If you’re new to the business world of CBD oil, you’re likely facing an uphill battle. CBD oils and extracts, along with other hemp products, have exploded in recent years. The ‘Just Say No’ dogma is crumbling as more people learn about the benefits of hemp and its cannabinoids. Laws are loosening and changing. Customers are no longer willing to settle for any old CBD oil, or worse still, bags of loosely packed buds that smell a little suspiciously like oregano.
Whether you’re new to the CBD space altogether, or already have experience as a customer or employee, you want to keep up with trends, new ideas, and legal changes. Enter Scott Hawksworth of The CBD Guide, a new podcast launched in February 2021.
How The CBD Guide Got Started
Scott founded The CBD Guide with one simple mission: to give you accurate, up-to-date information on the CBD industry and its best products. As of early August 2021, there are 23 episodes of The CBD Guide, which you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
With The CBD Guide’s podcast, you can get inspired by interviews with experts, thought leaders, and successful entrepreneurs. Topics range from sustainable farming to beauty products to legal issues. The most recent episodes cover CBD products for animals, showing just how far we’ve come in recognizing hemp extracts as potentially powerful medicines. None of the interviewees are selling shady or generic products, either. Each episode’s subject has its own unique point of difference, with its own stories, challenges, and victories.
Why We Need The CBD Guide
In a nutshell, we need reliable information! You don’t want misinformation, fake product reviews, or outdated advice, and you won’t find those here. At The CBD Guide, you can get started with the Guides section, including what’s legal around selling CBD. For example, the Farm Bill only allows U.S. businesses to sell products for cosmetic use, and you still can’t sell anything with more than 0.3 percent THC. Knowing the obscure differences between what is and isn’t legal can mean the difference between your business thriving, or crashing before you get the chance to go international or see further liberalization.
The CBD Guide not only fills a need for reliable scientific and legal information but shows the opportunities out there. As of 2019, one in seven (14 percent) Americans use CBD products. This peaks at 20 percent of under-30s, and falls to eight percent of people over 65. Around one in three Americans have no knowledge of CBD products, and a half just don’t use them. While the market is competitive, you have a lot of space to grow, including in education around the benefits of CBD oil.
The most common uses of CBD oil are pain, anxiety, insomnia, arthritis, migraines, and stress, which are all-too-common health problems. You may see this as a sign that any old CBD will do, but is that really the case? Why not go all-out with putting your own spin on your products and ensuring quality? When you hear others’ CBD success stories, you can start to think of what makes you amazing.
The CBD Guide also features product reviews of popular lines. If you’re a customer, you can compare extracts and oils to see which may be right for you. If you’re a business owner, you can see how your products measure up and find room for improvement if you’ve missed anything.
An Interview With Maryam Henein
One CBD Guide episode focuses on an interview with HoneyColony’s founder, Maryam Henein. The episode covers the changing legal landscape around CBD products and common challenges in the industry.
If you came into the CBD industry flying blind, you may not see any risk in selling extracts and oils alongside other natural medicines. However, as Maryam explains, it’s still far safer (and often necessary) to split your company. Any sneaky legal issues or outdated company policies with CBD products will then likely have little to no effect on the other arms of your business.
You may not otherwise be aware of issues such as the difference CBD quality makes, either. Today, “everyone and their mother” is developing lines of CBD oil, including celebrities. This makes it so easy to get lost in contradictory advice, fancy marketing, and sponsored reviews. We must return to the basic facts surrounding what makes a quality CBD oil. Here, Maryam reveals to listeners that hemp is such powerful bioremediation, that it was used to clean up Chernobyl. What this means for you is that any hemp product you purchase as a business owner or customer must be organic. Otherwise, you could be consuming the very toxins that cause the illnesses you’re actively trying to prevent.
It doesn’t only matter that hemp is more pest-resistant than other plants like cotton. That’s great, but what about the soil? Are there heavy metals or toxins leftover from previous land use? Do the farmers really avoid all use of pesticides, or are herbicides still sprayed on any invaders? And is the CBD oil formulated to be a whole extract, taking advantage of the entourage effect? All of these factors, alongside others such as the ingredients included with CBD, are highlighted by Maryam in her CBD Guide interview.
Times Are Changing
The North American demand for CBD oils is no longer found in the desperate black market of the 2000s or other countries. Trendy, high-quality niche products are present and future. However, you want to know how to find the best or be the best as a business owner. The CBD Guide is proving itself to be a helpful tool in finding relief or success in the world of CBD extracts. To subscribe, click here for Spotify, here for Google Podcasts, or here for Apple Podcasts.
