Seedcrest: Breaking the Stigma of Canabis Through Education
Shanon Jaramillo is the founder of Seed Crest, LLC, a workforce and education solutions organization for the cannabis industry. She started her business in 2017. She saw the potential business opportunities in the upcoming legalization of cannabis. Shanon started her company under the name Cannabis NM Staffing with a social media group. She would ask online, “How many people are looking for a job in cannabis but don’t know how to get in?” Shanon quickly saw there was a lack of education for the potentially booming cannabis industry.
Prior to Shanon starting and ancillary cannabis business, she was recruiting, for over 10 years, in the life insurance industry in different states, including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, California, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
As a leader in the Lesbian+ and Queer Women business sector, Shanon was encouraged from an early age to look for new opportunities and break down barriers. She is one of four daughters who were all encouraged to go into business of helping people and to be strong. Her Father, JJ, instilled in all his daughters a strong value of education and social equity.
Her secret power? Continuously seek mentorship.
Her secret power when things get tough is to remember her father’s early lessons and to continuously seek mentorship. Between that and her reminding herself if she doesn’t go forward with her business dream, who will? It is tough being a minority and a lesbian woman in a man’s world, but Shanon says the risk is so rewarding. Her work helping people to break into cannabis jobs and new businesses led to being asked by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to work with the State Legislature before cannabis was legalized in the state of New Mexico. She was just one of only 25 individuals who worked with the Marijuana Working Group for Legalization.
Shanon quickly realized there a lack of relevant educational guidance for people who wanted to work in the cannabis field when she, herself was looking for employment to “get in”. Additionally, understanding the policies and regulation was a mystery since it was new and a complicated enterprise. Shanon was close to the policy up at the Round House as one of the original 25 people she was not only close to the policy but understood the gaps. Shanon is good at resolving regulatory and compliance gaps and carving out standardized systems. She and her team have studied 10 cannabis states to better understand how to help New Mexicans with workforce training, education, and hiring standards that appear within policy and law.
Shanon quickly realized there a lack of relevant educational guidance for people who wanted to work in the cannabis field
As a strong lesbian woman, Shanon has often been stereotyped and she now uses that in a positive way to gain the favor of many different groups nationwide. She had to get over feeling the imposter syndrome, even though often times she is more in the know about the local cannabis industry due to her research than most people in the room. Women often seem to think they must be perfect, and men just seem to go for it. Women seem to feel they have to have 100% of the job requirements, whereas men think if they have 10% of the requirements, they should go for it. Shanon said getting over perfectionism was an important skill to learn in running her business.
Shanon remembers at the beginning, when cannabis was first becoming legal in the state, that a lot of people did not want their real names on the certificate from her classes. Many of these people were government officials, Tribal leaders, and people part of the C-suite at a corporation. She started out her cannabis classes by coming out. Not once but twice. This put everyone at ease.
She realizes she that is a role- model and is so happy that Lesbian and Queer women are very involved in the industry. She also realized that women still do twice as much work as men. So, when she would go to the cannabis establishments trying to meet the women in the business knowing they were really the workers at that location. She was so happy when lesbian and queer women would thank her for her training classes because they said that her classes helped them get their current jobs. She loves that the cannabis business has a higher number of Lesbian+ and Queer Women involved in it. She knows her being out as a lesbian has helped to make this happen.
Shanon started out her cannabis classes by coming out. Not once but twice.
Some of Shanon’s Classes include (and there is more information about each one on her website SeedCrest.io):
- HIPAA for Cannabis Professionals
- Sexual harassment training for Employees and Managers
- The Cannabis Server Permit (CSP)
- The Cannabis Establishment Technician (CET)
Originally, most of the people who are involved in the cannabis business are older hippies who couldn’t wait for cannabis to become legal. They have the money and the experience! However, Shanon is all about social equity to help other marginalized groups in not only her life but also in business. Not only is she encouraging to Lesbians+ and Queer Women but her organization is the first to offer courses that are mainstream regulated like HIPAA, in Spanish and she has some classes in Dine (Navajo) coming out in 2024. Additionally, people who were formerly in trouble because of the War on Drug programs in America can really benefit from the 5 STAR Alumni program and Career Coaching provided at Shanon’s company. She also provides a system and blueprint to success. She realizes Lesbians+ and Queer Women need to create their own network to help and mentor each other and foster development in jobs in all sectors. She feels there is a strong need in funding. Most of the funders are men and sometimes think that being queer will get in the way, but really being queer can lead the way.
Shanon recommends her favorite cannabis industry books by Michael Zaytsev
