How it all started.
Cannabiz Marketing Solutions wasn’t planned. There were no corporate meetings behind closed doors with billionaire backers looking to angel invest in a marketing company for cannabis. It just kind of happened…. like evolution.
After years of affiliate, client and local SEO projects, there came a point of clarity.
The original local SEO company, Rebel Base SEO helped tons of local and small businesses generate positive ROI online. The pain point was that we maintained a constant influx of random leads and each new project required tons of research for the niche. Sometimes we did our job too well, and the client ended up selling their business (This happened 3 times in 2 years).
It took a bit of deep diving, soul searching and number crunching for figure out what we were truly passionate about. When the dust settled we figured out that the best clients we ever worked with as a whole came from the cannabis industry.
It’s always a little risky turning down multiple 6 figures a year in client SEO, but the heart wants what the heart wants. When it all boils down to it, we are passionate about cannabis… and we know what it takes to get results.
We have put together a passionate team of bad ass digital marketers who also happen to be cannabis enthusiasts. See why we love what we do.
Meet the Team at Dope SEO
Max Juhasz
Founder/ SEO Expert
Max got started in digital marketing back in 2014. With almost 20 years in sales and marketing it only made sense to jump head first into the future. He made his first 5 figures from organic YouTube marketing in 2016. Max went on to helping hundreds of small businesses rank and grow online.
He has worked with a number of high level CBD and cannabis companies. After seeing the results he could create for his current clients, it only made sense to focus his energy into the cannabis industry exclusively.
In 2021 he became a coach for Search Marketing Institute, where he teaches SEO and YouTube SEO to over 150 different agency owners and freelancers. He left in early 2022 to focus on the agency.
He lives in Texas (a very unfriendly state for cannabis), he spends most of his time working & strategizing. As a free thinking independent universalist agnostic, he passionately works on helping other businesses grow while advocating for the eventual TX cannabis legalization….
Max also wrote the book “Cannabis SEO – The do’s and don’ts of cannabis digital marketing”. You can grab a copy for yourself on Amazon.
Pavel Vasilik
PPC / FB Ads / Funnels
Pavel left the Navy to start a career in digital marketing. With almost 10 years of paid ads experience, running high converting ads campaigns is nothing new to Pavel. He has personally been responsible for campaigns that have generated millions in ROI.
When he is not running ads for clients, he runs an E-commerce coaching program and sells his own stuff online.
Dr. Simi Mudaliar
Content Mastermind and Copywriting genius
Simi has been in the cannabis digital marketing space for almost 5 years. In addition, to her work with Plain Jane, her work has been published on International High Life, Seed-City, Leafipedia, and Cannabislifenetwork, and more!
Writing for cannabis sites helped her pay her way through Veterinary school. Yes, she graduated and is now a doctor.
Courtney Vanhorn
Influencer Outreach / Marketing & Promotions
Courtney Vanhorn is a Social Media Marketing Manager and content creator based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her areas of focus include, but aren’t limited to, Social Media outreach, developing creative and engaging social media strategies, managing the day-to-day handling of all social media channels, outsourcing engaging multimedia content across multiple platforms, and managing new promotional competitions and campaigns, and facilitating social media communities by responding to social media posts and develop discussions. She is extremely committed to the companies she works with and quickly becomes invested in the work shes doing for each client.
Besides working diligently on social media marketing, Courtney owns and operates her own small business; creating and selling handmade jewelry via her shop on Etsy. She uses her experience in social media marketing for growth in her personal business endeavors, as well as her work helping other companies grow.
When she isn’t creating or Instagramming, Courtney loves to socialize, spending time with her son and friends, adventuring around Baltimore and the surrounding area.
Michael Certoma
Dev Supreme, Email Marketing, Conversion Tracking & So Much More…
Providing strong leadership for the implementation of new technology trends in the areas of SEO, CRO, AI, and Automatization. Having an initial background as a server side developer, Michael works with various platforms to implement technologies. Leveraging a wide array of skill sets to provide growth through unique marketing channels.
Ann Gapasin
Full Stack SEO & Outreach.
Ann has years of experience with off page SEO link building. She plays a pivotal part in managing the outreach team and making sure our SEO clients get the best links from the best sites.
Cherry Stoner
Creative Guru. Resident Stoner
Creative Guru/Resident Stoner
Cherry brings 20+ years’ experience of brand development and creative content creation to the team. Her project roster has spanned across several industries including cannabis, direct sales, food, fine goods, and medical services. She geeks out over multi-channel campaigns coming together and has a passion for branding.
Cherry’s side hustle — Virginia Beach based artist, groovy puff & paint instructor, and creator of cherrystoner.com, an online retailer for dispensary style art and gifts. Follow her on instagram @cherrystonerofficial, she’s always lit.
Matt McDermott
SEO Strategy
Matt McDermott has been involved with internet marketing for the last 15 years including running his own company serving clients across the country in a wide range of industries. He helps these business owners with online marketing strategy, choosing solid keywords which will lead to new customers once ranking, finding ways to help clients leverage their unknown/hidden digital assets, ads, YouTube and other video marketing, and much more.
Regarding SEO, he has helped hundreds of websites and/or their associated website properties rank on the first page of Google for keywords which have confirmed legitimate monthly search volume.
In addition to serving online marketing clients he also has operated websites dedicated to the independent professional baseball industry, a set of baseball leagues which have run concurrently to Minor League Baseball since 1993. In 2021 he led the effort to produce and market the first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) baseball card team set for a professional minor league baseball team.
He is an Eagle Scout, has played and worked in professional baseball leagues for several seasons, and has years of experience in the U.S. equities and commodities trading industry including trading software.
Kaitilyn (Bixbite)
Client Relationship Manager
As a serial entrepreneur Kaitilyn has been a part of numerous startups. With over 12 years experience in Marketing she understands the key aspects needed to help launch a new company and scale as the business grows. Kaitilyn also understands the importance of communication between agencies and their clients, as she has been in your shoes before. Once you are signed on as a new client, Kaitilyn will walk you through the onboarding process and be your go to contact for any questions you may have.