The following is the shocking true story of one of the world’s biggest marijuana growers and the cannabis nutrient company spawned by his covert operations in the clandestine grow rooms and fields of outdoor pot plants he tended to for decades.
In an industry where the big players try to distance themselves from the truth—that their nutrients aren’t really for growing tomatoes—and won’t so much as even stand in a garden or a grow room with one of their customers…
… One man stands apart, shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow growers, embracing the truth and peeling back the curtain to expose the good, the bad, and the ugly side of growing; and innovating the way marijuana has been grown for over four decades now.
If you grow or consume cannabis, you’ve benefited from something BigMike has done.
But there are some things even he won’t tell you…
And that’s why I’m writing this story.
You see, I’ve spent the last few years with BigMike, taking studious notes about the wild and fascinating behind-the-scenes journey that took a 500 sq. foot grow room of dead little pot plants, into the 9-figure-a-year company that Advanced Nutrients is today.
After nervously revealing my notes to BigMike, he was impressed with all the information I’d collected and said it was cool if I showed it to some of my Advanced Nutrients teammates—so they’d know how and why the company got its start—but asked me not to put it out there publicly.
Since some of the content is the kinda thing one might not want floating around about themselves, I completely understood.
However, after sharing it with a few of my teammates, they agreed with me that it’s a story that needs to be told.
So we begged, pleaded, and practically twisted BigMike’s arm high up on his back, until he reluctantly agreed to let me publish it.
It’s a story that involves millions of pot plants, hundreds of millions of dollars, ingenious counter-surveillance techniques, a shakedown by a violent biker gang, a plane crash, a crazy and vengeful ex-girlfriend, giant busts, a manhunt by the DEA and U.S. Marshals, a kidnapping, life on the lam under seven different identities, 53 firsts in the world of cannabis growing, and even a bizarre near-death experience.
BigMike began growing for many of the same reasons a lot of us did. Not only did he have a deep love and fascination for marijuana, but he also didn’t want to live the way he saw just about everyone else living—strangled by the ironclad grip of society’s status quo.
He flat-out refused to take orders and march around like a good little robot.
Born in Portland, Oregon, BigMike came from a lower-middle-class background and, as a child, was plagued with multiple learning disabilities—including OCD, ADD, and Dyslexia.
Life wasn’t easy for young Michael.
His dad died when he was a teenager, and his mom—a nurse—was both an alcoholic and a pill-popping pharmaceutical drug addict. She recently passed away actually and, as I’m writing this, BigMike is on his way to her funeral in Estonia.
During his teen years, Mike was forced to attend Alateen—a fellowship of young people whose lives have been affected by the alcoholism of a family member.
Unfortunately, a lot of people who were born with the odds stacked against ‘em use circumstances like their poor upbringing, troubled past, and learning disabilities as an excuse for going nowhere in life.
But not BigMike.
It was during these hard times that he made a commitment to himself that neither his afflictions, his past, nor his family problems would define his future. Nor would he trade away his soul 40-hours a week at some job he hated just to squeak by each month.
So, at age nineteen, he started a lawn fertilizing company in hopes of proving to himself and to the world that just because he was dealt a less than desirable hand early in life, didn’t mean he couldn’t make something of himself.
And then, in 1983—when Mike was 23 years old—he’s approached by two friends who tell him they have a way he could earn a lot of money if he wanted to.
But here’s the thing… they wouldn’t say what it was. They did, however, want to know if he was interested. BigMike told ‘em he was and that he was dying to find out what they were talking about. Their lips remained sealed.
Until…
… One day they took him to their home and showed him a little indoor garden they had going. Immediately, Mike was not only on board, he was hooked.
They built a 500-square-foot grow room at the shop BigMike ran his lawn care company out of.
The anticipation for what that lovely crop would soon yield was, and still is, one of the biggest highs Mike had ever experienced.
However, the buzz was short-lived…
You see, they hadn’t properly ventilated the room and the plants got cooked!
Within 24 hours the entire crop was dead.
If there was a market for tiny fried little marijuana plants they would have been in business. But unfortunately, such a market didn’t exist.
Like many of us in our community, BigMike’s first crop was a total failure. That didn’t stop him though. Determined to figure it out, he rolled up his sleeves and got right back to work.
Now, the only magazines available at the time were Sensimilla Tips and High Times. There was no Internet like there is today. But even though there wasn’t a lot of information available at the time, BigMike read everything he could get his hands on.
For his second crop, since he’d killed his cuttings on the first go-round—which he’d taken using the floating broth method—he had to grow from seeds. So he hunted down some killer weed, yanked the seeds out, and got busy planting.
When the second crop actually came through, he harvested it a bit prematurely and only yielded about seven pounds. So he didn’t end up making much money for all the time and hard work he’d put into it.
Still, BigMike was determined…
At the time, he was growing these big six-footers, because that’s all anybody was growing.
However, through his research, he found some articles that said you didn’t need to grow six-foot-tall plants. You could grow them any size you wanted.
So he built some tables, put his little beauties in Rockwool cubes, and grew smaller plants that yielded faster.
By now, he was starting to earn decent money.
And even though it wasn’t much, it gave him the confidence to both expand his little operation, and to make a decision that would not only transform his life forever, but the lives of every single grower you know today who dares to transform light, water, and nutrients into the magic that is cannabis.
BigMike decided to dedicate his future to figuring out how to grow the absolute best marijuana possible—to take it to its true genetic potential, in terms of taste, quality, and quantity of yield.
So he sold his lawn-fertilizing business and quadrupled his efforts.
And then he made a discovery that would change everything…
… The Sea of Green method.
With the use of rolling tables, he set up an entire house just for growing.
He harvested 13 pounds of killer weed, which enabled him to get a second house going.
Realizing that in upper-class neighborhoods people tend to keep to themselves, he set up the second house in an area where the lawns were neatly manicured by gardeners, au pairs drove the children to school, and everyone just sort of minded their own business in their wealthy little bubbles.
But the problem was…
BigMike was only twenty-five years old, making him much younger than the typical person who rented these kinds of million, and multi-million dollar properties.
So here’s what he did…
He set up a legitimate fake identity—meaning he used a real birth certificate, driver’s license, and passport…just under a fake name—and concocted a story about being a trust fund baby.
He researched the psychology of how rich people thought, talked, and acted, so he could blend in with his new neighbors and his trust fund story would fly.
Now, when he moved in, he didn’t do what the typical grower does and buy a bunch of guard dogs and avoid making eye contact with the neighbors.
Instead, he became friendly with them—waving and saying “hi” to everyone, and offering a helping hand should they need it. That way, even though his neighbors all kept to themselves, they liked him.
The strategy worked like a charm…
And before long, BigMike had multiple houses going—and these were big houses, like 6,000 square feet apiece—with each house being tied to a different identity.
Now, just to stay on the safe side, he moved his grows about every twelve-to-eighteen months. It was a risky business and he knew he could never be too careful.
In fact, one time he even had to bail out early on a crop because the electric company caught onto to him and it was either get out of dodge or go to jail.
BigMike chose to get out of dodge…
Now, since most of the houses he was growing in were rentals, sometimes he’d have to deal with owners who wanted to sell the property.
In these cases he made the landlords agree to not show the property for the term of the lease.
However…sometimes the owners would break the agreement.
And when they did, he’d have to pull off a magic act and make everything disappear…
One time, right after a harvest—when all he had were some smaller plants goin’—he tore down an entire grow room without any of it actually leaving the house. He boxed it all up, tossed everything in the basement—including hundreds of cuttings—threw tarps on top and hit it with an ozone generator.
If anyone happened to descend down into the basement, it would look like a normal everyday basement and they would think the stuff sitting under the tarps was just his personal belongings, and they’d leave it alone.
Another time, he had some bigger plants goin’ and had to rip down an entire 12-light grow and pack it into a moving truck, which he’d parked in the driveway.
He figured the driveway was the safest place for it, since he didn’t wanna get caught cruising around town with a grow room in tow.
Real estate agents and potential home buyers would mosey through the house, and not even notice entire grow rooms—covered by tarps and sheets—just sitting there, right under their noses.
And as soon as they leave, he’d immediately get everything back up and running again.
Now, with his indoor grow operations steadily expanding, BigMike decided he wanted to branch out and grow outdoors as well…
… And the way he went about it was ingenious…
What happened was…
Mike’s friend showed him where some outdoor beauties were boldly making their way to the sun. And these plants were huge. So he took note of the type of soil they were growing in and then found a location with the same kinda soil to drop his own garden in.
And these plants became monsters—yielding two to three pounds per plant. It was incredible.
So here’s the genius part…
BigMike went to the county and found out they had all these maps that classified what types of soil were in each part of the region.
The entire county had been classified for soil!
And he found out that the other counties he was growing in had these kinds of maps as well.
So he scooped up the maps for each county, found classification matches for the exact soil that was producing such monstrous plants, and started digging.
By now things were really taking off, and he had to hire more guys to help man his thriving operation.
So he formed a team of dedicated junior growing partners.
Here’s how he set it up…
The deal was that the junior grow partners would at first work for a flat fee. Then after two or three years, he’d make them 25 percent partners. And from there they could eventually climb the ladder to becoming equal partners.
With BigMike’s operation expanding like an out-of-control wildfire…
… He soon realized that he was spending way too much time seeking out new grow spots.
So what did he do?
He learned how to fly.
This way, he could more efficiently locate the most desirable spots for his grows.
Based on the maps he had from the county, he could fly around and sniff out the best locations to plop down his beauties, and then go in with his junior growers and do the thing he loved more than anything else in the world—grow big, green, luscious buds.
So he gets his pilot’s license, along with a little Cessna 172, an Ultralight, and a GPS unit—back when GPS’s were first coming on the market—flies around marking the points where he wants to stick his gardens, along with his entry points and the locations where his junior partners are to drop him off at; and gets busy farming a dozen fields—with 50 to 300 plants each—in four different counties.
And because of the soil—most of his gardens were on the outskirts of swamps and creek beds—his plants did so well that even during the middle of a drought they were reaching heights of eleven feet…
… Without BigMike having to water them!
Deep down, the soil—soft, fluffy, pitch-black dirt that allowed roots to quickly and easily throw down a massive root system—retained a ton of moisture. And it was loaded with super high levels of beneficial microbial activity, so it was perfect for growing weed.
This soil literally did all the work for him.
And with the plane and Ultralight, he could just fly over his grows, see if they needed a bit of weeding or anything, and watch everything from the sky. If they were weedy he would just go in real quick at night and yank the little green intruders out under the cover of darkness.
Between the soil and his adventures through the friendly skies, Mike only needed to tend to his gardens once every four or five weeks.
And the plants were growing like crazy!
The stalks on these things were six-inches thick…
He and his crew actually had to use special Japanese handsaws with razor-sharp blades to hack them down.
Of course there were some problems…
Like the little forest creatures that just loved trying to turn his plants into dinner.
To keep the critters away he blasted the hot pepper wax and threw up the occasional camouflaged solar-powered electrical fence.
One time when he was flying over a garden he spotted a deer happily chomping away at his profits.
So he circled around, came blazing down super-low to the ground, and the hungry visitor bolted for cover.
And patch bandits and law enforcement were also an issue—walking-off with 30-50% of his outdoor grows. Even so, he was still able to harvest a damn nice amount of weed.
By now, it was the late 80’s…
… And BigMike was constantly testing, tweaking, and fine-tuning the way he grew his cannabis; not realizing at the time, that he was forever changing the way the rest of us would be growing it as well.
He was on a perpetual hunt for the biggest, fattest, most potent, light-green sugar-coated buds the world had ever seen—a hunt that he’s still on today, but we’ll get to that in a minute…
After expenses and partner payouts his operation was netting him about $300,000 a year—which was a lot of money back then.
He was harvesting hundreds of pounds at a time and pulling in between $3200-$3400 a pound. But no matter how much he grew, there was always more demand for ‘BigMike Bud’ than he was able keep up with.
As business exploded, his anxiety went into overdrive. The stress wreaked havoc on his OCD and he was constantly going through bizarre counting rituals in his head and repeatedly checking things like doorknobs.
And the only thing that helped alleviate his symptoms was smoking some green. It relieved his stress, quieted the obsessive thoughts that raced through his head, and calmed the compulsive urges to act out the strange OCD rituals that were giving him a false sense of control and security.
To further ease his anxiety—and stay out of jail—BigMike began monitoring police scanners…
He read books on the subject, joined a group of scanner enthusiasts, and tuned into local and federal law enforcement frequencies—including hard-to-detect frequencies the undercover guys and the DEA were using.
Every day he spent hours monitoring and decoding the Man’s encrypted conversations—which he recorded 24/7.
And anytime he went into a field he carried an ultra-sophisticated scanner he’d built with a guy from his scanner enthusiasts group.
He documented phone numbers from the recorded conversations and found a guy in Washington that made a system that allowed him to eavesdrop in on the calls the officers were making to each other from their phones. This was in the early 90’s before phones used digital technology—everything was analog.
Before long, he figured out who all the local narcotics officers were…
He found out what cars they drove, what their license plate numbers were, and what they looked like.
BigMike was watching them watch him!
And he’d often overhear them talking about his grow spots.
One time, monitoring his scanner as law enforcement infiltrated one of his gardens, he heard an officer say with astonishment, “Whoa, this is major league.”
It bummed him out that they’d busted his garden, but he felt a strange sense of pride that they’d called it “major league.” And he sure as hell was glad to know that they found it, because if he didn’t, that coulda been his ass.
Another time he overheard them discussing a transponder they’d secretly planted that would alert ‘em the moment someone entered the garden. This thing could tell the difference between an animal and a human.
And since he flew over his grows on a regular basis and knew the terrain like the back of his hand, he could tell if anyone had been lurking around by the trails they’d leave.
Now, around this same time, BigMike began to suspect his operations were being bugged…
… So, he found some guys who were ex-DEA, FBI, and RCMP officers who used to run wiretaps on people, and hired ‘em to teach him how to sweep his homes, vehicles, and businesses for bugs.
He had his operation down to a science.
But there was a big problem…
A middleman he was working with was overcharging a giant broker.
In fact, the broker was so big he was scooping up more of BigMike’s weed than all of his other buys put together. But he was getting screwed-over on the prices and Mike knew it.
He had to connect with the guy or risk losing him. He’d met him a few times before, but each time his middleman was there.
So here’s what he did…
He sold his middleman some weed, and then, from a distance, scoped everything out as the drop went down between his middleman and the buyer. He then jotted down the guys license plate and shot it over to a private investigator, who—for a hundred bucks—ran the plate and pulled the guy’s home number—which was unlisted.
Mike then called the guy, who said he’d been dying to buy from Mike directly. He said he’d been racking with possible ways to connect. He’d even considered scribbling a secret note on one of the bills he bought the weed with, hoping BigMike would see it.
Now that the contact had been made, the floodgates opened. The guy took everything BigMike and his crew could pump out.
Business was booming.
However, the heat from law enforcement was becoming a serious day-to-day issue…
Mike took counter surveillance courses; and soon, was not only monitoring the cops’ phones and radio scanners, and running surveillance from the air, but also took lessons in racecar driving—even entering a few races himself—and learned escape and evasion driving techniques in case he ever had to outrun the flashing red lights of the law.
BigMike also understood that, because of the kind of money he was making, the possibility of being kidnapped was a reality he had to be prepared for. So he learned counter-terrorism techniques and how to drive in case he was under attack or had to evade individuals who might not have had his best intentions in mind.
He learned how to ram cars, do j-turns, flip a car around, and use secret hand signals. He took classes where they executed mock attacks—actually planning simulated kidnappings and going into the field and both evading capture and seizing targets.
Now, around this time he became aware that a few of his grows were under heavy surveillance.
He was in a field, harvesting with his crew. He had his night-vision goggles on, the scanner running, and two guys running counter-surveillance just outside the garden.
While monitoring the scanner, he heard a dispatcher start sending out cars to the grow…
BigMike ordered his men to jump ship.
On the scanner, a voice spat out, “They’re running, they’re running.”
The cops were closing in as he and his team scrambled to escape—everyone following BigMike outta the garden.
He lead his guys along a creek that ran next to a cornfield, and as they were about to hop over it, he sees two men barreling towards them through the field. As he instructs his men to run the other way he hears one of the guys racing towards ‘em holler something out.
And then suddenly…
… An entire group of law enforcement officers was hot on their trail.
On a walkie-talkie Mike is warned by one of his lookouts, “They’re coming in hard. I’ve counted 20 cars so far—local police, sheriffs, and state guys. Get the hell outta there!”
BigMike and his men were trapped inside a one-square-mile area, with four county roads serving as the borders.
He knew that once they crossed over one of the roads they’d have broken the perimeter and would be okay.
He cut-across the road first, didn’t see any cops, and ordered his men to get moving. Headfirst, they ran like hell through a massive cornfield, plunging into the darkness and eventually evading capture.
From then on, his men were like…
“If any shit goes down, just follow BigMike out of the field.”
This was just one of the many close calls BigMike and his crew would encounter.
From there he headed to Wisconsin because he had a souped-up Ultralight there that his buddy wanted, who was going to fly it back to Illinois.
Now, at this point, everyone is warning BigMike that the police are looking for him. Agents even paid a visit to the farmer who’d been storing the Ultralight for him.
Mike urged his friend that even though he had 800 hours of flying experience and a pilot’s license wasn’t required to fly an Ultralight, he should get one anyway, just to be safe.
But the friend refused.
It was an extremely windy day and while making his ascent, the engine seized up. So he does what’s called the impossible turn. He doesn’t put the nose down as he should have and tries to make it back to the runway, where he crashes right in front of BigMike, who drags him from the wreckage.
Covered in blood, with his legs twisted completely around, his beautiful blue eyes turned gray as stone as he died in BigMike’s arms.
Mike was heartbroken.
Now, around 1995, one of Mike’s partners decided that he wanted to do his own thing.
He ends up getting caught and rats out BigMike as part of a plea bargain for a reduced sentence—even though the dude’s grow had nothing to do with Mike.
He tells the cops, “This is the guy you really want.”
He told ‘em how BigMike had airplanes, scanners, night-vision goggles, and was using all these cutting-edge growing methods that no one had ever seen before.
Now, at first, the cops thought the guy was lying…
They’d never heard of anyone running such a sophisticated operation…
However, they soon realized the stories the guy was telling ‘em were true.
When BigMike found out his ex-partner was talking, he vacated his house and moved a girlfriend in. He fully prepared her on how to deal with the police and taught her how to run a surveillance detection route—mapping out the danger zones for her where the cops would most likely try to survey the property from when they came for him.
Well, one day she sees a car parked in one of the danger zones…
So, she strolls up to the car and sees these two guys laying low in the front seats, which were reclined all the way back. She asks if she could help them with anything.
They tell her that they’re just waiting on someone. So she leaves and drives the surveillance detection route that BigMike had laid out for her.
She goes down the street, doubles back and takes notice of all the cars that were coming in the opposite direction. Then, once out of sight, she doubles back again and watches the cars that were coming back her way, knowing that if any of ‘em were the same cars, that would’ve meant that they turned around, and were following her.
And she nailed them dead to rights—she was being followed…
Local law enforcement, the U.S. Marshals, and the DEA were hunting BigMike…
Not only were they trailing his girlfriend around, but they also started kicking in doors, as they tried to flush him out.
With a federal warrant out on him for cultivation, BigMike knew he’d have to get the hell outta Dodge soon.
Even though the informant’s garden had no connection to BigMike in anyway, and law enforcement had zero evidence of his involvement, he was a full-on fugitive.
Living like a 6’7” ghost, he stayed in the same area for about a year.
He completely avoided making eye contact with people, and in his mind, became invisible—which he basically was.
And the whole time he kept growing cannabis both indoors and out.
Being wanted by local, state, and federal authorities wasn’t enough to stop BigMike from growing as much of the highest quality cannabis he possibly could.
Now, during this time, BigMike’s girlfriend turned batshit crazy on him…
Jealous beyond reason, she constantly accused him of looking at other woman, being attracted to other women, and trying to sleep with other women.
She’d scream and yell and demand he leave. So he’d pack his stuff and head for the door, and then she’d threaten him that if he left, the second he was out the door she’d call the police and tell ‘em everything she knew.
In fact, she was so scared that he was going to leave her that, to gain leverage on him, she tried to follow him to his gardens so she could find out where they were at, threatened his friends that she would turn them in for growing, and pulled all kinds of twisted ploys to get to him to stay.
She wasn’t going to let him go for anything, even if it meant extorting him with the threat of a prison sentence to force him to stay.
So, BigMike did what any good pot grower would do in this situation…
Keeping a “go-bag” packed at all times—complete with a brand new identification—he sent her off to a modeling gig in New York, left her $13,000, all the furniture in the house, and made a run for it.
So now…
…he’s hiding from the police, the DEA, the U.S. Marshals and a crazy ex-girlfriend.
He escapes to Southern California…
It’s now the mid-’90s and he’s living and growing in a small town right off the beautiful Pacific Coast.
But he makes a mistake…
You see, Mike made all his calls using calling cards—using only one card per call. After he’d make a call, he’d destroy the card.
He had a system where the person he was calling would be waiting at a certain time and location with a code encryption sheet Mike had created for ‘em.
But here’s where he screwed up…
He placed two calls on the same card—one to his new girlfriend and another to a guy he realized was working for the feds and trying to set him up.
Immediately realizing his mistake, he warns his girlfriend that the feds are going to pay her a visit and educates her on how to deal with them.
Thankfully, when the feds knocked on her door, she did as BigMike had instructed her to and informed them that she has a lawyer. She was able to keep them at bay for about a week.
And then BigMike receives a call from some dude whose voice he didn’t recognize. The guy asks, “Hey, is this Mike?”
Mike says, “It is.”
“Hang on, someone wants to talk to you.”
His girlfriend hops on the phone and says, “Mike, the DEA and the U.S. Marshals came looking for you. I love you. I’ll always love you. Run as fast and far as you can and never let ‘em catch you.”
He thanked her, hung up, and promptly packed up his belongings and blew town.
Now, since he was low on cash, and needed money to grow, he sold all his furniture to the brother-in-law of a friend.
But there was a problem…
The guy had to retrieve the furniture from the house.
From BigMike’s time spent studying counter surveillance, he knew they needed a backstory…
So he makes a fake ad—like one of those flyers you see on cork boards—and tells the guy that if the feds come around when he’s loading up the furniture, just tell them that he’d contacted the seller from the ad—which had the number to a pay-as-you-go burner on it that couldn’t be traced back to Mike.
Well, wouldn’t you know it…
As the guy’s huffing out the furniture, the U.S. Marshals arrive wanting to know where Mike was. So he handed them the fake ad.
With law enforcement one short step behind him, BigMike relocated about 45 minutes east to the town of Temecula, California.
Now, because he was out of money, he had to turn a crop…
So he sets up a 10-light operation and lives like a hermit as he waits to reap the fruits of his labor.
However, about two weeks before harvest, a brush fire breaks out and is burning all the fields around his house.
With massive winds blowing his direction, a 20-foot-high wall of flames heads straight toward him.
As police and fire helicopters buzz over his house, a cop knocks on his door and tells him to evacuate…
But BigMike decides to stay.
He packs some personal belongings into his car in case he needs to bail, and sits watching live news footage of the out-of-control fire looming over him.
And as he’s watching, he sees his house on the news…
Here he is holed up with his little green beauties, and people all across Southern California are eyeballing his house on the 5 o’clock news!
Fortunately, after many hours that seemed to stretch out for days, the fire was finally contained.
BigMike and his plants were safe.
His entire future hung on this one crop. Beyond what he was growing, he was flat broke. If the crop had failed, he’d be a penniless man on the run.
But it came through and earned him $37,500.
From talking with Marc Emery on the phone, Mike was convinced that Canada was the place to be if he wanted to grow.
So he gave $12,500 to his brother for safekeeping, and headed north to Vancouver with the rest…
When he made it over the border he felt like the weight of the world had been hoisted off his shoulders.
Now in Canada, he gets a new identity—with a new birth certificate, driver’s license, and passport—and hooks up with Marc Emery.
While searching for a place to grow, he meets a guy with some houses near Vancouver.
BigMike looks him dead in the eye and explains that he wants to grow weed in the house…
The two forge a friendship, Mike pays him an extra $500 each month over and above the cost of rent, moves into a house, starts growing, and sells cuttings for five Canadian dollars apiece.
Next, he obtains a wholesale license and opens up a grower consulting service—enabling him to get his hands on some extra product, pull-in a bit of additional profit, and help out a few growers along the way.
He ends up talking to this hydroponic distributor. But since BigMike doesn’t have an actual storefront for his garden center, she won’t sell to him. He’s stunned, because in America if you have your license you could buy and sell equipment no problem.
Well, turns out the distributor owned a bunch of grow stores in the area and just didn’t want anyone competing with her stores.
Fact is, she’d been downright mean to a lot of growers and had earned herself a less than desirable name in the community.
By now, BigMike had almost a decade-and-a-half of growing experience under his belt and had read practically everything that had ever been written about growing marijuana—even though a lot of it was misleading.
Fortunately, he’s a smart dude—a card-carrying member of Mensa actually with a crazy high IQ—and refused to let all the BS information that was permeating the industry hold him back.
The thing you need to understand is…
BigMike LOVES growing cannabis.
Loves it more than anyone I’ve ever met. And I know a ton of growers who love growing marijuana.
He’d sit in his gardens for hours just gazing at all the buds, in awe of their beauty.
And there’s nothing in the world he loves to talk about more than growing. It’s his passion and his purpose.
Another thing BigMike really loves to do is support his fellow growers.
And the garden center allowed him to both talk weed all day and help out those like himself who grew it. He’d found nirvana.
Now, since he was living under a new identity in Canada, he has to get a new pilot’s license to go with the new identity.
He immediately hits it off with his flying instructor. The guy even smuggles Mike’s personal possessions from the U.S. into Canada for him.
Mike teams up with his instructor and together they launch a business called Laughing Moon Seed Company selling seeds…
They put ads in High Times and did well with it—always making sure the customer is happy. If a customer didn’t receive their seeds, they’d send ‘em another packet. And if that packet didn’t make it, they’d send ‘em another one.
Before long the two are doing grows together and—through Mark Emery—meet a couple of older hippy dudes who are breeding and selling.
The four of ‘em get into business together growing outdoors…
BigMike and his flying instructor manage the grows and work the fields with the two hippies.
On top of what they’re growing, Mike begins moving cannabis from a few other guys who’re also growing. But the hippies got a little wigged-out by the volume, so Mike just starts selling it all himself—about 300-400 hundred pounds a week worth—and gives his partners their cut.
NOW BigMike has the money to do some serious growing…
He builds out 200, 300, and even 500-light grows and his crew quickly expands to over two-hundred people.
BigMike felt like the luckiest guy in the world.
The beauty of rural British Columbia would wash over him, leaving him smitten. High in those Canadian mountains, digging the dirt and working the plants, waves of gratitude would overtake him and leave a smile on his face that made its way high up to his ears.
Even though he made a lot more money from the indoor grows, there was something extra special that he loved about growing outdoors in nature.
To conceal how much equipment he was buying, he and two of his partners opened a hydroponic store. Other growers came from all around to purchase equipment.
Business was booming.
Now, around this time, BigMike’s #1 buyer retires, telling Mike he’d made so much money off his weed that he never has to work again and plans on spending the rest of his days just sailing the world.
To return the favor for his newfound freedom, upon cashing out, he gives Mike his buyer.
However…
The buyer only wanted the AAA cannabis that came directly from BigMike’s grows. All the brokered bud Mike brought him was a no-go, even though it was great stuff.
So Mike got busy to meet the demand.
He had multiple outdoor grows going, over a half-dozen houses, some barns, and even a working gold mine…
The gold mine was an F grant—property that had been bestowed to people by the Queen of England from when Canada hooked up with the United Kingdom—which basically made it like its own little country—something the government couldn’t touch.
But before long the Royal Canadian Mounted Police bust a large number of the grows.
They knew BigMike was in charge of the operation, but didn’t know his real name. They knew him as Tom Newman—his alias. Or by Jefferson, a little nickname he’d concocted that pretty much everyone knew him by.
Through a paid agreement with the most violent biker gang in the province, “Jefferson” was receiving classified information on ongoing criminal investigations—who’s going down, who’s talking, that sorta thing.
But soon, the guy with the intel stopped showing up, so BigMike stopped paying—figuring the dude probably just didn’t have any new information to give him.
And then one day, this huge guy—a collector for the biker gang—barges into the hydro store demanding money…
BigMike tells him that he ain’t paying. That the agreement was money for information, not money for nothing.
The collector blows out, and then a month later, another guy shows up. And this guy’s armed and sporting a bullet-proof vest.
Again, Mike refuses to pay.
Then another enforcer shows up. And then another.
Finally, BigMike demands to speak to the guy who’s in charge, and that he wants to do it in a public place.
The meeting is a go and is set up at a local restaurant. From his training in counter-surveillance, Mike knows that if you want the upper-hand, you always wanna arrive early—before the other guy does.
So BigMike drops anchor at the meeting location five hours early, scopes everything out, stations 22 of his men on the inside, along with three men with fully-trained attack dogs he’d imported from Germany, on the outside.
Having to show up in such force made BigMike feel like he’d failed…
He always felt that if he ever put himself in a situation where violence was a real possibility, that somewhere along the line he’d dropped the ball.
But what could he do?
These bikers were known for their brutality and feared by anyone who heard the thunderous war cry of their hogs coming.
Mike was used to dealing with people who were mellow—hippies and nature lovers…tree huggers—non-violent types.
It’s not like he was dealing hard drugs. He was a cannabis grower and wasn’t used to run-ins with guys like these. But he felt he had no other choice than to be well fully prepared should anything go down.
When the meeting began, he and his partner explained to the bikers that they broke their end of the deal and that now all they were doing was just shaking ‘em down—extorting them.
After a TENSE discussion, the bikers reluctantly backed off and that whole headache was a wrap.
And then…
BigMike made a decision that would change our community forever…
You see, he was never happy with the nutrients he was getting.
And from his years of research, and trial and error in the trenches, he knew he could formulate something MUCH better. Fertilizer optimized for cannabis
So Mike began designing his own nutrients.
And the results were mind-boggling.
Soon, other growers used his nutrients, and were blown away with the effect it had on their cannabis.
They urged BigMike to start a nutrient business.
And he did…
He launched Advanced Nutrients—the world’s first complete cannabis growing system.
This not only ensured his plants received nothing but the absolute best nutrients possible, it also enabled him to do one of his favorite things in the entire world—help his fellow growers.
Plus, it kept him at the forefront of the science of cannabis cultivation in a way that just wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
Along with his two partners, he set up shop and never looked back.
Now, around this same time…
BigMike found out about a meeting that the DEA and RCMP were having at a local hotel…
So he had someone who worked at the hotel go into the meeting room and do a little snooping around for him.
The hotel worker reported that there was a board with a giant pyramid of pictures. The pictures were of suspects. And BigMike was at the top.
Now, he already knew he was being watched, but he had mouths to feed.
So he just let the feds do their thing while he did his.
He was going 240 miles per hour with his hair on fire and was about to fly off a cliff.
In hindsight, he knows this is when he should’ve retired. But with his love of growing, the two hundred mouths he had to feed, and all the adrenaline and money pouring in…
…he couldn’t.
He was a man on a mission and nothing was going to stop him.
So he kept running hard.
Until finally, he sat down with his partners and said, “Listen, the way we’re running right now, it’s not a matter of if we’re going to get busted, it’s only a matter of when. We need to be prepared.”
He hired a powerhouse team of attorneys and prepped them for what he knew was coming. He even had them put on a seminar for his crew. The lawyers explained what to do and how to act should anything go down.
By now, members of the organization were dropping like flies. The clank of handcuffs could be heard across all of British Columbia.
The feds were systematically picking apart the entire organization.
BigMike wasn’t discouraged though.
He married a woman he’d fallen in love with, was skyrocketing his risky business to the moon, and couldn’t have been happier.
He even told his new wife everything about him—including his real name. He trusted her and felt it was the right thing to do.
And guess what she does?
She completely drops the ball and blabs to a few of her friends that Mike isn’t who he says he is. It soon gets back to the police that he’s living under an assumed name.
So, one day he receives a call from his lawyer alerting him that there’s a problem with his citizenship application. BigMike tells his lawyer that he flat-out knows he’s about to be arrested.
He then explains to his wife, “Listen…this is the time when I normally would run. But I’m in love with you, and I want to be with you. Are you going to stand by me through thick and thin?”
She said, “Absolutely.”
So BigMike prepares her mentally for what was about to go down—step by step.
And then one morning, after pulling out of his driveway, he’s pulled over and arrested.
He’s denied bail on the basis that he’s a flight risk.
They raid the house he lives in with his wife, rip her wedding ring right off her finger—arguing that it came from drug proceeds—and interrogate and physiologically abuse her until, finally, she caves.
While in jail, BigMike goes to the eye doctor for a medical procedure. He had corneal transplants and thought one of the stitches had popped loose.
Hands and legs shackled like a serial killer, donning a big red jumpsuit, and escorted by armed jail guards, he’s trotted through a busy medical building.
Mothers clutched their children in fear, trying to protect them from the big scary monster.
All he could think was…
“I’m not a murderer, I’m a pot grower”
One morning, Mike is loaded onto a paddy wagon to be taken to court.
And who’s on the bus?
His two partners.
The Advanced Nutrients office and warehouse had been raided.
RCMP mounties had even pointed guns at the secretaries and forced them to the floor.
By 2001, BigMike had 1,496 thousand-watt lights going at one time, plus over a hundred lights for mother plants and cuttings, as well as numerous large-scale outdoor grows.
His crew was two hundred-people strong—growers, trimmers, construction workers, electricians, air-conditioning guys, runners…the works.
And now, it was all coming to an end.
The Canadian Government froze his bank accounts, seized over $1 million in assets, confiscated both business and personal records, and completely disrupted both his personal finances and the finances of Advanced Nutrients.
But since the government had no proof that BigMike had broken any cannabis laws —the charges were stayed and his property was returned.
However, Advanced Nutrients was over $1 million in debt. And with the company only pulling in $2 million a year, it was in deep trouble.
Mike was unable to run the hydroponic store and nutrient business while he sat in jail…
… And the bust was very public.
Growers were nervous…
They were scared to do business with the store—worried that they’d end up on law enforcement’s radar and be arrested.
Fortunately, for some reason, the feds hadn’t seized the inventory of hydro equipment and nutrients.
So Mike, his brother John, and his partners traveled from store to store, selling their nutrients and building the company.
They trudged forward and kept selling and selling.
And when medical marijuana became legal in British Columbia, BigMike opened the first commercial dispensary in BC. However, it only stayed open for two months before being shut down.
He then headed over to the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) so he could get their help running in-depth testing on cannabis.
BCIT had the license to run tests, and BC Research—the research arm of UBC— did the analyses.
Mike grew multiple strains of weed and supplied them with root, stalk, leaf, and bud samples during all the different weeks of the vegetative and flowering stages.
He took note of what the plants were up-taking, and then, from the data received from the samples, formulated his nutrient line based on what was getting the best results.
Furthermore, Mike spent thousands of hours going to the UBC’s reference library and devouring every book, paper, report, study, and magazine on plant research he could get his paws on.
He invested a fortune on research books. These books were expensive. For one book alone—on humic acids—he shelled out $3,300…for one book!
He dug up obscure cannabis research papers from Russia done in the 1920’s and 30’s—some as early as 1904—had them translated to English and studied it relentlessly.
BigMike was a research machine…
He discovered all these different things you can do with plants that no one else in the industry knew about.
On top of the tests he was running with UBC and BCIT, Mike obsessively performed endless tests of his own.
Running his own R&D, he tested and tested and tested and slowly figured out the things that optimize the growth of cannabis and can escalate it to its true genetic potential.
He also sought out the best scientists in the world.
He went to plant science conferences and befriended the scientists.
Some of them had spent 40 years doing nothing but plant research. Their wealth of knowledge was immense.
Now, some of the stuff didn’t work on cannabis, but a lot of it did.
Mike was in heaven…
He was uncovering the unknown secrets to growing the absolute best cannabis possible.
His knowledge of growing to this point had been far beyond extensive—it was mammoth. But now he was able to take things to a whole-nother level.
A level the world had not yet seen.
BigMike published some of his findings, which revealed gaping holes in most of the nutrients on the market.
Soon, other nutrient companies built their own lines based on Mike’s research. He didn’t care though; he wanted to give his research away freely so the cultivation of marijuana could evolve.
And then, early one morning in 2004, Mike was spending some quality time with his daughter, like he did every morning. They ate breakfast, played, had meaningful conversations in toddler gibberish, and read storybooks together.
All of a sudden, he hears loud voices from outside yelling, “Michael Straumietis, get out here!”
He peers out the window and sees Canadian Royal Mounted Police officers standing at the front gate of his property…
He opens the front door and is immediately handcuffed, dragged away from his child, hurled into the back of a car, and informed that he was being taken to the border.
Because of his bust four years earlier—when the feds failed to build a case against him for growing—they decided to just kidnap him and kick him out of the country.
Fortunately, his housekeeper was there to stay with his daughter until his wife got home.
BigMike told the officers that they couldn’t just take him out of the country because it was illegal and that what they were doing was actually kidnapping him, making them no better than any other criminal.
He demanded to be taken to a judge, because the law states that’s what they have to do.
He pleaded that because he had a young Canadian daughter to care for, taking him out of the country would be detrimental to her welfare. That the law states they have to put the best interest of the Canadian child first.
The officers informed him that he would not be able to see a judge, and would be taken straight to the border.
And that’s exactly what they did…
About fifty yards from the border, they stop and a plain-clothes RCMP officer gives ‘em a pep talk.
Being watched by their peers, they drive Mike right up to the line, then pause for a moment and stare at each other, just like Thelma and Louise did before they flew off that cliff into the Grand Canyon.
One officer asked the other, “Should we really do this?”
Before answering, he just sat there for a moment—realizing that what they were doing was wrong—and then after a long pause says, “Yeah, we have to.”
Mike was then taken over the border, into the United States, and handed over to U.S. border agents—separated from his family, friends, home, and business.
At first, he was devastated…
But if BigMike had learned one thing through the years of dealing with the ups and downs that come with being a full-time cannabis grower, it was that feeling sorry for himself wasn’t going to get him anywhere.
He saw two roads ahead of him…
One, where he could let the circumstances destroy him.
And the other, where he would transform the situation into rocket fuel for bigger and better things. And that’s the road he decided to take, the one with the rocket fuel.
He relocated his family to Washington for a few months and then to sunny Southern California.
He doubled-up his efforts, networked like crazy, and learned everything he could about business, marketing, and making an impact on the world.
He worked harder, longer, and smarter—devouring all the books and courses he could.
He resolved that he would use this experience—along with every seemingly negative thing that had ever happened to him in his life—to empower the lives of other growers.
And today, BigMike believes that being forced out of Canada by the RCMP was one of the best things that ever happened to him.
It’s what enabled him to catapult Advanced Nutrients to where it is today.
Napoleon Hill once said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” And BigMike believes that nothing could be closer to the truth. He knows that our greatest gifts arise from the ashes of our toughest challenges.
Now, there were still lots of obstacles in front of him. But once he got it in his gut that nothing was going to stand in his way, challenges became something he ate for breakfast and passed through his system by noon.
Over the coming years, BigMike took Advanced Nutrients from $5 million-a-year to an over $100 million-a-year with clients in 107 countries and counting.
He became the technical advisor on the hit TV series Weeds and the films Leaves of Grass and Pineapple Express.
BigMike and Advanced Nutrients has been featured on the shows CSI and The Closer; on networks like Showtime, HBO, TNT, CBS, Fox, and CNN; as well as in Playboy, Reuters, and Forbes.
He even developed a team of over two-dozen PhD’s to engineer precision nutrients that would not only optimize quality, flavor, and yield, but produce clean-burning medical-grade cannabis, free of heavy metals.
And BigMike became the first person to yield over two pounds per 1000-watt light and teach growers how to consistently do the same. Growers used to struggle to turnout even one pound per light. But Mike changed all that. He was Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile all over again.
In fact, since its inception, Advanced Nutrients has brought 53 firsts to the world of cannabis growing.
The cannabis we all get to enjoy today is better because of BigMike.
In 2003, BigMike supplied nutrients to Dr. Elsaholy—from the University of Mississippi—who runs extensive testing on genetics, yield size, and THC levels.
Using Advanced Nutrients’ 2003 second generation of nutrients—Advanced Nutrients is currently on its eighth generation of nutrients, BTW—Dr. Elsaholy, was able to increase bud weight by over 21% and THC levels by over 40%, as compared to when using other nutrients.
These are the kinds of results growers are achieving when they nourish their plants with Advanced Nutrients.
Now, like many of us in our community, BigMike loves nothing more than gazing at big juicy colas in one of his gardens, enjoying a fatty with friends, and continuing his quest for the perfect bud and taking marijuana to its true genetic potential.
But it almost all came to an end in 2011…
While undergoing an operation, BigMike completely flat-lined…
He died on the operating table.
He recalls being in some kind of futuristic oval-shaped room, seeing a bright light and being surrounded 360 degrees by these black towers that looked like some kind of medical equipment from the future—like something out of a Star Wars movie.
The equipment was nothing like what they had in the hospital he was at—or at any present-day hospital for that matter.
He felt some kind of deep understanding that he was receiving lessons he was supposed to take back with him to this side of the grass.
Fortunately, the doctors were finally able to revive him.
After they brought him back, he noticed something strange.
It was as if a part of him died right there on the table and never came back.
One day it was there, holding him back from being of maximal use to his fellow man, and the next day—“POOF!”—it was gone.
Something inside of him had shifted.
BigMike was transformed. He felt called to help humanity.
And ever since, he’s been spending more time than ever focused on making a positive impact on the lives of others.
The old-self that he left on that surgical table was replaced with a sincere desire to serve his fellow man to the absolute best of his abilities.
Now, he’ll be the last one to tell you he’s filled with nothing but altruistic tendencies. Because that’s not how it is.
Like all of us, he enjoys his piece of the pie; he just wants to make sure everyone else gets to enjoy a yummy piece of pie as well.
BigMike and Advanced Nutrients have long been known for their philanthropy work.
Advanced Nutrients…
- Donates nutrients to a charitable program called Archie’s Acres that helps ease the pain and suffering of injured war veterans.
- Gives away millions of dollars worth of nutrients to assist the sick, needy, and dying people of the world.
- Constructs classrooms in Uganda.
- Lends seed money to people in developing countries who dream of starting a small business but simply can’t afford to do so.
- Donates heavily to MPP—the Marijuana Policy Project—and has for many years.
- Built a grow room for CannaMoms, so children who suffer from conditions such as epilepsy and cancer can get the medicine they need.
Living in Bulgaria in 2012 BigMike was saddened by the poverty and oppression he saw in the country.
So he launched Holiday Heroes, a non-profit organization to support Bulgarian families in need.
He rallied food and beverage companies, and with the support of corporate donations, provided over 27,500 families with celebratory meals for the Christmas and Easter seasons along with tens of thousands of toys for children who would otherwise go without gifts.
But Holiday Heroes was only a start.
BigMike soon relocated to Los Angeles, where he witnessed the dire conditions the unsheltered community of Los Angeles faces on a daily basis.
The stark reality had a profound impact on him.
Having enjoyed a great deal of success in the business world, including founding and running Advanced Nutrients, BigMike lives by the mantra that, if a company has the financial resources, then it has a social responsibility to help humanity.
So he spearheaded efforts in Los Angeles to improve the quality of life for the unsheltered. In 2016, he founded Humanity Heroes, which, to date, has helped over 60,000 homeless individuals and families, and has partnered with seventeen homeless shelters and charities.
Humanity Heroes’ Direct Action campaigns give much-needed resources directly to the people living on the streets of Skid Row.
They’ve provided thousands of “Humanity Packs” filled with living supplies to homeless on the streets and in shelters.
And when the coronavirus hit, Humanity Heroes sprung into action and donated 17,000 masks to homeless shelters and community organizations to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Los Angeles.
How the heck does he do it all? That’s what I want to know.
And lately, he’s been busier than ever!
For example…
He just launched Advanced Hemp, the world’s first hemp-specific fertilizer, formulated to maximize hemp CBD production and yields.
He also launched his own line of cannabis…
BigMike’s Blends contains science-backed, proprietary cannabinoid-terpene profiles that deliver precise outcomes no single strain can achieve.
You see, BigMike knows that an optimal cannabis experience requires more than just THC. It requires cannabinoids and terpenes in specific ratios. And while strains may have high levels of THC, no strain has a cannabinoid-terpene profile optimized for effect.
This is why BigMike’s Blends combine strains in exact ratios to achieve precise cannabinoid-terpene profiles that deliver the specific outcome consumers want
He also recently created his own reality television show, Next Marijuana Millionaire.
The show pits entrepreneurs against each other to find the person most capable of launching a successful cannabis business.
In the finale, BigMike chooses a winner based on who showed the greatest potential for success in the cannabis industry.
The winner receives $1,000,000 of cash and funding and gets to launch their business in partnership with BigMike and receive personalized, one-on-one mentoring from him.
He created this show to give back to the cannabis community.
BigMike was sick and tired of seeing members of our community portrayed in negative stereotypical ways and wanted to introduce the REAL faces of cannabis to the mainstream population.
It’s no wonder that…
BigMike is known as the most successful cannabis entrepreneur on the planet.
And Advanced Nutrients, the most profitable company in cannabis.
No one is pushing the science as far or bringing cannabis closer to its true genetic potential than BigMike is.
He’s also leading the fight for legalization and grower-friendly regulations.
He educates our community on how to hold lawmakers accountable.
He pushes lawmakers to make the right decisions when it comes to:
- Medical marijuana legalization.
- Legalization for recreational adult use.
- Fair permitting.
- Lower taxation.
- Cannabis usury laws.
No one is on the cutting edge of cannabis like BigMike.
Here he is discussing the cannabis industry Kennedy on the Fox Business Network…
Pretty neat for an outlaw pot grower, huh?
And here he’s discussing our industry on Yahoo Finance…
And here he is on Cheddar…
He’s been featured on the cover of every major cannabis magazine.
Including mg, Culture, and High Times…
That’s him on the cover of High Times being featured on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher…
He’s connected at the highest levels and has cannabis-loving A-list celebrities over to his mansion on a regular basis.
Here’s California Governor Gavin Newsom at one of his parties (BigMike throws EPIC parties)…
It’s easy to see why people call BigMike the Godfather of Good Cannabis.
The King of Weed.
The Marijuana Don.
He’s overseen the cultivation of millions of cannabis plants.
He developed the world’s first complete cannabis growing system.
The fact is…
If you grow or consume cannabis, you’ve benefited from something BigMike has done.
And do you know what his mission in life is?
It’s not to make as much money as possible—the money is a fringe benefit that comes from his love for the plant.
It’s not the wealthy cannabis lifestyle he shares with his 2.7 million Instagram followers…
Make no mistake, he loves the freedom the money gives him. The experiences it enables him to have. The impact it enables him to make.
And as a small-town kid from the midwest, whose family struggled to get by, he never thought he’d be traveling the world in his own private jet.
(Standing 6’7″ makes flying Southwest a challenge.)
But it’s not the money and lifestyle and travel that fulfills him.
What really excites BigMike is making cannabis an acceptable and everyday part of healing humanity.
That—along with bringing cannabis to its true genetic potential—is what drives him.
He wants people to be able to enjoy the cleanest, best cannabis possible and make the mainstream public aware of its healing powers.
Now, I’ve seen some people in the grow forums talk smack about BigMike.
But these people don’t know him.
Many of them are just shills on the payroll of his competitors. Others are trolls who prefer to spend their time on forums bashing others instead of making something of their life. It’s easier to point the finger at others than it is at yourself.
Mike’s been growing longer than many of these haters have been alive, and has easily harvested more in one grow than they have since the day their tiny little baby heads first popped outta their mama.
One thing is undeniable…
Everyone understands that Advanced Nutrients is the best.
There’s simply no disputing it.
They are the #1-selling cannabis nutrient in the world, period.
They invest more in research and development than any other company. No other brand has anywhere near the science behind it.
With 8 out of 10 cannabis cup winners using Advanced Nutrients, they’re behind more cannabis cup wins than every other company put together.
As growers, we all take hits from time to time…no pun intended.
And BigMike takes the hits with us, and often for us.
He understands what we go through because he’s gone through it himself. He knows what it’s like to live in fear of having your door kicked in. He’s been ripped off by thieves and busted by cops. He’s had crops fail.
He knows what it’s like to have your entire life riding on a single grow.
When he was a wanted man living in Temecula, had that crop not come through, he never would’ve made it to Canada.
That crop had to come in…it had to.
BigMike understands how we feel—he’s lived it.
He knows what keeps us up at night. It’s the very same thing that’s kept him up at night—for decades.
He knows all about getting your doors kicked in; about thieves, diseases, pests, unstable pH, issues with grow room conditions—including temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, etc—equipment and timer failure, and all the other variables that can cause a crop to completely bottom out.
He thinks about this stuff all the time. He thinks about the guy who’s dishing out the money—paying $100 for a bottle of his nutrients.
It better work—it absolutely has to, has to, has to work—or BigMike ain’t putting it out there.
People think that growing cannabis is easy money. But just like you and me, BigMike knows that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Growing is some of the hardest work you’ll ever do in your life. And it’s a risky business. It’s not for the weak, meek, or lazy.
BigMike is in the trenches with us.
And Advanced Nutrients has been the only nutrient company that’s peeled back its curtains and been 100% open and honest about what its nutrients are used for.
Even today, as the growing and use of marijuana becomes accepted by more people and laws are changing in our favor, the other nutrient companies won’t say, “We’re for pot growers.” They say, “Oh no, our stuff is for growing tomatoes and roses with. If people use it for pot, that’s not its intended use, but okay, maybe some people do use it for pot. We wouldn’t know anything about that if they did, though.”
They say this while posting record profits they pull-in directly from our community.
BigMike doesn’t do that…
He’s admitted what his nutrients are for right from the start.
He’s never once tried to conceal it. Never once hid behind a tomato.
I’ve heard people say that Advanced Nutrients is capitalizing off the patients’ backs.
Well, I say let’s call it like it is…
Advanced Nutrients is moving the industry forward and helping people grow the absolute best marijuana possible.
But it is a business. And to be a business, you have to profit.
And it’s this profit that allows Advanced Nutrients to do so many of the things that support, legitimize, and empower our community.
Without the profits, there could be no help.
BigMike stands shoulder to shoulder with us while the other nutrients companies turn their backs on us, and deny the true intentions of their products.
Sure, they’ll take our money, but they don’t give back to our community, won’t admit what their products are for, and wouldn’t be caught dead in one of our gardens.
Mike has had his doors kicked in by the U.S. Marshals, the RCMP, and the DEA…
He’s been persecuted, harassed, and criticized at every stop.
Mike didn’t sit around one day and go, “Gee, I want to make a bunch of money off growers’ backs.”
No.
What he did say was…
“I wanna grow the most absolute bomb cannabis I possibly can and help others do the same, so we can all enjoy some seriously deliciously mind-blowing cannabis and make a heck of a lot of money together.”
BigMike is a grower, advocate, and medical marijuana patient.
In fact, he’s had three corneal transplants. Without smoking cannabis, his inner ocular eye pressure is 18/24—24 is super high. It’s borderline glaucoma. Smoking weed dropped his eye pressure down to 8/9.
BigMike takes what he learns, not just from the hours he spends reading and studying, but from the experience of his life—his trials, aggravations, and research—and from the millions of dollars he’s invested in evolving the way cannabis is grown.
And he shares it with our community.
BigMike’s been unfairly discriminated against for telling the truth…
His products have been blackballed by hypocritical distributors who actually sent out an opinion letter written by lawyers that warned If you buy from Advanced Nutrients, you could be arrested by the federal government.
Hydrofarm, Sunlight Supply, Botanicare, and Larry Brooks from General Hydroponics have continuously run smear campaigns against BigMike and Advanced Nutrients.
Why?
Because Mike’s never been afraid to admit what his nutrients are for.
And yeah, the guy’s made mistakes, a ton of them.
But mistakes are how you learn.
Like Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Mike’s actually made a lot of mistakes for us, so that you and I don’t have to.
I wouldn’t be growing cannabis today if it wasn’t for BigMike.
And I know a lot of other growers feel the same.
In fact…
If you grow or consume cannabis, you’ve benefited from something BigMike has done
It’s good to have people like him in our community.
Cannabis growers and entrepreneurs who are honest about who they are, willing to admit their flaws and mistakes, take a stand for what they believe in, and lend a hand to fellow growers in need.
It’s no secret that Advanced Nutrients is the best cannabis fertilizer brand on the market.
It’s no secret that they treat their customers (in 107 countries) better than any other company in our industry.
It’s no secret that they are not only changing the future of cannabis growing, but are also committed to making the world a better place in the process.
A world where cannabis an acceptable and everyday part of healing humanity.
There were some things about BigMike and Advanced Nutrients that I thought you should know. So that’s why I wrote this for you.
I wanted you know the truth about the man and his company.
Sincerely,
Eljay Cathcart
