Cari Carmona
Chief Marketing Officer | Kosmik Brands
Building a successful career in cannabis is something Cari Carmona dreamt about when she was growing up on a little farm in St. George, Kansas.
One of Carmona’s early positions in the cannabis space was working for Dope Magazine. After that publication was acquired by High Times, she made the jump to Merry Jane, taking on the role of vice president of client relations for the online media company launched in 2015 by Snoop Dogg.
“I had an opportunity to go work with Snoop,” she says. “How do you say no to that?”
But after a while, she found it limiting to work for a media company. She wanted the opportunity not just to build a single ad campaign, but to help build the entire vision for a brand. She found exactly what she was looking for at Kosmik Brands, an Oklahoma-based edibles company that was developing into one of the fastest growing brands in cannabis.
“It was a huge leap of faith,” she says.
Not only did the company give her the chance to work with an inspiring team, but it also indulged her inner space nerd, with its intergalactic-themed product lineup and branding. The company’s advertising and social media campaigns employ a variety of astronauts and rocket ships and take a playful approach at interacting with the company’s loyal “Kosmonauts.”
“It’s great being able to destigmatize and normalize cannabis, but at the same time, give people an escape,” she says. “That’s kind of what space is, right? It’s something bigger than yourself.”
Kosmik was founded in 2019, operating in Oklahoma’s medical market. The company became one of the first Oklahoma brands to expand into other states, with products ranging from its 10-milligram THC Blasters up to the 200-milligram Abyss, by emphasizing four core values: quality, taste, texture and potency. The company expects to have products available in seven to eight states before the end of 2023 and 10 states sometime in 2024.
But it’s really the team at Kosmik that makes it a fun place to work and one of the country’s hottest edibles brands. Carmona says she feels fortunate to be surrounded by “very smart, intelligent people who have good morals.”
“Everybody here is an artist in some way,” she adds. “Everybody comes from a different background and everybody’s good at something different. Kosmik allows people to work in areas they’re passionate about, and we’re always trying to get better and better.”