Alexa Divett & Jessica Pierron
Co-founders
Maya Media Collective
Portland, Oregon
Alexa Divett and Jessica Pierron started on their respective paths to the cannabis industry in opposite directions before coming together to start Maya Media Collective in Portland, Oregon in 2013. The company itself is a cross between the strengths of the two founders, specializing in graphic design, marketing, business coaching and web design.
“We have been in the industry for a long time and both of us have been cannabis advocates for a long time,” Divett said. “I’ve been a medical grower for almost eight years. We take that industry knowledge and combine it with years of experience in marketing and design. We are able to give our clients the experience they would get from a freelancer or a boutique design firm; it’s very customized.”
“Packaging and the laws surrounding advertising are going to be challenging, but it is all really exciting,” Pierron added. “It’s really cool to be part of an emerging industry and to be pioneers.”
Divett graduated from Southern Oregon University with a degree in journalism/public relations in 2000 and spent her first nine years after college helping non-profits and start-ups generate revenue through marketing, public relations and community outreach.
“I got really good at rejection,” Divett said with a laugh. “I can hear ‘no’ and not take it personally if a client goes with someone else.”
In 2009, Divett founded Positive Marketing Works, an online business and marketing coaching company, which helped young people avoid the dismal job market and create success through online entrepreneurship.
Divett said that a lot of the internships and “nitty-gritty” jobs she worked out of college turned out to be great learning experiences, including how to create a buzz for non-profit organizations. That experience transitioned nicely into cannabis, because it’s “not that different than creating a buzz about a dispensary or an edibles company,” she said. “It’s really about aligning the vision of the company with its prospective clients.”
Pierron became a part of the cannabis industry following a wide-ranging educational path; she studied photography at Rocky Mountain School of Photography, communications at the University of Montana and interior design at the Art Institute of Portland, before moving to Missouri in 2008 where she earned her degree in graphic communications.
“I was always trying to find my place within the arts,” Pierron said. “I gained a lot of knowledge from taking all of these different design classes, but it really wasn’t until I took a Photoshop class and a graphic design class when I felt like I had found my calling.”
During this time Pierron began having conversations within the local cannabis community and with her friends and family who had been a part of the movement for years. She quickly realized that there was a need for her creative skills and set out to help shape this emerging industry.
Pierron met Divett through mutual friends and interests. Divett was already planning to start a marketing/design firm for the cannabis industry and sought out Pierron for some freelance work. After Divett had received her first submission, she felt that Pierron was the right person to complement her new venture.
“I realized that there was an opportunity to do graphic design and branding for all of these new businesses,” Pierron added. “Alexa was doing marketing for the industry and we worked on a project for a dispensary together and it just felt natural to team up. It made sense.”
Using the same strategies of brand identity and marketing, Divett and Pierron started working in the evolving Oregon cannabis market. The duo have now worked together for nearly two years and with that experience they are finding that their new client base comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.
“I think that with any start-up you’re going to have challenges; this industry especially has been interesting,” Pierron said. “A lot of clients have been working within the medical program for a really long time. For them to have to start now looking at the recreational market and for them to sort of, ‘come out of the basement’ is challenging. I think that anyone working with a client like that, you’re sort of coaching them along the way, which a lot of times when you’re doing graphic design it’s something that isn’t really typical.”
“When they go out and they want to do something on social media or they want to place an ad from in-house, we really teach our clients that this is your font, these are your colors, this is how you use your logo, this is how you don’t use your logo,” Divett added. “We really want our clients to have a specific brand that people can recognize them by in the same way that I can see a swoosh and think Nike.”