As a former D.A.R.E. kid and photography student, Katie Motta studied commercial fashion photography before founding her own branding and design agency, Alluring Media Co., in the beauty and wellness space. In both her personal and professional life, she has a keen eye for detail and aesthetics, conveying both sophistication and luxury while remaining approachable and unpretentious.
For Katie, this outsider perspective on the cannabis industry isn’t a hindrance—it’s an advantage. In 2021, she participated in an entrepreneurship group with fellow founders across different sectors, including the cannabis space. Here, her design acumen caught the right people’s attention, and she began to realize that her unique lens and branding skillset were missing from the cannabis space and accidentally excluding a lot of people along the way. She founded Jade Stone to fill this market gap specifically for women and canna-curious consumers.
When she started Jade Stone, Katie knew a lot about design and marketing, and next to nothing about cannabis. Her dad grew up in the War on Drugs Era and was loudly anti-cannabis. “There was a ton of negativity around it in my house, and I wasn’t a rebel at all,” she says. When she tried an edible for the first time in college—a homemade cookie from her boyfriend’s brother—she experienced intense anxiety and hallucinations. “I had the worst time!” she laughs. “The whole time I was thinking, ‘My parents were right!’”
It wasn’t until she started going to industry events that someone in her entrepreneurship cohort suggested to her that she realized what she grew up hearing about cannabis wasn’t accurate at all. Her parents told her that people who partook in cannabis were all criminals who had bad intentions. Still, she instead met professionals, mothers, medical patients, and people seeking support on their own health and wellness journeys. “It was completely eye-opening for me,” she says. “The lack of judgment in the industry is so refreshing. Everyone is so welcoming and nice.”
With Jade Stone, Katie saw an opportunity to speak to a historically underserved demographic in cannabis spaces: women like her. Jade Stone’s emphasis on modern aesthetics and compelling storytelling helps brands reach canna-curious customers who might otherwise be scared off by traditional industry branding. “This outsider perspective is actually really helpful as we try to make cannabis more mainstream,” Katie says.
While her parents are still not cannabis enthusiasts, she keeps them top of mind in her work. “As I’m designing things with my team, I’m always thinking ‘If I brought this home, would my parents be interested, or would they be horrified?’” Katie says.
“I take a lot of influence from the beauty realm, especially in the CBD and topical space,” she says. “There’s a lot of overlap with how the products look on the shelf.” In addition to ensuring everything looks clean, modern, and sleek, Katie prioritizes customer education in all her cannabis work. As a canna-curious consumer herself, she knows this demographic is much more attuned to the language used, so the product needs to clearly explain what it does and why it’s important. One small change with a big impact? Taking cannabis leaves off of product branding, while still adhering to regulations and not obscuring the plant. Katie found that for many newcomers to the cannabis space, seeing the leaves would immediately cause people to shut down instead of approaching the product with curiosity and a willingness to learn.
Sleek doesn’t mean sterile either. By prioritizing a creative, artsy style over the stereotypical grungy one, Katie tries to walk the line between making cannabis more broadly appealing while maintaining its inherent cultural charm.
As Katie has brought her design and marketing prowess into the cannabis space, the industry has rewarded her with unexpected surprises—specifically, a community of supportive, encouraging women without cliques or cattiness. “It’s cliché at this point, but it’s so true,” she says. “The amount of support I get from the women in this space is something I’ve never seen anywhere else.” This camaraderie extends beyond just business; these women form authentic friendships that extend into their personal lives too.
Some of her favorite female entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses also happen to be her clients, like Latina cannabis advocate and founder of Rhi-Up Rhiannon Binder and Ericka Padilla-Toro of GG’s Garden, who recently rebranded with the help of Jade Stone.
Of course, being a woman leader in a male-dominated business comes with its challenges, especially when it comes to access to capital. With Jade Stone, Katie loves working with women-owned businesses, but these businesses sometimes struggle to secure funding compared to their male-led counterparts. “Seeing and hearing these ideas that aren’t being funded is so hard to see,” she says. “A lot of women still get overlooked for the work they’re doing. I know that’s not unique to the cannabis industry, but it often feels even more prevalent here. These smaller moments can really bolster or break someone’s confidence, so we need to dismantle it sooner.”
Despite unlearning the stigmas she grew up with and advocating for cannabis access for others, Katie considers herself a micro-dose consumer. “I grew up with a lot of anxiety, so anything I do is very low dose,” she says. To help with the anxiety and daily tension, she mostly leans on CBD products for relief. Right now, she’s especially loving the Wyld strawberry gummies with a 20:1 CBD-to-THC ratio.
Especially in the age of AI, Katie believes in the importance of people-centered communication and a human touch. “Design gets overlooked constantly; it’s usually the last thing people think about,” she says. It takes a long time, over a year, to build a brand, but Katie can clearly distinguish the brands that did it right from the beginning from those who didn’t. As cannabis becomes more mainstream, the stories we tell around the plant and its many uses become more and more important. “Cannabis will be federally legal at some point, so everything we’re doing now should be building toward that,” she says.
Do you know a powerhouse woman making waves in the cannabis industry? Whether she’s leading, innovating, advocating, or inspiring, we want to hear her story! Our Women in Cannabis spotlight celebrates the trailblazers, changemakers, and unsung heroes shaping the future of the industry. Nominate someone who deserves the recognition – submit your nomination here.
