Growing up, I never really thought that much about [cannabis as a career]. My grandpa was sick with lung cancer in high school, and he just couldn’t eat. It was bad. So, I was able to find him some cannabis that allowed him to have a better quality of life, and that’s one of the reasons behind where Unity Rd. came from—the ability to get people the medicine they needed. And then on Item 9 Labs, [former CEO] Andrew [Bowden] and his family invested a good amount of money into that business because his mother was sick with breast cancer. That was where a lot of alignment between Unity Rd. and Item 9 Labs came; we both wanted to help people, both in business and in life.
We’re all about good and passionate people. We believe if we hire right, meaning we spend an inordinate amount of time recruiting and trying to bring in these people, we’re bringing the best [of] the best, not just in skill set, but in moral compass and ethics, and what they stand for and what they believe in. And if we do that, it breeds a very healthy culture, one of transparency and trust, and it allows the company to grow.
I don’t hire for what they’ve done, I hire for what they can do. Integrity is important, [so is] work ethic; how they handle their work, [and] how they handle stress. This is a very stressful industry … we’re dealing with an industry that no one’s ever done before, so how people can handle that will really, really shine through.
We’re pretty much a remote company. We have employees all over. We have an office in Phoenix, obviously we have a grow and dispensaries but we’ve got people all the way across the country: Chicago, Orlando, New Hampshire, California—basically everywhere.
Growing up as an Ohio boy, everything in Northeast Ohio is earned. Nothing is given. I always worked hard growing up, and my parents instilled a work ethic within me. I follow Simon Sinek a lot. The book I’m reading again is “Leaders Eat Last.” He’s very much into the culture of servant leadership and people-first mentality. I learned that I want to lead by example and with a team.
Five years from now, I see Unity Rd. being a household brand owned and operated by the people of the community, bringing medicine and recreation to the people that need it, and Item 9 Labs products will be in their hands. [Unity Rd.] franchises are owned by people from your area; from your churches, from your kids’ schools, from your softball team. There’s trust with seeing a familiar face or being a referral.
