When marketing maven Lisa Buffo broke into the marijuana industry in 2014, she had lots of questions concerning compliance, regulations and other issues, but there was no place for a cannabis marketing professional to find an answer. So she created that place herself, nurturing a series of marijuana marketing meetings that became the Cannabis Marketing Association. Today, the organization has nine “communities” across the nation and a growing membership.
In this episode of “Seed to CEO,” Lisa shares:
- How she identified the need for a marketing association and how what she did can be used as a model for other professional groups.
- How her event-driven cannabis group adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- How to strategically scale an organization such as the CMA even as new markets are still getting off the ground.
- Why marketing really matters in cannabis.
Who is Lisa Buffo?
While Lisa’s focus these days is on marketing, she has broad experience in multiple sectors, having worked with several business incubators, including as a program associate at Canopy Boulder, where she helped launch its first class of startups. She is also founder and co-chair of the Marketing & Advertising Committee at the National Cannabis Industry Association and speaks extensively about marijuana in the media and public forums. Before cannabis, Lisa worked for Bizdom and LaunchHouse, technology business accelerators in Cleveland and helped bring more than two dozen software startups to market.
