If you have a controversial issue or topic that your organization focuses on, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out how to market and share your mission – especially if you're getting shut down and censored by platforms for sensitive or politicized material.
Jayde Powell and Gbemi Maiyegun, co-founders of Weed for Black Women, GET IT.
In fact, they've experienced it.
Our discussion with Jayde and Gbemi dives into the heart of this evolution, as they recount their mission to reshape the stigmas and narratives around cannabis through education, especially within Black and indigenous communities.
Get ready to hear the secrets behind how they maintain the delicate balance of staying true to their brand's values while skirting the ever-shifting landscape of social media guidelines.
They also emphasize the incredible power of community and contributor-driven content, revealing how they've built a resonant brand through the voices and experiences of their audience.
Take notes as they share so much wisdom in this episode about managing sensitive topics with integrity and authenticity, ensuring their message not only reaches, but also empowers their community.
Resources & Links
Learn more about Weed for Black Women on their website, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Don’t forget to check out their merchandise.
Connect with Jayde on her website and LinkedIn. Connect with Gbemi on Instagram and TikTok.
SPILL is a social media platform for Black, queer, and other culture-driving communities.
Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.
Don’t miss DonorPerfect’s Community Conference SPARK on June 4 & 5! It’s for any fundraiser wanting to excel in donor management, program innovation, community engagement, and organizational growth. Register for FREE! RSVP: https://bit.ly/DSSPARK
Want a donor acquisition plan tailored to you? All you need to do is answer 5 simple questions. Get your personalized growth plan: https://bit.ly/DonorGrowthQuiz
The NIO Summit is the nonprofit industry’s premier digital fundraising event! Join hundreds of fellow nonprofit professionals in Indianapolis September 18-19 and save $600 on your ticket -- the lowest price available anywhere right here: https://bit.ly/NIOSummit2024
Let's Connect!
If you have a controversial issue or topic that your organization focuses on, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out how to market and share your mission – especially if you're getting shut down and censored by platforms for sensitive or politicized material.
Jayde Powell and Gbemi Maiyegun, co-founders of Weed for Black Women, GET IT.
In fact, they've experienced it.
Our discussion with Jayde and Gbemi dives into the heart of this evolution, as they recount their mission to reshape the stigmas and narratives around cannabis through education, especially within Black and indigenous communities.
Get ready to hear the secrets behind how they maintain the delicate balance of staying true to their brand's values while skirting the ever-shifting landscape of social media guidelines.
They also emphasize the incredible power of community and contributor-driven content, revealing how they've built a resonant brand through the voices and experiences of their audience.
Take notes as they share so much wisdom in this episode about managing sensitive topics with integrity and authenticity, ensuring their message not only reaches, but also empowers their community.
Resources & Links
Learn more about Weed for Black Women on their website, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Don’t forget to check out their merchandise.
Connect with Jayde on her website and LinkedIn. Connect with Gbemi on Instagram and TikTok.
SPILL is a social media platform for Black, queer, and other culture-driving communities.
Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.
Don’t miss DonorPerfect’s Community Conference SPARK on June 4 & 5! It’s for any fundraiser wanting to excel in donor management, program innovation, community engagement, and organizational growth. Register for FREE! RSVP: https://bit.ly/DSSPARK
Want a donor acquisition plan tailored to you? All you need to do is answer 5 simple questions. Get your personalized growth plan: https://bit.ly/DonorGrowthQuiz
The NIO Summit is the nonprofit industry’s premier digital fundraising event! Join hundreds of fellow nonprofit professionals in Indianapolis September 18-19 and save $600 on your ticket -- the lowest price available anywhere right here: https://bit.ly/NIOSummit2024
Let's Connect!
Our community came together and it's kind of come to the point where we don't even have to be in the comments anymore. They're in the comments, just engaging, you know, relating to each other, finding each other. We've had people be like oh what city are you in? I live in this city and connecting, and I think it's just beautiful because us really being able to understand our brand voice and speaking to our target audience in a way that makes sense to them has been really impactful for our brand, and speaking to our target audience in a way that makes sense to them has been really impactful for our brand and us presenting ourselves as extremely authentic, which I think you know in my experience in the cannabis industry, a lot of cannabis brands never really got it right.
Speaker 2:Hey, there, you're listening to the Missions to Movements podcast and I'm your host, dana Snyder, digital strategist for nonprofits and founder and CEO of Positive Equation. This show highlights the digital strategies of organizations making a positive impact in the world. Ready to learn the latest trends, actionable tips and the real stories from behind the feed. Let's transform your mission into a movement.
Speaker 3:Hey, hey, happy Wednesday. If you are listening to this episode live, if not just happy any day of the week, it's a good day, it's a great day. I am very excited for the conversation today with two extraordinary women that are founders, co-founders of the company Weed for Black Women, and that is Jade Powell and Bemi Megan. Did I say it?
Speaker 1:right, yes, yes, that was great.
Speaker 3:Thank you. This is going to be a really interesting conversation and I love to dive right in and not pass any time. But if you are listening and you have a controversial issue and or topic that your organization focuses on, that you think it is sometimes difficult to figure out how to market, how to have a brand voice around it, what imagery to use If you're getting shut down by the platforms for sensitive material. It's an election year If your ads are getting stopped. These two women get it. They've experienced it, and so I wanted to have this conversation because it's not actually talked a lot about of how to really market sensitive or politicized issues and do it really well. So before we dive into the good stuff, can you both please provide a little bit of background and introduction for the listeners? And, jade, I'll go ahead and kick it off with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my name is Jade Powell. I'm one of the founders of Weed for Black Women, and Weed for Black Women is a community and media hub that's designed to educate Black women on the power of the cannabis plant. Bemi and I met working in the cannabis industry a couple of years ago. We were both on the same marketing team and while working in the industry, we kind of got a lot of education on cannabis and how it can really change people's lives, especially because we were working in medical cannabis and I think in that process of just talking to consumers, building brands and working together to like build marketing strategies, we just learned so much and later, when we both decided to leave, we decided to come together and build our own community because we weren't seeing representation of Black women in the industry while we were there. So that was a community that we wanted to really focus on and decided to go the educational route through all of our content and Weed for Black Women has been growing since. Awesome, amazing, demi. Yeah, hi everyone, my name is Demi Myagan.
Speaker 1:I'm a brand marketer, a creator and one of the co-founders of Weed for Black Women, and Jay did a great job of explaining how Weed for Black Women came to be. It's definitely our baby, something that we're definitely passionate and excited about and, as she said, we learned so much knowledge working in the cannabis industry. It's such a dynamic industry and, as marketers that came from different industries, we got an opportunity to learn how to be extremely creative with our marketing because, as Dana mentioned there, how to be extremely creative with our marketing because, as Dana mentioned, there's a lot of censorship. You have to tilt around a lot of topics. So it was really great getting that opportunity and we've taken a lot of that knowledge, put it into we For Black Women and grown that brand and hope to continue to do so so that we can basically spread the word about cannabis and really normalize the plant.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love this. Okay, so can you talk a little bit? Something that you've posted recently about is the overall like health benefits and the studies that I didn't know about at HBCUs. What are the original, I guess, stigmas that the media company is really trying to re-educate people on?
Speaker 1:I think it's really that cannabis is bad, which I think now we know not to necessarily be the case. I think, like earlier on, when the war on drugs was happening, there was a lot of ironically, because we're talking about marketing. There was a lot of marketing campaigns put out to basically stare people away from using cannabis for a lot of reasons. But I think there was a little bit of hysteria around what cannabis is and what it was at the time and, like you know, people were literally referring to it as the devil's lettuce, which has changed so much since then. But I think around that time people were just really afraid that it was this drug that can like end someone's life. But since then, I think, well, I wouldn't. But since then, I think what I wouldn't even say, since then, I think, historically, when you look at a lot of indigenous or black communities, they were using the cannabis plant for medicinal work. But I think you know, over time, language and, honestly, racism has played a huge role into how the plant has been talked about.
Speaker 1:But now I think we're in an industry. Of course, it's like when the world decides they want to capitalize on it, it's like, yay, we invest in cannabis now. But I think now we're in a space where we're seeing that the attitudes are changing. Even now I think you know they're saying in the United States of over 70% of United States citizens are, I wouldn't say, cannabis advocates, but are pro cannabis legalizationization, because people are realizing there are a lot of medical and health benefits for it that people can use for anxiety, ptsd, issues relating to sleep, exactly, issues relating to your menstrual cycle, especially for women. There's a lot of people who have endometriosis that use it to help with their pain or even cancer. So it's like so beneficial and I'm glad that there is research now that people have access to, and I'm glad that universities are actually putting more focus into investing in the research so that people can be more educated on it, because that's how you fight the stigma by educating people on the cannabis plan.
Speaker 3:Yes, a hundred percent. I would say it's interesting Like my parents have. My mom was a teacher and forever has been like all drugs bad. And then my dad got prostate cancer and was like I'm getting a medical marijuana license because I can't sleep and so that was even an interesting education moment for my parents to be able to have that conversation together.
Speaker 3:And it's also very different. I've lived in New York City, los Angeles, florida and now Atlanta. There's very, very different attitudes very good and perspectives on it as well, dependent upon where you are in the United States. So thank you for that background on it as well, depending upon where you are in the United States. So thank you for that background. From the standpoint of talk about the original creation of the brand and the media company, and what did you deal with when you were first even setting up your accounts?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I can definitely take that on. I think you know, with the original creation we were both extremely confident and excited. Being in the cannabis industry can feel like a bubble and you know, one thing that we need to remember is this is a schedule one drug which is kind of the harshest schedule up there with heroin and crack cocaine. But when you are in the cannabis industry which is absolutely ridiculous Wear cigarettes and that Exactly, and you know, being in the cannabis industry and kind of working with other marketers and cannabis professionals and really getting into that science, you don't really face a lot of the negative stigmas. I mean, we are exposed to it but you kind of are in a bubble. So, with our excitement, we were like we're going to create this, we're going to attract the right people, and we were of the mindset that we were going to put it out there confidently. And while we did get a really good reception, we got a lot of excitement, especially for many women and people that typically did not embrace their love for cannabis or were ashamed or more shamed into feeling a certain way or, you know, due to their careers or certain paths they were on or their circles that they surrounded themselves with. They did not feel seen or heard and they were made to feel like they were addicted to a drug, and so our goal was to really normalize it through relatable content, through familiar faces and just communicating to our community as though they're human beings. And we did have some negative reception. We did get quite a bit of feedback highlighting how we are know we are highlighting Black women in a terrible light and why we promote such a harmful drug. We received a lot of really negative feedback, but, to be honest, we took that feedback and it reminded us the reason that we were doing what we were doing, Because a lot of that negative feedback was rooted in miseducation and people just having the wrong information about cannabis, not really understanding how beneficial the plant is.
Speaker 1:Because, as we said, you know, we worked with a lot of medical patients. You know all the way from, you know, intractable epilepsy to cancer, to depression and anxiety. And when the pandemic hit and a lot of people were very fearful that they were not going to be able to have access to their medicine, that's when it really hit that this is something that many people are using to improve the quality of their lives. You know, yes, a lot of people use it recreationally because it's a lot of fun, you can relax, you can sleep, you can connect, you can bond. But there are a lot of people that really consider this true plant medicine, and so that's kind of what kept us grounded and kept us going and reminded us like this education is working. And every time we put a piece of content out there and we hear the feedback, we see the reception, it only just kind of justifies why we're doing what we're doing, because we're educating so many people in a way that they never had access to before. So-.
Speaker 3:I think this is a very common question that comes up Negative comments, negative public comments. How did you decide you wanted to address those?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we decided to address them head on which is my favorite content, yeah, so we actually ended up a lot of the hate comments that we were receiving were mainly on Twitter and we decided to take screenshots of all the tweets. And then we literally were like okay, what are the common themes? Like literally like a content strategy, Like what are the common themes? To do a thread where we addressed each one, or like the one that was kind of most relevant to all the comments that we were receiving and we crafted a response to each one, Like I think one was basically like why isn't there a weed for white men? Or something like that in that vein. So we were like let's talk about the fact that the cannabis industry is a multimillion dollar industry and a lot of the top cannabis executives are white men. It's already a white male dominated industry, so that's why our community exists.
Speaker 1:Or people were saying like cannabis is harmful, why would you promote this? Again, educational opportunity to let people know these are actually some of the benefits of cannabis and this is why it's helpful. And even just not to cut you off, Jay, but even just being like why would you promote smoking? And it's like there's so many ways to consume Smoking is not the only way and it's interesting that so many people do not realize that you can literally rub cannabis on your skin.
Speaker 3:Yes, Well, and I'm sure the context there is, they're thinking about a cigarette, exactly.
Speaker 1:In that use.
Speaker 3:And so I love this because, again, you as a listener can decide how you want to have a PR strategy, a calm strategy for hurtful, hateful comments.
Speaker 3:Charity Water I don't know if you saw just launched a campaign because they received some hate comments too which they put together this amazing video combating where somebody was reading out the tweets, kind of very similar. I forget if it was like Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel, who does the hate tweets for the celebrities, but somebody messaged Charity Water about like don't you have enough money already to solve the water crisis? And they're like just wanted to let you know we've helped this many people and there's this many people that are without water, and it's millions and millions and millions, and we're trying to have clean water around the world. So, yes, although that we have raised a lot of money, and they're like, and thank you very much for that, we still are not. And it was just like this again on brand approach to responding to people. So I just wanted to ask about that, because lots of people, I'm sure, are always wondering like Ooh, do I address like this comment that somebody said, or not?
Speaker 1:Ironically, I think like since we addressed that, it's been pretty quiet. Like for the most part, I feel like all we get is positive reception, which is great.
Speaker 3:And maybe because people are like, oh, they're just going to call me out.
Speaker 1:And I also think our mission is very clear and it comes through in the content. So it's like when you, I think when your content is very aligned with what your brand values are and what your mission is like, it comes through.
Speaker 3:So it's hard for people to kind of like reject against something that is so like obvious yes, and I know you're talking about that. Obvious yes, and I know you're talking about that. I know your content over the years was also, at some points, accounts or content literally taken down. How did you get around that? How did you fight that?
Speaker 1:Thoughts and prayers, Because a lot of these social media platforms do not have very clear guidelines. I think that it's in such a gray area and at times it would just be a random post and our page would be down. I think the longest one time it was down for like a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, maybe months, a couple of months. It was so traumatic I blocked it out of my memory. But Instagram specifically was really really targeting cannabis pages and it was a really big issue for a lot of other communities out there. We would have meetings with other pages and figure it out. We have to submit request after request after request, but there was no one to talk to. We sent a million emails and then randomly one day we wake up and we'd be like it's back. So it's just extremely unpredictable and I think for us we just kind of developed we're just going to throw it on the wall and stick attitude, because at first we were tiptoeing around certain things that were impacting the message that we were sending out to our community and then, when we you know we're careful but still strategic, and then we're just like we'll see what happens, they have kind of lightened up a little bit. I think we're seeing a lot more cannabis ads on Instagram. We're seeing a lot more posts that we had never seen before on Instagram. So I'm not sure if there was a change in the regulations there or something behind the scenes, but Instagram definitely has gotten quite a bit better.
Speaker 1:Tiktok is definitely still a pretty big challenge. With TikTok. We haven't taken down our page, but they will delete posts, remove posts, flag posts If you show anything that they consider kind of promoting drugs, showing any flowers, showing any product, saying particular words. The only platform that we have not had any issues with is Twitter. Twitter has been pretty. We can do and say whatever we want. So it's been a challenge, but I really think it makes you a stronger marketer because you really have to be creative.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's also such an interesting perspective of the different channels and which ones are giving you more of the struggles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, very, very, very interesting.
Speaker 3:Are those your top three? Instagram, twitter and TikTok?
Speaker 1:Yes, and then we also have an email newsletter.
Speaker 1:But ironically, I remember when we were looking for platforms to do our email marketing, originally we signed up for one platform that I was familiar through other marketing work that I've done, and I was so excited. I remember I sent our first test email and they were like, ah, ah, ah. And then I was like, oh wait, what just happened? And I went through their guidelines and I saw they were like no promotion of illicit drugs or blah, blah, blah, blah blah, and I was just like, oh, so we had to then switch to another platform. So I think it is the box. So we've also established presence on other social media platforms. It's not like this big presence in comparison to our Instagram, twitter and TikTok, but even Spill, which is an emerging platform, has been very cannabis friendly and even though our community is very tiny there, it's still nice to know that if we need to transfer to other platforms, we can. But I think ultimately, making sure that your digital marketing strategy is very nimble, so that you have that flexibility, is going to help you spread your brand message.
Speaker 3:Okay, and you just entered in a new channel. I've never heard it before. Spill, spill. What is Spill's user experience? Is it like Instagram and something had a baby, or is it something totally new?
Speaker 1:It's actually more similar to Twitter. So around the time that Twitter kind of had I call it the Elon era, so it went through its Elon era. That's when threads popped up from Instagram and then Spill also popped up, and Spill was actually started by ex-Twitter employees. So it has very similar Twitter user experience. But this platform was specifically built by Black and Brown creators because they wanted to make sure that Black, brown and queer people on the platform felt safe. A la Not so Safe Space on Twitter always.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, that's awesome. Is it just spill at? Like how you spell S, p, I, l, l? Yeah, the spill app. Yeah, yeah, okay, amazing, thank you, we will link to that in the show notes. That's awesome, okay. So those are the main platforms you spend the most time on Now. The platforms have, at least on Instagram, over 10 K 45 K on Tik TOK growth strategies. What did you see work once your channels were not taken down and then you've been able to actively post? What have you seen work the most?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So with our social content, honestly, we don't do too much planning far out, and that is something I noticed has been like the biggest difference between Weed for Black Women and other brands that I've done social in. I think you can get like really caught up in the like hyper planning mode. Let's put out the content calendar, let's get the whole year done. That like maybe two one week out, sometimes day of it allows space and opportunity to create content that's really valuable, but ultimately what we're doing is creating content that's shareable.
Speaker 1:When we first started, like, we were very focused on education, but we wanted to also make sure that in education, we were also creating content that was like relevant to our audience and actually made sense to them culturally, between cannabis culture and black culture as well, and Internet culture, and that's something that we really wanted to infuse altogether. So as we were creating content, we were thinking, ok, what are the things that like people want to know, who are either cannabis naive or even experienced in cannabis? That's going to get them to share this with other people. Because if our mission is to build community, we want other people to pull in their friends, their family, their coworkers, whoever their community is. So it's more so about focusing on creating shareable content that was interesting, relevant and provided value.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love. One of your recent posts is five ways to spot a fellow female donor.
Speaker 3:The comments are amazing somebody literally being like we are the coolest yes, people feel they're really part of a community yes, talking about like bath and body works was oddly specific, but I say like it's so good, like you just like, so hit it on point with how people could feel related to this, and so this is what innately knowing who your audience is definitely is huge in some of this content and I would definitely recommend like go look at their instagram, go look at their tiktok. On the page there's graphics, there's reels, there's carousel posts. Do you rotate those? Have you seen some that work better than others?
Speaker 1:as far as like specific content types, yeah, we definitely try to rotate it and kind of keep it fun and fresh. We like to do a combination between videos, static posts, balance the education versus kind of just the memes. We do find that our community does really love like light funny content. I feel like those are the posts that do the best. I mean, people obviously want education too. We have a lot of people that DM us, asking us certain questions, and we will address a lot of that question. We really do love the community-led content model and really just addressing things and bringing that to life through content. But sometimes our community just want to see a picture of Rihanna topless smoke joint.
Speaker 1:This is me when I'm getting ready to go out, and so those are some of the funnest things and just making sure that it's relatable, making sure that people can see themselves in our content. But I would say we definitely our videos do really well. People really love product recommendations as well. People love learning about new products, learning about new brands, learning learned before, but also love feeling like a community, like the post that you just mentioned. You know five ways to spot a female stoner.
Speaker 1:Our community came together and it's kind of come to the point where we don't even have to be in the comments anymore. They're in the comments, just engaging, you know, relating to each other, finding each other. We've had people be like, oh, what city are you? They're finding each other. We've had people be like, oh, what city are you in? I live in this city and connecting and I think it's just beautiful because us really being able to understand our brand voice and speaking to our target audience in a way that makes sense to them has been really impactful for our brand and us presenting ourselves as extremely authentic, which I think you know. In my experience in the cannabis industry, a lot of cannabis brands never really got it right. I think a lot of them did not do their due diligence to really understand the community and speak to them in their language. They were trying to you know, like hey buds they were trying to, you know, be between products. It sounds, it's rough.
Speaker 1:Maybe you should just get in the community and do some learning or hire people that actually look like the community. Yes, yeah. So I think that's what's really worked for us.
Speaker 3:And you're using the word community a lot. Is the hope of your social platforms to really just get people to stay and engage with you there, or is the hope for them? Is there a community off of the social channels, too, that is curated? That's what we're building now. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 3:Do tell, do tell.
Speaker 1:That was one of the conversations we were having going into this year, just some of the things that we wanted to accomplish in 2024. So we're actually in the midst of planning our first couple of in-person events, which we're really excited about, because our community online has been like what are the meetups, Like when are you guys? And I'm like we're working on it, it's coming.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I can just imagine your event would be fire Like no pun intended.
Speaker 1:But it's going to be great because we, as I said, we built such a great community online. We're like we need to start having in-person meetups. We are kind of nationwide so and we're both digital nomads, so we're like we need to be strategic and plan it out but, honestly, ultimately take over the entire country is our goal, so we're really excited about that. We're really excited to put a face to our brand. We're really excited we're working on a variety of different partnerships as well, so that established brands and dispensaries in the cities that already have a presence we can amplify them while building relationships as well. So we're really excited about just expanding in different ways.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love that. Okay, that's awesome. I did notice too, talking about partnerships, that you have a contributor program. Yes, can you explain how this works, because I think this is something that is untapped potential for so many organizations.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think one of the things that, like, some people don't know about Weed for Black Women is just Bemi and I.
Speaker 1:So, like we're the ones that are like in our brainstorming, all right, let's pump out this content, let's get it together, and we realized like we wanted support, but also we wanted to make sure that, as we were creating content, like all of our community felt seen and, while we're very knowledgeable like we would never claim to be cannabis experts, because there's just so much to know about cannabis from different sides, whether that's policy, whether that's, you know, product related or whether just different consumption methods and we wanted to make sure that, like, as we were creating content, there were also new opportunities to create content.
Speaker 1:Like we wanted diversity in our content. So we decided to create a contributor program where it allowed our community members to contribute content in their own way, whether that be photos through our written content on our blogs or even videos of their own, and it has been really kind of great to see it grow. It's very new, but so far we've had a couple people contribute content and it's really great to kind of see the response because, like, they get so happy that they get to, like have their name on, like the content on our page.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was gonna ask yeah, I was going to ask what's your ideal? Is there like a percentage goal of how many like you want contributor posts to be versus owned content?
Speaker 1:To be honest, we haven't really thought about it too much because I think it's just been we kind of been taking it in as we see it roll in Right. But I think honestly the hope is one day is like we have community managers for each of our platforms and then they can kind of lead that. Because I think that mix is important, because I think oftentimes when you're building a brand it's easy to get like kind of lost and like well, I wouldn't say get lost, but hyper focus on what the brand is talking about. So we want to make sure that like community piece is always still intertwined into the content.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you did note, it's just the two of you, and I think this is something that listeners can definitely relate to being a small team and this is not the only thing that you do, which is very important. Another thing where people might look and be like well, of course they can do this, but this is why I love to take people actually behind the scenes. You are growing this incredibly engaged, rich channel of information. How do you do it? What is like? Is there like a strategy? Do you have templates? Are you using Canva? Like? What's your like creation process?
Speaker 1:Yeah, first vibes and a prayer. But yes, we do have templates. I think when we first started because we were kind of building out the content as we were going along we initially were like, okay, taking a little bit more time to work on posts, because one we had a lot of eyes that we were like this is a very new brand, we have high expectations. That's something we wanted to focus on. But I think over time things did become templated. We started kicking off series that we knew could easily be replicated over time and that kind of helped streamline things a little bit. So, for example, we have our iconic creators and influencers series where, maybe like once every two to three months, we post a carousel post on Instagram where we highlight influencers and creators in the cannabis space and it's very templated using Canva, because Canva is that girl, she makes it easily Love her. We use Canva and literally just swap out the names and images, which makes it a lot faster. And then, very similarly, we have a series where we have people record voice notes where they tell their personal story, whether it's like help me with my creativity, my sex life, whatever that looks like. And again, very similar format, just slightly different in the way that who's telling the story. So it does get very templated over time, which makes it a lot easier. Definitely Okay cool.
Speaker 1:And Jade and I also have a really just great working relationship. Not only we like co-founders, creators, we're really good friends, and so, whether it's voice notes all day on WhatsApp or iMessage, you know, we meet weekly to kind of like plan out our content. We make sure we plan out the month. We both also believe very strongly in rest and not getting wrapped up in hustle culture. So we make sure that we incorporate a lot of rest and thoughtfulness into our process, because while we want to grow this brand, we never want to grow it at the expense of ourselves. So constantly thinking about ways to, you know, grow the brand still move a mission forward, but ensure that we are taking care of ourselves too is something that's a huge priority for us.
Speaker 3:So important and thank you so much for saying that. I think that can be a ripple effect throughout many different industries. It's like I have to post. I have to post something today. I remember there's times where LinkedIn's like my main platform and I'll be like oh, I need to post today. And I open it and I'm like I have nothing and I'm like why am I going to force myself?
Speaker 1:I'm just not posting today, like, and it's okay and your community can tell when you force it too. And it's funny, I think when you like, have that transparency too, like you'll reap the rewards. I remember there was like a month or two where but me and I were exhausted like we were just doing so much so we literally posted on our Instagram like we're taking a break for the holidays, and you'll see the response. Everyone was like you guys have fun.
Speaker 2:Enjoy your vacation.
Speaker 1:Are y'all millennials? Everyone's like we love you, We'll be here when you get back and I'm like I love that.
Speaker 3:That's awesome and that's how you know that you've really cultivated a community, and I think that also just shows how attentive you are to again understanding your audience and what they're there for as an experience, and not just posting for the sake of posting, because then it's not going to work.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 3:Then it's not a community. So I kind of want to end on two questions, and then I have one for you, just just for you. Are both branding experts for organizations that are in a similar boat, where they might be talking about something, either anything election based, or human trafficking, or suicide prevention, or mental health or any of these topics that can be a little bit of like a taboo. What's your recommendation for them? I'm really using social to cultivate community.
Speaker 1:I would say being honest and kind of coming with a really honest, authentic perspective is really important. Not, you know, trying to establish yourself as the expert at everything. I think never really works out. I think you know what you know but being open to feedback and other kind of opinions and also just not being scared to fail. I think with us, we tried a lot of things. It didn't work. We pivot, we move on.
Speaker 1:We understand that certain things may not be received in the right way, but kind of going back to the drawing board and kind of keeping that confidence, staying true to your mission, staying true to your vision and delivering on kind of what you set out to do. But I think that honesty and authenticity goes such a long way. Audiences, your target audience, your community, really want to listen to and work with a genuine brand, and I think that's what a lot of brands may be missing. But if you stay true to your mission, stay true to your brand voice and really try to connect with your community and keep a really consumer first mindset, that goes such a long way.
Speaker 3:So good. I mean mic drop Jade, anything to add to that?
Speaker 1:She pretty much said everything. I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, just like literally what she said. Like I think the two things that I'll pull out of that I feel like to really focus on are one put the focus on your audience. They're the ones that you're speaking to, so think about the things in culture that matter to them, what they're waking up and thinking about the questions that they want answered. I feel like that's how you build a community-based brand. And then also, again, focusing on your mission in those moments where you know laws are changing or attitudes are shifting, and focusing on, like, why you're doing the thing is going to help you ground every brand message that you put out out there and really allow you to pivot when you need to ramp up efforts where you need to, and that's going to help you kind of build your brand overall.
Speaker 3:Beautiful. Why did you start in the first place? Exactly, that's it Literally so. To wrap us up, I'm going to enter an ask and receive what is one thing that you would both like to ask for help or support on from listeners. Jade, I'll go ahead and throw this one to you.
Speaker 1:If anyone wants to give us money, that is our favorite.
Speaker 3:Girl ask the power of asking.
Speaker 1:Am I right? You know there's a lot of creative initiatives that Bemi and I really want to build out this year, and you know we are entrepreneurs. So we put a lot of our own money into our brand and we're happy to do it because we love Weed for Black Women. But we want to work with more partners. We want to have people that want to support us from a sponsorship standpoint. So money, I'm calling it into our lives.
Speaker 3:Bring it in. It flows easily and seamlessly into your life. That's the mantra.
Speaker 1:And I would say money, of course, but support partnerships, opportunities like this is such an amazing opportunity being on this platform. You know we are weed evangelists. We like kind of spreading the gospel of weed. So any opportunities to be on platforms and kind of highlight the work that we're doing, the benefits of the work that we're doing event partnerships, event sponsorships, products that we can share with our communities we're open or just even anyone that wants to share their story and be part of our community, that is something that really just means the world to us. When people are just so happy to be part of something that we think is so special and that we're thankful that other people think is special too.
Speaker 3:Amazing. And then, last but certainly not least, where can listeners connect with the brand and each of you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you can find us on our website at weedforblackwomencom, where you can also buy our apparel Also. I just want to note.
Speaker 3:Was that an expensive domain or were you able to get that?
Speaker 1:I don't think it was expensive, it wasn't. I think it was kind of average price. The crazy thing is like I thought everyone would be thinking about weed for black women, but I guess we just pick them to it.
Speaker 3:Amazing Congratulations, cause sometimes that's a difficult feat.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's our website weedforblackwomencom, and then our Instagram is WeForBlackWomen, our TikTok is WForBlackWomen and then our Twitter is WeForBW.
Speaker 3:Awesome and personals, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my personal I'm Jade. I Powell, that's Jade with a Y on all channels. Yes, and Jade, put out all of our WeForBlackWomen sites. Shop our merch. We have a lot of really cute things, from socks to hats. This is one of our crew necks and my personal. On Instagram. I am G-B-E-M-I-I-I, so it's my name with three I's, and then I'm on TikTok. I'm obsessed with TikTok. It is G-B-E-M-I-M, so that's kind of my like platform where I just be myself.
Speaker 3:Amazing. I love it. Thank you all. I think listeners go follow them. Creep on their accounts. You will learn so much just about how to, like you said, be honest and true and vulnerable to your audience. That's what people are showing up there for and that's what they want to see, and to also be educational and entertaining, definitely. Because that's what we go to social for. So thank you both so much for your time today, and I cannot wait to see what your first in-person event experience is like.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. We appreciate the time and everything.
Speaker 2:You're so welcome. Can you tell I love talking. All things digital To make this show better. I'd be so grateful for your feedback. Leave a review, take a screenshot of this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag positive equation with one E so I can reshare and connect with you.