Yana received her Master’s in Technology Management from Georgetown University in 2018. She received her Bachelors of Arts in 2015 from the University of Maryland where she studied Psychology with a focus in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Psychology.

Before entering the Cannabis Industry, Yana had always worked in Corporate America and became very successful at a young age. She gained experience in Intellectual Property Law, Start Ups, Private Equity, Finance, IT Management, Marketing, Branding, and PR. At 25 years old, she became Managing Director of a Legal Services Consulting Firm with offices worldwide.

But, a corporate career of building businesses for men was not her idea of success any longer. She utilized her corporate and professional skills to create her dream career with YANA Creative Agency, an agency focused on servicing the cannabis industry with creative marketing, talent collaborations, media production, and public relations. Street Lawyer Services was one of her major clients where she started at ground level and became COO within 2 years of work. She hired and trained over 15 women to operate the company and this is where their story as an empowered team of women in the cannabis industry begins.

The WXW Collective

After getting 3 locations operational, Yana unfortunately found herself supporting someone who would never see her as an equal. The owner of Street Lawyer Services, Lonny Bramzon, is the reason many women had to step away from a career in cannabis at Street Lawyer Services.

Why WXW Disassociated with Street Lawyer Services

After 2 years of work, Yana became an equity owner in the business, but one of the major owner’s, Lonny, swore to her that he would never publicly call her his business partner and that she would always be considered his employee when they spoke publicly. Some people refer Lonny as “Lonny The Street Lawyer”. Lonny also told Yana that Women X Weed would never be allowed to have its own cannabis line at the Street Lawyer shops and that it would only ever be a cannabis clothing and accessories company. This didn’t sit right with Yana and she started to speak up and tell her closest employees her issues. A few of the women she hired were also starting to experience their own issues with the owner that they expressed to Yana when she started to speak up about her issues with him.

The women of Street Lawyer Services experienced workplace abuse and sexual exploitation that they felt forced to comply with to keep their jobs. Lonny would make his employees submit content to him as well as ask them to do hard drugs at parties after work hours. His threatening texts made many of the women employees feel as if they had to do these things to keep their jobs. He would threaten Yana through voice messages almost every morning, which she luckily kept to document his behaviors of mental abuse. His anger and drug abuse problems started to become noticeable at company events, women outside of the company started to reach out to Yana about his behaviors and other employees started to speak up about the abuse. His personal financial issues started to effect paying company expenses and thats when the abuse became intolerable. She would pay his employees and company bills to make sure that everyone was taken care of and felt obligated to put company expenses in her name because of his daily threatening texts. Yana and the other courageous young women came together to take a stand. This is the story of how Women X Weed came to be.

Supporting women to enter the cannabis industry at the beginning of their professional careers has been one of the most rewarding parts of Yana’s career. Yana truly believes she could have never done it without this team of courageous and supportive women at her side.

Stay informed and tuned in to the squads new endeavors that support the growth of the women in cannabiz community. The team is so excited to be on this self fulling path.

YANA Creative Agency

The collaborative WXW team also utilizes their professional skills to support other emerging East Coast Cannabis Brands with Marketing, Branding, Events, Product Development and Biz Operations through their WXW Creative Agency.