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

Jage Media, Inc.

Event Operations Manager

Atlantic City & St. Louis 2024 I'm serving as Asst. Event Operations Manager which involves registration assistance, exhibitor services onboarding, sponsorship management / success, investor outreach and event promotion, panel prep and on site management.

Asst Event Operations Manager

Launched the first and only event in the cannabis industry that serves the specific needs of retail and brand executives on a national level, opening the floor for quality business while creating a loyal community. It's where your business can put itself on the map. We launched the inaugural event in October 2021 in Las Vegas: www.mjunpacked.

Investor Program Manager @ MJ Unpacked
Initially managed all aspects of the Money Stage with the launch in 2021.  Recruited companies to present, coached companies to prep their materials for pre-event exposure, pitch decks, presenting and post event materials and introductions.  At the events I managed the stage and hosted the Money Stage room.
Assisted with the Detroit event Oct 10-12, 2023 Venture Summit portion.

Investor Relations Specialist

Plum Ventures LLC

As an accomplished professional with 20+ years of managing non-profits and consulting for various investment entities I excel at managing teams and executing strategic plans in high pressure environments. Highly engaged leader and coach who enjoys collaborating with disparate stakeholders to build consensus. Reputation for consistently delivering results against ambitious goals.

President

Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation (CFCR)

Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation is an independent non-profit developed to ensure federal regulations are informed and grounded in science, best business practices, sound public policy, and social justice. Our mission is to educate the administration, federal agencies and regulators, corporations and the cannabis industry about the positive aspects of cannabis, industry issues, regulatory schemes developed in other countries, and social and restorative justice in federal programs and regulation.

CFCR was designed to provide tools, business guidance and scientific resources to support the FDA’s process to regulate cannabis compounds; to attract and educate established industry and encourage its support and investment in the regulatory process and to ensure regulations are informed by and grounded in the policies behind legalization such as access to cannabis without undue burden and restorative justice. These objectives will be achieved by a series of programs CFCR will facilitate, designed to inform and support FDA safety requirements, developing an agreed path for cannabis, building off accurate science, extensive research studies and best practices from other countries and educating and attracting hesitant stakeholders and encouraging them to invest in regulation.

Executive Director

Community Relations Manager

The Arcview Group

Founded in March of 2010, The Arcview Group is facilitating the emergence of the legal cannabis industry by connecting forward-thinking investors, visionary entrepreneurs, and cannabis consumers in an effort to meet the expanding and changing needs of responsible cultivators, dispensaries, and customers nationwide.  The Arcview Investor Network includes more than 600 accredited investors who have put more than $260M+ behind 215+ companies.   Arcview Market Research publishes the State of Legal Marijuana Markets report, which is the most oft-cited market data report for this industry.  

Arcview provides a platform for investors to gain critical insights into the fastest growing industry in North America.  Legal marijuana sales are projected to reach $50 billion annually by 2026, from an estimated $6 billion today.  Marijuana is legal in some form in 30 states.  Recreational use is legal in eight states, including the entire West Coast, Canada and Mexico.  Public opinion in favor of legalization has reached record levels.   

I represented The Arcview Group to investors and entrepreneurs offering the best private equity investment opportunities in the cannabis industry throughout the world.  I served as a Director for Arcview Ventures, leveraging my experience in consulting and entrepreneurship to identify top investment prospects, negotiate preferential deal terms, and educate investors to empower smart portfolio-building.  I managed ~$5M AUM in ancillary cannabis investments.  I also managed investor engagement and assisted our members in connecting with the right resources to help them with their investment thesis.  Founder of the Arcview Women’s Investor Network (A-WIN), I strived to promote women as Funders, Founders, C-Suite and Board members.

Investor Engagement & Director, Arcview Ventures

Keiretsu Forum

Keiretsu Forum is the world's largest private equity angel investing network with over 2,200 accredited investor members in 46 Chapters on 3 continents, with over 1,200 of the members being in North America.  Since its inception in 2000 in Northern California, K4 members in North America have invested almost $600 million into early stage companies (over $40 million being invested annually now in North America.......$71 million invested in 2015 in 130 deals and $45.3 million invested in 2014 in 79 companies).  Members invest in technology, consumer products, healthcare/life sciences, real estate and other segments with high growth potential. Forum members collaborate in the due diligence, but make individual investment decisions, with rounds in the range of $250k-$2m. Keiretsu Forum's community is strengthened through education on angel investing, as well as charitable giving. Miami joined the 14 year old organization as the 31st Chapter July 1, 2014.

Miami Chapter President

Fusion Pointe

Fusion Pointe advances Southwest Florida’s innovation economy by connecting entrepreneurs with experienced mentors, who will help them build their high-tech startups into investor-ready ventures and connect them with the right funders at the appropriate time.  Fusion Pointe will create additional opportunities in the local economic development community by becoming a buzzing hub of venture development, where entrepreneurs will get the knowledge, connections and potential sources of capital they need to succeed, all under one organization.

Our Venture Mentoring Program was developed in partnership with JumpStart Inc., a best-in-class, nationally recognized nonprofit based in Cleveland, Ohio who has developed and led programs that have fueled millions of dollars of investment and created thousands of jobs in communities across the U.S.

This proven model enables local startups to access expertise from industry leaders all across the country. These experts help entrepreneurs grow their ventures faster and attract capital investment more successfully than they could do alone.

Mentor Program Coordinator

Enterprise Development Corporation of South Florida

Enterprise Development Corporation of South Florida is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides advisory and support services to help position entrepreneurs, investors, and partners for success and grow South Florida’s start-up ecosystem. As part of its mission, the nonprofit organization actively facilitates connections between entrepreneurs and investors, organizes impactful events, attracts capital, and helps shape a regional agenda to strengthen the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since 1994, it has helped more than 300 companies per year, and its total economic impact in South Florida has exceeded $500 million.
 
The EDC hosted a series of events connecting entrepreneurs with investors from Florida and beyond.  The EDC secured a grant from the Miami DDA to host a series of events connecting Miami entrepreneurs with investors for feedback and possible investment.  For this series provided uniquely valuable, accurate information to entrepreneurs on what is exactly required to secure early stage funding. There was an afternoon element of one-on-one with 4 entrepreneurs and an investor, and then a public event in the evening with Executive Director Rob Strandberg interviewing the investor.  

I assisted with planning all elements of the events, coordinating with keynote speakers, entrepreneurs, sponsors, marketing, event site planning, social media, website, e-vites, press.

Special Events Coordinator

Gulf Coast Runners

A SW Florida running group, we had 22 races a year.  These were usually 5k races, although there is a half marathon in January as well.  I coordinated the volunteers for races that had anywhere from 200 - 2,500 runners.  Each race required 30 - 500 volunteers.  I requested, coordinated, oriented and attended the day of race for each race.

Volunteer Coordinator

Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership

A non-profit group (501(c)3 and (c)6) with an all volunteer board, started in 2008. SWFRTP holds monthly networking meetings and an annual Award Ceremony in the spring where leaders in local technology are recognized.  RTP has other key events throughout the year; National Day of Civic Hacking (Hack-a-thon), CIO Roundtable and TECHmatch (connecting students with employers regionally). 

The mission is to be the leading technology interest group in SW Florida and to encourage the development, growth and attraction of technology companies and resources in our region. The core strategies are: Catalyze, Cultivate and Connect.

I assisted with administrative functions: board management, membership, sponsors (cultivation and management/promotion), website updates (Wild Apricot), emails, social media, meeting arrangements, event planning, press releases and representation of organization at appropriate venues.

In 2016 I was elected Secretary of the group.

Administrator and Board Secretary

Tamiami Angel Fund II, LLC

VenturePitch SWFL
Our goal was to stimulate opportunities for entrepreneurs and angel investors to connect in the SWFL region.  We (Tamiami Angel Fund II and I) initiated this by syndicating VenturePitch (founded by Dennis Pape in Orlando) to the SWFL region with events in Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota.  

I assisted with planning all elements of the events, coordinating with keynote speakers, entrepreneurs, sponsors, marketing, event site planning, social media, website, e-vites, press.  

I also initiated VPSWFL Founder Talk, a bimonthly speaker series with a Founder regarding the challenges and success of running a startup.

With a career spanning technology, life sciences, consumer products, and the cannabis industry, I have cultivated an extensive network of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders. My expertise lies in identifying intersections between these sectors and strategically connecting visionaries with the resources needed to drive innovation and growth. I specialize in investor relations, event execution, and program development, ensuring impactful engagements that foster business expansion.

A strong advocate for diversity, I have dedicated my career to fostering inclusive professional ecosystems built on trust and respect. Passionate about empowering women in business, I have driven initiatives in advocacy, mentorship, and high-impact networking, strengthening connections that create long-term opportunities. My leadership in program management and strategic partnerships has allowed me to structure deals, curate deal flow, and guide capital introductions for family offices, funds, and angel investors.

In event production, I have played a critical role in defining and operationalizing seamless member and investor experiences. My meticulous approach to planning ensures every stage of an event—preparation, execution, and follow-up—is optimized for success. 

As Chair of ASTM D37.10 Finance and Insurance within Cannabis, I contribute to developing industry standards that uphold consistency, safety, and excellence in both business and event execution. Having served as President of Keiretsu Forum Miami and Director at Arcview Ventures, I have built a reputation as a trusted advisor with a deep understanding of market trends and investor needs. I thrive at the intersection of investment, entrepreneurship, and industry thought leadership—connecting people, capital, and ideas to accelerate business success.

Let’s connect to explore synergies in investment, event management, and industry growth strategies.


“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is mere tenacity.  The fears are paper tigers.  You can do anything you decide to do.  You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.” - Amelia Earhart

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