Join us as we speak with Katharine Leonard, Co-founder of Palmer Jane. Katharine shares her story of being a mom, being an entrepreneur and trying to find balance. She also shares her path to mitigating stress through cannabis and CBD products.
Episode Transcript
Holly Prohs: Welcome to the journals with Jane podcast. A podcast produced by Palmer Jane. My name is Holly Prohs. And on this podcast, I will be joined by my co-host and co-founder Katherine Leonard. Cannabis is a pretty hot topic these days. The cat is out of the bag. This plant is powerful at solving things that still mystify modern medicine.
[00:00:22] While, yes, the clinical studies are limited. The anecdotal evidence, abounds. Stories of better sleep, reduced anxiety breaking through PTSD, fighting auto immune diseases. And that’s just to name a few. Yet, even in states where cannabis is legal, the stigma lives on. Why is that? We feel it’s time to change that narrative and open our eyes to these life changing stories.
[00:00:46] And on this podcast we aim to do just that. We will be interviewing real women who have had their struggles with real life. Struggles being a mom, being a career woman, struggles reaching mid-life dealing with disease and mental health and well just trying to do it all. This podcast is about real women, real discussion and the real benefits that cannabis has had for them.
[00:01:09] Ladies, life is too short to suffer. Thanks for joining us for the first season of Journals with Jane.
Hello everyone. And welcome to the podcast. My name is Holly Prohs and I’m joined by my co-host Katherine Leonard. Today is officially our first episode of journals with Jane, since it is the first episode, we are going to be doing things a bit differently and I will actually be interviewing my co-host Katherine.
[00:01:34] So this will give you all an opportunity to get to know her better and her own story about how she benefits from cannabis in her life. And today we are welcoming Katherine to the show from her home up in the Vail Valley. So how are things up there today, Katherine?
[00:01:48] Katharine Leonard: Hey, they’re really good. We, we had a nice snow storm this morning and blue skies this afternoon.
[00:01:56] It’s gorgeous up here.
[00:01:59] Holly Prohs: I know. What more could you ask for like, honestly, I think everyone needs to know how smart you were to move up to the mountains in the middle of a pandemic.
[00:02:06] Katharine Leonard: I know, right? It’s not like anyone could drag me back, like, Oh, I live here now. It’s my hometown.
[00:02:14] Holly Prohs: Yep, you’re staying, getting out of the city life.
[00:02:16] I love it. Um, so I guess to start and just kind of break the ice, Katherine, do you want to tell everyone a funny or interesting story about yourself so they can get to know you a little better?
[00:02:24] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, sure. Uh, it’s funny thinking about this one, because usually all my stories relate to my children or my husband.
[00:02:33] And I’ve really had to, you have to always think hard about something that’s just about me.
[00:02:42] Holly Prohs: I think that’s a typical quality of being a mom.
[00:02:44] Katharine Leonard: right? Oh my God completely. I mean the last nine years may as well, just be about, uh, not about me but about my family. A story I think that describes me well is when I was pregnant with my second son and it was ski season and I couldn’t go out skiing.
[00:03:04] And so, you know, breweries were becoming more and more popular and more mainstream. And so my husband and I love to go to breweries and I thought, you know, what would be really cool is to actually brew my own beer. It’s a great hobby. It’s something to do. And so. I became almost obsessed with it. I went out and bought all the gear.
[00:03:27] I bought fermenters and, uh, brew kettle and air kits, the siphons, the, the hydrometer for being able to tell the alcohol content. And so one day my husband was out skiing and I was like, all right, I’m going to take this on. I’m going to brew my own beer. And it, I mean, it’s a huge effort to brew beer.
[00:03:51] You have to sanitize everything. You have to make sure that everything is lined up correctly and in the right order. And so he came back and literally I had kettles brewing and I was siphoning from one section to another. There was like a soap bath and everything was bubbling up.
[00:04:15] Holly Prohs: so basically your house looked like a tornado had gone through it.
[00:04:19] Katharine Leonard: Yes, literally. And it was such hard work and it wasn’t just this, “Oh, I’ll, you know, I’ll make a few different types of batches and this’ll be so delicious!”. It was like putting sweat equity into the work you were doing. And, uh, at the time, literally I’d had these thoughts that I was going to open my own brewery.
[00:04:41] This is all before actually brewing. And so I finally get everything fermented and bottled and we try the first beer and it’s just terrible. Terrible. And like the amount of work I put into it, and I thought, God, you compare this to these brew masters who have made this delicious beer. I’m not going to make anything in comparison to what they make in the breweries.
[00:05:10] Holly Prohs: You know what I love about that? You were a very atypical brewmaster because you were also pregnant with your second son and you’re like, I’m going to brew beer, to stock up for after you gave birth.
[00:05:20] Katharine Leonard: Right. Yeah, you have to come up with hobbies when the family’s out skiing and you’re going to be at home, you know?
[00:05:29] Pregnancy and brewing beer don’t really go hand in hand, but, cooking and pregnancy do!
[00:05:34] Holly Prohs: Right. And cooking, brewing beer. I mean, what’s the big difference, right? That’s awesome. So obviously you said you were pregnant with your second son at that point in time. So do you want to tell everyone a little bit about your family and the two sons that you have?
[00:05:50] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, sure. I have two boys Tripp & Max, age nine and six. And yeah, they’re up here in elementary school and they love to ski. Um, one of them actually maybe ended up going to the ski and snowboard Academy because he’s just really picked it up big. He’s a big mountain skier at nine years old, which is so impressive.
[00:06:19] They are off school on Wednesdays, so we take our six year old skiing and I had a bet with him that, I would still be a better skier than him by the end of the season. And we take them out skiing last Wednesday, and he literally started going off boxes in the train park and I’ve never gone over a box in my life, nor will I. I don’t need an injury!
[00:06:43] Holly Prohs: That’s the great thing about children. They have no fear, especially at six years old. They’re like, I got this.
[00:06:49] Katharine Leonard: No fear. Yeah, literally. And so he was already like, all right, deposit that $20 into my bank account. I’m already better than you.
[00:06:57] Holly Prohs: Well, plus he was driven by the money.
[00:06:58] Katharine Leonard: Money always! yeah. And then my husband’s up here too, working remote.
[00:07:05] He runs a photo storage company. That’s pretty well known and he’s got the entrepreneurial spirit as well. He kind of focuses more on turnaround companies and really has done well with this one. And it’s fun to see him in the media and doing interviews. And so he understands my drive and my passion for starting something new and really getting involved in Palmer Jane.
[00:07:33] Holly Prohs: That’s so important when being an entrepreneur like honestly, there is not enough set about the partners who support them. You know being an entrepreneur is not easy.
[00:07:41] Katharine Leonard: Oh, it’s so true. And you know, you have to, you have to make an investment, not only with like foregoing salary and investing money, but also time.
[00:07:52] And it really becomes all encompassing. And everything that I talk about really is focused on Palmer Jane, which I love though. This is such an interesting industry to be in and all the research that you and I have done and things we’ve come up with. I mean, it’s. I’m very, very grateful and thankful to be getting into it.
[00:08:14] Holly Prohs: I totally agree. I mean, obviously, so looking at you, having the two sons. Your husband, he’s busy at work. You guys are at home together, both working crazy hours. So what is a day in, uh, your life look like?
[00:08:27] Katharine Leonard: Oh, day in my life. It’s it’s an early, early morning. Every morning. I’m up at 5:30.
[00:08:35] That’s the only time I can fit in exercise, which I wholeheartedly believe in. It’s what keeps my mind going. And, and me being able to think more strategically. So 5:30 in the morning, I’m up, I’m in exercising by 7:20 after the boys have been fed, I’ve got to take them over to school. And then it’s really getting back here.
[00:08:59] And it’s such interesting times, but I love working at home, working from home. And you know, being at my desk from 8:30 to 3:00 when the boys need to be picked up. Doing what you and I are doing everyday is something new and exciting.
[00:09:35] Holly Prohs: Amen to that. That’s what I love also about being an entrepreneur. It’s never, never a dull moment and that can be a good and a bad thing. I guess there’s two sides of the coin.
[00:09:45] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, exactly. But when you take off a few days, you end up having to work three times as much.
[00:09:54] Holly Prohs: Exactly. But I mean, speaking of that, how do you manage being an entrepreneur, having a husband who’s equally as ambitious as you are and raising the two boys.
[00:10:04] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, I mean, I attribute a lot of our success in managing it all to being up here in the mountains, being outdoors and honestly loving to experiment with the products that you and I are working on.
[00:10:17] I mean, having found CBD and learning more about the endocannabinoid system and THC impacts CBD. It can really help get you through your day. So those days that I don’t have an option to exercise and get that those endorphins and euphoria, I really love experimenting with tinctures or drops or, you know, different types of THC and CBD products that can really help.
[00:10:50] Calm that stress that comes with being an entrepreneur. But finding a way to use these products that doesn’t get you high. It’s just enough to get through the day without wanting to curl up in a ball and hide.
[00:11:08] Holly Prohs: Exactly. I know. Yeah. There’s definitely something to be said for that. You know, just having something to take the edge off to help you get through the day.
[00:11:17] And, you know, at the end of the day, even be more productive than you would be otherwise. So, absolutely. So speaking of cannabis, what actually led you to start thinking about it as something that you could use for alternative medication?
[00:11:31] Katharine Leonard: Well, Colorado was one of the first States to legalize it in 2014.
[00:11:37] And I actually had a friend who prefers cannabis over drinking. And so she couldn’t wait to come out and try everything. So that really was my first experience with legal marijuana. And honestly, it was very potent and, you know, you’ve got these chocolate bars or these gummies that are 10 milligrams.
[00:12:03] And after trying it with her, I just thought, you know, I’ll stick to having a glass of wine or a beer instead. And then really it was talking, it was talking to you about experiences and, you know, for the listeners who don’t know Holly and I worked together at a previous company and really developed a strong rapport of respect for each other and, and friendship.
[00:12:32] And in the friendship, we would talk about cannabis experiences among other things. And Holly comes from an e-commerce background and I have a background in delivery logistics for software as a service, and, you know, in, in discussing more and more about CBD products that were coming out.
[00:12:56] And this is, this is, uh, you know, one or two years ago when that was becoming more CBD was becoming more mainstream. You know, it, it. Made me want to re-engage with the cannabis industry and see really what was, what was out there and what was being produced. And when I did research, I couldn’t find much other than a few articles about the benefits of CBD.
[00:13:25] It was hard to figure out what products actually benefited your needs. And so that’s really where I feel like you and I connected. And so we went to startup week in Denver and attended a lot of the cannabis panels.
[00:13:48] And realized this need for an e-commerce marketplace that would promote the benefits of cannabis.
[00:14:00] Holly Prohs: And we talked about it specifically for women, because we feel like it’s kind of being overlooked. You look at a lot of the branding, and other e-commerce platforms that are out there are definitely more geared towards a male consumer.
[00:14:14] Or just a very knowledgeable consumer who knows exactly what they want, what they, like, they can find it, they can get it and be done. Whereas we’re thinking more about, you know, women like us, they’re just kind of figuring it out and exploring and trying to find what works.
[00:14:28] Katharine Leonard: right? Yeah, no, I remember my first time ordering marijuana online and there were almost no helpful descriptions to be had.
[00:14:34] All I saw was a picture. And so I just, you know, blindly chose a gummy and I show up to pick it up and the guy’s like, okay, Oh, this, this stuff’s really great. Like I have a really high tolerance and nothing else affects me like this does. And I was like, well, then I don’t want that.
[00:14:53] Can I return it? And how do I know? You know, how do I know what I should be getting?
[00:15:00] Holly Prohs: Yeah, no, that is, that is a challenge. Definitely with e-commerce or going into the store. That’s definitely something that we’ve seen personally and, you know, through friends. So, I guess kind of thinking about how you started with cannabis of day one, your first experience ever consuming cannabis, what was that like?
[00:15:19] I’d have to say it was in college. We were much more of beer drinkers and going to parties, but we all always loved to experiment too. And so, uh, actually there’s one story. That’s funny. One night my friend had bought, you know, whatever. Marijuana, you could get at the time, we didn’t have the options of today, just whatever the dealer had.
[00:15:51] Katharine Leonard: And we’re all in the dorm rooms. And one of my friends, who’s an athlete. She was in season. And we’re all sitting around six of us, uh, smoking pot, you know, talking about the wonders of the world. And, and God, I remember it was like the stars in the sky and things we would never normally talk about, but it was so fun and we’re laughing, we’re solving all the world’s problems and all of a sudden there’s a knock at the door and my friend who’s the athlete freaks out.
[00:16:22] Because it’s campus police. And so she literally turns and jumps out of a second story window into the bushes. We answered the door and the campus police could have cared less that we are smoking pot because it’s college after all! They were there for some other reason.
[00:16:46] But yeah, that was a great experience. When you’re sitting around socializing with your best friends it becomes really, really memorable. And, you know, so I always had a fondness for pot, especially from that experience.
[00:17:00] Holly Prohs: It’s so true. There’s something about it. Like the way that you can talk to people and connect with people it’s very distinct from, you know, for people that are out there that are alcohol consumers.
[00:17:10] It’s very distinct from that.
[00:17:12] Katharine Leonard: Yeah. It really is. t’s more memorable than when you go out for drinks, like you actually consume the conversation and you remember every piece of what you were talking about and you kind of reflect on it later and think about how interesting those conversations were and really how you want to indulge in it more.
[00:17:34] Holly Prohs: absolutely. Yeah. I mean, so obviously, you know, we talk about cannabis being a vehicle for better connection with people and all the health benefits that you can have, whether it’s, you know, better sleep, reducing anxiety, alleviating stress, but there’s still
[00:17:50] Katharine Leonard: a stigma. Why do you think that is? Honestly, like, I grew up in New York in the eighties and nineties and yeah.
[00:18:00] I remember so vividly the dare program and the anti-drug program and arrests happening in the streets and really this, this negativity that was put towards marijuana and naming it as a gateway drug. I mean, those things always will stand out to me and. I think it was such a strong campaign, then it’s really hard to overcome that type of marketing and propaganda that was down towards marijuana.
[00:18:32] And, you know, as I learn and read more about it, the whole campaign against it actually started way before that. It started with pharmaceuticals and, you know, learning about the fact that in medical school, they don’t teach the endocannabinoid system and they’ve completely removed it from all of the medical books.
[00:18:56] Um, it makes it much harder to make. Marijuana more accepted, but you look at some of the stats that are out there and now they say nine out of 10 Americans, believe in either recreational or medicinal legalization. I mean, they’re, they even say that, uh, six over 60% of baby boomers who were the ones that were promoting this anti drug campaign.
[00:19:29] Over 60% of them now believe in legalization. And you know, they say half of millennials actually consume marijuana. And so there definitely is this drive to not have a taboo around it to make cannabis more accepted and from my personal beliefs to really make it as part of the, the medicinal options that are out there.
[00:20:06] Holly Prohs: Absolutely. So what do you think we need to do to get to that point? Because we still seem like we’re, we’re getting there. We’re inching closer, but you know, that’s not, that’s our reality right now, quite yet.
[00:20:17] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, no, I think that’s an interesting point and I, I honestly attribute a lot to what you and I are doing, where we are emphasizing the benefits of cannabis and not having it more like it’s, we’re not looking at it as a competitor to alcohol.
[00:20:33] We’re really looking at it as, as an alternative to medicine and really how it can benefit society. And. So I think it really is emphasizing the medicinal effects of cannabis rather than having it as an illegal drug. The other thing is that we’re in trying times here because we’ve got a Senate, we’ve got a vice-president who very much supports marijuana decriminalization.
[00:21:08] They recognize that, you know, it creates a ton of jobs, creates a ton of revenue tax revenue for the economy. I mean, they’re predicting an additional 250,000 jobs in the cannabis industry by 2024. A there’s already about 300,000 jobs in cannabis.
[00:21:36] So. I think having the, the country decriminalized marijuana and make it and pass the safe act and the more act and have it so that we can have banks and deregulation and allow for credit card processing. All those things are going to really help expand and make the marijuana industry more accepted.
[00:22:04] Holly Prohs: Absolutely. I mean, for those of us who are in the industry, all we’re asking is to be able to operate like a normal business, right?
[00:22:11] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, exactly. I mean until we got into this industry there were things that I wasn’t even aware of. Like the fact that we have no tax incentives and there’s no tax breaks or write-offs, for our operations and expenses.
[00:22:27] Right. It makes it very difficult to become profitable if you don’t have some of the benefits that other industries have, especially from coming from the government.
[00:22:37] Holly Prohs: Absolutely. Yeah. Or like my biggest gripe paid advertising. A lot of that’s limited. Right. I’m always have my eye on marketing and you know, that’s tough.
[00:22:47] I know we’re learning a lot about print and magazines, which I actually think is really fun. Getting back to that style of marketing.
[00:22:59] Holly Prohs: Exactly, back to the basics.
[00:23:03] Holly Prohs: No, a hundred percent. So Katherine, since we are all about the benefits at Palmer Jane, why don’t you tell the audience, what is your benefit that you get from consuming cannabis?
[00:23:16] Katharine Leonard: Yeah. So I think especially me as having a family and two children that I have to worry about, I’m much more focused on the high CBD. And so honestly for me, the biggest benefit I get is stress relief.
[00:23:41] I absolutely could not live now without the high CBD tinctures that I, uh, that I use. I mean, with a tincture, it’s you put it under your tongue. You swish it around for 30 seconds. And really it starts to go into effect in 20 or 30 minutes. And so if you like, like for me, when I wake up with, with this high stress high anxiety, my heart’s pounding.
[00:24:15] I don’t know what, like, I basically can’t go on with my day. I take that high CBD tincture and it’s gone within 20 or 30 minutes. And I just I really wish more people knew about that benefit. From cannabis, because I have so many mom friends who have the same issue. And when I tell them about this high CBD tincture, the don’t even know what a tincture is or that there are other ways of consuming marijuana besides just smoking it.
[00:24:51] And so for me, the benefit really is stress relief and stress is something I’ve been battling for for a long time. And I’m, I was very, very happy to find a product that would work for me. And one that’s not a pharmaceutical or prescribed by a physician, which honestly there’s a difference between anxiety and stress and with stress, there is nothing that they would really even be able to prescribe.
[00:25:17] Holly Prohs: that’s so true, but yet it’s definitely a very serious condition that so many people are suffering from today. Just with like the high demands of just living. I mean, whether it’s a stressful job or even just with your own children, like all the things that they need to do, all the activities they need to go to, you know, make sure that they’ve eaten well and taken care of everything at the house.
[00:25:38] Like the list really does go on with all the things that start to kind of build up and create that, that weight on you.
[00:25:44] Katharine Leonard: Right. And not to mention COVID and politics, the things that we just push down and don’t want to think about because we’ve got everything else to think about. But those things are still there.
[00:25:54] And honestly, there are days where I just don’t want to do anything, but just lie in bed because it’s so overwhelming.
[00:26:06] Holly Prohs: Absolutely. So I guess, Katherine, just to wrap things up, Is there anything else that you would like to tell other women out there, whether it’s just a general comment or something that’s cannabis related?
[00:26:20] Katharine Leonard: Yeah, I mean, I would really encourage everyone to check out Palmer Jane and if not try cannabis, at least look at our learn articles and understand the benefits and some of the studies that have been done towards cannabis and towards these benefits.
[00:26:40] Holly Prohs: Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thanks for listening today, everyone.
[00:26:43] And thank you, Katherine.
[00:26:45] Katharine Leonard: Thank you.
[00:26:49] Holly Prohs: This podcast sponsored by Palmer Jane. Palmer Jane is the only female focused online marketplace. Offering guidance to women on how to maximize the benefits of cannabis in your area. Check us out at www.palmerjane.com and on Instagram @palmerjanesocial. Thank you for listening. We’ll catch you next time.