Female Disruptors: Olivia Mannix of Cannabrand On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
By: Candice Georgiadis
Tags: Business

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I am an award winning entrepreneur, cannabis marketing expert, plant medicine advocate, and spiritual guide and coach/mentor.

I founded the first ever cannabis marketing/PR/branding agency and consultancy Cannabrand in 2013 on the onset burgeoning cannabis industry. It disrupted both the cannabis and advertising industries.

Cannabrand specializes in creating cannabis brands and defining their identities and purpose in an ever-evolving, increasingly competitive marketplace. I have dedicated my life to removing negative stereotypes and stigmas from cannabis and “rebranding” the entire industry. This has been done by creating, educating, internationally speaking, employing, inspiring others to do the same and live their purpose.

I started working as a kid, doing any odd job I could talk my way into. Helping out in the neighbor’s garden, selling handmade jewelry or art, lemonade stands, nannying, you name it!

I got more serious when I was 13 years old, I would work for trade at a retail children’s clothing shop in Connecticut where I grew up.

As a kid, I really loved working with people and being a helper. I loved to create my own abundance in all areas of life. I was always fascinated in learning everything I could and still am.

I felt compelled to help everywhere I felt there was an opportunity.

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, I earned some important internships working for Fortune 500 companies where I was able to learn first hand, the ins and outs of corporate business. I was adamant about getting tons of experience before I entered the “workforce.”

Little did I know, I was going to be creating my own companies.

I am blessed to have come from a very hard working and successful family. Many members of whom continue to inspire me to spread my entrepreneurial wings and push the business envelope in new and exciting ways. My great-great grandfather was Elmer Ambrose Sperry who invented the first electric car in Europe and uses it for the Gyroscope, including Auto-Pilot. He was known as the “Father of Modern Navigation Technology.”

From an early age, I knew that I must absolutely be able to work for myself so no one could limit my drive or desire to grow. I did not want anything to stand in my way from manifesting my own reality.

At only 23, I created my first start-up called MARCA Strategic (Marca translates to “brand” in Spanish, Italian and Portugese), which is a marketing and branding agency and a holding company.

I was drawn to cannabis because I believe that there are so many medicinal values and uses for cannabis. I am so happy to see how much progress we have made in 7 years (since the Adult Use Legalization in Denver in 2013).

I was also in the right place at the right time — It was fate, and was able to take the risk of creating the legal industry in its infancy. I remember a ‘limiting belief’ I would tell myself that I would probably never be able to get a “real job” after I took the big leap into the cannabis industry — due to the stigma other industries placed on the cannabis space. (I’m so proud that we’ve come such a long way to legitimize this industry, but there is still a lot of work to be done!) I’m proud of the part that I have been able to play in moving the industry forward and grateful for the opportunity to help so many people with my acumen of marketing and of cannabis. It is incredibly rewarding to me and drives me to want to do more.

I have recently launched Psilocybrand, which is dedicated to the research and data surrounding the use of psychedelics as a medicine. It is also working with a handful of publicly traded Psychedelic Science and Data companies for their marketing and strategy needs. There is a TON of work that needs to be done in these spaces to further our understanding of how the plants can and are used medicinally.

I feel that plant medicine is a conduit to feeling and awakening into elevated frequencies and dimensions. I am certainly not a proponent of using plant medicine as a vice, but rather as an opportunity to give people with illness and depression hope and to learn that there is so much more to this life than what meets the eye. I also want to make it clear that you can ascend not using any substances, through thoughts and feelings, breathwork, meditation and just your vibrations of emotions (energy in motion) you are radiating and attracting at all times.

My greatest expertise is not only marketing, business strategy and creation, but also the ability to help business professionals and their companies to understand how to step into their highest empowerment by aligning their passion and vibration with their greatest purpose.