Heather Cabot introduces The New Chardonnay, an inspiring new show about reinvention.
What does it take to turn something old into something new? To flip the script? To challenge the narrative and shake up the system?
Heather goes deep with leading edge thinkers in their quest to revamp, rebrand and reclaim ideas that impact the way we work and live.
Author and former ABC New correspondent Heather Cabot features candid conversations with thought leaders about innovation, reinvention, grit and resilience. From cannabis to tech to fashion to food, Cabot goes behind the scenes with leading entrepreneurs striving to create “The New Chardonnay” and finds out what makes them tick.
In 2010, Jessica Billingsley co-founded MJ Freeway, the company that paved the way for the modern cannabis industry to be regulated from ”seed to sale.” In 2019, MJFreeway was spun into a new venture called Akerna (KERN) and as part of a new SPAC became the first cannabis compliance technology company to list on the Nasdaq. Now as Akerna's Chairman and CEO, Billingsley is one of the few women to helm a publicly traded cannabis company. According to new research by Arcview and the National Cannabis Industry Association only 8% of CEO's in cannabis are female. Â
The longtime entrepreneur who holds a degree in computer science and communications from University of Georgia sat down with Heather in late 2020 to talk about how she leveraged her tech background into cannabis at the dawn of the industry, the challenges she faced in the early days and her advice to up and coming female founders.Â