Feminine Divine – Megan Forehand
Harnessing the divine goddess energy that exists in all of us. It looks different for everyone and is unique to you. Your femininity is expressed when you move with the flow of life, embrace your creative energy, dance, play, create, reflect, love, and practice self-care. When awakened, it will make you intuitive, compassionate, sensitive, receptive, tender, kind, radiant, nurturing, and unstoppable.
Meet Megan Forehand. She was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Growing up, her mother was a baker, and her father was an attorney, who later became a judge. She had a good upbringing and a decent childhood to experience. I had the opportunity to chat with Megan about the many hats she wears for a thriving, family-owned business, Arctic Fox.
Originally, Megan and her family were interested in the opportunity to run their own business and to be able to put quality medicine on the shelves for Oklahoma patients. The company began construction in July of 2020, and it took them over a year to completely build out their 20,000 sq ft facility, perform inspections, get the licensing situated, etc. Their first harvest was in August of 2021.
rctic Fox is made up of six people, a majority women-owned cannabis operation. Megan hasn’t always had a green thumb and does spend some time in the garden, but she primarily focuses on the fun legal activities like business management, sales, payroll, compliance, etc.! All of these aspects are crucial in keeping the business afloat, and Megan proudly takes the reins!
Everyone is family at Arctic Fox, and Megan’s leadership style encompasses their core values. It’s all about being a team, ensuring quality and quantity in all areas of life, putting family above all else, never taking yourself too seriously, letting your voice be heard, respecting everyone, not being better than others, and ultimately loving what you do, while doing your best and then some!
While wearing many hats, Megan says that her plant babes are like her Excel budget sheet and sales goals sheet. Now, that’s a perspective! She really enjoys watching her husband work in the grow with the plants, doing what he does best. Megan enjoys working on sales strategies and focusing on marketing. As long as the garden is on schedule and humming along, she’s happy.
I asked Megan where her happiest place is, and she revealed she’s definitely a homebody and an introvert! I’m sure many of you can relate to loving the comfort of your own home—there’s really nothing like it. Creating a space that feels safe, with everything you need, naturally draws you to look forward to going back. Besides her home, Megan also loves spending time with her girlfriends, walking, spending time outside, and family is always a priority.
Being a wife, a mother, and a business owner can be challenging when trying to create a work-life balance. Megan shares how she personally navigates the chaos, finding beauty in the process: “This one is hard. Create schedules and follow them. Lean on family for help with school pickups, etc., a day or two. Use Sunday to prepare for the week. Put everything in your calendar with alerts. Every morning, review your calendar. Handle what you have to handle that day. Handle your stuff. You don’t want to miss a deadline for licensing, taxes, payroll, etc. The only constant in this business is change. Embrace it. Constantly evaluate your business and the market. How can you differentiate yourself? What makes sense? What are we doing that doesn’t really move the needle? What are others doing well?”
The legal aspect can be a headache, but it’s essential for operation. Owning a company comes with highs and lows, especially when your livelihood depends on harvesting crops continuously and selling them for profit. Megan handles all legal activities for Arctic Fox. The last year, 2023, was eventful for them. In June 2023, Tulsa experienced a severe windstorm that caused a multi-day power outage across the area, leading President Biden to issue a Disaster Declaration. The outage, combined with extreme heat and humidity, caused the loss of two harvests. Despite having cannabis crop insurance, their claim was denied due to an exception clause excluding utility services from claims. They are currently in litigation over this issue.
Unfortunately, in business, sometimes people take advantage, go behind your back, and cause harm. Recently, Arctic Fox has been in litigation for what they claim are wrongdoings by a previous business partner. “It’s not for anyone to steal. It’s time for the industry to understand and respect that. Other industries do. You can’t steal the recipe from Pepsi. You can’t steal the code from Facebook. You can’t steal the genetics and run it,” says Megan, emphasizing the legal battles they’ve been forced into.
Their facility is partially built out with 4 flower rooms, a mom and veg room, clone, irrigation, office space, dry room, and a trim room. Each flower room has a 900 sq ft canopy. The team harvests every 2 weeks and provides about 120 lbs to the market every month. They use Canna nutrients, along with an outside trim crew, Total Harvest Care. Chris and Lacey and their team handle all thetrimming for Arctic Fox, doing a beautiful boutique trim off of the stem. Arctic Fox offers fresh frozen materials to processors and also offers pre rolls.
At Arctic Fox, you can expect consistent top quality at a fair price, from a local Mom and Pop grow. They closely monitor conditions throughout the lifecycle to ensure the highest quality product will be delivered. They also are freaks about temperature and humidity, burping totes, etc. Going the extra mile for quality medicine is what they strive for! They take pride in their quality and consistency, cleanliness, business skillset and the ability to keep going even though cannabis is tough right now in Oklahoma
