The Common Thread Behind Everything I’ve Built

Quick Answer:

Sara Gullickson is a cannabis entrepreneur, investor and corporate dealmaker who entered the industry in 2010, became the first woman CEO of a U.S. publicly traded cannabis company, and has founded, sold, launched, built or advised more than 100 companies across 15-plus years. She is dyslexic, a single mother of two, and now widens her focus beyond cannabis — advising founders in other industries while continuing her cannabis work, and mentoring women through The Strategic Woman.

Key Takeaways:

• Entered cannabis in 2010, before cannabis consulting existed as a business category.
• First woman CEO of a U.S. publicly traded cannabis company; 100+ companies launched, built or advised.
• Credits dyslexic thinking — pattern recognition, cutting through noise — as the skill set behind the career, not an obstacle to it.
• Not leaving cannabis: continuing to build, invest and advise in the industry while extending the same skill set to founders outside it.

For most of my life, I thought I wasn’t particularly good at the things everyone else seemed to be good at. I’m dyslexic, and school was hard. I processed information differently, didn’t always learn the way I was supposed to learn and often felt misunderstood because of it. For a long time, I assumed that was a weakness.

Then I found business, and for the first time, something felt intuitive.

I could see opportunities and understand how pieces fit together. When something was complicated, I could usually cut through the noise and figure out what actually mattered. Connecting people, information and opportunities came naturally to me in a way traditional learning never had. Looking back now, I can see that instinct has been the common thread behind almost everything I’ve built.

Learning to Figure It Out

I entered cannabis in 2010, when cannabis consulting barely existed as a business category and there certainly wasn’t a blueprint for building a career in it. I later became the first woman CEO of a U.S. publicly traded cannabis company. Over the years, I’ve founded companies, sold businesses, raised capital, negotiated partnerships and helped launch, build or advise more than 100 companies.

Those are the accomplishments that fit nicely into a bio. The reality of building them was much messier.

I put designer suits on credit cards because I needed to look like I belonged in rooms I couldn’t afford to be in. I booked business trips without always knowing exactly how I was going to make enough money to get home. I worked for a boss I had to beg to pay me, and I held CEO titles long before I was making CEO money.

I got seats at tables I never imagined I’d sit at, only to occasionally realize I was expected to run the table before I felt remotely prepared to do it.

It wasn’t always graceful. I made expensive mistakes, chose the wrong business partners and negotiated deals I would handle very differently today. Some opportunities looked incredible from the outside and turned out to be anything but. There were plenty of moments when I desperately wanted to call someone who had already been there and ask, What the hell am I supposed to do here?

Often, there wasn’t anyone to call, so I learned to figure it out.

One of the smartest things I did early in my career was surround myself with people who knew things I didn’t. I asked questions, paid attention and learned quickly because I had to.

When cannabis was still new to the masses, regulations were confusing, markets were changing constantly, and entrepreneurs and investors were trying to understand an opportunity that barely had a playbook. So I started hosting webinars. I took complicated information, broke it down, explained what mattered and showed people what they could actually do with it.

That sounds very strategic now. The truth is, I was broke and needed to close deals.

I didn’t have the luxury of spending six months nurturing a prospect. I needed to communicate what I knew quickly, establish trust and turn knowledge into action, and action into business.

Time is money, honey.

What started out of necessity became one of the most valuable skills I’ve developed: cut through the noise, find what matters, make it actionable and keep moving.

As it turns out, that’s how I approach a lot of life, too.

Good Decisions, Expensive Ones and a Different Kind of Complicated

After you’ve built enough businesses, you start to realize that the industry matters less than you think. The circumstances change, but a lot of the same problems keep showing up.

You have to understand where the real opportunity exists, know your numbers, build something that can support growth and surround yourself with the right people. Sometimes moving quickly gives you an advantage. Other times, waiting gives you more leverage.

More than anything, you have to get comfortable making decisions without having every answer. I’ve made good decisions and expensive ones, and both have shaped the way I operate today.

Some of the most important lessons I’ve learned, though, didn’t come from business.

I became a single mom to two babies while navigating a level of disappointment and deceit that most of my friends couldn’t yet understand. There was no business plan or operating system for that, and no amount of professional experience made it easy. Once again, I found myself wishing I could call someone who had already been there and simply ask, Okay, what do I do now?

Becoming a single mom changed how I value my time, who gets access to me and how I think about money, relationships, boundaries, risk and what I’m willing to tolerate. It changed my definition of success, too.

There isn’t a perfectly divided “CEO Sara” and “Mom Sara.” There’s just me. The woman evaluating a business opportunity is also deciding whether that opportunity deserves time away from her kids. The woman negotiating a deal is the same woman learning where boundaries belong in her personal life.

Years of evaluating investments taught me to look at the numbers, the upside and what I could lose. Life taught me that not every investment is financial. Sometimes we’re investing our time, energy, relationships or peace, and those things have value, too.

Maybe Being Different Was the Point

I’ve thought a lot about the kid who struggled because her brain didn’t work exactly like everyone else’s. For years, dyslexia felt like something I needed to overcome. At 43, I see it very differently.

Maybe the thing that made traditional learning harder also pushed me to develop some of the skills that would eventually define my career. I don’t want every piece of information just because it’s available. I want to know what matters, see the pattern, understand how the pieces connect and figure out what we do next.

Research published in 2024 identified problem-solving, creativity, adaptability and communication among the strengths associated with dyslexic thinking and increasingly valued in the workplace. It made me think differently about all those years I assumed dyslexia was something I needed to overcome. Maybe my brain wasn’t working against me. Maybe I just hadn’t found the environment where it worked in my favor yet.

And yes, this is probably where the slightly woo-woo side of me enters the conversation.

I don’t believe everything happens exactly the way we want it to. I’ve lived enough life to know better. But I do believe we get to decide what we do with what happens to us. Some of the experiences I never would have chosen ultimately made me more discerning, intuitive and confident in my ability to trust myself.

That perspective is part of why I want to share more now.

Mentorship isn’t new for me. I’ve taught entrepreneurs, advised founders, created internship programs and spoken at conferences throughout my career. What is new is the reach.

For most of my career, social media wasn’t where I put my energy. I was building businesses, not documenting myself building them. Now I’m intentionally using my platforms to share more of what I’ve learned, especially with women.

I want to talk about business, money, leadership, negotiation, motherhood, boundaries, starting over, choosing the wrong partner, knowing when to push harder and recognizing when something simply doesn’t deserve another hour of your life.

I’ll share the wins, but I’m probably even more interested in talking about the expensive lessons.

That’s part of what I’m building through The Strategic Woman. It isn’t about telling women to work harder because most women I know are already working pretty damn hard. I’m much more interested in helping women become strategic about where that effort goes and recognizing the value of their own time, experience, relationships and energy.

I’m Not Leaving Cannabis. I’m Widening the Lens.

Cannabis is an enormous part of my story, and it will continue to be. I’m still building, investing and advising in the industry, and I still have a lot to say about where it’s going.

But after more than 15 years in cannabis and more than 100 companies launched, built or advised, I’ve realized the skill set I developed was never limited to one industry. Understanding markets, building systems, creating revenue, negotiating, recognizing opportunities and knowing when something isn’t working are business skills. They transfer.

So this next chapter includes bringing that experience to companies and founders outside of cannabis while continuing the work I’ve spent more than 15 years doing inside of it.

I don’t see that as reinventing myself. I’m widening the lens.

What I Know Now

When I look back, my career doesn’t feel nearly as linear as a professional bio makes it sound. The dyslexic kid who thought she wasn’t particularly good at anything found business and realized her brain might actually work in her favor. The broke entrepreneur put designer suits on credit cards, got on planes without always knowing exactly how she’d pay for the trip and figured out how to close the deal. The consultant got invited into rooms she wasn’t ready for and eventually learned how to run them.

I’ve built, sold, invested, lost, won and started again. Just when I thought I understood resilience, I became a single mom to two babies and discovered an entirely different version of it.

None of it happened particularly neatly, but all of it taught me something. Today, I know what I’m good at: I see things differently. I connect dots. I cut through the noise. I trust my intuition. And I figure shit out.

For a long time, I used those skills to build businesses and solve problems for the people sitting across the table from me. Now I want to share more of what I’ve learned with the people who aren’t in the room yet, including the women who may be wishing they had someone to call.

I know what that’s like. I know what it’s like to wonder whether you’re making the right decision and to look like you have it all figured out while privately wondering how you’re going to get home. I also know what it’s like to eventually realize that some of the things you once thought made you different might actually be your greatest gifts.

If there’s one belief connecting what I’ve built over the last two decades with what I’m building now, it’s this: Great businesses aren’t built by working more. They’re built by making better decisions.

I’ve found the same is usually true of life.

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Sara works with entrepreneurs, executives, investors and brands on business strategy, cannabis licensing and investment, brand collaborations and speaking, and mentorship through The Strategic Woman.

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