- Reading books about self-improvement could make you more successful in the $85 billion cannabis industry.
- Vangst is one of the biggest cannabis-job recruitment firms. It has placed candidates in over 60,000 short-term and long-term gigs.
- Founder and CEO Karson Humiston said that the highest-performing employees in her office were all members of the company's personal development book club.
- The club shared their favorite books with Business Insider exclusively.
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If you want to get ahead in the rapidly growing world of cannabis, it pays to read books about personal development. That's the key to success at Vangst, one of the biggest job-recruitment firms in the $85 billion cannabis industry.
Founder and CEO Karson Humiston discovered that the highest-performing employees in her office were all members of the company's personal development book club.
"[People who] read books about the power of positivity, set their intentions and goals, and then follow through on them, really do outperform people who don't prioritize personal development and self-improvement," she told Business Insider.
The Forbes "30 Under 30" alumna founded Vangst in 2016 with three full-time employees; the Denver-base business has grown to 65 employees. It works with 700 clients across 14 US markets and has connected candidates with over 50,000 short-term gigs and over 10,000 full-time gigs.
Humiston said the salespeople at Vangst who go to the book club are outperforming the salespeople who don't attend. "If you want to be the top salesperson, you need to visualize yourself being that top salesperson and putting an action plan in place to get there," she said.
Reading books about self-improvement is one way Vangst encourages its workers to be the most successful version of themselves. "You become what you think about, and that's what we try to pass down to our team," Humiston said.
Vangst's employee book club shared a list of favorite staff reads exclusively with Business Insider. Read their top picks below.