Higher Purpose

Behind The Scenes of Mike Z’s

Cannabis x Capitalism

Adventure

As leader of the High NY community, my highest priority is to ALWAYS BE SERVING the community by providing value to my members and partners. This has been at the core of my decision making process since day one. My commitment to that principle is a large part of how I win in business.

Now, I’ve produced twenty something monthly Cannabis education and networking events. Which, in case you're wondering, has been tons of fun and an absolute dream come true! In this post, I’m going to share a little about my creative process and specifically, you’ll discover what inspired me to organize a “Cannabis Media & Messaging Panel”

One factor that definitely inspired me along the way was Cannabis. Thank her for that! On a more serious note, the topic was inspired by recent current events and two very different media mavens --Donald Trump and Gary Vaynerchuk. No matter your opinions of these two men, the fact is both have built great fortunes by understanding media. To be clear, they had vastly different ways for achieving their wins, but let’s have that conversation over a J some other time.

Gary V is a soviet immigrant, very successful entrepreneur, winning venture capital investor, and currently CEO of a high growth media agency he created. He’s probably a Billionaire by now.

We live in an age of information abundance --content marketing, social media, always connected etc. So when Gary V said “I day trade attention” my jaw dropped. It resonated with me. We consume content all day long. We’re all constantly trading attention away in exchange for content.

Attention is one of your most valuable assets. That’s like wisdom 101. “You become what you think about.”

• How much attention are you giving away for free every day (think Instagram, YouTube, etc)?
• How do you invest your attention?
• What kind of return are you getting on your attention?
• How much attention are you giving to your highest purpose?

Donald Trump, have you heard of him? He recently leveraged media and messaging prowess to become President of the United States of America. Prior to that, he was the CEO of a very well known global brand. 

Trump’s election, the (real & fake) news coverage of it, Kelly Ann, alternative facts, etc are all deeply concerning for me. However, there is no doubt media and messaging play powerful roles in politics. Our laws and lives are influenced by the media. When is it working for you vs. when is it working you? To be more successful as Cannabis reformers we must improve our media and messaging skills.

Which brings me to the High NY Cannabis Media & Messaging Panel on 3/29. My goal in choosing this topic is to create more opportunities for activism education. The panel's conversation will examine how we can use media and messaging to effectively fight against Cannabis Prohibition.

Media & Messaging is something all of us engage in daily! If this event raises the “media & messaging consciousness” of 100+ High NYers, then the whole community will benefit significantly. When each of us starts day-trading attention a little smarter every day, over time the results compound greatly.  

If you’re media savvy enough to find out about the event or be reading this blog, you’re savvy enough to be part of serious Cannabis (and really any political) activism and reform. I hope you join us on 3/29.

Please let me know if there are any topics you’d like to see explored in a future High NY event. 

Keep in touch, bud.

Mike Z