Our continuing conversation and education series about the science and benefits of cannabis-based products with Wendy Bronfein of Curio Wellness comes with a Far & Dotter cookie in Timonium and her recent tales of local community awareness and patient success efficacy with GI products that are helping folks’ quality of life.
Wendy Bronfein, Chief Brand Officer of Curio Wellness, discussed the expansion of their exclusive flower strains to Missouri, following the completion of their cultivation facility there. She highlighted the benefits of their products, particularly the Move product, which aids in muscle recovery and inflammation. Wendy also mentioned the Curio Rewards Program, offering points for purchases that can be redeemed for sweepstakes entries, such as tickets to see the Dead. Additionally, she emphasized the convenience of their curbside pickup service, which includes extra perks like cookies and popcorn. The conversation also touched on the positive feedback from customers at a recent event at Eagle’s Nest, focusing on the effectiveness of their GI products.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Curio Wellness, community awareness, GI products, exclusive flower, Missouri expansion, rewards program, curbside pickup, customer experience, product innovation, ratio products, quality of life, muscle recovery, yoga benefits, QR codes, sweepstakes entry
SPEAKERS
Wendy Bronfein, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. And don’t be mad at me that I put the purple away and I’ve broken the orange out because I’m feeling like with all this cold weather, we need a little sunshine here. We’re going to be doing a cup of soup or bowl during the big game week. Two weeks from now, we kick things off at Costas on Monday, we’re gonna be a Cocos. We’re gonna be at faintly on Tuesday, we’re gonna be at Cooper’s north up into manium on Friday. And our friends Acosta are having a new location at Timonium as well. And speaking of Timonium, you know, I don’t just talk about curio wellness and talk about having a being a patient and having an app and downloading points and doing all that. I now have F and D foreign daughter cookies, and this cookies been on my desk. I have pictures of my cat trying to eat it off my desk. And I’ve been waiting for Wendy bronfen to get here. I thought when she got here, we’d be talking about Kansas City and ribs and barbecue and maybe some New Orleans plans. But alas, there is no football to be spoken off here. Wendy bronfen from curio wellness joins us now. She’s our chief cannabis officer. She is the Chief Brand Officer of all things cookies and all sorts of things going on. How are you happy new year? I’m sorry we’ve been like ships passing in the night or footballs, maybe being dropped. I don’t know we’ve been we’ve missed each other the last couple weeks. How are you good?
Wendy Bronfein 01:23
Hello. Happy New Year. How are you I know that was a that was not a great weekend
Nestor Aparicio 01:29
anymore. You know, on Monday, I didn’t want to talk about it. Now, it’s like, how about those Orioles? You know, it’s more like, what about that draft? Um, you know, I I’ve been coming into the store, and you and your sister were on right before Christmas. It was really long segment. I encourage everybody to go after I can just put curio a wellness or Wendy’s name in, or click on her pretty face on the front of Baltimore positive you find the whole repository. But then we did, but we were talking, and I was talking about rewards points and all of this stuff that’s going on through the holidays and all that. And you said you really need to click online and go in the back door, because we’ve been really crowded during the holidays. You’re doing all of these sales. You put this happy hour thing on that got me over there, and you said two minutes or 30 seconds in the back door, was about two minutes and 30 seconds. But you put a cookie in the bag in the back and I’ve been sitting on this cookie, and then I went back and you gave me popcorn. So you guys are doing stuff here that’s just fun that I’ve gotten to experience a little bit. And I just want to say thanks and happy holidays. And I haven’t eaten this yet, but I’ve been waiting
Wendy Bronfein 02:27
for you. I was i Is it still good? I mean, okay, it’s not like a grocery store preservative cook. It’s like a real cookie. I don’t know. You might want to give it to the cat. Now, I’ve
Nestor Aparicio 02:41
only had it a week, come on, maybe a week and a half hasn’t been that long, but sorts of cool things. And I guess for people ordering, and if you’re on your email list, for you know, like you do pop up stuff that I don’t like, I always say, like, there was no industry that you’re in 10 years ago. So finding interesting ways to bring people in, and your rewards program is amazing. So we have all that to talk about, including products and all that stuff. And you got exclusive flower right now, which I know is the big thing, the products are really what you stand behind the most Absolutely.
Wendy Bronfein 03:11
Yeah, the well, our flower, it’s an exciting time, because I think we’ve talked about before, but we, we took our brand to Missouri, and have spent the I guess, prior year and a half now, building the facility there. We had got all of our manufactured products online, but our cultivation side was finished earlier this year, and the first harvest has happened, and now we’re going to sell flour there. Some of the exclusive strains that everyone loves here in Maryland are now going to be available in Missouri. So that’s three
Nestor Aparicio 03:42
years behind. The difference in maybe three or four years in regard to Missouri being online, sellable, available. I like things move a little slower in certain places.
Wendy Bronfein 03:53
Well, they they started their medical program after Maryland did, but they went adult use six months before Maryland did in 2023 and at that time, we were in the stages of acquiring a license and then getting through, like the building and planning
Nestor Aparicio 04:12
you weren’t first in. You were okay, yeah, I don’t do the law there. I’ve been to Missouri. Matter of fact, supposed to go to Missouri this weekend have barbecue and eat football and yeah, so I would have made it to Missouri, but I haven’t been there in a while. So
Wendy Bronfein 04:25
yeah. So, so that’s exciting. And then obviously all that exclusive flour is readily available here in Maryland, and dispensaries all across the states, including our own. That’s our top tier offering of flour. And then everything else is always available, right? All of the chews, vapes, topicals, ever all those goodies
Nestor Aparicio 04:47
always can get. Don’t you have a football brand? Don’t you a blitz? Don’t you have some
Wendy Bronfein 04:51
vocab? Blitz is a strain. I just didn’t want to get it wrong, and I’m thinking
Nestor Aparicio 04:55
that might work out in Missouri here next couple weeks, if things work out there for their football program or. Yeah,
Wendy Bronfein 05:00
I, you know what, I don’t know if it’s in their initial harvest, because, honestly, we, we, I don’t know we’ve, it’s always been more of our, like, Raven season thing, I guess, not a red thing, yeah. But you know, I we probably have to be a little bit more equal opportunity, I guess. But you know, our heart still sits with those Ravens. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 05:16
know they do. And you know, Wendy brown fine is here. She is the Chief Brand Officer, a curio wellness and foreign daughter. And, you know, sometimes I wear the the O over here. And curio is the brand that creates lots of different products, including this incredible move product that I talk about all the time, but shoes and flower and things that are traditional. But also the storefront is far and daughter in Timonium. If you’ve been York and Timonium road, there’s, I had never come in on the backside, on Aylesbury. So just as a, as a, as someone who’s been in your store a lot on the front side, and I don’t want to say it’s treacherous, but it’s interesting you’re building, and it’s one way, and right, and but the back door, and what you’ve told me about, and I’m, I’m just a regular guy. I, you know, I walk in. I’m not an online shopper so much. We’ve talked about this. I’m not a click. You have to put your license number. You do all these things online. So I was much more like, I’ll just stop by. I’ll just stop by. And then it was more like, all right, sometimes I’d stop by and things would be gone, right? You’d see something in the morning and just happen to run out. It’s a limited product. And then the online part, I would order, and I come and I still would sort of be in your very interesting waiting room with all sorts of things that free water, as I always point out. But then you told me last month, no, no, no, sign up and try the quick way. And I came in on Aylesbury. Tell everybody about that a little bit, because it wasn’t always available. And I certainly, I was a hard head about using it. And now that I’ve used it, you’ve given me a free cookie. And we’re also going to talk about these little scratch off things too. But I did use it twice in the last since last time we got together, and I might never walk in your showroom again. Don’t be mad at me, but just don’t be mad at
Wendy Bronfein 06:57
me. Well, yeah, I mean, look, there’s, there’s so look, think about weather alone. I mean, in the last like, what, two weeks who wants to get out of their car? I
Nestor Aparicio 07:08
apologize to your guy. So awful. He came out in this whole Canadian year. It was terrible. Yeah.
Wendy Bronfein 07:14
I mean, so I think if it’s rainy day, snowy day, freezing cold, whatever. I mean, obviously that’s great. If you’ve got kids in the car. You want to run the errand. You don’t want to come in, you know, anything of mobility that makes it easier. You’re just want to kind of get it and keep going. It’s a, you know, to your point, like that, the spot where we sit, the store parking lot, the primary spots are all on that slant going down the side, but then on the backside, where curbside is, there’s more parking, and it’s a much more traditional, sort of rectangular zone, and very easy to just sort of navigate in. Take a spot, get yourself and go. I like
Nestor Aparicio 07:52
your store. You know what I mean? Like? I like going in. I like the people I run into, friends in there. I run into, I’ve run into a lot of different cross section of people in your place that have recognized me or I just know them, you know through life, and so I don’t mind it. And I often, I said this to you in the beginning, the beginning, it was a little like the stigma that’s gone on all of our lifetime. Was a little strange. Then it became more like going to the liquor store or and then it became a little bit more like, Well, I really like the line, and then it was Christmas or on certain days at certain times and but I like your store, and your store is sort of set up to be choppy and walk around and see things and pick things up a little bit. But this experience of the back door thing and the ease in and out, I I would highly recommend it if you are in a hurry and it is cold out, but then your guy comes out. And I terrible with names in that way, but it’s one of the fellows that always, is always inside. And he came in, he had the big bundle up. He recognized me. I recognize him. And he’s It was cold, and he’s like, Hey, there’s cookie in the bag and there’s a car. Don’t scratch it out there. Scratch when you come in. And I’m like, All right, man, just you’re freezing. Go inside. You go, yeah, it’s kind of like this. People bundled up with the Chick fil A, I feel really sick, terrible for so he goes in, and I come home, and I’m like, he told me it was a cookie in the bag. I thought it was, like, not a real cookie. I thought it meant, like, those were kids way of saying there’s something nice in the bag, or a little freebie, that was this thing. Then there’s like a real cookie in the bag. And then the next time I got Gingerbread, caramel popcorn, delicious, you guys have been doing some fun things. You go in the back door too that I didn’t even understand, and I still don’t even understand this thing. So please explain this to me, because my wife and I are holding and
Wendy Bronfein 09:36
somebody I’m sorry, some of those extras are, like, local, right? Like, that’s like, pop stations, right? Which is down the street. I think we did something with the local Chocolatier as well.
Nestor Aparicio 09:49
By Jason, is that the guy on? Yeah,
09:52
yeah, uh huh, yeah. So I’m gonna eat, I want
Nestor Aparicio 09:55
to eat this, right? Do you mind if I it’s like a wedding cookie. It’s so nice and. I’m afraid to eat it. I really am.
Wendy Bronfein 10:01
I think you should just go for it. I just think, as Jason would probably tell you, you’re probably not supposed to eat a cookie, like, a week and a half later. But, you know, don’t, don’t judge it off that. But, yeah, no, that’s the the idea is that there’s, like, these sort of little extras, you know, moments of delight that we can offer. And so that is, that is a perk of the the curbside experience.
Nestor Aparicio 10:36
Perfectly fine. It’s not bread. Now you have to talk because I’m a mouthful. Yeah. Don’t have to choose because you had some stuff going on with shoes too. Now that I’m chewing something I know
Wendy Bronfein 10:52
well, I think we were, I was, well, I was also, we had that. We had an event last week that was open to the public, and we hosted it at Eagle’s Nest, and you could just come in. Talk to people who work in the dispensary, talk to people who work in our product innovation team. Happy Eddie was there as well. Our spa team was there. Tell him, I’m looking
Nestor Aparicio 11:15
for him. He’s in witness protection. I can’t find him. I love him. I want to. I’m, I’m doing cup of Super Bowl two weeks from now. Let’s get him out and talk about it. And I have, like, one of his strengths. We gotta talk about that CEO strength. Yeah,
Wendy Bronfein 11:26
I will. I will pass it along. They so that was a great event. We’re going to do more of those. But that was, it’s been a long time since had, like, the conversations with individuals, where you hear the stories of of the products and how they really like have had a major impact on their quality of life. And it was so nice and refreshing, because I think since we’ve gone adult use, that’s been harder to get those points of feedback, even though there’s more people using and and many of them for the same reasons. So it was, it was so rewarding to have those conversations and to hear from people. But yeah, we talked a lot of people like about things like choose and stuff like that, and a lot of people looking for products that can be referred to as ratio products. So it’s not just about the THC, it’s about other either the presence of the terpenes or minor cannabinoids, where you’re getting you can use those products to get much more sort of targeted results, depending on if you’re trying to deal with relaxation or sleep or mood or your gut or sex or whatever it is. And so I think you’re seeing a lot of people migrate to a lot of these products, because it just gets closer to what someone’s trying to solve.
Nestor Aparicio 12:41
A story. Give me one story of somebody at Eagle’s Nestor came up to you that when you went home at night, you said, your husband, hey, what do I tell you this? You know what I mean? Like, there
Wendy Bronfein 12:50
was, well, there was one gentleman who deals with GI issues, and this was similar to your father, correct? Yeah, he had Crohn’s. And I would say, like has dealt with a lot of things to deal with that. And spoke about some of the GI products that we make, that he’s used, and other cannabis products that he’s used to help deal with just the ability to have an improved quality of life, deal with the related symptoms, sleep better. There was another couple and a man who I spoke to who have been long time patrons, and we’re talking about an array of products, and also, just like the environment that it’s just feels really comfortable to go have those conversations and to be able to be guided towards a solution that might be right for you. And it’s, it’s unintimidating and and non cliche, right? It feels, feels a little bit more like shopping in in a traditional environment than maybe some of the expectations people have around cannabis. So it was just, it was really fantastic
Nestor Aparicio 13:56
you find a professional place, not a head shop. I mean, let’s be honest, right? I mean, yeah, Wendy brown finest here, her time is really short today. I’ll just say this before you go. And I got a half eaten cookie, and we had other stuff you want to talk about. I want to do some more about the next time you’re doing something like this, eagles nesting, invite people out. But this move product, I just, I’ll say this, if I were in front of you and saying, How do I use it and how does it help? This product here, when I get out of the shower, if I don’t put it on, I sort of realize it. And as a yoga guy, three, four days a week, where I’m really sweating hard, pushing hard, working hard, from a recovery standpoint, after I get out of a hot shower, that’s a real difference maker, doing it as opposed to not doing it. And the next day, I wake up and I need heating packs and I need to stretch more because this product keeps you more limber. And, you know, I could totally say that, but I’ll be honest, there are days I forget to use it, you know, and then you find out the minute you don’t use it, like, oh, because you can feel a little bit of attackiness. It doesn’t have any odor. It’s not weird at all. But I definitely can feel it, especially when I sweat a little bit. But having it on and not having it on, it’s night and day in. Are to how my l3 and l4 feel?
Wendy Bronfein 15:02
Yeah. I mean, I agree. I from an exercise standpoint, I tend to now use it more prophylactically, rather than being like, I’m going to do this workout and, you know, something’s going to be sore, and now I’m going to make the soreness go away, if I apply it even post workout before soreness can set in. I don’t deal with the same thing. Like that muscle does not get as inflamed, which is really nice. And I’m in full agreement with you of that you
Nestor Aparicio 15:29
just gave me, and I’ve never done that. I’ve never come off the yoga mat, and I’ve never had this in my bag, in the mat, like go to Planet Fitness, whatever I’m doing. I don’t, I don’t I showed you. I still have one in a bag from last April, 20, right? So I should put one of these in my gym bag. That’s a great idea. Yeah, there you go,
15:49
the golf bag. The sometimes a little bit of time
Nestor Aparicio 15:53
here and give me the I’m good. You fix me this week. Wendy Brown, fine. Is here. Her time is short. Go get a cookie. Go get some popcorn. Use online, use responsibly, learn. We’re here to teach people about all the uses of cannabis and all the things they do over foreign daughter and they do at curio wellness and curio wellness products available at all sorts of dispensaries all over the state as adult use has come online already year and a half into this. So I check it out and download the app and get the points on the little QR codes. I didn’t get any Q I got into my free cookies. I gotta
Wendy Bronfein 16:23
do a shameless plug on that. So with the with the curio rewards program, where you can scan the QR code on any product you buy at any dispensary, we have a sweepstakes that we just launched that’s going to run from now until March 31 and every day, one time you can redeem 10 points for an entry to win two tickets to see the dead at the sphere, inclusive of airfare, hotel and spending money
Nestor Aparicio 16:51
in 10 points a day. Yeah,
Wendy Bronfein 16:54
you were you claim you take 10 of the points lottery. Spokesperson,
Nestor Aparicio 16:58
I’m not eligible, like, we kid about winning buildings, but I’m not eligible. I got a lot of points. And, like, you know, that sounds like a good giveaway to me, but it would be look like insider trading if I want, but I would encourage everyone out there. It’s really easy. It’s a lucid ID. It’s giving me all sorts of ideas about my own business here, and how easy it is to use, even for an old fart like me to just go boop. And more than that, when you use the QR code, it’s even it’s better because strain product, whatever you’re using, every terpene, the science behind all of it, sits there on the QR code, on the product. It’s, you have a legend I can blow my mind. When I met you five years ago, I don’t think I knew any of this was going to I mean, the online part of this, in the science of this is really moving forward, so I love having you on you got to go time short, Wendy’s got a shorter window this week. She’s running curio wellness and foreign daughter. You can find her out at the front of Baltimore positive as well. They’re doing all sorts of things. Download the app, use our friends, use our partners. They’re good folks over there at curio wellness, really friendly folks too, and always there to help educate you, and you can find more out at Baltimore positive.com back for more right after this you.
