“How do you pull somebody off the street and plop 'em into a dispensary and get them up to that level?”
— Danny Gold, COO of Happy Cabbage, on High Touch
Walk into a great dispensary, and you’ll feel it immediately. It’s not just the design or the products. It’s the vibe. It’s the interaction. It’s the person behind the counter who makes you feel like you’re in the right place — and helps you walk out with the right product.
That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not about hiring “cannabis people” or checking a box with compliance training. It’s about investing in training as experience design — a core theme in our conversation with Danny Gold on the High Touch podcast.
Danny, now COO of Happy Cabbage and co-founder of ZolTrain, joined us to talk about why education is one of the most overlooked — and underfunded — aspects of cannabis retail. And why that needs to change.
Training Beyond Compliance
As Danny explains, ZolTrain didn’t set out to just digitize compliance training. The real problem they wanted to solve was deeper: How do you help budtenders become product experts, cultural translators, and trusted guides?
“There’s all this other stuff that’s required to run a really good store and provide a really good experience that surround [compliance],” Danny said. “How do you sell something if you don’t know what you’re selling?”
That includes:
- Cannabis history and culture
- The science behind different formats and effects
- Customer-service skills rooted in empathy and active listening
- Product-category and brand education
ZolTrain’s bet? That the future of budtender training needed to be evergreen, mobile-first, and story-driven. Think short videos, swipeable interfaces, and content designed to meet budtenders where they are — on the floor and on their phones.
The “Instagram-Style” Training Breakthrough
One of the most effective innovations ZolTrain brought to cannabis education was reframing how content gets delivered.
“We just really found that compliance was kind of handled… but training — your first two weeks, your first three months — was underserved,” Danny said. “So we went all in.”
Instead of slide decks and PDFs, ZolTrain built training modules that felt more like social media: short, visual, fast-loading, and engaging. The idea wasn’t just to check a box — it was to create retention, application, and confidence.
For brands, it also meant something revolutionary: scalable, consistent storytelling. No longer reliant on in-person rep visits to train a few budtenders at a time, brand education could now live directly in the pocket of every new hire.
Why This Still Matters (And Isn’t Solved)
Even today, most cannabis retailers still don’t treat training as a competitive differentiator — or an experience design tool. For many, compliance training is table stakes, but real brand and service education is still seen as a “nice to have.”
And when budgets tighten? Training is the first to go.
“The marketing budget wasn’t cut,” Danny pointed out. “But the training budget was — unless it was mandated.”
This is a huge miss. In any retail environment, your frontline employees are your most powerful brand ambassadors. In cannabis, where customers often arrive confused, intimidated, or curious, that dynamic is even more critical.
Why Better Training = Better Business
Ultimately, budtender education isn’t just a people issue — it’s a performance one.
Great training leads to:
- Higher average order values
- Better customer satisfaction and retention
- Fewer product returns or mismatches
- Stronger brand relationships and pull-through
And let’s be honest: no fancy POS or SMS campaign can compensate for a confused or underprepared budtender. When the person behind the counter isn’t sure what to recommend — or can’t translate a brand’s story into real value for a customer — the entire experience suffers.
What Comes Next
Danny and his team eventually rolled ZolTrain into Happy Cabbage, where he now focuses on tying training, marketing, and inventory into one connected platform. But the need hasn’t gone away.
“It’s still a big pain point in the industry,” Danny said. “It’s not fully solved… It’s something that has to be worked at.”
The lesson? Retailers who want to win the long game — with loyal customers, standout experiences, and sustainable growth — need to stop treating training as an afterthought.
🎧 Want to hear the full conversation?
Listen to High Touch with Danny Gold — now streaming on all podcast platforms.
