Cannabis Entrepreneur

Cannabis has become part of my identity. Funny, but strangely true. As I enter yet another transition in my life, I wonder what my dad’s opinion would have been of The Canna Mom Show. Would he have encouraged me to dig deep into an entrepreneurial rabbit hole encouraging me with bit of hard earned wisdom. Or, more likely, knowing him, would he have gotten a good laugh.

The trajectory to this point in my professional life would not have been obvious to him twenty-one years ago, when he died just ten days before my son was born. He never got to see me as a mom or get my diploma from law school. But he supported my decisions to be me all my life so I’m not sure anything would have surprised him.

My dad was a conservative business owner who worked a job he did not want to meet his family’s expectations. I never really considered him an entrepreneur because “the business” was more like a sibling and not suited to something that sounded so interesting. And as the child of a small- business owner I saw up close the effort it took to maintain one. Needless to say, I’ve always been very reluctant to even consider starting one.

Regardless, that’s what I’ve done. And I’ve come to understand that a gift from my reluctant businessman father was a model of good business stewardship. From him I learned how important it is to give other leaders the freedom to lead and to treat those who work for you with respect and dignity. And as a bit of a bossy girl and independent thinker, I’ve always felt comfortable telling other people what to do. But I’m afraid my independence has made me unmanageable, and I’ve begun to think that maybe that’s why I’ve been having such a hard time holding down a well-paying job.

Then, just a few days ago, I was listening The Media Lab podcast on NPR when they were interviewing the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard. He most amusingly described entrepreneurs as juvenile delinquents, which just made me laugh out loud. Maybe the things that has caused me such pain , my independence and bossy point of view. is the thing that will help me succeed this time. If you believe in the philosophy of Yvon Chouinard, who built Patagonia from the ground up because he wanted something better and didn’t see why he shouldn’t be the person to build it, then you can imagine The Canna Mom Show succeeding too.

Just like so many of you, I am learning about this new cannabis world because of my personal curiosity. And I understand that because cannabis touches so many areas of society from criminal justice to climate change to banking, we are all motivated by our own personal, political or business interests. Yvon Chouinard spoke frankly about his idea that people often don’t know what they want, but if you create something that you want yourself there is probably a market out there for it. I want to hear all these stories so there must be others too.

Of all the things he spoke about on The Media Lab, it was his leadership advice that heartened me the most. He advised hiring people who know what their job is and have them do it well. He said to hire motivated and independent people and let them be that way. His only caveat to achieving Patagonia’s miraculous management style was that it had to start with hire one. And if you are able to find that right fit, expect that person to stay forever because this management style creates a very loyal workforce, but probably makes them unemployable anywhere else. And my first hire, Amie, is definitely a perfect fit.

As cannabis continues to be covered from angles that focus on negativity and problems or simply as a funny joke, the truth of the work being done for health and wellness is starting to get lost. We believe there needs to be a place to engage with the cannabis world that explains the industry, this business, in reasonable and rational terms and, hopefully, is a little entertaining.

We understand cannabis is not the cure for everything in our fractured world, but it has an important role to play in our future. At The Canna Mom Show we are creating a new perspective, so we can all see something we didn’t know we needed to see. The branches of the cannabis story are long and complicated and at The Canna Mom Show we are looking forward to telling everyone’s stories. We want to be a player, so we’re creating our own game.

Look at me dad, I’m a cannabis entrepreneur.