Meet Benjamin Owens | Hobby Grower & Cannabis Ghostwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Benjamin Owens and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
You don’t need a degree to grow weed.

It’s the premise that Growhort, the community-based cohort for first-time cannabis growers hinges on.

It’s easier than most people think.

I know firsthand: I let the fear of screwing it up or buying the wrong things keep me from growing for years. Instead, I spent $1,000s buying weed, when I could have started growing for $1,000 or less.

Since I started growing in 2019, I’ve told everyone to give it a try.

Then, in 2022, I joined Ship 30, an online writing cohort.

I should back up: I’m what some would call a “traditionally-trained writer.”

I have 2 degrees in journalism. I did a stint in the Chicago ad agency world. And have since authored, co-authored, or ghostwritten 100s of articles for magazines and online publications, as well as 3 books.

I didn’t join the cohort to “learn to write,” I did it to encourage a daily writing habit. But most of the people who take these cohorts have never spent time learning to write, let alone regularly writing and publishing content anywhere, online or otherwise.

So, as a writer, what I saw blew me away:

Years and years of writing lessons and tricks were condensed into a 30-day sprint, teaching you everything you need to know starting at the very basics, while also focusing on the importance of action, rather than “learning.”

People don’t want to learn; they want to do.

Ship 30 was able to get 750+ strangers, from all over the world, to come together and write every day for 30 days, while also teaching them 80-90% of what it takes to write valuable content online.

There had to be a way to do this with growing.

There had to be a way to take people with no grow knowledge and walk them from start to finish.

When I started growing, I also began to write about my experiences online in The Hobby Grow, a weekly newsletter that started as “Lessons From The Grow.” As a result, I’d get emails and DMs asking for help growing.

“Who am I to teach other how to grow?”

Imposter syndrome is a fickle beast. It’s easy to point out all of the things you can’t teach others; all of the things you don’t know. It’s harder to validate what you do know.

So what did I know about growing?

I knew how to grow hobby-scale crops, in grow tents, in your primary residence, with the sole purpose of passion, without regard for whether it would make money or not.

Aka, Hobby Growing.

And, like many, I started small and scaled up.

So, rather than trying to create a guide or program for the best or the most or the “perfect” grow, my design focused on: how can I make getting to the finish line as simple as possible?

Remove as many variables as possible.
Add back an equal amount accountability and support.

Everyone grows in the same setup. With the same genetics. At the same time.

Including me, your Hobby Grow Guide, who grows alongside you from start to finish.

The business aspect of launching online grow education would come later—and, to be honest, I’m still figuring this out day-by-day—but the thought process started inadvertently, in a 30-day writing class.
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Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Committing to a career in cannabis was the riskiest decision I ever made.

In 2013, with graduation approaching and “real life” getting ever-closer, I took a hard right.

While my classmates applied to 100s of jobs, I decided I would create my own lane:

I wanted to take the education I’d received and offer that level of professionalism and service to an underserved industry with massive potential: cannabis.

No ad agency would touch cannabis clients. And state-legal cannabis businesses needed help. So why not be the solution to their problems?

Well, the short answer is: no experience, wrong state.

I was fresh out of college with a degree and a handful of internship experience, but had no real experience that big brands with big money would trust without the support of a team.

At the time, this went down in Missouri and Illinois, which did not have legal cannabis, medical or otherwise.

Never discouraged, I worked in various other industries, on both client and agency sides, always finding some way to tie it to cannabis. I worked at a company that sold HVAC equipment direct, and our biggest customers were home growers in newly legal markets. I got hired by a detox company that served the counter-culture and smoke shop industries.

In 2016, I launched a cannabis event planning service, and for the next 8 years hosted 50+ outdoor events in 4 states for 1000s of attendees, ranging from small-scale hikes, to sporting tournaments and backwoods music festivals.

During this time, I also began contributing to cannabis publications like the Hemp Connoisseur.

While they didn’t pay a whole lot, opportunities like this opened doors to rooms I would never have access to, and allowed me to speak to and build connections with experts, entrepreneurs, founders, and investors all across the cannabis and hemp space. This would plant the seeds for my ghostwriting career, working to translate the experiences of busy industry veterans into t articles, books, newsletters, and even social posts.

In 2019, more than a decade after smoking for the first time, I planted my first pot seeds.

Little did I know that this would lead to contracts with licensed and ancillary businesses—from courier and delivery operators, to nutrient and genetics companies—all of whom recognized a need for content written by someone who had firsthand experience with growing.

Growing led to my becoming Editor-in-Chief of an international cannabis cultivation magazine.

And each of these experiences has built on the other, but it has been far from easy.

Cannabis as a whole is a new industry.

Old beliefs like “weed sells itself” are pervasive, and regulatory challenges create razor-thin budgets. Hiring a writer is usually not at the top of anyone’s list. And, if they do hire you, they don’t pay what Big Tech or Finance or other established industries do.

During the pandemic, cannabis sales flourished, and businesses had bigger budgets for marketing, which meant contracts were steady. But with the recent industry slump, it’s back to riding the rollercoaster.

The biggest lessons I’ve learned throughout this process are:
1. You really have to love this plant to stick around in this industry. Cannabis is not the fastest path to profitability. Far from it. You have to look opportunity cost in the eye, spit in its face, and trudge back through the mud, choosing the hard path above all else.
2. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. This applies within your industry as well as outside of it. You don’t have to stay put. Your job and your career and your industry are not a life sentence. I was in journalism, then advertising, then marketing, then journalism, then event planning, so on and so forth. Be comfortable trying things out, even if they don’t work out. Which brings me to…
3. You’ll be surprised how it all fits together. I can look back on every job, client, and experience and find a way that it has helped me get to where I’m at today. From HVAC to food delivery to growing your own, learn to recognize the arsenal of skills you’ve built, not just what you were tasked with. Then sell that, as a service, as a product, or as value to an employer.
4. Most importantly, everything you do professionally is a balance between passions and profit. You can explore passion, ignoring profit, or you can pursue profits, ignoring passions. And, of course, the unicorn is finding a harmonious mix of both. But that’s rare. Better to be in touch with the balance, and trade-offs being made, than to pretend you found a unicorn. It’s ok to choose passion. It’s also ok to choose profits. Just know what you’re choosing.

If you are passionate about something, and you truly believe it will work, and you’re willing to give it your all, even if it means painful, cash-strapped periods of your life where you have to hustle all day, every day to make it work, then you should absolutely swing for the fences. Especially if you’re in your 20s and 30s.

I was told that cannabis was a death sentence for my career; it’s been the exact opposite.

It hasn’t been easy. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If you find yourself in Longmont, Colorado, you’ve got plenty of options to explore. Main Street is a great introduction, with that nostalgic small town feel in spite of the city boasting 95,000+ residents. Stop by MECO Coffee, Rosalee’s Pizza, or town staples like The Roost. If breweries are your thing, there’s plenty to choose from, many within walking distance of each other. Personally, I’m a fan of West Side Tavern, a quaint, upscale spot in the historic westside neighborhood. For a hike, head to Boulder, Nederland, or Estes Park for the mountain town feel, or to catch a show, the Boulder Theatre (Boulder), Red Rocks Amphitheater (Golden), Mission Ballroom (Denver) and Washington’s (Fort Collins) are all great options.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This journey would not have been possible without the support of my family, the encouragement from my wife Jordan, and the countless connections made along this crazy journey we call life.

I’d also like to shout out: Angela Bacca, the first editor of a cannabis magazine to put me on and publish my work; DJ Reetz & the Hemp Connoisseur team for publishing my words and opening doors I otherwise wouldn’t have had access to; Brad Best, for being one of the coolest Mizzou J-School Professors, and for inviting me to be the first cannabis guest lecturer at the J-School; to Colin Gordon, for years of experience as a ghostwriter, co-author, and grower, working together to publish quality cultivation content; and Zac Ricciardi, for trusting me as his co-author for his first book, Clean Growing: Integrated Pest Management for Cannabis Growers.

Website: www.growhort.co

Instagram: instagram.com/cannabenoid

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cannabenoid

Twitter: twitter.com/cannabenoid

Facebook: facebook.com/BenjaminLeeOwens

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hobbygrower

Other: Weekly Grow Tips, Deep Dives & Home Grow News: thehobbygrow.com 7-Day Crash Course in Hobby Hash: hobbyhash.com