you mentioned, 38. So Leslie, let's launch into that. Like, what were your thoughts on discovering that the demographic was not what you had initially expected? I guess it gave a lot of insight. We have now we have a lot of different character profiles that we can help boost our business. So we've only been in business for four months, I'm sorry, since April. We tried to get 420, but we missed it by one day. So less than a year, we considered this whole year like market research, even though we did make a pretty good amount for a side business. It was just we found that this product is for those who want to be bad, but not be bad. So we say it's so good, but it's legal. It just feels illegal. So that was kind of the allure for all these women who probably wanted to be bad when they're younger, but they just. Now they still can be. That's that's awesome. That's actually like a fun detail. Let's pull up the rest of the photos. And while we're doing that, Josh, go into what inspired you to start this. So. OK, so Leslie and I have this group of friends that are predominantly gay. And so we started actually bringing gag gifts when we started dating to this party. And the first one was this. This is like going off into this weird topic. First one was this spicy cucumber and rice balls. And it was just looked very towards their theme of their party. And as such, after a couple of those type of gag gifts, we started to bring something I wanted to bring something that was more in my territory, which is in the cannabis department, because I'm medicinal. I've been medicinal since I'm 18. And for a cannabis user to be 18 in the state of Hawaii and act their cannabis card is very rare. And as such, there's even legalities about it where I could not buy certain things in the smoke department based on my age, even though I had the card. But what I wanted to do was to bring a food product that looked like cannabis to this party. And so Leslie, being my residential culinary expert, I asked her to make this. And at first she was like totally against it because if a little bit background into a relationship, if she had found out that I use cannabis on our first date, we would not be together first of all. And so it was something that we had to work through. And so this has been something that has been able to open up my, I guess, ability to talk about it in the professional world. And as such, it's something that I really enjoyed. And now it's like learning about the micro dosing side, because I guess I'm older than he is. But our generation was like use it and abuse it. But his generation, it's all about science and using it in very like how it's supposed to be prescribed. So now I'm all for the medicinal side of it. Yeah. So like for me, three components and cannabinoids that are very good for my was it called health is CBG, CBD and THCV. Now, none of those properties are actually properties that actually get you so quote unquote high, but they are found in products that also contain the psychoactive THC aspect of cannabis. John, go into why or how you are tying in making you know, like a replica of cannabis and chocolate and tying it in with educational aspects that you are trying to spread as far as medical cannabis goes. Right. So two of our partners are actually in the cannabis dispensary community. One is Temsuary. They're actually quote unquote a friend of Ola Green Apothecary, which is dispensary and no botanicals. So what we found when I'm talking to some of the retail and marketing people at NOAA is that their customers actually say that they will use this to start a conversation with their family, friends and people that maybe don't understand their cannabis use. So like on our label, we have a like it says, Hoji kush flower and then it has all zeros, right, along with the nutrition labels that they know it's legitimately a candy. But that part is to show, look, this is what medicinal cannabis looks like. It's not like how you get it, like a dime bag or an eighth bag or whatever is or two fingers or whatever they call it on the street in comparison to medicinal where your medicine would have everything laid out for you, where each cannabinoid and what you would need. And they even have whole charts about what cannabinoids are used for certain things such as arthritis, glaucoma or whatever the case may be. And so that is something that we want to show with this product where it's not just a candy. We put a lot of information on this label so that it is very clear that this is supposed to be modeled after a medicinal retail, I guess, experience, right? So at one point, our website said a cannabis dispensary experience in a chocolate shop. Can you tell me more about what you mentioned that there are a lot of there's a lot of information on the label? Like what what is the content on there? Just so just to give a review. So we're very clear about no TAC and no CBD. At some point, there was a little bit more of something to, I guess, guide people to more information. And now it is on the website more, it has all of that information. So we actually have a list of TED talks on our website to kind of show. So one of the videos has to do with how a parent's perspective when their kid is affected by something that can be cured with cannabis in comparison to like states like Hawaii, for example, if a kid is under 18 and let's say they have seizures, right? If the parent were to give that child THC, CPS would take that child away from the parents, even though THC would be able to cure that child of seizures. So they would have to move their whole family to a state like California or Tacoma, I mean, or Washington or Colorado, where it's recreational and the laws are more laxed for underage use when dealing with medical. OK, that's actually that's great. That's a great point. We have about a minute before we go on break. Leslie, could you go over because this this doesn't taste like weed, right? Can you go over some of the flavors that that your chocolate comes in before we go on break? OK, so basically white chocolate, matcha, green tea, coconut and granola, there are a little bit of almonds in there. It's almost vegan, but it's not so sorry. But it's taste basically like, have you ever had a matcha kit, cat? Something like that, but like a hundred times better. I love how she said that with a straight face. It's good to know. It's good to know that it does come in flavors that people are not expecting it to, you know, taste like weed when they buy because it's it's chocolate. Tell me about the two locations that you are establishing right now. Well, we started in Hawaii. That's our home. That's always going to be our home. But we also are building out a new place in Seattle. So right now we do for now we're sharing a kitchen at this place called I won't say it, but we're doing that. What else about it? We did we were planning on just taking it to to Washington. But we have to be loyal to where we came from. So we're keeping it there. So that's why I'm in Tacoma. He's in one of in Honolulu. And for us, we're trying to expand. He's trying to keep it keep it real, keep it. Josh, talk to us more about like the Honolulu location of the business. So the Honolulu location of the business will be focusing a lot on wholesale to retail. We as of right now are just continue with the one O.G. flavor and we've kind of slowed it down on the other two for the time being. And at some point, we may be back at Farms, Markets and Crafters that hasn't been decided completely yet. But definitely we're trying to expand on the retail side. That's great. And let's talk about you mentioned, Josh, that your background is in marketing. So let's pull up that video and you can talk about it. Kind of give, you know, business owners a guide as to, you know, how they can do something like this, even with like an iPhone. You mentioned, right, your process with it and the marketing that goes into that. Right. So I wanted to give myself a slight challenge because I have a lot of gear to make very professional productions if I wanted to. And so what I wanted to see was what was possible with new technologies out there, especially on our personal devices like the iPhone. And as such, I tried to do that whole thing with just my iPhone, right? I was actually going to put shot on iPhone right after that, but I didn't actually end up doing that. But basically all of the stuff that you see on our Instagram or website has been shot on iPhone. If you look at the new Valentine stuff where there's like floating flowers and stuff. And if some viewer wants to go and check that out, that's all iPhone photography. I brought up a lot of my camera gear up to Tacoma expecting to take a ton of pictures. And I actually didn't utilize it at all the whole trip. And it was like, OK, shoot, this is possible with just an iPhone. And so that video was shot basically tripod shots with the iPhone and a turntable. So all of those is just turntable masked out and a background and some nugs flying out. And that's that's it. And so all of that is possible with the right editing software. That's probably the only thing you need and lighting. But other than that, everything else was like when people make excuses that they can't make content because they don't have the gear, which I did for a long time starting a media agency. I was like, oh, I don't have the right camera. Oh, I don't have professional lighting. Oh, I don't have a gimbal. Not going to buy a gimbal. I got to buy a drone. And at one point it was just like I accumulate all of this resources and it's now possible with your phone. And it's like, why did we spend so much money on all of this? And so definitely equipment should not be an excuse. I made you just do do what you can do with what you have, because we're right and money. Exactly. Leslie is my wife. My life partner is very much she'll push me and to a point where I spend a whole lot of time on content, like overly on one post. And she is the queen of being able to put something up in 15 seconds. Like I personally, I don't know how she does it, but she's just like, boom, tick tock, bam, it's out. In comparison to me, I have to open up Adobe. I have to put in all these sound effects and make it perfect. The queen has a bite and a sting. Right. And as such, she is someone that's pushed me to, I guess, make my time more efficient and get things done with less equipment. And if that means airdrop versus plugging my SD card, having to download it and blah, blah, and take all these steps to reformat to my computer comparison to just airdrop, like the simple stuff like that, that would can save me time. For me, like, I just thought of a question. Initially, I was going to ask you about the challenges that you face launching a business, which it's a question anyway. So I would love for you to respond to that, as well as what challenges have you encountered working together, especially since you're both business and life partners? Leslie, let's start with you. We don't have time for that. But basically, it's just trying to get on the same page, same vision. Like, you know, I'm I'm very efficient. He's very, very, he wants to be perfect. And of course, he makes everything look amazing. And I'm like, we don't got time for that. But it's just coming to, I guess, compromise as every relation. Compromise. And it helps because we have the same vision. You know, so it's like, you just got to just got to pick the right one so you can it'll be a little bit easier instead of like butting heads like completely. I think that. What about you, Josh? That was a great feedback from Leslie, by the way. Right. Yeah, no, totally. I would say this, because of our age difference, I have so much to learn from her and throughout this whole relationship, I've probably grown more in this past year than I have for the rest of my life before that. And so as such, I think it's something where I, even though like I am CEO, I listen to everything she has to say because everything she has is valid in past relationships. I have always thought that certain things that have been said were not so valid. And as such, when she says something, it's like she says it in a way. And this is probably because she is also a mother. So when she talks to her son, it's like so blatantly obvious that he is wrong. She says it in some way that is just like, I don't really know. Explain this, Leslie, can you help me out here? I put it in a way that the natural consequences are simple. Like you don't have to threaten them. They just you put it in a way where it's just like you make a choice. But it's obvious that you need to make this choice. Right. It's like not being bossy, free will. It's it's not it's free will. But it's like option one and two is really horrible. Option three is the obvious right answer. And as such, you're going to choose option three. Yeah. So those are some challenges and ways that you work with each other. What about during the pandemic and as a new business? What are some challenges that you've got into? So during the pandemic, I think that because we were at outdoor craft fairs, we basically we could have done indoor craft fairs. That's definitely was a possibility. And as such, there would be less foot traffic or all these mandates. But one thing that was good was we did outdoor craft fairs, which means that we weren't as much affected by the pandemic. And plus at the time, I felt like when businesses reopened, people had like the the urge to buy something because they're all online on Amazon and that's all they could do. So it's like the shop of politics are just like, I need to put my cash down on the table and be like, buy this thing right here exchange. And that thing that was missed during the pandemic, because we couldn't go out was something that I believe is going to bring retail back because right before pandemic, I really saw like malls dying. But now that people are stuck in their house and they want to go out, right? I mean, you saw parents like complaining because their kids were on their video games all day. And now those kids at some point will be like, oh, wow, there's a world out there. And we've been stuck in home because at the end of the day, like people when they're told to do something, they want to do the exact opposite. It's just basic human nature. So now that the government has told us we can't go out, they're going to start going out and shopping and doing things. So I don't think that it's going to be a problem for much longer. And in fact, it might have revamped that urge. Yeah, we have a few minutes left. So what are some lessons that you have learned during this process of launching your business and launching it in two states that you would like to share with viewers out there? I guess now that we're expanding the thing that we really have learned is to give some other people control. You're like, we can't when you're trying to go from small business to corporation, you can't do it all yourself. So you're going to have to hire experts. You're going to have to employ other people that are going to do that. And then, you know, being a single mom and giving away a lot of control to a partner, a husband, all these other people. It's it's challenging, but it's for the best. What about you, Josh? Along the same train of thought, equity is something that you, of course, got to keep a majority of that is guaranteed. But definitely the people that we've met along this journey have been. I would say I would say this. Don't give equity away to anybody. Right. This is your businesses, your child. Leslie has said this to me and. You shouldn't give it away to just any Tom or Harry. And so. With that being said, if they have the right skill set and money, because it's not all about investment for money, right? You want to have people that you can trust on your advisory board rather than just some guy that just wasn't through 50 grand at you. It's more important to have that person that is able to coach you guys or connect you guys to the right people. And that, I believe, is much more important than any, I guess, cash equity. Great advice. Let's pull up your website and while we're doing that, how where can people find Choco Nugs Hawaii either online or in source? So Choco Nugs Hawaii, you can find it online that there you can find all three flavors at one of our retailers, whether it's No Botanicals, Homegrown Hawaii, Tentuary or Mori. You can just find the OG. Right now, we are in the midst of delivering jars out re stocking all of our retailers right now. Homegrown is definitely a place that should have it since I just dropped off yesterday. So if it's out already, then, well, I guess, good luck. We'll catch you guys next time. And any final words in our last two minutes? Leslie. Um. I don't know. I feel like Josh is a lot more since he's on the ground there. And he's actually just doing all the work right now. Josh, I would say this, um, running a business on your own. Very hard having the right person to motivate you and keep you going. That honestly means a lot. And so that's something that I know they say, don't go into business with friends, but if you have the right partner, like life partner, whatever's that, that is something to look at. Like, of course, you guys are going to fight no matter what, whether it's friends, relationships, or even a stranger, you guys are going to fight in business. That's not, that's, that's to not have that conflict is impossible. But to have the right partner that is priceless. Great advice. Thank you, Josh and Leslie, Chaka Natsua'i for joining us today. And thank you to Jay Fidel and the Staff of Ntekhoi as well for making shows like this possible. We had Haley and Max helping us out today. Until next time. Aloha.