Author: Traci Black, Vice President of Operations at DIZPOT
September 22 is American Business Women’s Day—a time to thank and take our hats off to the leading ladies of DIZPOT.
Unfortunately, the number of women who hold executive-level roles in the cannabis sector has declined from 37% in 2017 (when Marijuana Business Daily released “Women & Minorities in the Marijuana Industry”) to 22%, according to recent statistics. Here at DIZPOT though, we are breaking the mold and are happy to share that most of our leadership team are successful women passionate about our brand and the cannabis industry.
Celebrating the Women of DIZPOT
“Cannabis companies with women in leadership roles are actually more profitable and produce more than twice the revenue per dollar invested than those without them,” according to a Forbes article.
Multiple studies have confirmed what we already know—when women lead, success follows. The recent first-of-its-kind “Women In Cannabis Study,” which you can download in full here, found that 72% of women in the cannabis industry came to work in the sector because of their passion and positive experiences with the plant.
At DIZPOT, women hold five out of the seven top leadership positions, making us a truly women-led company. “DIZPOT has so many women leaders, and we are successful because we empower each other,” says Traci Black, who was recently promoted from Director of Operations to Vice President of Operations. “We really do care about each other.”
National Sales Director Staci Scholl says that the women leaders of DIZPOT foster an environment of confidence and support for the entire team in every department. “We want each other to succeed,” she explains. “When we hire for any role, it’s not that we look specifically for women, we look for the right person for the job. We involve the entire team or department in the hiring process and many of the right people just happen to be women.”
Why The Cannabis Sector Needs Women Leaders
While there is plenty of room for growth in the cannabis sector when it comes to women in leadership positions, industry experts have high hopes that the sector can become more equitable.
“Despite these figures, it’s important to recognize that a number of female leaders are currently at the helm of some of the most influential cannabis companies in the country. By successfully executing growth strategies in a myriad of industry sectors, this dynamic group of women is redefining what good business practices look like and ushering in a new class of female leaders to build an inclusive and sophisticated regulated industry,” cites a Rolling Stone article on female leaders in cannabis.
The article goes on to highlight factors that we already know from first-hand experience at DIZPOT: women executives help with growth and focus on DEI often more so than their male counterparts. Luckily, multiple professional organizations and nonprofits are doing their best to help improve access to the cannabis industry for women and minorities (you can see a full list of these organizations on page 22 of this report).
“We are very proud to be a women-led company,” Scholl says about DIZPOT.
We truly believe it’s the key to our success.
Want to work with our team? Visit dizpot.com and/or call us at (602) 795-4499.