Grasslands Agency
February 27, 2024
As we wrap up Grasslands’ 6th season of The Weedsmith, today we’re going to talk about how, sometimes, it’s hard to say no, especially when you’re producing the Emerald Cup. This week on The Weedsmith, Taylor Blake breaks down how she learned that it’s okay to say “No.”
Transcription:
Ricardo Baca:
You are listening to The Weedsmith, a show about modern cannabis leadership. Today I am thankful to be sitting across from Taylor Blake.
It’s that time in the program that we call Buzzkill. And what we discuss on Buzzkill isn’t just any old fail. This is the kind of fail that has you rethinking direction, questioning your own instinct. The kind of fail that inspires a crisis of confidence. But it’s also the kind of fail that forces you to reassess and learn. And you come out the other side of it stronger and smarter and more ready to run this business than you’ve ever been.
So, Taylor, let's hear about your Buzzkill.
Taylor Blake:
I had just graduated college. I was super-excited to come on and do this job. I was like, “I’m born for this.” My father, Tim Blake, is the founder of the Emerald Cup, and I kind of have just graduated between different roles and now my current role is associate producer.
My biggest fail, absolutely, for sure, was the first year that I came on full-time. I didn’t really grasp at the time how many details and how many skill sets and how many things I would have to be responsible for. I just took on way too many things and I just kept saying yes to everything. Overseeing bookkeeping and marketing and all of these things. I just kept thinking, “I can do this all.” And then I realized that all these balls started dropping and I couldn’t do it, and it was almost more embarrassing that I wasn’t capable of some of this stuff than just keeping going with it.
It was like two months before the Emerald Cup and there were huge things that were missing, and I just, you know, had to stop and just say, “Look, I’m really sorry but I can’t do this.” But the moment that I asked for help, everybody was like, “Oh, we’ll hire someone to do this map," you know. "We’ll hire someone to do this.” And then, all of a sudden, the things that I was really good at, I could really shine in.
Obviously if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re listening to this, and you would say, “Well I don’t have the money to hire someone,” well, maybe it’s figuring out the thing that you’re the worst at and hiring someone for that, at least, you know, and getting that stress off of you. I swear, sometimes I have nightmares about it. It still haunts me, because I’m like, “Why did I ever think I could do it?”
And it kind of opened me up so that way it made me feel like, instead of being a people-pleaser and just trying to say yes all the time, it’s okay to say no. And it’s okay to not be good at everything.
