We were lucky to catch up with Durontez “Tez” Washington recently and have shared our conversation below.
Durontez “Tez”, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Sessions Lifestyle Co. is a brand inspired and enjoyed by friends. Our flagship product is our premium organic hemp rolling papers. Before offering the world’s first Black Owned hemp rolling papers, we were a bunch of HBCU students. In 2011 I found myself in a small town in South Carolina, motivated by a partial scholarship to attend Claflin University. Frankly, I was out of my lifelong element of Kansas City and was having a culture shock. However, as the first male high school graduate soon to be first generation college grad, my steps were already commanded to be great. Skills like networking, being courageous, and leaning into my discomfort proved successful. It cannot be left out that the amount of Black Excellence being cultivated at my alma mater was so inspiring I was determined to succeed.
In search of like minded individuals led me to befriending my buddy Tom. Me and Tom (the curly headed kid from California with the camera) adapted “Sessions” as code for our meetups with friends to enjoy cannabis. This was then a blog on Tumblr dubbed “Sessions with Tom and Tez”, which for the most part was photos of us having fun exploring and experiencing life. Over the years Sessions took the form of a brand. One of our earliest ventures was selling pin-back buttons. At the same time Sessions grew into a network of great people and was not only a moment but a movement.
Now, years down the line after I’ve decided to breathe life back into it. The connections, the camaraderie, the creativity spawned during those encapsulates what Sessions is. We cultivated a lifestyle and our mission is to extend the world an offer to enjoy with us. The decision to get into the business was motivated by our enjoyment of quality rolling papers. Leveraging the existing brand identity of Sessions made perfect sense for us. This is also the opportunity to give the cannabis industry more diversity, equity, and inclusion. Coming together with friends to start a Black-owned HBCU Alumni founded rolling paper brand is a great way to enter into the industry.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Tez. I am originally from Kansas City, Missouri now living in Hampton Roads Virginia. I am a father, entrepreneur, HBCU alum, and advocate for legal cannabis. A year before graduating from my MBA program, cannabis was legalized in my current state where I took up the hobby of growing cannabis. Looking to get a start in the cannabis industry I started Sessions.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
One story I’ll choose to share deals particularly with the story of Sessions selling rolling papers. Personally, I am a visionary who is always willing to give a good idea a chance. A year before landing on the idea for papers, I got all of my best friends onboard to pool funds together with the intent of investing into a business. After months of raising capital and talks the energy grew stagnant. Without a clear cut direction or timeline the tension got the best of us and we decided to end the investment fund. I couldn’t help but to feel responsible for the failure, though my intentions were good. After seemingly making amends some of us decided to continue but, it just wasn’t the same. Deep inside I was determined to show this could work. After weeks of brainstorming the ideas started flowing and everything else fell into place. With what little money we had left we decided to order samples and Sessions was born.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Earlier this year as my 30th birthday approached, I found myself in year seven of a career in finance. I had a family at home, a great paying job with perks, and recently obtained my MBA but, I was not fulfilled. It was becoming more apparent that I was not happy. So much so that my performance at work wasn’t a priority, rather just making it through the day. After months of depression and declining talks with managers I was compelled to take control. I was reading a book titled “The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks and the book focuses on what the author calls our “upper limit problems”. Well, after reading this book I looked around and saw that everything I had built was all within the imaginary societal boundaries, and that is why I wasn’t happy. I needed fulfillment, not just a job. I wanted a warm energetic home, not just a house and family. I wanted to live and my life be my work but, I had to agree with myself what that looks like. So I wrote my letter of resignation effective immediately, went backpacking in Africa for my birthday, and started my career full time as an entrepreneur after I returned. While it is not easy, stress induced physical ailments like my anxiety and stomach ulcers vanished. My quality of life increased 10 fold and things at home began to harmonize on a level I hadn’t seen in a while. I always woke up early but the stress of work stole my energy swiftly. I now start my days walking a few miles looking at all of the stressed people in cars rushing as I think about how to create the most happiness for myself. Currently happiness looks like enjoying my family, working towards launching brands, working as a business consultant, advocating for legal cannabis, and hosting a podcast amongst many things. The person who said you cannot have everything simply because you want it is totally wrong, take it from me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sessionslifestyle.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tezlato/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tezlato/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/durontez-washington-mba-60bb9a52/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/durontez
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcX_OudVUi60uxdftRy0ahA
Image Credits
Photographs by Sean Taylor of Sabal Palm Creative Agency