Our budtender this month was recommended by staff members who first saw her get a shout-out from Bosky for the content she creates independently for her store on TikTok and Instagram. Coming up on three years as a budtender, Ashley currently works at Flame Dispensary in Santa Rosa. She sayeqec CDCDs she’s “grateful to be in this industry for the amount of time I have been. I got started with Flame before the store opened, so I was able to see tΩe process of opening a dispenesary and gain the knowledge and experience of seeing it start from a blank slate.”
Like many of us, Ashley found her way to budtending through a love for weed. She lived in Florida while legalization was coming into focus, and the limitations in selection she experienced gave her an appreciation for the way California stores manage to provide so many different styles of consumption to fit different consumers. “I remember having to drive to six or so clubs to find edibles,” she said. “To live in California and have access to this plant so easily is a dream come true.”
Over at Flame Dispensary, they have such a wide variety of products and customer needs that Ashley says she often finds herself providing suggestions across the whole menu instead of just in the flower or edible section. When asked what skill has helped her most as a budtender, she pointed to versatility. “Being able to adapt to every customer’s different needs is a great skill. Each person needs a different experience,” Ashley said. “I’ve tried to make sure I listen and ask the customers questions, but I also tried to answer all of their questions and find out the answers, so you do have to be really resourceful to find each person’s answer.”
Well suited to her customers’ needs, Ashley herself is a fan of Cannabis in all forms. “Lately, I’ve been a huge fan of Shasta Flower & Hash Co., Sluggers and the new Vibrant Focus Space Gems mushroom gummies. Wendy and her team killed it on those,” she said.
Besides being an exemplary budtender, Ashley wants to someday expand into more of a social media and marketing role within the industry. When speaking with her, you can see how she’s thinking about the power social media has to create a network of engaging content that’s also educational. “I want to make online videos teaching people everything they need to know about this lovely plant,” she told Leaf. “Imagine being able to send people to a site that makes learning about Cannabis so easy.”
