Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Don’t focus on a particular age bracket” With Asha Richards of Mellow Fellow Smoke Wraps

Don’t focus on a particular age bracket — you might think your customer is a certain demographic, but you might really be surprised at the age range of users. While I have never been surprised by this since I grew up in a traditional Rasta family where people of all ages used the plant, I often hear others in the industry talking as though the cannabis market was limited to millennial or something and that is far from the case.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Asha Richards.

Asha Richards is the Ford Lauderdale, based Founder of the groundbreaking Mellow Fellow and J’Adore La Fleur cannabis smoke wraps brands — an all natural, GMO free, vegan friendly, Rasta inspired line.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis industry?

I was raised in a traditional rasta household. I have been vegetarian my whole life, I grew up around cannabis — and we had natural ways of smoking, corn husks, banana leaves — and I was surprised to learn that I was unique among my friends when I moved to America. No one used natural products to smoke. Then when legalization happened, like I told Skunk magazine, “I was ecstatic to be a part of such a historical moment, this is an herb that has been a part of my entire life. Growing up my parents used it as topicals, soaked it in alcohol, used as tea, smoked it. But I saw all kinds of black and gold, the colors of the Ethiopian flag, which are important to Rasta, regularly, being misrepresented. One of the things I saw was a lighter with red, yellow and green and a picture of a girl in a bikini — and it bothered me.” Between that and the lack of natural ways to smoke, I saw a path for me.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When we first started we got an email from a young lady who purchased our product and she had cancer. She wasn’t able to afford our products along with the cost of her medicine on a regular bass and she was mentioned using our product was the best experience she had when taking her medicine, it was pure for he, and she wanted to see if we can send her some product cause she was on a fixed income and had cancer, so we did. And we still do send her our products monthly. The lesson that you never who you can touch, who you can help and what difference you can make. I just thought, wow….

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I would say it’s pretty funny that I thought that everybody already knew that you could smoke cannabis out of natural things like banana leaves, and corn husks. When I started telling people I was launching the company and having people try the product I kept hearing “oh you can smoke out of this!?” and I kept thinking, of course you can, this is the natural way! So the lesson I learned is that there was a real need for this product and for education around it.

Do you have a funny story about how someone you knew reacted when they first heard you were getting into the cannabis industry?

The reaction I got from some colleagues in corporate America was interesting. One of them actually said, “HA! I knew you smoked…!” But I guess I had never actually confirmed it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

First I have to say my business partner, Charles, who has been there from the very beginning, and his expertise in marketing a product, distribution, and generally scaling up a company has helped The Mellow Fellow get to where we are today.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Well, we are excited about our expansion into Canada making The Mellow Fellow North America wide and giving people across the continent much healthier smoking options.

Also, we have another initiative that we think is important to the community. With Covid 19, obviously, people are no longer sharing joints or blunts and so we are launching Mellow Fellow and J’Adore La Fleur minis — smaller versions easier for just one person to smoke.

We’re also just introducing something else that’s new — people will now be able to wear The Mellow Fellow with our new line of apparel .

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Despite great progress that has been made we still have a lot more work to do to achieve gender parity in this industry. According to this report in Entrepreneur, less than 25 percent of cannabis businesses are run by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support greater gender parity moving forward?

In terms of what can be done by individuals, I would like to encourage more women of all ages to have the courage to say that they use cannabis in the first place. There is still such a stigma around the plant that so many women, whether because they are mothers, or because they are professionals worry about being judged for cannabis use that in many places it is still hard for women to be confident to even consider the cannabis industry as a potential career.

In terms of what companies can do, obviously try to hire more women. At Mellow Fellow women have always been, and will continue to be an integral part of our team.

I also think it’s important that companies work to reduce the stigma to embolden women, and to make cannabis and the cannabis industry less scary for women who fear being judged. For example with the J’Adore The Fleur product from our line that is made from actual lily petals, it is obviously more attractive to women than most men — and I believe that making products specifically for women helps them understand that this is a place for them.

You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each.

Don’t follow trends in terms of what’s on the market, develop your own product with your own vision, realizing that trends come and go but that people will stay with something they try that proves true and become loyal to your brand. So don’t worry about what other people are doing! The story for this one, is that no one else had this kind of product on the market, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t an appetite for it.

Don’t focus on a particular age bracket — you might think your customer is a certain demographic, but you might really be surprised at the age range of users. While I have never been surprised by this since I grew up in a traditional Rasta family where people of all ages used the plant, I often hear others in the industry talking as though the cannabis market was limited to millennials or something and that is far from the case.

Your best admirers can also be your competitors. When we started the company several watching us tried to duplicate what we are doing but fell by the wayside because they don’t have the right formula.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the cannabis industry?

Women are more openly showcasing their use of cannabis, I see a lot more things like CBD parties with women, and women being interested in trying edibles, and becoming less stigmatized about their use of the plant, also including traditional smoking, topicals and things of that nature.

The innovation in medicine offering patients an alternative to opiods and pharmaceuticals using plant based medicine including cannabis.

Starting to see cannabis and cannabis based products normalized in all kinds of household items from honey to wine to beer to skin creams to bath bombs and much more on the market every day.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

1.) The lack of diversity in the industry for sure. Given the war on drugs, as we know, there are still many people -

Primarily minorities — Black and Brown individuals that are still incarcerated in many states and now that we are on the verge of potentially being federally legal I would like to see those sentenced retracted and records expunged.

2.) I can see the use of Rasta being used in the industry without the understanding of what Rasta actually is, using it to make a quick buck. I would like to see the industry educate itself before using Rasta imagery, and for consumers to educate themselves about the history of the brand and the people behind it — just because you see that red yellow and green it doesn’t mean they are actually supportive.

3.) Another thing that really concerns me is that when you look where the industry is today and who is making all the money, you will see it’s not usually the people who fought to get us here — not the activists, not the avid user, not the medical advocate, not the people who put themselves on the line when it was dangerous to do so, not the people who got arrested, not the old hippies… those people need at the seat the table, and consumers need to make an effort to support small farmers.

What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?

I think it should happen already… the train has left the station and we should make this product legal immediately — In terms of talking to politicians, at the end of the day, all they care about is the bottom line — money. So if we look at a case study like Denver, they have been successful in taxing cannabis the right way so that it has helped their state improve roads, lessen their sales tax, and benefit the people in all kinds of ways. The most effective way to convince politicians would likely be to show then the real results.

Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?

I don’t think it should be taxed as high as cigarettes, because the people that benefit from cannabis especially the medical user often has a fixed income and can’t always afford it, and this is not always a recreational product — it has huge medical benefits and we have to think about those users the most. Though we see that taxation on recreation cannabis can really benefit other important state projects — we also need to think about those who need it as medicine.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favourite quote of all time is “Watch your thoughts before they become words, watch your words for they become actions, watch your actions, for they become habits, watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”

I would say that any negative thoughts that I have had, I always go back to this and keep reminding myself, watch your thoughts, watch your thoughts…”

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

The most important thing to me is keeping our planet clean — when we see how global warming is affecting the world, this is the one planet we have — keep our oceans clean, free of plastic, recycle properly. We just seriously all really need to do our part.

Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!