EP 9: SOUL ADDICT - LAURA WHITE

ep-9-Soul-Addict-Laura-White - Part 1 of 2

Michelle: Hey there. I'm Michelle Sherrier and this is the Retail whore Podcast, The Stories and Lessons from the Life and retail. Hey guys, happy Wednesday. I am officially wrapped with the gift show setups. Praise God. Twice a year I set up gift shows and they run. They've been now running longer and longer because of COVID and because of all the shifts of dates and whatnot. So I. Las Vegas was extended way past its usual date. So this is much later in the year than I'm used to working on gift shows. So I'm happily transitioned back into my retailers. I'm up in Morgan Hill, I am setting up my first fall set up and if you know me, you know I love fall and holiday, so I am happily putting out the pumpkin candles. I'm not sure about you guys, but, you know, I've done, you know, as a buyer, I did the Las Vegas show from top to bottom. And one thing that became extremely clear is CBD is everywhere from high end bath lines to general gift lines at a lower price point. And it really I mean, I was kind of blown away how much it has invaded into the gift world, which says volumes.

Michelle: Obviously it's needed. But I know a lot of people have jumped on board just to be able to put that label on it that it contains CBD and it's everything from CBD socks to CBD, lip balms to CBD shampoo, conditioner, body cream, transdermal patches, you name it. Cbd is in it. And it really started me thinking about how do people, as buyers understand the difference of a high quality CBD and a low quality? Because honestly, I don't think half of the reps understand it. And especially and this is no dig on the lower priced gift lines, but you know, a lot of the reps are older, they have been in the game forever and quite honestly, I don't even think they understand what CBD does, let alone what makes it a higher quality or what what makes it stand out from any other line. So I figured what better time than to bring on Laura White of Soul Addict, who has created the most beautiful line of CBD products? She likes to call her company a conscious cannabinoid company. Her CBD is derived from hemp that she farms with her family, and she created this beautiful product in order to help with her own journey through depression and anxiety.

Michelle: We talk in depth about that as well as the benefits of CBD, as well as we get deep into the descriptions of some of the terms like broad spectrum, she goes into what is the difference between CBD and THC? And I know a lot of people know the difference, but I know there is a whole lot of people who don't know the difference and she is so incredibly knowledgeable. This is probably the longest podcast interview I've done, but it was so in-depth that it was very hard to step away and end it. So we've decided to break it into two parts. Today is part one and next Wednesday it will be part two. I promise you, you are going to learn a shit ton of information and I think with the fact that CBD is not going anywhere, I think it is a perfect conversation. So without further ado, here is Laura White with soul and. Hi, Laura. Thank you so much for joining me. I am. I know everyone's super busy and this is a Saturday and I'm taking it your time, but I can't thank you enough for spending some time with me on the retail podcast.

Laura: I am super excited to be here. This is my first podcast in a minute since 2020, so I'm super pumped. I'm like down for a weekend recordings. Like anything that like kind of like feels semi-normal again, like sharing about stuff and exciting projects. Like, I'm here, I'm here for this. So thank you for having me.

Michelle: I'm so excited to talk to you because you and I met I don't know, I think you contacted me when you were first putting out Soul Addict. And we kind of talked a little bit. And then I've followed you, you follow me. And now that this is coming to fruition, you were like one of the first people, I thought, especially when you opened your space. So I can't wait to dig into that. First question I always ask everybody is, how old were you when you first started work and what was your first job?

Laura: This is actually really funny and probably also going to tell my age. My first job was I was 16 because I was driving. I remember this and it was at Hollister. It was like my house at the time. Like I think like Hollister. Do you know Hollister? Yeah. Like the, like kind of beachy. Yeah. And it was so cool back in like the time when I was in high school. But I remember my mom was like, okay, like, I'm not buying any more of this for you. Like, you can get a job and like get the discount. So I drove like I grew up on a farm in the middle of absolute nowhere. So after school, every day I would drive like basically 45 minutes to work, like a two hour shift.

Michelle: Where where did you grow up?

Laura: It's a really small town called Casar, North Carolina. It's like very rural, like, very, very like farmland. Like our my high school had chickens, cows, horses. And like the back of it, it was like it was like a.

Michelle: For like a 4H.

Laura: Or like yeah, yeah. Like, like 4H for sure. And then like like, I guess, like Future Farmers of America, of course, is like really popular. You would go and show like the animals that, like the local fair every year, like that kind of.

Michelle: That kind of place. That's why that explains a lot about like farming this. So yeah, tell everyone for people that don't know what soul addict is, tell everyone about yourself and your company.

Laura: Yeah. So I'm Laura White. I'm the founder of Soul Addict. I launched S.A, which is what I call it often into in January of 2017. We are a conscious cannabinoid company and organic hemp farm. We are located in Connelly Springs, North Carolina. We were one of the first women owned farms in North Carolina to get our state license to grow and actually started S.A. when I was living in New Orleans, which is always like, I call it my soul city. It's like where I feel like I'm most alive, most magical, like all my communities there. But pretty soon after starting s.A, I really knew that if I was going to start a business like I had to, I just like to do everything all in. So like I started to apply for our hemp license in 2017 because we weren't growing at the time and moved our whole operations in March of 2018 back to North Carolina to actually start growing our plant, to become a vertically integrated cannabinoid company. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: So you okay?

Laura: I can break it down. I know there's so many things and I call it like a cannabinoid company now too, for so many reasons, which is like a whole other thing.

Michelle: Start with that.

Laura: Okay. So when we first started, CBD was still very new to the market. Like no one had heard of it and it's still obviously very new. A lot of people don't know a lot about it, but CBD is just one of many molecules found in the cannabis plant in both high THC breeds and also hemp, which are two different plants, a part of the same species which is called cannabis. So to be a farm, I felt very early on, probably about a year into essay that by just calling us like a CBD brand didn't totally represent the kind of products that we sell because we do sell full spectrum, which I know we said we were going to get into a little bit later, which means that it's an array of cannabinoids. So cannabinoids are the molecules that are basically the healing, feel good of the plant and they come from the flower of the cannabis plant. So when I started to kind of think about how people felt about S.A and like how our brand kind of came across, I felt like I was kind of doing a bit of a disservice by just calling us a CBD brand when in all of our products there is a myriad of different cannabinoids. So kind of came up with just really going with it and calling us a conscious cannabinoid company versus just a CBD company because we have all the good stuff in our in our products instead of just the CBD, which a lot of brands just have CBD. So yeah.

Michelle: You start and I'm going to go so off.

Laura: Yeah.

Michelle: No, I said I was going to do it anyway.

Laura: So yeah, it's like there's so many, there's so much when it comes to cannabis in general.

Michelle: So, so you and I first start talking. So did you start with one product because you have what, three products?

Laura: Right now we have, let's see. We have. Like five, six, six products.

Michelle: Wow. So you started what you first started with one?

Laura: I just started with a just a very like multi use kind of like use all kvd elixir that was full spectrum and that was kind of like. And to this day, it's still kind of like our bread and butter of our our line. I'm a big believer and just like a very minimal amount of products that like are more potent versus like a ton of product SKUs. But yet when we first met, we just had one like do all products.

Michelle: Which I still love. And I actually, I said that I need to, I need to order this again some more. So, you know, because obviously there's a lot of technical things with pulling out elements of a cannabinoid plant, like did you go to school for this and for wellness? And how did you how do you pull together?

Laura: How did this start? No, I did not. So I definitely am self taught and cannabis for the past five years. But the way that I kind of ended up, I think in wellness as a whole, I really kind of goes back to my back story. I've always dealt with anxiety and depression, like since I was like in my early teen years. So I really don't remember a time where I wasn't like super anxious or kind of like dealing with kind of like the numbing sadness that comes along with being depressed. And it was definitely a struggle through high school. And I eventually got on Zoloft when I was in, I think like 10th grade. So I was on that for a really long time. And then I got to college. I went to school at Pace University in New York City and pretty much very early on like did a full 180 and started to like self teach my self about Ayurvedic medicine. I got really into the gut brain connection, started doing yoga and just essentially kind of like pulled away the layers of understanding mental health from a more holistic perspective.

Laura: In my free time away from school at the time, I was like, I was majoring in communication studies and international relations with my minor. Funny stories though. I got all four years under my belt and then very last minute dropped out of college. So just kind of went like total again, like 180 because I had decided that at the time I was going to do like this holistic nutrition program because I had gotten so into it and had pretty much gotten myself out of all of my antidepressants. And for the first time, I really, really felt like myself. And that was like really empowering, I think, to a young 20, something like fresh out of like basically being of college age. And I just felt was really powerful. So I wanted to kind of share how I'd gotten there with a lot of people my age because I mean, I remember I was like walking around New York City back at the time and like 2000, like ten looking for like a juice shop or like, like looking for like a natural.

Michelle: Store.

Laura: Around, like.

Michelle: Papaya King.

Laura: You know, like it was like a really there was like one place that was like serving vegan food, like in all of like the Lower East Side. So anyhow, I ended up going back to school for my esthetician license, which is like I feel like I just kind of jumped around a lot and then because I kind of led me into realizing that, wow, like not only are we thinking about what we're like putting into our body, but also what we're putting on our body. So then I get really into the whole thing, like skin, hair, and then after I graduated with my esthetician license, I essentially got a job in tech.

Michelle: And oh my God.

Laura: Yeah, I always knew it was like, I don't know, I really wanted to learn. I guess, like how to run a startup. And I had kind of like gotten on early with this really cool startup that taught people essentially how to code and like a fast track. And I did their branded business development for a while for about, I want to say six years, but I always kind of knew that I was like really trying to work my way back into working in wellness, but just like never really never came to fruition. And so obviously, long story short, I was really working like crazy hours. I had like a really big role at the time. I was like opening schools like across the country for this, like coding bootcamp, then jumped to another company doing like the director of branding and sales and was just kind of burning the candle at both ends.

Michelle: And pretty much I'm like, that alone. Seems like it would give you anxiety.

Laura: It definitely it was not like it's funny. Now I look back and I'm like, that was so out of my element. Like, I was just working like this job. I guess we kind of like end up in situations right where we like there's just such this like loud noise, maybe, like to put us on our path, you know, like 100%, 100%. And I was like, traveling a lot. It just was not my thing. And so I hit like a wall and I started having panic attacks in the middle of, like, pitching and fact. Like, my worst nightmare happened. Yeah, like about, like, five years ago, because it was like right before I started essay. I had like gotten this pitch with this really big media company out of New York City. I was working still in tech. We were doing this like crazy out of home advertisement like ad technology where it could tell what brands people were wearing and like if you were like what you identified as and like what your age was, it was really crazy. But anyhow, I got up there in front of like 30 people to pitch our company's technology to their out of home advertisement sector and totally just like went into a full on panic attack in front of all these people.

Michelle: So, so for for people that know me, they, I have horrible anxiety like I, I, my anxiety attack manifested into this. I thought I was straight up having a heart attack like I was on a job for Bristol Farms. It was 3:00 in the morning. We're installing something and I know what set it off now. Now that's been years, but it started with I can't get my heart to slow down. I can't get my heart to slow down. Oh, my God. It was like I'd call because my go to is always calling my husband because he has an ability of of talking me through things. And he couldn't be because he'd be like, babe, close your eyes, take a breath. And I'm trying to do it. And it's like nothing is slowing it down. And I got the it and I was like, Oh my God. And the grocery manager looks at me and he's like, Are you okay? And I said, I think I'm having a heart attack. And he literally went into this crazy snap at the moment, runs across thing, breaks open a bottle of baby aspirin, shoves it in my throat. All sudden I puke in front of him, my God. Which now I'm like, I'm now it's like you're really having a heart attack because this is one of the signs. And I get driven to the hospital, Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. I go through the whole thing. It was the most expensive fucking panic attack ever. And I when I read your story about anxiety and it's like I mean, I can tell you right now people are listening to this. There is a shit ton of people that have anxiety from the very small thing to to very large. I think I'm having a heart attack. What did your anxiety attacks look like?

Laura: That was the scary part, because even since I've learned more about my disorder and kind of like how to manage it, but I think the biggest thing was like it would come out of nowhere, like, you know, and it would start off where I would just feel anxious throughout the day. Like we all I mean, for most of us who have experienced anxiety, you know, you're just kind of like it feels like that, like numbing, kind of like hankering of.

Michelle: Like they're in the background.

Laura: Me Yeah, but like what? And you just can't put your finger on it. Just constantly feels like a state of response of fear and, and stress. But then also like it kind of graduated up from that panic attack that I had at the pitch where one day I literally it just came out of nowhere. I mean, I was fine one second and then it was like very much similar to what you were just explaining. Like the walls felt like they were closing in, you know, for no good reason. I was like, Am I losing my mind? Like, What's happening, you know? And you think you're dying? I mean, at the moment, you you just you feel like you're dying. And then the most terrifying thing is after you realize that, you get to the other side. Oh, I'm not dying. Then there's, like, another fear of. Oh, my gosh, I don't want this to happen again because it's so scary and it's become more prevalent along with American women, more so than ever before. Women are like, It's something crazy. This is just like panic disorders. And anxiety disorders in the country right now are just, like, completely, like just rolled way ahead of men.

Michelle: Oh, especially during the shutdown. I mean, I feel like a lot of women, just myself included, no matter what's wrong, you just everything's fine. We're keep going. And, you know, it's just you. You shove down so much of what's going on. And there's also, I feel like some shame to it where you're like, you're not about to go, Hey, I'm going to take a second. Like, I need to go breathe or do whatever. Like, I'll literally I will continue to talk through whatever I'm feeling. And, and I've also recognized if I don't in my head, address it. Like if I don't go, Oh, this is what's happening. Like, if I'm driving it, it happens because I have the focus on the road. It will go away. It's when I'm like standing talking to someone and I can feel it coming on and I'm like still having a conversation with somebody. And if I don't put too much attention on it, then it then it will pass. But it's I think women are just so just designed to everything's fine. We're moving forward. I'm taking care.

Laura: And they're cool with it.

Michelle: It's like they take care of everybody else.

Laura: Yeah. No, absolutely. And then even if you learn because I think it's kind of like learning how to live with it and basically develop techniques that kind of put everything into perspective, even when you kind of learn to do that. I'm kind of realizing with like all the years that I think I've even gotten to where I'm at right now is that when I do go through those harder times, I even have a still kind of struggle with like, well, how much time do you actually get to devote to this? Like really real part of my identity and like my, my emotions. Like how how much time do I get to develop them if I'm like having an off day, week, month, year? I mean, we have off years, especially coming out of 2020. And I think that that's something that's really kind of rang and with a lot of the women that I'd get to chat with through my job a lot, you know, it's just kind of like, how do you be easy with yourself when you know that like this thing is kind of always going to be a part of you, you know? So, yeah. So I mean, that, that's essentially what led me to I kind of broke down to a point where I was 27 at the time and I went to a doctor that was supposed to be really, really great.

Laura: And she sat me down and we did like a little like clinically depressed test, which is actually I don't know, I find it kind of funny because it's like I feel like we should be a little bit more ahead than like a pen to paper, like circling. Like, I don't know these like three options, but they're rad. And I remember she sat me down and she was like, Yeah, like, you're, you're clinically depressed. You, you're like, bordering like panic disorder, which is what we're talking about, like where you're out and about and all of a sudden you have a panic attack and like, think you're dying. And like, here are the medications. You can take this and it's a lifetime commitment to be on this. But this is how you get your life back, kind of. And I don't know. But like, I left that that that doctor's appointment just feeling, like, really angry and very upset. That, like, that was probably what most women are being told at this point. Like, there's not a lot of access and options to.

Michelle: Take a pill, like a pill. Everything is take a pill, which I you know, I don't when I had these attacks before in anthropology and this is kind of when I was like, it's time to get out. I went to a doctor and they're like, you're having we're we think you're having seizures because I was having vertigo and I could literally time it. It was every 15 minutes I'd have an insane vertigo attack and I'd sit down and they gave me whatchamacallit meds for if I was having a seizure and.

Laura: Like with it let go.

Michelle: I think so. And it slows you down like there is no tomorrow. I mean, I would stand in front of a tabletop display that I could do in 10 minutes. I'd be stand there like I don't even know where. And I, I took myself off it because it was like I but everything is like so I feel like the medical world, unless you go a wellness path, everything is here's a pill.

Laura: Here's a pill. That's the thing, right? It's like we can I think everything has a space in time. And it's not about it's not about like I'm. We're being judgey that you shouldn't take pills. It's more about I think the biggest thing is like. What are my other options if I had this experience by taking this pill that I know you want me to get back on, to get my life back, and I know that that hinders who I am, like emotionally, how I show up in my life every day. Like, that's what really upset me is because like, yes, I could feel better, quote unquote on this thing that for me personally and my very personal experience with this very personal thing that I have to deal with, I, I want to be able to show up in my life fully. You know, life is short, you know. And so I think that the whole thing for me was like that led me to cannabis and CBD and all of these things. Is that how can I show up fully and have access to something that might look different to other people and how I am challenging the mental health, I guess like diagnosis that I've gotten and be able to like still feel like holy me and that's what I think is then really, really push me to launch essay.

Laura: I mean essentially I got to a point where like the day after that appointment I started researching like what other, like what are other people doing that you know, that I wouldn't have to be on X, Y, Z. She had given me like two scrips that I could have gone and gotten prescribed that day. So I'd kind of given myself like a mental week if I was going to go and like actually get them or but something just told me like, no, like just give yourself a week to see what's out there. And like one of the biggest things that kept on coming up at the time was like CBD, CBD. And of course, we were in Louisiana. There's no at the time there was not a medical like access. Now there is.

Michelle: But CBD or THC that was coming up or was it bold?

Laura: It was. Well, I guess like as a whole, for sure, cannabis was coming up, but a lot of people were using cannabis. And I mean, I definitely had smoked before and had grown up around the plant in many different ways, but also had not really like that shift for me, had not quite happened yet where like I could use this thing medicinally and that really like that just shift in perspective was like everything. So I like started looking up like what, what was, what was available to me because I had not also heard of like CBD at, at length. And so that was when I realized that like you could get CBD from him from the hemp plant and source full spectrum, which means it still has a small amount of THC, but like it was legal like nationally and that blew my mind. Like I could not believe that. So I sourced from this small farm out in Colorado and took it for like a week and wrote down how I was feeling because that's what they told me to do. They were like, you know, this can be like really subtle. Like you might not really recognize, but like if you write down how you're feeling every day, you'll, you're going to be able to kind of understand how it's affecting you. And it totally changed how I like, deal with my anxiety. I mean, completely. 180 And that was like I literally like pretty much stopped my life and I was like, I'm starting a company like I'm fucking doing this.

Michelle: So when you started when you got the stuff from from were you getting the plant from Colorado?

Laura: No, it was actually a like a full spectrum plant extract. So just like a regular CBD oil. But that was still when I was kind of like learning the difference between like, okay, so you can get full spectrum, broad spectrum or isolate. So full spectrum means that you're going to be getting everything that you would get from normal high THC cannabis except for that. But the THC is going to be 0.3% or below. So you still get the benefits that I super believe in with having a little bit of your THC in any of your hemp or cannabis products, but not having that high experience.

Michelle: So you can have an I don't mean to cut you out so you can have CBD with a small percentage of THC and it doesn't get you high because I think that every single person I'm I'm guessing the majority of the people that are listening to this know what CBD is now, because everything the gift industry has just latched on to the CBD thing. So everyone from bath bombs to mass and you have no. You know, to be honest, because even with me in the gift part of it, it's like you have no idea. For me, it was like I knew if Robby, the pharmacist from Burt's was buying it, it was a high grade. But do you know if it was organic? I mean, none of that is talked about at the shows. And it's like there is so much CBD product out there right now. So I feel like for everyone that's listening, so CBD with a small amount, is it 3%, 0.3. 3% with THC? Because I have heard the two combined is a better effect than what it's just one or the other, but it doesn't get you high.

Laura: Yes. So I'm a big, big believer that unless you're getting drug tested, so if you're getting drug tested, you probably do need to go with like a broad spectrum CBD. But if you're not and you're really looking for something that's as potent as it can be and you're not in a legal state or you don't have access to full spectrum cannabis, or you've had an experience where you did not like the high that you got. Full spectrum CBD is what you need to look for because that means that it has that small 0.3% amount of THC within it. Broad spectrum means that it has got all of the cannabinoids that you also see in a full spectrum, except they do remove the THC and just a CBD. Isolate is just that. It's just really processed, highly deducted down full spectrum oil and they take out all the other cannabinoids and all you're left with is CBD.

Michelle: Why do they why would they take everything else, all the other good factors out?

Laura: So I think a lot of it is marketing, right? I mean, personally, I think that like the market when CBD first started, they just started extracting CBD and like such high amounts and it was just like what people were doing, so they needed to get rid of it. And so a lot of it was like, let's just brand it like CBD and just CBD based products are like the best. And I kind of feel like that's what happened. Personally speaking, I'm a big, big believer that, you know, you really should have as many cannabinoids in the product, the CBD products that you're ingesting. It is going to be more like better metabolized by you and they all kind of work together, right? Think of like a whole food. Like it's like basically taking an apple and then juicing the apple. Now you're just left with a bunch of, like, sugar juice instead of like having the fiber and all the other good stuff that you're going to get from the apple, you know? And and I think that that's something that people don't know to look for, just to really be super adamant on, like what there's so many different products, like you said, on the market. Like you have to be really diligent about doing your your educating and understanding what you're looking for and knowing the questions to ask the companies how they create their products like essentially. So yeah.

Michelle: It's like it's a whole. It's funny, and this is a whole nother conversation. But I'm working with a new account and it's called Hair the Cause. And she's created this treatment where she's working with women who have gone through some type of cancer and have gone through chemo. And they have you come in before and they have that you lob off their they lob off their hair, they save it. They go through the chemo. They come back when they have an inch of hair and they connect your own hair back to it. And she's wants to do a whole CBT. So I actually gave her your information two days ago, so she'll reach out. She's amazing. I mean, the companies, she just I mean that her watching these women who have gone through this and I said to I can't imagine how afraid how like everything your ego's everything's tied up in your hair. And I said in the videos of these women and they have like long hair again and they're confident. I mean, they're literally radiating. So she's opening this retail space. So I was like, You need to get a hold of Laura. Like, her products are amazing. So this is.

Laura: Like.

Michelle: A sideline in the podcast.

Laura: Why I started essay for sure. Like those kind of like collaborations like give me life in so many ways. Like I don't and I don't know. I think that that's the other thing I think on like when we're thinking about like legal cannabis is just like access to specifically people that have like terminal, like chronic illnesses such as cancer and like what does that look like for their options? And oftentimes, you know, THC is the biggest like cannabinoid that can be so, so helpful as you're kind of like fighting this thing. And I don't like to use the word fighting, evolving with this disease and trying to kind of figure out where your life is. I think the THC, unfortunately, in the CBD world has gotten this like crazy, like, oh no, it doesn't have THC and it doesn't have to it and it kind of like just re stereotypes that THC and like the the weed stereotype kind of like just gets like another bad rep from that. I think that's like another big thing. But like I'm trying to like really unravel for people is that like you have to kind of like look at all the good that this plant really does for so many people and like how it really gives a lot of people their life back. And then.

Michelle: It's crazy. It's like, well, I mean, like for me growing up, I didn't really I didn't like weed. Unfortunately, I liked other drugs that made me move faster. But I, you know, my mom always used to say because she was like so like her nickname is Prue as in prude. And she was like, I will never smoke weed or marijuana because I'm too afraid of taking my clothes off and dancing on a table. And I swear to God, I think that that was half of my mom's generation's thought of THC. And that's it's like with everything else. That's one of the reasons why I want to have you on, because it's like it's such a stigma. It's like, no, it's like I mean, I know my friends who are bringing their I mean, when I go to Med Men because I'll go get they have this amazing topical and it's CBD and heavy high THC and it's like I use my knee and my shoulder and I see more adult children bringing in their parents to get some type of topical or pre-rolled or something because they're either in pain or they have panic like elderly panic. I mean, it's it's amazing. And I think that that I think that it's changing now that it's becoming legal in some areas. But I still think that there's a whole generation of people that I'm going to take my clothes off and dance on the table.

Laura: Now for sure. I mean, I, I feel like still being in this industry is opened my eyes because I'm so in it that sometimes I'm like, Oh yeah, everybody knows. But really not like most people don't know. I mean, if we look at legalization, even like on a recreational, I mean like just a small amount technically of our country is technically at mass made recreational cannabis access legal but I think I always like to share that one. I used to hate smoking like I used to get so paranoid and be that person like that would. I'm not I don't even know how to describe how hard I laugh. But if you look at the new Seth Rogen marketing videos for its brand Houseplant, I don't know how I feel about another celebrity based brand, but I will give Seth Rogen like the biggest high five, because like that there's like a woman and she's sitting it's kind of like this eighties cool, retro, like vintage, like look of the whole entire set. And, like, this girl is like, out with her friends and they're like, here, like, smokes a weed and she, like, takes a big puff and then she, like, immediately gets super awkward and, like, starts, like, slurring her words and she, like, runs the bathroom and, like, just, like, stares in the mirror and was like, don't freak out, Christine.

Laura: Don't freak out. Like, that definitely is like. How much of our first experiences on cannabis that we kind of like just immediately write it all off. You're just like, No, never again. But it's, it's really, I mean, I like to describe it as like alcohol, right? Like, not all of us love wine. Not all of us, like, do great with tequila. Not all of us do wonderful. Like, a lot of people hate beer, like cannabis in a way, without like, obviously being alcohol is very much like that, right? Like you can kind of share like there's so many different strains and like different concentrations even with hemp flour, which is what we do here at S-A in a big way. A lot of our hemp flower has gotten really popular over 2020 is that these different strains are going to give you different feelings, like you're not going to be in your mind, like just tripping out in the bathroom for like 2 hours, like we, like most of us have.

Michelle: Mine was at Bob's Big Boy in high school, and I being there sitting at one of those booth tables and I lost it. I never I don't think I ever regained composure. I couldn't even I couldn't even get my shit together to order like somebody else had to order for me. And that's literally. And you know what's weird is it, it, it's never been that funny ever again. Like, I don't know what it.

Laura: Was honestly like. I think my worst, like one of the worst experiences where I like was on a day I was like probably like 23 and I had this big crush on this guy and he'd invited me over after our date, like, we were just, like, hanging out, listening to music. And he, like, lit a joint, and I was like, Oh, should I do this or not? And I just tried to act super cool. I took like a huge pass and I ended up like, I don't know how long I was in his bathroom for, but it felt like a really long time, like an inappropriate amount of time just sitting there, like, hoping that, like, I would.

Laura: Not come.

Laura: Off super awkward. And I remember I just like, open the door. And he was like, Are you okay? And I was like, I'm going, I'm going to go. And I just left and we never talked again. So that is like there's just actually no he did he actually did reach out to me like two months later and I was actually really surprised. That's right. But I was so mortified. I could not could not say anything back to him. So but I don't know. I didn't have those experiences. But I promise if you like, feel like you could benefit or you're like even the least bit open to like plant medicine and CBD and all these things. Like there is some sort of product out there for you that like can really usually help you in some big, wild way if you're not.

Michelle: That was one of my question is like how is CBD used in the wellness community?

Laura: Yes. So where I like to describe it is the way that CBD is being used from hemp, from the hemp plant at the moment across the nation. Is that is right like it's federally legal and it's nationally legal. So it's basically taking all of the things that we think that we that cannabis high THC cannabis can help with but like on a little bit of a smaller scale because you don't have as many as as much THC in the product. So a lot of times that does like it can hinder someone that might have a terminal diagnosis, right? Like where you might really, really want to be in a legal state where you can be under doctor's supervision and like have like a really crafted experience around something that would help. But you know, our customer base uses our CBD from anything from anxiety, panic disorders, sleep disorders, insomnia. We have people that use it for diabetes, for autoimmune disorders.

Michelle: Interesting autoimmune disorders. What does it do for?

Laura: For a lot of people? So the way that that kind of gets into how cannabis works, right? So the way that cannabinoid so THC CBD, CBN, CBD, these are all there's a whole spectrum of cannabinoids, there's over 100 of them and they're found in both high THC and both hint. And essentially when we ingest or smoke, we're they these cannabinoids are absorbed through our bloodstream and are usually digested through our liver if we're doing edibles. But what is actually recognizing the cannabinoids is our endocannabinoid system, which is actually a pretty relatively new system, medically speaking. I think it was founded I should know this, I usually do. But it's been, like I said, over half in quarantine like 1995. I want to say it was discovered by two doctors. And essentially what this system does is it is our homeostasis like center. So pain, sleep, anxiety, mood, appetite. All of these things are regulated through our. Endocannabinoid system. So when we take CBD or smoke a joint or eat an edible or whatever it may be, the cannabinoids are recognized by the system and can basically see what's off with our body to put it in very like layman's terms. So if we have an overactive immune system like it can kind of navigate what might be off and what might be what our immune system is responding to and why it's so stressed, which is why why CBD is so effective for people with anxiety because it's such a regulator of our nervous system.

Laura: Cbd can actually be ingested to help re regulate and basically stop our fear response, our anxious response to whatever cause that might be happening. And then over time, if we take it just basically like a medicine or something like a supplement, it can over time help correct these things and help us basically restore that homeostasis within our endocannabinoid system that might have been overactive and responding to stress or anxiety or something, like I said, like an autoimmune disorder. It's very fascinating when you kind of get down to it because we even women, when we have breast milk, we produce cannabinoids in our breast milk. So if you think about it, like we naturally literally have these same things, these cannabinoids that are shared between us, like it's almost like our bodies were actually built to respond and recognize these molecules from cannabis and they're also found in other plants and food. But of course, like cannabis has more like the medicinal value. So it's pretty fascinating.

Michelle: Yeah, it's amazing. I, you know, I like I said, like there's so much CBD product out there and I have found one that is in a pill format. And I do realize I am like my flight or fight or flight response is like on an all time high, especially during this time of year where it's like, I'm seven days a week now. There's no I'm supposed to be working today, but I was feeling like I have to. When you sleep through an hour and a half, facial, facial, not even a massage. A facial, and you wake yourself up snoring that that's you are you know, that's a problem. So I that product when I take it and I'm and that's the problem is I'm so bad about doing something regular that when I do take it regularly like I do realize like I am a much calmer person and I don't, I don't have the same reaction. Like whether it be like, what the fuck are you talking about? Or like honking at people, flipping like all of that, that, that. And it's not that I'm hiring it. It just it it is such a calmer state for my nervous system. And it's as I'm saying that I'm like, I really need to start because I just like my I like this. You work so much, your patience level starts to go, go, go, go, go. So like, the dumbest little things will just piss you off. And it's like, why is this pissing you off? Like, this is something that happens all the time, but you're just so tired and you're so stressed that your reaction is like, not pretty.

Laura: Know that. Like, I think that that's like a lot of people kind of ask like how to like, well, how do I start taking it? Like how to benefit the most from taking like a CBD product. And I, you know, it really is kind of like one of those things where you regimen it out. I find that you don't like you don't need it every day, but the more consistent you are at the times that you take it, the more you're going to kind of like, you know, like anything most of the time, like you're going to find within like a week or so, like just noticing those like, little, like, differences and like how you respond to things. It's really it's it's fascinating how I mean, I'm not like, obviously I'm biased, but like how well it works.

Michelle: So tell me, this is a good lead into tell us about your products.

Laura: So we have.

Laura: Of course, the.

Michelle: And there you have it. Part one of my interview with Laura White from Soul Addict. Thank you so much for joining. Please keep your eye out. Next Wednesday is part two and I promise you, it is so worth the wait.