26 years later — and he still picks up the phone.

26 years later — and he still picks up the phone.

Back in 2000, when I was at ultra.media.com, my good friend Lewis Kunstler (2+2 Management / Young Art Records — brothers since ’95) referred a customer to me. His name is Orlando.

Fast forward 26 years: Orlando owns The Chronic — one of LA’s realest cannabis lifestyle brands. Cannabis. Culture. Community. Born in Los Angeles, now expanding nationwide.

Last week I saw one of his ads, and an idea hit me. I didn’t wait for a brief, didn’t wait for an invitation — I built a prototype and cold-called him with it.

Here’s the thing about that call: he answered.

Not because cold calls work. Because 26 years of treating people right means when your name shows up on the phone, it gets picked up. That’s the part nobody tells you about this business: old customers become new customers. Every relationship you take care of keeps working long after the invoice is paid. A referral from a friend in 1995 turned into a client in 2000, turned into a brand partnership in 2026.