What happens when the thing you were taught to avoid becomes your career?
On this episode of Legacy Launchers, I sit down with Shelbie Vasquez, a cannabis industry professional and brand ambassador, to talk about weed, women, wellness, stigma, business, and what it really looks like to build a career inside California’s legal cannabis industry.
Shelbie and I actually go way back. We both grew up in a fairly sheltered Catholic-school environment in the Palm Springs area, spending way too much time on LiveJournal, Paint Shop Pro, and the early internet before social media became what it is today.
Which makes her career trajectory especially funny.
She went from Catholic school and hiding weed from her family to becoming an advocate for cannabis, working in dispensaries, driving deliveries, becoming a budtender, attending cannabis industry events, creating marketing materials, and representing cannabis brands professionally.
Cannabis Isn’t Just About Getting High
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was how different cannabis consumption can look for women.
Shelbie explained that many women gravitate toward cannabis products positioned around wellness: tinctures, lotions, drops, sleep products, mood support, energy formulations, and different combinations of CBD and THC.
Meanwhile, traditional cannabis culture has often focused heavily on flower, potency, genetics, concentrates and pre-rolls.
That doesn’t mean those categories divide perfectly by gender, but Shelbie has seen women show significant interest in understanding what is actually in a product, where it came from, and how it may fit into their overall wellness routine.
She wants to be an advocate specifically for women and cannabis.
And that matters, because cannabis branding is changing too.
The old stereotype of the disorganized male stoner doesn’t necessarily match the polished, wellness-oriented cannabis products increasingly marketed to women.
What Is a Cannabis Tincture Anyway?
I had to ask this because I am very much not the cannabis expert in this conversation.
Shelbie explained that a tincture is typically an oil infused with cannabis that can contain different ratios of CBD and THC, sometimes combined with flavors or other ingredients. It is usually taken under the tongue rather than eaten like an edible.
That distinction matters because cannabis today is much broader than simply smoking flower.
There are topicals.
There are tinctures.
There are edibles.
There are wellness products.
There are different cannabinoid ratios.
And there is an entire ecosystem of brands trying to make those products more accessible to different types of consumers.
From Hiding Weed From Mom to Mom Handing Out Cannabis Lotion
Shelbie’s personal story also shows how dramatically cannabis culture has changed.
She first tried cannabis around the end of high school and eventually became a regular consumer. But because of her conservative upbringing — including having a mother who worked for a police department — cannabis initially had to remain hidden.
Over time, Shelbie began reading, watching documentaries, and educating herself about cannabis.
As California’s laws changed and cannabis became increasingly mainstream, her family’s attitude changed too.
Eventually, the same family members who had once worried about her cannabis use started asking her for cannabis lotions and sharing products with friends.
That might be the ultimate sales story:
If you can turn your police-department mom into someone handing out cannabis lotion to her friends, you are probably pretty good at brand advocacy.
What Working in a Dispensary Is Actually Like
Shelbie also worked as a budtender, which gave us a window into the retail side of the industry.
She described budtending almost like being a personal shopper.
Customers come in with different experience levels, goals and preferences. A good budtender needs to understand products, potency, brands, strains, deals and inventory well enough to guide customers toward something appropriate.
Some customers know exactly what they want.
Others still recognize older strains such as OG Kush or Jack Herer but may not understand newer genetics.
The best cannabis professionals can sometimes identify similarities among strains, understand terpene profiles, and explain how different products may feel.
As I joked during the episode, it is almost like being a weed sommelier.
Cannabis Is Legal — and Still Complicated
One of the biggest misconceptions is that because recreational cannabis is legal in California, operating a cannabis company must now be straightforward.
Shelbie painted a very different picture.
California legalized adult recreational cannabis through Proposition 64 in 2016, with licensed recreational retail sales beginning in 2018. But cannabis remains federally illegal, which leaves the industry operating in an unusual regulatory environment.
Businesses face licensing requirements, taxes, packaging rules, recalls, regulatory changes and significant operating costs.
Shelbie has watched good cannabis brands disappear, lay off employees or struggle because maintaining a compliant cannabis company can be expensive.
She also sees consolidation happening.
Large dispensary chains can expand aggressively, while smaller independent shops and brands face increasing pressure.
So while legal cannabis represents a massive business opportunity, Shelbie warns against looking at it as an easy route to becoming a cannabis mogul.
Her advice is essentially:
You need a passion for the plant, a passion for the people, and the ability to roll with the punches.
Cannabis Is Also a Real Career
One of Shelbie’s favorite parts of the industry is something that often gets overlooked:
Cannabis has given her a real professional career.
She talked about being grateful to have a salaried position with benefits without having completed a traditional four-year college path.
Her career grew organically from something she genuinely cared about.
She started as someone who liked cannabis.
She educated herself.
She worked inside dispensaries.
She built relationships.
She became a brand ambassador.
Now she works on marketing, events and brand representation and attends major industry gatherings such as MJBizCon.
She also described attending a Latinas-and-cannabis dinner where she was recognized by women she had built relationships with throughout the industry.
That community is one of the things she values most.
How to Break Into the Cannabis Industry
For people who want to work in cannabis, Shelbie’s advice is refreshingly simple.
Follow the brands you genuinely like.
Watch their social media pages.
Watch job boards.
Apply when opportunities appear.
Then, once you’re hired:
show up on time, look professional, stay engaged with customers, learn the products, treat everyone well — including security and support staff — and don’t spend your entire shift staring at your phone.
In other words, cannabis may be an unconventional industry.
Professionalism still matters.
From Stoner Stigma to Cannabis Professional
Shelbie also pushed back against the stereotype that people who use cannabis are automatically lazy, disorganized or unserious.
She has attended large industry conferences filled with founders, executives, marketers, cultivators and professionals trying to build legitimate companies.
Cannabis culture contains everything from longtime counterculture advocates to highly polished corporate operators.
There isn’t one cannabis consumer.
There isn’t one cannabis entrepreneur.
And there isn’t one cannabis culture anymore.
That may be the larger lesson from this conversation.
Something that was once whispered about, hidden from parents and treated almost entirely as counterculture has become a multibillion-dollar legal industry with brands, conferences, marketers, sales teams, executives and entire professional communities built around it.
And Shelbie got to live through that transformation firsthand.
Listen to the Full Episode
Listen to my full conversation with Shelbie Vasquez on Legacy Launchers as we talk about women and cannabis, breaking stigma, working as a budtender, cannabis wellness products, brand building, regulation, industry consolidation and turning an unconventional passion into a real career.
Legacy Launchers explores the entrepreneurs, creators and unconventional thinkers building businesses — and lives — that don’t always follow the traditional path.
#LegacyLaunchers #CannabisIndustry #WomenInCannabis #ShelbieVasquez #CannabisBusiness #WomenInBusiness #MarijuanaIndustry #CannabisMarketing #Budtender #CaliforniaCannabis #Entrepreneurship #CannabisWellness
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🌿 From Catholic school to cannabis advocate.
On this episode of Legacy Launchers, I sit down with Shelbie Vasquez to talk about women, weed, wellness, stigma, and what it actually looks like to build a career in California’s cannabis industry.
Shelbie shares her journey from hiding weed from her family to becoming a budtender, brand ambassador, marketer, and advocate for women in cannabis.
We get into:
✨ Why women often gravitate toward tinctures, topicals, and wellness products
✨ What working in a dispensary is really like
✨ The rise of professional cannabis brands
✨ The lingering “lazy stoner” stereotype
✨ Why cannabis businesses are harder to run than they look
✨ Taxes, licensing, recalls, and consolidation in the industry
✨ How she turned a genuine interest into a salaried career with benefits
✨ Her advice for getting hired by your favorite cannabis brand
One of my favorite parts? Her family went from being skeptical of cannabis to asking her for cannabis lotions to share with friends. 😂
The cannabis industry may be more mainstream now, but it is still evolving fast — and Shelbie has had a front-row seat to that transformation.
🎙️ New episode of Legacy Launchers with Shelbie Vasquez
#LegacyLaunchers #ShelbieVasquez #CannabisIndustry #WomenInCannabis #CannabisBusiness #CannabisMarketing #Budtender #CaliforniaCannabis #WomenInBusiness #Entrepreneurship #CannabisCulture #CannabisWellness
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