Feature Story
Capitalizing on VIBE’ s
Collective Chi
by Clayton Stallings, contributing writer
VIBE is more than just a licensed cannabis grower, manufacturer, and a distinguished brand with soonto-be dispensaries in Missouri’ s cannabis industry. VIBE is the collective essence of the employees’ Chi behind the brand’ s name. It does not just sell highquality cannabis products; the company is selling the spirit of the employees who are intertwined and immersed in the creation of its products.
Jonathan Milo, CEO( on left) with Nick Cline, director of cultivation.
“ The reason all the letters are capitalized in VIBE is because every job in the production of our products is just as important as the leadership that oversees their production,” explained Director of Cultivation and Maintenance Nick Cline. Cline has been with the company since before commencementto-operate in January of 2022. Cline got his experience in the Colorado cannabis industry in 2013 for four to five years before helping launch Ohio’ s first MIP called Grow Ohio. Then, VIBE’ s CEO, Jonathan Milo, was fortunate to secure his talents to help launch VIBE in Missouri.
Remarkably, Cline holds the only position at VIBE that hasn’ t been promoted from within the company. That means if you were to exclude him from the statistics,“ 100 % of our directors, managers, and supervisors have been promoted into their roles, many who started at an entry-level position at VIBE,” proudly expressed CEO Jonathan Milo.“ The same is true for many of our leads. There is only one senior leader that currently works for VIBE who was hired directly, years ago, simply because the nature of their role at VIBE was not trainable at the time.
“ Our general philosophy is that when a new upper-level position becomes available, we immediately look to promote from within, so it gives our experienced and dedicated team members a chance to further grow their career. Our process works well because it reinforces our merit-based system and prevents a clog in the promotion chain within that respective department.”
VIBE team( left to right): Stephan Gott – west account manager and event specialist; Tara Sigrist, event coordinator; and Jaylon Petty, east account manager and event specialist.
A great example of this is VIBE’ s marketing team. Tara Sigrist( on left), who is currently the event coordinator and brand ambassador, started as a temp employee helping to assemble VIBE’ s irrigation system months before the company’ s very first harvest. After her three-week contract was finished, VIBE offered her a permanent job on a 12-person team as a cultivation tech.“ I really put a lot of hours in and expressed interest in helping out with anything they needed because I saw a lot of opportunity to advance my career,” said Sigrist. She went from assembling the irrigation systems to learning A Lot about the plants as a cultivation tech to being the first brand ambassador. Now, she manages all the brand ambassadors and helps decide what events VIBE sponsors.
Even when the knowledge to further employees’ careers can’ t be obtained from within the company, VIBE goes above and beyond expectations to bring the experience needed for their employees. In this particular case, it all started in spring of 2023 with a competition
24 September 2026