“Discovering that a natural substance I had always discounted was the key to regaining my health made me question all of the choices I had made through to adulthood.” with Pamela Hadfield and Fotis Georgiadis

Discovering that a natural substance I had always discounted was the key to regaining my health made me question all of the choices I had made through to adulthood. What other plant-based cures are available that binary black-and-white thinking refuses to consider? In fact, had my internal judgements and biases kept me from other solutions in my life?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Hadfield. Pamela is a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of HelloMD, the largest online community of health and wellness cannabis consumers. After suffering from debilitating migraine headaches for much of her life, Pamela found relief using medical cannabis. She quickly found she was not only able to manage the pain from her migraines, within six months she was preventing them altogether and was able to seamlessly drop her use of Vicodin. It was at this time that Pamela became not only a cannabis advocate but an early adopter to cannabis as the exit drug for the opioid epidemic. It was through her personal experience, and an awareness of the associated stigma with cannabis consumption, which led her to create HelloMD.

Can you share with the ‘backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis space?

Having suffered from debilitating migraines for most of my life, my condition worsened after the birth of my third child. After years of trying different medications that did not help, I began consuming Vicodin regularly to relieve my pain. Aware that this was a dangerous path I looked for a new solution, and finally decided to try cannabis.

To my surprise, with cannabis I was able to leave the Vicodin behind. Daily doses of CBD not only allowed me to manage my pain, but I found that within six months I was preventing my migraines altogether. I realized that what had been my medication of last resort should have been my medication of first resort.

My personal experience coupled with a keen awareness of the social stigma around cannabis consumption, led me to start HelloMD in 2014. Over the past four years, HelloMD has evolved into a digital healthcare platform that includes education, doctor consults, and product selection. HelloMD’s mission is to help people find their way within their personal journey with cannabis. Our goal is to help people just like me, who had no idea about how cannabis might help and no understanding of where to start.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Over the years we have seen over 100k patients in one on one online video consults with our doctors. As a result, I have had the opportunity to talk to thousands of patients. What I’ve learned is that we as humans suffer from a variety of conditions and we are very oriented around finding solutions to our problems.

What has intrigued me most is how common anxiety and chronic pain are within our society. Over 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety and over 50 million people suffer from some sort of pain or chronic pain. We have been conditioned to take pharmaceuticals such as benzodiazepines for depression and anxiety or opiates for chronic pain. For many people, these are not only ineffective but dangerous. What has been most interesting to me within my job is seeing how effective cannabis can be in helping large amounts of people get off of traditional pharmaceuticals in a more natural way, without horrific side effects associated with traditional medications.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The first week we were in business we launched a Google Ads campaign. Immediately, we started to see enormous traction and were seeing hundreds of patients for our doctor consultations. We thought we were absolutely amazing! After about two weeks our account was shut down and Google informed us they would no longer be working with us. We had no idea you could not advertise through normal channels in the cannabis industry. In hindsight it is funny that we were so naïve, but the reality is, creating a business within the cannabis industry is like the triple black diamond of entrepreneurship as there are so many challenges you face that are non-issues in any other industry.

Are you working on any exciting projects now?

We have some exciting news to announce soon that essentially means our reach will be larger than ever before. Stay tuned!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I would never be successful without the support of my co-founder Mark Hadfield. He is extremely supportive of my ideas and the things I want to produce. Although it has not been easy all of the time, we have worked as a team to bring HelloMD to where it is today. We have opposite skill sets which is also helpful. I always say to people when starting a business, make sure you have one advocate that really has your best interests at heart and will help support you through the dark times, because there will be many!

This industry is young dynamic and creative. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

That’s a great question. In the cannabis industry you always need to think outside the box and be extremely agile. One thing that many cannabis companies do well is connect with the consumer through experience. This may be at an in person event or through online communication. Cannabis is unique in that there is always something new to learn, so I also think that consumers and patients are more easily engaged. Larger legacy companies would be shocked at how agile you need to be in order to survive and thrive within this industry.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the cannabis industry? Can you share 3 things that most concern you?

Excite me:

· Cannabis is truly a global phenomenon now — watching normalization sweep the globe is unbelievably exciting

· The ability to help millions of people with plant-based medicine

· Opportunities in education on a global scale — the rolling back of prohibition

Concern me:

· The business of cannabis is big money. It concerns me that the needs of the patient may be overlooked and cannabis might get rolled up into a new version of Big Pharma.

· Regulatory structures are too rigid and make it too difficult for patients to have access and the black market continues to thrive. Regulators, in my experience on the whole, really misunderstand cannabis.

· That cannabis companies are penalized for being in cannabis, yet are expected to operate like any other business. This goes in regards to banking, advertising, and so on. It concerns me that this will continue.

Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

I wish someone had told me 5 things to avoid before I started a cannabis business!

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Cannabis was my medication of last resort when it should have been my medication of first resort. My Plan B should have been my Plan A. I spent decades needlessly in pain because I was unwilling to explore an unconventional cure. My hesitation was informed by social norms and reinforced by the medical establishment. It prompted a bout of critical thinking that shook me to my core: What else had I been absolutely wrong about? What role did the medical establishment play in my delusion? And how is it conspiring to shroud the other plant-based cures already available?

Discovering that a natural substance I had always discounted was the key to regaining my health made me question all of the choices I had made through to adulthood. What other plant-based cures are available that binary black-and-white thinking refuses to consider? In fact, had my internal judgements and biases kept me from other solutions in my life?

Cannabis has taught me to be more open minded and to see issues at hand with multiple lenses. My personal belief is that having an open mind while also employing a critical thinking mindset can change the world.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Instagram:

Hellomd_com
pamela_hello

Twitter
@hellomd_com

Facebook:
hellomdcompany

Thank you for joining us!


“Discovering that a natural substance I had always discounted was the key to regaining my health… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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