Lucia Novara, Partner Marketing Manager of Würk – Interview Series

With the cannabis sector expected to expand and scale greatly over the coming years, so too will the importance of effective human resources and payroll services for employees and owners alike. This is especially true when considering the sheer number of employees already involved, at approximately 425,000 according to the 2025 Vangst Report, and issues that arise from the taxation of cannabis businesses.

To better understand the many duties associated with HR and payroll, and how technology is assisting and even automating some of these, mycannabis.com had the pleasure of speaking with Lucia Novara, Partner Marketing Manager at Würk.

What subjects and courses did you study while at Michigan State University, and how did those studies influence your decision to work in content management and marketing?

I studied journalism and public relations at MSU. The journalism program is one of the top in the country, and while the consolidation of media platforms made it a very difficult field to build a career, the education I received was an ideal base for success in content marketing. Deep research chops, concise writing craft and finding the beating heart of a story are all journalism skills that I use all the time in content marketing. 

While traveling across the world, where were some of the most memorable and/or historic places you visited? Why were those locations and experiences so impactful to you? 

Every place has its own magic. Sicily is significant to me because I still have relatives there, so it feels like a homecoming on top of the natural beauty, amazing food and layers of history from different conquerors. The Uros floating islands on Lake Titicaca are one of the most distinctive places I’ve witnessed. The Uros people are an indigenous group who have lived on islands constructed entirely from totora reeds for centuries and their way of life is representative of the human capacity to live in tune with their natural environment. 

How did all the global locations that you visited and studied provide you with a better understanding of the world and a better advantage when it comes to brand storytelling? 

My small daughter said it best coming back from a trip to Costa Rica. Driving on a major highway she sighed, “I liked it better there, they built the roads around the forest instead of knocking down the forest to build roads.” There are perspectives you can only build and stories you can only tell if you have the grounds for comparison. 

I imagine your international travels gave you quite an advantage in your role with Enchanting Travels. What were your best strategies to maintain both a steady stream of international content that was both engaging and interesting to the readers? How did you have to alter your strategies depending on which international market the story was located in?

It was a challenge to constantly matrix all the functional inputs (seasonality, destination mix across 70 countries, promotions, hotel partnerships, sales needs, SEO, etc.) and still produce content that inspires. I developed a complex content strategy that underpinned all of our asset production, but at the end of the day the final checkbox before anything could go out the door was whether it gave you that “I have to go there someday” feeling in your gut. 

Market adaptation was also a major aspect of production, and it was much more complex than translation alone. A typical German tourist is interested in a lot more detail about a hotel than a typical American tourist so understanding the nuances of the audiences was a critical part of our success. 

From your experience, what are the biggest differences in marketing strategies between the various business types/industries that you’ve worked with? For instance, how did the marketing/content strategies of luxury brands change when compared to successful strategies for travel/hospitality-related companies?  

As I said, audience research and knowledge are the foundation of marketing strategy. Different platforms will try to shove trends and services down your throat and it’s up to you as a marketer to know where your audience lives, works and plays to use your budget effectively. For example, TikTok was a very effective channel for beauty brands like Real Beauty, but we never used it for bespoke travel because our average audience age simply didn’t align with the platform demographic.   

What caught your professional interest about working at Würk? Did you have experience working with cannabis ancillary companies/brands before joining the team? 

Würk had an excellent reputation in my network as a great place to work. Anyone who knew the company only had positive things to say about the culture and how they take care of their people. Working in advertising agencies for 15 years, I have touched all kinds of industries, but this is my first foray into cannabis. It’s a fascinating time to join the industry with the possibility of rescheduling shifting the landscape. 

What services does Würk offer its clients, and what very vital needs does Würk fulfill for its cannabis clients in particular? 

For more than ten years, Würk has been focused on delivering secure, compliant payroll, tax filings and simplified workforce management for businesses operating in compliance-centric environments. For the majority of that time the company has been focused on cannabis and we are known for providing fully vetted relationships that won’t suddenly drop cannabis companies. We also provide these solutions to any high-compliance industry, including construction, casinos and gaming, healthcare and CBD and hemp production. 

Because HR and payroll are among Würk’s specialties, what were the most widespread issues you saw in those fields with cannabis companies? How does Würk provide solutions to those common issues?    

Cannabis companies often face severe banking and compliance challenges, creating risks like employee safety concerns and operational inefficiencies in accounting and cash flow management. Würk addresses these issues by offering tailored payroll and compliance solutions. By bridging these gaps, Würk reduces risk and streamlines HR and payroll operations in a highly complex industry.

Since you’ve been working in content management and marketing for nearly two decades, how have you seen your regular duties change over that time? What was your job usually like prior to content management platforms becoming the norm, and how did your job change once those platforms became more utilized?  

I’ve seen the practice transform from supporting search engine optimization to its own service offering, to now being threatened by the rise of large language models. The practice evolved in sophistication alongside search algorithms: when Google was less advanced it was easier to trick it into ranking a site higher if it simply had more relevant content, regardless of quality. When quality indicators like EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) started impacting ranking, content marketing was able to evolve into a standalone practice with budget and resources for talent and platforms to scale. 

I firmly believe AI is a powerful tool for content marketers and all creators, but unfortunately we’re going through an early adoption phase right now where corporations think they can replace creative vision wholesale with large language models. The result is mass production of “content slop” that is ineffective in achieving business goals, not to mention mind-bendingly boring. 

If a federal rescheduling or other huge sweeping federal cannabis reform were to be implemented, how do you envision that would change the services that Würk offers to its cannabis clients? 

I’ll defer here to our CEO, who has a much deeper perspective on this than I do at this juncture! 

“The reclassification of cannabis is a major milestone for every operator in cannabis. We’ve all been working toward this moment, proving that this industry can operate professionally and safely, despite being held back by outdated federal policies.

What impresses me most is how our industry has kept pushing forward through every obstacle. Cannabis businesses have shown they can adapt, innovate, and deliver quality products, even when the deck was stacked against them.

Importantly, this shift also brings cannabis businesses closer to operating like companies in any other industry with greater access to liquidity and fairer financial treatment. That change will unlock opportunities that simply haven’t been available under current regulations.

At Würk, we’ve been honored to support so many of these companies with payroll and HR solutions that actually work for cannabis. We’re here for the long haul as this industry continues to grow and gain the recognition it deserves.”

— Deborah Saneman, CEO of Würk

Thank you for joining us, Lucia! For more information on Wurk and their services, please visit its website.