Susan Chicovsky, Owner of Green Mountain Harvest
Susan Chicovsky, owner of Green Mountain Harvest, has been an entrepreneur since 1973. Her professional experience spans 5 restaurants, a private international alternative healing practice, a health and wellness center and a natural insecticide company. In addition to those ventures, Susan is also a minister who performs weddings, christenings, memorials and other sacred ceremonies. To find her picture, all you have to do is look up ‘jack of all trades’ in the dictionary. In fact, many people have done just that, as Susan has delivered speeches over the radio as well as at national seminars and workshops. She is committed to helping people heal in a way that works for them, as well as helping business owners be successful. Her latest endeavor, Green Mountain Harvest, is the oldest, first cleared and compliant cannabis harvest and trim company in Denver, Colorado. Susan opened the doors to GMH back in 2010 and now operates on a national scale. An expert on harvesting and trimming, she recently trimmed some time out of her day to harvest a conversation with us.
What was the deciding factor for you to join this particular industry?
I entered the cannabis industry for a couple of different reasons. As an alternative healer since the early 1970’s, I had firsthand experience with clients who have shared how much cannabis has helped them with pain, nausea, anxiety, spasms etc. So for me, the decision to become a cannabis advocate and join the industry was easy. In addition to patient stories, I have long been an organic gardener and I have worked with a good deal of bonsai plants, so I think it is important that patients have access to clean, natural medicine. I have been an entrepreneur since 1973 and this is my best entrepreneurial adventure yet.
Focus on gratitude rather than stress, and your world can open up to unknown paths.
What were you doing before?
I was and still am a minister. I perform wedding ceremonies, christenings, memorials, home blessings, house clearings and sacred ceremonies. I have a company called Marriage Makers that I am thrilled to own and will continue to run outside of Green Mountain Harvest because it is a passion of mine. I have also had an international healing practice since 1980, where I still deal with emergency clients. As the Green Mountain Harvest has grown, it has become a full time endeavor for me so I have had to cut back my healing practice and Marriage Makers business.
Tell me about the point in the time you realized the coming of the ‘green rush’?
In 2010, one of my friends in Hawaii told me she wanted to give me money to open a dispensary. After doing my due diligence, I choose not to pursue that vertical within the industry. However, one of my friends who has a dispensary brought up the idea of a harvest and trim company. It fit my agenda in terms of providing patients with compliant, healthy medicine as well as my entrepreneurial vision for the next great adventure. I spent one month investigating the industry to see if I actually wanted to do a business and was engrossed with the Green Rush here in Colorado.
Right now, where are you guiding your passion and energy toward?
I am guiding my energy and passion towards clean rooms for trimmers and product. Furthermore, I want to take GMH national. I have also been thrust into a bit of politics, where I hope to positively affect compliant better business practices in Colorado as well as other states.
Describe your work ethic to me in one word.
Integrity
Who is a person that you consider as a role model? Maybe someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?
My mother was my mentor and role model before she died. She was diagnosed with Syringomyelia when I was 1 year old. This is a disease where a cyst develops in the spinal cord. Her doctors said she would be in a wheelchair within 5 years and die soon after that. My mom was bedridden for years and fought with everything she had. In the early 1950’s, she was at John Hopkins for treatments like radiation and back surgery. She never gave up and literally willed herself to function, all the while bearing enormous pain. She lived till she was 84. She taught me about will power, strength, fortitude and the power of prayer. She actually bore another child seven years after I was born.
What book have you read that you’ve been inspired by? Any particular read we should put on our list?
I love any of Reshad Fields work. The Last Barrier is exceptional.
Tell me about an esteemed achievement of yours.
I have had three miscarriages and two ectopic pregnancies. I died after surgery with the 2nd ectopic pregnancy. I saw the light and my Dad at the entrance, he said “go back, it’s not your time”, then he placed a small little girl (around 5 years old) in my arms with exotic beauty and long brown hair. He said “Here is your daughter” I was upset because she wasn’t a baby. Funny how we put our own spins on things. I dreamt of my first adopted daughter and found the birth mother. Cayla was born December 9, 1991 which is six months opposite my birthday, June 9, 1951. This put us into perfect astrological alignment. I was able to breastfeed her and we are extremely close. She still lives with me now even though she is in college. It’s a blessing. When Cayla was 4 years old she asked me to find her older sister. Suddenly the vision of my Dad holding that little girl came back to me. I was a foster Mom at the time and felt like this child was in my foster agencies placement. I called the head of the foster agency, who knew about my strong intuition and she said indeed she had a 5 year old little girl and we could meet her. When she opened the door she was the little girl in my vision. So we fostered her for one year then adopted her.
So the achievement is that I found my daughters. I am so blessed.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Too blessed to be stressed.
A good friend of mine once told me that he is “too blessed to be stressed”. I live by that code. Focus on gratitude rather than stress, and your world can open up to unknown paths.
What is the most important thing for us to know now about the legal marijuana industry?
It’s all about compliance and honesty if you want to maintain a business that will set the standard for years to come.
If we are sitting across from each other a year from now, how will our conversation about the ‘green rush’ be going?
I think there will still be challenges to face. Hopefully we will say at that time that we have a legal banking system in place and the Federal government has loosened its grip on what goes on in the industry. Better yet, hopefully they have legalized it altogether.
What scares you most about this industry?
What scares me the most is that I see more lack of integrity than any industry I have ever worked in.
It’s all about compliance and honesty if you want to maintain a business that will set the standard for years to come.
If you could tell a skeptic one thing about this industry to make them change their mind, what would it be?
What I would tell that skeptic is to look at all the patients that are healing because of cannabis. When a child has 30 -50 seizures a day and cannabis reduces this to under 10, we should be extremely grateful that a natural medicine like cannabis even exists.
Tell us something that you wish you had known before becoming a cannabis entrepreneur.
I really can’t think of something I wish I knew before doing this cannabis business. All my entrepreneurial business adventures have come into play with this industry. Everything I have ever done has taught me and is useful now.
Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Find what you are passionate about and do what you love. Keep the gratitude right in front of you at all times.
What do you think of Susan’s amazing story? Join the conversation and comment below!
