From Budtender to Senior Customer Success Manager: Caitlin Rabideau's Cannabis Journey

I started my cannabis journey in 2014 after I moved from Texas to Colorado for the specific reason of wanting to join the cannabis industry that had just started taking off in full force.

I applied to any dispensary that was trying to elevate cannabis and the dispensary experience, where normalizing cannabis was just as important as maintaining cannabis culture.

I was so excited when I was offered a Budtender position at The Health Center in Denver, CO, that looked like a modern wellness medical facility, while having all of the cool new products I’d want to buy myself.

I was so scared of looking like an imposter, that I bought pre-rolls of every single strain we carried so that I could sound like I knew what I was talking about with patients and customers. Once I knew the products, I settled in and became a shift leader, before ultimately becoming manager. I was so grateful for the opportunity, since I had never managed anything before and it taught me so much.

It was tough, don’t get me wrong. From random MED inspections when I had no idea what to do within my first month, to customers trying to sell medical product to friends out in the parking lot and calling the police, to brand sales reps showing up to sell stuff every 15 minutes, and staff just not showing up, to getting 10pm calls because shift leaders couldn’t upload the day’s sales to Metrc — cannabis is a tough industry.

You learn a lot on the fly, and there’s always more to learn — it gave me resilience and grit.

I couldn’t believe just how much fun it was to be around people who loved cannabis and believed in its value. As staff, we were all just as excited about new products dropping as our customers were.

We would have regular customers that became friends, and allowed us to have a community within the community. We had a gentleman that would bring fresh eggs from his farm, another that would bring honey from his own hives, and a man that raised goats and would bring goat milk. It was truly a community, and I cherish the memories made with my colleagues, but also our customers.

During that time, there were also industry events that were happening all of the time and they’d be massive. Fire dancers, performers, celebrity appearances, free samples and swag — it felt like you were in on something special, and it was a great time to launch in the industry.

I transitioned from retail cannabis into canna tech after graduating back in 2017. Working with a SaaS company called Baker Technologies. That was my first tech role, and it was the start of my career in Customer Success.

After some time at Baker, I moved to Virginia and got a “traditional” CSM role at an account-based marketing SaaS provider, and then had one more traditional SaaS CSM role at one of the big 4 consulting firms. I felt that I needed to try being a CSM in traditional industries because cannabis can be chaotic, and I needed to see if chaos was everywhere, or just cannabis.

I thought I’d like moving into a more corporate role, but after a few years I realized how much I missed the camaraderie of the cannabis industry!

I missed working with products that were fun, interesting, and exciting! I missed the PEOPLE! When I made my way to Dutchie, I felt like I had won the jackpot.

I was so excited to be back in cannabis, and with one of the top companies in the space. Right away, I knew I made the right decision because I loved everyone I was working with; Dutchie has amazing culture, and I felt like I was back home.

I can also say, I was surprised to see that the cannabis industry was pretty much the same as when I had left. The same struggles with staff turnover, the same regulatory muddiness, and a lot of the same challenges.

That’s what makes this period so exciting.

Start out in cannabis in an area that you’re passionate about. I tried every strain of product when I started as a budtender, and I looked forward to new strains coming in. I loved nothing more than when a brand rep would bring samples in.

Customers could feel that enthusiasm, and that it was authentic, and that’s really half the battle.

When you’re passionate, it shows, and that’s what will open doors.

I started off as a budtender to get my foot in the door. I never intended to stay a budtender forever. I moved up to shift leader, then became manager. As manager, we brought Baker Loyalty into our store, and it was the first time I’d heard of a CSM.

I loved Baker and our CSM, and that gave me the idea that maybe I could do that. They were only 30 employees, and I used my dispensary management experience as the “in” that could set me apart, so I applied despite having 0 CSM experience.

Luckily, it worked! Now I’m about 10 years into a career I would never have known about, and I got to come back to cannabis as a CSM, where I have further grown my career with Dutchie.

We are still such a new industry and there are opportunities around every corner. It’s a small industry, and you’ll see names you know popping up at different companies than where they started.

The friends you make along the way could be the one that opens your next door, so don’t be afraid to take a leap! If you’re serious and a professional, the cannabis industry has so many opportunities and starting on the retail side will not only show you what it’s like, but will give you a unique skillset that only a small subset of workers will ever be able to obtain, so use it to your full advantage.