260 – What We Can Learn from the Challenges of Selling CBD Products with Derek Spruill of Cherry Blossom CBD

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped.

Episode 260 Started playing around and then people started asking me

for like,

Hey, can I get some more of my,

you know,

my grandmother,

my dog,

even like couldn't believe it.

Yeah. Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one,

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue Always.

Thanks for joining me here today.

Boy, it's feeling so different right now with this worldwide pandemic.

More than ever,

we need to be in control of our lives.

That's the fabulous thing about owning your own business,

whether it's full time or for some extra money on the

side. Having a business offers you options and has been the

saving grace for Manny.

Given that if you don't already know and you're hearing this

just for the first time,

my business development program,

maker's MBA is closing enrollment tomorrow night,

that's Tuesday,

March 31st so you still have a tiny bit of time

to join in.

How do you know if this program is right for you?

If you've been dreaming of starting your own handmade business but

it's felt too time consuming,

overwhelming or scary and you're just not sure what steps to

take. This is for you if you've started your business but

you're frustrated and anxious because it's not bringing in the sales

you expected and you're not sure what to do to turn

things around.

Then this program is also for you.

We worked together for four and a half months and in

the end you'll have a business that's set up properly.

You'll know all the components and actions that go into owning

a business that will thrive and you'll have access to refer

back to all the information as your business grows and changes.

It's the only place I do hot seat coaching,

so we work on your specific issues.

This is not an old fashioned type lecture class you learn

and then apply what's right for you based on where you

are in your own business creation and no a prior business

degree is not required.

If you're a gifter Baker,

crafter or maker and you're serious about starting or growing your

handmade product business,

then go to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash makers MBA for all the details.

Oh and I forgot to tell you,

I'm only offering at one time this year,

so this is your only chance and enrollment ends tomorrow.

That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com

forward slash makers MBA and if by chance you miss it,

this same link,

we'll jump over to a wait list so you can be

notified for next year.

Moving on,

I'm really excited to share with you our show today.

I think everyone has a preconceived notion of what CBD oil

is and or how it can help you,

but there are a lot of misconceptions out there so you

get to learn the truth about this product.

One that continues to gain in popularity.

Plus with the extra challenges that CBD products face,

Derek shares what has worked for him in terms of product

receptivity and sales.

These overall strategies can be tweaked and put to use in

your business too.

So are you ready to learn all about CBD Today?

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Derek Sperl.

Derek is the co owner of cherry blossoms,

CBD. They're a Maryland based wholesaler and distributor of industrial hemp

with an exclusive retail line of hemp based products.

His innovative line of nutraceutical supplements are all made from American

grown and organically processed hemp and independently lab tested.

These products are naturally helping people find relief of pain,

inflammation, anxiety,

as well as a host of other ailments.

Oh my gosh,

Derek, we need you so much.

Welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Thank you for having me this morning.

I'm glad to be here.

How are you today?

I'm good.

We were supposed to get a big snow storm here today

and we only got a little measly snow storm.

Is that good news or is that bad news?

That's bad news.

In my box.

Okay. The more snow the better for me.

Right. We haven't had a snow day,

I don't know,

two years maybe here.

Oh my gosh.

I know.

Like we really need what you need to be snowed in

sometimes and just hang out with the TV and a good

pot of soup For sure.

But probably the amount of snow we got here would have

qualified with you for a snow day.

Oh, I'm sure.

Yeah. They probably keep schools open for what we can for

sure. Derek,

seriously enough about me where you are going to talk about

you. Now we're going to do it in a little bit

of a traditional way that I have on the show here

and that is to have you describe yourself by way of

a motivational candle.

So if you were to create a candle that speaks all

you, what color would it be and what would be a

quote on the candle?

What color would it be?

I have a clear candle and the clear candle is for

a reason.

I'd like to say I've learned some very good lessons in

my life and most of the lessons I've learned is by

learning from other people.

And that clear candle would say life is all about perspective,

be open to seeing others.

That has been something that even when before all of this

happened, I was a chef back in the day and I

used to say this a lot too,

you know,

my staff and my line cooks like look,

we are all different people from different walks of life with

different perspectives and they're all very real.

So just try to stand in the other shoes every now

and then and you never know what you just might see.

Yeah. And be open to other people's experiences and learning.

And don't assume that your view of reality is the only

view. Exactly.

Sometimes that's hard to do.

Of course we're all humans,

but I think if you at least try,

if you get a 50% I think you're right.

Yeah. Just being open.

You're so right.

I love that.

Okay. Candle accepted.

Check Mark.

So you just alluded to being a chef.

Take us back and give us a little history of where

you've been before.

Cherry blossom.

Well, I guess when I was a young kid I had

somehow some way a cookie and got it to me.

I was raised by my mother and my grandmother until I

was about five.

And then when my mother got married and they,

you know,

they're really young and they're early eighties and they were working

a lot.

So what happens,

I just have to come home and latch key kid and

I didn't know if they can even do that anymore,

but I figured out how to cook for myself.

And this all led to me just wanting to learn more

and wanting to learn more and wanting to learn more.

So sometime in my twenties I went to culinary school here

in the DC area and it was called Academy to cuisine

or no clothes,

but they were taught like classic French cuisine and I worked

a lot in like more like classic French kitchens and some

of the old guard of chefs and that was good.

Those were good times.

And I think what that has prepared me for what is

happening in my life right now.

In a lot of ways our business,

our industry is a chaos and it just by the nature

of the restaurant industry,

it's sort of chaotic every day.

I don't know if by design it's just the way it

is, but I kind of learned to work in a little

bit of chaos,

a little dysfunction and unfortunately the CBD industry right now without

tight rules and regulations and things like that,

it's kind of a wild,

wild West.

So that has prepared me in that way.

But also as far as like formulating and production and things

like that organization,

it's all helped team building.

We have a small team,

but I think we're all very close and we're all on

the same page.

So that chef foundation,

those, the cross,

the T's and dotting I's and then the minutia of doing

what you have to do to be successful has really helped

what we are trying to accomplish today.

I'm really glad you bring that up because we have a

lot of listeners who are thinking of maybe turning a hobby

or a craft into a business and right now they're working

somewhere else.

Maybe they're in a bank or they're working a retail shop

or a multitude of different things,

or maybe they're a stay at home mom.

Right? And your conversation here about how a totally different industry,

you were still picking up skills,

ways of managing through things and knowledge that now you can

apply on top of what you're doing today.

So that's an excellent example and I want all of you

listeners to hear that because whatever you're doing today is not

wasted time.

Observe what you're learning and take in as much as you

can. Like I tell everybody,

Derek, like volunteer for any committees your business is putting together

because you're getting more connections,

right? You're meeting more people,

you're picking up additional skills,

additional resources.

I mean you just never know where some of this might

play out and be beneficial for you in the future.

You want to put yourself in the path of where you're

going. But at the same time,

sometimes it's like networking,

but you always got this,

I don't want to go to this networking thing,

but you go and that those are the times that you

actually meet someone who helps extend your career a little bit

where it helps you see things in a different way that

ends up you sort of embracing it like,

Oh, okay.

Like it never would have happened.

This relationship never would have happened and I not just gone

to this networking event and sort of working and kind of

experiencing things in that way.

It's the same way.

You just never know what's going to happen.

You never know what skills that you're sort of putting in

reserve or you may put in the back of your mind

that come back to help you in your chosen path.

Yup. I agree with you a hundred percent all right,

so tell us now about cherry blossom and where the idea

came from.

So bring us back way to the beginning before you'd even

started. How did this become an idea in the first place?

Well, it's interesting because kind of a funny conversation and at

first I didn't know what to tell people about it,

but it's kind of started as I had left the restaurant

business and I was trying to figure some things out and

I thought it knew that I didn't want to work for

anyone else.

That has always been my goal to work for myself.

So I started playing around that laws change in DC here

and I started playing around actually with different concentrates that I

could find.

But most of them were,

were tat based to be perfectly honest.

And I started handing them out to my friends,

you know,

the here and just playing with different,

you know,

confectionary techniques and things.

So my first like you're onto something here,

like, you know,

I'm giving this to my grandmother,

it works for her and her whatever,

her knee pain.

Okay. Wait.

So were you baking,

were they food related items or They were food-related?

I, I was making confections.

I was making candies and cookies and things like that and

just hand them out to people.

When you were handing them out to people who had some

type of ailments and like more detailed place.

It's more just like,

I just wanted to see if what I was doing was

actually working where my techniques working,

they were just my Guinea pig and what they were telling

us what to telly me were the success stories in a

way. So,

okay. I might be onto something here.

How did you find out?

Did you do research or were you exposed to this or

how did you get the idea of doing any testing in

the first place?

Well, we have very funny laws here in the district of

Columbia. I like the way you word that.

It's funny because it's not quite legal,

it's not illegal.

It's a very gray space so you can gift or trade

cannabis products or anyone you wanted.

So I just started playing around and then people started asking

me for like,

Hey, can I get some more of my,

you know,

my grandmother,

my dog,

even like dogs eating cats.

I couldn't believe it.

So talk to a friend of mine.

I said,

great, maybe we could figure something out with this.

Maybe we can try to get some sort of license to

Maryland's changing.

And DC's changing.

They weren't really changing fast enough as it turns out.

So as we were networking,

we met the lady who runs the Maryland cannabis commission and

I said,

well, you know,

when do you know when you're going to edibles?

Like we'd like to get,

throw our hat in the ring.

And our answer to us was,

I have no idea.

It could be six months,

it could be six years.

And I'm like,

well, that's a little discouraging,

Right? You can't build a business around that.

Yeah. I can't build a business around that.

But what I did see that there was opportunities in the

CBD market and what changed our mind is that we actually

went to the candy show and was it,

that was in,

uh, Hershey last September.

Oh no.

Two Septembers ago.

Oh. We walked out of there and we realized that because

our intent was to go there to start figuring out how

to be candy manufacturers.

And what I realized is that there were a lot of

candy and manufacturers there of course,

but there were a lot better than we were that have

been doing this a lot longer,

a lot more skilled,

multigenerational family businesses.

And on the way home we just started talking and the

light bulb came on and like maybe we shouldn't try to

compete with these businesses.

Maybe we should try to work with them and find something

that can work with them and maybe sell to them.

That was kind of the initial thought that we would just

kind of like sell like bulk oils and things like that.

We went to California,

we started meeting with different processors and things and as it

turns out like Oh well we have this and we have

this and we have this.

So we started working with these guys and we came up

with a cherry blossom line of products and we're looking for

a name.

My mother came up with a name so I wanted something

more like DC but didn't say DC.

And she said,

well how about cherry blossom?

I said okay that works.

Yeah. Cause it relates,

but it's still open enough But still open it up.

Exactly. Sometimes when you're labeling your business and you say,

well we're Highland park auto,

it's hard for you to expand out of that because now

the world knows us as this.

Right. Like you're not going to be in Detroit and be

called Highland park auto.

Exactly. Right.

So thinking ahead about that.

And then the lesson I thought with my business partner Larry,

and he came up with this logo and he kind of

ducked himself out for a couple of days and restart for

us and all of a sudden like this thing is,

I'm like,

wow, like this is beautiful.

And you know,

and the guy,

I mean it was like,

don't know if I can go around representing this pink logo,

you know?

But yeah,

Sure you can.

It's almost a door opener in a way because people look

over and they see these two middle-aged guys or not exactly

chisel, you know what I mean?

So, and they see this big old pink thing behind us

and they can't quite figure it out.

It makes people want to come up and talk to us

just to see what the heck is going on.

That's not the only reason they want to come talk to

you. Your booth is lively and fun.

You're very energetic and it's just a happy place to be

and the logo is happy too.

So it all comes together.

Can I do a fact check here real quick?

So you were initially testing multiple ingredients and seeing results and

then you narrowed in and settled on CBD because you saw

potential to be able to build a business on it based

on all of the laws that are around The laws.

And also I looked at usage and where usage is right

now with CBD there's a lot of miseducation,

a lot of question marks in people's minds,

but I knew that on the long term,

even though people say that cannabis is going to be a

bigger business,

I believe that more people can and will use hemp based

products because not everybody wants to the psychoactive effect.

I think more people appreciate not having a psychoactive effect and

to have any psychoactive effect.

Okay. So talk with us about all of this.

What is CBD?

What are the effects?

Share with us as someone who may not know.

So you can get CBD for from basically two sources.

You can get it from cannabis plants that happen to hit

certain strings that happen to be high in CBD.

Or you could get it from hemp plants,

which are naturally high in CBD and low in THC.

So I'll say that different way.

Cannabis plants tend to be more THC.

Abundant plants tend to be more CBD opponent.

So it is a better source or at least a better

resource to get CBD from hemp plants because it's abundant in

it. So most people don't know this,

I think.

I think most people think they're sort of one in the

same. And the way I explain it to people is that

if we were all taking a walk through the grocery store

on a mission to get citrus,

we're going to make a citrus pie.

That's how many types of citrus are we going to get?

How many types of citrus are available to us today?

Where there's lemons,

there's lines,

there's great fruit,

there's oranges,

and we all understand that these things are in the same

family. They're all in the citrus family,

but they're different colors or different tastes.

Sometimes they're even different textures.

We utilize it differently.

In our home kitchens,

we may not even utilize it,

but in the kitchen they use it for something else totally.

All together.

Maybe for fragrances or what have you,

but we kind of can wrap our heads around that.

All these different fruits are citrus fruits and they come from

the same family,

but they may do different things.

That's how we have to look at these two plants here.

They're sort of like kissing cousins.

They're in the same family.

Yes. They're almost named the same thing with the exception of

they've been L like I think it's hemp is like cannabis,

sativa L so they are very much related,

but they do different things and we're looking to the hemp

plant because it's an ancient botanical that's been helping people for

millennia, millions of years.

People who've been in graces earth long before you and are

ever even thought of would have been using this medicinally to

heal themselves naturally to alleviate pain,

to alleviate anxiety,

mood related disorders,

inflammation in particular where a lot of times it's tied to

we've seen in the last 20 years and the options that

people have been given to tandem their pain.

Right, because I think like as you're telling the story,

I'm thinking,

okay, yes,

this has been around for a long time,

but in the recent,

I'm going to call it century,

everyone's gone to manmade chemicals.

I guess it is for relief in many cases and now

there's become more of popularity or whatever.

The switch back to all the natural remedies.

I think sometimes trashy has to happen for people to change

perspective. Oh,

so the century is a tragedy.

I'm not calling it a tragedy,

but what we're looking at right now,

I think if every one of us can probably say that

we know someone who has been negatively impacted by opioids in

our family or in our community,

and the fact that everyone in the United States could probably

say that is pretty tragic to me.

Yeah. When something has been available to us this entire time

that can help and heal and not have any negative impact

on you.

Right. Unless you're taking sort of blood thinners.

I mean it does kind of sometimes increase the heart rate

some, so people who take blood thinners,

they may want to,

anybody want,

they want to consult your doctor before you choose any,

any supplements or products,

but especially those on blood thinners.

So you tested out the product with samples and you saw

that indeed this was producing relief or healing results,

whatever it was.

Then you went to the show and you saw that,

well, maybe I don't want to be making candy.

I want to be providing a product for all these generations

or established businesses to be able to use our product in

their business.

Is that right?

Yes. Okay.

I think you said you were at the Philly candy show

for the first time?

Two Septembers ago,

and change.

We changed there and by that November we had already,

we met out to California a couple of times and met

with some different producers and manufacturers and we needed people who

sort of understood our vision and for lack of better word,

our standards.

We were looking for certain things.

We were looking for small spectrum products.

We believe in the totality of cannabinoids and terpenes and flavonoids,

which are all the components that truly helping people inside this

plant and we wanted them all present.

I myself have been using these pimp based products for quite

some time because I've had knee problems and back problems and

things like that and I was always too afraid to go

the pharmaceutical route.

I like natural products.

I'd rather take my chances with what nature has given me

than what the pharmaceutical companies have given me.

So it was just a natural plugin for me because it

was part of our belief system.

You get it to other people to believe that sometimes it's

a little bit more challenging,

but because of the different stigmas and things,

but it's happening.

I think people are seeing that this nature made the supplements

can really heal us.

And I think that we've been fooled for a long time

into the believing that this is the gateway and these things

are taking people off into the Primrose path.

But because of all the things that have been tied to

marijuana, I think that people don't notice.

The hemp was grown pretty probably here in the United States,

colonial times.

I've probably up until about the 18 hundreds for multitude of

reasons, not just for the cannabinoids and terpenes,

but for all sorts of industrial reasons.

So let's stick with product development for a minute here.

So you never,

if I'm understanding correctly,

we're producing it just locally and Sally,

you went to factories to produce it right away.

We want to focus on selling.

Okay. So how did you find Anne,

and I'm just thinking of someone who's not looking at a

product like yours,

but has an idea,

wants to go direct to factories.

How does one do this?

How do you search out factories and then go and analyze

which one you're actually going to do business with?

Take us through a little bit of that.

Some of was actually pure luck.

It was one or two relationships that that led us to

some hedge fund guy that I probably never would have met.

And he took me out to lunch and it was the

way I thought about it,

it was almost like a qualifier.

Like, you know,

is this guy qualified to work with this kind of deal?

Okay, so Qualifier on their end or your end.

Yeah, like on their end they're making sure that,

I don't know,

like are you worthy kind of deal.

They never said that,

but that's the,

that's the impression I walked away with.

They need to know too,

right? Yeah.

And next thing you know,

if someone was calling me from this company and you're like,

Hey, let's meet,

and we went out and we met,

we sampled their products,

we met their scientists and we've actually gotten very close since

then and of doing a few more things together.

They're helping us formulate and they're actually encouraging us to do

something similar here on the East coast.

So sooner or later we'd like to get a processing facility

of ourselves going on East coast so we can offer East

coast businesses some of the benefits of the West coast business

hat, you know,

as far as pricing and things like that.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, you have a lot going on there.

You said it's happened kind of by accident,

but I would suggest not because we were talking just a

little earlier about networking and connections and how one thing leads

to another and it's still the unknown.

When you start talking with someone,

you just don't know where that can lead and sometimes the

least obvious are the most beneficial based on what you're doing.

I mean I believe in law of attraction and I kind

of feel like that happens all the time.

I don't know an answer and then I meet someone who

provides me an answer.

It's funny because it's another one of those skills that I

picked up in the restaurant business.

I had not just took to it.

I had done other things.

You know,

we've done catering,

I've done waiting tables,

bartending and things like that.

And some of the sayings that we have is like,

you know,

you always,

especially when you're in the front of the house,

you don't know who those people are coming through that door.

You don't know how important they are,

what their position is in the community.

I mean they could be the minister of the biggest church

in the community that they know that's,

that's providing all kinds of,

you know,

whatever. You just don't know.

Just cause they're in shorts and a tee shirt doesn't mean

anything. Yes.

Cause they're in shorts and a tee shirt and they're there

to eat.

They're on a different mission or not.

They're professionally,

but you always have to be ready to put your best

foot forward.

Whether that be when you're communicating with people,

the work that you're doing,

you know when you're standing behind that booth because you just

don't know.

You just don't know.

Right. Okay,

so now you have your factory and you're working with scientists

and all of that.

How long did it take you would you say to you

landed on the product specifically?

I think we knew when we met them.

This is the company that we're working with.

The longest part of it is really has been the design

label design.

Even the legal stuff didn't take as long.

I don't know,

maybe label design isn't as important to some,

but it seems like if anyone has designed labels before,

and speaking from my own,

it took us about eight,

nine months to get this right.

We're actually redoing them now because we weren't satisfied with those.

I had totally underestimated how much time and energy it takes,

but if you think about like that is your first introduction

to people,

that's your first impression to your customers.

It does make sense to take that much time to do

it. So I know your bottles,

you've got the Brown bottles with a very beautiful label and

give biz listeners.

You'll be able to go over to their website and see

the logo anytime you want,

but it's beautiful.

It's what you would expect.

Cherry blossoms,

you know the pink cherry blossoms with some green.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

I love it.

Thank you.

How is it that you've decided that you need to do

a change?

Is it just an intuitive feel or you're seeing some responses

or some confusion from people who are coming and interacting with

you at a show or what's led you to this?

Your business tells you things.

It tells you what moves to make.

If you're listening,

it will tell you which way to go and which way

not to go.

So what were you told?

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The business was telling me that we made some mistakes early

on that we made some mistakes in the sense that we

underestimated how important having non THC products were in a TC

market full of government employees,

but we have less than the federal amount,

but we do have trace amounts of TAC and our products

and for a group of people who are getting tested on

a regular basis or have the potential to,

they're not as interested in buying those products.

They want stuff that is more broad spectrum or have no

THC in it.

So that was one lesson.

It's not that we're not selling them,

but I think that we'd have more success if we had

things that had zero to year.

I'd say So there's going to be an extension to the

line or a revamp of the line.

That's kind of what we're thinking about right now.

I do believe in what we're doing and sometimes I think

is kind of like the crux of what we deal with

as a business owner.

Like what I believe or what my initial vision was to

what my business is telling me.

Interesting. Well,

and you have to be open to it too because someone

could be so bullheaded.

I say that in a loving way.

Maybe like where they're just not going to have their eyes

open to all the signs around them and this what you're

talking about is a great example of watching what everyone's telling

you. You stick to your guns to a degree,

but you cannot necessarily get stuck to your initial vision because

things change.

The environment changes like what you're doing now can't be exactly

We've all had to make minor changes since then.

Even if it's something as small as the way we communicate,

we might've been more decibel people then,

but now we're cell phone people,

so things change and you have to adapt and what the

changes were telling me is that we are in a crowded

field. Even in this market.

There's a lot of CBD brands out there.

There's a lot of confusion and people just want a sec

video. At the,

at the grocery store,

I've seen it a doctor's office.

I've seen that the gas station or at the convenience store,

it's all the same and I think people need to know

that it's not all the same,

that there are different levels to it.

There are different levels of extraction,

there are different levels of carrier oil.

So all of these things kind of go in place to

represent a standards of quality and price point.

Well we saw it,

it didn't really matter because there was so much out there.

There's confusing people and we needed to figure out how to

differentiate ourselves.

So what we started doing is put ourselves more in a

wholesale or distributor position as opposed to just being another retail

line. It separates us and what we're trying to do now,

what we have been doing is talking to businesses about helping

them use their branding and their existing marketing with our products

too. They can create their own brand of CBD and I

think that's more powerful for people.

What I'm seeing people are more interested in today's agent branding

themselves than necessarily,

I just want to carry your line of products.

Sure. So when you're talking wholesale,

then I think you're still talking two different things.

You're talking wholesale to businesses who then want to private label

their product and sell CBD through their channels,

and then you're still also looking at providing CBD for the

consumable field.

Sure. Producers,

Yeah, so both,

but all virtually wholesale.

Oh, wholesale bulk isolates.

So you can get bulk oils being good bunk gummies.

If you want an end to container,

unlabeled, you can have them that way.

If you want them with our label on them and you

want to sell our products,

we can do that for you too if you need bulk

isolates. So we're looking at bigger businesses and understand that people

aren't just wanting to put things on their shelves,

but they're are what it takes some of these derivatives and

add it to what they're already doing,

which is the original reason why sort of we went back

to the candy show,

Hey, this is what we're doing now.

We're having products that we're offering products that you can put

into what you're doing and create a whole different line of

income for yourselves and extend your brand as well in your

particular market.

And it feels better.

It's sitting well with you,

it sounds like.

Yeah, it's sitting very well with me.

Okay. And so I'm thinking that there's a big educational element

to all of this.

Yes. So how are you managing through that?

Well, we're given informational popups of,

we had one scheduled this weekend actually.

We've been calling places different senior centers and such,

and sometimes they're a little resistant.

So you're educating to the consumer,

not to your potential wholesale purchaser.

We educated,

we go to B2B events and,

but a lot of it is definitely like as we started,

we started business to consumer and we're still educating consumers.

At the end of the day,

they're the ones who are going to be buying the products.

They need to know what's going on,

like they're spending their hard earned dollars on CBD products.

And sometimes it's kind of,

let's call it heartbreaking,

but it's definitely discouraging when I hear people say,

why went out?

I had this Elma and I bought some CBD from God

knows where and it didn't work.

That's like wow,

that's a negative to everyone in this business cause he's going

to tell 10 people that CBD doesn't work Well and I

don't think you're the first business that's had that issue.

But I think there's more stigma and question around the product

to start with an unknowns maybe would be a better word.

Right. What we're trying to do is de stigmatize it sort

of separated in people's minds from cannabis at least as far

as it can be separated,

but also we don't want to turn people off before they

have an opportunity to see that it actually works.

And I think for,

if I have advice for people who are of age considering

or even working with CBD products right now are using them.

You know,

if you feel like there's something that's not working for you,

don't make this be your last stop.

Like try something else.

Even if you're not buying cherry blossom products,

you know,

we want people purchasing CBD and using it as opposed to

some of the alternatives.

I think it's a great,

great, great product and a great way to naturally heal some

of the things that we're dealing with right now,

particularly pain,

anxiety and inflammation.

Although they're all hot button topics we were talking about,

So this education that we're talking about,

is it helping you become more credible with the wholesalers you're

looking at attracting because you're kind of doing part of their

job. Then if they're going to include it in their products

and you're educating people,

then they're more going to be more likely to buy their

products. Exactly,

and I think that especially in an area like ours where

people don't always understand what we are doing or what our

products are doing,

they want to feel like they have an ally in this

industry that they can trust and there is someone who's willing

to ask some questions and not just,

I just want to sell you something to take your money.

I think say what else has helped us is that we're

calling other companies.

I call other companies all the time and I just started

talking about their products and see what they have.

You never know,

but they may have something that you know,

one of my clients is looking for and I now have

another resource for that.

But also just our business is a funny way,

very open to sharing information with one another.

I think we're all at a stage where we're pretty darn

excited about what's and where this business is going and we're

just like talking and we're sharing knowledge and Hey,

if I can,

you know,

be a resource to you.

It's unusual because I don't feel like I've had that as

much in other businesses.

Well I think greater acceptance of the product overall is going

to lift everybody up.

Yes. So it makes sense and I'm glad to hear that

that's the case.

I want to relate this back to people who are listening

and with you,

Derek, it's kind of an obvious thing that education has to

happen because there are so many fallacies and misconceptions about CBD

overall. But I want to talk like you guys who are

listening right now.

Sometimes we forget because we're so close to our product that

there are things that our potential customers don't know.

I'm going to go to something as basic as if you

are a knitter and you're making scarves,

like what are all the uses for the shapes of the

scarves that you make to demonstrate or have a video that

shows all the different uses or how to care for your

scarves or you know,

whatever it is.

Education, I think brings so much additional value around your product

and makes your product more and more attractive to your potential

buyer. Now with Derek and CBD,

it's a way,

obvious example,

but I want to swing it back to you also for

thinking about your product and what might not be so obvious.

Maybe you make a necklace that could also really be worn

as a belt,

you know?

I mean just other ideas for you to use your product

in a different way opens you up to additional sales.

And it's funny you say that because it kind of goes

with, we were talking about,

it's like not necessarily being tied to your initial idea.

Sometimes those new ideas or something you're already doing.

Like you say,

Oh, I can just make this little bit longer.

I make an adult.

It's just bend in your mind a little bit.

Kind of listen to your customers and they'll tell you,

they tell you what they want.

They're telling you what they're looking for.

Educating your customers at the same time,

educating your customers as well.

Right. Okay.

So I'm quite sure you have a number of things you

could talk about if I were to ask you about challenges,

but I want you to pick one that you think for

our audience would be really helpful.

Like where have been the stumbling blocks along the way here?

Grab the best one.

Uh, well,

okay. The big one is been the vaping crisis of last

industries, but the vaping crisis,

and it's not that we even sell baby products,

it's just a good,

the associations,

It kind of sits in the same part of your mind

I guess.

And then like every week for a while it was something

different. Well it's these,

now it's the CBD once and it's this and it got

to a point where it felt like everything was being tainted

by like every time something came out in the news,

like our business was in the art industry was being a

slightly tainted,

slightly tainted.

Were you seeing it in numbers And we're seeing the numbers,

we're seeing it in people as we were out doing farmer's

markets and things and they were just like,

nah, at this stuff was killing people or this stuff was

killing children.

Like no,

It's confusion.

It's still confusion about the product because it's still so new.

And then this is why like when people get bad products

and now they're turned off and now they're not CBD advocates,

it's like they're the anti advocate and it's complicates the education

issue. So what do you do?

You have to keep talking to people and you just have

to keep educating them.

You gotta keep looking for different ways to sort of different

that one bit of nugget that's gonna read someone.

I'll tell you what happened at the candy show this year

where we were next to a young lady and her husband,

bright people.

You can stop right there because they are also going to

be on the show.

Yeah, we're talking about skips,

candies, everybody.

So I think hers is going to be an episode.

I don't remember if it's before or after you,

but yeah,

we've already done the interview.

Such an interesting product as well.

She is incredible.

So this is who Derrick's referencing.

Everybody skips her husband's a police officer.

And so I understood that there was probably a certain viewpoint,

a certain perspective.

Right. That brings you back to that Kendall.

So my fault.

So we're talking in the three days that we're there and

she said,

okay, let me try some of this lotion.

She does some mixed martial arts,

her shoulder and neck was like really giving us some problems

and I give her the lotion and she's like,

you know,

am I going to be hot?

It's funny because people will be trying to stop.

It will be asking me sometimes,

am I going to be highly,

no you're not.

I asked,

you have one,

I tried to sample there cause I hit my wrist issue.

Right, right.

I remember that.

Yes. It's kind of like as the back of my mind

I'm like maybe they really want to be hot.

Well I'm not answering,

but I did say I do have a whole day of

trade show to go through.

Should I take it an hour later?

Well I put this lotion on her and she comes back

like 20 minutes later like Hey,

like this is working.

And I'm like,

yeah, I know.

And I think by the end of the weekend and if

we had to have enough conversation and I think once I

hit the magic note that when as I started this conversation

that these things come from different plants and that sometimes yes

you can get CBD derived from marijuana but most oftentimes a

try from him.

Ours is derived from hemp and how effective it is and

it will not get you high once.

Like you say,

the certain things to certain people.

I think certain people want to hear certain things and sometimes

you've got to keep it kind of like,

I'll take it this way and if I'm not quite reaching

within our project from this angle,

I'll, maybe I'll approach it from this angle,

but I guess my point,

I want you to get it,

whether you use or not at least wants you to understand

what's going on here.

And it took her to use the lotion and I think

she got it.

I dare to say she may even be a convert.

I don't know.

You have to say she hasn't ordered yet.

Yeah, But she might.

She just might.

It may take a little bit.

It's not as easy as getting people to buy a cupcakes.

No, it is not.

And sometimes it would be a lot easier if the FDA

were allow us to put these derivatives in food and just

kind of open that gate up because I think that would

be a great door opener for people.

Like most people are willing,

even though they act like they're not,

most people are willing to try new things and put them

in their mouth.

They're willing to try new foods.

They understand the pleasure of eating things and consuming things in

that way.

And I think once we can get there with that,

I think we're going to have a lot of temp oil

Congress. So back to the vaping just for a second.

So really the strategy has to be carry on,

continue talking,

continue educating,

Continue educating.

That's it.

That just keep talking,

keep having repeat conversations with people.

Especially I try to go a little bit extra when I

feel like I think I'm challenging someone else's way of paying

relief. I'll just leave it at that.

But if I think that they're doing something other than this

and it's,

I'm not a doctor,

but I've seen what those things can do to people and

I'm like,

Hey, at least give it a shot.

At least give it a try and people have come back

to us.

What's success stories like my relative is using less of these

because of this or having more mobility without having the debilitating

feeling that these these pills get me because I'm this,

I keep coming back to that example because it's such a

hot button issue right now and if this conversation helps one

person get off of those pills.

We've done a good job here today.

So you've mentioned a couple of times here that you have

exhibited both at more business to business shows,

which is when we're talking about the Philly show,

that's what we're men we're talking about.

But you've also done more local shows.

What do you see,

and there might be one that's more prevalent with one type

of show than another,

but what do you see as the best action do you

take to get the best results?

When we're talking face to face shows now Sampling is it

that I don't think a lot of people are getting a

chance to sample as they go out.

So sampling has really helped us tremendously.

They see it,

they see it on signs and I see it in the

store behind the case.

But when they get to come up and like either taste

the gummies or taste the tincture for the oils or we

made actually chocolate sauce at the candy show to show some

of the producers how easily this blends into chocolate without impacting

taste and it tastes these days and they're seeing it.

It's like,

Oh, okay.

It's a whole different thing.

So you could see the the dots time coming together,

you know,

Planing by demonstrating in st Paul.

Yeah. Okay,

perfect. You know,

it always kills me when I go to a show that

is an,

you know,

consumable show of some sort.

Right. And someone has cookies but no samples or they have

chocolate, like no samples and it's like such an obvious thing,

but people don't do it.

It's crazy.

So I'm glad you brought that up.

Now, some of our listeners don't have samples.

They're not going to give away free earrings or things like

that. You know what you're getting when you buy and hearing

or you know what you're getting when you buy a necklace

or a piece of art,

but you don't always know what you're getting when you buy

consumables. Most of the times you what you're getting when you

buy a sugar cookie.

Yes. But nonetheless,

it doesn't hurt to,

you know,

to sample it.

I think for someone who's actually,

you're right,

it's actually making food.

You definitely want people to taste just how good your work

is. It'll encourage them to buy it.

Hmm. Okay.

So what else though,

for those who don't have a consumable product,

what other tip could you give us over and above sampling

Over and above sampling?

I think the most important thing I see when I'm walking

around that,

cause you know,

you got to your shows,

you've got to walk around and see what other people are

doing. Well,

people are sitting back at the booth and they're not engaging

customers. I understand that half the people who walk by are

never going to want to talk to you or they may

not be there for your mission,

but you still have to be up and alert and engaged.

When I see people sitting back on their phone and sometimes

you got to use your phone,

but when you see 10 people walk past your booth and

all that,

the person behind the booth is looking at his or her

phone. What are you saying?

Like what message are you really communicating to the people at

the show?

I agree with you.

It feels very closed off too.

It feels closed off or like you're disinterested,

Like you feel like you're going to be interrupting them with

their phone if you go in their booth.

Exactly. People want to believe that you're interested.

Just like you'll buy something from someone if you feel their

excitement about their product but them on their phone.

It shows no excitement about their product.

Yeah, and I think these face to face events to allow

you to show your personality and show who's behind the product.

Like, honestly,

Derek, I mean I love the logo,

all of that.

If I hadn't been able to interact with you guys at

your booth,

I wouldn't have known what fun you are and how open

you are and we wouldn't have gotten into conversations and you

wouldn't have had the opportunity to start educating me if you

were that closed off.

So the opportunity of being face to face allows your personality

to come through too.

And when people like you and have been talking to you,

they feel more bonded and are that much closer to buying.

I gotta admit,

even if I'm not in that booth,

I got a good team.

You do,

they get it are energetic.

They want to engage with people,

they want it to share the gospel of cherry blossom and

what we're doing and what we're trying to accomplish.

So I think we've definitely kind of all agreed that we're

out there,

we're out there on a mission,

we want to achieve something and what the heck is the

point of paying all this money to go out there and

present yourself if you're not trying to get engage people and

get new customers.

Let's move to another topic as we're starting to get near

the end here,

but something that I definitely wanted to bring up with you

is pricing because it's still a new product.

You've already talked about the fact that there are different levels

of quality,

so when you talk about people who are saying,

Oh yeah,

I've tried it,

it hasn't worked.

They might've also tried it at a price point that equated

to the result that they got.

I'm not sure,

I'm making an assumption here,

but how did you decide where you were going to price

product that would be receptive to the market?

I come to internet and I was looking for similar container

sizes, bottle sizes,

CBD content like in milligrams,

so you have different container count like in gummies,

you know it was a 30 count was a 15 count.

What are we looking at here and making sure that I

was comparing apples to apples on the market.

I think one of the big points of confusion come in

is when people don't understand the different oils,

the different additives and things like that,

that may make some of these products less expensive or more

expensive than others.

Sometimes it is the process or the type of processing that

they have has gone through.

It's just a more expensive process to get to the finished

product. Sometimes that process creates a higher quality product and we

all understand this when we go to restaurants.

If you're choosing the restaurant to go to and say on

a Saturday night,

you're probably not going to go to taco bell with your

family. You'd want to go to someplace nice and sit down

because you already understand that you can get a higher quality

product when you go there.

I don't think the market truly understands that right now,

but where the higher quality products are and what makes them

higher quality.

Sometimes I could say it's a carrier oil sometimes and it's

whether it's a difference between an MCT or a hemp seed

oil or hemp oil,

what have you.

It could be,

like I said,

the difference in process,

it could be the concentration and that's a lot of conversation

to try to have with someone in a short period of

time. So how do you get someone to understand all that

without the research and themselves kind of hard to,

unless you're given a seminar,

Well, they're not going to research themselves probably.

They're just going to walk away.

They're just going to walk away.

So it is that that is a challenge.

I try to convert people because sometimes because of the things

they've heard or the stories or Oh,

I didn't work or I got their minds made up,

you know,

or maybe I'm a Christian and I think you're out here

doing the devil's work.

So on this marijuana,

I mean we've been told that too.

All these are just different perspectives.

And you just have to,

and now I think we know what's coming at us and

we're just better prepare to sort of challenge those and try

to overcome those objections.

Well and some people flat out just aren't going to be

your customer,

you know,

they're just going to decide that that is not for them

and that's fine.

And we have to accept that too as business owners,

not everybody is going to be our customer and that is

okay and that is okay as we continue talking,

I'm getting all of these like realizations because just by the

nature of your product,

you're showing examples that are so extreme,

right? Like really having to educate the customers that there is

definitely going to be people who aren't going to be interested.

Yeah. And there's a lot of variables in the senior market,

which probably are the senior markets probably buy more CBD and

hemp than Mark is very growing.

It's very much growing.

But those are the very people who remember the Nancy Reagan

commercials and things like that are just like,

nah, like this is all marijuana.

Like this is agree with my ideology.

And the younger people,

they'll flat out tell me,

I'm not old enough to do CBD yet.

Take that for what you want,

but that's what they're telling me.

We're doing this now.

When I get to the point where I can't do this

and I'll do this in this particular market in the Washington

DC market,

I would love to take your products.

I love it.

They're beautiful.

I think they're probably effective,

but I got to go to work and probably get tested.

So 80 trace amounts of THC may end up with me

being fired,

which is a whole nother issue that we're trying to overcome

because you can walk into work after drinking all night and

it's totally acceptable,

but if you have trace amounts of THC from taking the

supplement that you did two weeks ago,

then all of a sudden you're subject to losing your job.

I mean,

you've definitely got your challenges within the industry,

but I think that the receptivity,

the understanding,

and it's just going to continue to get better and better.

Yes, I think so.

I think it's getting out there.

We need more and more specials and things like one hour

or two hour specials on,

on the news outlets about it and different things coming out

in different magazines and publications.

So people are reading and I think people are understanding.

So I think that's going to keep increasing and I think

business is just going to get better and better for this

industry and the next five to 10 years for sure.

Yeah. So are you doing anything on the print side,

like blog articles also to help support the cause We say

that we're going to,

but it just hasn't happened yet.

Okay. I think we need to get a little bit better

about organizing our time.

Well, you've got a lot going on.

Hey, thank goodness for Larry.

Really, really.

I don't know what I do without that guy.

He really helps hold it together.

Oh my gosh.

Yes, for sure.

So where can our listeners go to learn more about you

see what you have going on?

Well, we're on Twitter.

We're on Facebook,

we're on Instagram.

We're actually editing videos right now for our YouTube page.

So they're not quite there yet.

We've gone through a couple of editors.

I haven't quite found the right one,

so we're going to get some videos up soon and we're

in my,

one of my,

what I call drunk monkeys is I,

I have to get over not doing videos.

I somehow,

I feel like I'm that teenager standing in the parking lot,

taking pictures of myself and I have to get past that.

The more you do,

the better you'll be,

The more I do it.

Yeah, the better I'll be.

I think that I have a lot to say as far

as educating people on him and I want to get people

out there at least if not buying it,

at least starting to educate themselves so they can make informed

buying decisions.

Okay. And I think we've already talked about the future.

I think you're in an industry to keep an eye on

and you guys specifically,

I have used her product.

I love your product.

I only see it getting better and better as you adjust,

twist, add,

change. I'm super curious about the packaging.

Am I going to see you in September?

You'll see us in September and as far as the packaging

goes, it's just I think one of the big things that

we did not like about the existing labels is that the

writing, especially the supplemental facts on the back were too small.

Even for someone with like childlike vision,

it was still too small.

So we understand that most of our customers are going to

be probably 45 to 75 I'm already starting to have vision

problems so I can only imagine 20 years from now with

some of our other customers may be with maybe 20 years

or so ahead of us.

So we had to do something about that.

It was imperative that we got that writing bigger so they

could see exactly what they're consuming.

Well and as you said,

education is everything and there are going to be times when

people are handling a bottle and you're not around to talk

to them.

Exactly. But if you've got questions you can email us directly

at info cherry blossom,

cbd.com or you can do a website submission.

We're all over it.

I think it comes with like one or two,

at least two of us.

So one of us is going to respond to you relatively

quickly. Perfect.

And give biz listeners,

you know,

on the show notes page,

I will have links to all the social media sites,

the website,

et cetera.

So if you're out walking the dog,

folding your laundry,

doing whatever you're doing at work,

behind the scenes,

like listening,

no problems.

I've got you covered over in the show notes.

Derek, super interesting conversation today.

I understand the whole CBD concept way better than I did

in the beginning.

So it's been such a help and really,

really good business insights as I referenced earlier,

to kind of augmented things that we all should recognize that

we can encounter but augmented for your industry.

So I really appreciate your sharing with us today.

Thank you.

I found this chat with Derek to be so valuable.

First. We all now have the real facts about CBD,

but by nature of Derek's product,

he faces challenges that we all have as business owners except

his are magnified tenfold given the restrictions and the uneducated opinions

about CBD.

I'm so happy that he was willing to share how he's

working through all this to gain customer acceptance.

Most of our products never encounter these obstacles,

but his solutions can definitely be applied for each and every

one of us up next week.

I have the perfect business to share with you just in

time for Easter.

Make sure to tune in to learn more about how this

business continues to grow without any social media.

You heard me right?

Zero social media to date.

I bet that sparked your curiosity.

A great way to ensure that you don't miss this is

to subscribe to the podcast.

When you do,

every episode will be ready and waiting for you each and

every week.

Now, as one final reminder,

I want to just make mention one more time,

that classroom doors close to maker's MBA tomorrow night,

go to gift biz on rapt.com

forward slash makers MBA for all the details.

There is really no more time to wait,

so do it now.