A commercial real estate client of mine — a film production company — shot a series of videos for us in 2011–2012. We put out a call to the patients: help us educate, help us normalize this thing, tell your story. There was free weed in it for you.
The problem was, only men signed up. Not a single woman.
Jake and I tried to fix it the way business guys fix everything: incentives. We told the staff to double the reward for women and throw in a bonus on top for yourself. Still nothing.
In the end, these were the only three men the crew thought were strong enough representatives to put on camera — the kind of faces they could show without turning the whole thing into a joke or a stereotype. They got free weed, and we got what we needed: proof that patients existed, that they were real people, and that the story wasn’t going to tell itself. (Dave was my patient on paperwork for years)
