Welcome to my first installment of the Entrepreneur Spotlight series. Over the next few months I will interview the bold, intelligent and resourceful cannabis entrepreneurs of the modern day. This series is meant to tell the stories of the people behind innovative brands and to inspire through their testimonies. I also aim to inspire and empower through these stories.
I also would like to use this platform to highlight Black entrepreneurs as well as other underrepresented groups. I personally love marijuana and I love to see people getting organized and playing important roles in this business. We’ve moved past the times where this would all be considered illicit criminal activity. This is big business loaded with exciting opportunities and pathways for innovation, collaboration and leadership. I embrace the vast knowledge and unconventional thinking that continues to propel cannabis entrepreneurs into the future.
I had the wonderful pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite people in Los Angeles, the charismatic and lovely Bridgett Davis. In fact she is one of the first cannabis entrepreneurs I met upon moving to LA from New York City back in 2016. Bridgett makes a wonderful cannabis infused salve which I personally swear by for pain relief and skin irritation. Her brand, Big Momma’s Legacy, has continued to grow and make strides. I’m proud to know her and I will continue to use and recommend her products with pride and confidence in the quality and care she puts into each jar.
1. Please describe yourself and your work.
My name is Bridgett Davis, I am the Owner and Operator of Big Momma’s Legacy. We are a 5th generation Salve-maker. We infuse high-end Cannabis products for active Adult Senior Citizens and those aiming to be more active in day to day life by alternative means. We align our products with individuals who are looking for alternatives to the traditional pain medications, in place of opiates, and prefer more natural alternatives and measures of medicating to maintain their active lifestyles.
2. What qualities shape a person to be a leader in the cannabis space?
To be a leader in any space, Cannabis industry or not, requires being a good listener. It requires one to be empathic when hiring quality people; being keen enough to know who can support and help push your company’s goals and directives. To be a leader in this industry, you not only expect the team to bring the company’s mission to life, but a leader is willing to live out, in action, the values and mission of their brand. A leader is someone that is open to being driven by their intuition, not their ego. That makes a good leader, in any space.
3. Cannabis continues to become a more normalized aspect of culture in the US and elsewhere. Does anything about this shift excite you? Why?
Yes, it’s very exciting to see that people are starting to understand the benefits of the Cannabis plant. It’s an amazing plant! The more that people come to understand the benefits of this plant, its uses and the way it can be consumed (as an edible, topically on the skin, or as a tincture in the form of drops), the more mainstream culture will embrace it for its healing and beneficial properties; then it can become widely accepted. There are cliffs to this too, not everyone is here for its “medicine” (which is fine, however you decide it to be useful for you is to your personal preference). But, aside from that form of recreational use, I think the shift that’s happening is awesome! I am excited about the possibilities and all the benefits of cannabis becoming a normalized aspect of our culture.
4. How did the pandemic affect your business?
For starters, we’re still looking for licensing and funding. Under California license, we aren’t officially in business, and businesses can’t sell in the California market unless they are fully licensed. However, the pandemic affected us in positive ways! We had a lot of incoming calls from investors, contacting us to set up things for next year. It impacted our business in a way where it made us visible to more people who are actively looking for minority owners and women, particularly black women, led businesses. It was good to meet with and have these vital conversations with people who are looking to place money behind our business, help bring our brand to the market and lead us closer to our licensing with the state of California. It’s been good for us in terms of investments and networking for sure!
5. How has your professional work fostered your personal growth?
I am in a constant state of healing, so Cannabis has helped me in so many different ways. As far as my personal growth, I do a lot of meditation, yoga and journaling. Cannabis helps me to stay in that meditative space. I believe it helps me in my Solar Plexus and keeps that creative energy within me flowing. So I honor the plant, I think it’s a beautiful plant. It has helped me to evolve and expand. I’m on this road to 50 and so I am excited about what I, and this Cannabis plant can accomplish together. I have such a relationship with it, a bond, I feel like we’re sisters. She doesn’t need me, and I don’t necessarily need her, but we work exceptionally well together. We’re independent of each other but ever-evolving together as well.
6. What do you foresee in the future of the cannabis industry?
I foresee a lot more studies, a lot of funding, more information being learned regarding the plant. I know I said it before but it is a beautiful plant, and it’s unfortunate that it’s been a taboo plant and we don’t know as much about it as we should and all she has to offer. So in the future, I see more outreach, more studies, more acceptance and more learning about the possibilities and benefits of this plant for sure.
7. What about your work gives you a sense of fulfillment and/or empowerment?
The plant is phenomenal and I have such a close relationship with Cannabis. I am aligned and fulfilled working with the Cannabis plant. I feel I am doing life purpose work when I incorporate it into my products. Utilizing it is not forced, and again, the plant doesn’t need me and I don’t need her but we work really well together. I feel blessed and fortunate to work with the Cannabis plant at a level where I can be this intentional and this inspired. It’s like a collaboration of two powerful women; the plant and myself. We’re not just making anything and saying “hey, let’s make something and just drop some weed in it!” No, there’s an energy when I create with this plant. A synergy. This synergy is the partnership. I am attuned to the products I am creating for Big Momma’s Legacy’s and the potential of what it will be. When I work with the plant, I bring my gifts as well as the gifts that she offers. That’s why I say, “there’s so much more that we can do with this plant” more than I know and the studies that will come about will prove that. I’d like to think the 5th generational work I do with Big Momma’s Legacy and the Cannabis plant adds to the collective awareness of how powerful and impactful a plant she is. It probably sounds odd to say, but knowing that I am working with this plant that still has yet to be studied in depth is truly empowering because it helps the collective.
8. In what ways can cannabis empower Black women and the rest of the Black community?
For so long we’ve been punished for using it. I remember there was once a time that purchasing a nickel-bag or a dime-bags was the cause of why people went to jail. So it’s really time for our community to benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to create generational wealth. It’s a new industry and we’re learning. I believe that it’s aligned with women running businesses; women who are in-tuned with holistic living that incorporate the elements of life and the elements of the earth into their work. I see the community as a whole, black women, and the black community, hopefully being included in this rush as this plant is being brought to the market more. I am hopeful that we as black women can be included in this market more and maintain a strong presence. I am anticipating Big Momma’s Legacy definitely being a part of that presence and branding our medicine.
If you’d like to learn more about Big Momma’s Legacy you can find the brand on Instagram, Facebook, or visit the website. Please be sure to share this article and comment below. Until next time my friends. Bless up!
