Engager

Alternative Wellness Lifestyle Brand & Product Accelerator Lab
We build new plant medicine and wellness brands, products and businesses, and grow existing ones.

We are a global team of battle-tested entrepreneurs, makers and marketers accelerating growth of brands in the alternative health and wellness category.  

We spot emerging trends, identify new growth opportunities, bring new solutions to market, and modernize the way that alternative wellness businesses engage with consumers via entertainment, experiential marketing, lifestyle marketing and emerging technologies.

The team has deep expertise in taking brands from pre-seed or seed stage to series B and beyond.  Deep experience with lifestyle marketing in music, gaming, podcasting, film, TV, cannabis, beverage and technology. 

Team has collectively accomplished the following:

$1BN + in Revenues Generated
60+ Brands Built
$100 million+ Funds Raised

Engager Global is a brand innovation and venture-building studio that helps alternative wellness companies accelerate growth and innovation. We employ a team of entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers to work alongside clients in spotting emerging trends, identifying new growth opportunities, and bringing new solutions to market. Our approach optimizes the agility of startups by facilitating rapid innovation and leveraging influencers of all levels to grow brand equity as well as revenues on a global basis.

Optimized For the Following Business Categories:

- Nootropics
- Adaptogens
- Functional Mushrooms
- Kratom
- Kanna
- Psychedelics
- Cannabis
- Alternative Wellness Therapies
- Alternative Wellness Retreats
- Biohacking products and services

Founder and Chief Revenue Officer

PLANT Entrepreneurial Institute

- Building a global online education platform specializing in courses for cannabis, psychedelic, and plant medicine businesses.
- Leading a team of experienced operators to create and deliver high-quality courses taught by industry professionals with real-world experience.
- Successfully launched the flagship course, the Cannabis Brand Accelerator, as part of the Cannapreneur Pocket MBA program, catering to the growing demand in the cannabis industry.
- In collaboration with Grupo Education in Puebla, Mexico, to ensure smooth functioning and growth of the platform.

Founder

Heavy Brands

- Owning and operating the Heavy Grass brand: cannabis flower products in California.
- Contribute to the development of innovative cannabis products, including small-batch, top-shelf cannabis and extract-infused prerolls, that cater to the rebellious and counterculture-loving metal community.

Board Member/Co-Founder

Bee-Nails, LLC

Board Of Advisors

Engager Brands

Engager Brands builds, owns and operates a portfolio of authentic cannabis brands targeting underserved demographics. We create, market and license our brands starting in California and then taking them throughout the world.

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

PROHBTD Media

PRØHBTD Media was a global consumer goods and marketing company with a mission to lead cannabis from the black market to the supermarket. As PRØHBTD we built the largest catalog of broadcast quality cannabis video content, the largest cannabis multi-platform network and leading cannabis agency with 60+ brand projects. 

Our portfolio included lifestyle and wellness brands across hemp, CBD and THC including flagship icon PRØHBTD, Hempathy, Ceeby Dee’s, Hot Nife, The Patch Co., and Heavy Grass. We also counted exclusive partnerships in our arsenal including Global Licensing Expo, Advertising Week, Beanstalk Licensing Agency, and Postmedia.

www.prohbtdmedia.com

Chief Business Officer, COO and Founder

Soteria Intelligence

Soteria Intelligence is a social media threat assessment company that provides monitoring and consulting services to individuals and organizations around the world.

Advisor

Engager Digital

Engager Digital helps content providers grow and retain their audiences.  They also provide business development, sales strategy and digital marketing services.  A primary focus is on growing the overall businesses of media companies.  Engager also serves as a new business incubator.  

Client services include:

* Online video, influencer marketing and shopper engagement programs.
* Digital media strategy/business development 
* Online/mobile/social solutions for brands, agencies, and digital businesses.
* Application and site development strategy


Clients & Partners (Past and Present): Audible, St Martins Press, Simon & Schuster, Oyster, Mediakix, Prodege, Cakeworks, Juntobox Films, Creative Money Works, Scratch Music Group, Songbird, Lodgenet, I VOTE, Platinum Edge, Screenpush, Stauffer.

Creative Money Works

Creative Money Works' mission is to help meet the needs of low income children, work to create a better financial future for them and conduct research to improve financial literacy content for children.

Board of Advisors

Dather

Dather is a social media platform for event sponsors and organizers. Dather is now part of broader offering called Event Hub which offers white labeled end-to-end digital services and technology solutions for events.  The suite of solutions raise awareness pre event, engages audiences during the event, and provides a post event activation platform along with analytics.  

Dather also represents other cutting edge digital media services and technologies including a turnkey paid media solution that provides access to a highly engaged and targeted audience of 7.5M+ users on web and mobile.

Clients include: Samsung/AT&T Glee Live Tour, Jagermeister Music Tour, Remy Cointreau, John Lennon Educational Tour, Juntobox Films, Rihanna

Kieve is the co-founder of Dather and serves as the lead on all business development, sales, operations, product development and fundraising efforts.  He is also a Founder in the Founder Institute.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Do you want to unlock untapped revenue for your alernative wellness business or brand?
Are you generating over $1 million annually?
Do you want to 5-10x that over the next 3-5 years?
 
I run Engager, a growth accelerator program for alternative wellness businesses.  We partner with companies to scale their businesses exponentially and cost effectively.

Engager is optimized to help the following business categories: 

Nootropics
Adaptogens
Functional Mushrooms
Kratom
Kanna
Psychedelics
Cannabis
Alternative Wellness Therapies
Alternative Wellness Retreats
Biohacking products and services

After a collective 70+ years of building brands and businesses, our team at Engager is ready to leverage everything we've learned about scaling a company, its sales, and its funding.

We have collectively generated over $1 billion in revenues across cannabis, beverages, music, media, tech, and fashion.   We have built over 60 brands.

We can grow your current brand or partner with you to build you a new one.

Interested in learning more?

DM me or set up a Discovery Call via the link in my headline.

Kieve Huffman

VERDANT Strategies

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Elevate Beyond, LLC.

Serve as a trusted advisor to assist organizations in expertly navigating complex challenges and new business opportunities.
▪️ Help cannabis companies develop the right business strategy, organizational structure, and staffing model to achieve higher employee engagement, operational efficiencies, increased productivity, and reduced risk. 

▪️ Simplify the complex by breaking work down into manageable tasks. Coach and advise in a calm, steady, and productive manner that builds clarity, confidence, and alignment across the team.

▪️ Employ a strategic and hands-on approach that accelerates performance through accountability, collaboration and knowledge share. Focuses on reducing employee turnover, mitigating operational risk, and establishing a clear roadmap for the future.

Founder and Principal Consultant

Element Apothec

Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)

Tamalpais Holding Company (THC)

Blue Shield of California

- Director, Business Platform Services, 2017 - 2021
- Senior Manager, Integration Management Office (IMO), 2015 - 2017
Led core capability transformation and maturity, team development, and talent management for enterprise delivery teams that leverage industry knowledge, expertise, and technical skill to bring together business, information technology, and external constituents to develop innovative solutions to complex business issues. 

▪️Corporate Culture and Team Development – Led the successful turnaround of an enterprise delivery team by restructuring roles and responsibilities, evolving the skillset, and facilitating reputational team re-branding to be “brilliant at the basics”. Aligned the team to a new enterprise operating model based on a portfolio and product structure and trained and upskilled the team to become early adopters of Agile delivery.

▪️Business Growth and Optimization – Led an enterprise-wide team of ~400 resources through a multi-year corporate initiative to integrate the $1.2B Care1st Health Plan acquisition to further Blue Shield of California’s corporate mission. Developed and executed a three-year integration plan to migrate all Care1st employees, processes, and technologies to the Blue Shield enterprise platform, including introducing and maturing mission critical/core capabilities that enabled growth, scalability, and operational sustainability of Medicaid and Medicare business. 

 ▪️Employee Engagement and Talent Management – Led the successful integration of two new teams within the enterprise delivery model. Established business readiness as a core competency by developing an integrated approach to change management, communications, and training for the adoption and sustainability of business processes and technical platform changes. Created a vendor governance team which evaluated operational and contractual vendor performance and provided an overall picture of health for the vendor platform and its operational efficiency.

Director, Business Platform Services

Anthem, Inc.

- Technical Program Director, Portfolio and Program Management         2012 – 2015
Led transformational initiatives utilizing artificial intelligence to improve member access to care.

- Operations Integration Director, Care Management (Medicaid and Medicare)         2010 – 2012
Integrated the CareMore Health Plan acquisition and leveraged predictive modeling to scale the senior care model across several Anthem regions to expand disease management support and preventative care for the most vulnerable and "at risk" seniors. 

- Account Management Executive Advisor, Consumer Business         2008 – 2010
Bridged the gap between business and IT and drove alignment and delivery of strategic goals.

- Portfolio Director, Consumer Business         2006 – 2008
Development and adoption of portfolio governance, tools, templates, and performance metrics.

▪️Innovation and Enterprise Transformation – Led a leadership team that assisted the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in identify and implementing programs that supported care management and cost of health care (COHC) savings goals. Implemented an integrated care management model focused on a coordinated care continuum across physicians, specialists, nurses, case managers and skilled nursing facilities for “at risk” patients, resulting in reduced ER admissions and hospital stays, improved preventative care and enhanced integrated patient care coordination.

▪️Project and Program Management – Managed multi-year and enterprise-wide programs, integrations, and system conversions to solve complex technology and data issues to improve processes and compliance that drove better healthcare outcomes and an enhanced member experience. Led the Anthem Care Management Solution (ACMS) Program that integrated utilization management, case management and disease management to improve quality of care and help members navigate the complex healthcare system.

Director, Portfolio and Program Management

Wellpoint  Inc

▪️Financial Planning and Analysis – Responsibilities included annual planning, quarterly re-forecasting, 3-year and 5-year financial models, cost center allocation management, variance and trend analysis and development of corporate finance department standards and quality assurance processes. Increased accountability through expanded scope of work starting with a single business unit budget of $10M annually to managing the entire Information Technology organization’s $185M annual administrative budget, working directly with the CIO and the IT senior leadership team.

Senior Financial Analyst

I am an authentic and trusted leader and management consultant known for cultivating top talent and building high performing teams. I joined the cannabis industry as an advocate for plant medicine and proponent of federal legalization. My specialty honed over 25 years of experience includes leading high-stakes, high visibility programs and integrations, aligning people, process, and technology, fostering a collaborative work environment and leading teams through rapid change. I enjoy working in fast-paced environments and adapt swiftly to evolving market and organizational dynamics. One of my greatest strengths is my ability to pivot and reprioritize while maintaining the focus and engagement of teams and key stakeholders.

In 2021 after 6 years with Blue Shield of California, I made a career pivot to the cannabis industry. I’m passionate about this emerging industry and evolving market as a catalyst for policy reform and to help address healthcare inequities through expanded therapeutics and medical research. What particularly inspires me about cannabis is the vast number of users who find genuine relief and an improved quality of life from pain, disease and mental health issues. I’m also drawn to the unique opportunity that cannabis provides to address economic and social inequities in the communities hit hardest by the war on drugs. I'm excited to be part of the industry’s evolution to help eliminate the stigma of cannabis and change the narrative through advocacy, education and legalization. 

I’m drawn to conscious and ethical cannabis companies that have a true desire to drive positive, sustainable change to create a more diverse and inclusive environment. I’m inspired by mission driven organizations that share my passion for improving the lives of the customers and communities they serve. What I offer to the cannabis industry is deep health care industry experience, execution and delivery expertise, and an understanding of complex regulatory and legal issues to ensure compliance and alignment with an organization's vision and strategy.

MY SPECIALTIES: Leading through change and ambiguity, building strategic relationships, developing next level talent, simplifying the complex, and bringing calm and clarity to chaos. 

OUTSIDE OF WORK: I love creating beautifully curated spaces and interior designs that reflect one’s personality and style. As a life-long learner I am drawn to activities and experiences that push me beyond my comfort zone, especially traveling and learning about different cultures.

taplio

The Battle

Kieve Huffman

Charlene Estrada

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?