Branding and Image Consultant
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started: “Implement an immediate way to report customer feedback given to employees” with L.A. Dawson and Fotis Georgiadis Given my background as a leadership coach, I’d tell any CEO to implement an immediate way to report customer feedback given to employees that is funneled up to you …
Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started: “Regardless of your specialization, make it a point to educate yourself on all facets of the industry.” with Dana Leavy-Detrick and Fotis Georgiadis Regardless of your specialization, make it a point to educate yourself on all facets of the industry. Everything is interconnected, and no …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started: “Create a culture of inclusion.” with Christine De La Rosa and Fotis Georgiadis Create a culture of inclusion.It is so important that this industry create pathways to serve communities that have historically been left out of participating in the building of a brand new legal …
Olivia Alexander of Kush Queen: “People over profits; I have always paid people too much per hour because a business is the people who work there.” People over Profits. I really believe in people over profits. I have always paid people “ too much” per hour. I have always heard to put the profits over everything …
“5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Leading A CBD Business”, with Joy Smith and Fotis Georgiadis You can’t jump over the hurdle if you don’t see it. We were very aware of the ‘gray area” that continues to exist in the CBD space. This is why we’re hopeful for FDA industry standards. …
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started: “You will have to prove your professionalism” with Jessica Billingsley You’ll get marked with a scarlet “C.” I can be called many things — a businesswoman, entrepreneur, mom, daughter, mentor. When I joined the industry, I was instantly tarred with the cannabis brush. People in my daily life …
Never count an investor as “in” until the deal is closed. When you’re fundraising, particularly in the early round(s), it’s easy to talk to 15 investors and get 10 of them who say they like the story. Then you stop looking for new ones and focus on those 10, only to find out 9/10 never …
“If your brand sells CBD oil, you should create a library of content centered around commonly searched CBD questions” with Marissa Ryan and Fotis Georgiadis For Cannabis brands, there are intense limitations on what you can and cannot advertise, both online and offline. There are huge restrictions on billboard advertising, on social media advertising, on …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started a CBD Business: “Education is key.” with Brent Agin and Fotis Geogiadis Education is key. This industry is expanding fast, but not without many uneducated people making it difficult. What I am observing is that the innovation and creativity is a bit more aggressive than …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business: “If our customers are successful, we’re successful.” with Kyle Sherman and Fotis Georgiadis There is no silver bullet and there are no shortcuts. My strategy is to develop strong relationships. A huge part of our success came from going directly to …
Jane Technologies CEO Socrates Rosenfeld: “Everyone should do the things that help them get back in touch with their true nature, so we can begin to reconnect with those around us. You first need to find peace within yourself before you can spread it to others.” Cannabis helped me to connect with myself again. I’m not …
“The best thing any CEO or founder can do to support their employees is to establish a mission and communicate a vision that engages everyone” With Tim Moxey & Fotis Georgiadis The best thing any CEO or founder can do to support their employees is to establish a mission and communicate a vision that engages …
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Leading A Cannabis Business: “Consumers are looking to discover new ideas and products and are open to new messages from new companies.” with Ed Schmults and Fotis Georgiadis In my opinion, being a large legacy company in the cannabis industry is a disadvantage. If you are …
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Leading A Cannabis Business: “The industry has turned a corner.” with Ryan Smith and Fotis Georgiadis Recruiting, Now and Then — When we started LeafLink, candidates were hesitant to get into the cannabis industry, thinking it could be a blemish on their career. We used to hide our …
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Leading A Cannabis Business: “Be very cautious when choosing a partner.” with Lex Corwin and Fotis Georgiadis Choosing business partners. Both of my former partners left the company within the first six months for various reasons. My advice to people starting a business: be very cautious …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business: “There is very little knowledge about CBD” with Shelly Schneider and Fotis Georgiadis Spreading knowledge about the products and educating customers will be a full time job. There is very little knowledge about CBD or what it does or how to …
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Leading A CBD Business: “Consumers are looking to discover new ideas and products and are open to new messages from new companies.” with Ed Schmults and Fotis Georgiadis In my opinion, being a large legacy company in the cannabis industry is a disadvantage. If you are …
Mary’s List CEO Denise Biderman: “Empower your employees to be their best selves. If one way of doing something doesn’t work for them, help them see outside the box and find what works better” Empower your employees to be their best selves. If one way of doing something doesn’t work for them, help them see outside …
“I wish someone told me that this industry can be like high school” With Angela Ardolino, founder of CBD Dog Health …That the cannabis industry would be like high school. I learned all about the industry in legal places like California, Colorado, and Canada where everyone is very open, supportive and helpful. But operating in a …
One is only as productive as one’s last inspection. In the first three years, Health Canada paid us unscheduled visits with surprise inspections about once a month. When they arrived, they required our full attention so all other activities for Compliance and the COO had to stop, and the day was shot. A failed inspection …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business: “As much as it might feel like work, lean into networking”, With Ashley Lewis and Meredith Schroeder Lean into networking. As much as it might feel like work — meeting other founders or potential advisors along your journey will be critical when you’re …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business: “Keep track of customer stories; They can inspire and energize your team” With Jason Neely, President of Stratos Keep track of customer stories. Over the past 4+ years, our team has been moved to tears by customer stories on a number of …
…you do not know what you think you know. There’s a saying that if you’ve been in this industry for a couple of years you’re a dinosaur. The reality is that cannabis goes back tens of thousands of years, and in our communities here on the West Coast, is a multi generational discipline. As part …
Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started a CBD Business, With Corey Mangold Co-Founder of Gigasavvy If I could inspire a movement that would have the most impact on people around the world, it would be to develop a standardized manufacturing and testing protocol to be adopted globally. If we all adhered …
Seed Technology CEO Matthew Cutone: Operate with authenticity and transparency, with Fotis Georgiadis I am sure this will sound cliche, but hire people who are smarter than you and do your best to empower them. It’s very inspirational to witness your team solve problems and “grab a hold of the controls”. Don’t just hire smart …
The cannabis industry is an incubator in a lot of ways, by not being able to leverage traditional platforms it forces organizations to come up with something unique to generate awareness and adoption. I had the pleasure of interviewing Cy Scott. Scott is co-founder and CEO of Headset, Inc., turning retail data into real-time cannabis …
Hire excellent people. Don’t skimp on paying for experience. It is better to pay someone more money who gets the work done in half the time. We’ve spent more time running in circles because we failed to invest in human resources. Align yourself with people smarter than you. Take advantage of their perspective. I had …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Ray Landgraf and Fotis Georgiadis Don’t take the simple things for granted, like access to banking. I knew from the get-go it would be challenging in ways it hasn’t been for me in other industries, but I had no idea …
Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started a Cannabis Business, with Billy Levine and Fotis Georgiadis For a little while I wondered whether we did ourselves a disservice by not including CBD in the name of our business. But now I can honestly answer: How do you get people into a CBD …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Lindsey Holthaus and Fotis Georgiadis Know how to adapt quickly: suppliers take longer than expected, farmers run low on flower and raise prices, payment processing is near impossible to get. It’s a new industry, regulations change, there isn’t a set …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Dr. John Oram and Fotis Georgiadis Keep focused. Decide on a strategy and stick to it. The business culture in the US is one of controlled risks. Hedged bets. But that is antithetical to true entrepreneurship. A true entrepreneur has …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Aaron Riley and Fotis Georgiadis As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Aaron Riley, the President of CannaSafe, the first ISO …
“Digital marketing is the future of cannabis. It is the standard for every other industry, but cannabis is reluctant to adopt it due to the lack of traditional advertising options.” with Cain Castor Digital marketing is the future of cannabis. It is the standard for every other industry, but cannabis is reluctant to adopt it due …
“It’s important to make connections in whatever industry you’re in, however in the CBD business, your connections mean everything.” with Mason Ghrannie and Fotis Georgiadis High Stress: The CBD industry is a fun and exciting industry to be in, however there is still a ton of stress that comes with being in this industry. The …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Elisha Millan and Fotis Georgiadis I’m looking forward to the cannabis educational opportunities that will be available at the collegiate level. Today at a college fair, my daughter was able to say to an admissions representative, “I’m interested in majoring …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Steven Trenk and Fotis Georgiadis I have chosen the cannabis legalization movement as taught to me by my friends in the ArcView Group. It is my honor to promote the mission of creating a large scale, sustainable industry for the …
“I wish someone told me that the CBD industry would continue to have a stigma associated with it.” with Vincent Vitale and Fotis Georgiadis I wish someone told me that the CBD industry would continue to have a stigma associated with it. Even though we make 100% CBD products we are constantly stigmatized and treated …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Derek Thomas and Fotis Georgiadis Being boxed out of the traditional advertising channels like Facebook, search engine marketing, major ad network channels, and even most print/radio/tv, we’ve become very creative! We started really finding success in social media influencer relationships, …
5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business, with Casey Georgeson and Fotis Georgiadis This is the wild west. Stay true to your belief system. You will be challenged by competitors (or people who think they know more than you). Know your facts and stick to your guns. The …
“Turns out that being radically transparent and honest with your consumers is the best marketing strategy you can invest in!” with Brandon Beatty and Fotis Georgiadis Turns out that being radically transparent and honest with your consumers is the best marketing strategy you can invest in! Bluebird really sets itself apart in the industry with …
“Without every employee’s full support and understanding of the cannabis market, your business will not have the wherewithal to survive” with Trish Lucy and Fotis Georgiadis Make sure everyone is drinking the Kool Aid. Without every employee’s full support and understanding of the explosion of this market, as well as the impact these products can …
“We are in the Wild West phase of this business, and it is constantly evolving.” with Jeff Gallagher and Fotis Georgiadis Even now that the Farm Bill has passed, making it legal to grow industrial hemp and sell the products made from it, some state health departments have different rules about how those products can …
“We need everyone to understand what they are buying to help dispel any confusion behind CBD and the industry.” with Chase Terwilliger and Fotis Georgiadis In a new space like CBD, current and potential customers desire content to educate themselves and require brands to be transparent with them. Recognizing this, CBDistillery is one of the …
“I wish I would have known how to talk with my mom about cannabis to get her off pharmaceutical pills. Maybe she would still be alive”, with Wendy Robbins & Karen Paull of The Marijuana Show We see the industry as a community of visionaries, rebels taking on a system of big pharma, the Federal …
“5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business” with Andy Wilson and Fotis Georgiadis This situation was a big eureka moment for me. Why were the benefits of cannabis and CBD oil not more widely known? This was the start of the journey on my current career path. What …
“5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a CBD Business”, with Maya Page and Fotis Georgiadis CBD is an amazing product, but it is not a cure-all. People get really excited when they hear it helped with someone’s ____. They expect it to do everything for them, and it’s not like …
“5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started a Cannabis Business”, with David Bulick and Fotis Georgiadis I’m concerned that not enough states are ensuring industry standards and guidelines. Some states are like the “wild west” or issuing too many permits. This burdens the states’ Departments of Agriculture and can overwhelm their attempts …
Chris Roth of Highline Wellness: “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure to interview Chris Roth, CEO + Founder of Highline Wellness. Chris spent the last 6 years at Cowen and Co, an investment bank in NYC. He spent a majority of his early …
This answer could go on forever …… I would say the take away for this question is: Bring in super talented people who are the best in their fields and can adapt to this ever changing industry and environment. Don’t just hire “Cannabis” talent or experts to find solutions. We see this as a wellness business …
“Why you need to speak to your users and quickly adapt to their needs” With James West CEO of Arfinn Med We also stress the importance of speaking to our users and quickly adapting to their needs. What our company looks like today is completely different from our original idea. We prepared as best we could, …