Continue to Site »
Site will load in 15 seconds

The Fire Station Embraces Employee Autonomy and Millennial Culture

Stosh Wasik and Logan Stauber, the owners and CEOs of The Fire Station, reflect on how the Upper Peninsula, Mich., company ensures a positive, empowering work environment.

Priscilla Reyes, customer, left, and Maria Perron, budtender.
Priscilla Reyes, customer, left, and Maria Perron, budtender.
The Fire Station

Editor's note: Presented by Cannabis Business Times in an as-told-to format. The company's leaders shared below information directly with CBT. Edited for length and clarity 

Stosh Wasik: The reason I got into cannabis—it kind of just fell into place. I was in college at the time. A business partner in another cannabis venture that I'm [now] a part of reached out and he was just like, ‘Hey, I think this is a really great opportunity. I think we should get into it.’ And at that time, I was just a user at that point, and with my background in finance, my degree in finance, we re-ran the numbers and put together a business plan and ended up launching that company. That’s what started my journey into the cannabis world, and I guess it just never stopped.
 
Logan Stauber: When I was in high school, it was 2012. I was researching industries to get involved with. At the time, it was cannabis penny stocks that I was looking at, and that was really what derived my interest. And then, also, a close friend of mine had a home grow, and he had me watch his plants. From there, it kind of blossomed. I realized [cannabis] was going to be the next big industry. So, over the years, when I was in college, I had my caregiver licenses, participated as a grower, and I worked for a local cannabis attorney here in Marquette and just researched and prepped as much as I could for cannabis legalization in the state of Michigan.
 

We really embrace the millennial culture. We have a beautiful headquarters here in Marquette. It doesn’t quite look like Google, but the Google of the weed industry, if you will. We have a personal gym here, flexible schedules so that [team members] can come and go, at least for the members that work on the administration team. Flexible benefits—on top of that, dental, health, vision, 401(k) options—those are all things that are important, [as is] the autonomy or the freedom [employees have] to do their work.

SW: I feel that [employees] would say that it is a fun and exciting and a new way of looking at workplace culture versus what we see in a lot of other industries. I believe that a lot of our employees feel empowered to be able to make decisions without the direct micromanagement of the leadership in the organization, but [we’re] making sure that they feel that they have the support that they need to be able to do their jobs appropriately.

LS: I think integrity is one of the biggest traits that we look for. I know that at least for me, when looking at people, there’s three things to look for in a person, and it’s the old saying: energy, intelligence and integrity. And you might as well forget the first two if you don’t have the third.

SW: I guess maybe a small story, a snippet, of what things used to look like when we first started—back in 2020, we operated in an 864-square-foot building. But that store was extremely busy, and Logan and I—during that time we were actually running cash registers, checking out customers. We were doing it all. We were boots on the ground. It was very much so a lead-by-example work environment. It was never us telling people what to do or delegating tasks that were less desirable to do. We were the first [people] to pick up the proverbial shovel and get to work.

LS: I know Stosh and I, personally, even outside of work, have helped employees [in] making vehicle choices, finding their homes, looking for good areas to live in and just ensuring that they have a good quality of life. And we always give at least a second chance in our organization. We put people on performance improvement programs. We always want to give people at least every tool and every opportunity to succeed before it doesn’t work out. 

SW: I always say that we don’t give good customer service; we don’t give great customer service; but we go above and beyond for every customer that comes in the store. And our entire customer service policy is built around that. And what we mean by that is we want to make sure that every single person that comes through the door—[there’s an] opportunity that you have to create an experience or make an impact on that person’s day.

[People] can go on vacations and go and experience stuff, but the day-to-day of what people experience—you go to the grocery store, you go to the gas station, you go to the dispensary. We want to make sure that that experience that you have every day is something different and something unique. And that’s why we go above and beyond. And that fits into our culture too. And we really try to make sure that our employees feel that and make sure that they deliver that to the customers, but also to their co-workers.

LS: We started as a one-store operator. So, to have the exponential growth that we've had, from one to eight stores, in a few-year span was just absolutely incredible, and how we've kept up with those demands is that the only constant is change. I think that goes for every person in the corporation.
 
We're constantly changing and questioning the why it is that we do things, and constantly updating our standard operating procedures to reflect that. And that even includes pricing. For example, when we first opened our store, it was $114 roughly for a single vape cartridge, and now we're running deals for 10 for $100 [on] vape cartridges.
 
So, keeping up with prices—and not only that but constantly pushing continuity amongst our stores from everything, from how we manage our stores to what paperclip holders we're using on each desk—it’s really just pushing continuity amongst the organization.
 

SW: Everything has changed. Nothing has been constant. I think every SOP, every single operating procedure, everything that we’ve done has been flipped upside down, shaken, three to four times. We've grown on everything. So, it’s really cool to see.

Interview by Patrick Williams and edited for length and clarity.

More in Best Cannabis Companies to Work For 2023
Page 1 of 2
Next Page