Creative Constraints: Marketing Cannabis in a Regulated Industry I had the pleasure of speaking with Laura Hand, the founder of Laura Lu Experience Design. Laura is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer who works with cannabis brands across the United States and globally, helping them navigate the complexities of marketing in a highly regulated industry.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Laura Hand, the founder of Laura Loo Experience Design. Laura is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer who works with cannabis brands across the United States and globally, helping them navigate the complexities of marketing in a highly regulated industry.
Laura shared her journey from working in a large healthcare membership organization in Iowa to diving into the cannabis industry. Her transition was fueled by personal tragedies, including the loss of her brother to opioid addiction and her father's battle with brain cancer. These experiences ignited her passion for cannabis as a wellness product and motivated her to help other families avoid similar heartaches.
We discussed the unique challenges of marketing in the cannabis space, such as social media restrictions and banking issues. Laura emphasized the importance of thought leadership and creating memorable experiences to build brand presence. She also highlighted the significance of owning your media and being strategic with lead generation.
Laura's advice to women in the cannabis industry is empowering: "You are good. You are enough. You belong. Give yourself the green light to just go." She encourages women to overcome imposter syndrome and be their authentic selves.
Throughout our conversation, Laura's resilience and dedication shone through. She described herself as a "lighthouse," steadfast and strong despite the waves of personal loss. Her story is a testament to turning tragedy into a force for good, and her work continues to inspire and support others in the cannabis industry.
Biography:
Laura Hand is the CEO and Founder of Laura Loo Experience Design (LLXD). She is an award-winning marketing executive rooted in technology and customer experience design. With 20+ years of leading a digital advertising agency to corporate healthcare marketing teams, Laura offers executive-level fractional marketing expertise for companies that want to remain lean but recognize they need marketing leadership to take them where they want to go. She works with wellness brands that want to reach their desired audiences, be seen as the authority in their space and practice the “Less but Better” marketing mindset of doing what is most impactful to move their business forward. She is a Board Member and Marketing Chair for the Cannabis Travel Association International (CTAI), a mentor for women-owned businesses and has served at the national level of the American Advertising Federation on the Council of Governors and still serves as an AAF creative competition judge. Learn more at www.customerdelightprocess.com
You can find Laura:
Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lauralooexperiencedesign/
Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lhand/
Announcer:
Welcome to the Bodacious Women in Cannabis podcast, the show where the bold and brilliant women cannabis business leaders share their journey and their expertise. Here's your host, Susan Burns.
Susan Burns: Welcome to Bodacious Women in Cannabis. Yay. I'm your host, Susan Burns. and a cannabis attorney and founder of Botanicals for Boomers. I love showcasing women in the cannabis industry, especially bodacious women. And we have one uniquely bodacious woman with us today. Her name is Laura Hand of Laura Lu Experience Design. Welcome, Laura.
Susan Burns: So am I. So tell us about Laura Lou Experience Design.
Laura Hand: Absolutely. Well, I'm located in Iowa and that's uniquely part of my story in regards to cannabis. But Laura Lou Experience Design is an agency where I am a fractional chief marketing officer for brands all across the United States and globally. And so what I do is just try to help provide that overall structure and the next steps. I think as specifically women in this space, we have been kind of shown or taught that if we want to do something, kind of do it ourselves and learn it and try to do it very well. And so we're trying to learn everything through YouTube and, you know, try to figure out from accounting to marketing and all of that. And it just sometimes slows us down as business owners. And so I really being, I appreciate being able to work with specifically women, that know where they want to go, but just need to be guided towards that next step as to what to do for their brand presence, their marketing channels, who they serve, and then being able to follow up and provide a great experience.
Susan Burns: So do you work with women-owned cannabis businesses in all stages of growth? I mean, obviously in growth mode if they wanted somebody for marketing.
Laura Hand: Yeah. Yes, I do. And I have, um, they're all in different stages, you know, from the startup where they're just trying to build and figure out their brand. And I often say that your vibe attracts your tribe. So it's just a lot of that self-discovery of figuring out, you know, what they can provide, what they're best at providing, and then who and where are these people to those are trying to evolve their current messaging and reach a broader audience. And so I find that a lot with those in the wellness space, creating experiences. So I do a lot of customer journey mapping. which is just figuring out the mental stages, the needs, challenges, and desires of people from, you know, before they purchase, during that purchase process, and most importantly, the after. And so it's working with those groups. And it could be all stages of business because your customers are customers. And so, you know, there'd be the before the purchase, purchase, and after the purchase. It's kind of the same for overall in your different types of businesses and where you're at as a business. It's just understanding how you as a business apply yourself during each of those stages.
Susan Burns: Interesting. So how do you, as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, how do you market your services? And I'm specifically thinking about all the restrictions on discussing cannabis in the media because, you know, you get shut your account, your social media accounts shut down and all those kinds of things. And banking people, even in service businesses that are non-touching, have problems with banking. So how do you navigate those two things? One, how do you get the word out?
Laura Hand: Yeah, I call them creative constraints. I know, you know, in traditional marketing and advertising, they have it pretty easy. I mean, there's kind of the spray and pray approach of trying to target everyone. And in this space, we just have to be more intentional and people may see it as harder. I think it's just, you have to have more intent and a plan. And so a lot of times what I encourage people to do is think about thought leadership, which is education and putting yourself as a thought leader out in the space. When you were trying to educate, often if you have a product, it's really hard to talk about a product when you can't show it what it does. in the ingredients, right? So what you can talk about is the experience and the stories. And so that's why it's so important to embrace the experience economy. In the experience economy, people are beyond products and services. They want to feel something. They are seeking those. They're trying to provide something that fits into their lifestyle. And so by creating events, you know, tourism destinations, like if you have a cultivation site, are you inviting people from the community in to create kind of a whole farm experience? Are you providing private events for your infused meals? You know, those are all stories that people love to take pictures of and talk about it. And so those social platforms are great because then those folks are going out and help tell your story on your behalf without that coming back on you. So that's a lot of times what I provide is the structure and the details as to how to create those stories or the moments that are stories so that people can help tell those stories on your behalf through social media.
Susan Burns: Nice. What about banking? Have you had any issues with banking being a service provider for the cannabis industry?
Laura Hand: I think we all have. To my knowledge, there's not a perfect solution to that. We're just all kind of waiting. But in regards to the marketing aspect, it's trying to have some type of level of separation from the original brand. So when you have lead generation forms like white papers or informational downloads, that's a great way of getting leads in. Because ultimately, what you're trying to do is own your own media. and not have to rely on other people that could shut it down, like a Shopify or social media. And so if you have a really great website, which you own, that's yours. If you're able to capture email addresses, that's your email list to be able to send out. And if you are able to market to those folks in a safe way to get them to a landing page that is void of kind of any words around cannabis that would flag you, then a lot of times you have a lot more, a better chance of getting those transactions without being the fear of shutting down. But it is always still there.
Susan Burns: Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. Good. I like your creative approach. And while that's one of the things I love about this industry is I find that people of necessity are so much more creative than in many other areas. Oh, absolutely.
Laura Hand: How they grow their business. Yeah. And that's one something I appreciate about the cannabis travel and tourism aspect of things. You know, when you think of a cannabis wedding, instead of having alcohol, being able to transition to having a cannabis bar, there when you have a bud tender that comes in and is able to create a great experience with education and kind of walk people through that experience to their comfort level. That's just super creative to be able to do something a little bit different in this space.
Susan Burns: And legally creative, too, I would say, just coming at it from my perspective. One of my perspectives. So, Laura, you obviously have some experience in marketing. How did you gain experience in marketing? And then what brought you specifically into the cannabis industry? Because there are probably easier industries to work in. This one is exciting. I'll grant you that.
Laura Hand: It's never boring. Yeah, being a creative, you know, I'm a sponge. And so I love learning. And I love people and how they work. So all of that really lends into the cannabis space. My background being in Iowa, I worked for a large healthcare membership organization. and that was all across North America. And so my roots started out at a digital agency where I was a UX strategist, web designer, and creative director. So I worked a lot with financial institutions and healthcare, which are both very heavily regulated and have a lot of compliance. And so that, plus we did websites for the end caregivers, you know, all of that information, of course, brought me into understanding how people work, patients and caregivers, what their needs are, and then being able to heavily kind of navigate that strong, that gray area, you know, trying to stay safe on behalf of the people that you serve. So towards the end of that 17-year journey with that corporation, we actually started a division for cannabis within Iowa. And it was back in 2017. I was really excited and rose my hand to help with all the brand and business development of that. And we got to attend MJ BizCon, and I just I, it changed everything for me. Yeah. I mean, just to see all of the professionalism, um, and where the industry was and where it was going and then marry that with my personal experience. And so around that same time, I had lost a brother to a heart attack at the age of 25. Um, he had, yeah, he had years of opioid addiction, drug addiction, and it just, it wore on his heart and it couldn't take it. So, He had passed, of course, that caused ripples in the family. And two years, not even two years after that, my father was diagnosed with brain cancer. And Laura, yeah, so from diagnosed, and by that time I knew, quite a bit more about cannabis. So I, you know, he was at some of the top hospitals in the world and I would ask the medical staff what access there was to cannabis for his pain as well as appetite. And they just couldn't recommend anything. They couldn't give us access or even any type of direction. And that was, really heartbreaking. So he passed within three months.
Susan Burns: Because by then you had knowledge that there were ways that it could be helpful.
Laura Hand: Yeah, absolutely. And this is about 10 years ago, so that seems like light years in cannabis. But after he passed, I was infuriated that we couldn't help him and he had to resort to heavy opioids to help with his pain. And so I decided to quit my long corporate career and take some time. It was a year that I just sat back and started just talking. It was during COVID. So I was able to just meet with a lot of women. I did a lot of virtual networking to ask where they were, what their needs were, And then I fine-tuned what I wanted to do in this business to be able to provide my expertise to actually help move this industry forward. So, you know, my primary goal is to help people that are providing wellness products to help so that other families don't have to go through the same end that I did.
Susan Burns: Nice. Yeah. That's a, that's a nice example of, of using tragedy. in a positive way and to benefit others. That's good for you. Not everybody can do that, Laura. So good for you.
Laura Hand: Applause. Move through it and try to be a lighthouse to be able to shine light for others.
Susan Burns: Good for you. I applaud you for that. In your business, Laura, so how long, so you moved about 2019 or 2020?
Laura Hand: Yeah, 2021 was I officially formed my company. But like 2020 was when I was doing all my kind of just customer discovery, just like I preach, I wanted to figure out who was my target audience and how can I best serve them. So it was a great opportunity to just to learn a lot of stories.
Susan Burns: Has your business continually grown since 2020? Or have you been you know, gone through like growth and then dips and challenges? And if you have, what have they been? And how did you turn those into a positive?
Laura Hand: Yeah, well, I would say the challenges are And all of the variables for the business owners I work with, business is hard. So again, when we talked about banking with funding and being able to think past the first transaction, I think are the two biggest challenges. So working with owners, especially women, they are doing their family fund raise. grassroots efforts. And so every dollar counts. And I completely empathize with that. And so it's trying to be as scrappy, but as professional and good as we can at developing an overall marketing plan. I see a lot of groups where they, they get the money to set up the business, but they're not thinking about the longterm goal of their brand strategy. Like they'll spend so much money on the packaging to make it look great, which I appreciate. But what happens beyond that? How are you going to continue to serve those customers and create feedback loops and things like that? So for my business, the biggest challenge I've run into is people just going out of business or not being fully truthful. I mean, there's definitely those that are some bad characters in the space. And so the lessons I've learned is you really have to validate through your network who is good to work with or some of the challenges that they've come across. So I usually what I do now is always ask for payment in advance of my monthly retainer work. And then I also I have worked really hard at building a very strong women network. that they can reach out to me and ask my opinion and I'll be fair, but I can also reach out to them, you know, one to two, three different people to say, have you had any interaction with this person? Is there something I should know about, you know, would you recommend that I work with them? And, and that has worked really well so far.
Susan Burns: Good. Yeah. I like that. That's nice. My, um, I remember when I first started practicing law, my grandfather was a lawyer and I I was all excited. I had been working with my father at the time and I ran into my grandfather and I said, hey Grandpa, I got a new client and he said. Did they pay you and I said no, I they just said they're a new client. He goes get the money up front, get the money up front, get the money up front and I was like, well, that's not very nice. Well, I learned the hard way. You know, like you do. And it's hard when you're starting your own business too. And then people don't pay you. And that, I mean, people think professionals have a lot of money, so they don't need to get paid right now. And, you know, we're just like everyone else.
Laura Hand: Yeah. And especially the, the value in what you provide, you know, in a lot of industries, there's tangible things that you can give. And when it comes to, you know, my brain and my experience and my background, my network, you know, how do you, How do you put a value to that? And how do you stick to it? And how do you show it to the world? So those are our internal gremlins are always on our shoulder, just whispering in our ear all the things that hold us back sometimes.
Susan Burns: Well, that and I don't know if you'd agree with this, but I find that when you're working with startups, they don't always appreciate what a good marketer or what a good lawyer would do for their business and how that actually helps their bottom line. And as you said, they get money to start the business and do all the packaging and make a nice website. But what about no line item for sales, marketing, legal, accounting? you know, where is all that? And that's what makes a difference in, in my experience, what makes a difference between a business that's going to soar and one that's going to really struggle or fail.
Laura Hand: Yep. And I think that's an opportunity for that thought leadership. So, you know, by me as a marketer, you know, putting out some different resources through social media or just like general best practices or white papers, hopefully we'll lead them up to get to a point where they then understand. But, you know, it's really hard to tell a startup, what they should be doing where they're in a place of listening. So they've got to kind of grow up a little bit before they're able to recognize that for themselves. And so I've got, you know, those types of tools for those individuals. And that's why I recommend other businesses too, is meet them where they're at, provide something and stick to your ground. And when they are ready, they'll come back and hopefully be able to, you know, realize that value and of course pay for it.
Susan Burns: Right. And sometimes people truly can't do it right now, but they, but they will appreciate your advice and come back.
Laura Hand: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The thing I've learned is there's a difference between being nice and kindness. I think a lot of times, especially in the Midwest, maybe we've got Iowa nice where we, you know, you try to be helpful. But you can easily get mistaken and kind of rolled over sometimes. So I've been trying to myself learn the practice of I can be kind without being overly nice and giving away kind of what my value is.
Susan Burns: Without cheating yourself. Yeah, exactly. Kindness isn't about selling yourself short.
Laura Hand: Yeah, yeah. I've got two teenage sons that are eating me out of house and home.
Susan Burns: I've got, you know, where did they put it all? Not the topic of the podcast, but it's a universal truth. Um, so Laura, how about so far in your business? Have there been any moments or any occurrences, anything that's happened to you where you're thinking, this is just so awesome? Peak experiences without using the plant, but experiential from your business or what you're doing.
Laura Hand: Yeah. I strive for pinch me moments where I'm able to just in that moment be present and be like, this is my life. Pinch me moment. I love that. Yeah, I think that's part of being present and understanding, you know, where you're at in this space and we all work so hard that, you know, I'm kind of past the grind culture and the hustle culture and I want to be able to do something that I find immense joy in. And I love seeing the joy through other people's eyes. And so a lot of times that's why, you know, um, I, I work with the clients that I do. Like I've got one in, um, that does wellness expos and that incorporates plant wellness medicine. And, you know, she is going to be able to provide, um, so many great moments for these kind of curious individuals. And so looking around at that type of a moment and being there and seeing how other people are being happy. through the introduction of plant medicine is definitely a pinch me moment. But I also love just being in spaces where that I just wouldn't have been in because of other than cannabis. There's just so many creative down to earth and present people in cannabis and the healers that I just feel like I'm always at home. There's another group called Blunt Brunch where it brings together women to have blunt conversations around being female, being in the space and trying to find their way. And every time I go to one of those events, it's just kind of looking around and being like, man, I belong, like I have a seat at the table and I enjoy being here. And it's just like that acknowledgement of like, I'm supposed to be here and I'm enjoying my time. Nice.
Susan Burns: Do you, Laura, have any, particular advice that you would pass on to women business owners in the cannabis space?
Laura Hand: Yes. Basically, you are good. You are enough. You belong. Give yourself the green light to just go. I think we often get caught up in our minds, the imposter syndrome of You know, there's so many great women and people out in the space on these platforms that have such a great voice. And sometimes you see them and you get a little intimidated by it. But they are all in the same exact place. And I think it's just letting your voice be heard, being your authentic self, because there's only one you. So just own it, be it and enjoy the journey.
Susan Burns: That's great advice. I love that. Is there anything you wish you would have known before you started with your own business? They're like, oh, if I would have known that, that would have saved me a ton of time or heartache or energy or whatever.
Laura Hand: The validating of the people that you work with. I knew a network was important. I've always known, you know, who you surround yourself is very important, but asking them for help without it seeming like complaining that I'm not figuring out my own. I wish I just would have came out much sooner and trusted my network because they come to me with great questions. You know, why not reciprocate and, you know, rely upon them for all of the things that they've learned.
Susan Burns: Awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. So Laura, what is your unique brand of bodaciousness? What makes you?
Laura Hand: It sounds a little morbid, but I would say I'm a lighthouse. I'm strong and steadfast. And no matter what has kind of crashed against me, the waves of family loss, And I'd even mentioned, like, my mother is paralyzed now, she suffered a great accident. And so now I'm able to apply what we've learned to be able to help her. It's just, you know, everybody has something. And I feel like whatever bad has happened, it's happened for me versus to me. And so being that lighthouse of it may be tragic, but I've learned so many things from it that I'm able to shine a light still and find happiness and joy and just love life. I think that is something that I'm very proud of and I enjoy being for others.
Susan Burns: Well, you should be proud of that. Good for you. That's awe-inspiring, I will say. Where can we find you, Laura?
Laura Hand: Well, I'm on all of the things as a marketer. So my handle is lauraluexperiencedesign. And my website is customerdelightprocess.com. And then I'll make sure that you have all my contact information and please reach out. I love good conversations about anything and everything around plant wellness. Thank you so much, Laura. Thank you. It was an absolute pleasure.