An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Spend as much time understanding yourself and God-given talents as you do working. The sooner you get to connecting with your true self, the faster you can learn to surround yourself with talent that fills in the cracks of your foundation.
As part of our series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand, I had the pleasure to interview Eric Leslie.
Eric Leslie uses an entrepreneurial mindset and years of diverse media expertise to grow Cheeba Chews’ legacy as one of the most recognizable edible companies in the cannabis industry. As the jack-of-all-trades Chief Marketing Officer for the company, Eric’s expertise in client relations, product design and sales strategy helps build the integrity and innovation of the brand as it expands its reach in medical and adult-use markets across America. Before he helped to launch Cheeba Chews in 2009, he previously founded and ran an award-winning production company and operated digital marketing agencies. Whether he’s creating eye-catching new product identities or forging new partnerships with contractors and licensees, Eric takes pride in tackling many different challenges and fostering a passionate connection to his work. A devoted father, he was born in Ohio and has a family of 4.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Several years after graduating college, a longtime friend of mine in Colorado, James Howler, created an edible product by extracting the oil out of excess trim from his home grow. After experimenting with a variety of treats, he found taffy absorbed the oil most consistently and sent me a couple pieces to try. Not aware of the potency or unique effects of a cannabis infused edible at the time (aside from the home brownie with trim), I was not prepared for the head-hit-pillow effects I felt just 30 mins after consuming the taffy.
One bite and I totally got it. James had created something new and distinctive but needed help building an identity for the product. And since I knew photoshop and could be trusted, I soon found myself heading up all marketing activities for the brand, which became the legendary Cheeba Chews.
Over a decade later, I now find myself as a Co-Owner and Chief Marketing Officer for the company.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Originally, what made our product unique was the fact that you could take a single piece of taffy with 70mg of THC in it, nibble off as much or as little as you needed for your intended effects, wrap the rest up and slide it into your pocket for later. We were so far ahead of our time, that there was nothing quite like it on the market.
Potent, consistent, discreet. Those were the brand staples that not only defined our business but set the standard for an entire industry.
Then recreational cannabis — with its dosage caps, child resistant restrictions and testing regulations — came along and required every product that hit dispensary shelves to reach the same level of consistent standards we had built an identity on.
How did we adapt to stay competitive, unique and relevant? By eventually learning the art of the pivot. THC became commoditized and the race to offer the lowest prices or the most fancy packaging was on. Knowing there was more value in cannabis, we dove head first into developing a line of wellness products that relies on the plant’s lesser known cannabinoids like CBN, CBG and THCV to serve a variety of more specific consumer needs.
Leading takes courage when you have to venture along the path not yet taken. Our decade of experience navigating an industry from its very infancy has helped create a reliable identity to lean on in an ever changing industry that continues to reshape itself.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Our wellness line of minor cannabinoid derived chews is helping to revolutionize edibles in the cannabis market. THC has forever been the shining star of the plant, but with a rapidly maturing consumer base and a wide variety of reasons those consumers are seeking out cannabis, the opportunity to develop more advanced and specialized products that provide differentiated and amplified effects is proving to be where consumer interest is leading us.
In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
To me, brand marketing is about connecting your culture, core principles and philosophical identity with your intended consumer base.
Product marketing is connecting that specific offering with your customer’s most important needs or desires.
Both must meet customers where they are, clearly identify why they need you on their journey, and convince you when the time is right to purchase. But brand marketing is the long delicate journey to a lifetime commitment.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Brand identity starts within. Connecting your partners, employees, vendors and customers with a brand mission that aligns with their ideals helps build deep rooted connections and alignment in not just product experience but overall priorities and goals. A strong brand identity helps others support and amplify your messaging in a way direct marketing and advertising is consistently aspiring to.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company should be doing to build a trusted and believable brand? Please tell us a story or example for each.
Humility matters. Be honest with yourself and your place in the world and people will appreciate your genuine candor. We’ve never looked at ourselves as a corporation, and every time we find a good conversation online stating the opposite, we engage first as humans and then as brand guardians, with a reminder that we’re all here working hard to accomplish great things with the lives we are given.
Speak honestly and in unison. Brand messaging needs to be rooted in authenticity from a joint perspective. The collective vision of your brand will help you connect more broadly. At Cheeba Chews, we’ve built a brand bible full of product one sheets, brand pillars, key selling points and a variety of brand assets that all of our partners, marketers and sales teams use as a baseline for creating content with consistent messaging.
Listen intently and act accordingly. I still personally engage regularly with our customer requests and complaints to gather additional feedback and perspective, not just in how our products help, but in where additional needs may exist for us to assist.
Design clearly and communicate with intention. Catchy words and flashy graphics are easy ways out of connecting your products to the heart of your customer’s needs, but it can create doubt about your authenticity if it’s not rooted in the core identity of your brand.
Own your flaws and don’t be afraid to poke fun at yourself. There are always industry rumors and gossip. For years we were told many times over by consumers and industry folks that we were being sued by the makers of Tootsie Roll. News to us! As a way to put an end to the silly chatter, we played an April Fools’ joke declaring we had finally just gone ahead and acquired the tootsie roll company. Haven’t heard a peep of that ‘rumor’ since.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved brand. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Wendy’s has always been a brand I’ve enjoyed watching develop its voice and character online. They engage honestly and with an edge, never afraid to step to the plate when challenged, but doing so in a memorable and authentic way.
What role does social media play in your branding efforts?
Social media provides a forum for your voice to be amplified, and your core messaging more easily adapted. It can also be a festering hole of negativity and hypocrisy, so engage cautiously and with a grain of salt. A lot of people can be easily triggered by the wrong words or phrasing, so don’t avoid a deeper engagement to reach better clarification, unless you’re just being trolled.
What advice would you give to other marketers or business leaders to thrive and avoid burnout?
Spend as much time understanding yourself and God-given talents as you do working. The sooner you get to connecting with your true self, the faster you can learn to surround yourself with talent that fills in the cracks of your foundation.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
The journey we are currently on, that of legalizing and destigmatizing the cannabis plant, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that challenges us to prioritize wellness over wallets and create products that make a real difference in people’s lives.
If we do this right, we’ll open up the doors of possibility for cannabis to serve as a holistic alternative to pharmaceuticals and provide options people don’t yet know they have.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The person that falls and gets back up is much stronger than a person who’s never fallen.”
I’ve learned to lean into failure, knowing my response is what defines me, not the circumstances that surround it. By failing in a design, a business arrangement, a product launch, I’ve prepared myself to be stronger and more aware, as long as I absorb the lesson that was meant to be learned.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Eric Leslie of Cheeba Chews: Five Things You Need To Build A Trusted And Beloved Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
