Meet Terese. She started out wondering what all the hype was around cannabis and is now so steeped in the cannabis world that she's obtaining government grants and teaching at the local college!
Cannabis Coaching Institute Graduate Profiles
This is our next installment in a series of videos and blogs that I'm creating, where I'm profiling some of the students who have graduated (or are close to it) from the Cannabis Coaching Institute, but it's our first CANADIAN one!!!! It's exciting to see where our students are working, what types of programs they're creating, how they're able to help their clients. And I hope that this series of interviewing these grads gives you a better handle on what we do at the Cannabis Coaching Institute (CCI). As always, if you have any questions, please post them down below. And if you're ready to join, click that happy button below and use code: revealcannabis for $500 off your tuition.
***Below you'll find a transcription of the video I made with Terese. It's been slightly edited for better readability.***
- Please tell us who you are and where in the world you are?
- I'm Terese Bowers and I am in Nelson, BC on the west coast.
- Canadians!
- Yes!
- I always get so excited when Canadians join CCI, so, yay! Alright, tell me about when you joined CCI and what was the process like for you? How did you find it and what was your cannabis journey? What did it look like up until that point?
- This was early 2020 before COVID even was a thing. I knew I wanted to be in the cannabis industry, but I just didn't know how and in what capacity. I had had a little bit exposure of to working in the cannabis industry. I worked with developing recipes and topicals for a company just before legalization. We were gearing up to create a product line and so I was in the development stage of that, which was a lot of fun and that kind of got my feet wet in going, "Oh, I really wanna do something with this, I really wanna share my knowledge of cannabis." But I didn't know how. I knew I didn't want to run a pot shop, I knew I didn't want to have to go through a whole bunch of licensing to be able to grow or sell or in just in Canada. It's so expensive and time-consuming to get all of those certifications and licenses. So, I just started researching online in January of 2020 and came across not much at that time. Now, it seems even just a year and a bit later, there is so much more, but there wasn't a lot and somehow CCI just popped up in my searches for the cannabis industry and cannabis for women. And I said, "Oh, oh, oh, that's what I want to do. That fits me. I want to share my knowledge." It didn't take me long to make a decision, but being Canadian to US dollars... was a bit pricey. So, I wondered "Okay, how am I gonna do this?" But then I found you and I got a discount code from you and then I also had just stocked away some American money and thought, "Oh, this is the perfect opportunity to use that." (Side note: use discount code: revealcannabis for $500 off your tuition). And so I had enough to pay for the whole course, I paid it all upfront and we also got access early. So, I jumped in and started working on it right away before the actual official start date and that really, really helped me to get my feet wet and to really get an understanding of the program and all of that.
- That is still a thing for the new class. If you purchase CCI today, you'll get access to orientation week, it's called our Success Primer Week. That way you get all the skills and tools that you need in order to make the rest of your CCI journey easier for you. Can you tell us a little bit about why you were so passionate and knowledgeable about cannabis and why you wanted to enter the industry? Can you tell us about your cannabis story?
- I tried cannabis for the first time when I was about 35, probably a lot later than most people in life, but I grew up in a culture where drugs, pot, alcohol, wasn't a thing. It wasn't until I moved out west to the Kootenays in Nelson BC, that I realized, "Whoa, there's something happening here that I have never experienced before." I really wanted to experience what people were talking about in BC, especially in our region. It's a very big pot culture and a lot of people grow, we have a lot of expert growers here, OGs' we call them and it's common practice. It's a household term, we talk about cannabis, weed, marijuana, a lot. We've had pot shops for years and it's just, it's part of our culture here and so I wanted to dive into that and figure out what am I missing in life? I didn't know.
- I love it... a lot, you were missing a lot!
- I was missing a lot and so that very first joint was like, "Oh my God." It was so eye-opening and to be like, "Why has this been demonized my whole life?" Why has this opportunity not been presented in a different way? And it really opened my eyes. It reduced my stress, I was having a lot of trouble sleeping, I was up a lot at night with my type one diabetic daughter and I needed help sleeping in between the times I was awakened. Sleeping pills would just knock me out all night and then I couldn't wake up, but I could time my consumption of cannabis to be tapering off when I needed to get up and be working with her. That was my sleep aid for years and it felt really good and it helps take the stress away and then as I've aged over the last 10 plus years, I have pain, I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and I have other things that are happening in my body and I began to kind of click, you know, put two things together and go, "What if I used cannabis for my pain?" So, I tried it at night and I was like, "Okay, I'm doing this ONLY at night." And it wasn't actually until the middle of the CCI course when I realized, "Why am I not taking cannabis during the day?"
- Yeah Why am I only dosing at night? And because you had some stigmas around, "I don't wanna be high."
- Yeah I didn't want anyone to know. But I started working with different ratios, adding CBD in and found a really good 1:1 that really worked for my pain management, energy and keeping me level during the day. It was through that process of just discovering more about what cannabis is, that I realized many people feel the same way as me. They are feeling the stigma, feeling the shame, and not having the correct information. Yet we have this awesome tool to be able to use. So, that's what really piqued my interest.
- That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that journey with us. Can you talk a little bit about what the most impactful part of the Cannabis Coaching curriculum was for you either personally or professionally?
- Probably just the really big focus on mindset was very helpful in addressing the things that we're going to be experiencing. It was great to know that it's not unusual for you to feel this way in your business, for you to, feel inadequate, to feel overwhelmed etc. Addressing those head-on, it was really helpful to know, "Oh, this is coming up." "Oh, this is normal." I have another friend who's going through a coaching program, not cannabis-related, just coaching and she's like, "I don't wanna do it anymore." And started backing away, I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait!" I recognize this, because I learned about this in my coaching program and so I was able to coach her through the idea that this is normal, this is part of what happens when we get to these places of resistance. Learning how to work through that was really very helpful for me.
- Especially because now you've overcome those hurdles or you have the tools now to continue to overcome those hurdles. And you've created a business as opposed to letting those evil thoughts in your head stop you right away. So tell me about the business that you built by swallowing the fear.
- I jumped in and built a website just like CCI said, and didn't put a lot of stress and worry into it. Just grabbed the template from Squarespace and put it out there, I didn't want to stress over the details. I just wanted my presence to be there. That website has served me really well. Over this year, there's been a lot of government grants available to small businesses and I qualified for them. I've had two government grants that I've been approved for and it also had a bit of business mentorship through this program and I was able to rebrand and relaunch my website and make it more professional. I got the e-commerce going and built a course. The grant money paid for this big upgrade and to have a professional come and do my website for me. So that was really, really exciting. It was very rewarding that I could access this funding and get a boost that way. Now I have my website it's almost ready, which will take e-commerce and bookings and my course. I have my first course ready to go and it's called "Dosing Cannabis, Getting Started With Medical Cannabis". I'm looking forward to launching that too.
- That's amazing, dosing is the question that we get asked as Cannabis Coaches more than anything else. You being able to provide a course that somebody can take on their own time, that's fantastic! What's the name of your business? And do you serve a particular group of people?
- I go with my name, Terese Bowers is the name of my business. Terese Bowers, Cannabis Wellness Coach and my website is terese.ca. I serve women 40+. Primarily that's my focus, that's where all my branding is targeted towards. However, I noticed that's not all the people that are calling. People are calling that are men, lots of seniors and moms with kids as well, who are wanting some guidance. But primarily I'm light and fluffy and want it to be all for women.
- I understand. I also started my business with the idea of helping just mothers who were struggling and turns out that I'm in the same position. Many, many, many more people need our help than that. Thank you for sharing. Can you tell me about something that you're really proud of? Something that's happened in your business that gives you the shivers?
- Definitely getting the grant did, also getting on as an instructor at our local college. I'll be teaching the Dosing Course live to people at college.
- Terese!!! What the heck!? This is awesome! Yeah. Congratulations! That's great news
- Thank you. There are three campuses that are on board right now and so those will be rolling out this fall. That will give me the opportunity next year to reach out to other colleges.
- Yeah and universities around and say, "Hey, I did this here, can I do it with you as well?" Ooohhh that is pretty exciting.
- One of the tools that have been really, really helpful for me, is tuning in to me and to my heart and to my purpose in life. So when I'm looking at this decision to make, I try to calm all the crazy thoughts that are coming in, because we've got our positive thoughts, we've got our negative thoughts. We've got "You can't do this." We've got thoughts that are coming from who knows where and in order to really hone in on what our direction is and what's right for us, we have to calm those in some way. The way I've found to do that, a few ways is journaling and just getting things out, getting the thoughts out. I don't really like pros and cons, because I feel like pros and cons make it hard to make, to find your true yes and your true no. So, I really like to just spend quiet time, listening for what is a "Hell yes."
- And what is a "Hell no". That's so true. If you are reading right now and you know it's a "Hell yes", then follow through and if you're listening right now and it's not a "Hell yes", then that's probably a really good indication for you too! If you are reading this and feel this calling to come to join us at CCI and become the future Terese or your own version of her, then "Hell yes" and join us.
If this work calls to you, use code: revealcannabis for $500 off your tuition at the link below. And make sure that you sign up for the FREE business-building workshop series. Many of our most successful cannabis coaches have done this work first. It really does set you up, in order to think about this in a business-minded way and it's all free. Don't forget to watch/read some of the other videos/blogs of the previous cannabis coaching grads and see their stories, and see if they resonate with you as well.