Whether sparking one up is a guilty pleasure of yours or you are loud and proud with it, the cannabis industry is skyrocketing!
As multiple states legalize weed and the industry experiences a boom of CBD Hemp healing, sales, and usage, it's safe to say that this industry is a shoo-in for profit where WOC can cash in. And they can do so all while making a difference in reversing the effects of the "War on Drugs," eradicating the stigma of cannabis use, and incorporating marijuana into spirituality, creativity, and alternative or holistic healing.
I had a sit down with ganja veteran Khadijah Adams in the cannabis industry who is the vice president and COO of C.E. Hutton, a business development company seeking to help minority-led cannabis businesses. Underneath C.E. Hutton, Khadijah also offers a line of exclusive cannabis products through CBD Well 101. She has been a pioneer for black and brown women looking to tap into the industry, sitting on the board of the National Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, the Executive Committee of the Minority Business Council (MBC) of the National Cannabis Industry Association. (NCIA)
Read on for details about Khadijah's journey, the cannabis business basics, as well as a few other millennial WOC who are legally jumping on the bandwagon and turning marijuana into money. You never know, this may spark up a few cannabis entrepreneurial ideas of your own!
How She Overcame Fear and Took A Leap of Faith Into The Legal Cannabis Industry:
"When Colorado announced they were legalizing cannabis for recreational consumption, I sent a blast text message to over 200+ people informing them that 'everything must go.' The message was well received by some and refused by others and honestly, I didn't care one bit. My only concern was that I had the support of my four sons, two of whom are Christian Ministers in Texas. They didn't like the idea of me leaving Sugar Land, Texas to enter an illegal industry, and especially moving to a state that is only 8% African American. Surprisingly, they were very supportive! So, I proceeded to sell everything in my house at a garage sale; except for my car, clothes, cell, and computer. And on March 14, 2014, I drove to Colorado, and positioned in the industry almost immediately through collaborations and making the right connections."
Why Women of Color Should Cash Into The Cannabis Game:
"This is a newly statewide legal industry and 29 states out of 50 have legalized for recreational or medicinal consumption. That in itself reeks of 'opportunity' and many women of color are transitioning from corporate America, or are transitioning their current companies into the cannabis space because the opportunity is much bigger here than in traditional industries. Also, we are natural nurturers, and our first instinct is to help people. Whole plant medicine and CBDs are helping people."
How The Legal Cannabis Industry Can Be As A Tool To In Black and Brown Communities:
"As people of color, we have been systematically plagued with the stigma of marijuana; we have been beaten, killed, and imprisoned for over 80+ years because of lies, greed, and blatant discrimination. This industry was built on our backs and is now being legalized across America and dominated by many who have not suffered one bit from the 'War on Drugs,' and by some who laugh about their one-time overnight jail time and small slap on the wrist. While most people of color are still scared to enter this industry, the ones who are in the industry are still fighting for inclusion.
"As people of color, we should want to learn more about this industry, re-educate ourselves with the truth about cannabis and help to dispel the lies and hatred surrounding our community, as it relates to the stigma that's been created. Most importantly, we should want to position ourselves in this industry, aim for creating generational wealth for our families, with hopes of one day restoring our communities."
Obstacles To Overcome as WOC in The Legal Cannabis Industry:
"Access and capital are two of the main difficulties for WOC looking to gain entry into this industry. Many people of color are looking to connect to the right people to help them position, and in most cases, people who look like us. Truth is, many of us don't have the necessary capital to support our dreams or ideas. For most who have positioned in this industry, find it hard to obtain the capital needed to expand."
Her Greatest Accomplishment:
"My biggest accomplishments in the industry was selling my previous company, MIPR Holdings, LLC. My ultimate goal is to help a lot of people look and feel better with whole plant medicine and CBDS while also creating generational wealth and helping others do the same."
What She Smokes:
"I'm a Sativa lover with a very high tolerance. I combine Trainwreck, Lavender Jones, and Lemon Skunk. I call it a 'fruit bowl of love.'"
Her Advice To Newbies:
- Learn the medical and/or adult use laws in your home state.
- Get involved with your local cannabis advocates and activists in your community, such as Marijuana Policy Project, NORML, and the NCIA, etc.
- Connect to leaders with proven track records in this industry to help mentor you, then listen to them when they give advice. Let your final decision be the one that you make.
- Connect with positive people who will encourage you and hold you accountable.
- Learn as much as possible about the field you intend on entering, and volunteer at as many events surrounding your field, as much as you can, because on the job training is the actual education!
For more inspiration for getting involved in the cannabis industry, follow these 5 millennial WOC killing it in the weed game!
1.Mary Pryor, @Cannaclusive
Mary Pryor
Women's Freedom Conference
Mary Pryor is an alternative healer, and a co-founder of Cannaclusive, which was established to facilitate fair representation of minority cannabis consumers. Her company celebrates the cultures of the thriving cannabis community, by curating experiences, groundbreaking insights, thoughtful content and dynamic visuals; making it easier for brands to communicate with diverse audiences and rally in the fight for legalization and de-stigmatization of marijuana.
2.Joy Victoria Clarke, @Mahogany.mary
Founder of Mahogany Mary, Joy Victoria Clarke
Joy Victoria Clarke/Mahogany Mary
Joy Victoria Clarke is the founder of Mahogany Mary, a cannabis event curation service based in LA. Her idea behind creating her company is to address the lack of diversity in the legal cannabis industry by making people understand that "weed is only the beginning of plant based medicine."
3.Mary & Main, @Maryandmain
Hope Wiseman/Instagram
WAGS Atlanta castmember Hope Wiseman made an even bigger name for herself after becoming the youngest dispensary owner in the United States at age 25. She is the founder of Mary and Main, a Maryland-based dispensary.
4.Chef Megon Dee-Cave, @Chefmegondeecave
PHOTO BY FLUFFY POP POSTCARDS@FLUFFYPOPPOSTCARDS.
Chef Megon Dee-Cave is a talented canna-chef and is the kitchen manager at Little House Foods, a Portland-based cannabis infused foods company. She is also the CEO and founder of Oracle Infused, "a lifestyle brand that provides experiences, products, and information that is cannabis inclusive."
5.Amanya Maloba, Janice Ibarra, & Vanity Thomas, @Womenweedwifi
The ladies behind Women.Weed.Wifi
These three WOC in cannabis are the super dynamic girl gang trio of ganjapreneurs and cannabis advocates who started the Women.Weed.Wifi Collective with a mission to "Uplift, unite, and enrich creatives of color - and beyond within the cannabis community." This collective serves as a source of commerce and inspiration, as well as a platform combining spiritual and artistic pursuits.
Featured photo by Joy Victoria Clarke/Mahogany Mary
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak