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What’s the biggest challenge facing the cannabis industry right now, and how are you and/or your company addressing it?
One of the biggest challenges in cannabis right now is figuring out how to build a business that actually lasts. Opening the doors is hard enough, but then you have changing regulations, high operating costs, more competition coming into the market, and customers who have a lot of choices. At CannaVibes, I’ve learned that I can’t just open the doors every morning and expect people to come in. We have to listen to our customers, educate them, build strong relationships with our brand partners, stay involved in our community, and be willing to change when something isn’t working.
I think this is especially important for women coming into cannabis. There’s so much excitement around getting a license or launching a business that we don’t talk enough about what happens after you get the yes. I want to be part of that conversation because after more than 30 years in business, I know passion gets you started, but learning, adapting, building the right relationships, and having the confidence to make tough decisions are what help keep you there.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
I think some of the most exciting innovation in cannabis is going to come from how we connect with people, not just from the next new product. Cannabis has so many different micro communities: women, wellness consumers, longtime advocates, new consumers, different cultures and generations, and they all have their own stories and reasons for connecting with the plant. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for dispensaries, brands, content creators, event organizers, and community groups to collaborate and create experiences, like the CannaCreate event we hosted in June, that actually speak to those smaller communities instead of trying to market to everyone the same way.
I’ve seen how much people respond when you take the time to educate them, listen to them, and make the experience personal. I’d love to see more storytelling around the people building this industry too, especially women whose experiences and knowledge aren’t always getting the visibility they deserve. That’s where I see growth: smaller communities becoming stronger communities, sharing resources and audiences, and creating opportunities for each other along the way.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
My biggest piece of advice is: learn business, not just cannabis. I came into this industry after decades of owning and operating another business and I still had a lot to learn. But I already understood customers, employees, payroll, difficult conversations, building relationships, watching expenses, and what it means to show up every single day when everything ultimately falls on you.
That experience has helped me tremendously with CannaVibes because cannabis adds another layer of regulations, compliance, taxes, licensing, and constant change. You need passion for the plant, but passion alone won’t keep your doors open.
I especially want women entering this industry to understand that you don’t have to know everything before you start, but you should respect what you don’t know. Find mentors, ask questions, build relationships with people who have experience, and don’t let your ego stop you from taking good advice. Some of the best decisions I’ve made at CannaVibes came from being confident enough to say, “I don’t know. Teach me.”
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
The most important thing cannabis has taught me is that experience prepares you, but it doesn’t protect you from having to learn all over again. I’m the daughter of Cuban parents, I’ve spent more than 30 years building businesses in the U.S., and I came into cannabis already knowing what it meant to lead employees, serve customers, manage money, and keep a business moving when things get hard. Then I opened CannaVibes and realized I was building a business inside an industry that is still building itself.
That has required a different kind of leadership. I’ve had to be comfortable making decisions when the rules, market, and consumer behavior are still changing around me. I’ve had to lean on relationships, admit when I needed help, pivot when something wasn’t working, and still have the confidence to trust the business instincts I spent decades developing.
Cannabis reminded me that being experienced doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means knowing how to keep learning without losing confidence in what you already know. That’s something I really want other women entering this industry to understand.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I want my legacy in cannabis to be bigger than CannaVibes. This plant was part of my life before I ever thought about owning a dispensary. I found cannabis during my fight with cancer, and it helped me at a time when I desperately needed help. That experience gave me a responsibility to advocate for the plant, educate people who may still be afraid or unsure about it, and hopefully help more people get closer to feeling well.
But I also want my legacy to be about women. I’ve spent more than 30 years building businesses, leading teams, making mistakes, starting over, and figuring things out, and I don’t want all of those lessons to stop with me. I want to mentor women, speak to rooms of women who are thinking about taking that leap, and eventually create educational retreats where we can have honest conversations about business, leadership, self-care, and cannabis.
If I can help more people understand this plant and help more women believe they belong in ownership and leadership, that would mean more to me than how many businesses I opened.