Mike Coffin
“I grew up in southern California in a city called Laguna Beach. I was there from pre-school to high school in the 70’s and 80’s and I feel really lucky I got such a juicy childhood. We had access to the hills and the beach all the time before it was so overwhelmed by people as it is now.”
“What was your favorite way to pass time when you were ten?”
“Go to the beach, sit in the water, put on my snorkel, and look at the marine life. Mountain biking later on. I still ride all the time. A lot of outdoor kinda things.”
“What’d you do after you left Laguna Beach?”
“I went up to Portland to Reed College to study chemistry. I also discovered I really like making things with hands. I worked as a carpenter one summer and wanted to make art furniture for a living but that’s a really hard margin to meet as a business. I’ve done a lot of things. I was a carpenter for a few years, a high school teacher in Grass Valley.”
“Sounds like you’ve had many lives. What’s one of your favorite moments from one of those lives?”
“Well I made a cradle for one of my nieces and although I make no claim at immortality, having a piece of my soul in something that’s out in the world is kind of a neat thing. That’s why I really enjoy building.”
“Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?”
“Very much so.”
“Do you know your purpose?”
“No. I think it’s just a quest for knowledge and wisdom. I think the reason I kept changing professions is because once I got to a certain level of mastery with something it became repetition of the same process and I need to be challenged and learning new things. Now I’m spreading that knowledge out to my kids.”
“How many kids do you have?”
“3. They’re 18, 16, and 10.”
“What’s the story of how you had your first one?”
“My girlfriend at the time and I were on a 2 week hitchhiking trip through southern Baja and we got pregnant by the end of that trip. We had our daughter Amelia and it was the best thing ever. We got married 6 months later.”
“What’s one of your favorite things about being a dad?”
“Being a dad puts you in this place of unconditional love. Even though you didn’t actively pursue it, it is thrust upon you. You realize you’d do anything for them. And having that experience come almost from without, not from within, it floods because that’s your progeny there. It somehow connects to you like nobody else can. That mutual unconditional love is probably one of the coolest things about it.”
“Thank you. What’s one of the hardest things?”
“The hardest part is raising independently strong willed children and the side effects of that. We have taught them to be independent thinkers which is a double-edged sword.”
“Because they question you?”
“Every step of the way, which is good. I don’t want them to follow directions just because they were told something.”
“Sounds like you’re a good dad. How was it you got connected to Bloom Farms?”
“CraigsList. I’m the chief scientist there. I find all the extraction procedures and codify the whole process of how we take raw trim material and turn it into a high-quality oil extract. I’ve done a lot of R and D and studied CO2 dynamics.”
“I don’t know what that means but I like vaping your stuff so good work!”
“You just need to know that we try to get the full characteristics of the plant.”
“Gotcha. So you’ve lived many lives, when you look back on your life, what do you want your impact to have been?”
“Well, I’d like to make some advances in the cultivation of genetics, especially in relation to cannabis. I’d also like to put my soul in the hand made crafts I make and send those out. And so far it looks like the kids are gonna be alright. I’d like to think my progeny that I’ve brought out into this world are going to help make this world a better place and not just chase money. I want them to chase things they’re passionate about. Like my daughter is learning Arabic right now. So my long-term impact would be the care and effort I’ve put into growing responsible, compassionate humans.”
