Growth Edibles

2024 flew by, leaving behind lessons on change and growth—the cornerstones of progress.

Reflecting on a year of big moves & intentional evolution, today’s edition breaks down some things I learned this year and tries to position them as clues for success in our ever changing world.

Join me as I unpack 5 breadcrumbs for thriving in the year ahead.

⌛️ Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 28 seconds

I’ve always loved the above quote. The notion that change is constant is quite the mind bender but truth. Often as the year end comes upon us, we look back on change and how it turned into Growth.

The cool thing about Growth is that it is a moving target. You never win Growth. You simply endure it.

if you are lucky & intentional, you achieve a version of it.

Over the past 4 months, you’ve stayed patient while I found my voice on this newsletter.

With over 650 subscribers, a 70% open rate and a 6 % click through rate, you are showing me you find this valuable, which makes me want to work harder to write something that helps you get stronger, faster, wiser, or sometimes even makes you laugh.

From the bottom, top, and middle of my soccer ball, thank you. 

Similar to you, I’m just trying to do my best to evolve with the times, feed my family, and achieve my dreams.

At the beginning of January 2024, I set 4 intentions:

1) Study my relationship with time

2) Create value in Emerging Markets

3) Work only with people & companies I was inspired by

4) Bet on myself

Here are my takeaways from a year of fractional revenue work, M&A, moving from Toronto to NY, and everything in between. I’ve identified these learnings as my breadcrumbs to Growth.

5 Breadcrumbs for the next 5 months: Key Pieces for Thriving professionally and personally as the world simultaneously burns and shines around us.

1) No One Is Coming To Save You

In the middle of May, my dad had to have partial knee replacement surgery. What was typically a routine surgery for most orthopaedic surgeons turned into a nightmare affair. 

Post surgery, it was discovered he had contracted MRSA, a deadly virus that was virtually incurable apart from a specific medicine called Vancomycin.

I remember the following 24 hours vividly.

I was actually hanging out with my dear friend Erik Fonseca attending a Sales Leadership training out on by one of the best humans out there, David Priemer, Founder of Cerebral Selling (www.cerebralselling.com).

I went home, studied MRSA on Google, then prompted Chat GPT to pretend as if it was a Stanford educated Dr and do a “mock” call with me.

The reason? Doctors will only tell you what you “need to know”. Together, with the Cannabis plant science I have come to absorb around understanding pieces like dosing, onsets, etc + my newfound knowledge via GPT, we were able to pry out critical info from the Doctor that then informed the next 6 weeks, just in time to make it to Antigua for The ICC Cricket World Cup, my pops dream.

Translation: If we hadn’t done the research, forced each other to get educated & challenged the Dr, I’m really not sure what would have transpired. In 2025, time is money and no one is coming to save you, you must be willing to save yourself.

What is one thing you need to learn in 2025 for the betterment of your family or company?

2) 1+1=10,000

When Salesforce bought Slack a few years ago, The CEO of SF, Marc Benioff, said that it was a “1 + 1 =3”. Meaning the sum of the two parts added an additional, aka it was accretive. When I was talking to my High Performance Coach, he challenged me to think of it on a grander scale... 1+1=10,000.

The acquisition, or move that you are going to make that catapults you to another stratosphere whether through knowledge, perspective, or wealth.

This year, for me, it was betting on myself and leaning into M&A firm, CannAcquire. Perhaps the most challenging of journeys, we set out to help smaller retailers who were looking to sell get acquired by larger ones.

Although I’ve done some work in capital raises & corp finance, I never knew about what it actually took to help someone sell/buy a business. The knowledge I gleaned from pieces like deal structures, data rooms, nuances of asset vs share deals, and navigating Egos is something I could have never been taught through a text book.

Moving forward, whether in cannabis or any other industry, I’ll be equipped with more tools in my belt. Something about teaching a human to fish and so they eat and feed their community forever seems fitting here.

Disney buying Pixar for 7.4 billion back in 2006 is an example of a 1+1=10,000 deal

 Translation: The next 5 months will happen rapidly.

What are the moves you need to make today, whether personally or professionally that will drive the desired 5 month plan into reality.

3) Sell While You Sleep- Perspective & Pipeline.

2024 saw me make:

• 168 Posts on Linkedin with a total of 93K impressions

• Host 18 episodes of Business of Cannabis Podcast

• Host 2 Polaris events (one in Toronto and one in NY)

• Host 5 Cannabis Collective events

• Close 4 acquisitions through CannAcquire

• 4 Cannabis Collective dinners

• Start a TikTok

• Grow my IG following

• Start a newsletter.  

It was hard as fuck. Who knew how challenging content is to continuously create, organize, distribute and analyze. Some days I just wanted to hide in my bed and be away from the world because I had such hectic imposter syndrome.

How can you Always share a perspective?!

Yet the consistency, repeatability and overall frequency I invested provided me with a ton of opportunities I could have never fathomed. We live in a place in time where people, prospects, customers, partners etc consume content whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them (i.e. 24/7). 

The more people see you, the more your customers understand your ethos, the more you provide value and a Polaris Perspective, the better chance you have to always ensure you have a very full pipeline (hint: this is the precursor for solving all problems)

Translation: Story telling via social media is the biggest marketing tool on the planet. You simply cannot win without a focused brand strategy that offer your authentic Perspective I.e Get good at telling stories fast and get good at getting them in front of eyeballs.

Sometimes your post or reel will not hit, and maybe get 5 likes and 100 impressions. But you NEVER know who sees it-

Don’t know where to get started? Let’s chat.

4) CULTURE IS NON-NEGOTIABLE

Unless you are building a 1-billion company as a solo-preneur… chances are you are working, relying, ideating, and connecting with people on a day to day basis.

Each and every single person has:

1. Daily pressures

2. Insecurities & obstacles.

Culture speaks deeply to identity and is a huge driver of performance.

There is absolutely zero substitute for a culture that values its employees, believes in their ideas, and offers them opportunity for growth. The right hire/partner/employee can move mountains if they feel believed in and valued.

Perhaps more importantly, you are a product of your environment. If you are spending time with people, you want to ensure they’re the right people and its a mutually beneficial energy & environment.

Being a fractional executive/pinch hitter this year forced me to study this at an accelerated pace and with a larger subset of data. It re-enforced how important Culture is to performance and it also re-enforced that this culture comes from the top. Culture wins Championships.

Don’t believe me? Look no further than Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester United.

Translation: As a Leader, You MUST a) seek to continuously invest in yourself as a culture driver b) Believe in people, it literally costs you nothing & c)show up with a lot of Positive Relational Energy- It’s contagious in the best way

Here is an example of how a good culture leader effected me.

5) Compounding Is Real Magic

Growth doesn’t happen over night. It’s a series of micro movements & steps strung together over a period of time, wrapped in discipline, heartache & consistency. This is called compounding-the phenomenon Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger dedicate their wealth & success to.

There were many times this year where I saw no end in sight. Often it felt like I was going backwards. Deals weren’t closing & obstacles were around every turn- I remember the distinct moment we made the decision to continue to drive the Business of Cannabis event forward even though the NY Market had come under yet another injunction. More calls. More reps. More creative ideas. More content.

It’s in those moments, you know the moments where you don’t want to go to the gym or you feel like giving up and crawling in bed? Those are the moments of Growth. The magic moments of compounding.

Without those moments, I wouldn’t be writing this newsletter or trying to be a Steward of Growth.

Translation: Your desired state, both personally and professionally in 5 months lies within your ability to consistently perform micro actions. You won’t see the 6 pack right away, but if you commit to discipline and focus, one by one, they will peer through and start to show.

My goal is to do 100 form-perfect pushups by the end of January without stopping-care to join me?

Have you enjoyed this newsletter? Is it providing value? Do you know somebody that would find it useful? Send them this newsletter and if you refer 5 people your next coffee run will be on me. (5 referrals = $30 Starbucks, 1 Referral = 4$)

As the world becomes more complex, it becomes more and more challenging to stay grounded, focused and aligned. Stay ahead by fostering unity, innovation, and trust across your teams and yourself. Don’t miss out on upcoming events and insights that will help shape your success in the months to come.

- SKV