![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2122-1.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Since its establishment in 2010, Bhang has grown into one of the industry\u2019s most robust brands. Famous for its line of delicious gourmet chocolates, Bhang also offers pre-rolls, Hempsticks Jamie Pearson, Bhang<\/a>\u2019s President and CEO, joined the company in 2016, after a 25-year-long career in real estate. The move was motivated by her professional and personal experience with cannabis \u2013 mainly, her familial ties to the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n With her dad\u2019s long history of growing cannabis in Montana, Pearson explains how she grew up around the plant from a young age.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been growing marijuana for 55-plus years,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no stigma in my family around it.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Pearson was comfortable around cannabis, she had no desire to be involved in it.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a product of my environment and the times we grew up in,\u201d she said. \u201cMy small town in Montana is super conservative, where basketball was religion and the stigma around cannabis was powerful. I chose the path of the athlete, and there was never any pressure from my family to do anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n An avid athlete, Pearson played basketball in high school, college and for one of the Team USA feeder teams that traveled to the Soviet Union in 1987. \u201cMarijuana wasn\u2019t my thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt never would have occurred to me as an athlete that it could enhance my training, or any of the things that I know about it now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Years later, while Pearson was in law school, her first cousin, DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill, lit a joint on Saturday Night Live. The legendary moment<\/a> landed the band on SNL\u2019s \u201cbanned for life\u201d list. Muggs played a pivotal role in Pearson\u2019s professional move into the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n Formal schooling wasn\u2019t a prerequisite for Pearson\u2019s success, though she has a BA from Vassar College and a master\u2019s degree in leadership from the University of Oregon. While she had once planned to be a teacher or college professor, she exhibited a natural flair for business from the get-go.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in elementary school\u2026we lived a few miles from the Tijuana border in Chula Vista. I used to go to TJ with my uncle and buy bags of Mexican candy, then sell it by the piece to kids from my school,\u201d she explained. \u201cBeing an entrepreneur has always been part of my DNA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The next step for Pearson was founding a real estate investors\u2019 association and later a celebrity cannabis marketing firm. As a real estate investor, Pearson along with her cousin DJ Muggs. \u00a0bought two cannabis cultivation operations: a farm and an indoor grow, both located in Sonoma County.<\/p>\n Pearson has also amassed a portfolio of real estate in three countries. As a landlord, she says she\u2019s always \u201cpreferred to rent to stoners.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn my real estate business, I knew a lot of people\u2019s dirt. What I knew was that cannabis enthusiasts were great, and the alcoholics were prone to trouble,\u201d she said. \u201cAlcoholics would punch holes in the walls, get DUIs or they\u2019d disappear off the face of the earth. My experience was that cannabis users didn\u2019t seem to have that crazy up-and-down, chaotic lifestyle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pearson\u2019s first experiences renting to a \u201ccannaprenuer\u201d occurred over a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had a residential tenant who asked me if he could rent one of my commercial spaces for his vertically-integrated cannabis business [Montana Advanced Caregivers],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to visit his operation and saw people going into his dispensary with walkers and oxygen tanks and who had clearly had brain surgery. I saw for myself that his clients were the very definition of medical patients seeking relief that opiates or other medication weren\u2019t providing,\u201d Pearson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though excited to help his company, she admits the federal illegality and \u201cthe risk of forfeiture\u201d made her nervous.<\/p>\n \u201cI did it anyway because I had that experience watching those people go into [the shop],\u201d recounted Pearson, who says the company is still one of her tenants, operating in the same building this many years later.<\/p>\n For Pearson, real estate is just putting deals together \u2013 simply put.<\/p>\n So, when Muggs enlisted her help to find a partnership with a cannabis brand for Cypress Hill, it was a no brainer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that was important to Cypress Hill was that they didn\u2019t want to have their name slapped on someone else\u2019s product,\u201d she said, explaining that the band members sought a partnership that would create products that truly represented the band\u2019s ethos.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Bhang, they found just that.<\/p>\n In an interview with Freedom Leaf<\/em>, DJ Muggs described<\/a> the moment he met with Bhang founders, Scott Van Rixel and Richard Sellers: \u201cIt was organic. They understood the band. Scott\u2019s a big fan. He knew our history and all of our lyrics. Plus, he\u2019s a chocolatier. It was like I was meant to meet these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus, the CHB (Cypress Hill Bhang) collaboration was born. The lineup currently features products that celebrate the band\u2019s music, including the CHB Skull Jar, and a cassette tape stash box complete with six premium pre-rolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pearson\u2019s role nurturing the partnership impressed the Bhang founders. In another serendipitous series of events, the company offered her an official position with Bhang about a year after they began putting the deal together. They spent her first official day on the job in San Francisco and sealed the deal at a Cypress Hill concert at the Bill Graham Auditorium \u2013 in true cannabis fashion \u2013 on April 20,,<\/sup>2016.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Dubbed a deal-making ninja by High Times<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Pearson is known for her ability to look for the win\/win in every situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s not a win-win, it\u2019s not a deal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cDeal making requires relationship building. Active listening is the key to that process,\u201d Pearson explained. \u00a0<\/p>\n This skill set directly serves her role as CEO of Bhang, where she spearheads the company\u2019s relationships and licensing deals on a global scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bhang has joined forces with powerhouse companies, including CannaVative, Bedford Grow, Indiva, and Trulieve, Florida\u2019s biggest medical cannabis firm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Green Fund<\/a>\u2019s Louis O\u2019Neill, partnering with these vertically-integrated companies has earned Bhang a place on shelves throughout North American. As of July 2020, \u201cThere are currently over 1,000 stores selling Bhang\u2019s products, and this number is expected to exceed 2,000 by the end of [2020],\u201d O\u2019Neill reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, Bhang launched a brand refresh on their packaging, and Pearson is thrilled with the results.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team is best in class,\u201d she says. \u201cBetween our branding and marketing team, CMO Samantha Ford Collins, Global Director of Marketing, Nicole Hanratty \u2013 who executed our new packaging from concept to fruition \u2013 \u00a0and our sales leaders, Anthony Colon and Heather Vigil, we function like an orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n The credit for Bhang\u2019s current position in the market really rests on the players, Pearson says.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody excels at their position, works hard and holds themselves accountable for excellence. I am their conductor, but they are making the beautiful music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In addition to partnerships, risk-taking is an important part of Bhang\u2019s growth strategy (and an inherent part of being in the cannabis industry).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think of risks in cannabis, you think of all those things that could get you landed in jail \u2013 that\u2019s not what we\u2019re talking about. We\u2019re talking about putting our thinking caps on,\u201d says Pearson.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, the company launched its first CBD<\/a> product in 2011, and won its first award for CBD goods a year later. The company is also among the first to come out with mainstream terpene products.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis is really a blank landscape, Pearson said. \u201cWe know that our job is to know what the customers want before they do. There\u2019s a famous quote by Henry Ford that says, \u2018If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would\u2019ve said a faster horse.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The company plans on continued expansion, which it\u2019s done exponentially under Pearson\u2019s leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI learned a lot about leadership on the basketball court,\u201d Pearson says.<\/p>\n As a point guard, Pearson coached, called and directed plays on the court. Similarly, at Bhang, she helps to shape, grow and guide the team. And she leads with a fierce regard for social responsibility.<\/p>\n She says the company has a reputation for putting good products in people\u2019s hands that are delicious.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been responsible to the industry, to the earth, to human beings \u2013 I love that about our company \u2013 we\u2019re walking the walk, and talking the talk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her philosophy, she says, is similar to the Steve Jobs quote, \u201cDon\u2019t hire smart people and tell them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n By having good teammates, and people with great mindsets, Pearson says accomplishing goals is \u201creally easy\u201d because the hard work is done during the hiring process.<\/p>\n When hiring, she looks for emotional intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is, If I hire a competent project manager and they don\u2019t have cannabis experience, but they have emotional intelligence, then what I have is a good teammate,\u201d Pearson explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diversity is also integral to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe value it genuinely,\u201d Pearson adds. \u201cThe truth is we\u2019re looking for awesome people to be on our team or to be partners with us. What we\u2019ve found is\u2026we\u2019re better with diversity \u2013 it isn\u2019t just lip service.<\/p>\n My team will tell you, I have been pounding the drum of sharing our access and dollars with the BIPOC community since day one. When Scott asked me to be on the board of Bhang back when we went public, I told him I would only do it if he asked one of the existing board members to leave and added a person of color. Our chairman of the board, Daniel Nauth, agreed to join the board. He is a black man and an absolutely invaluable guiding force for our company.\u201d<\/p>\n Bhang\u2019s executive leadership team is 85% female, says Pearson.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a common-sense standpoint\u2014hiring women is smart,\u201d she says, adding that mothers offer distinctive skill sets.<\/p>\n \u201cI know when having a mom on the team, I\u2019ve got someone who already wears multiple hats, and multi-tasks well,\u201d Pearson explained.<\/p>\n For Pearson, being on teams of strong women is natural, explaining that it goes back to her days of playing basketball.<\/p>\n Beyond workplace productivity, women also make an astronomically high amount of purchasing decisions, approximately 70-80%<\/a>, Pearson added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you win the hearts and minds of women, you give your brand a leg up,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving strong, smart women on the team is good business.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearson is proud to be a part of the cannabis industry, largely due to its impact on conversations around sustainability, and how business is conducted.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cWe are still in prohibition, and we can make this industry look any way we choose. I believe we must choose to disrupt the very notion that business has to be pale, male and stale (a quote from my friend, Jeanne Sullivan),\u201d Pearson says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I love is that our community has been talking about the environment, diversity, and social justice since the very beginning. We can and must do better, but in comparison with my experience in real estate, it\u2019s not an afterthought. These topics are woven into the very fabric of our culture,\u201d she explains. \u201cCannabis is the gateway to wellness. Our industry will change the world for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Industry Innovator: Jamie Pearson, Bhang Corporation<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Since its establishment in 2010, Bhang has grown into one of the industry\u2019s most robust brands. Famous for its line of delicious gourmet chocolates, Bhang also offers pre-rolls, Hempsticks, and high-quality CBD products, among its more than 50 cannabis, hemp-derived and terpene rich offerings. The company has earned plenty ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":43767,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2870,1434,50,170,106,4229],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43768,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43766\/revisions\/43768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"™\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2122.png\")
, and high-quality CBD products, among its more than 50 cannabis, hemp-derived and terpene rich offerings. The company has earned plenty of accolades in its decade-long history including the title of \u201cThe General Mills of Cannabis<\/a>\u201d and many awards in multiple states.<\/p>\n\n![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jamiepearsonandfather.jpg\")
Embracing Cannabis Real Estate<\/strong><\/h4>\n
A Serendipitous Deal\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"Bhang](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Bhang.CA_.Chocolate.flavors.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFinding the Win-Win<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
Walking the Walk<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"Bhang](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/bhangchocolates.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nHiring Women is Smart<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Industry Innovator: Jamie Pearson, Bhang Corporation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"