Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Let girls and women know that cannabis is a viable career option” With Dede Perkins of ProCanna
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
…Let girls and women know that cannabis is a viable career option.
…Establish female mentorship programs that prepare women for accepting challenges and positions of authority.
…Hire women for the C-suite and give them a visible role.
As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dede Perkins
Dede Perkins, co-founder of Onside Compliance, Inc. and ProCanna, has a true entrepreneurial spirit. She joined the cannabis industry in 2013 as a member of the application team that won one of the first competitive vertically integrated applications in Massachusetts. After that, she helped win cannabis licenses in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Nevada. A regulatory specialist, Dede is passionate about combining compliance with operational excellence; safe, standardized products; empowered employees; strong company culture and brands. When she’s not working, Dede is enjoying great meals and amazing sunsets at Sebago Lake; training and teaching new tricks to her crazy dog, Bodie; reading a good book; or, walking and hiking with family and friends.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis industry?
Thanks for talking with me, I’m happy to be here! Backstory…It was 2013, I was a freelance writer. One of my clients referred me to a guy who needed help with an “application”. When I met the guy, he asked me if I knew anything about medical marijuana (answer — not a thing), reassured me he wasn’t a stoner (made me laugh, he clearly wasn’t), and told me he was putting together a team to apply for one of the first competitive cannabis licenses in Massachusetts. Long story short, we won that license, I found the medical cannabis world compelling, started getting other referrals, and within 18 months was working almost exclusively with the industry. I had a ringside seat as companies large and small struggled to win licensure and once they did, to keep up with changing regulations, their own maturing policies and procedures, and endless training due to high turnover. I thought there must be a better way to keep everyone together and on track, to lower stress while improving operations; to make regulations, SOPs, training, and documentation centralized, current and easily accessible. That’s ProCanna.
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?
We almost contracted with a very well-regarded, established software development company near us. We had vetted a number of others, but they came up on top. We met with them a few times, and while everything seemed great on the surface, something didn’t feel right. We did not sign the contract, and had to start a new search. Within a month we had heard that the company was closing in our area and the team was permanently moving overseas. In the end, following our gut brought us to an amazing tech team that not only does great work, they now feel like family.
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’ve made plenty of mistakes, and from those mistakes I’ve learned that each mistake comes with a lesson that will make us better individuals as we move forward and grow.
Do you have a funny story about how someone you knew reacted when they first heard you were getting into the cannabis industry?
Oh yes. My husband’s college friends in particular thought it was ironic that I was the one getting into the industry. “Wait, Dede’s working in cannabis??” Also, my brother, my kids and their friends…
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?
Too many to name, but here are a few. The client who referred me to the MA app project, the guy running the MA app team, cannabis industry veterans who welcomed me into their ranks and referred me business. My largest client who offered me a place on his team and gave me a ringside seat to watch their incredible growth into a publicly traded company. Of course, my husband and ProCanna cofounder. Wouldn’t be here without these people.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We always have a project or a new feature that we’re building into the platform, but one exciting project is our social equity program, which will help social equity applicants and licensees have easy access to regulations and ProCanna-supplied foundational policies and SOPs as they build their applications and businesses. The platform is offered to social equity applicants and licensees at no cost through final licensure and at a significant discount after that.
Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Despite great progress that has been made we still have a lot more work to do to achieve gender parity in this industry. According to this report in Entrepreneur, less than 25 percent of cannabis businesses are run by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support greater gender parity moving forward?
- Let girls and women know that cannabis is a viable career option.
- Establish female mentorship programs that prepare women for accepting challenges and positions of authority.
- Hire women for the C-suite and give them a visible role.
You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each.
For one through four: Work hard. So many people think the cannabis industry must be FUN. Let me tell you, the only way to succeed in this industry is to work hard, be resilient and determined. Like work until your eyes bleed hard. A story? There are so many. Investors getting cold feet days before an application is due and still managing to submit and win it. The delivery service delivering an application two hours after the deadline, bad hires, exorbitant fees, constantly having to raise money…. For the fifth, you have to remember that the effort is worth every second.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the cannabis industry?
- Research. I’m excited to learn all the ways the cannabis plant can help people.
- People. The most interesting and some of the best people I’ve met work in and are dedicated to this new industry.
- Justice. The cannabis industry is in a position to help right the wrongs of prohibition and the failed War on Drugs.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
- The financial cost of entry is too high. Improve access to capital. Set up state-administered grant and loan funds for qualified applicants in marginalized groups — certified women-, minority-, veteran-owned businesses.
- Some regulations are over-the-top and create unnecessary stress and expense. Create reasonable regulations rather than those written from places of fear or greed.
- Many cannabis operations are unsustainable and unduly stress the environment. Increase flow of information to operators on energy options, grants, and sustainability initiatives.
What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?
Cannabis is a natural substance with the ability to improve quality of life. It’s time for legalization, funded research, and education.
Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?
Absolutely not. Cannabis is life-enhancing, not a killer. Yes to regulation and education, but let’s move toward reasonable regulation and taxation rather than treating it as a product that threatens health, wellness, and societal foundations.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Besides “Do unto others…” and “Take care of your corner of the world”, I live by my father’s advice to always give 110% effort in whatever I’m doing. Oh, and there’s this one: “Fear is the disease. Hustle is the antidote.”
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Let’s bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people.
Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!
Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Let girls and women know that cannabis is a viable career… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.