I served as CMO for 3 years at the cannabis edibles company 1906. One of the main parts of my job, which was a startup founded in the legacy cannabis market of Colorado, was to build massive brand equity as a disruptor in a short amount of time. Due to serious advertising restrictions prohibiting ads on social media, OOH, TV etc, we did this through a digital first brand strategy, and leaned heavily on social media, PR, extensive industry outreach and training, and consumer/investor communications. When I started at 1906, we were a 2M a year chocolates-only brand selling in one state. In my time there, we became a 50M a year national juggernaut, hailed by Bloomberg as one of the most innovative brands in cannabis, regularly featured in Rolling Stone, Forbes, Vogue and more, and named one of the 5 national edibles brands to watch by BDSA. My work included the brand foundations including positioning, strategy, and look/feel, co-creative directing packaging and product design, building a marketing team from scratch, creative directing all creative output and retail assets/display, ideating new products, and writing 99% of the words the company published.