Meet Becky Brown. She struggled with addiction and came to cannabis only after becoming sober. She credits healthy cannabis use with helping her stay clean. But how did a Doctor of Pharmacy make the leap to Cannabis Coaching?
Cannabis Coaching Institute Graduate Profiles
This is the first 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 Becky. It's been slightly edited for better readability.***
- Why don't you tell me who and where in the world you are?
- I am Becky Brown and I am in Oklahoma around Tulsa, Oklahoma. We're medical here so far.
- Awesome. And when did you start CCI? What class are you in and what was the reason that you chose to join?
- I started in February of 2021 and I was really called to CCI. I felt like I watched Corinne on the Wake and Bake blog and I had followed CCI a little bit and was looking for when they were going to enroll a new class. So when I found out that they were, I was like, yes, it's time.
- And you clicked the buy button right away? You were already ready?
- Pretty much. I did the 3-Steps free class and I had no questions after that.
- The students that have gone through that particular free class have such a headstart because they've already started thinking about the business aspect of it beforehand. So that's cool that you did as well.
- Yeah, that was such a big piece for me is kind of conceptualizing what that looks like.
- And you're the first class of the new CCI. We created a new, a brand spanking new version of CCI and you're the first crew through it. Tell us about the business you've created. What's it called? What do you do?
- My website is www.pharmedwell.com, but spelled with a pH cause I'm a pharmacist and my Instagram is @Pharmedwellness all written out. So I have three sections of my website and coaching is one of them. And then I live on a farm also, so it's kind of a double pun and I grow food and stuff and I'm into organic gardening and all things, natural and green.
- And so one part of his coaching, what are your other two parts?
- Growing food, making medicine and empowering you as the education portion and workshops. And then making medicine is like tutorials and stuff about CBD.
- And when you're talking about growing food, is it growing cannabis or growing all types of food? Is this how you've taken it? Tell me more about that.
- I started gardening a long time ago. I just started growing food though in the last several years and got kind of into the organic and more sustainable kind of living and, and we moved out of the city. So that made that more doable too.
- Is growing your own food and making your own food part of your coaching practice? Is that part of Pharmed Wellness?
- It's been really freeing to be able to go from the pharmaceutical kind of treatment that I've undergone to growing my own and making my own medicine. So I bring that to my coaching practice for sure because I want to teach people how to do both of those things and kind of free themselves also from the pills or the having to wait for the supply to be there for whatever you're getting at the pharmacy. I ran into lots of different issues when I was a patient doing pain management that way. So I much prefer this.
-Tell me more about your story and about what you've overcome with the use of cannabis?
- Yes. Cannabis has pretty much saved my life. I've been in recovery for 17 years and I started pharmacy school right after I got sober. I went to a 12 step program here and which I'm still kind of active in and have a sponsor. That's really important to me. And I believed the stories that I was told about cannabis up until about probably the year of the pandemic, actually 2020. I have a friend who moved back from Colorado to California, who was growing and educated me re-educated me about cannabis. And I was blown away and it became an option for me. When I had pain and tension and stuff come up in my body, I knew opiate pain management was not an option for me. So finally I felt free to have an option that's safe and for recovery too. And that's been just incredible to become able to treat my pain and not be relapsing or approaching that even, and not feeling like I'm losing my sobriety or my recovery or my connection with my spiritual program. It's been instrumental in me. Plus now I have a whole new career and life path.
- How interesting that as a pharmacist and somebody whose whole job is studying prescription medication, but you're also struggling with addiction. And then you've got this huge layer of cannabis that it's an "evil drug." And then you're able to really quickly flip the script on cannabis being an option for you. And then you went:
Yes, it's an option for me.
I can use this to come off of some prescription medications or to not ever have to take them in the first place
I have to tell the whole world about this!!!!
- That's a really huge flip for you. It feels to me anyway.
- It's been a very big identity shift, but one that the work at CCI and the foundations there have made it possible for me to be out and open about it and let people follow my journey and invite them into this.
- What were some of the lessons or the skills you learned at CCI that allowed you to not only make this switch in your own personal life but to want to get out there and talk about stuff that's really tough to talk about?
- Yeah. The mindset work at CCI really addressed all of that for me. I had some stigma left in my mind, even after I started using cannabis and growing cannabis and starting CCI even. So doing the work on myself and my mindset and my thinking about it. For example, if I'm telling myself, "This is bad for me," every time I take my medicine, how do I think that's going to work for me? And that's just one of a thousand examples that I see for me and for my clients. And then the transitions and transformations are what I live for. I love it.
- Tell me about a big win in your cannabis coaching business or even a small win. Just tell me about something that like makes you shiver or makes you light up something that you're really proud of.
- My favourite recent thing is one of my clients is a former athlete and gymnast and had a lot of arthritis and stuff and migraines, like at least two every week. Constant migraines. I grew up with my mom who had migraines. She would pass out cold from a migraine. So I know how bad those are. She's now gone five weeks with zero headaches period. Simply just the physical results alone and then much less she's changed her life with the ability to not have to focus on pain and be able to do the things that she wants to do. She got her life back and she's doing an event this weekend for CrossFit at a gym, a local gym.
- She knows she's going to be able to show up because she, she knows she's not going to get a migraine. I like how you talk about how sometimes you think you've solved the one issue, (and solved isn't the word) For example, you're addressing the migraine issue, but actually, the migraine issue had its like ugly little fingers in all other parts of that woman's life. And so all of a sudden this one issue can drastically change how somebody just lives on the, on the daily. So you got to do that. You got to be a part of that.
- And I got to experience it for myself and now I get to watch other people experience it and it's yes. Incredible. I love it.
-What would you say to somebody who's on the other end right now thinking, "I don't know if this is for me."?
- I was feeling like it was scary because I had never heard of a Cannabis Coach. I felt like it was just unknown versus I know what I'm doing now and I'm comfortable-ish doing what I'm doing now, but I don't like it. And, and I feel drawn to that, but it was scary. It's scary to think about changing your career or even transitioning and it's all scary, but new is always scary and it's freaking amazing. It's been amazing. So I have, man, I would encourage people to do the free 3-Step Series. I have no reservations. I'm now working at CCI as a mentor. I have no questions about anyone who feels called by that, that you should do it. They give you everything you need, Andrea and the team, to succeed and build a business and make a new career for yourself. It's possible.
- That was awesome. Thank you so much. That was such a good way to put it at the end. It is possible. You can totally do this. Thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story.