What we talked about
Joey Brabo, co-owner, COO, and head editor of Respect My Region (RMR), joins the PreVetted Podcast to unpack how music, cannabis, and community intersect, and why thoughtful media can de-stigmatize an entire industry. Raised across Seattle, Indiana, and Texas and now based in Los Angeles, Joey traces his path from lifelong music fan to culture builder, sharing how personal health challenges, exposure to technology, and hands-on sales/marketing roles shaped his advocacy and editorial lens.
Show notes
Joey Brabo has spent 14 years building Respect My Region into a media platform that takes hip-hop, cannabis, and emerging culture seriously, refusing both the cynicism of mainstream coverage and the boosterism of pure brand work. As co-owner, COO, and head editor, he balances editorial independence with the business reality that sponsor partnerships keep the lights on. The result is a publication that treats readers as adults: one that can cover an underground artist and a regulated cannabis brand in the same week without compromising either.
What we covered
- RMR was founded in 2011 around the idea that regional hip-hop scenes deserved serious coverage, the platform has since grown into a multi-vertical operation spanning music, cannabis, and culture while keeping its independence.
- Joey’s editorial test for what gets published: does the story say something that will still matter in five years, and is the source close enough to the work that the reader learns something they could not get elsewhere.
- Cannabis coverage as normalization work, Joey argues that the most useful thing media can do for the industry is treat it like any other regulated category, with the same rigor applied to a dispensary launch as to a software company funding round.
- Building a sponsor-powered media network without becoming a content farm: the partnerships that work are the ones where the brand is comfortable with editorial being editorial, and the ones that fail are the ones where the brand wants to script the coverage.
- Personal branding on LinkedIn as a multiplier for the business: Joey treats his own profile as a way to surface what RMR cares about, not as a separate parallel project.
- Advice to young creatives: build the body of work in public, find one or two people who will tell you the truth about it, and treat consistency over years as the actual differentiator, the people who keep showing up are the ones who eventually get to choose what they work on.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:01.454) Welcome back to the PreVetted Podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Our guest today is Joey Joey Brabo, co-owner and COO and head editor at Respect My Region, a media and culture platform amplifying voices across music, cannabis and community. Since 2011, Joey has been shaping conversations about hip hop, digital media, emerging industries and
while also building meaningful partnerships with brands, artists and creators. Beyond his editorial leadership, Joey’s background spans sales, marketing and cannabis advocacy, giving him a unique vantage point on how culture, business and community connects. Joey, welcome to the show.
Joey Brabo (00:48.975) Thank you, Fredericko. Pleasure to be here with you. How we doing today?
Federico Ramallo (00:52.832) I am doing great, plus it’s a Friday so, you know, looking forward for the weekend.
Joey Brabo (00:57.517) Yes, sir. Fuego Fridays! Fuego Fridays, let’s go!
Federico Ramallo (01:02.126) So tell us a little bit about yourself. You have a lot of interesting things to talk about.
Joey Brabo (01:13.519) Yeah, man, well, I’m based in Los Angeles. I’m from Seattle. I grew up in Indiana and Texas. I was born in San Jose, California. I’ve been all over the place in terms of where I’ve lived and spent time. And I’ve always loved music. And then I got into college. And these girls that I was friends with and playing volleyball with, they actually played volleyball for the college. And then some girls that played really competitively before college, they
all of them consumed cannabis for their menstruation cycle, for their period pain, for their cramps, for their nausea. Some of my girlfriends, not like girlfriends I was dating, like just women friends, one of them even went to the hospital for the pain she was dealing with. And as I started to communicate how nauseous I was in the mornings every day for years, and once I started having kidney stone problems,
from the energy drinks I was drinking and the lack of water and the unhealthy fast food in America that you eat when you’re in your 20s and in college, all of that started killing me in the form of kidney stones. So they recommended I start smoking weed to get through the nausea. And then they said that if I smoke, I can make more conscious decisions about what I’m eating. And to this day, I live by that. And so…
Music, cannabis, a little technology in the day, a little stint with Microsoft got me interested in just apps and tech and all these cool holograms and all these cool things. so what we do at Respect My Region is very diverse and it involves a lot of content, SEO, the internet, social media, and cannabis.
Federico Ramallo (02:55.213) amazing wow
Joey Brabo (02:56.245) and cannabis. Everything we love and cannabis.
Federico Ramallo (03:03.777) Yes, I I think that there’s such a stigma about around cannabis that is, you know, not good.
Joey Brabo (03:11.031) I’m going to be the guy that talks about cannabis, Frederico, and smokes a joint. I might not go into the CNN studio or the Forbes or Buzzfeed studio. I’m going to have to do it remote because they’re not going to let me smoke in their studio. They’re going to kick me out immediately. But that’s how we’re normalizing it. Smoking is not good for everybody, Frederico, first and foremost. Smoking is not good for everybody. Weed isn’t right for everybody. But for a lot of us, it’s definitely a supplement in our life.
Federico Ramallo (03:24.524) Bye.
Joey Brabo (03:40.047) And it is an alternative, healthier addition than some of the other habit-forming things that exist and are marketed to us every single day. Energy drinks, Federico, not good for us. A lot of the food in America, not good for us. The processed food, the fast food, the things that they push us. The sugary drinks, sodas, Gatorade, all that, sugary. They really, I have a friend from Chile, Federico, he came to my work yesterday.
He’s complaining about having to get a root canal and his cavity’s fixed. He’s never had dental problems in his life. He’s been in America for two years.
Federico Ramallo (04:17.507) wow!
Joey Brabo (04:18.445) Yes, it’s incredible to think about how much our life in America is set up against us in terms of what we’re fed and drink and what they’re marketed and the pharmacy and things like that. so cannabis way healthier in a lot of ways than many of the other things that exist. And that’s why we advocate. That’s why we do music, technology, sports, content, business, inspiration. We try to just help people, you know, go down their life.
But life can be hard, Federico, so we also like to give people that knowledge about something like this. This is an emerging market, CBD, cannabis, it’s important for people to get the knowledge before they just prejudge it based on the past.
Federico Ramallo (05:00.907) Right, right. Yeah, I think that I agree with you. I I understand that there are some negative effects of sugar, alcohol, right? But cannabis is not set in that same category, right? It sets as something, you know.
Joey Brabo (05:19.053) It is still, it’s still viewed as a, I want to say a schedule, it’s still the same classification basically as like heroin in the United States. And so to certain people, if they’re old enough and they’re not in social media, you know, and they just listen to whatever news they listen to, they’re not going to get the full picture, right? They don’t have a clear understanding of it. So they might think it’s still in the past and
Federico Ramallo (05:31.532) Right.
Joey Brabo (05:47.501) people are still crazy or this or that. When in reality, the 65 to 80 year old guy is using it because he has so much chronic pain. The woman down the street is trying to get off of wine and she’s starting to drink cannabis beverages. And there are a lot of products that are very low dose, so it’s not even about getting high anymore. It’s actually about relief.
And that’s something that we like, helping people find relief through education, through music, through traveling, or through cannabis.
Federico Ramallo (06:23.202) Right. Right. Yeah, I think that’s what I talk about, the stigmatization, right? Because I don’t think it’s the same as hearing, right? I think it’s a whole different thing. The addiction part is, the mechanism is very similar to alcohol, right? There are a lot of other social components that leads to the addiction, not…
Joey Brabo (06:32.866) Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (06:52.191) Cannabis per se right
Joey Brabo (06:53.899) Yes, the studies have shown that cannabis is in fact not addictive. However, if you are smoking cannabis in a tobacco product, if this was a tobacco blunt, or if I was using some form of banana leaf, tobacco leaf, whatever it is, maybe there’s going to be something in that that’s a little bit more addictive, such as nicotine and tobacco. But in paper from France that has no dyes, no nothing in it, we’re simply getting cannabis. Now again, smoking has carcinogens.
Smoking is not healthy for us to our core. However, in terms of getting rid of nausea, pain, causing maybe like a seizure to stop, there has proof that smoking can do things the quickest sometimes. Vaping or smoking can deliver it the fastest. It’s not to say it’s the most effective, but in terms of speed, it tends to be the quickest route. And that’s where
Federico Ramallo (07:49.985) Alright.
Joey Brabo (07:52.191) If you are smoking with tobacco, then yes, you probably are addicted to a small degree because of the nicotine. But also too, we as people, we do want social energy. Even the introverts, we have to have a little bit of socializing. And with cannabis, it does create this desire to be around people or maybe…
just to do it by yourself. what, you know, some people just smoke and watch podcasts, Federico, you know, they just get high and they learn and they just learn, you know.
Federico Ramallo (08:20.59) the
Right, right, amazing, yeah. Yes, yes. Then the other component which I think you kind of mentioned it little bit is the risk associated to other components that are within the product, right? That could cause harm, right? And I think that’s a risk of…
Joey Brabo (08:26.731) Yeah, it’s very interesting these days.
Federico Ramallo (08:52.014) you know, making it illegal, right? Because then what happens is that you have, you know, I’m in Mexico and there’s actually it’s been interesting. was I’m in Mexico while I had a but I’ve traveled to the Bay Area very often. And in Mexico, nobody pushed me, you know, to nobody offered me offered me drugs, right? Because of the places I move around. But that happened in San Francisco, right?
Joey Brabo (09:21.276) yeah, yeah. You go to any, you walk around to any major city in the United States, there’s a 6, 70 % chance that you’re gonna get asked if you want drugs or there’s a 100 % chance you’re gonna walk by somebody doing drugs.
Federico Ramallo (09:22.03) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (09:32.696) Right.
Federico Ramallo (09:39.478) Right. Right.
Joey Brabo (09:40.639) Yes, especially in San Francisco.
Federico Ramallo (09:43.951) Yeah, yeah, yeah and and the thing well what I’m trying to say is that when the you cannot trust the You know where the product comes from right? If it comes through through you know and from the streets yeah, then
Joey Brabo (10:02.528) the street.
Federico Ramallo (10:06.254) you have a risk of are you taking a product with quality or are you taking a product with contaminants and those contaminants could be very dangerous
Joey Brabo (10:15.883) Absolutely. Absolutely.
Absolutely. There has been lots of proof of certain pesticides causing nerve damage, causing cancers later in life, creating different forms of chronic pains and other forms of bodily damage. A lot of it has to do with your nervous system. When you’re talking about concentrated chemicals and it going directly into your lungs or directly into your stomach if you’re eating something or drinking something, you know, it’s very important that the cannabis is grown in a way
It doesn’t have to be organic, but it’s certainly better for us as humans to be eating organic things at this point, or smoking organic things, or drinking organic things. I know that sounds funny to think about. Well, smoking organic, well yeah, the way that people grow things is incredibly important. Where it’s grown, Federico, is incredibly important. You live in Mexico. Mexico’s drug markets is historically run by cartels.
Do we think cartels are using organic cultivation methods for their weed? Probably not, right? We know this because labs are testing flour. The police and the DEA, test the product to see what’s in it. And you can identify patterns based on those tests. You can see, the cartels tend to do it like this. The Chinese tend to do it like this. The Canadians tend to do it like that.
Do you know why Federico? Because the rules and the laws are different in every country. What you can use to grow things in that city or in that region, it’s different everywhere. Every country has different rules. And what’s allowed in China is not necessarily the same in the US. Think about it like some Coca-Cola and sodas, they have this type of sugar in one place and no sugar in another.
Joey Brabo (12:10.642) Or they have to, you know, no colors and dyes, right, in some places, right? Like red 40s not allowed all over the place. the United States is old school. And obviously people that are familiar with the current political climate, to a lot of people we’re going backwards, right, in terms of the rules, the laws, the progressive things, stuff for women, stuff for diversity, whatever, right?
Federico Ramallo (12:15.779) Right.
Joey Brabo (12:37.994) These are all important things, but in a lot of ways we’re going backwards in those areas. It’s important to recognize that if we aren’t consuming healthier things, we’re clogging up the healthcare. If more people are sick, we don’t have the hospitals to take care of that. You know what I mean? If COVID ever, if all of a sudden,
Federico Ramallo (13:02.317) Right.
Joey Brabo (13:04.701) people get a ton of bad weed or eat a bunch of bad mangoes or a bunch of dirty apples or the whole meat supply, it affects our economies in a big way. It could happen for Mexico, could happen. Imagine if all of your guys’ chiles, all of the jalapenos just got sick and then also people got sick. Could you imagine that? And so we have to have strong agricultural practices.
that take care of our consumers in order for us to work hard, work longer, make businesses money, because the world is a business. Everything costs money to survive. just, every country, every road that we drive on, every product we buy, whatever it is, it all costs a lot of money now. And so we have to be able to, as humans, we have to live and be healthy to utilize these things and do it over a period of time. And so it’s important that we
you know that people are growing cannabis in safe ways that they’re buying cannabis legally. It’s more important that you go vote at this point. That’s the reality. In Mexico it’s important that people go vote for legal cannabis so people can have a safe place to go buy it, eventually have safe places to consume it. And I mean who knows what’s going to happen with cartels and narco, who knows? That’s a whole, that will exist and
but you have to build structure, you know what I mean? Costa Rica, medical, Columbia, medical, Canada, medical, Germany, medical, are a ton of states legalized, Federico, and it’s time for Mexico to step up and join in on this international opportunities.
Federico Ramallo (14:48.589) Right, right, and something similar happened with prohibition, you know, when they prohibit alcohol, then a lot of people went underground and they start selling it illegally and safe, yes.
Joey Brabo (15:00.508) Yeah, and it becomes unsafe. Things can explode. Things can explode. People can get sick. You know, it’s not just that we shouldn’t legalize everything. And it doesn’t have to be a hundred percent in anyone’s favor. But there has to be a compromise and it needs to move forward. And so I advocate for legalized cannabis so people cannot feel so sick, not be so depressed, be inspired to be creative.
Or maybe they just are good at business and this is another business for them. Who knows? Like, we could, you know, it’s just another business industry at the end of the day.
Federico Ramallo (15:33.497) Great.
Federico Ramallo (15:38.841) Yeah, I think that the legalization will make it safer for everybody, right? Because now you have people that are selling, that can be accountable for, right? And the pay taxes, yes.
Joey Brabo (15:43.058) Mm-hmm.
Joey Brabo (15:50.802) Then taxes, taxes, we can’t forget taxes, towards infrastructure, taxes towards teachers and schools. The money can be used to fix things that are dangerous in our communities. The money can be used to fix things and pay people more to spend more time with our children, to develop more programs. Soccer, football.
The Mexican teams and the Mexican leagues are better than they’ve ever been right now because of training and technology and investing and parents and teaching and time. You invest into more of that, more kids become healthy, more kids play outside, safer places, higher levels of education, eating healthier. Kids that play sports eat healthier. We want more people being healthy.
living and reaching their full potential. It’s not just cannabis, it’s being healthy across the board. We need people to go vote and be involved in their communities and be picking things that are helpful for themselves long term, right?
Federico Ramallo (17:01.389) Right, right. Yeah, I think that one of the things that I’ve seen happening is that we kind of lost this idea of hierarchies, right? So we should be able to say, this is the ideal, right? The ideal is for you to be healthy, to do sports, to have a complete family, to have a…
monogamous relationship, long term, right? That’s the ideal, right? That should be the ideal, right? And then from…
Joey Brabo (17:32.616) That’s a lot of people’s idea of perfect. But let’s also be fair, Federico, it’s okay for people to do a couple of those things and then replace those other priorities with something else, whatever it might be. If they want to be going to Burning Man and doing that, they can. If they want to travel their whole life, fine. And then there’s the double income, no kids. Have you heard of that? That’s perfectly fine, too. We have enough kids in the world.
Federico Ramallo (17:58.574) Yes!
Joey Brabo (18:02.467) Adopt a kid, don’t adopt a kid. Adopt a dog. There’s a lot of animals that need help too. You know? Like, I grew up with lot of close-minded perspectives being forced onto me. And moving to Seattle, having a lot of LGBTQ plus influence in my life as a child with a gay parent, with lots of really cool gay friends. I grew up in the 90s, man. My parent, my mom,
When we would go to the softball games, was a bunch of lesbian women playing softball with mullets in the 90s. Like, it was a classic scene, you know? And they all had young boys. They all had boys. was the funnest thing, because then you have a bunch of friends, you know, just automatically. And we all went to school together, too. So, you know, it’s like people paint these pictures and have these perspectives. my, you know.
Federico Ramallo (18:48.484) Bye.
Joey Brabo (18:57.146) You go up with a gay parent, it’s this or that. it’s like, man, you know what? We had the best birthday parties because it was a bunch of people, bunch of people drinking. And back then everybody smoked cigarettes. And so was in especially in Indiana and Texas. Like it was just always a good time, you know, and, and I take a lot of these perspectives and those experiences from my childhood and I bring them here with me and I try to make a good, a good time for the work that we do. I try to enjoy the industries we work in and
Federico Ramallo (19:02.553) Yeah
Joey Brabo (19:24.255) I try to help other people because a lot of people have helped me along the way.
Federico Ramallo (19:28.397) Right, right. Yeah, I I think that the, that, you know, when the right goes too far, right? When they try to impose this idealistic, you know, lifestyle to everybody else, right? It’s either you do that or we preach you that you shouldn’t do anything else, right?
Joey Brabo (19:50.0) But I come from Seattle so like in America the right Indiana, Texas Georgia the south You know things like that those places generally but I grew up in Seattle and that’s what I align with and I will be the first to tell you that if you don’t align with that entirely with a lot of people You are looked at like on my like just as bad as the other ones and I’ll give it I’ll give you an example You know people that I respect, you know, they they people just anybody can get online
and anybody can go out and volunteer and do stuff and make it seem like they’re doing all good, all good, all good. But you’re one person and you might be able to help 500 people a month times 12 months. That’s a lot of people. You’re helping 6,000 people. You know what I’m saying? That’s helping a lot. But guess what? When you start bringing other people down and you stop and then your true impact, you’re the problem and you’re not.
Even though you’re helping people and it could be six thousand it could be sixty thousand I could get I don’t care when you start bringing people down online and other people see it That’s where one person tells three people those three people tell ten people those ten people tell two people then it just starts becoming a sickening negativity chain you see what I’m saying and That’s where and that’s where people try to impose their their their things too much on other people
Federico Ramallo (21:04.782) Right.
Joey Brabo (21:12.153) from a political standpoint. Let other people make their mistakes and deal with the impact. Let them deal, reap what they sow. You know what I mean? Instead of us all trying to tell other people what to do, right? The media, we try to, know, we feature positivity and try to do education. We’re not playing the political game and trying to push a lot of like true messages out there like,
Federico Ramallo (21:35.182) Right.
Joey Brabo (21:39.011) this or that. We do want all prisoners, all nonviolent cannabis offenses, like the prisoners that are in jail for weed that didn’t do something violent. We do believe that they should be out. Cannabis is legal in a lot of states. If they’re in a state where they should be out, they should be out. It’s that simple to us. But it’s not that simple for a lot of things. And so we try to maintain a fair balance of pretty much just being positive on respect my region. I, as the head editor and the operations guy for our brand,
Federico Ramallo (21:56.889) Right.
Joey Brabo (22:07.82) I try to have a culture here now where we provide opportunity for students. I reach out to people in our industries and just, you know, I listen. And if there’s people that don’t have experience and want in, I try to give people their first shot. There’s a lot of people that are looking for Forbes journalists. There’s a lot of people that want the best creators. We can’t afford the best creators. don’t, know, cannabis is a hard industry. I work three jobs and one of those jobs pays for one person to help me.
I make no money on it. The cash tips I keep from that, you know what I’m saying? To be able to pay for one human for the whole month for me. And it’s a great job. I love what I do and it’s all positive. And with that help, I’m able to make quite a bit of money off of it. But it’s still the point of more. We need more help. And we’re looking for a certain kind of person. We’re trying to have a certain type of culture. I’ve made mistakes in the past. And with those things, you learn from them, you bounce back and you try to…
Federico Ramallo (22:38.607) Right.
Joey Brabo (23:04.9) not to say never say never, but we try to not do those things ever again, right?
Federico Ramallo (23:10.084) Right, right. Very interesting, So are you still doing three jobs?
Joey Brabo (23:16.097) Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a bounce. got so today we’re doing a today we’ll do all three of them. Actually, we’re podcasting with two guests after this. shout out to to the people that we’re interviewing today. We’ve got got the lounge. There’s a consumption lounge here in West LA catalyst consumption now just like a sports bar vibe. We’ve got seven or eight TVs up on the wall. You can play games and arcade and shoot baskets and
But it’s just meant for you to buy a lead to the dispensary and just come hang out there and have a safe space to legally consume. No alcohol, no tobacco, but you can eat and hang out and order food there or whatever. That’s pretty new, those kinds of things. They have been around for probably six, seven years now, but this location is new and it’s pretty cool. We’re actually interviewing some pretty large music artists there. I interviewed…
Him Marley, which is Bob Marley’s grandson there yesterday Yeah, pretty cool big shout out to him Marley for coming through man I appreciate y’all big shout out big shout out to Fredo as well. Appreciate you guys man. That was that was a blast It was a really cool time hanging out with him yesterday hearing his music and then we interviewed a con a few weeks back with his two artists that he signed to his record
Federico Ramallo (24:14.465) wow! Amazing!
Federico Ramallo (24:36.452) Right, right. Very interesting, yeah.
Joey Brabo (24:41.111) Yeah, better we go. We’re out here making moves, brother. It’s a good time, man. You’re here podcasting. I’m here podcasting, man. It’s a good time. I appreciate you guys inviting us. Big shout out to the pre vetted podcast for having me folks respect my region in the house. Let’s go.
Federico Ramallo (24:54.032) Amazing, I’ve been doing podcasting for three years now and it’s been an amazing experience.
Joey Brabo (25:00.683) Yeah. What do you do? Why do you choose to do it? Federico? What’s your goal with all this? Why are we pre vetting people and sharing these stories?
Federico Ramallo (25:10.094) So for me, podcasting is about making connections with amazing people, right? And learning from different perspectives of the world, right? And it’s a great way to connect in a much more meaningful way because I’ve been to multiple networking events and things like that where you have 40 people in a room.
and I’m an introvert by nature so you know it gets hard for me and I choose to be extroverted right but it requires an effort right so you know
Joey Brabo (25:45.473) Yeah.
Joey Brabo (25:52.609) And it’s different doing it online versus doing it at those events, right? There’s a level of pressure maybe if you don’t think you’re good at it, insecurity could be there. These are strangers, right? There’s a million things could be going through your head.
Federico Ramallo (25:57.262) Yes.
Federico Ramallo (26:08.752) Yes, yes. And the thing is, those conversations become very transactional. What do you do? What do I do? Next, next, next. And I found that after that, I get emotionally exhausted. My social energy goes down.
Joey Brabo (26:15.459) 100 %
Joey Brabo (26:28.065) Yeah, yeah.
Federico Ramallo (26:30.828) And I’m thinking, what’s the point? I felt like I wasted my time being there because I mean, sometimes I meet good people, but it doesn’t resonate with me. That’s what I’m trying to say,
Joey Brabo (26:45.3) Yeah, and it doesn’t resonate with with a lot of the other people because sometimes it’s not all the time you meet good people at sometimes so The majority it’s a low quality interaction Yeah
Federico Ramallo (26:52.741) Right.
Federico Ramallo (26:56.58) Yes, yes. So I find this to be a much relaxed environment where we can have a much more meaningful conversation, right? And even though one hour sounds a lot, but what I notice happen is that once we get into the good conversation,
I noticed that the guests don’t want to finish the conversation. So I have to keep watching the time to make sure that I finish on time because I could continue the conversation. And for me, that’s a great sign that we connected in a much more meaningful way. And they stopped being strangers to become friends. So that for me is the main thing about this.
Joey Brabo (27:28.846) yeah.
Joey Brabo (27:32.759) Mm-hmm.
Joey Brabo (27:45.024) I love it. you have a bit? Do you have a business like is this podcast marketing for your business or is this just something you like to do to network?
Federico Ramallo (27:53.243) So I’m doing mostly this for networking I call it Prevetted because I’m launching a platform, a product called Prevetted AI where we are vetting software engineers, designers, QA, different roles and we’re doing that with human process that we already have proven results so I’m working towards
Joey Brabo (28:10.306) Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (28:21.678) building an AI agent that could do the initial screening, initial interviews, right? So that’s why I call pre-evered.ai, right? So I mean that. But this could be called Federico, right? So yeah, so I have the privilege of having the time to be able to do this, right? And I love it, yeah.
Joey Brabo (28:29.621) I love it, I love it.
Joey Brabo (28:47.391) No, that’s awesome. No, that’s very cool, very cool, very cool.
Federico Ramallo (28:50.712) Yeah. What about you? What are you doing? Why have you decided to do podcasting?
Joey Brabo (28:57.185) So we launched the pod, we actually have a variety of shows, big shout out to our sponsor network and the variety of people that sponsor our different shows. So we have our website, respectmyregion.com, and we have social media profiles as well. Some of those social media profiles have 65,000 likes, 50,000 followers, maybe 5,000 followers, maybe 71,000 subscribers, for YouTube, things like that.
And so although those are good, those are good size, they’re not that big at the end of the day. And so we decided to utilize all of them together to create a network of shows. And so we do in-person podcasts, we do streaming, and then we also do something like this where we record it and then post it later. We do those three different, we do three different formats. just, we just fluctuate and flex between whatever needs to be done. Yesterday was
you know, a podcast format interview with him, Marley, at the Catalyst Hall Throne Dispensary and Consumption Lounge. And then today here we are doing, you know, a pre-recorded podcast for posting later. And then after this, you know, today I’ll do two streaming podcasts live, right? And so we choose to do that because people watch live, people will watch it later, consume something like this pre-recorded. And then you have
Federico Ramallo (30:10.587) Wow.
Joey Brabo (30:18.785) We also want to make sure that the short form clips get on all the social media channels. So we like live, it’s faster that way, it’s in the moment now, it doesn’t take post editing. I can do things in one takes with our guests. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of episodes at this point, probably four to 500. My business partners probably over 150 are approaching that. And so we made sure to really do as many different cannabis companies as we could to build brand thought positioning.
We wanted to align with the biggest companies and the experts across the United States and Canada. And we have done that. And now we are viewed how we are, we have positioned ourselves roughly how we want to with all those people. And then now, you know, we offer lead generation with our podcasts. So if you are a sponsor and you’re an accounting company or a lawyer,
or a flavor house, like a turpene company, someone that makes aromas or fragrances or flavors for vapes or flavors for gummies or flavors for beverages, we bring brands onto our show and you pay for us to do the content, we bring the brand on and we require them to be introduced to our sponsor. And that model has proven to be very beneficial at the $500 a month, $500 per episode price.
It’s great when we have it when it’s great when we have a sponsor that does two three four episodes because then I can do You know in a month I could do you know if I get four episodes paid for I’m able to do one a week or two a week About you know dispensaries or a brand or I could bring on so you know three companies and do a panel They these companies just ultimately the ROI is the business in the introduction, right?
And so we’ve pivoted to that instead of like a traditional advertising model. They definitely get advertising and that’s part of the bundle deal they get in addition to the introduction. I want it to look official, right? We want cool logos and cool brands and I want to shout out the weed and show love to the people that support. That’s how you build it and touch more people in a positive way. And so it’s cool that we’re able to do that.
Federico Ramallo (32:23.867) Right.
Joey Brabo (32:35.091) Big shout out to our sponsors that have been with us, you know, the last six to eight months, 10 months, you know, groups like Trees.io, a point of sale company, groups like Blackleaf.io, a text messaging company, GrowWise CPAs who recently signed on with us for the next three months. Big shout out to them and their accounting team. Really looking forward to rocking with them. Big shout out to one of our current clients, Hephaestus Tech. They’re a hardware manufacturer. They create machines that make pre-rolls, like joints.
Federico Ramallo (33:05.051) Right.
Joey Brabo (33:07.353) Yeah, they make a machine that grinds. If you grind up the weed and then you pour it in the machine, vibrates. I don’t know what it does exactly yet. have to watch. They’re going to show me on our episode. But most likely it’s going to vibrate or go down like a belt, like move, and then it’ll dump and then it’ll stuff or stuff them or something like that. I don’t know what it does yet. It’s going to be interesting.
Federico Ramallo (33:08.732) really? Interesting.
Federico Ramallo (33:16.079) Right.
Joey Brabo (33:35.976) There’s machines that make joints. There’s machines that make blunts. There’s machine. Yeah, it’s all machine. There’s a lot of people that do things by hand, but a lot of it’s machine made now. It’s very expensive machines too, typically. But yeah Federico, there’s a lot going on in that podcast, Ramon. So big shout out to our sponsors, King Solomon Nutrients, TACT firm, marketing agency, sparkscan.com, marketing agency.
Federico Ramallo (33:40.689) wow.
Joey Brabo (34:02.353) Infinite Cal testing lab out of Michigan and California. We’re always looking for more sponsors to generate business. It’s my goal Federico. I would love to start interviewing restaurants around the world and introduce them to technology that can help them grow their companies. I would love to be introducing people to all kinds of cool small businesses from food trucks to restaurants to bars and breweries. The stories that deserve to get told.
cost money and so we need a sponsor to pay for this content so we can market for them, advertise for them and bring them a potential client and that’s what we do every month with our sponsor notes.
Federico Ramallo (34:46.265) Right, right, amazing,
Joey Brabo (34:47.784) So that, yeah, you know, COVID hit, we launched 17 different shows. I hired influencers and other hosts. My journalist team became, started doing reviews and interviewing people across the country. And we became a full force podcast network media company. I tried to, I tried to really, you know, do as much as we could for as long as we could. And now we, now it’s me primarily doing the shows.
And we’ve got a couple of journalists on the team still. And it’s a good time. You know what mean? I love doing what we do. It’s really cool hearing everyone’s stories and getting to help their business grow.
Federico Ramallo (35:32.389) Right, right. Yeah, because you’re building a self-sustained network that once you have the revenue and you have the sponsors that get the value out of it, then it’s a self-sustaining thing and you’re helping on both sides, the demand and the offer.
Joey Brabo (35:54.717) It’s a balance Federico because when you do business content like what we’re doing, it’s like we’re a part of like, you know, look at TV, you got MSNBC, CNN, they bring businesses on, right, for little segments, right? And the local news, they bring businesses on for a local segment here and there. Well, that’s what we’re doing five, 10, 15, 20, 25 times a month. And so we’re actively booking that many guests. My goal is to do 20 days, two to four podcasts a day.
Federico Ramallo (36:06.619) Right.
Joey Brabo (36:24.441) All paid, all generating leads for people and creating an ecosystem of that for cannabis. That’s the actual pillar that I’m reaching for. And then what we’re looking for as well is to expand very soon into podcasting with more sports integrated into it. Our thoughts, our opinions, coverage consistently. Just starting to build community consistently on video, you know, in that sports realm.
in the technology realm, in the food and drink realms. know, cannabis people, music people, we do everything that everybody else does. We’re at the movies. We go out to eat. We buy cars. We buy houses. A lot of us, a lot of people that own cannabis businesses and are successful, they buy nice houses with lots of money. They buy nice cars, multiple cars, right? So it’s, you know, there’s a lot of us out and I’m not necessarily, I’m saying I’m one of those people, but there’s a lot of us in cannabis.
Federico Ramallo (37:16.688) Right.
Joey Brabo (37:24.188) that are able to be an active consumer in the economy. And so it’s important for regular businesses in the regular world, the Taco Bells, the marketing agencies that supports local companies, the barber shops out there, advertising with companies like ours and working with cannabis companies is normal now. And if it’s legal in your state, the opportunity for collaboration to make content, to share consumers, to share customers, to generate new revenue.
to get people to sign up for your loyalty programs and be engaged with your business long term. Those are all things that every dispensary is actively trying to do right now. If they’re good at all at what they do. They are trying to collaborate. They’re working with food trucks. They’re working with multiple brands. If the owner of the dispensary knows other restaurants, they’re collaborating. They’re doing events out in public. They’re looking for things to sponsor.
It’s an exciting time and I encourage anybody in the regular world, any of these people that watch your show, Federico, I would encourage you guys to collaborating from a business standpoint with your local cannabis companies and finding ways to generate revenue for yourself and for them using your network. It’s very simple. There’s networking events, there’s food events, there’s tastings, there’s wine events, there’s women-focused things. Cannabis companies are doing all of
Federico Ramallo (38:41.894) Great.
Joey Brabo (38:51.194) and they would love to have more help they would love to have somebody to have regular world companies be a part of that without having to beg you know i mean
Federico Ramallo (39:00.88) Right. Right. Yeah. I see. I see.
Joey Brabo (39:02.79) They’re tax, they’re tax, they’re businesses, you know what I mean? It’s real.
Federico Ramallo (39:08.048) Right. Right. Do you think that big brands are afraid of being associated with cannabis companies?
Joey Brabo (39:15.94) I say the majority are, but you tell me. you know, okay, so let’s just talk like, you know, what are some of the more conservative businesses or brands that exist in that consumer space? know, Target just pulled back their DEI stuff because of Trump, right? That wouldn’t say they’re conservative, but that was a clear move. There’s other groups out there, right? Now, everybody at those companies wears Nikes. They all wear Adidas.
They all wear Reebok, they all wear brands and companies that are historically pretty progressive. In terms of being progressive to cannabis specifically, know, Adidas did a Super Bowl ad a couple years ago where they literally showed a weed grow in the background. was plant, yeah. And so incredible, incredible that they can get things through like that, but a company in cannabis is not able to. You know what I mean?
Federico Ramallo (39:58.135) really?
Joey Brabo (40:10.469) There’s plenty of companies that can spend that $7 million or whatever, but they’re not getting approved. It’s an Adidas that’ll get approved or a Nike or a Doritos or whatever it is. right? So yeah, you got, know, the people that set the trend that are first, you guys are going to get the money first from the cannabis people. When regular world companies support cannabis culture, not the stoner, this, when you just participate normally, you’re a restaurant, you’re a barbershop.
Federico Ramallo (40:18.193) Right.
Joey Brabo (40:40.047) You do hair, you’re a dentist, you’re an accounting firm, you’re your local insurance company, right? You’re the local Mexican restaurant chain, whatever it is, right? The quinceañera dress company. There’s nothing weird about going and participating in the cannabis scene as yourself. You don’t have to smoke weed. You don’t have to enjoy getting high to go participate in a marketplace.
for local community and cannabis is there. You know, you don’t have to, they don’t care. People just love to see you. They’re excited to share their story with people. Yeah, they’re gonna tell you like, yeah, I use it for this or that, but that’s still up to you to decide. You know what I mean? That’s like you being upset because I use sunscreen and I’m telling you to use sunscreen because it’s good for you. Like, you can decide if you wanna use whatever you want. You know what I mean?
Federico Ramallo (41:14.021) Right.
Federico Ramallo (41:34.739) Right. Yeah, I’ve been most of my life libertarian, right? Where I, you know, what I’ve seen is, you know, when there are groups of people that push laws or regulation or whatever based on virtue, I think that’s, I reject that idea, right? I think that people should be able to
Joey Brabo (41:54.842) Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (42:03.768) freely choose whatever I want to do, And being able to do it in a safe space, right? So there shouldn’t be any shame about that, right? At least that’s my position, right?
Joey Brabo (42:18.051) I agree.
Joey Brabo (42:21.466) That doesn’t and that position doesn’t have to be for everybody guess what it’s okay to be different folks You don’t got to agree just go live your life and do your thing and be be respectful when someone crosses into your area and Then let them get out of your area, you know in and out respectfully. That’s just how is we’re humans We’re first, you know what I’m saying? You’ll have to agree with everything but you know
Federico Ramallo (42:29.041) Right.
Federico Ramallo (42:37.542) Hahaha
Joey Brabo (42:44.054) I positivity be healthy get your butt outside all the old people that live a long life You know what they say Federico they say motion is lotion, baby. That’s what they say So be huh eat good be healthy drink water and go go for a walk every day
Federico Ramallo (42:53.123) hahahaha
Federico Ramallo (42:59.002) Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I still think that as, I don’t know if it’s as libertarian, but this idea of, we should pursue an ideal and try to work towards that. I think that’s great. But it’s not about virtues, it’s value for society, value for individuals.
Joey Brabo (43:16.794) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (43:27.9) pursuing a healthier life, it’s better for everybody, right? Not only for the individual, right? Those type of things, right? I think that we should be able to say, this path is better, right? That doesn’t mean that we should shame everybody else that is not choosing that particular path, right?
Joey Brabo (43:46.67) Yes, yeah, that’s what I was saying earlier and agreeing with with you again here for sure is just you know, let other people do their thing and Unless you know unless it’s negatively affecting you And there you know, you see them out there yelling and screaming about it and it’s negatively affecting you or if it’s online You know, got to do we all got to be as patient as we can and then you got to you got to find a way to communicate about things better and that’s something that I got to do in my life personal and professional better and always work to is
Federico Ramallo (43:55.099) Right.
Joey Brabo (44:16.44) It was always being patient and figuring out a way to communicate in a way where, you know, it’s a little softer, I guess I would say.
Federico Ramallo (44:24.434) Right, right. Yeah, so, you know, I have people in my life that are pursuing, you know, different lifestyles and that’s fine, you know, they can do that and you know, and sometimes they invite me, you know, most of the time I say no, know, all the time I say no, I have my lifestyle and that’s fine, you know, but you know, they, I respect their decisions, I respect mine and
and we’re good friends, we have a great relationship. And that’s why I talk about imposing. If one group of people is imposing their point of view to another, then that becomes an issue. Well, it’s on one side of the political aisle or the other.
Joey Brabo (45:09.59) I wouldn’t say imposing that necessarily, but I’d say imposing their will, you know what I mean? There’s that, there’s that boundary, right? You can tell you, but you can mention something over and over to me because you’re trying to sell me on something. And honestly, that’s no different, but imposing your will on me is a little, that’s a step beyond, you know I mean? Like, imagine this, imagine this. Do I have a problem if you’re trying to get me to go vote for something or listen to you about something that I don’t know about or that I haven’t heard of?
Federico Ramallo (45:15.313) Bye.
Federico Ramallo (45:27.536) Right.
Joey Brabo (45:35.916) Not necessarily. You could yell at me, you could be on a mic. mean, those, you know, those, those old guys that stand in the corner with the microphone and they’re always yelling about God. I mean, that’s the perfect example. They’re not imposing their will on me, but they are yelling at everybody there in a way that is crossing everyone’s boundaries. Right. And although they’re in, although they are imposing what they’re communicating just over and over and over, and it’s annoying. And I would definitely say it’s in a negative.
Federico Ramallo (45:55.451) Right.
Joey Brabo (46:04.202) realm of communication in a lot of ways.
They’re not imposing their will on me. You know what I mean? That would be actually grabbing my arm, stopping me, and then causing me to have to do that, right? And that’s that level that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody or seen anybody in cannabis really do and get mad about. But you definitely see people do that about their politics now. Left, progressive West Coast, middle, wherever, and on the right in the United States and around the world at this point.
Federico Ramallo (46:15.847) Right.
Joey Brabo (46:38.337) It’s frustrating that people can’t be more of a humans in that realm. but it is what it is. And I guess the beauty and the curse of that is that we’re all able to be different. in America and America and a lot of other places, we’re free to be however we want to be. not, not to say people and not everywhere. People don’t have to treat you nicely. No one, no one just has to be nice to you. It’s a choice and people always is better for the world. If people are nice. Right. But
Federico Ramallo (46:55.603) Right, I am…
Joey Brabo (47:08.312) It’s not a requirement. You know what I mean?
Federico Ramallo (47:11.099) Right. Right. Yeah, I think that there are two components of the people that are on the street screaming at a microphone. One is that they’re preaching. That’s preaching for people that are outside their whatever religion it is. That generates a rejection. Who wants to be preached? Nobody.
So there’s that. And then the other component is having a microphone in the middle of the street that becomes annoying. And that’s a displeasure at least.
Joey Brabo (47:52.536) I like some performances like so in the in the realm of music Federico I like some performances that are in the street with the live background and like a headphone like I like the Venice Beach Performances or the DJ performances on the rooftop and stuff I think there’s a lot of really cool examples of creativity in that realm But yeah grabbing a mic and yelling at me about God and this and that and reciting s*** I don’t know how effective that is
Federico Ramallo (48:07.165) Bye.
Joey Brabo (48:21.139) in 2025. I’m sure it’s been happening forever since the world started. So I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon. But, you know, in cannabis, no one’s forcing anything on people. And it’s nice to, you know, be have it’s nice to be able to advocate for the cannabis industry. It’s nice to be able to advocate for music, people, small businesses, if you if you guys care as a small business about growing your business, if you care about
Federico Ramallo (48:27.751) Hahaha
Joey Brabo (48:50.418) you know, generating more customers and keeping them engaged with you. It’s really important for you guys to collaborate and be creative with other people and and ultimately consistently work to grow. And that’s what I do. That’s why I got on the show is I wanted to push that message. Support your local businesses if you’re a customer in the economy. If you’re a business, definitely consider reaching out to respect my region dot com. If you do cool stuff, sports, music, whatever.
I’m interested in hearing your story. I’m going to launch a small business kind of series outside of like all this cannabis and music stuff that we do just to be a continue to be a platform. And so I think that’s a really cool place to end that on for me.
Federico Ramallo (49:32.497) yes, yes, amazing, amazing, yeah Joey, thank you very much for joining us today it was a blast to hear what you’re doing and I’m looking forward to see where you’re going next
Joey Brabo (49:47.478) Appreciate you Federico. Thank you again for your time. Big shout out to the pre vetted podcast man. I’m Joey respect my region calm and today man We just had a great combo on the pre vetted podcast big shout out to you Federico. Thank you for the invite
Federico Ramallo (49:59.092) Thank you.