Ep 12: Fixing Cannabis Companies from Diagnosis to Execution — The Shift

with Jessica Feranti · The Shift, a podcast by Headquarters

Scaling or scaling chaos? Jessica Feranti on the three warning signs - culture, revenue, operations - and fixing them, not just naming them.

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Auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.

0:07 Jessica, tell me a little bit about yourself. Sure. Yeah. So, CEO of the Myelia Group, Jessica Feranti. Um, I've been in cannabis for around 10 years, doing quite a bit of of everything, frankly. Um, joined the industry not through, you

0:27 know, or or by accident. I genuinely wanted to be in this space and be one of the like early pioneers at least in the legal industry of course. uh after about a decade of helping you know in the camps industry specifically helping to uh scale different startups in media technology manufacturing I launched the

0:49 myelia group last year to be able to help you know a a larger group of cannabis companies grow in scale versus just like one at a time and uh into quite a few different things uh including throwing events in the industry for uh different seuite executives different essentially I call

1:10 them like networking experiences uh to launching women's scholarships in the space and a whole host of things so it I would say uh a lot has evolved and changed over the last 10 years but the one thing that's been consistent is my love for all things you know cannabis and industry industry wise or industry

1:31 related so perfect okay so let's let's talk uh myelia group a a little bit more. So, what I noticed is that um you've described the Micilia Group as a company's um let's say primary care physician. Now, that's a really um unusual way to position a consulting business. So, what does that mean? And

1:52 what are the symptoms that tell a founder, oh, it's time to to call you call Jessica? Yeah, it's very quarant question. So, um, you know, any anytime you're working with anybody in any industry and or discussing really any topic, the one thing that I've learned, especially in

2:12 sales, is you want to be able to create something that's relatable, something that people understand, right? That that clicks and is relatable enough that it is transferable from industry to industry or company to company. The reason that I'm using the primary care physician, you know, like language is because that's something that I think that everyone can relate to how it how

2:32 it is um essentially described right under the myelia group is we're your business's primary care physician. Let's say you have um a certain symptom that you can't diagnose on your own or you need checkups, right, just to stay healthy. Uh or you know what you need and you're just going to the doctor to get some advice. you're going to your

2:53 primary care, you know, because primarily that PCP understands like your whole health picture. Like you don't have to reexlain stuff, right? Like you know your doctor's got it. They've got the information and you know that if you need any general tests, anything like that, the doctor will perform it. But if you need something beyond that, right, you having a an issue with a certain

3:14 part of your body or anything like that, what happens there is you're trusting your PCP to then send you to say someone in network like a specialist, right? A doctor, right? A stomach doctor, whatever. When those results come back, you're not just working with a specialist. You're that um specialist

3:35 doctor is now sending all those results back to who? your PCP because again they're the one they're the ones that are really connecting all the dots. So this is something that people regardless of again industry or otherwise it's something that everyone I think can generally relate to. And so as a company that performs so many different types

3:55 you know of engagements and helps in so many different areas. It was the easiest to to use that as like a reference point. You know is where your we're your business primary care physician. You come to us if you're looking to stay healthy as you grow. Uh you come to us if you are having symptoms and if you're not sure what those symptoms mean uh or

4:16 how to treat them, right? You're coming to us if you know what your needs are but you still need the treatment plan, right? You still need that assistance. Um or you're coming to us if you don't know what the issues are. If you are looking to solve a certain thing but maybe don't know who to go to. We're like that first that first triage that

4:37 then helps you determine what is the best treatment plan. Who should you work with? What what does that look like? So, it's it's about being relatable ultimately. Got it. Got it. And it does really make sense because when you think about it obviously through that u relatability we reach a point where like oh I'm good at uh you know diagnostics and I can tell

4:59 you where to go as you said where to go what to do who to contact and what we can do but ultimately it's that like sort of diagnostics part that you can figure out um at the very start right yeah and it's it's the trust that you build with your with your doctor right it's the same thing we're servicing so many different companies around the

5:19 industry and we obviously have a very strong network of our own and again I I use the doctor example because of that that you know psychology behind it because much like a doctor we also have our whole you know we have our in-house people right that are going to be experts in the space that have their core competencies but we feel that at

5:40 the end of the day when you need a specialist we're not going to try to form fit someone that we have inhouse and match them you know, to a client to solve that particular need. We're going to go just like a doctor and tap into our in network specialists, right? Our go-to person for operational work, our go-to six vendors when it comes to

6:01 marketing. And each of those six vendors might have a totally different subset of experience or expertise in in you know, let's say um a certain state, you know, or a certain type of company and supporting them. So uh yeah I think ultimately it comes down to having a trusted network and that's something

6:21 that people take for a lot of people it takes years decades right to build we form that and have created that trusted network so people do come to us it it's not for one single purpose they are coming to us knowing that they now have a partner in their company's health to help them grow you know long term and

6:41 just like anything else right this industry is built on relationships it's built on long-term you know, long-term strategic partnerships and relationships. So, that's sort of our, you know, that's our superpower in the space. So, so let's let's do a little bit of an experiment and I want you to teach me about how you do this. I'm interested. So, let's say

7:01 of a cannabis company, right? And uh my is growing fast. You know, revenue's up. We're hiring people. Everything's great. But like every week, you know, we go into feels a little bit harder than the last one. So I'm thinking I reach out to you and I want you to walk me through what happens when

7:23 someone like me calls you for the first time. How does that conversation? Yeah, that's that's a great what a great question, Phil. You know, ultimately, again, going back to the the doctor example, no one patient is the same. So, I don't come into any single meeting having just like here's my preset

7:43 questions. You're my team, right? Here are the preset questions. Here's how we're going to ask you and approach this and we're going to have the same strategy or anything throughout. Ultimately, everything is built on a case by case basis. And so when I meet with a, you know, a CEO or founder who's in a position that, to your description, Phil, sounds like they're growing,

8:03 they're in a in a healthy state of, you know, of um scaling, but each week is getting harder. My main thing is how can we solve what are their issues and what is it that we can actually solve here? I would probably start with asking some questions of like when you say that the week, you know, every week is getting harder than than the last. What does

8:24 that look like? Does that mean that you're gaining more business, but operationally it's hard to sustain? You know, like things are breaking. Um your schedule's all over the place. You're having a hard time prioritizing what's more important, what isn't? Like these are the thing is regardless if you're cannabis, if you're psychedelics, you're

8:44 another industry. I often talk about it like like building a foundation for a house. Again, relatability, right? Regardless of the type of house you're building, you still need a solid foundation. You still need like solid operations, right? And like infrastructure, um the right systems, the right tools, the right, you know, people, the right

9:04 SOPs. Without that, every single time you scale in your business, there's another crack in that foundation. And now you're building upon something that at any point can just collapse underneath you, especially companies that are successful because, right, they're more susceptible to, you know, to like what is what's the phrase? Um like uh crumbling under the

9:25 weight of their own success, right? So uh that's the approach is as opposed to going in and making assumptions or asking the same subset of questions. It's like let's first identify what what is weighing you down the most. what is preventing you from bringing in

9:45 a steady stream of revenue or servicing right that stream of revenue and then where are the gaps that we can start to fill based on priority because I will say one one more thing to that Phil which is that founders at most stages of growth um I think a lot of their issues are

10:05 pretty common and one of the main issues is that there's so much to focus on at once they have a hard time prioritizing So like you're one that's the one thing I would say I would pretty much focus on like regardless of you know what issue like you came to me with what are those areas that you're focusing on now and what we essentially would help identify which of those um

10:27 focus areas are going to have the biggest impact. So we'll put it in like a matrix and be like this looks like it's important. This feels like it's a top, you know, it's a level five priority, but when you look at the actual impact it's making to your business, we actually need to dumb that down to like a level two priority. And a lot of founders just aren't equipped or

10:48 while they're in the thick of it, they have a hard time, you know, objectively like, you know, looking at their own business from like a third, you know, like a third party view. I'm going to ask you for example later uh because I I wanted to hear a little bit about that in in more specifics. But I do have one other thing that I wanted to now that you're talking

11:08 about this sort of aspect of you come to me and I ask you questions, we figure out what's actually happening and um relatability and the trust and all that. So I'm interested in like you know when we're talking about most consultants and um in how they approaches like you know with a PowerPoint and a list of recommendations and stuff like that

11:29 and then you talk about building companies as you said like we need to make sure that we have a good foundation no cracks we have to have a good structure a good skeleton. So um what's different about the way you actually work with founders? How how does that portion look like? Oh man, you're it's a very very

11:51 important thing that you mentioned because there there is an important distinction between consultancies that are providing primarily strategy or execution or obviously both. You know, I found there's a lot there are a lot of companies out there that are really well equipped in building strategy or execution, but they obviously suffer in one area or the other. I think that for

12:13 us and and where we tend to focus more is the type we would like to bring in more a better way to put it. We look to attract companies that are more in the realm of needing support and being open-minded to support on both ends, both strategy and execution. Because listen, a presentation is great. Like I

12:33 could tell you right now, Philip, hey, you have this and this issue and here's the general plan of like how to move forward with it. The challenge is if you're a founder or you're in a leadership team and you're working on 80 other projects, think of how hard it would be for you and your team to now take a plan on paper and actually bring that into action into reality. Like

12:55 ultimately strategy is great, but if you don't have the team, the mindset or like the experience ultimately to bring that to life, it just dies on paper. It's like what what does it matter at that point? So, one of the areas that we focus on is even like when it comes to fractional executives. A lot of companies in the space suffer from not

13:15 having the right, you know, the right um expertise on staff because they can't afford it. M if we're plugging in a fractional executive who's going to come in and do say like the strategy, you know, portion of it, um how does the business owner who's bringing them in know how to properly vet that executive, how to properly vet their work that that

13:35 executive is completing or vet the strategy? And oftentimes like they can't they don't have right that like background. Where the Mycelia group comes in as like really like a a major uh player in that type of of structure is that when we're placing a fractional executive, we're not just putting them

13:55 in there and saying like cool they'll build a strategy for you know good luck. We're actually overseeing the entirety of the project. So like think of it again the doctor sense. We're doing it from diagnosis all the way through to the execution of the treatment plan. And the specialists and the people we're bringing in throughout the process are all there to fulfill like the overall

14:18 holistic game plan for that business, not just tackle one issue or one strategy. Everything has to be congruent like working towards the total, you know, the the end goal, the end result. So that that's really the biggest difference is we're not just plugging people in or providing just strategy. We are there throughout the entire process

14:39 diagnostic all the way through to execution and then we're overseeing the people doing the work to ensure that it's being done correctly. So it's a full package pretty much and it as you said like it's not we're going to be doing this full stop period it ends here. Goodbye. It's like let me hold your hand and let me drive you through this entire

15:00 thing so that later on obviously you would be able to also make sure that you're following that process even if I'm not here so we don't mess stuff up right um yeah yeah it's that's exactly it perfect now going back to the conversation so without naming names uh obviously so can you tell me a little

15:21 bit about a company that let's say came to you convinced inced that they might have one problem. But once you got inside the business and you checked everything, you looked everything from all the perspectives, you you were like, "Okay, this is something else completely different happening here." Did you have um

15:41 Yeah, it happens pretty often actually. Um yeah, I can give you two examples right off the bat even from like when we first launched a few different companies that we we've seen these type of situations in. So, one was um a company that we were that approached us for um some sort of sales support, you know, to come in and like review the revenue

16:01 operations. They were like, "Hey, we need to have someone come in, review our sales team, maybe let some people go make some new hires and kind of build the strategy out to be a little more effective." And shortly after coming in, which is why we do the diagnostic phase always, shortly after coming in, we found, you know, a portion of that was

16:21 absolutely correct. Like they needed some revamping in the sales team. Their strategy definitely needed to be updated, you know, to reflect the market that they were operating in, but the the issues that they saw as their sales reps not performing were far deeper than just that. So like for instance their sales

16:41 team was selling but their team was not manufacturing and producing the products fast enough which was then affecting their sales and longevity right and the retention of their clients. Uh their customer service department had a a pretty significant disconnect from the sales team and marketing was speaking a

17:02 totally different language and promoting those services very differently than how the sales team was presenting them. So, it's like, yeah, we could come in and just tackle the sales side of things, but this is why just a moment ago, I was describing the importance of coming in and not just trying to plug one hole and looking at it so narrowly. If you're

17:22 growing or scaling a business, it's not as simple as just one element. Every it's it's like a again, it's like a body. That's why I use the doctor example. Something might be wrong with your heart and that might be an issue with your heart, but there are four other things that are being affected by that in some capacity. Whether it's your diet, you know, and your exercise, there's something wrong with another organ. It a business just like a body,

17:44 there's a lot of different moving parts. So yeah shortly after coming in you know instead of looking narrowly at one area we looked at the big picture and all the different elements and found it was a comprehensive you know structural issue and once we were able to identify that boom you know business is growing and

18:04 thriving because it identified it's like if you're a founder sometimes you just don't know what you don't know and that's that's where we plug in. Um the other instance was we were helping to launch a dispensary. Um that dispensary thought that their main challenge was more or less just like helping getting some assistance like on like the marketing side and then again you know

18:26 for a company that's coming into the space brand new thinks they kind of you know more or less have most things down. You find quickly same situation you know um they don't know what they don't know. And so we came in to assist on the marketing side and ended up finding that they're, you know, they were not prepared for their launch in areas of

18:48 compliance of um wholesale agreements and contracts. Uh their um their loyalty program like did not exist. Uh their systems and their softwares were like kind of blindly selected. And like that's even like one main area a business owner, let's say like a dispensary owner can come bring in or

19:10 select like a point of sales system and be like, "Cool, I'm good to implement it and I'm going to have that point of sale system help us." That point of sales system is only going to help to a certain point. like they'll help you get set up in the system, get some users in there, help you navigate a little bit, but when it comes to integrating that deeply with within the rest of your

19:30 business, you don't know until you know that a month in you have to do all that by yourself. Like the POS system isn't going to help you. So these are the just some of the many examples we've seen where they think it's one symptom, one area and it's, you know, it's a bodywide issue. And as you're you're

19:50 talking about that and this is this is what makes me more interest uh most interested about all of this we're talking about right now is the fact that you you also mentioned to me uh earlier um that as the mycelium fungi functions is like oh you know within this ecosystem I see that one tree is um

20:10 underfed let's you know we jump in and we figure out what's happening and all of these metaphors again comparing it to uh with the metaphor of like an entire body. All of this is Can you Can you just repeat what you told me at the very start of this conversation because I really like a very good comparison to how you um function with founders and

20:33 with companies as the fungi does uh in a natural ecosystem as well. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, Philip. So, essentially, you know, a lot of people ask this question, right? Like, why mycelia? You should obsess mushrooms like what's what's the connection there? And yes, while we work in the cannabis and psychedelics, you know, uh, markets

20:53 primarily, although we do business in a lot of other sectors too, the the reason that comes into play is actually like well beyond the industries that we serve. So mycelia is a play on mycelium, which are the fungi roots that are built, they're essentially they're called like the the worldwide web of

21:13 nature. So most people don't realize it or recognize it, but pretty much no matter where you're walking, as long as it's like on grass or somewhere in nature, you're walking on top of what is miles and miles of mycelium, these roots that are connected to everything in the ecosystem. And so mycelium, what it does

21:36 is it controls the environment. It helps um uh here's like a good example. I'll give you the specific one we discussed earlier. So, mcelium can connect let's say multiple trees, right? So, it's a network underground connecting you know all all different organisms in space. When one tree say is lacking in

21:58 nutrients, the mcelium acts as like that that worldwide web, right? that connect like that connecting framework to notify other trees and other organisms in the area that this tree is lacking in nutrients and so it's sends out these you know these signals and then other trees can actually send

22:19 nutrients through that that network through that organic network to the other tree to save it. And so I liken that to what we do in the space too because number one we are the underlying ecosystem right that maybe the the invisible ecosystem underground that's

22:39 powering a lot of the cannabis companies and you know other businesses in that of this industry just more or less silently you know helping to put things in in its in their place and you know help them grow and scale sustainably. The other element to that is one of the biggest challenges we've seen and heard you know

22:59 feedback from um a lot of other companies in the space around consultants is that they'll hire someone in marketing like a like say a fractional CMO you know and they'll hire someone fractionally for sales and they'll bring in three more consultants for three different areas of the business. The main challenge that they face is that because those fractional

23:20 executives or the talent they're bringing in the their like core competencies say is just sales or just marketing. They're not communicating. So they're creating silos. So like marketing isn't talking to sales. I'm like they're not worried about it. Like their whole job is just to worry about marketing. Same about sales. same about operations because we're that that fundamental

23:42 ecosystem like that infrastructure. We're the one connecting all of those consultants. We're the one connecting your in-house say operations team to the marketing agency you just brought in you know to support them or ensuring that your inventory team you know is working closely with say um you know your

24:04 customer service team like we're ensuring that the overall picture of your health is where it needs to be and that was the whole you know kind of concept behind using myelium mycelium and the fungi kingdom it's the hidden network controlling the world and nobody talks about it. Let's say if someone listening today is

24:24 wondering whether they're actually ready to scale or whether they're just scaling chaos or whatever it's going on in in their company. So, what are the three biggest warning signs they should be paying attention to? H that's a great question because honestly depending on their business there could be a host of things, right?

24:45 Um, I think one of the, and I would say easiest, obviously not everyone might agree with me on this, but I think one of the easiest things off the bat is culture. Because if, if the people that you have within your team, and you could recognize the signs if you're you lead with emotional intelligence, if you're paying attention to your crew, right? If you see your

25:07 team is burning out, um not completing things on time, you know, coming up with a lot of like or presenting to the table, right? Like bringing to the table a lot of challenges they're facing, like if there is some internal friction that starts to become really visible, I think that's like one of the easiest ways to

25:27 know that, hey, something is wrong because it doesn't necessarily mean it's a fundamental issue in the team culture, right? Like the company culture. It could just be an issue of they're burning out because your team is lacking automation or again, you know, they're struggling because maybe they're not getting paid enough because your revenue doesn't support that. So, I think like

25:47 one of the easiest things I'd say top line is like your team, you know, listening to your team and recognizing like where they are and hearing them because they are the ones with boots on the ground. Um, the second I would say would be revenue. uh if you are building up your revenue,

26:08 you know, that's an area where yeah, you should you should leverage some support and some resources in the space to continue that and and continue to grow it. Uh but from an issue standpoint, if your revenue is plateauing, if um you're seeking to scale rapidly and um you you know you're growing and

26:29 things are good but you don't know if your team could sustain like that increase in revenue. So that would be another another area. And the third would be operations because really again much like we talked about like the house example of the foundation like operations is the lifeblood of of the company. It's how everyone in the company is performing their tasks, how they're staying on top of projects. Um,

26:51 different things like that. Where can people find you? Where can people find myelia group? What's the best way of getting in touch with you? Yeah, sure. So, you could find us at myroup.com. So, that's my cce agroup.com. We're across all socials at the Mycelia Group. So, really nice and easy to find

27:12 us. And of course, we're going to be at quite different different um quite a few different shows all over the country. So, you can find us at Ignite, Hall of Flowers, Revalry, MJ Biscon, you name it. So, yeah, we're excited to to see what the rest of the year brings. As the mcelium, you're everywhere. So, that's good. Exactly. Exactly.

27:33 Uh wonderful conversation, Jessica. Really, once again, amazing stuff. A lot uh of things that I've learned that I did not know before. So, thank you so much. We appreciate that. Um, thanks for having me. You're my pleasure. My pleasure.