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COMMUNICATION ADVISING
Get to know how I can achieve similar and better for your cannabis brand with my case studies below. These projects set the foundation for my Symphony of Services. Full Transparency: much of this work was prior to my intentional mission to create + sustain 10X results.
Click on the respective link in the Table of Contents below to envision how my services can work for you.
If you click on client's logo or name, you'll be directed to their company site or individual page. Feel free to reach out to them directly for questions and to expand your network!
Peake ReLeaf (PRL) is an independent and locally owned medical cannabis dispensary in Rockville, Maryland. Founded by 3 friends and Maryland natives Company President Warren Lemley, Executive Vice Presidents Tracey Lancaster-Miller and Nate Miller with the marketing leadership of Kevin Johnson, Peake cultivates a friendly, transparent relationship with patients and influences policies that foster a Colorado-like experience in the Crab State.
TRUST CHALLENGE
PRL was a frequent business partner from 2018 - 2025. I worked directly with their Director of Marketing, Kevin, who had run into Internal Communication Issues. He was underresourced with executing the dispensary's Video Series "Inside the Industry" and adding In-Store Inventory from their Print-on-Demand Apparel brand. The hindrance was a lack of Executive buy-in due to budget and staff limits and strained relations.
COMMS SOLUTION
Advisory Suite
(this was a prototype that shaped this service)
I originally came in for Marketing Operations and Strategy Development, but took ownership of addressing the communication bottlenecks.
Aside from Kevin, I had great rapport with the Executive Vice Presidents Tracey and Nate, and I had a positive in-person experience with the Company President Warren. So I was familiar with temperaments. Emily, the Director of Operations, was a bit of a mystery, but she ultimately proved to be level-headed.
Ultimately, the communication problem was lack of clarity on initiatives. Everyone deferred to Kevin's marketing expertise, but didn't actually see nor were directly involved with his projects.
I established bi-weekly remote meetings with the entire executive team. I invited them to the Asana Calendar I setup to schedule tasks, referred to it during meetings where I took notes, and asked for their input.
That meant getting them featured in the Video Series and including their concepts for Apparel.
What was most vital was empowering Kevin to view his role not as staff, but as an Executive and to improve how he presented his needs.
RADICAL ROI
Kevin's ideas and resources thrived after my time with PRL. Originally, he was on his own without a marketing team.
Now that the EVPs and President could experience what was involved with the Operations, he received support from staff interested in developing content creation skills.
Nowadays, Kevin has a dedicated marketing team that's helped them expand from Instagram onto TikTok.
I also introduced him to my friend John Shute at PufCreativ to refine their Brand Strategy and provide additional marketing support. They're still working with this award-winning cannabis full-stack marketing agency.
Once Tracey got involved with promoting merch that aligned with Maryland's bid for Adult Use, Nate allocated a $1000 budget to have apparel printed and sold in-store.
Overall, Kevin developed more confidence in his position and increased his visibility in company content and at events.
"We approached Bast because we needed additional support with our content strategy and distribution. Her robust and sustainable marketing strategy has fueled our efforts—enhancing our community engagement and brand visibility efforts.
We’ve been extremely happy with the level of professionalism, and overall genuine care, that Bast has for her clients’ interests."
"Bast's intervention was the catalyst we needed to transform an ambitious but stalled internal creative vision into a high-functioning, scalable content engine that directly supports our community engagement efforts and our long-term market expansion plans.
"By creating a strategic framework and helping to restructure our production workflows to align with our current resource capacity, she ensured that Inside the Industry is a real, sustainable pillar of our growth strategy."
Kevin Johnson, Jr., Director of Marketing
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