The positive impact that cannabis companies are having on their communities. Copperstate Farms is one of the largest cannabis companies in the state of Arizona and the largest employers in Navajo County Arizona. General Manager, Barb Hansen joins Karson Humiston to talk about how converting an abandoned tomato growing facility and hiring locally has helped Snowflake AZ transition from an economically depressed town into a vibrant community. Produced by PodConx Proud To Work In Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/proud-to-work-in-cannabis Karson Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/karson-humiston Vangst - https://vangst.com/ Barb Hansen - https://podconx.com/guests/barb-hansen Copperstate Farms - https://www.copperstatefarms.com/
The positive impact that cannabis companies are having on their communities.
Copperstate Farms is one of the largest cannabis companies in the state of Arizona and the largest employers in Navajo County Arizona. General Manager, Barb Hansen joins Karson Humiston to talk about how converting an abandoned tomato growing facility and hiring locally has helped Snowflake AZ transition from an economically depressed town into a vibrant community.
Proud To Work In Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/proud-to-work-in-cannabis
Karson Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/karson-humiston
Vangst - https://vangst.com/
Barb Hansen - https://podconx.com/guests/barb-hansen
Copperstate Farms - https://www.copperstatefarms.com/
Barb Hansen: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Barbara Hanson. I am the general manager at copper state farms in snowflake, Arizona, and I'm proud to be in cannabis because of the significant positive impact that our company and this industry has had on the town.
Karson Humiston: Hey everybody. And welcome to the proud to work in cannabis podcast. I'm your host, Carson Hermiston. And today I'm so excited to have Barb Hans. The general manager at copper state farms in snowflake, Arizona, and one of copper state's first hires, first people on the ground and snowflake, and a big reason that copper state in snowflake is the leader in the Arizona cannabis industry.
So it's such a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much, Barb for joining us today.
Barb Hansen: It's my pleasure. I love to talk about our story because it sits a positive story. In 2016 five Simonton, the fourth, who was , one of the founders of this company had a vision for a cucumber tomato farm that had been closed [00:01:00] down a couple of years previously and saw the potential here.
To do the first large greenhouse cannabis facility in the U S we have it's a 40 acre facility, and I had experience working in this facility before, when it was growing cucumbers and tomatoes. And I wasn't here when the facility shut down, but I saw. The impact that it had on the community, because there was about 150 people here at the time that lost their jobs when they closed down.
So it was very significant. And as soon as I heard that they were going to open up the facility again and what they were going to do, what the facility, I was so excited to be part of it. I have a medical patient and so I know the benefits of Canon. For people with health issues.
And so I was so excited to be able, again, to be part of this, this dynamic new industry. But I was more excited about the fact that we reopened this facility and started bringing people back to work. [00:02:00] When we started the facility and we first publicized that we were going to have all of these openings, we actually had 1600 people apply for jobs.
And our number one goal was to. Find the people that were impacted who lost their jobs and try to bring them back. So we went through every single one of those applications on resumes and looked at. Did they ever work at this facility before? And did they live in snowflake or Taylor, which are the two towns that are connected and started from scratch.
And we started there, started bringing people back and. Just kind of built , our head count from there. We initially started out hiring 30 people because we were doing retrofit. We didn't have any plants or anything. We just had to get all of the cucumber and tomato stuff out of the facility and converted it into a cannabis growing facility.
And then we slowly ramped up from 30 to 90 to 100. Right now at the farm [00:03:00] we have about 350. And that doesn't include the other 200 or so that we have that work in our five dispensary's and in our support area and in our manufacturing plant down in Phoenix. So I've seen a lot of growth within the company, especially here at the.
Karson Humiston: So Barb in being early, literally day one at copper state, what have been the biggest lessons learned in. Building an industry defining company in the state of Arizona. What do you wish you knew when you started.
Barb Hansen: Well, I wish I had known how to better maneuver around for the people who aren't in the industry, with, with this still being a schedule, one narcotic at the federal level, just looking at things from a startup. to lease equipment that we might need. There were barriers to entry all over the place, setting up payroll systems, we didn't really have any infrastructure in place.
I took the role of HR, but I did HR and it [00:04:00] accounting and our first inventory system was an Excel spreadsheet. Right. And we just kind of started.
building things from scratch. And I had never worked for a startup company before. So I started out with my first startup company being one in cannabis.
that was very interesting. There were companies that we wanted to rely on locally. Our biggest thing is, is shop local, right? We wanted to stimulate the economy. So we, not, everyone in town was thrilled about us starting at this facility. So there was limits on , who would work with us.
Karson Humiston: And when you're looking for people to join the company candidates, to come and work for you, what do you look for in candidates? , if I'm listening and I'm like, you know what? I really, really want to get into the cannabis industry. I'm looking for a job, Barb. You probably hired more people in cannabis than anybody.
What are you looking for when you're making these.
Barb Hansen: Well, we're looking for people that are enthusiastic about what we're doing and [00:05:00] are flexible to learn and grow with us. We have made significant changes in the last almost six years. Because the industry is changing, on the scale that we're growing at. No one does it as big as we do.
And so, , we're making a lot of changes and adapting on a very large scale. So, of course we love to have people that have cannabis experience that just makes it even better. And we have hired a lot of people from the industry already that came in and had no idea the scale and the scope of what we were trying to do.
And it's different for us than it would be from us for a smaller company because of the scale. Our equipment is bigger. We use automation and technology anywhere we can, just because of the scale, we harvest between, 15 and 22,000 plants a week.
So, there's. Carts that have to be ran. We don't walk back And, forth to the greenhouse. We drive our product back and forth. We have multiple drying rooms versus just [00:06:00] one. so it's people who understand that flexibility's required and are willing to have fun as we learn and grow there's new products and things that people are coming up with all the time.
Which is, it's a good thing in a bad thing, you want to go, oh, squirrel, look at that. Oh, we need to try that. So you have to be careful, but that's, what's fun to, people are always reaching out, Hey, we have this latest and greatest. We think you should try this. This will help you.
Sometimes it does. But sometimes on our scale, oh, Nope, that's too tiny of a machine. It's might be the biggest that you make, but what work for.
Karson Humiston: and just so people can level set. What kind of jobs, like if I live in snowflake today and I'm like, I want to go work for copper state. What are the kinds of jobs that are available at the.
Barb Hansen: Well, we have a lot of jobs right now that are available in our post-harvest activities, specifically , in our trim. , like I said before, we harvest between, 15 and 22,000 plants a week. And that's what we hire for people to [00:07:00] go cut the plants down out of the greenhouse. Bring them in and do all of the bucking and trimming and getting the flower into the dry rooms.
Through the finished process, right? Curing and packaging and inspecting, and all of those post-harvest activities is where we need the help the.
most. , it's manufacturing rights, repetitive.
Karson Humiston: and switching gears a little bit. if you had a crystal ball and you were looking forward to the industry and five more years from now, Where do you think that industry goes.
Barb Hansen: Oh, gosh, I think five years from now, it feels like I've been in the industry for 50. Because it just goes so fast. , I envision like with my cell phone, five years ago, the phone I had is not like the one that I have now. I think we're gonna see a lot more. Technology to help us with what we're doing, And we're going to need people who understand how to use the technology and are not afraid of new [00:08:00] technologies to help us drive the.
Karson Humiston: . So, wait, we fast forward to the industry five years from now, there's gonna be a lot of additional leadership that's needed in the industry, specifically women in leadership, like the role that you've taken. what do you think about the, the kinds of leaders that we'll need?
And in specifically all the opportunities that are out there for women going into leadership positions, like if I'm a woman listening, how can I position myself to, to be a leader at a growing cannabis company? Like, exactly. Like what.
Barb Hansen: It's really about being willing to learn and grow. you think , you're in a good place now wanting , to seek out new information and really do your homework on, , what the potential is, where the industry is going. I, I grew up in this company and I have been fortunate.
I started out helping, do HR functions and I'm the general manager of the farm, which is something that, I, strive for , since the beginning. So it's that, you get what.
you think about kind of mentality, right? Everything happens for a [00:09:00] reason, but you drive it with your attitude and your thoughts.
You just have to go into it ready for what's next, right? The inflexible and open and really learning how to hone your skills from a communication perspective. Being able to deal with people in this industry with a very diverse set of backgrounds, right? Because it's such a new industry.
People are always coming from somewhere else and you shouldn't let. Your lack of cannabis experience prohibit you from trying to get into this one, because you don't have to have cannabis experience. You just have to start learning as much as you can, because again, it's, it's so.
Karson Humiston: Yeah, I love that. And I love , the mentality of I'm starting in HR because that's a skill I bring to the table, but I know that I want to be the GM and I don't know all those skills. I'm going to think about this and I'm gonna learn and I'm gonna run through walls to make it happen. I think that's one of the most amazing things about cannabis is that we know people that started out as tremors that are now head cultivators, and you're able to fast track your [00:10:00] career in such a way, because these businesses are small and they're growing so quickly.
So if I'm listening to this podcast and I'm in New York or New Jersey or a new market, you can get in at a company at an entry level job in five years from now be sitting in Barb seat, overseeing the largest. In America. So that's like, what's special about this industry that no other industries have talking a little bit Barbara about when you opened up, you talked about, you're proud to organic is because of the impact it's made on the community.
Can you talk to us about that impact and why you're so proud and what you hope to do more of a, to give back to your community going through.
Barb Hansen: sure. So when, when we first opened up the facility the economy and the town , was very bad. There were High school students, for example, had a hard time finding a job because parents were taking those types of right out of high school jobs, going to McDonald's or working clerk positions, those types of, of entry level.
Jobs [00:11:00] that you get right out of school, the economy was so bad that those jobs were being held by my kids just entering the workforce. They were being held by parents and grandparents who had been displaced because of all of the impacts in the economy. , it wasn't the tomato farm that caused job losses.
There were other companies that went. Business that closed down as well. When we got to our highest hiring points we ended up being the largest employer in Navajo county, which is one of the larger. Counties in the state, not by population, but by size. And you could see that impact.
It helped across the board, right? People were coming into town to buy their gas. They were coming into town to buy their lunch on their lunch break. They were going to the Walmart that was here instead of the one that was 20 miles south of here, They stimulated the economy and you could really see it as we started doing t-shirts for our employees and doing job fairs and things.
When we were hiring, you could walk around town and you see someone with a [00:12:00] copper state or a soul flower, which is our dispensary name walk around in town. now, it's like this normal thing. And it, it was so significant that, I have people who live here that. That aren't really fans of the industry, but they acknowledge all the time.
What a huge impact that this company made just by getting people going and engaged back in locally, we even hired local contractors, right? When we did all of our construction and our retrofits, we didn't bring people up from Phoenix to do this into our role. We got bids from local contractors and that's who we employ to help us get the facility where it needed to be.
So it really just kind of spread and
Karson Humiston: And now, and even beyond snowflake, can you talk a little bit about the dispensary? So you have to ride the state because your. In places where your dispensary's outside of just snowflakes or you're actually hoping not only snowflake, but a lot of other communities as [00:13:00] well. Can you talk about the dispensary's and the types of jobs that you might be hiring in the dispensary's and really like the difference between the work you're doing and snowflake in and throughout the rest and the impact that you're making, but also that broader impact throughout the rest of it.
Barb Hansen: Sure. We have just recently opened up a distribution center and a manufacturing facility in Tempe. And that facility started hiring very aggressively. I want to say there's probably a. 60 or so people there that we just hired and they're attached to, to one of our dispensary's that we are in the process of making.
Grand and an awesome we have two dispensaries in Tempe. We have one out in sun city, which is kind of our flagship store. It has a cafe attached to it.
And an, a wellness center where people can go and do like cannabis 1 0 1 classes and do yoga sessions learn how to do. Infused cooking with cannabis and [00:14:00] nutritional classes.
And it's in some city. And so we've got that demographic that's out there. We have another dispensary that is in Scottsdale. It's near the air park and then we have another dispensary that's in north Phoenix out near deer valley and each one of those dispensary's we have bud tender positions, retail manager positions, we have a support staff where we have drivers who do deliveries because we don't just provide flowers.
From our cultivation facility to our five dispensary's. We also sell our flour and our products wholesale. So we sell to dispensary's and other customers all over the state of Arizona from Northern Arizona, all the way down to Tucson Yuma, or where, wherever there's a dispensary. We, we can sell to.
Karson Humiston: And we're running out of time here. But one question I always ask to everybody is all right, so I got a job in canvas in my first day, my birthday's [00:15:00] next week. What. What'd you give me to be successful. I know you mentioned on having open nine, be open to learning, but it was my first day you're you're sending me a text on my first day going into this job, whatever, what are you going to get me?
Barb Hansen: Smile. Smile at everybody. You meet. Make the right first impression and ask lots of questions. Don't be afraid to ask
Karson Humiston: Awesome. Well, look, there's all different kinds of people on the ground to work in canvas podcasts and someone like Barbies. Really? This is the reason as industry work. Somebody that comes into a business is excited about stimulating the town and building a business from the ground up and working your way up to running a facility.
Like you're the reason. Industry is thriving and is where it has. And we need many more barbs across many more companies so that people are listening. We're inspired by [00:16:00] Barb's story. And Barb shows that you can get into a company work really hard and ultimately be running the show home. So I hope other people were inspired to do it.
Bargain Barb. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for all that you do for the industry, specifically the Arizona industry, and we're so excited to have you on the call and, and
Barb Hansen: Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to get to talk to you. And I love talking. My company and the industry. So thank you
Karson Humiston: Sounds great. Well, everybody thanks for tuning in. And we've got a very special guest coming on next week out of this year, so you won't want to miss it. And they have a great day.