Key to getting a great job with an multistate cannabis company You don't need a resume to get a job at one of the nation's largest cannabis multistate operators — you just have to show you have the skills and personality to get the job done. "Meeting people where they're at" is just one way that Verano looks to differentiate itself from the competition. And it's also one way that a brand new industry can define itself when there's nothing to disrupt. Destiny Thompson, the Chief People Officer at the fifth-largest cannabis company by market cap, chatted with Vangst CEO Karson Humiston to talk all things people, growth, and cannabis — and how Verano is helping to build an industry powered by people who truly are Proud to Work in Cannabis. 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/ Destiny Thompson - https://podconx.com/guests/destiny-thompson Verano - https://verano.com
Key to getting a great job with an multistate cannabis company
You don't need a resume to get a job at one of the nation's largest cannabis multistate operators — you just have to show you have the skills and personality to get the job done. "Meeting people where they're at" is just one way that Verano looks to differentiate itself from the competition.
And it's also one way that a brand new industry can define itself when there's nothing to disrupt.
Destiny Thompson, the Chief People Officer at the fifth-largest cannabis company by market cap, chatted with Vangst CEO Karson Humiston to talk all things people, growth, and cannabis — and how Verano is helping to build an industry powered by people who truly are Proud to Work in Cannabis.
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/
Destiny Thompson - https://podconx.com/guests/destiny-thompson
Verano - https://verano.com
Destiny Thompson: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm destiny Thompson. am the chief people officer at ver, uh, and I'm proud to work in cannabis. Given met some incredible people from all different backgrounds, with many different stories.
And the passion that people have about the plant and the more I learn about the plant as I'm in this industry has just been great.
Karson Humiston: Hey everybody. And welcome back to the proud to work in cannabis podcast. I'm your host Carson. Humiston the founder here at Vant. And today we're thrilled because we have destiny Thompson. Who is the chief people officer at Verrano. Everyone listening is likely familiar with Verrano powerhouse, multi-state operator and destiny runs all their people operations.
So this is gonna be a super, super interesting show where we're gonna, , understand what it's like working in the people space in cannabis, understand the types of candidates that are really attractive to this space. And it's gonna be an amazing conversation. So thank [00:01:00] you so much for being here today.
how you doing.
Destiny Thompson: I'm good. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Karson Humiston: And remind us, you are calling in from where,
Destiny Thompson: Chicago Chicago, is where our headquarters is at.
Karson Humiston: and it looks like you're in the office. Is everyone returned to the office or, or is Verano in person remote hybrid?
Destiny Thompson: Yeah. You know, it's a little bit of everything depending on your role. Um, but we certainly like to be in the office. it's a really fun environment, as you can imagine, being in the cannabis space. and you just get a lot of work done, but we also have fun doing it when we're all Al.
Karson Humiston: So before we dive into Verano, I would love to hear about your background and what you were doing before you moved into the cannabis.
Destiny Thompson: Yeah. So like a lot of individuals. , I certainly, ran into cannabis as of recent. my experience goes back to consulting. I was in the consulting industry for over 20 years before joining ver in a lot of different, , businesses, but running [00:02:00] large HR teams, in consulting companies Uh, higher education, life sciences, most before joining technology and investment banking. and so a lot of it was around scaling companies, but using that consulting mind frame from an HR background.
Karson Humiston: And then how did you decide to make the move into the cannabis?
Destiny Thompson: I always love people's stories on how they get into cannabis. So, lucky enough for me , I had someone reach out to me who I knew my friend group. I feel like a lot of companies are going through the referral network. I always tell people network, network, network, if you wanna get into and that's literally how it started. It was a conversation I wasn't seeking out cannabis at the time. , but what really intrigued me about the Very rarely this day and age, you get to be on the ground floor of something that is growing at this pace at this speed this scale? and for me that was super exciting,[00:03:00] because it allowed me to come into something on the ground and really helped build the foundation and really make a stamp on how HR should be and how it should be run.
And the people we're recruiting into can be done. , throughout the cannabis sector. And so that was really exciting to me and to be able to be part of that growth and that development, , is really what drew me in. And then as I started meeting the people in the industry that, that just sold it for me, the passion around it, and the excitement around plans and this business and the growth, , it just sealed the deal.
Karson Humiston: Talk to us about your first day at Verrano you walked in, you are the chief people, officer a huge job, a huge responsibility at one of the leading cannabis companies in the world. What was the first day like?
Destiny Thompson: Oh, it was
Karson Humiston: Oh, fantastic. I,
Destiny Thompson: , given I've coming from consulting, which is very buttoned up very white collared. you know, you typically had a thousand
Karson Humiston: yeah.
Destiny Thompson: your, calendar [00:04:00] before you even started. it was a typical kind of. Onboarding orientation that you would have, right.
Uh, you kind of knew what your plan was for the next three, four weeks. And walking the Verano headquarters, was great from the beginning. , it's a very loftlike space. You saw, you saw people chattering wearing shorts and t-shirts and running shoes. , you saw people throwing balls across the hallway. , we had brands shirts and everything everywhere, and everyone was just the energy you got. , was great, and meeting the people. And so, it was great to just understand where people were coming from and pretty quickly you realized people. came from everywhere, whether it was corporate America
Karson Humiston: Yeah.
Destiny Thompson: grew up through retail um, they came from an ad agency. the energy was electric and different and there was no onboarding plan. There, there was no, here's kinda what you do, um, which I don't expect at my level anyway, but, it certainly me to kind of start seeing right away the [00:05:00] opportunities we could make an impact on here and, and within the industry.
Karson Humiston: So as you were digging in and learning the business and learning the industry, what surprised you, what was different from other industries that you had been working in for the last couple decades?
Destiny Thompson: Yeah, that's a really great it was really important to me when I started. To understand the industry. This industry is so new that you kind of have to learn the as you are getting to learn the company itself. And so I knew I had this skillset to help ver, but I wanted and needed to learn business.
That's that's really important. And to understand the people behind the. , and so I hit dispensaries cultivation facilities. I really wanted to see how the plant was grown. The people touching the plant, how they talked about it. and I quickly realized that passion of being in this , is really what brings people in and benefits that this industry has in our communities was big.[00:06:00]
It was really great to get out there and meet people. It allowed me to get ideas on what we could do better, or we can continue to do the great things that I was already seeing. grew really fast as you know, and we have a lot of great local communities or, uh, local teams, but how do we bring all that together make sure that we're one culture and we're thinking about things across, was something that I was really interested in making sure that we're doing as well. To recruit some really great people because we are not slowing down.
Karson Humiston: One, one point that you just made. I mean, the name of this podcast is proud to work in cannabis, and I always think about other industries. I haven't heard a podcast. Proud to work in oil and gas, proud to work in banking. so the passion that it goes behind this industry, every single person that I've met or most are so excited to be here.
And I think that it's such a unique advantage to cannabis, especially for employers, you can get [00:07:00] so much out of your employees when they're bought in and they're passionate. Obviously Verona's done an incredible job. At, I think it becomes challenging as you scale as you scale, how do you keep everyone so connected to your mission of the business and keep your employees so engaged and into it?
Because it's something that at least from our perspective, people that work at ver are love it. And they're so passionate and you've figured out how to do that beyond just the startup base. So I'd love to hear some, some tips on how you've been able to do this.
Destiny Thompson: So it's, it's, it's interesting you say that because that was one of the challenges I think, in this industry we're facing now and, or will continue to face because we're not the only there's also family run businesses, local. companies in these states that are not large MSOs. So what makes us different compared to other companies and how do we make sure we kind of package that?
And we do things that, not only recruit, but keep people here once they get here. and one of the things I'm really proud about is we talk about that is our career fairs. [00:08:00] And I think we have really made a stamp on the way that we do career fair. and if my head of recruiting was sitting there and you'd be like, don't give out all the secrets.
But what I would say is I think what makes us authentic our candidates that we hire is we meet people where they're at. when I say that, what I mean is we don't require resumes. , we're not making an assumption that you have prereqs, coming into this, we're taking it that we're gonna meet you where you're at, and we're gonna evaluate you based on your passion and, and your excitement to get into this space. , we do career fairs and towns that are, where we're hiring into. So if our dispensary is there, if our cultivation there, we're gonna do it right across the street, if not by that. so that it doesn't take you forever to get to us, and also do it by public transportation.
So you're not. A lot of money on gas but it's easy to get to us. so we, we, we certainly do that. we do bilingual career fairs. We [00:09:00] actually just had one in New Jersey. We're really proud of doing those things because again, we're penetrating a certain, um, ethnicity, but we're also making it easier for people. English may not be their first language. and so we're trying different ways to reach out to our populations, as well, we do a QR code, so that you don't have to jot down the hotel or the location of where we might be. We try and make it easy for you to find us. if you don't know technology. not making the assumption that you know how to use it. And so we're also there , when you show up to
Karson Humiston: Um,
Destiny Thompson: through all that stuff. So do think that's something that really, a differentiator for us as we go out into the market. and which continues to build that brand, that talent community we like to call it within, all the different states or, or localities that we're in. And so that's definitely something that is good on the side. When I think about, the retention and, and keeping people here, there's, there's two things that I [00:10:00] point to, We did not have any, courses, skills training happening when I got here. And it's probably similar to this industry just as we've grown so fast, we basically had to make sure we just, we got people in and we were getting product out, we're bringing people from all different backgrounds. So it's important that we give them life skills that maybe they didn't have before, like balancing a checkbook, or how do you save for an emergency fund or organized your day from work to Some of those things that maybe they were ever taught or, um, didn't have the luxury you'd have. But also for our managers, the leading at ver a series we just launched about, three, four months ago. And, people have come from all different places or because we've grown so fast, we've promoted within lot. they not have, the skills on how to truly effectively manage large teams, even small teams. how do we give them those skills? And so our leading at Verano. Series [00:11:00] it's our first installment is really just of how do you give How do you have difficult conversations? do you, , talk about people around, you know, you're a budtender now, but where do you wanna be?
You know, in six months or a year spotlighting high potentials. seeing kind of the diamond in the rough and how do we make sure that we continue to progress that person up? So those are some of the things that we're also doing on the internal side to differentiate us a bit, from maybe some of our competition, but also it's a great retention tool.
Uh,
Karson Humiston: , I think it's a great differentiator. I I've never heard of no, no resumes, which made me think of a stat that I read the other day, that 80% of people exaggerate on the resumes anyway. So maybe it's on an effective tool and it is so cool that you can show up to a Verano career fair and show up with yourself and maybe we'll be able to find a, a role for.
Destiny Thompson: We're not expecting people to have their resumes and nor do we [00:12:00] nor do we need that right. To, to, to make a decision on, if you're gonna be good for us, we wanna make sure that we have the conversation. We're able to talk about your passion and, and, and some of your experience. But the great thing about this is you can come from a lot of different backgrounds. and again, we're not assuming that you have any prerequisites, we're, we'd rather meet you where you're at. Um, and I think that's helped us a lot,
Karson Humiston: and then once you meet folks where they're at, it sounds like you have the training in place to help them get up to speed. A question that I had around training is if a candidate potentially wants to work in retail, but they're not confident on. How to speak to a customer about products, how do you help that candidate?
Maybe as an example, they worked in retail before, or they were a bartender and they would really love to work in one of your dispensaries. How do you help those kind of people be confident in how to speak about cannabis to customers or even patients.
Destiny Thompson: [00:13:00] So we similar to myself. I think a lot of people that I've run into don't necessarily have. The cannabis experience, they have other skills like bartending or whatnot, where you've had to interact with people. Um, and as long as you've got some of those interaction skills, we can certainly highlight that for you in the cannabis space.
When we give you an offer, we don't expect you day one to know about the cannabis what you're selling or having the confidence. So we're gonna give you time and we're gonna give you customer service ramp up shadowing.
We allow a lot of shadowing. Um, so you can kind of see how it's done. Maybe start from the back from an inventory standpoint and move yourself. Into, , working, at the front. And so we certainly, again meet people where they're at, even after they're hired. We're not just gonna throw you into a situation that you're not quite ready for. and the same thing on the cultivation side, right. We're not gonna throw you into, And dealing with live plan. We might start [00:14:00] you at harvest first to get you comfortable if you have not yet really worked with plants before. and so we've got, different training sessions when we hire people on, but by no means, are we expecting people to know everything when they come in, this is way too new for people to know it.
Karson Humiston: today there's about 450,000 full-time employees in the space, but this number will reach a million over the next decade. There's not enough people with cannabis experience to fill all of the jobs. So we always advise our clients requiring cannabis experience is really gonna limit your pool of candidates.
And people really want to work in this industry and they wanna come in and work hard and learn. And if you can use your energy to train those folks up, rather than require them to have five years of cannabis retail experience, you'll be in a better place. So I, I love that. That's what you're focusing.
Destiny Thompson: completely. And the one thing on like consulting or some of these other industries that I've worked in, the cannabis industry is meant [00:15:00] for all different types of backgrounds, which I think is very rare. and that just allows us to tap in a lot of different ways. Um, and we certainly have stories of people coming from a completely different into cannabis.
And it's always fun to hear how they got involved.
Karson Humiston: As a chief people, officer, how have you built your core people team out? And what does your team look like in that's my first question then my part two question is like, what is a day in the life of your
Destiny Thompson: Oh, it, it varies, uh, to go to the first one. so similarly. hiring what we're gonna need in the future. Right. And with how much Toronto, this industry has grown, it was really important for me, bring in people that have, worked and scaled, uh, organizations before. And again, not necessarily have I can, I can teach you that. I can give you. learn it, but really bring the skill set of what we needed, so that we can help Toronto continue to grow. And so,[00:16:00] when I came in, that was one of the first things I did not only just getting out there, learning the business, meaning the people getting of where we can do better, but also making sure we're bringing in the right skill set to help us move that forward.
So it was very foundational setting this year on. What are the gaps and what
Karson Humiston: Okay.
Destiny Thompson: So, you heard me talk about training. That was one major gap that I saw right away. We need to be able to give people soft skills, the hard skills and the continuous and career pathing. So we can continue to promote within. But also give them the tools and resources in order to do that. and that also goes with and, engagement, surveys, things like that. So we can continue to progress, within So I hired head of basically and organizational development that, that really focuses on, on those pieces. recruiting is gonna to be just a hot topic for us. as we to grow, given the nature of the industry that we're in, both with the hourly and salary staff. And so [00:17:00] having someone who really understands recruiting. can really understand how do you do hiring events, like career fairs and differentiate us and have a brand out there that competes against the other MSOs. that again, we're differentiating ourselves, but also make it easy and efficient. And while building out the local talent communities a, was a big deal because that has to be our continuous stream we continue to grow and, and move to other states,
Karson Humiston: Okay.
Destiny Thompson: or add to our current states. so ahead of recruiting was important for me to bring that in, and to help with some of the corporate recruiting that we obviously are having to as we grew overnight. the other was really centralizing. a lot of the operations, operations that we had in different states. So you had each state kind of running benefits or doing payroll, and that's really not a good long term if you're trying to make things more efficient and easy and cost effective.
and then our [00:18:00] HR business partners who are out in the states who are really kind of like the local on the ground, HR support is really there to help our employees, our managers, whenever things are.
Both going well, and maybe not so well as, as that happens, really coming up with a, a HR business partner,
Karson Humiston: And then back to part two of your question. What's a day in the.
Destiny Thompson: It can, it can be a little bit of everything. it just depends as I think job in cannabis can be, if you talk to everybody, a lot of fun. Uh, I try and get on the road as much as I can. Um, so I'm trying to visit all the different states, uh, whether it's cultivation or dispensaries. It's important for me. The job is ever done. There's always something to improve. So I always wanna get feedback. And the best way to get that is with people out in the field that are working at the stores that are working in the cultivation facilities. And also there's just hard things to tackle, right? There's the, the processes and, and the, [00:19:00] the structure that we're trying to put in place, but also there's the things that we need to do going forward.
So how do we stay
Karson Humiston: that we hear lot
Destiny Thompson: at
Karson Humiston: for senior leaders
Destiny Thompson: engagement surveys. We'll
Karson Humiston: into
Destiny Thompson: of
Karson Humiston: cannabis experience,
Destiny Thompson: will be
Karson Humiston: you've And you've talked a about of the things you've done, like really to know the know the business, but tips do have for people that are moving
Destiny Thompson: feedback,
feedback
Karson Humiston: Without, having
Destiny Thompson: can
Karson Humiston: cannabis
Destiny Thompson: continue to
Karson Humiston: be successful. You times
Destiny Thompson: so that's
Karson Humiston: people been in the industry for a long are at a company for a long time when a new executive comes everyone's skeptical. Um, you've obviously,
Destiny Thompson: so pushing
Karson Humiston: know, done a transitioning
One, question a is cannabis, without obviously done it [00:20:00] very successfully. a lot get get to what you into executive level role?
um, industry experience so that they can know, I think a lot of that have time in, a little great job of In what tips do you have for other executives transitioning into.
Destiny Thompson: Yeah, it's, that's a good I even had to think through that before I started my first day. a couple of things, I guess, that come to mind one. , really know the industry and that's gonna take some time, but don't be shy about asking those questions because I, people are not expecting you to know the industry they're hiring you for your experience the skillset that you're gonna bring
Karson Humiston: Right.
Destiny Thompson: and that's one of the things our owner, George mentioned to me, him and I were meeting before [00:21:00] joining, was, we'll teach you the industry. Don't worry about. what we're hiring you to bring in that skillset. and so really there's, there's people at roo that I've relied heavily on like our compliance team, as it relates to regulations, which was a whole new aspect for me. and through that, understanding it state by state, understanding some of the, Detriments set, hold us back within the cannabis Like not all vendors will work with us. That was a challenge didn't really have to face before in my experience. really reading up on the industry, using our resources at your current company ask those questions. no
Karson Humiston: Um,
Destiny Thompson: a silly question. We're all trying to learn. two. Make a plan for yourself. I did a 90 day plan. I think it's important to do. and I really made sure that I dove into a, get to know on my team within the first two days. So I had [00:22:00] calls. Every person within the first two days, it was a lot of calls, I wanted people to know well, who I am and that I'm here to help and then get out on the road, to meet people. that's where you get the most feedback. You're not gonna get it from sitting in an office. You're just not. then I also made sure I figured out who my key were at for. So who's my key person in finance. Who's my key person in marketing. Who's my key that I should get to meet that
Karson Humiston: That's tip to have a board that tip.
Destiny Thompson: all of that is important. on a personal side note, I
Karson Humiston: That's awesome.
Destiny Thompson: I've done
Karson Humiston: question is what are you looking
Destiny Thompson: directors
Karson Humiston: cannabis you, you know, fast were you know in what excited
Destiny Thompson: who had union experience, people who were in the gaming regulation business. and I call them outside, regularly to pick their brain on things that [00:23:00] this industry's experiencing, but also to help me through that as I come in, as I bump into them. And so I think that's been super helpful for me. It's kind of like my board of advisors outside of,
Karson Humiston: a great for, for anyone of advisors for whatever your role is. I love
Destiny Thompson: It's been super helpful. Some, a mentor told me that years ago and I've used it ever since.
Karson Humiston: my last forward to the decade the When forward and looking, were talking a decade, are you most
about?
Destiny Thompson: I'm excited about where this industry is gonna go and where it's gonna take us. I'm interested in federalization to be here, not to be, uh, we'll see what happens with that. Um, I'm excited about, Our
Karson Humiston: And.
Destiny Thompson: HR team here at Baro
Karson Humiston: And to define than disrupt, right? We're we're
Destiny Thompson: training
Karson Humiston: I think it's our when else are gonna to that we built this market a new [00:24:00] And people talking about I'm disrupt
Destiny Thompson: come.
Karson Humiston: industry versus in
Destiny Thompson: make
Karson Humiston: businesses disrupting
Destiny Thompson: this in the
Karson Humiston: sector And from a chance to you resumes just and or not stigma any um that
being able rather
Destiny Thompson: Completely.
Karson Humiston: we be able say state from nothing? so you don't like, I always hear about how starting this business to
this
cannabis, no defining an entirely.
Massive [00:25:00] of the
economy. people standpoint, the know, everything, you just talked about, being able to meet people where they are in your case, not requiring any norm there ever was. You have the chance to throw it out the window and do it your own way.
That makes the most sense for you and your business. And it's just like the coolest thing.
Destiny Thompson: It's awesome. Like I said, from the beginning, when we started this podcast, that is why I joined. , this day and age, there's not that many industries that are coming outta the gate like this anymore. Technology was probably the most recent one.
And that was a while ago. , it's very cool. It's very fun, but it's also benefiting so many people in so many ways. And so , that has been just, it's been fun. It's fun.
Karson Humiston: Okay, so I'm sure candidates listening now want to come work for Verrano. So if I'm listening and I wanna get in touch with you and potentially get a job, what do I do next? Where can I find.
Destiny Thompson: Yeah. So you can always go into our website, at.com, we have a careers page. if you're on any of our dispensaries, if you happen to walk into a Zen leave or
Karson Humiston: [00:26:00] Well, to this it sounds like there's
Destiny Thompson: from there.
Karson Humiston: great um within destiny thank you It was great speaking and I I'll be in
has humility. again, you don't have to have a resume. We're not expecting to walk in with one. We want someone to roll up their sleeves.
We want you to be passionate about learning this. I mean, it is as simple as that. So, um, there's a job here for everyone. That's also that makes this industry so unique from corporate to retail, to cultivation. there's just so much out there.
If you're listening podcast, a drop for you at Verrano. So get in touch. You don't need a resume. And it's a great opportunity to get in and really learn the industry and, and have a career path So.
much for joining us today on the proud to work in cannabis podcast.
with you [00:27:00] Chicago next week. I hope we meet in
Destiny Thompson: Wonderful. Thank you for inviting me.