In 2016, Massachusetts citizens voted to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults aged 21 and older. But not everybody is welcoming the cannabis industry with open arms. Last night, a businessman who wants to open a retail shop and growing operation in my small Central Massachusetts town presided over a public meeting. He thought we’d be excited to get in on the ground floor of a growing industry and eager to receive added revenue for our town. Turns out he wasn’t reading the room well at all.
Show me the money!
Cannabis products have proven to be hugely popular with the public, and sales since the first retail cannabis stores opened in 2018 have been brisk. Cannabis cultivation and retail business have been lucrative for businesses and host communities alike.
This should be great news for Hubbardston, since we have few businesses and little commercial tax revenue. The businessman was hoping that we’d be happy that he’s looking to locate here, since that could potentially mean that we’d receive millions of dollars a year in the form of taxes and revenue sharing.
Know your audience
As a whole, the citizens of Hubbardston are fiscally conservative. My town has never passed a tax override to fund anything for any reason. Variations on “Make do with what you have” and “Live within your means” come up at virtually every town meeting during budget discussions.
People are also loathe to invite outsiders into town who might bring trouble, an attitude that hasn’t changed much in more than a century. In the 1870s, Jonas Clark, a successful Hubbardston-born businessman, wanted to build a college here. But the town fathers did not want “a group of rowdy college kids in town,” so they turned him down.*
A little research on the town and the kinds of people who would be in the audience could have served last night’s presenter well. Instead, he chose a brash, devil-may-care presentation style that was completely wrong for this audience.
The wrong approach
Although he seemed quite likeable, the presenter didn’t cater to the crowd very well. Instead, he focused primarily on his own reasons for starting a marijuana business. He talked about how one aspect of the business would be “an experiment he wanted to try.” He said that he’d be there for about a year before handing the business off to someone else and leaving town. He predicted that the market would soon be flooded with Canadian product, so we needed to act fast. He described himself as a hippy.
Here’s what I heard: “This is a great opportunity for us both to make a lot of money selling weed while we can before the market gets saturated and I skip town.”
Audience not buying it
Many people who were at last night’s meeting voiced their concerns about increased traffic, a perceived end to the quality of life they moved to a small rural town to find, the threat of intoxicated drivers, etc. Some were against the very idea of recreational marijuana use and asked if that’s what the town really wants to embrace. They used the presenter’s own words against him, bristling at the idea of being subject to his “experiment” and questioning whether or not a “hippy” has the town’s best interests in mind.
The message that “we are all going to make a lot of money” did nothing to address the concerns the audience had.
Here’s what the audience needed to hear: “I know that legalized recreational cannabis is new. For some of you it might be scary. But we’re taking a very measured approach, following all of the laws to the letter, in one of the most regulated industries in the Commonwealth. We want to be a great community partner that provides jobs and revenue for your town.”
The Takeaway
People don’t care as much about your motivations for doing something as they do about the effect it has on them and what the results will be. So especially when you’re communicating about a touchy subject, you need to focus on what the audience wants and needs to hear. Addressing concerns up front and throughout the presentation will go far to convince people to adopt your point of view.
* Kangas, Gary W. Hubbardston. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2009.