Meet Candy. The interesting thing about Candy's story is that she got way more personally out of this program than she really expected, and has been able to really step into living her authentic life because of the mindset and personal growth skills that she learned in the process.
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. It's really 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 Candy. It's been slightly edited for better readability.***
- Why don't we start with your name and where in the world you are?
- I'm Candy Dinsmore Bekaan, and I am in St. Thomas Ontario.
- Yeah, Candy and I live exceptionally close to each other. So, we're going to take over the Southwestern Ontario cannabis world. Can you tell me when you started CCI and also will you tell me a little bit about your story, about why you decided to join the Cannabis Coaching Institute?
- After some pretty devastating experiences in my personal life and health, I decided that this year was year one of making myself a priority, and this being a completely new and uncomfortable concept in my life, I first decided to start with some easy stuff, which was enrolling in some courses that I wanted to try. I became a clinical aromatherapist in February, and then I signed up for CCI. And CCI ended up being this big humongous catalyst for me, for some pretty heavy life-changing decisions that have continued to move me in directions that I resonate with, and feel drawn to. My biggest purpose and goal is to find my true joy in this world, to feel good and happy, fulfilled, and let go of the things that no longer serve me. I seek this joy in hopes that I can ultimately be the mom that my son needs, and so greatly deserves. That I can live up to my greatest potential and that I can show up in this world as my genuine self after many years of that authentic self being buried underneath all the traumas and all the challenges. As a Cannabis Coach, I support and guide my clients, not only navigating their cannabis journey with ease and education but in finally opening themselves up to allowing and giving themselves permission to seek their truest joy in the world. So that's one of the biggest things for me with CCI is their amazing support and love and education just allowed me to really, truly open that self up, open that part of me up in finding what I really wanted to do in this world, and how I wanted to show up. And it excites me to work with others in finding that too. So, for me, that joy was deeply connecting with music, and songwriting and singing and playing guitar. And in CCI, we made a one-year five-year ten-year plan, which I think everybody should do. And in my pretty elaborate five-year plan, I was like, "I'm going to come out with my first album finally, after many, many years of recording and doing all that." And so I've skipped ahead a few years and decided to do it this year, which is really exciting for me. And it's such a huge piece of that finding my true joy, you know, other people might look at that and say, "Oh wow, an album that, you know, that's really, that's really adventurous of her," but why not? Why can't you be the one who comes out, with any kind of expression that makes you truly happy? Whether it be art, whether it be music, whether it just be opening a business, being a Cannabis Coach and helping people navigate their cannabis journeys. So long story short, we don't know how long we're going to be here. And so we should do the things that truly matter to us and all the things that we're called to do, And we should do them now! Because if we know nothing else, we know that we have this moment right here and right now. (Side note, check out Candy's newest song release here.)
- It's been really interesting watching you as a student because you're in a course for Cannabis Coaching. And yet, we've seen from you that actually something that you're really passionate about doesn't have anything to do with Cannabis Coaching. I find that really interesting. And we see it with students all the time. When you talked about having a truly 180-degree life-changing experience with CCI, you decided to change your life. I had the exact same experience. A whole bunch of things fell into place for me that also had nothing to do with cannabis. And I think it's all that mindset and personal growth work.
- Yeah. Absolutely.
- It's an amazing part of the program. Let's talk about your business and talk to me about what you're doing in the cannabis industry, What is your business called? What what's it look like? Who do you serve?
- My business is called the Candybis Apothecary, because why not? And, uh, I'm a holistic health practitioner for 20-some years now, doing reflexology and Reiki and a whole other host of things. So now I include my aromatherapy practise with that and my Cannabis Coaching, and essentially life coaching as well. And so I've been doing that since I started CCI, the Candybis Apothecary was born at that time. And I serve everyone. I wouldn't say no to someone, but mostly I find that mothers of young children, people who are dealing with chronic illness, people who are struggling with chronic pain, a lot of navigating life traumas, you know, life changes, et cetera, which is a personal thing for me. I was diagnosed with MS, and that's what led me to, to trying cannabis for a lot of my symptoms. So it's kind of finding people who are a lot like me.
- And it's amazing because you're able to integrate. Cannabis is just one of the tools in your toolbox. You're offering a holistic approach to helping somebody feel better because of all the training and all the experience that you already have, and this is a piece for you.
- Absolutely.
- Fantastic. Tell me about a win in your business. Tell me about something that you're really proud of lately.
- I'm really proud about it, although it's very, very new. It's just a little baby but it's a YouTube segment that I just started and it's called Long Story Shorts, and what I love about it is that I try to give a lot of information within a small amount of time. I am not a person who wants to sit and watch a video that's an hour long. I mean, I will, if I have to, but if I can get information that I need within a short amount of time, that is absolutely fantastic. So I thought I would start a channel, which is under my, my business name. So it's The Candybis Apothecary on YouTube. And it's like I said, it's very new. I'm working on some videos right now that I'm going to release soon. The first video that I posted was just kind of my backstory and why I'm doing Cannabis Coaching to begin with. But the next video that I'm posting is actually about the endocannabinoid system. So in under three minutes, I'm hoping to give someone the gist of what is that thing that we're talking about. And then continue on with new ones, having to do with cannabis and other holistic treatments and ideas that that can help people.
- I love the idea of being able to get it done in three or four minutes. I was just talking with Corrine about this with somebody, about how, if you can give somebody even the smallest piece of information about cannabis, like for example, cannabis works differently for everybody because your system works differently. But even that one tiny piece of information can allow them to look at this as, as a potential medicine, as opposed to thinking, you know, "I tried it once before and it didn't work." Well, try again. So I love the idea of quick bursts of information to give to the world. Okay, final question. Do you remember what it was like for you before you purchased CCI? Do you remember the vacillation back and forth and what ultimately made you decide to do it? And can you talk about somebody who's kind of on the fence right now and isn't sure if this was the right move for them.
- So for me, I was diagnosed with MS, and I was a caregiver to my mom for 17 years and she had MS as well. And unfortunately, she didn't have the option to utilize using cannabis as a medicine. And I look back now and I'm, "Oh, it would have really been helpful with that." But anyway, I started to use cannabis for my MS and I ended up going to a workshop that was here in my hometown. And that's where I met you because you were obviously doing the workshop and it was about cannabis. And I was so excited to go because I knew nothing. I just knew that I could smoke cannabis and it made me feel better. And so I went to this workshop, I was absolutely fascinated by your wealth of knowledge and also the ease that you talked about it. And it really changed my perspective because of my perspective of smoking cannabis as a teenager, and that was it. And so it was a really great experience. And I got onto your newsletter 'cause I was super excited about it. And long, "Long Story Short", I noticed that you were talking about CCI because obviously, that's where you went for your training, in your newsletters. And I got really curious about it and I was like, "Hm, I think that'd be a really neat thing to do." And I actually was really on the fence though. I really truly was, although I've been in the holistic industry for many years, and although I've always appreciated cannabis, I just was like, "Is this something that I really care about doing?" And so I talked a lot about this to my husband and I thought a lot about it. And I really truly was on the fence. I wasn't gung ho or anything. And then I thought, you know what, "No, I'm going to do it. It feels good to me, and I resonate with it." So I went ahead and did it. And it ended up being one of the best things I've ever done. One of the best schoolings I've ever done, which was obviously a little bit shocking because it wasn't something that I was super passionate about. And then it became something that I'm super proud of.
- We won't let you leave CCI without being passionate about cannabis!
- Right? And I don't know other people's experiences with different courses and stuff that they take, but honestly, CCI was above and beyond. Just having this community of people that you could get to know. We're all walking away with friends that we'll have for the rest of our lives. It's crazy. But we were doing this schooling in our own times but we were all doing it together and it was, yeah, it was life-changing. I think that if somebody is on the fence about it, I'm pretty sure that every single one of us in the February 2021 cohort feels like this was a life-changing event.
- Yeah. It's really hard to impart that on the other end, right? It's really hard to say, "You should do this because we promise you'll change your life." We understand, it sounds really hokey, but it's true, you and I are both living proof of it.
- And it's not as if someone hands you this golden nugget and they're like, "This is it. Here it is." It's this week-by-week process. From day one of, "Hey, let's look into your patterns and who you are showing up into this world as," and all of that stuff about identity and all of that. It was a process.
- And you did the work, Candy. It's not only a process that we give to you and say, "Here, this is a great thing and read it and you'll be better." That's not it at all. You show up in Slack, you're always posting on people's stuff. You did all of your action steps. You went to all of the meetings. This works 'cause you worked at it. You were willing to put in the effort. So I think that's really important to note too, this will change your life. If you do the freaking work!
- If you to show up! You have to show up and you have to care about it. And it's, it's only gonna make it worth it. I mean, if you're gonna pay for something, if you're going to put that effort in, of "Here's my money to do this course." I mean, put the effort in, put the effort in, because it is absolutely worth it. And if, let's say in the end, you ended up not wanting to coach people one-on-one, you don't have to. Like I said to Corrine and Nikki the other day, "You know what? If at the end of this, all that I get out of this is that I have the confidence and the self-worth to say, 'I am worthy of releasing my album, that I've always wanted to release my entire life.' That is huge. That is huge." But of course, I still want to coach!
-I thought you were actually going to take that in a different direction and talk about if you don't want to coach one-on-one when you graduate. There are lots of other opportunities in the industry, which we see, in all of the students. They're all doing really interesting things, which is one of the reasons I'm doing this video/blog series. But you're right. You didn't know that you needed this push to become the musician that you are, but here you are on the other side. So who knows what CCI can do for people personally, never mind professionally.
- I think it can only change you. You, you can't be the same person. I will never be the same person I was when I went into CCI, as I am coming out of CCI. And it's, it's really hard to describe, but doing the work, being there every week, putting in the effort, making those connections, and just being authentic, not showing up as somebody who you want, who you think everyone expects you be, to be yourself. And you're going to find out who you truly, truly, truly are. Right?
- That's a great way to leave it, Candy. Honestly, that's a really deep way to end this. I agree. "Join CCI to find out who you really truly are."
- Absolutely.
- Okay, thanks so much for sharing with us, and we look forward to checking out more Long Story Shorts on YouTube.
If this type of transformation sounds like something that you'd like to experience, 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 really 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.