Sasha Perelman, Founder & CEO, Revolver Productions
With over 17 years of global brand event curation, Sasha is not your typical CEO. As the Creative Experience Officer and founder of Revolver Productions, Sasha started her company with the intention to produce experiences with purpose. Through her work she’s raised awareness around mental wellness, female empowerment, entrepreneurship, and cannabis as a lifestyle tool.
Entrepreneurship is a journey. Starting Revolver was a risk worth taking. Sasha quit her 9-5, chased her dreams and found fulfillment in her work. Her portfolio now includes world renowned brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, 23andMe, and Lens Crafters. In 2017, Sasha’s event Immersion was featured in Rolling Stone as the “Best Pot Party in California.”
https://www.revolvereventsco.com/
https://www.crosstheintersection.com/
info@revolvereventsco.com
https://www.instagram.com/revolverproductions/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now, here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
[00:00:30] Are you a CEO looking to scale your company faster and easier. Checkout Thrive Roundtable thrive combines a moderated peer group mastermind expert one on one coaching access to proven growth tools and a 24/7 support community created by Inc. Award winning CEO and certified scaling up business coach Bruce Eckfeldt. Thrive will help you grow your business more quickly and with less drama. For details on the program visit Eckfeldt.com/thrive. That's E C K F E L D T.com/thrive.
[00:01:07] Welcome, everyone. This is Thinking Outside the Bud. I'm Bruce Eckfeldt. I'm your host. And our guest today is Sasha Perelman. She is founder and CEO of Revolver Productions, which is an event management agency. We're gonna learn more about that. She's also co-founder of The Intersection, which is interesting new initiative that she and a couple of the founders are putting together. We're going to learn more about that. Really focusing on the cannabis industry, how to build networks, how to make introductions, how to build long lasting relationships in this new busy industry of cannabis and what's going on here. Fascinating one. I think the whole community building around cannabis is really important topic. I think that it is really kind of shaping how the industry plays out. It's such a dynamic and kind of multifaceted space. I'm just fascinated with the people that are getting involved, how you build relationships, how you build networks within that, and obviously trying to bring all the different networks that are involved in cannabis together in different ways. This is kind of the fun part of that. So with that. Sasha, welcome to the program.
[00:02:06] Thanks for us to be here.
[00:02:08] So let's let's talk a little bit about your background, get a sense of professionally what you've been doing. Obviously, we were all very focusing and event management and then how you've kind of parlayed that into cannabis. Curious about how you got involved in cannabis originally. So let's start there and then we can talk a little bit about the work you're doing today.
[00:02:24] Absolutely. I started Revolver a little over four years ago in New York on a dollar and a dream.
[00:02:31] And many years of I have, um, production experience, particularly in the luxury beauty space. I have been producing all sorts of global events, probably from the age of 18 I enter into my business. Now we are a full service event and experiential agency. We produce events for a lot of CPG brands across the country with offices in New York and L.A. to date. And a little over two years ago when I came out to L.A. to open a satellite office here in hopes to expand our West Coast clientele. I stumbled on this amazing group of women called the Cannabis Feminist. Then they would host these circles where women from the industry would come together and they would share and stories of how cannabis impacts their life, how they are involved from a business perspective. And being a New Yorker coming to L.A.. I really didn't understand cannabis as an industry. For me, it was this regional thing that I engaged with from probably too young of an age.
[00:03:43] But what else is new? Exactly.
[00:03:46] Growing up in New York. You do some things. Probably. I had a schedule.
[00:03:50] However, cannabis for me has always been this incredibly creative outlet that has helped me deal with with a lot of things in terms of being creative and the work that I do, but also helping alleviate a lot of anxiety, I feel, as a result of my work. And Brianna Keilar. And so so I sat in circle with these incredible women and listened to everyone's stories and shares. And I felt something so vibrant inside of me. I just felt really excited. And I wasn't sure in that moment what I would do with the industry, but it felt like there was such a Wineman and that I would need to figure it out. And so being an event producer, I started exploring the event scene and really excited about it. How cool is it to go to a place where you can consume cannabis in a van? And you know, it's Los Angeles. Everything is outdoors and super new and vibrant. And I realized very quickly that the events that I was attending just didn't feel like a place for me. I. There was nothing really sexy about it. There was nothing super elevated. It felt like a bunch of people getting stoned and no one was interested in or building community. And that really just it didn't feel exciting. And I thought to myself, how cool would it be to create an environment for people to not just common consume, but to really learn about all of these new things that I had started learning and my journey with cannabis? Like about micro dosing, about anti-Europeans, about the healing modalities of plant medicine. And so I created my first divan in Malibu called Emersion. There's a play on the five senses, and each sense was an opportunity not only for a brand to actively fight for them, to talk about the properties of cannabis and how it shows up for us and how it can help us heal and how important intentions are. And mindfulness and all of these really, I guess, trendy buzzwords straight.
[00:05:53] But for me, it was it was really an invigorating experience to bring together my knowledge and creating experiences for people with education, because that's the thing that I think the the industry really has an opportunity to do in much more palatable way. There is a lot to know about cannabis, a lot to know about the medicinal properties that the healing properties, the you know, the recreational properties. And we're still very much as an industry uncovering it. If you're approaching someone who is a potential future consumer and you're assuming their baseline is zero, what do you want them to walk away knowing so that you can really shape the narrative that they have about cannabis and how it can be used in their lifestyle? So that's really what our events in the industry are designed to do. We take a lot of what we apply to our corporate CPG clients when we're working with beauty brands or wellness brands and really articulating who are you as a brand? What do you want people to walk away knowing about your products? Right. Because the industry is only becoming more saturated. It's a very noisy marketplace right now. There is a lot of misnomers around, you know, the different modalities of cannabis consumption, particularly, obviously in light of everything happening with the vape segment right now. And it's just the shame, because I think that we're such a we've become sort of so surface level in the information that we intake that, you know, you read a headline that the vape crisis is being caused by THC products and the mass public is, you know, that's what they're going to associate now. Cannabis. You know, I think that through our events, we really have an opportunity to capture audiences and really dictate and and set the conversation in a new light that really feels light and palatable and empowering, you know, through the events that we're producing.
[00:07:59] I'm curious because I think there's a fascinating space, because I think most people's or both. You've been kind of a cannabis user, you know, more than a couple years. You know, that the previous kind of cannabis event, experience or experience was pretty private. It was, you know, home. It was with, you know, a handful of friends. I mean, just goes of the legality. And I think kind of the social stigma or the social perception of it like you had I mean, you just did not have. I mean, other than maybe, you know, festivals and maybe some music, you know, kind of venues and events and stuff where, you know, you could have more kind of open use, open consumption on some of the stuff. And there's really no we're just starting to explore this whole space of like how do you introduce cannabis, you know, in as an event experience? What what are the things what are the things you're kind of learning or seeing as as you produce these kind of events? I mean, I guess either logistically what what is different than other types of events and, you know, kind of strategically or creatively, what do you have to do differently when you start introducing cannabis into these kind of events? What do you notice?
[00:09:02] Well, I think the biggest thing is that these spaces so new relatively compared to other industries, that being creative and thinking outside the box is something really exciting because likely no one has done it before. And as a producer, that's really inspiring. And you can really sort of set the tone for four wide events look like what is the consumer journey, what are people feeling? And during after also really setting the tone for our more strategic conversations with brands in particular, where you have conversations around our ally and you know, what are their what are their marketing objectives? How do we maximize their budgets? How do we really look at things more holistically? And I think that that's a conversation that a lot of brands are yet to be ready for. But the brands that I think are starting to take more of a corporate structure are really engaged in those types of conversations because they want their dollar to stretch. And to that point. What's really fascinating is how few companies actually have money.
[00:10:17] That's probably been our biggest challenge in finding the right brand partners, because the way that we approach clients is more from a perspective of let's build together long term.
[00:10:29] We're not. Interested in transactional relationships where it's a one and done, we really want to sit with you and look at it. What's your 20 20 marketing goals and how are we going to accomplish that with the funds that you've allocated or have you allocated anything toward a battle in the cannabis space or really special for two reasons. One, I think that they do a really amazing job of bringing together a community which is very much at the core of what we focus on.
[00:10:57] And the other part is, as you know, advertising is an evolving that brands have to jump through or over. And it makes it it makes events that much more meaningful and impactful, because that is ultimately how you can drive consumer engagement, brand awareness, really creating the recognition and customer retention in a way that you might not be able to achieve through other conventional methods, because a lot of times we're you know, cannabis brands are just not allowed to. Right.
[00:11:34] You know, it's a funny situation. And given given the restrictions on being able to advertise and, you know, either legally the legal restrictions or the practical restrictions that these a lot of the platforms are putting in place, that they're just not allowing cannabis specific advertising promotions to be used. It does it does kind of push things into these, you know, someone alternative or other strategies for for me able to get the message out there and market and build awareness. Do you see that? Just what kind of cannabis companies are looking towards these kind of experience or alive event strategies? And which ones are you feel are leveraging that or almost able to kind of use live events, you know, improved versus experience kind of things to the best advantage you see anything out of strategic alignment there in the industry?
[00:12:20] I think that as brands are starting to get more funding and grow an executive team from other industries where these conversations are more regular, you know, I think we're still quite a bit of waste from it.
[00:12:36] But it's happening. You know, we're having conversations with different brands for j.p.'s Con, for all the flowers, for a lot of these sort of mega cannabis events. And it's just really an interesting perspective because I'm Jay Beskind is a great example of how that's where every one from the industry is in Vegas for this particular show. And whereas you have over thirteen hundred exhibitors on the show floor, it's not really a place where many brands, you know, consumer brands, but they are having meetings off the floor and they're doing all the different activations.
[00:13:14] And so I don't know if it's fair to say that there's one brand or one company that's doing it exceptionally well or sort of maximizing I think everyone's really just trying to figure it out and seeing what is most impactful because it's not the same sort of experience where we produce an event for a brand and we're able to then pull metrics from dispensaries to be able to show. OK. Based on this event that we've done, we've generated X amount in sales for you, right? Like what sort of data? I'm sure if we if we did enough due diligence, we could probably garner some of that. But there's not a ton of efficacy from that from that data. How would we go about getting it? You know, there's there's also the thought of doing press events for brands where at least for if we're generating a specific amount of press on an event that we post that we can, we can pseudo loud laughs. OK, we you know, we've generated thirty thousand dollars worth of press coverage. This event cost you ten thousand dollars to produce. So you've gotten, you know, three times your your return on investment. But I think that brands are figuring it out. I think that they're trying to see how they can maximize their budgets. And it's just it's it's really it's so it's so unique because a lot of brands also if you're if you're sort of digging down deep lot of brands, the the founders, the producers of the products are leading these brands.
[00:14:45] And they may not necessarily have the business savvy or understanding of making sure tragic decisions, especially in light of all of the regulations that are insanely costly for a brand to stay alive.
[00:15:00] So there's a lot of factors. And I applaud the industry for moving in to an arena where they're starting to have these conversations. But I do think that we're we're still a bit a ways from it being more of the industry standard.
[00:15:18] And what do you do? I guess what's your general suggestion for, you know, for a cannabis brand these days? Any anything that you generally suggest they look at in terms of being able to leverage, you know, experience all of. Those programs in their overall strategies are anything that you generally see that works or general applications and things that don't work in areas that you can steer people away from what's look. Are there any best practices, I guess, or ways in which to kind of leverage that particular form of marketing or the particular experience?
[00:15:48] I think that it's really important for a brand to identify their objectives before making any decisions as far as what they're doing with their marketing budget, really understanding who is our who is our key demographic and that in some cases could be other businesses, in some cases that can be consumers. But ultimately sort of what are their what's their end game? And from understanding that we can work backwards and coming up with a strategy on how to best maximize. So I'll take there not one of our our clients, but I think that they do this exceptionally well. So brand like Bebo, which I think has become quite a popular household name amongst the cannabis industry and outside of the cannabis industry, because they've they've marketed themselves as the remains of cannabis and their branding is quite particular. But what I really admire that they've done as a brand is that you don't see them at the MJB beskind and see them at cauliflowers.
[00:16:45] But you do see them at founder made, you see them at, you know, maybe a group conference. So these these in these platforms that have taken two to a new consumer base, that is not your conventional treat show. It's not a cannabis focused event. And they're really marketing to a new audience that we've classified as kanna curious. So you see in our look, yeah, you've seen a lot of CBD presence at these beauty industry shows or wellness expos. And that's really smart because I think that when people start classifying cannabis and hemp as part of an overall wellness lifestyle, it takes the power out of it being what people constitute as a recreational drug. Right. And I think that that's really important for brands to understand. If I am continuing to show up at these cannabis centric events continuously and I'm not getting the word out of who we are as a brand to other potential consumers, what can we do differently? And that's a conversation that we really sit down and dive deep into to really help them understand that there are other ways, even if it's non consumption. I think I think consumption sort of gets in the way of brands wanting to have a presence in certain places, particularly New York. And the reality is, is that there are brands that have built brand recognition in markets that are not recreational because they've done it in a way that's really powerful marketing and brand messaging. So I think that that's something to explore and do more of, because my experience with a lot of the cannabis events is you see the same people over and over preaching to the choir. So it helps us to have experience with non cannabis clients so that we are we are staying up to date with what trends, what industry trends are happening from an events perspective that we can then make recommendations to some of our cannabis clients and thing. Have you considered this as an avenue to promote your brand and access a your audience?
[00:19:06] Yeah, no, it makes sense in terms of the audiences. I'm curious what you've kind of seen either through just being involved in the industry or the the events who've produced the clients you work with all the big up and coming segments. So. So you mentioned this kind of can a curious segment which I love. I'm going to use it. But what else what other kind of segments of the consumer base do you feel or, you know, most interesting or particularly dynamic right now?
[00:19:31] How do you kind of slice up the cannabis world?
[00:19:33] Wellness, I think, is a massive segment, particularly since the the surge of CBD and realizing all of the health benefits of CBD and integrating it in two, ideally a daily lifestyle. I think for cannabis it there are avenues where it's solely recreational or it is wellness focused or it's about pain management.
[00:19:59] I think pain management and the baby-boomer community is a huge demographic that actually is a big opportunity for four brands to really target Pop. And Barclay has done an extraordinary job at really focusing on that market through their products more securely topicals not just from a place of efficacy because they really actually work, but that being a really simple introductory to try and cannabis, whereas you have somebody again without baseline zero and they're like, I don't.
[00:20:29] Oh, I don't want to get high, and there's a lot of there's a lot of stigma and how easy is it for them to interact with a topical because they'll feel the pain relief, they won't feel the psychoactive. And it helps them because when you're in pain, you want to do whatever you can to relieve that pain. And I just think about the number of conversations that I've had with people over the age of fifty five who either suffer from terrible chronic pain, who are not sleeping, who have anxiety, who are depressed and through topicals and tinctures. I've been able to completely change their perspective on cannabis smallness and get them to try things have extraordinary results from those experiences and then want to share that with their communities. So now I have people calling me all the time asking me, what do you recommend for this?
[00:21:28] What do you recommend from that? And it puts me in this really weird position. So I'm like, I'm not a doctor at all. But, you know, it's it's really inspiring.
[00:21:37] And I think that over time, I really, you know, sort of as a as a thought leader and as someone who's super passionate about the medicinal healing properties of the plant, I really want to have this conversation with people on a bigger level, because I do believe that cannabis is is sort of a soapbox at this moment to talk about the opioid epidemic, to talk about mental wellness, to talk about conscious consumerism in a way that I don't think we've done.
[00:22:06] But it's you're sort of starting to see it happen, you know, and having much bigger conversations around the social impact of cannabis industry. So there's a lot of work for us verus.
[00:22:19] You know, it's one of the fascinating things about the market in this industry is just that the facets and the number of things that it's touching on because it is is everything from, you know, you can talk about, you know, agricultural science to social justice, to, you know, regulatory issues, to, you know, business models, you know, consumer branding.
[00:22:39] I mean, there's so many facets to this that I think, you know, make it such a dynamic and interesting industry. It makes it fun. And the people are obviously very passionate in many different ways that that makes it interesting to talk about the events that have consumption involved with them. How does it change the event? What are you generally what have you seen as being kind of effective strategies for cruising events that involved consumption? How does it end up? I. What's your strategy for for those kind of events versus non consumption events?
[00:23:10] So because consumption events have really changed in terms of licensing and there's a lot of gray area of consumption events. So EA as a company had sort of taken a step back from focusing on consumption events and really having education conversation connection them just in front of bigger events. And that's for a couple of reasons. One being we service a lot of corporate clients. We don't want to jeopardize any sort of any sort of young men that that that can make us liable. And I think that it's just a very convoluted area right now to sort of dig down. If you wanted to, you could easily have private events that were you can have consumption.
[00:23:58] It's you know, it isn't it isn't regulated. It's sort of an unknown. What I would say is for people looking to produce consumption events, just really get familiar with what the rules are, because it's it's not just on a state level. But I know cities, particularly in L.A., have their own recycling, therefore, sets of rules. It's just an area where I love consumption events. I think that they're really fun. If it wasn't so complicated, I think they would do more of them. But our focus is really more so on driving new initiatives, around conversation, around scalability, bringing together founders, giving them tools to really understand how to scale their businesses anywhere.
[00:24:45] We're really looking at this a lot more holistically than just solely consumption events. And that's for a good reason. I don't know what sort of good strategies are for for consumption events that differ from non consumption events. I do think that you can attract a different type of audience just the same way you would if you're doing, you know, consumption events with alcohol. If you're doing an October fast, you're going to be attracting a different audience than when you're doing a beverage conference where people are genuinely looking to get involved in the industry for whatever their reasons are. Neither are good or bad. It's just different.
[00:25:33] I think that when the rules get more consistent and, you know, perhaps will apply for a license and be able to start doing more of those events. But it's been truly hard to monetize those events. And I can probably speak for most of my peers across the industry who produce consumption events. It's very unlikely that brands will spend enough money for it to really become a profitable thing. So I think being able to add value back to brands through either the connections that you're facilitating or the brand visibility that you're able to create, that's when you know, we can start really quantifying the dollars that that are going into producing and that that we're getting in return for that.
[00:26:19] They do seem complex. I mean, I've heard some horror stories of everything from venues pulling out at the last minute to, you know, suppliers not showing up with with the goods, you know, actually pulling off something. But it feels like still a pretty Herculean challenge. And so I'm almost curious, people that are doing it, you know, above the board how they're actually getting it done and what kind of what kind of things you need to put in place to run it successfully. But, yeah, I think it's still a pretty big challenge. Talk to us about the intersection, about what you're doing there. Curious about, you know, learn a little bit more about what the intention was, what the initiative was and what your plans are and what you hope to achieve.
[00:26:57] Absolutely. The intersection was born. Like most other events where we we saw a need for something that didn't exist, then we created it.
[00:27:06] So we've come together with four other incredible women. So Lulu, too, hyper delicious. And she has an event series in New York called on the Revel. Kate Manson, who is the founder of Tarot CVD and has actually moved to Ohio to open a dispensary and a whole learning curve with that. She's the founder of Capsule Smasher Marcia Copilot's, who is the founder of Plastic Palm Country, which is an amazing design agency working with cannabis brands and entertainment brands.
[00:27:38] Adriana Kurtzer, who is a pseudo retired attorney. She created a rebranding pot. She was just an overall amazing human. I mean, they're all equally amazing. And we've come together to create this event series called The Intersection for a couple reasons.
[00:27:57] One is that the New York cannabis event scene from a networking perspective has been particularly challenging because you see a lot of the same faces in the room or you're in a room with 200 plus people where you really don't know how to navigate that room because there aren't many vignettes to sort of prompt you to come together with people that you're looking to meet.
[00:28:22] And personally, as an introvert, I find that incredibly challenging. Unless I shake hands with all 200 people and really get an understanding for who they are, it's really hard for me to validate those three hours of my night spend at this event when I walk away with two connections that maybe or maybe won't help in building future contacts.
[00:28:45] So we created this event to have sort of three vignettes. One is an initial mix and mingle where we will bring people together because we've profiled all of our attendees by capturing information once they register and strategically we sit down as a group and we we've that all of these attendees and based on who they are looking to connect with. We bring those people together physically in space. So kind of like matchmakers for lack of better terms.
[00:29:19] And the idea is obviously between the five of us, we have quite extensive network, so we can really leverage that within the space. Our brand partners also have the ability to invite the V.I.P.s, maybe that they normally haven't had a chance to interact with and give them this space to do so. Part two of our programming is bringing together industry experts for the one we have coming up. It's Roger Bondo, who is formerly of Baker Technologies CTO. Is really incredible. And he's been doing a lot of advisory and nonprofit work in the space as a result of leaving Baker. And then we have a lot of from Cal, who is the producer of women, and we had the Simon and Schuster publication that comes out.
[00:30:12] I believe it's either by annually or quarterly at this point, I'm not sure. And she also has a CBC marketplace called Indigo and Heinz. And then individually, we all speak to our opportunities kind of crossing over into the cannabis industry. Similar to what we've spoken about during our time together and also the challenges. You know, what does it look like for them to be faced with certain challenges and adversities that maybe they wouldn't get? And they're in their corporate life. And how are they overcoming those challenges? Because we really want to give people an opportunity to understand the industry in a much deeper level than just, oh, it's the green rush to get involved in Boston. I think that there is there is a lot of there's a lot of things that aren't always as they seem. In this in this space. And we really want to dispel that and really empower people to get curious. So the event concludes with an opportunity for people to sit at a dinner table and break bread together, continuing conversations. We've also mapped out where everyone is sitting. So it's a lot more intentional about who's across from you, who is next to you. What are some talking problems that people can engage on while they're at the dinner table so that it doesn't just feel like let's get together in a room and party and eat and drink. This is really about your network is your network. And I know that firsthand because that is how I built my company from literally reaching out to everyone I know and them being ultimately my partners and helping build this business. I believe that in this industry that is more powerful and necessary than ever before, because as it continues to grow, you know, that will become more and more challenging. So that is the intersection.
[00:32:02] We are really excited for our first event on November 21st in the heart of New York. And we plan to continue. This is a quarterly series and really builds our network or our user base and find ways to cultivate the connections even when the physical events are not happening.
[00:32:22] You know, and I applaud your work and really trying to activate this network. I think that's that's really ultimately how this industry is going to grow and then be shaped in a positive way for everyone is to bring together people that are going to share ideas, you know, come up with new initiatives and really make this thing happen.
[00:32:39] We're we're going to hit time here. Social people want to find out more about you, about revolver, about the intersection. What's the best way to get that information?
[00:32:47] Absolutely. Definitely. Check out our Web site. It's revolver events with an s o dot com.
[00:32:55] And all of our social media handles are on there, too. Our most recent work that we've been doing in and out of cannabis. So definitely feel free to reach out. You can hit us up and revolver events co dot com for any additional information. We'd be happy to share information about the intersection is available at crosstheintersection.com and cross the intersection is also our IG handle where we'll be posting photos and any information about upcoming events, speakers, community members, etc..
[00:33:27] Great. I will make sure that all of those are in the show notes so people can click through and get that information. I appreciate the time. Great conversation. I think this this whole kind of community building is a huge part of the growth of the industry. So again, applauding you for the work that you're doing. And thank you for taking some time.
[00:33:43] Thank you, Bruce. I really appreciate it and love all of the conversation. That way you able to engage them.
[00:33:50] You've been listening to Thinking Outside the Bud with Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt to find a full list of podcast episodes. Download the tools and worksheets and access other great content. Visit the Web site at thinkingoutsidethebud.com. And don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter at thinkingoutsidethebud.com/newsletter.