Diana Krach, the queen of the Your Highness podcast, joins Susan Burns on BWIC to share her journey in the cannabis industry.
We're featuring a special episode of Bodacious Women In Cannabis:
Diana Krach, the queen of the Your Highness podcast joins Susan Burns to share her journey in the cannabis industry, which started when she began using cannabis at 12 or 13. She started her podcast to give a platform to women in the cannabis industry and to discuss the medical benefits of cannabis. The podcast is geared towards women and is meant to be a safe space for them to discuss their experiences.
aSpeaker 1 0:00
Hello, this is your host, Diane, I crash. And we're doing something a little different this week, you'll be listening to an episode of bodacious women in cannabis, which is hosted by Susan burns. She recently asked me to be a guest on her show. And I thought what better way for my listeners to get to know me than to put this in the feed. So we will be returning to regularly programmed content very soon, and there will be a lot of it. So thank you for being patient. And I hope that you enjoy this episode of bodacious women in cannabis.
Speaker 2 0:59
Welcome to the bodacious women in cannabis podcast, the show where the bold and brilliant women cannabis business leaders share their journey and their expertise. Here's your host, Susan burns.
Speaker 3 1:14
All right. This is your podcast host Susan burns. I'm also a lawyer in the cannabis industry and nothing delights me more than showcasing bodacious women in cannabis. Today, we're talking with Diana Krach. And she is among many, many, many other things. The queen of Your Royal Highness podcast. So hang on to your hats. You're gonna love this conversation. Welcome, Diana.
Speaker 1 1:39
Hi, thanks for having me. It's actually your highness podcast. Sorry. It's not your royal highness. It was your royal highness back in when we first heard it.
Speaker 3 1:48
Your Highness podcast? It is your highness. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1 1:55
People say? I mean, it makes sense that it would be but I don't know why we made the decision. We just took it out. And like, in the beginning, we said no. Let's just keep it Your Highness that though it was the original logo actually says Your Royal Highness that we almost use. So
Speaker 3 2:15
it seems it seems fitting. Somehow I've just I've only listened to a couple of your episodes which are, which are awesome. Thank you for doing that. So you would do so many things, Diana, but let's talk about how you started in your podcast or anywhere you want to in your journey in the cannabis industry. How you got there, what intrigues you? What keeps you mean, this really is a conversation about bodacious women in the industry. Typically someone who was on like, the regular supposed to path. And it's not fitting for one reason or the other and they they decide to venture out on their own. So that's exciting things that I like to bring to our listeners. What's your journey?
Speaker 1 3:03
Okay. Well, I've always been a candidate, I say always been a cannabis user because I have been worth having been in my life now. I started very young, about 1213. But it took me a really long time and you can still
Unknown Speaker 3:20
speak that's amazing.
Speaker 1 3:24
Barely. Yeah. So. So I I was a cannabis user for a long time. And then as I got into like my early adulthood, like early 20s, I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis and Crohn's disease, and I was given a lot of pharmaceuticals. So I stopped using cast pretty much because I was already getting high enough from the pharmaceuticals. That's literally what I was thinking because they put they put me on so many different things. And people think automatically, I'm talking about opioids, which I'm actually not because they put me on hormone therapies and steroids and just really scary medications that made me feel so loopy all the time. And I moved to Florida, and I found that the opioid crisis had come to South Florida way before everyone else, everyone. It was majorly at that majorly a thing but you know what I'm saying? It was it was very intensive. In South Florida. I had no idea because I was moving from Maryland where it still hadn't hit doctors were still giving out prescriptions, like they were Pez dispensers, you know, like, oh, you need this you need like, my doctor in Maryland would be like, Oh, you need a new purse. It was just not a big deal at all. She would just write one after another. And I just did her because not only was she a doctor, but she was a lawyer, so I knew she was super smart and And I was like, alright, well, if she's saying it's okay. I mean, I was really at that level, you know, and then moved to Florida and found that things were drastically different. And there were pill mills on almost every corner. I call them pill mills. They call them clinics, you know, pain management clinics. And I found that it was very difficult for me to continue my current regimen of prescriptions, because a lot of doctors were cracking down and saying, like, No, I'm not prescribing any schedule one. So I was in a desperate situation, because the doctors didn't give me anything, or any way to wean myself off of Xanax, all the opioids that I was taking. I wasn't taking a lot, but I was taking small doses That's
Speaker 3 5:46
so dangerous. Yes, exactly. And that's really dangerous to your health. It's very
Speaker 1 5:50
dangerous. I am very lucky that I threw some weird universal glitch. I don't know. I don't know if it's just not a glitch, but just the universe saying this is your answer. There was a code bar that was local to my house. It was like a very close walk down the street to my house and I was always like, kind of looking at it. Like what are they doing there? And I had heard about these fees that they made that people were just raving about what kind of bar it was called the kava bar. Aava. Oh, Kava Kava. Yeah. Okay. So the friends that I had made down there were almost all in recovery from opioid substance abuse disorders. And they were all drinking this kratom tea that they found at the kava bar. Now, I used to say kratom, so however you pronounce it, but I'm trying to say it correctly. Kratom, I went in and I got a tea. And at first I was like, in a desperate situation, like I was in a bad situation, I was taking anything I could, that I could get at Rite Aid or CVS, I wasn't getting street drugs. I knew people who had them. Horrible, you know what I'm saying? Like, I could have gotten the pill mill route. But it was so expensive. And it was so dangerous. So I was I was like, I need to find something natural. And I tried one of these teas. And it changed, changed everything because I could sleep through the night for the first time. And at this point, I had started playing the idea of getting back into cannabis, you know, like using it here. And there. I had some friends who when they had it, I was an opportunist, you know, I would smoke if they had it, but I wasn't like going out and getting it, you know, but then one of my friends, but a plug as they say I had met him through the kratom bar, you know, the kratom, kava bar, whatever situation and he started seeing me cannabis. So I was using cannabis and kratom. together to help get off of all those pharmaceuticals. And I felt so much better. And so as prime I was doing my freelance journalism, and I was also working as a content marketer working in the marketing world more so to pay the bills. I'm a writer at heart. I'm a, I'm a creative at heart, but you know, we have to pay the bills. So I was in the marketing industry. I was doing digital marketing. And I started working with the kava bar and doing digital campaigns for them and things like that. So it basically all just kind of snowballed, and I started reaching out to cannabis companies. And I reached out to the woman's cannabis Alliance. It's no longer in existence. But through that I met a fantastic mentor named Morgan. Morgan. Christine, if you hear me, thank you. She's not really in the industry anymore. But she had been in it for a long time. And this was about seven years ago. And she was looking for a way to get more visibility for the woman's cannabis clients. And it was West Coast focus. So it was a Me, me and Seattle, and Portland like those areas. So I was like, trying to work with her. How can we make the content, create, you know, how can we make this content marketing more creative, basically. And I said, Why don't we do a podcast, she really didn't have any interest in being a part of it. I had no idea how to create one I just knew because I was always looking at the most recent content trends and things like that, like that's part of my job that I knew podcasts were a an up and coming area that we needed to focus on. And also I knew that it was audio so we wouldn't have the same ID that we have through social media. So the initial idea was to start taking a I'm interviewing women who were involved in women's cannabis Alliance. But then it kind of just morphed into something else. And Morgan pulled away from it because she had other things going on, I wound up with a second co host. And we started just making it about women in cannabis, women identifying people with cannabis. And now it's something else completely different. Now, we're in our eighth season, and it's almost six years later. So
Speaker 3 10:31
yeah, so this is Your Highness podcasts? Yeah, that's how it started. Oh, my gosh, wow. That's quite the journey. Yeah. And is that is that your primary is that primarily what you do now is is record the podcast and promoted and do those kinds of things. Are you still are you still a content creator and other aspects are? Well,
Speaker 1 10:55
right now? I'm actually since you can see the people listening can't see. But I edited this issue of Canna curious magazine, I was the guest editor of the last two issues. I believe it was the last and one that's coming up in April, which is available for preorder now.
Speaker 3 11:16
You will have to get that information. So we can have it in the show notes. Yes, Camp
Speaker 1 11:20
curious is a great. It's a beautiful magazine. I mean, it's just gorgeous. And so I still do my journalism freelance, I write for certain cannabis publications. Sometimes I write for global cannabis times. I've written for sweet chain a lot in the past. I've written for high tech, I've written for a lot of the cannabis publications, not all of them. But I still do that. I don't do that as much as I used to just because the state of publishing right now is pretty abysmal. I have a second podcast that I created. What I did was I created a branded podcast, and it's called Getting Personal With plant medicine. And that one is more the umbrella of all plant medicine, not specific. And I have two other podcasts in the work. They're in production. One of those with a previous guest of yours, Maggie. Whoa, she's awesome. She bye. Yes, she is. And she's one of the first people I had on the show. And we've been at this for a while now. And we've taken this journey together. And we are creating a podcast called practically magical PR. And it has, okay, it has a mixture of PR tips. As media members and people who get pitched a lot we have a lot to say about how to pitch somebody to be on their show or on their platform. And also as people who pitch ourselves in our products and clients products and things like that. We've I've learned a lot over the years that she has a completely different take. So she's She has a younger take, I should say it's not different. I say she has more of an eye to the social media trends and things like that than I do. But also she was more of the magical aspect. Hmm. So half of the episode is actually like a taro poll. Okay, or a little bit of magical advice. Okay, so
Unknown Speaker 13:28
you are using the deck? Yes.
Speaker 1 13:31
Yes. So it's going to be like a half PR. Magic. And I feel like that's, that really hasn't been done yet. So.
Speaker 3 13:39
Oh, nice. Nice. I'll be I'll let me know when you launch. I'll be sure to listen in.
Speaker 1 13:44
Yeah, we did have a preview on Your Highness that you can check out a preview app as we go. Okay. We just haven't been able to launch it yet. We've had getting in the way. All right. It will come out.
Speaker 3 13:59
Yeah, so so that's one of the things that I would like to talk with you about is, you know, the the challenges that you've had in growing your business because you didn't just start out being a successful Wonder Woman. Most of evil are works in progress and women in cannabis, especially bodacious women have a slightly different journey. And so can you just talk to us a little bit about your challenges and, and you know, how you overcame them and what are the I always like to I always think of them as a positive like, what's a great things that come out of that those parts of your journey, the challenging moments, like times where you think I'm gonna throw in the towel or, you know, I can't believe this happened,
Speaker 1 14:48
right? I mean, it happens a lot. There's a lot of times where I'm constantly pivoting, and I don't see that as a negative I see that as a positive because I have ADHD. And I'm a Leo. So I tend to shift a lot. And some people might be confused by that. So that a little bit of a challenge for me making sure that people understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. And I've tried to work on that a bit more. And so that has actually been good, because then that takes me into like a reflective hates, you know, like, I need to be more introspective about my work and share it with the world, if that makes any sense. Because I just put the content out there and kind of expect people to figure it out. And it's not always consistent. And it's not like there's always a through line. So I feel like that is kind of like one of my bigger challenges. I people just pitch me themselves guests, and they haven't looked into who I am or what the show is about. And so I find that I'm always trying to find a way to respond to that in a kind way. Instead of just because you can cheat it after a while, you know, and or at least I do, and I get a little bit irritated. Sometimes when people send me messages like, hey, my wife like smoking weed, maybe she could be on your show. And I have to take a minute and be like, Alright, let me think about this. If I was this person approaching me, you know, just don't say you know who I am?
Unknown Speaker 16:35
Don't say no, I'm the queen.
Speaker 1 16:40
Like my therapist, my therapist used to say, like, take a beat before I respond to things that has done wonder, because one of my other good advice. Good advice. Yeah, I respond very quickly. Because I feel like some sense of urgency that's not there, you know, I feel like I have to respond right away. And what I've learned is that I don't need to think it through and come up with a better, not really a better response, but like just a thoughtful response. Right? Yeah. The other one would be sponsorship is the other biggest challenge getting people to follow these projects. And having them understand that there is a lot of possibility for brands to use podcasts as a medium that they can't use in other social media platforms. It's, it's a different way to get your brand or business out there that I think is really, I think it's really special for lack of better word, I think that there is a lot we can do with it. And trying to explain that has been a challenge, but I'm working on.
Speaker 3 18:05
Thanks. So have you how have you done that? And takes? I mean, do you have a? Have you distilled it into a few things that you think are, you know, great talking points? Or have you? Or does it do just are you? Is it continuously evolving on a case by case basis? Or how do you
Speaker 1 18:22
Well, I think it is evolving. But I think that I've gotten to a point where I can kind of explain how this can be done in a way that is a little bit more understandable. I mean, with the branded podcast, I was able to tell my sponsor, look, this is how we're doing it now because they were sponsoring Your Highness, they still are, they're still a sponsor for your highness. But I was like, Look, they're a Korean company. You can't say a lot of things about kratom. On social media, you can't even say that. It's the same thing that cannabis companies deal with. Same with cannabis. Yep. And I found though is that for some reason, people are a little bit more. They find freedom to be more controversial. But I thought, well, if we have a podcast is not specifically catered to kratom we're not talking about the science behind it. We're not talking about the dangers and the legal statuses, we're talking about it like you're talking to your friend, you know, your group of friends. Because really, what is the most important thing when you're starting out in this plant medicine journey, finding your community, if you don't have someone else to bounce an idea off of even if it's just like in a chat room or in the comments section? You know, then it can be really lonely.
Speaker 3 19:41
Yeah. And also what you what you're experiencing, right? Yeah. Do you experience that or do I need to change something or?
Speaker 1 19:48
Yes, exactly. And and so this company, they can't tell people this is how you use credit credit. They can't they can't even say use it. orally, they're not even allowed to say Really take two tablets or whatever. So they really wanted to have that kind of connection with their customer base. Not necessarily that they needed more customers, because they're a pretty popular brand. But they want to have that relationship. And this is a great way to do that. And there are other ways you can take this podcast, and create other content and connect in real life through events and things like that. So I mean, it can take on different forms, and the podcasts, just kind of like the base, you know, the way that you can start, like a place to start. And so I don't know if that really answered your question, but I, I try to find something for you know, like, what is it that you're missing your marketing plan? You know, yeah, so
Speaker 3 20:57
it provides a platform that's not available, right platform for exposure that wouldn't otherwise not be available to you? Which is a great thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 21:07
And especially if you do it in conversation, you know, while also being transparent about the fact that there are sponsors, let's put that out there. But you know, I try to make it part of the conversation, like, it's really important to, to get a COA and you know, who provides that, you know, kind of a thing, where I'm saying, well, kratom was my is my feet pot or not pot. And this is where I get, you know, trying to make it part of the show, basically, instead of not just delete it that that pre rolls in, and marshals don't have their place because they definitely do. But this is a little bit of a hybrid situation.
Speaker 3 21:48
Yeah, yeah. Understood. So I have to follow up with you separately after this because I have to learn more about that I know nothing except some personal anecdotes. And so I would like to I'd love to learn more from you about that. Or maybe I'll just listen. So I also wanted to talk to you about your, in your journey. As you started. I know you started for personal medical reasons. And I find this industry every Everybody I talked to had a personal angle, which is what started among the whole journey path myself included. So in your journey, as you set out in then you decided to create this podcast and now you're six years in and you have other podcasts that are ongoing in to in the works. Have there been any moments where you thought, I really never imagined something this magnificent would happen? When I started when I set my first foot forward?
Speaker 1 22:55
Yes, absolutely. I mean, Best Editing again, curious about you is like a dream come true. You know, be able to meet so many really cool people and learn so much. You know, and to have to think that I'm a connected person in the industry. I never ever, ever thought that would be a possibility. Absolutely. I never saw this Bing. I thought like, maybe I would write a few blogs, you know, and honestly, I don't even think I really understood what I was doing. So like after, you know, I thought I was just putting content out there. I wasn't really thinking of it. Like, this is my podcast, taking ownership of it, in itself has been a journey. But it's taught me a lot about myself. So yeah, I never thought I would get to this place where I was like, doing all the things that I couldn't even possibly dream up 10 years ago and meeting amazing people along the way. So yeah, no.
Speaker 3 24:02
That's great. That's great. And Canna curious magazine is a magazine for women. It's targeted at women, isn't it? i If I Yeah,
Speaker 1 24:11
it's it's very much targeted towards the women who are brand new to the space, but it also has a lot of really great content for people who have been in it for a long time. I feel like everyone can learn something from this. And they they always throw something in there about some of the men in the fields, you know, they don't leave out the men in every episode or not every every issue. Yeah, they, they, they try to be pretty inclusive, but the general audience that they're looking for that their targeting is mostly people who are brand new to this space or who just want to find out more. In general. That was a really wordy way of saying this But
Speaker 3 25:01
no, that's totally fine. I'm gonna get I'm gonna subscribe though. I realize we're done here. And Diana, I hope that you and I have many more conversations about many more things. I want to ask you. Before we leave, I want to ask you what, in your mind makes you bodacious? What's your unique, unique audaciousness?
Speaker 1 25:27
I think I said just a bit. My ability to break through the walls that people put up, I have a unique ability to talk to anybody and to get pretty much anyone to talk to me about things they normally wouldn't talk about.
Speaker 3 25:45
That's that's an amazing skill. Yeah, that's very bodacious. Good for you. Thanks so tell tell tell us where we can find you if we want to. We want to listen to your podcasts or if we want to get in touch with you or maybe I'm somebody that as a magazine I want you to edit or if you're writing content what tell us about all your all your various and
Speaker 1 26:09
well with my right if you Google my name Diana Ashley crashed Diana Ashley's hyphenated. You can find all of it pretty much but as far as finding me I'm on all the socials. I'm on Instagram Your Highness podcast. You can find me on Instagram at Diana Ashley crush or Your Highness podcast and I'm on tick tock under podcasts are everything. And I am on LinkedIn. It's pretty easy to find me. But you can find both of my on all of the platforms, Your Highness podcasts and Getting Personal With plant medicine. So and if you want to reach out to me, you can at Your Highness podcast@gmail.com
Speaker 3 26:59
Diana Ashley, Diana, hyphen. Ashley, thank you so much for spending time with us today and telling us a little bit about your journey. And I think there might be more opportunities for us to discuss. Maybe on another episode some other things that we didn't have the chance to fully explore today. Oh, I love that. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you have a great day. You too.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai