cannabis · regulated markets
How We Pick Creators for a Licensed Cannabis Brand
How we cut 166,131 creators down to five approved names for Green Revolution, a licensed THC brand, leaning hardest on the creators CBD brands have already paid twice.
Key takeaways
- Out of 166,131 creators, a word scan found 199 cannabis channels and 82 alive, and the sponsorship database found 99 who took a CBD or cannabis deal, 72 of them two or more times.
- We built a working pool of 78 candidates and landed on 5 approved names today, plus 39 held for one more data pass.
- Repeat sponsorships were the strongest signal, a brand paying the same creator 10, 20 or 39 times means the first spot sold product.
- The approved five are Julian Dorey, Hamilton Morris, ItsCbdBro, Friday Beers, and The Connect with Johnny Mitchell, each with a fit audience, two or more category deals, and a channel alive right now.
- Green Revolution has never sponsored a YouTube creator in our records, so this is a first-principles selection built on competitor and category evidence.
Regulated markets · How we pick creators
Full walkthrough, every creator and decision
How We Picked Creators for Green Revolution, the Full Walkthrough
Out of 166,131 creators, down to the ones whose audience actually buys licensed THC
This is the long version. We go step by step, we show every creator we looked at and the reason for each verdict, and we lean hardest on the creators CBD brands have already paid, especially the ones they paid again and again. Every number comes from our sponsorship and creator database.
The creators sheet, with every list and the rates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TMcjFhS08Sy2FTIfKHshR9OBoPJvIS7cDNin1Z8pCU0/edit
• • •
Part 1. What Green Revolution needs, and the checks we ran on everyone
Green Revolution sells licensed intoxicating THC, functional cannabis drinks like cold-brew coffee, energy shots and sleep shots, plus edibles and tinctures. It is sold in legal rec states, adults 21 and over, with a wellness, energy, focus and sleep angle. So the buyer is one kind of person, an adult cannabis consumer in a legal state who wants a functional product, not just a high.
That gives us one tell to look for on every channel, does this person make cannabis content for a US audience. If they do, their audience is full of the exact buyer.
Just as important is who is NOT the buyer. A viewer outside the US cannot buy it at all, the product is state-licensed and cannot even cross state lines. A CBD-only wellness audience is close but weaker, they buy cannabis-adjacent products, not intoxicating THC. And a giant general podcast is mostly people who do not consume at all.
We read the same things on every creator. Who they are and what they make. Followers, which we treat as a claim, not a fact. Views a video, the number you actually pay for. Views per follower, the fastest way to tell a live channel from a dead one. CBD and cannabis sponsorships already on record, and above all the repeats, because a brand that pays the same creator twice is telling you the first spot worked. Engagement on their videos. How much of their channel we have already scanned for deals, so we know how much to trust a clean history. And where their audience lives.
One compliance note before the list, because this is a licensed product. The playbook for every placement is a flat fee only, never a revenue share, the post carries the ad disclosure and the 21-and-over statement with the impairment warning, no health claims, the creator buys the product themselves, and any link points to a locator page, not a checkout. That is what keeps a Washington-licensed brand clean while doing creator marketing.
• • •
Part 2. How we narrowed 166,131 creators down
We did not read the whole database by hand. We cut it in steps, and we came at it from two directions at once.
- A word scan of every channel. We read all 166,131 channels for the language of cannabis content, cannabis, marijuana, stoner, dispensary, sativa, edibles and so on. 199 channels talk like that, and 82 of them are alive, meaning they still pull steady views and are not giant general channels.
- The sponsorship database, the direction that matters most. We pulled every deal we have on record from 39 CBD and cannabis brands, mood, Cornbread Hemp, CBDistillery, Hopewell Farms, cbdMD, Sunset Lake, 3Chi, Binoid, Bay Smokes and the rest. 99 creators have taken at least one of those deals, and 72 of them have taken two or more. Those 72 are the gold, because a repeat means the brand came back on purpose.
From the two directions we built a working pool of 78 candidates. Then we ran the cut rounds below, held everyone we could not verify, and landed on 5 approved names today plus 39 held for one more data pass. The full numbers per creator live in the sheet linked above.
One honest note on that 5. Green Revolution has never sponsored a YouTube creator in our records, so there is no warm list to re-book and no list of the brand's own past picks to sanity-check against. This is a first-principles selection, and the first campaign becomes the proof the next one learns from.
• • •
Part 3. The CBD repeat sponsorships, and what they told us
This is the part worth slowing down for. A repeat sponsorship is the most honest signal in our whole database. A brand does not pay the same creator 10, 20, 39 times out of kindness, they come back because the last spot sold product. So before any cuts, here is the brand side of the category, the CBD and cannabis brands spending on YouTube creators and how deep they go.
| Brand | Deals on record | What they sell |
|---|---|---|
| mood | 48 | Intoxicating THC gummies, the closest match to Green Revolution |
| Cornbread Hemp | 48 | Full-spectrum CBD |
| CBDistillery | 39 | CBD |
| Hopewell Farms | 47 across spellings | CBD |
| Sunset Lake | 35 | CBD |
| Winged Wellness | 27 | Women's CBD wellness |
| Soul CBD | 26 | CBD |
| cbdMD | 23 | CBD |
And here is the creator side, the deepest CBD repeat relationships we found, with where each one ended up in our process. This table is the answer to "who has already been paid by CBD companies, again and again."
| Creator | CBD deals | Brand(s) | Where they landed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lily Nova Starseed | 39 | Hopewell Farms | Scan next, deepest repeat on the list |
| The Majority Report | 35 | Sunset Lake | Not approved, giant politics show, see Round 1 |
| Peaches Skin Care | 27 | Winged Wellness | Not approved, channel went dead, see Round 1 |
| Julian Dorey | 26 | mood | APPROVED |
| DissiNotRA | 22 | Jupiter CBD | Not approved, German audience |
| Melissa Redpill | 17 | HempWorx | Scan next, with a brand-safety check |
| Moriah Robinson | 17 | Equilibria | Scan next |
| Petrena Schell | 15 | CBD oil brands | Not approved, Canadian audience |
| Jamie Genevieve | 12 | CBII | Not approved, UK audience |
| Johnathan Buckhouse | 15 | Hemp Lucid | Not approved, audience left, see Round 1 |
| Wes James Henderson | 14 | cbdMD | Not approved, dead channel |
| Bored Progression | 12 | CBDayz | Scan next |
| Perma Pastures Farm | 11 | Nesas Hemp | Scan next |
| The Randall Carlson | 10 | CBD From The Gods | Scan next |
| Melanie Patricia Cruz | 10 | Range CBD | Scan next |
Read that table twice and you learn the two big lessons of this whole selection. First, repeat depth finds real buyer audiences, most of the scan-next list below comes straight from it. Second, repeat depth alone is not enough, the 35-deal Majority Report is a budget story, not a fit story, and 27-deal Peaches Skin Care shows a channel can die while the deal history still looks great. Repeats tell you the audience bought, the view numbers tell you whether that audience is still in the room.
• • •
Part 4. Round 1, wrong audiences and dead channels, 17 removed
The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder (Not approved)
2,050,000 followers. 72,117 views a video. 0.035 views per follower. 35 CBD deals with Sunset Lake. based in the US.
The deepest repeat count in the whole category, and we still said no. It is a giant politics show, Sunset Lake keeps renewing because two million followers always catch a few buyers. That is a spray-and-catch play for a brand with a national CBD product. Green Revolution is licensed in a handful of states, so paying for a national general audience wastes most of the spend.
Peaches Skin Care (Not approved)
158,000 followers. 339 views a video. 0.002 views per follower. 27 CBD deals with Winged Wellness. based in the US.
Twenty-seven deals on record and almost nobody watching today. The repeat history is real, the current channel is not, 339 views a video on 158,000 followers means the audience already left. This is the cleanest proof on the list that you price the views, never the follower count or the deal history.
Johnathan Buckhouse (Not approved)
285,000 followers. 3,129 views a video. 0.011 views per follower. 15 Hemp Lucid deals. based in the US.
Same story, big follower number, deep CBD history, and about one percent of the followers still watching. Not a live audience.
Wes James Henderson (Not approved)
11,100 followers. 328 views a video. 14 cbdMD deals. based in the US.
Fourteen cbdMD renewals in the record, but the channel has gone quiet, the last upload is six months old and views are in the hundreds. Nothing to buy here today.
PlantifulAlex (Not approved)
14,600 followers. 408 views a video. 11 Soul CBD deals. based in the US.
Right kind of wellness audience on paper, but 408 views a video is a dead channel.
Diva and the Divine (Not approved)
26,400 followers. 206 views a video. 10 Soul CBD deals. based in the US.
Ten renewals and 206 views a video. The deal history outlived the audience.
Bert Kreischer (Not approved)
1,520,000 followers. 34,594 views a video. 9 Cornbread Hemp deals. based in the US.
A famous comedian with a real CBD history, and still a no. The audience is there for comedy, only a slice consumes, and the YouTube channel itself pulls a fraction of his fame, 0.023 views per follower. Wrong tool for a state-licensed product.
Iam AVL (Not approved)
43,100 followers. 210 views a video. 6 Crescent Canna deals. based in the US.
Music channel with intoxicating-brand history, but 210 views a video is nobody home.
OhhMyAnnie (Not approved)
411,000 followers. 1,582 views a video. 0.004 views per follower. 6 CBD deals. based in the US.
Four hundred thousand followers, fifteen hundred views. The subscriber number is a monument, not an audience.
H3 Podcast (Not approved)
2,540,000 followers. 261,673 views a video. 6 mood deals. based in the US.
Real reach and mood renewed here six times, which proves the category converts on big shows when the budget allows it. But it is a general entertainment audience, and for a brand sold in four states the waste is too high. If Green Revolution ever wants a pure awareness splash, this is what that looks like, price it as awareness, not conversion.
Keeping it Real on Purpose (Not approved)
10,300 followers. 22 views a video. 5 mood deals. based in the US.
Twenty-two views a video. Nothing to buy.
Layla Martin (Not approved)
532,000 followers. 1,178 views a video. 5 mood deals. based in the US.
Wellness niche fits, the channel is dead, 0.002 views per follower.
Five Reasons Sports Network (Not approved)
28,500 followers. 761 views a video. 3 mood deals. based in the US.
Sports talk with mood history, but under a thousand views a video.
Cancelled with Tana Mongeau & Brooke Schofield (Not approved)
2,420,000 followers. no recent uploads. 3 mood deals. based in the US.
Big general entertainment show that has gone quiet on YouTube, last upload nine months back. Wrong audience and no current inventory.
David So (Not approved)
1,330,000 followers. 17,415 views a video. 0.013 views per follower. 2 mood deals. based in the US.
A million-plus followers, seventeen thousand watching. General entertainment, thin ratio, no.
Tim Chantarangsu (Not approved)
4,210,000 followers. 21,555 views a video. 0.005 views per follower. 2 mood deals. based in the US.
The biggest follower number on the list and one of the weakest ratios. Exactly the trap the follower sort sets.
Kill Tony (Not approved)
2,660,000 followers. 2,911,762 views a video. 2 mood deals. based in the US.
The reach is enormous and real, nearly three million views a show. It is also a giant general comedy audience, so a state-licensed THC brand would pay comedy-scale money to reach mostly people who cannot or will not buy. mood can afford that trade nationally, Green Revolution should not start there.
• • •
Part 5. Round 2, off-market audiences, 2 removed
DissiNotRA (Not approved)
16,900 followers. about 5,700 views a sponsored video. 22 Jupiter CBD deals. based in Germany.
Twenty-two renewals is a beautiful signal, for a German audience. Green Revolution cannot sell to Germany.
Petrena Schell (Not approved)
60,100 followers. 11,876 views a video. 15 CBD deals. based in Canada.
Same reason, a Canadian audience cannot buy a US state-licensed product.
• • •
Part 6. The approved five, one at a time
These are the only creators in the database today who pass every test at once, a cannabis-fit audience, two or more CBD-category deals proving that audience buys, and a channel that is alive right now.
Julian Dorey (Approved)
1,280,000 followers. 184,074 median views on sponsored videos. 0.14 views per follower. 26 mood deals. 47% of his videos scanned. grade A. based in the US.
Started, a big interview podcast, the kind we usually cut. Checked, and this is why we did not, mood, the closest product to Green Revolution on the market, an intoxicating THC gummy brand, has paid him twenty-six times. Nobody renews twenty-six times on a miss. His median sponsored video pulls 184 thousand views, the engagement is healthy at 5.1 percent, and we have scanned nearly half his catalog so the history is trustworthy. Ended, approved, the strongest single signal on the list, a proven intoxicating-THC buyer audience at scale. The one thing to manage is that a podcast audience is national, so the ad and the landing page must do the state-eligibility work.
Hamilton Morris (Approved)
276,000 followers. 89,209 median views on sponsored videos. 0.32 views per follower. 8 CannaClear deals. 63% scanned. based in the US.
Started, a scientist who makes serious drug-science content, famous for exactly this subject. Checked, CannaClear, an intoxicating cannabinoid brand, renewed him eight times, his views per follower is a strong 0.32, engagement 7 percent, and two-thirds of his catalog is scanned. Ended, approved. His audience is adults who think carefully about what they consume, which is precisely the functional-cannabis buyer. The read should lean science and dosing, that is his voice.
ItsCbdBro (Approved)
391,000 followers. 546,207 median views on sponsored videos. 1.40 views per follower. 5 CBD deals. 81% scanned. based in the US.
Started, the name says it all, a channel built on cannabinoid reviews. Checked, five category deals, a median sponsored view count over half a million, which is more than his follower count, meaning his videos travel beyond his subscribers, and 81 percent of the catalog scanned, the most trustworthy history on the list. Ended, approved, the best reach-for-fit buy here. Worth confirming his current upload rhythm when we reach out, his 150-day average sits well under that sponsored median, so price against the average and let the median be the upside.
Friday Beers (Approved)
231,000 followers. 309,410 views a video. 1.34 views per follower. 3 cbdMD deals. 18% scanned. based in the US.
Started, a comedy brand account, which normally screams wrong audience. Checked, cbdMD paid it three times, the audience is young-adult social culture, exactly who buys a THC seltzer-style product, and the views per follower is an elite 1.34. Ended, approved with two asterisks. Only 18 percent of the channel is scanned, so the history is thin, and it is a brand account rather than a single creator, so the read format needs agreeing up front. Their podcast arm, Almost Friday, sits on the scan-next list with five more cbdMD deals, which strengthens the whole picture.
The Connect with Johnny Mitchell (Approved)
1,420,000 followers. 187,024 views a video. 0.13 views per follower. 2 mood deals. 2% scanned. based in the US.
Started, a crime and street-culture documentary channel, cannabis is native subject matter here. Checked, mood came back for a second deal, the reach is 187 thousand a video, and the audience skews exactly into legal-market consumers. Ended, approved, with the caution that we have scanned only 2 percent of a very deep catalog, so before contracts we run the scan and confirm the sponsor history is as clean as it looks.
• • •
Part 7. Scan next, 39 creators one data pass away
These creators passed the audience and liveness cuts but we cannot verify them yet, either their channel has never been scanned for sponsors, or too little of it has. The fix costs about 1 to 15 cents per channel and a few minutes each. The deepest CBD histories are at the top, that is the order we would scan in.
| Creator | Followers | Views a video | CBD deals | Why they are here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lily Nova Starseed | 55,400 | 23,222 | 39, Hopewell Farms | Deepest CBD repeat on the entire list, spirituality audience, confirm cannabis comfort |
| Melissa Redpill | 73,800 | 9,491 | 17, HempWorx | The audience clearly buys, content is political prophecy, needs a brand-safety call |
| Moriah Robinson | 76,700 | 5,518 | 17, Equilibria | Proven CBD buyers, modest reach, cheap test |
| Bored Progression | 20,400 | 13,712 | 12, CBDayz | Small disc-golf channel, 13 percent engagement, loyal niche |
| Perma Pastures Farm | 178,000 | 9,890 | 11, Nesas Hemp | Homesteading audience, hemp-comfortable |
| Heal Thy Self | 47,600 | 2,524 | 10, Cornbread Hemp | Health audience, barely alive reach, cheap test at best |
| Melanie Patricia Cruz | 332,000 | 70,045 | 10, Range CBD | Strong reach, 83 percent coverage, confirm US audience |
| The Randall Carlson | 619,000 | 21,775 | 10, CBD From The Gods | Science audience, under 1 percent scanned |
| LuxMommy | 147,000 | 9,059 | 8, Equilibria | Mom-lifestyle, fits the sleep angle |
| Michel Janse | 274,000 | 33,503 | 8, CBD brands | Grade A lifestyle channel, wellness audience |
and 29 more in the full roster
The move here is simple. Scanning all 39 costs a few dollars and a couple of hours of machine time, and every scan either promotes a creator toward Approved or removes them with evidence. We do not spend a dollar on placements until the ones we want are verified.
• • •
Part 8. The rest of the discoveries, and why they are out
The content scan also surfaced channels that looked cannabis-shaped in text but fail for Green Revolution on inspection. Being honest about these is what keeps the rest of the list trustworthy.
| Creator | Why they are out |
|---|---|
| Jamie Genevieve | UK beauty creator with 12 CBII deals, the buyer signal is real but a UK audience cannot buy a US state-licensed product |
| Basementganja | Canadian grow channel, the audience mostly cannot buy a US state-licensed product |
| Mr. Canucks Grow | Canadian grow channel, off-market |
| Canadian Grower | Canadian grow channel, off-market |
| twomatolix | German channel in German, off-market |
| Channel 4 Documentaries | UK broadcaster account, not a creator |
| Berner415 | Berner founded Cookies, a competing cannabis brand, conflict of interest |
| MAPS | Nonprofit psychedelic-research organization, not a creator |
| First Amendment Protection Agency | Auditor channel, the cannabis words were incidental |
| AreYouGarbage | Comedy podcast, weed talk is incidental, no category deals |
| CraftyMasterman | Gaming channel, a word-scan false positive |
| Eclipse Records | Record label account, false positive |
| ReactCAST | Reaction channel, no cannabis evidence |
| Samuel Goldwyn Films | Film distributor account, false positive |
| USA Chiropractic | 11 CBD deals but the channel went quiet 13 months ago |
• • •
Part 9. What we did not verify, so you know the edges
- Green Revolution has no past creator deals in our records, so unlike our usual process there was no brand-own-picks list to sanity-check the model against. The approved five are built on competitor and category evidence instead.
- Our database knows each audience's country, not their US state. Washington, California, Massachusetts and New York eligibility is a judgment we make from content and has to be confirmed per creator before contracts.
- Scan coverage is uneven. The Connect is approved on 2 percent coverage, Friday Beers on 18 percent, both need their scans run before signing. A clean "no competitor deals" claim is only trustworthy once we have checked at least 30 videos and a real share of the catalog.
- Follower and view numbers are snapshots and drift a little between pulls.
- The word scan is built for recall, it caught trading-indicator channels on the word indica before we tightened it, and the false positives in Part 8 are the ones that survived to the end. Every list like this needs the human pass we just did.
- Political and shock-content channels with deep CBD history (Salty Cracker, Kim Iversen, Melissa Redpill, Dave Smith, Stu Does America) are flagged, not judged. Whether a licensed cannabis brand wants that adjacency is a brand-safety decision for Green Revolution, not a data question.
• • •
The creators sheet, with every list and the rates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TMcjFhS08Sy2FTIfKHshR9OBoPJvIS7cDNin1Z8pCU0/edit
For the shorter overview see our guide to cannabis influencer marketing, and for the step-by-step screening rules see the cannabis creator vetting playbook.
Frequently asked
How many creators did you start from and how many were approved?
We started from 166,131 creators, built a working pool of 78, and approved 5 today, with another 39 held for one more data pass. Every number comes from our sponsorship and creator database.
Why do repeat sponsorships matter so much?
A brand does not pay the same creator 10, 20 or 39 times out of kindness, they come back because the last spot sold product. So a repeat CBD or cannabis deal is the most honest signal that a creator's audience actually buys. Out of 99 creators who took a category deal, 72 took two or more.
Why were creators with huge follower counts turned down?
Because we price the views you actually get, not the follower count. Peaches Skin Care had 27 CBD deals on record but only 339 views a video on 158,000 followers, which means the audience already left. Big general shows like Kill Tony reach millions but mostly people who cannot or will not buy a state-licensed product.
Why does location matter for a licensed cannabis brand?
Green Revolution sells licensed intoxicating THC in legal rec states to adults 21 and over, and the product cannot cross state lines. A viewer outside the US cannot buy it at all, so creators with German, Canadian or UK audiences were removed even when their repeat-deal history looked strong.