Podcasts about t for

EP 55 I PASSED MY EXAM NOW WHAT? Life and Health This is the second part of our series on career opportunities in the insurance industry.  The focus is on the opportunities available to you as a life and health insurance agent. If you passed your property and casualty exam, be sure to listen to episode 54 where I talk about some of your options with that license. Life and health are completely different industries inside of the insurance world and both offer several options. So many people think insurance is all about sales. While it is definitely a component of the industry, there are a lot of other areas where you can work and not do sales. T For example, there’s underwriting, accounting, claims, and I’ve heard one of the departments that makes a lot of money is the actuaries. So if you are a numbers person, it’s something to consider! LETS EXPLORE LIFE OPTIONS DIRECT - Mass Mutual, Northwestern, Prudential - I’m sure there are others but these are some of the bigger names that people recognize Northwestern has a great internship program - Sean, Bob Quinn, Josh The positions I mentioned above from being an underwriter or doing claims would also be available with these types of companies. CARRIER - Another area on the carrier side is selling products to other agents. A very good friend of mine worked for Hartford for many years. He started just out of college.  His role was to work with independent property and casualty agents and help them help their clients. Ironically, when he first started with Hartford, my dad was his first agent client. It’s how we met. He went on to be one of the national leaders with Hartford before retiring. My friend has now started his own off shore insurance company and I hope to bring him on as a guest at some point because I’m really not clear what he’s doing today, but know he’s doing well!  SIDEBAR -except it just goes to show you that the opportunities are unlimited. INDEPENDENT - like the property and casualty agent, you can also be an independent life insurance agency, where you focus on selling life insurance products or some of the other products that I’m going to discuss in a minute. As a solo, you can go to an MGA or other broker that will help you get contracts without production requirements.  Think about approaching a small P/C agency and working with them with life and health. Many P/C people run from Life/health so this could be a win win for both of you! ANCILLARY - Other products that we often think of life insurance professionals selling are term insurance, whole life, final expense. long term care, and a hybrid life/LTC. LTC isn’t really a life product, but the hybrid version today is very exciting in my opinion and worth exploring as an agent.  There’s a lot of cool things you can do with life insurance. I’ll be honest, I’ve always been a basic life insurance agent, not selling anything too sophisticated, but there is a lot that can be done in this arena.  Once I brought my friend from the Hartford on an appointment to see one of my government contractors. He was talking about some sophisticated life insurance planning techniques to help the two business owners. They were talking on the same page although I must admit, I was a little lost in the conversation. There is so much that can be done with life insurance, it’s not just a straight term or whole life sale.  The more assets someone has, the more fun putting together life insurance policies can be because there’s more to work with! WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH HEALTH INSURANCE? GROUP - independent agent, work for a company like Kaiser Generally group health is for businesses. Similar to the last podcast episode when I talked about business insurance. Obviously, if you have a group, it’s a group of employees that work for the company.  2-50 50 and above INDIVIDUAL - this can be a tricky business, but there is a career here. The ACA is different in many states and many states have plans that work around the ACA. Sadly, there is not a lot of commission with the ACA plans and there is also certification, which can scare many people away! The money for you as an agent is earned when you can cross sell products such as dental, life and cancer. During the COVID pandemic, a lot of people are losing their group health insurance, so there is a lot of demand for individual health insurance plans. While they might not be able to afford other insurance products during the pandemic, if you take good care of people, when they do get back to work, they’ll be prospects for other insurance products then! MEDICARE - this is where I am today. I must admit, I love this part of the business, but there’s a lot to it. For one thing, if you want to sell medicare advantage and prescription drug coverage plans  you have to take an annual test called AHIP and you have to re-certify with each insurance company each year to sell and get renewal commissions. With many of the tests, you only get 3 tries and you have to get a 90% or better each time. Honestly, that can be nerve wracking and stressful. And the commissions aren't huge. But there’s a demand for the products and you won’t find someone on every street corner selling medicare like you might with car or life insurance. Most seniors need some sort of dental, vision and hearing plans as well as cancer insurance. When you can sell these products, your commission increases significantly and that’s where the business can be attractive. Medicare is highly regulated with a lot of rules and regulations. For some people, that can be a deal breaker for a career. The opportunity to help people is something I really enjoy so it’s why I love the industry so much. There’s also what we call ancillary products - these would be things like cancer insurance, dental and vision and hospital indemnity policies. Depending on the state and situation, there are many options for these. You probably wouldn’t want to just sell one of them but when packaging them with a life policy or health policy, you are really helping your clients and making some money at the same time.  There are career opportunities for each of the type of products mentioned, You can find positions on both the agency and carrier side. You’ll need someone to design the products, market them whether you are marketing directly to the consumer or marketing to other agents. Underwriting Claims Customer Service Technology How do you know who to work for? Finding the right fit isn't always easy! Most organizations are ethical and work above board, but there are some bad companies out there. Some are known as multi level marketing type companies. They’ve been around awhile and I don’t think it’s a good option, but ...I”m just going to leave it there. Do your research, talk to other agents outside of the company and get their input before putting your heart and soul into them. One of the most important things you can do as an agent is to look at the financial ratings of the companies you represent or work for. If they are struggling financially, do you really want to sell their life insurance policy? What if they aren’t around in 10 years to pay claims on the people you were trying to protect. If an insurance carrier has financial difficulty and can't pay claims, the State Insurance Departments are the back up system. As an agent, it’s not something your clients should have to deal with. This is where integrity is important and you don’t sell insurance just for the commission, you sell the insurance because it is the right thing for your client. You need to understand what is covered, what isn’t covered, what the rate history has been and you should always look at the financial ratings before presenting a product to a client.  I can’t stress this piece enough. I said this for the property and casualty side, but if you try something and find you don’t like it, there are so many other options to consider in the insurance industry. Don’t give up on this career path because the first job or the first boss didn’t work out! Pick one area, learn it and learn it well. Become the expert in the area then move on to something else.  Remember, there is a lot to insurance. It’s not simple and black and white. So many people really don’t give it a chance and so many people really don’t understand what is involved.  Most people don’t choose insurance as a career, most people fall into it. I encourage you to make it a choice as a career.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. This episode of The Business of Insurance podcast is brought to you by LynnMichel Insurance. Lynn Michel is an independent insurance agency helping seniors with their medicare benefits from medicare advantage to prescription drug and medicare supplements. If you have someone that needs help and this isn’t your area, please connect with Lynn Michel Insurance. They won’t take your clients from you, their goal is to help you look good! In the US, October 15 - December 7 is annual enrollment period for those on Medicare. If you know someone that is over 65 and currently receiving Medicare benefits, this is the time for them to review their plans and see if there is a new plan that makes more sense for them. During this time, medicare recipients are bombarded by mailers and commercials, so please encourage them to talk to a professional and review their options. If the professionals at Lynn Michel can’t help them, well refer them to another professional that can! If you aren’t focused on the medicare market, let Lynn Michel Insurance be your resource. Check them out at lynnmichel.com or connect with them on social.  That wraps it up for this episode. I hope you’ve taken away a few ideas that you can implement. If you like what you’ve heard, please subscribe but more importantly, please tell a friend or a colleague about the podcast.  Until next time, keep creating opportunities. SHOW THE LOVE If you haven’t done so already, please like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts. If you are listening to this podcast online and don’t know how to listen to podcasts on your phone, reach out to our host, Debbie DeChambeau and she'll help you. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE TWITTER ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful.  She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and produces three other podcasts, Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed and Seniors We Love.     Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  

Welcome to Sesh Cast, a cannabis podcast for cannabis sessions. Today we talk with Tweedledoob! This is the first interview to air on Sesh Cast and with firsts comes some unforeseen issues. This time it's some low quality audio. Because of that, I'm putting a full transcript of the interview in the notes here! Without further ado: here's the thing!   GLDLX: Alright guys so welcome back to Sesh Cast. My name is GLDLX and today I am sitting down with someone you may just know from Instagram, you may just know from the cannabis related internet, Tweedledoob how are you? Tweedledoob: I'm awesome thanks for having me on. G: Yeah of course thanks for taking some time to sit down with me I really appreciate it! T: Yeah no problem. G: So for anyone who may not have heard of you before or may not really know who you are, can you give me a brief run down on what you're about and how you gained traction in the cannabis community? T: For sure. So mostly I do cannabis photography and social media promotion kind of stuff. I've had my Instagram going for just over three years now; I started it while I was working at a cannabis lounge during university. So in Toronto there are these amazing places you can go, you just bring your own weed, pay five bucks and just hang out basically. So I kind of like supervised stoners for like four and a half years and that kind of really got me in to the industry. [I made] a lot of connections and kind of figured out that I don't know exactly what I want to do, but the cannabis space is definitely the place for me. So it kind of gave me some direction and then my Instagram I just kind of started for fun. I never expected that it would turn in to my full time gig but yeah I mean pretty crazy. G: So you said a couple words that, I'm based out of America and I think a lot of people also based out of America  may have no earthly idea what you just said. So a cannabis lounge! That's something cool that we definitely don't have a lot of here. Can you explain a little bit more about what it was like to babysit stoners for four years? T: For sure it was amazing. It's a really fascinating place I think people have this idea of who stoners are but when you open up a space like that you see that it really, it's really hard to define. So like everyone from 18 to 80, if you don't have a place to consume cannabis at home, or people don't know that you consume cannabis or whatever the case may be, it's kind of just a safe space where you can go and use your cannabis. So in Toronto here currently its actually not fully legal or regulated but there have been lounges in the city for about 20 years now. So it's when you walk in they all kind of have their own vibe but its essentially like a cafe or a bar type of feeling, but there's no alcohol, no tobacco just cannabis. G: Man that's super cool. So how many of these would you say there are in Toronto like how popular is that? T: Right now I think there are five in the city. There have been other ones over the years that have kind of come and gone, but there's, yeah I think there's five right now. G: Cool very cool. It looks like you've got a joint rolled up. I have one too so I'm going to take a second to spark up so yeah we'll put it on pause for a second cheers! So you were smoking on something I'd never heard of, what was that? T: It's called honey rock. I've never heard of it either to be honest, this is my first puff we're just testing it out. What are you smoking? G: I have I think the very end of my gdp. I just picked up yesterday and I got gorilla glue #4 and jack herer so this is the end of my very last buy from almost a month ago when I stalked up for 420. So the other thing that you said that I think is very foreign to anybody here in America is just the use of the word university. So for anybody who doesn't know that's going to college because that's not a phrase that we use here in a America, but one thing that I think is really interesting is that in your Instagram bio you have your majors from your college experience which means it must've been somewhat important to you and is still somewhat important to you. So can you talk to me a little about that? T: For sure interesting question, so  yeah it is kind of an easy way to just tell a little bit about myself in the bio. I feel like people coming to your page don't really, we make judgments so quickly, right, on Instagram it's like you go to someone's new page five seconds later you're like 'nope not for me' right, so I thought kind of putting that in my bio kind of tells a little bit more about me than my first few pictures or whatever you might see and if people are interested in philosophy or Buddhist philosophy they might take another second to stick around. I also think it's something that's kind of different. There's really not that many people studying philosophy or Buddhist philosophy these days so yeah just a point of differentiation I guess. G: Yeah and I think philosophy is really interesting because the more that you end up as a stoner the more in to open thought and philosophizing you become. So how has your interest in philosophy and specifically Buddhist philosophy carried over into your experiences in the cannabis community or how has your cannabis experience meshed with the way you've studied or experienced philosophy or Buddhist philosophy? T: So to the first part of that question, while I was going to university I was spending a lot of time studying in vapor lounges and places where people just naturally end up having philosophical conversations. Even though they may not have the formal academic language to talk about it I think these things, people get high and think about big ideas very often so I think just spending time in those places around people who are open to having interesting conversations or talking about things they don't understand really helped me develop my thought process and the ability to take an academic idea and be able to talk about it with people who don't have that same kind of formal education. Not to say that they don't have valid opinions or ideas it's just, yeah, philosophy and Buddhist philosophy, these ideas aren't things that we really talk about all the time in our daily lives but I think some people are quite interested in it so it's an interesting cross over  I think. G: Yeah did you ever meet anybody in a lounge that really hit you in a way that you'd never thought about something or sort of turned something around on you that made you think you were possibly sitting down with another modern day stoned philosopher ? T: You know the first thing that came to mind, the first person that popped in to my head, I had a few people come in when I was working at the lounge who had been having conversations, philosophical type conversations with friends and were kind of at a lost point and didn't know like you can really think yourself in to a corner sometimes in philosophy which is why I think people tend to avoid it or avoid big ideas that they don't understand. If there's no clear answer sometimes its better just not to think about it right? So I've gotten in to some very interesting discussions where people are coming at from a very personal way and are just trying to work through like [other] concepts and its definitely changed my perspective on some things where you can have kind of what, you know, what you read in a book, but when somebody challenges you with their own ideas you have to really be able to like work through a concept and not just go by what the book says. I don't know if that makes sense. G: Yeah that makes total sense T: Personal philosophical conversations with people at lounges, which I think is like one of my favorite things. G: That's awesome. Is that something that still happens now even though you don't work at a lounge? T: Maybe not so much, but I get some interesting dms I'll tell you. G: Really? T: I mean of all sorts. Not to many philosophical conversations, not regularly, but people definitely, I don't know what it is but people message me about their personal problems or their big questions they have in their lives that they're feeling lost or whatever. I don't know what it is, but I guess people feel like they can relate to me or that I may have some kind of, some kind of perspective on whatever issue they're having. So I do get in to intense conversations with strangers in my dms now. G: Interesting that's super cool and I think that that kind of bleeds back into the way you have become a cannabis influencer on Instagram. Actually I was reading your blog a little bit earlier, if anyone is interested in following up a little bit more with Tweedledoob you can find a lot more stuff at Tweedledoob.com off Instagram, and I was reading your blog a little bit earlier and one of the things I saw that you talked about was going from just being in the cannabis space and being a cannabis photographer, to actually starting your Instagram to actually putting yourself on your Instagram as a person as opposed to just your photography and your content from the cannabis space. So how has the transition been, for anyone who is listening who is interested in being a digital influencer of some sort or wants to know a little bit more about what it's like to be a digital influencer or a digital content creator. How have you sort of swung your life and what sort of changes have you come in to and experiences have you come into by becoming a digital influencer with a face and a persona online as opposed to just a handle and some photos? T: Yeah great question. It's been about two years since I started putting more of myself online and it was a big deal kind of for me. For the first year I had Instagram I felt super weird about it. I felt like I'm not Tweedledoob, like Tweedledoob is like my Instagram account and just my photos and I was really hesitant to put more of myself out there for a variety of reasons. And really the content creation and like influencer thing didn't really come until I was starting to put myself out there more and I think part of the reason why is because like even just kind of straight up looking as peoples accounts as accounts you don't think of them as real people a lot of the time. If you don't know what [someone looks like]you have a certain appreciation for it but you think of it like an account right? But that's like somebody that just like wakes up and eats and sleeps and does [everyday] things right? So I think my kind of traction started to come when I started to put my, let my life on there. And so part of that was because I was working at the lounge at the time so I had an [interesting new] day to day experience even though it was my kind of like 9-5. I was just like going to work and smoking weed and I think that kind of fascinated a certain group of people, but I think what the main thing that's kind of given me the most amount of traction and it came from putting more of myself out there is the connections with other people other people in the cannabis space other photographers you know you can learn more skills you can really connect with people human to human when you're actually putting yourself in the line, putting more of your personality. And I think a huge part of that was video as well. Videos I think really changed the way you can interact with other people online yeah I don't know let me think about that. G: Yeah I think that's really interesting. You become in such an interesting situation when you start to put yourself on line as opposed to just your content to a point where you become your own content and I think that once you hit that point of becoming your own content it's a really interesting ship to navigate, or excuse me a really interesting sea to navigate. Of how much of myself do I put online, what sort of online persona do I have, who have I become to people that they want me to keep up with? T: That part I'm not so in to. That for me, the stuff that I put out I have to feel totally comfortable putting video out or putting content out that I know this wide variety of people will see like all of my family and my boyfriend's family will see it including like grandparents right all the way down to like friends and strangers and like fifty percent of my audience is outside of north America like people that don't even speak the same language as me. So I think if I tried to cater [to] these certain groups I think it would get really confusing and overwhelming and so I have to just like be myself enough and feel comfortable and confident to just like a hundred percent be me to all these groups of  people. I'm ok with them seeing it because it's me it's not like I'm trying to be this one thing for somebody or trying to like get likes from this one certain group. I just kind of have to be me and that's the only way I can be comfortable doing videos or putting myself out there. G: And that's such a cool way to look at things and I think almost an old school way of being a content creator. I know that were of the age where the birth of YouTube is something I remember very well I don't know how interested in YouTube or anything you are. But I remember when YouTube went from just a place that there were videos on the internet to something you could make as a career T: Totally G: and back at the very beginning it seemed like people were just putting things out that they wanted to put out. And today it seems so analytically based and so fit in to the algorithm and that's true with Instagram as well. Like how can I do everything I can to make sure the most people see what I want [them to] see and it almost warps your content in to something you don't really want to create. So I think it's really interesting and super commendable to hear someone say 'I want to put out stuff that I'm super comfortable with and something that isn't catered to get clicks from a certain group of people' so that's really cool and I really appreciate  that! T: Thanks man yeah same. Great question too it really got me thinking too. It's taken a lot to come to that really, like I wouldn't have been able to give you that answer a year ago. Or it's, this whole thing is just so quickly evolving. Even just Instagram, like the algorithm change earlier this year has totally changed the way that I'm using Instagram and the features and how I'm using them it's just this constantly evolving thing. So yeah it kind of makes it interesting or sort of challenging to navigate but yeah that said I think in one way I almost have to go back on something I said, I was thinking while you were talking, I can't say that I a hundred percent don't think of what people want to see or don't think of. I do have this like, there's kind of a separation between the things that I post about my life and about myself and like I am still creating content for myself and for other people and in creating content it like, you're right, do you know Gary Vee? G: The name is very familiar, but could you tell me who it is? T: Yeah he's kind of hard to describe. He's like a business mogul. Like he's kind of like really gotten popular in the last three years through his social media stuff and he's really, he gives a lot of business advice. He's kind of like motivational speakerish, he's got a podcast, he's kind of everywhere right now. But one of the things he was talking about over the last year kind of social media wise is the difference between creating and documenting. So a lot of people are like just on the content creation side of things and it's like you can have a very curated account and its very like almost clinical like for a business or whatever. Like you see some people like that too where they only have like super ultra posed photos of themselves and you don't really know who that person is ya know? It's just this image they've kind of created of themselves and the other side of that what Gary Vee has talked a lot about and sort of the upside of doing this is just straight documenting. Like people do want to see kind of behind the scenes and get to know who you really are I don't know why really but humans, we're so fascinated with each other and other peoples stories and that's almost the easier content to create, just like documenting your life. But like I'm trying to kind of have a balance between the two. I don't want to exclusively do one or the other so in content creation I kind of do, this is why I started talking about this, I kind of do try to cater to like what the stoners like or like what's the popular thing and what's the aesthetic that might get more traction. So in that kind of sense I am, like I do think more about that. But then on the documenting side I try to be like as authentic as possible and not really thinking about what people want to see if that makes sense? G: Yeah absolutely and that's again really interesting I think because it's almost the difference between putting out super curated, curated might be the wrong word, but super targeted and insincere content, versus putting out quality, yes this is targeted to what will perform well but I'm not putting it out there because it is what will perform well, I'm putting it out because it's the best performing version of what I want to post if I'm understanding you correctly. T: Yes that's exactly it G: So how much, I guess for people who aren't familiar with you and your career and your photography, how much of your full time career or part time career exists on Instagram and digitally? T: A very large part of it and increasingly so. I stopped working at vape on the lake last July, at the vapor lounge, the cannabis lounge. So it's been almost a year since I've been doing full time free lance. At the beginning of that it was, I was doing a lot more photography than the social media stuff. So I do photography for some of the local cannabis brands, so I do product photography and also event photography, and over the last year I've really kind of shifted towards documenting and doing more Instagram and I started my website and my retail stuff. I [have] kind of been focusing on building out a brand and not just being focused on being photographer. It's an important skill and it's a part of what I do and I think it always will be, but like I kind of realized there's like more, I think there's more of an opportunity for me to do more than market myself as just a photographer. But it's my full time it's my life. G: Yeah absolutely. Let's talk then a little bit about the photography side. Because I see cannabis photography on the internet and that's about the extent that I know of it is like 'wow that's weed and that weed looks super pretty.' So tell me a little bit about what that space is like and how it is being a cannabis photographer in a world that is very quickly turning its eyes more and more on to cannabis? T: Yeah for sure it's definitely a really interesting time and even the fact that a cannabis photographer is like a thing is really cool. For myself, I've really just been getting more serious about photography for about three years, so there's a lot of people in the industry who have a long standing career in photography and are just getting in to cannabis now, where as I feel like I still have a lot to learn photography wise but I have the cannabis thing down. I mean Instagram and social media are such a [huge open space] and so in one way you don't really have to be a professional photographer or professional cannabis photographer to get your cannabis photography online. If you have weed and have a camera you can kind of just get out there. So it's kind of an equal playing field in one sense where it's pretty open but it's really interesting because the internet is, there's people from everywhere consuming my content but the rules are different everywhere so what is legal for me not be legal for other people. Yeah I think that there's still a lot of [changes] to be had for the cannabis industry. Right now Canada is coming in to a legal recreational market across the country [relatively soon] so there will be some like, ya know, really official, legal, on-the-book cannabis photography for the first time like ever which is pretty cool. G: Yeah so I think its super interesting to hear you bring up the 'what might be legal for you might not be legal for everyone or somewhere else.' Something that we've talked about a lot on this podcast and that's really influenced not only me and my experience as a content creator, but for a lot of my friends and my followers as well, is the way that YouTube has removed a lot of cannabis related accounts in the last couple months. I don't know how much of that you're aware of? T: Yeah I mean almost every day on Instagram for a while I was seeing people saying like huge accounts are getting taken down. Like Coral Reefer she's been on YouTube for like nine years and all of her content just got taken down. It's pretty crazy. G: So what is it like working under that stress of 'what I'm doing is completely legal but somewhere else it might not be legal' and what has it been like working not only under that stress and that restraint, but seeing some of this other cannabis content face those repercussions and be removed. How has that experience been particularly for you? T: I guess this has to be prefaced with like, that I am a legal patient and it kind of gives me the confidence to just kind of do my own thing. So personally I don't feel like, I don't have that fear, the legitimate real life fear that a lot of people have as far as like posting content or whatever, whether its legal or illegal. But I mean yeah I think as far as we've come we have a long way to go right? I feel like federal changes in the US might be the one thing which actually makes YouTube or Instagram really; but I think YouTube has just recently come out and said that they're not, sorry it was Instagram, Instagram's community guidelines used to say that the promotion and sales of drugs were like, that was just something you couldn't do, but now apparently its more just to do with sales, the direct promotions of sales, but just like promotion of cannabis apparently they're not going to be like, if you're a medical patient just doing your thing and you're not actually promoting drug sales you couldn't lose your, [they won't] delete your account. I don't know why YouTube, I'm curious to know what YouTube's thing is, to see why they're just starting to [be] so hard on all of these cannabis accounts. Even like legal accounts that are just like educational got taken down. I think we just have more fighting to do right? Like cannabis is becoming more mainstream and there are so many changes happening all the time that it kind of feels like we're making progress but I don't think for lots of [folks] from the other side, when there's other people who are like[staunchly] against it, those people are going to have something to say and try to like make sure potheads don't take over. There are people who have vested interest in not having cannabis be legal and we still have some fighting to do for sure. G: Yeah that's really interesting and also super good to hear, that there's still a real confidence in being able to promote what is legal where you are, because I think one of the biggest things that the cannabis industry as a whole, and not even just the industry but people who smoke regularly need as a whole, are people to advocate for the normalcy of cannabis. And for people to really put out and prove that there's nothing about smoking weed that makes you lazy or a distress to society or anything like that. There are careers, there's an industry, there are functioning people and very motivated and driven people in the community, and without the confidence to post content that you've created that you feel good about and that is legal, without that confidence it's a real detriment to I think the community. So that's really positive and uplifting to hear as well. T: There are so many driven and motivated and very productive members of society that support cannabis to varying degrees, so I think over the next five years or so like that kind of image of cannabis user is going to become more prevalent. Because there are still so many people with an old school mentality that aren't really willing to see or change their perspectives, but it's happening. In Canada we're definitely seeing it with legalization coming this year. There's stories about cannabis in the news like on the main news channels, literally almost every day so it's coming. It's coming. G: To sort of wrap here, if people are interested in finding you, or learning more about you, or following more of your content and your life, where are the best places for them to go to find you? T: My main thing is for sure Instagram, you can find me @Tweedledoob. I also have a website tweedledoob.com. So I have like, I'll go to an event and take hundreds of pictures and then I might post one or two on Instagram, so I felt like I needed a place to post more of my photos. I have a bunch of albums on my website of different events and different places I've been, and I've also got my shop so, I don't know if you've seen my jolly joint image it's like a happy little joint. Have you seen that? G: Yeah, its great I love it! T: Yeah I've got all the merch on there and I'm going to be adding a bunch of new things in my shop really soon which I'm really excited about. Some stuff, some new art that's not Tweedledoob branded but my friend Champ Stiles is going to be making some cool, like he's a wood burner and he like does wood carving and wood burning things, so I'm going to have some weedy stuff of his on my site soon. And yeah I would say those are, through my website you can also email me Tweedledoob@gmail.com but there is a form on my site if anybody wants to reach out I'm always happy to chat.

The other day, I finally had a chance to sit down with Tony Workman, owner of the in Parkersburg, WV for our very first on-site interview. Listen in!! This is a transcript of the conversation, cleaned up for your reading pleasure! Rem: We’re here today with Tony Workman, owner and operator of the Classic Plastics Toy Store located in downtown Parkersburg, WV and progenitor of the Classic Plastics Toy and Comic Expo which is quickly approaching on March 4th and 5th at the Parkersburg Art Center. Tony, how are you doing? Tony: Pretty good. R: You ready for take two? T: Definitely! Both: *shared laughter* R: So I may or may not have screwed up the last recording, and I really won't know until I get it into the computer to find out. So we're going to do it again and I'm going to make Tony suffer through it because he's awesome like that! Tony, what got you started in selling toys? T: Pretty much my love of them. I've always had toys and I never really grew out of it, so I wanted to keep that going and so I turned a hobby into a business. R; You started off by having a shop in a local flea market, what drove you to make the jump to having a retail space? T: It came down to availability — with the flea market being [open] three days and me growing out of the space I was in. I kept getting a bigger and bigger space, and I just figured it was time to get a building. R: Gotchya. What kind of toys and other items do you carry? T: There is a little bit of everything. We started at the flea market with vintage used toys that people would bring in to us, and then when I moved here, I started getting into new toys from NECA and Funko — stuff like that. R: So do you have any primo stuff for the fine dining toy collector? T: Every now and then we'll get stuff from collectors that we'll bring in, like packages Ninja Turtles from the 80's or stuff from NECA that is really highly detailed or articulated. Stuff that might be pricier, but worth the money. R: I notice you also have vintage functional arcade machines. What inspired the decision to include those in your space? T: I always loved going to the arcade when I was a kid. There was a movie theater that my parents would take my brothers and I to; and before every movie, we would sit there and play arcade games until it was time to go in and watch it. I've watched them all shut down all over the place, and I just wanted to try and bring that back. R: Gotchya. Do you host any special extended hour events like arcade or Collectible Card Game tournaments? T: We do with the arcade games. We have free arcade day once a month that we try to do toward the end of the month. It's what it sounds like: just come in and play free arcades all day. () R: Awesome! So, as I said, you are the progenitor of the Classic Plastics Toy and Comic Expo coming up again March 4th and 5th. This will be the fourth year you’ve hosted the CPT&CE, the third year it will be taking place at the Parkersburg Art Center. What sparked the truly daunting task of organizing an expo? T: My buddy, Todd Wines works for The Red Cross and they were looking for a fundraiser that would be in different age groups with different types of people that they don't normally get any kind of support from, so he came to me and asked "Do you want to do a toy and comics expo?" – with him being a huge comic nerd - and of course, I said yes. *laughter* R: Is it just you pulling the strings, or do you have a crew helping to get all the gears moving? T: For the most part, it's just me. Todd does help when he can, but with his job being in disaster relief, it's just a matter of if there's going to be a flood or something. So if that happens, he really has to focus on that which leaves me to be the only one. But I do have employees that I can pay to help me out as well. R: This year you’re featuring nearly 100 vendors and guests. How well has the attendance grown over the past four years? T: The first year was in a church on South Side [Parkersburg], and it had 300 people. Last year - our 3rd year - we had 1200 people. We're hoping to get over 2000 people with it being the first two-day show, but it is just a kind of wait-and-see. R: And as you said, this is the first multi-day event. Why was the decision made to extend the expo? T: Last year there were so many people. The Art Center is a pretty decent-sized building, but there were so many people on the floor that it was hard to get through the aisles and see all the inventory and enjoy the show as much as people wanted. So we thought spreading it out over the two days would give people the opportunity to choose when and what day they wanted to come. R: Awesome! Who can we expect to see this year, then? T: This year we have Steve Cardenas, the second red ranger from Power Rangers — Rocky, the red ranger if anyone watches the show. Along with Tim Clark, an 80's toy designer. He did stuff like Boglins and Sectaurs. He worked a little bit on Fraggle Rock. And then the local legend, Jordan Patton is back again this year from SyFy's Face Off and does the show Deadnecks. R: We have the expo, and then we have some external events that are happening as well. What are some of the events that are happening at the expo and outside of it that will really make for the first weekend of March to be a truly grand adventure for anyone coming to downtown Parkersburg? T: Starting with the outside stuff first: It's being done by Downtown PKB again. They did an event last year that they got really good reception from - Savor Saturday - that they're going to be doing again this year. It's going to include 12 different restaurants [in the downtown area] that you can walk around and get dollar samples from. So if you haven't eaten at any of the downtown restaurants, it gives you a really good chance to try out some of what's on their menu. There's also going to be this guy, - I don't even know his name - he came into the store one time and said "You let me into the show one day for free, and I'll go around all the PokeStops downtown and put lures on them." So that is going to be at noon — the same time as people are walking around for Savory Saturday. You can take advantage of a whole bunch of lures and sample a whole bunch of restaurants down here. Inside, the Vienna Library is doing events like Lego Building and Story Time on Sunday. J&M Bookstore on South Side is doing board games and tabletop events both Saturday and Sunday; along with Rare Drops from Huntington doing video game tournaments. Both of these will be in the basement of the Art Center. Then there will be a cosplay contest and I'm probably forgetting something else. *laughter* R: *laughter* It is hard to keep track of all of it, isn't it? T: It is! R: So finally, do you have anything you’d like to add that I may have forgotten to cover? T: I can't remember if it was mentioned, but proceeds to the show go towards Downtown PKB and the Arts Center — they'll be split in half. I do not get any profit from this. This is something that is done for the community and as a promotion for my store. In the past, it was done for the Red Cross, but we changed to Downtown PKB this year. So if you guys are really wanting to support your local area and your local businesses, coming to the expo is going to be really important. Rem: Awesome! You can join us in the fun at the Classic Plastics Toy & Comic Expo, March 4th and 5th at the Parkersburg Art Center, located at 725 Market Street in Parkersburg West Virginia. Admission is $5 per person each day, or $8 for a two-day pass. Children 10 and under are free with paid adult admission. All proceeds go to the and . More information about the expo can be found at , link in the notes; or you can search on Facebook for real-time updates on the event. Don’t forget to come down to the as well – , located at 406 Market Street in Parkersburg, West Virginia – and give Tony all the love and support you can! Thanks again, Tony, for having me down and wasting time with me! I really appreciate it! Tony: Thanks for having me! Links: https://www.classicplasticstoystore.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ClassicPlasticsToyandComicExpo/ https://www.facebook.com/ClassicPlasticsToyStore/ https://www.facebook.com/downtownpkb/ https://www.facebook.com/parkersburgartcenter/ https://www.facebook.com/events/614611755413106/