Irene Stepanenko of AskGrowers: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Hiring and training. I would have liked to know more about hiring, training, and employee retention. You can learn so much from other people’s stories about how much time and tools a new employee needs to succeed. But I am glad that we now have a tool that helps us with that!
As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Irene Stepanenko.
Irene Stepanenko is a passionate marketer, teacher, yogi practitioner, connoisseur of natural products, mentor and mother. She has been making worthy projects successful for over ten years. Her latest venture, AskGrowers, a website that educates consumers and provides an in-depth introduction to cannabis for newcomers and experienced connoisseurs alike, was created out of an irrepressible desire to share expert knowledge about cannabis with the public.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I want to talk about an unpopular topic in business — the dismissal of employees. I regret that no one told me about their personal experiences in saying goodbye to unsuitable employees. The growth of any project or business is a process of conquering peaks. Sometimes, it is necessary to say goodbye to employees who do not contribute to the overall progress or even slow down your team.
For myself, I created an algorithm that helps me make this decision. First of all, we have a complex system that shows each employee’s contribution, position, and growth. The results of the work of this system are an individual development plan for the employees, constant feedback and satisfaction with the company/project/management, timely warning about possible burnout, support for their undertakings apart from work tasks, and so on. This system gives us up-to-date data that helped reduce 60 percent of employee turnover. With those who remain, we have meetings where we analyze the reasons for unsatisfactory work or management and prescribe a plan to change the situation with KPIs and deadlines. During this period, we also kept in touch and shared feedback. We recently shared this system with partner companies, which are seeing positive results.
Everyone knows that working on a project without motivation and inspiration is a losing game for both parties, especially startups. My lesson is that you need to do everything to make sure that you and your employees who are not on the same professional path calmly accept when to say goodbye.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I started AskGrowers because I shared information and answered questions about different cannabis strains, products, and brands with my friends and acquaintances on WhatsApp. One day, I accidentally added my grandmother to this cannabis chat, and she thought I was illegally selling marijuana. I had to spend some time convincing her that I was doing something else. The takeaway, double-check who you add to your private chats!
Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
At the moment, I am helping to develop an online education project in marketing. We train people in a short amount of time in niche specialties such as link builder, targetologist, SMM and SEO specialist. We see cases every 2–3 months where people with no experience in digital marketing get a job, a decent salary, and opportunities for further development after taking our classes. It is very inspiring!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I wouldn’t have been able to create AskGrowers without my husband. When you start any new enterprise, you need the support of the people around you. I am a mother, and if it weren’t for him, AskGrowers would not have happened, or at least not now. It’s a generalization, but I know many women who have a disproportionate amount of work at home, usually compared to their male partners. He helped take over many aspects of our life, freeing up my time and energy to create the website. I am extraordinarily grateful for his support.
This industry is young, dynamic and creative. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?
We are always looking at places where we can improve the form, function, or even the entire service of the product. It is necessary to understand the what, how, time frame, and resources we can use to improve giving our client/buyer what they want in the simplest way. I think legacy companies often miss the little things that significantly impact the user experience. They sometimes don’t pay enough attention to design updates, simplification trends, and speed of interaction with their products.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Cannabis industry? Can you share 3 things that most concern you?
These are three things that I am excited about but concern me if we don’t take significant steps to take them to the next level.
1) Education. The public needs to be educated about how different compounds in cannabis products affect their experience. Products containing THC that have other components of cannabinoids and terpenes in them often have greater therapeutic benefits. The reason is that when multiple cannabis compounds are combined, their medicinal effects are changed and enhanced, creating the entourage effect, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
2) Social equity. The cannabis industry owes an outstanding debt to the pioneers in the LGBTQ+ community. They were instrumental in getting some of the first medical marijuana legislation passed. Cannabis has also disproportionately impacted the Hispanic and Black communities with cannabis prohibition and police action. We want our readers to learn more about these amazing communities’ brands and their inspiring stories.
3) Sustainability. AskGrowers advocates the continuous pursuit of sustainability in cannabis businesses. Sustainable use of resources for producing cannabis products is a social responsibility of each participant in the cannabis market: government, grower, retailer, the consumer. It should be a constant trend, increasing the sustainability and regeneration of production.
Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.
1) Hiring and training. I would have liked to know more about hiring, training, and employee retention. You can learn so much from other people’s stories about how much time and tools a new employee needs to succeed. But I am glad that we now have a tool that helps us with that!
2) Lack of education. The cannabis industry is a young.. It is necessary to create educational materials for both newcomers and experienced users. People often think that they know everything if they use cannabis for several years. But in reality, it turns out not to be the case. AskGrowers speaks with specialists in the cannabis industry and share their experience and expertise on our website.
3) Stigmatization of cannabis. Society is just starting to get used to the fact that cannabis is normal. We need to fight the stigmatization of cannabis.We can do that by sharing scientific data, real stories and relevant statistics with the public. 4) Lack of cannabis-related specialists. I don’t mean specific cannabis specialists, such as growers, cultivators, breeders. I’m talking about cannabis writers, marketers, SMM specialists, BizDev professionals with experience in the industry. The industry is developing, and new personnel are actively stepping into it, but so far, demand exceeds supply. We are constantly looking for new specialists who will strengthen our team. For example, now it is a BizDev specialist and SEO specialist with experience in the cannabis niche. Maybe just such a specialist is now reading this article, write to us!)
5) Differences in legislation and data on the cannabis industry in each state. We Knew there was a difference, but we underestimated how big it could be.We still wonder how cannabis brands survive under such harsh and restrictive laws when we collect information and talk to owners across the states. AskGrowers has to spend a lot of resources on our content specialists and lawyers to understand what we can do and what not.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
Treat them like people! I have long been convinced that you cannot treat your employees solely as a resource. Successful employees are motivated, happy and supportive. You must know your employees, their strengths and weaknesses, and allow them to develop and encourage them. Also, remember that as the entire team’s expertise grows, you will need to give them bigger challenges to keep them interested in continuing to work with you. You, your company, and your projects must also constantly develop. It is how great goals are achieved!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I enjoy creating or being part of something new that can help other people. But sometimes, you need to take advantage of the opportunities of organizations that already exist. My family helps pet shelters that are already functioning and need constant resources. AskGrowers will soon join the Last Prisoner project, whose efforts we deeply support.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
I can be contacted via Twitter @irene_explorer and LinkedIn @AskGrowers.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Irene Stepanenko of AskGrowers: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.