Shaking up the System: Meet Our Advocacy Influencers
Advocacy is all about initiating reform and spreading awareness about the cause you are supporting. Passion fuels advocacy action, and Lisa Jordan and Tyler Stratford have been on the forefront of various advocacy efforts for years. Lisa has been involved with advocacy for multiple causes both personally and professionally. She is a huge advocate for women’s rights and worked for a foundation in Mississippi that provides programs and advocacy efforts to improve the lives of women and children across the state. She brings her passion for advocacy to the cannabis industry and is aiding in the fight for safe access nationwide and across the globe.
Tyler has been in the cannabis industry and around the plant for a long time. He attended Lobby Days last year and is actively involved with the Minority Cannabis Business Association‘s efforts for record sealing and expungement for those disproportionately affected by prohibition. Outside of cannabis, Tyler advocates for legal reform and protection for victims of human trafficking. Both team members are passionate about helping others by giving a voice to the voiceless. Get to know these two amazing team members and see how they’re helping build the industry through advocacy efforts.
***While these two have been active for years, advocacy does not have to be completed or take a lot of time — it can simply be speaking out, or making a quick phone call to your representative — but being mindful and active in sharing facts and being heard.***
Lisa Jordan, Director of Marketing
Lisa take advantage of the outdoors and Colorado’s music scene
What is your role at Canna Advisors?
Brand strategy, brand development, and marketing strategy for Canna Advisors and our growing lines of business and also providing the same capabilities to our clients.
What inspired you to work in the cannabis industry?
I like working in industries that are developing and being part of recognizing opportunities and shaping organizations and their results.
I enjoy creating “something from nothing” and seeing work that improves the lives of people and communities. The development of the cannabis industry helps communities from an economic perspective, improves the quality of life for many people who need relief, and also addresses significant social justice issues.
What job(s) were you doing before joining Canna Advisors?
For 10 years, I worked in the wireless industry and started 4 months before the first iPhone was announced, which turned the industry on its ear. Being part of shaping the adoption/use of smartphone technology and building a brand that competed against two of the biggest spenders in advertising made for a dynamic decade. After being part of a team that brought the first TEDx to Mississippi, I realized I wanted to leave the corporate world and apply my skills and experience to make a difference for people and communities.
Tell us something you do every day, without fail:
Do something outside: run, hike, walk the dogs – something that makes the most of Denver’s “300 days of sunshine”.
Where are you from? If not from Colorado, what brought you here?
Born in Nebraska, but grew up in Mississippi, with a short stint in Boca Raton, FL in between undergrad and graduate school.
What are you watching right now?
Shameless and Handmaid’s Tale
Interesting/little-known/unique fact(s) about you?
I can’t eat the ends of bananas thanks to an eccentric kindergarten teacher who told my impressionable 5-year old mind that there were BUGS in the ends of bananas, so we shouldn’t eat them. To this DAY, I CANNOT force myself to eat either end of a banana. Want to torture me? Chase me around and try to make me eat one.
What do you do in your spare time?
Anything on a trail – hike, run, ride 4-wheelers — with or without my husband and our 4 mutts
Favorite quote(s)?
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
“It is necessary to hope, for hope, itself is happiness.” – Samuel Johnson
“We all sit under the shade of the tree that someone else planted.” – unknown
“The time is always right to do what is right.” – MLK
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – MLK
“Be quick, but never hurry.” – Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden
Favorite author(s)?
Gabriel García Márquez – Love in the Time of Cholera; Anne Patchett (lots), Anne Lamott (lots), Peter Heller – Dog Stars; Jonathan Miles – Want Not, Katherine Dunn – Geek Love, Juan Gabriel Vásquez – Sound of Things Falling
Favorite smell(s)?
Fresh popcorn
Favorite sound(s)?
Sound of a baseball hitting a catcher’s mitt, the sound of trail gravel crunching under my boots, the quiet sound of being on a ski lift.
Favorite place(s)?
Telluride, CO and Sedona, AZ (or any desert)
Favorite food(s)?
Goat cheese, good hot wings, and sourdough bread.
Favorite way to consume cannabis?
Tinctures and topicals for anything that ails.
What do you order at a bar or coffee shop?
Bourbon, neat, with a side of ice.
If you were a MLB player, what would your walkout song be?
“Whatever it Takes” by Imagine Dragons
Any other personal tidbits?
You might be surprised to know that I’ve been to more than a dozen Grateful Dead shows – and, yes, it was while Jerry was still alive – from Miami to Atlanta and Memphis and Indianapolis to Oakland and many places in between!
Tyler Stratford, Manager of Retail Operations
Tyler brings an incredibly diverse background of experience to the team
What is your role at Canna Advisors?
Human Utility Knife. But my title has been “Director of Client Operations” and is currently “Manager of Retail Operations.”
What inspired you to work in the cannabis industry?
First, seeing the way it helped my grandma, my first friend, to relieve pain before I ever experienced cannabis myself. I then realized it personally helped me with my ADHD as well as pain relief from my time in the military and the multiple surgeries I have had. I then became passionate about the industry even more-so when I realized there were still so many people unjustly incarcerated for cannabis, and an overwhelming amount of the people imprisoned are people of color. This is now the “cause” that inspires me to do my everyday work.
What job(s) were you doing before joining Canna Advisors?
I was an Infantry Squad Leader with the rank of SGT in the First Presidential marching platoon, Honor Guard Company (Echo company), of the 3rd US INF Regt. “The Old Guard”. I then worked at the 7th licensed medical cannabis operation in Colorado for 2 years, followed by managing a couple of dispensaries and helping them to transition from Medical to dual Medical/Recreational operations in Colorado. I went on to work for 2.5 years at MJ Freeway as an Implementation and Operations Consultant, managing the openings of hundreds of operations truly around the world and the first 5 operations to open in their respective States.
Favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of this job is building all of our clients’ businesses correctly from the ground up. Morally sound, sustainably built into installed equipment as well as practices. My goal for every company is for them to have equal representation of minorities and historically disadvantaged groups throughout their company, including executive and ownership roles.
What’s the best thing about working at Canna Advisors?
The community. We are all here to progress this industry correctly and to the highest standards. Yet, we are also all VERY well cared for and taken care of within Canna Advisors. We can laugh and joke, and be professional and terse in the same conversation, all within the sphere of “getting the job done”. We exude confidence to our clients (as well we should) and our clients become more and more confident in us and themselves to operate a successful cannabis business.
Tell us something you do every day, without fail:
I always read up on cannabis industry news updates, action happening across the world for this industry. I also always have playtime with my puppy and listen to music constantly. Music is a force I use to drive a lot of things in my life.
What do you do in your spare time?
I play for a local soccer team called Harpo’s FC about 3 days a week, I backpack, hike, climb, trail run, as much as possible, and usually with my puppy. When I cannot be in nature I am usually at a live music show or playing music at home. My family is pretty central in my life so I spend time doing the things we love together or just eating good food. I can sometimes be found on Xbox playing “tactical games” with my old Army buddies.
Travel memories/trips of note or travel “wish list”?
I have spent time in VERY random places around the world. From a pilgrimage to Latvia where my Grandmother is from, to deep in the Amazon jungle of Peru, to Suriname for an international soccer tournament where I played for and represented team USA, to a mile-long parade in the desert of Kuwait for the 20th anniversary of Desert Storm being over. It has been a wild ride. My favorite thing about this world is how different cultures exist and how they were formed, so I have plans and dreams to visit as many different cultures of this world as I possibly can.
Interesting/little-known/unique fact(s) about you?
I am left-handed and left-footed. I play 3 instruments and sing. I speak Spanish pretty well. I am 1/16th Cherokee and Blackfoot Native American. I have 5 younger siblings (4 are girls). I am a HUGE Prince fan (RIP). I tried cannabis for the first time on 4/20 in 2011 (the strain was Buddha’s Sister, which my parents had grown).
Favorite quote?
It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. -Nikola Tesla
Favorite author(s)?
C.S. Lewis
Favorite smell(s)?
Dank Cannabis, my dog, Nag Champa
Favorite sound(s)?
Laughter (from anyone), complete silence (only attainable in nature), the acoustic guitar.
Favorite place(s)?
I have a “hidden” favorite spot on the top of Flagstaff Mountain that is not viewable unless you climb up, and then down to it. My Bed.
Favorite food(s)?
Bacon, popcorn, avocado.
Favorite way to consume cannabis?
Vaporizing cannabis, dabs.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Flying