To Be Blunt: Mike Weinberger of Item 9 Labs Corp.

Mike Weinberger knows a good brand with a cannabis based brand. And I'm not talking about Item 9 Labs Corporation, where he's the Chief Franchise Officer.

I'm talking about Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffee and Smoothies, named after the infamous strain that originated on the islands. Weinberger was the CEO of the 450-location company during a national expansion and its eventual sale.

His move into cannabis with Item 9, one of the largest brands by sales in the state, was natural then.

To Be Blunt sat down to talk with Weinberger about Item 9's birth, the brand's operations in Arizona and throughout the Southwest and what the brand — which is poised to go fully national soon — looks for when hiring.

Note: This interview has been edited for purposes of clarity and length.

To Be Blunt: Tell me a little about Item 9 and how it came to be?

Mike Weinberger: So Item 9 Labs is our product arm. We were born and founded in Phoenix, Arizona. We have a farm, our cultivation/extraction facility of 55 acres in Casa Grande an hour outside of Phoenix.

We came to fruition with good people, good founders who really wanted to give people the medicine they needed in the state of Arizona. This was about five years ago.

Over the last five years, we've expanded our facilities, we've expanded our team. Currently, we have a staff of over 115 people helping get the medicine and the recreation to the people of Arizona.

We're probably the third biggest brand -- a little north of 27 million in revenues —in the state. We also have a facility under construction that should be done in probably September in Pahrump, Nevada for our products there.

Item 9 Ginger Bread Man flower

TBB: So what are some of the products and "items" Item 9 puts out?

MW: Our products in Arizona? We've got many, many of 'em, but our specialties are super-high end flower. We've won multiple awards for our flower, both Errl Cup's and some of the High Times competitions.

Then we're also particularly well known our extraction lab where we bring out our shatter pattern, our live resin products, our vapeable products. They really fly off the shelves, people really enjoy those nice, super-high-premium products.

TBB: Talk to me a little about your employees. What do you look for when hiring and what kind of roles are there at Item 9?

MW: Hiring in any industry, historically, has been tough, right? It's finding good people that's always... I call it the secret sauce. Hiring today in the world is very difficult.

Hiring today in the world in cannabis is exceptionally difficult, right? So, where we start is good peoples. We want people who have like-minded vision, values, moral compasses.

We look at what drives them, why they're in the business, what they're all about, what makes them tick. And then depending on the role we're hiring for, cause we're a pretty broad company, then we look at what some of their past experiences are and what they do.

So a majority of the workforce would then be on our cultivation team: the packaging, the growing of the product in the lab, delivery. Then there are also roles working on our dispensaries.

We're by far looking for a high caliber of people. Like I said, good personalities, good, good vision, good feel.

We also have a full exec team. We have a general counsel, we have CFOs. We're a publicly traded company, so we still hire the people and we're all about the culture.

TBB: So is everything and everyone based out of Phoenix or at least Arizona then? Or do you have a presence in other states?

MW: We're all over the country, right? Our headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona, we have an office right there in Phoenix on Third Street. That's where our marketing team and some of our exec team are in position there.

Our grow has about 70 people that work there in CG.

I'm in Denver and we have six employees here on the corporate side and another 10 in a dispensary here we run. We have 10 in Oklahoma, in Coil Springs, Oklahoma, at another dispensary.

And then we've got a communications team that splits time between Florida and Illinois. We got staff all around.

While we have a base in Phoenix, we're a national, soon be international company and with that we're really hiring the best people, regardless of where they are, regardless of where they live.

Now, some of the roles actually have to have boots-on-the-ground and be there in person everyday in Phoenix or in the shops. But for those roles that can be remote we look for the best person regardless.

TBB: What are some of the benefits for the rank-and-file employees there at Item 9?

MW: It ranges by position. But I would say in cannabis, we're at the mid- to the top- of the pay scale. We're always on par.

But what we really try to do -- I don't call it just pay, I call it the entire compensation structure -- we provide a hundred percent of he of the dollars of health insurance for our employees, we pay for that ourselves.

We also have unlimited PTO (paid time off) for our non-hourly workers. With our hourly workers, it's harder. You can't do the unlimited PTO. But for our salary positions, it's unlimited PTO.

We're a pretty place to work and we do discounts on product and we try and bring a good vibe. People always say look for a good work/life balance, but in my experience, there's not really a balance there.

We understand that those things were molded together and we were a family first organization.

TBB: I know turnover is something that companies throughout the cannabis industry have been dealing with even before the economic downturn. What does Item 9 do differently to retain its employees?

MW: The turnover in the industry is massive. Everyone thinks they wanna work in cannabis, but once you work in it, it's not necessarily what everyone thinks it is. It's still a fun, very cool culture. It's the fastest growing industry on planet Earth.

That being said, it's still hard work, right? If you're gonna grow, you're gonna grow. Let look at work at a lab. It's hands-on, every day, on your feet. It's very hard work. It's repetitive, so it's hard to keep people on the ground.