An Interview with Jerina Pillert, Owner of Hashtag Cannabis
by Keivan K, social media manager
Recently, we spoke with Jerina Pillert, the owner of Hashtag Cannabis. She shared some valuable insights on her approach to educating our employees, her favorite cannabis memories, and exciting things in store for the future!
Part 1:
Hashtag’s Milestones, Advocacy & the Golden Age of Cannabis
What are some of the coolest moments and milestones you’ve experienced since starting Hashtag Cannabis in 2015?
“Oh gosh, there have been so many, I would say every 4/20. It’s pretty cool. So neat to see how excited the people who come to us for weed get on that day and how important that holiday is for everything cannabis has done and what it’s going to be doing in the future. So it’s neat to see how excited people get on 4/20 and on a more, you know, back of house level, it's just very cool to me to see all of our teams operating at 100%. It’s neat to see what they can do and how they can help people celebrate 4/20.
“We've opened five storefronts now, and every single time, it's just incredibly special to me, and it's a very cool and unique feeling to open your doors for the first time, even if you've done it before, and see people walk through and be delighted at what you and your team have done.”
2. Can you share more about Hashtag’s involvement in supporting the Last Prisoner Project and your other advocacy efforts?
“I would say that, from the beginning, it’s been important to my partner and me that we look for ways to help the communities that have been hurt in the past by cannabis laws, and the way that our government has limited and hurt populations that have been involved in the cannabis trade. So we have advocated on a local and state level, and even federally, for reform in this area, and then we've also looked for organizations like the Last Prisoner Project that would allow us to put some resources—not just time and energy, but also monetary resources—to this problem, and do our part to help move cannabis forward and make amends for the things that have happened in the past.”
3. Looking ahead, what's on the horizon for Hashtag Cannabis?
“I have so many dreams and plans, but first we're going to try to grow the stores we have hopefully and think about a new store and then additionally try to develop some other small businesses like a cafe next to our current shops that we can utilize to serve our customers in a different way.”
4. How do you see the Hashtag team evolving over the next few years?
“Hashtag’s has got such an amazing team, and I think they are starting to get a little bored. So I'm hoping that I can create more projects for them to work on, test their skills, and grow their skills. But I think they're ready to, you know, not just grow in the cannabis market, but also go out into other spaces and other industries.”
5. What are some challenges you have faced as a woman-owned business in this industry?
“Yeah, this topic makes me so sad because it shouldn't be hard for women to operate in the cannabis space; it shouldn't be for any type of person to operate in the cannabis space, but sadly, it is. When I started in 2015, there were a lot more women, a lot more women operating shops, more women running producer/processor grows, and a lot more women advocating in the political space of cannabis. Now, every year, there is less and less, so I think one of the biggest challenges there is that you see your voice and your perspective leaving, and you feel like you have to do more and more, and you just get tired.”
6. How has the cannabis industry evolved since you began Hashtag?
“So in 2015, the industry did not have enough cannabis for everyone who wanted to buy it, and very quickly, the industry corrected itself, and it became this cornucopia of different products and different ways to consume. It was really neat to see that evolution from, you know, just flower and pre rolls to tinctures, topicals, and patches, and the sheer variety of edibles that we have on the market now is probably one of the biggest changes that I have seen, product-wise.
“Right now, we are living through the golden age of cannabis, and because we have so much innovation happening and so many different ways to consume, we should all probably step back and appreciate that a little bit. I think some of the other ways it changed is, people weren't very comfortable buying it in 2015. You know, coming into a shop and thinking of us as a regular retail shop, like they would go buy their milk, eggs, or even just clothes or anything else. I think now consumers think of it as just another regular retail place where they can go and get the products that they need or want to try, and so it becomes a very normal thing to do.”
Watch the Part 1 video below!
Part 2:
Employee Education, Favorite Memories & Hashtag’s Future
7. How does Hashtag ensure its employees are educated about the products they sell?
“Everybody here, you know, was attracted to the industry and to working in it because they had some sort of passion for cannabis and wanted to know more, so, you know, even though Hashtag has a lot of programs that try to promote cannabis education, we do a lot of internal cannabis training. We also have a reimbursement program where we let people choose the products that they want to try, write a review about it, and then they get reimbursed, which I think is probably one of our most successful ways that we promote knowledge about the products and cannabis that we sell.”
8. Over time, how have you seen the local community's perception of cannabis change?
“We used to receive negative comments from the community about our presence, but pretty quickly, I would say, the community realized that we were part of them and not a threat. I think in general, though, it’s going to take a lot longer for cannabis to become normalized in every community. I think it’s making incremental progress each year.”
9. Can you tell us more about how you and your partner, Logan Bowers, transitioned from being engineers to joining the cannabis industry?
“Yes! You know, I would say it was probably a complete happenstance. Logan, my husband, heard about the cannabis industry beginning in Washington State and decided to apply for a license. The licenses at that time were lottery-based, so it was completely random. He was awarded one, and he became very lucky in that aspect, and then it turned out that creating a new business in a new industry is incredibly difficult and hard. So we ended up, both of us, gradually stopping what we were doing and starting to do this full-time.”
10. What are some of your favorite memories of consuming cannabis?
“I suppose I’m what they used to call, or what they still call, a weekend consumer. My favorite is on a Friday night to try one of my favorite edibles and then watch Netflix to relax and unwind. I also like to microdose occasionally, especially around bedtime.
“I would say one of my favorites is when we were starting our second store in Redmond, and it was a very, very hectic time. We lost our cat, we opened a store, and we got married all within the space of a month. And we had been eating a lot of takeout, as you can imagine. So one night, we decided to try a new product and order some coconut cream pie, and we got high. It was a delightful time. And we ate the pie; it was the most incredible pie I had ever eaten. It was so delicious, and I was like, “Oh, I finally know what everyone's talking about,” because I had never previously liked coconut cream pie, so this was very magical to me. I was like, "Oh, this pie is amazing.” So about a week later, we decided to try the pie again, but this time we did not get high, and the pie was just so-so. We were missing that delicious part! I quickly realized that it was because cannabis created this experience for us, and it enhanced the taste of the pie so much that to this day, my husband and I refuse to eat coconut cream pie without getting high.”
11. What do you love about working in the cannabis industry?
“You know, the cannabis space is a very special space; it's been a privilege to work in. I think what I really loved about it was the chance to create something from the ground up, to create processes, and to figure out how to create teams that can accomplish great things. It is, you know, the greatest feeling in the world to see a team operate at their best capacity, overcome challenges, and then create something that wasn't there before.”
12. How do you encourage open and honest communication within your teams?
“First, I'll say communication is just hard. You know, in any size business with any size team, we don't have enough words in the English language for communication to be perfect. So one of the things, one of the values, that I have tried to articulate and drum into every single policy and every single conversation I've had at Hashtag is to assume the best. I think this is particularly hard when you are passionate about something, when you want to change something, and when you are meeting obstacle after obstacle. So I try to put it into all of our communication, whether it’s verbal, written, in a team, one-on-one, or in a group. I try to bring that thread of “we are here, and we are going to assume the best of each other.”
13. How do you see the company evolving over the next few years?
“Well, I definitely see us trying to create some spaces and small businesses outside of the cannabis space that supplement and complement our cannabis shops, and I also hope that that means we can grow all the businesses so that we can provide some more opportunities for our team members.”