CBD Podcast with Christian Rasmussen – The Art of Living Well
We have a special treat for you today! Christian Rasmussen of MN Nice Botanicals was featured on Minnesota’s one and only ‘The Art of Living Well Podcast.’ Stephanie Potter and Marnie Dachis Marmet interview your favorite Local Twin Cities CBD companies owner, Christian Rasmussen, on this thought provoking, informative Podcast.
Christian, Stephanie and Marnie discuss the reasons Christian and Tad got into this business. They go into Christian’s story and how CBD helped him through his life. They discuss all things CBD;
- The Endocannabinoid system
- The uses and benefits many experience from using CBD
- The variety of products that many companies offer
- Different types of CBD
- Various issues with the current industry and lack of regulatory clarity
- Christian touches on how things like CBD are reconnecting us to our roots and getting us in touch with nature and our spirit again.
Learn about CBD and MN Nice Botanicals, your Twin Cities Local CBD Company, on The Art of Living Well’s CBD Podcast with Christian Rasmussen.
Thanks for listening, and thanks for being a part of our MN Nice Family!
To listen to other Podcasts by the Art of Living Well, visit them on Spotify, or go to their website at The Art of Living Well Podcast
Podcast Transcription –
Intro
Marnie: And with that, we are thrilled to welcome MN Nice Botanicals co-founder, Christian Rasmussen. After working in Real Estate for a number of years, Christian and his partner Tad, in 2019 decided to found MN Nice Botanicals, to provide affordable, high quality, CBD products to everyone.
They decided to found the company because they felt like CBD was too expensive, so in 2019 they decided to do something about that, and after a year of diligent research on CBD and its market, they discovered a large price difference between wholesale and retail CBD prices. They felt like people were being charged unreasonably high prices, and they felt like it was hard for consumers to find CBD as affordable to use regularly. So, in an effort to make CBD products more affordable and more available to more people, they decided to come up with their company, and they believe in the MN Nice philosophy, and they want to offer the highest quality product they can, at the absolute lowest prices.
In our conversation with Christian today, we talk about all things CBD, we learn about CBD, we talk about how to know if you’re picking a high-quality CBD product. They are making all their small batches of CBD right here in MN. They are very transparent about how they make their products, what’s in their products, and also, they are independently tested, so you know you’re getting a high-quality product.
This conversation was so enlightening, I know both Stephanie and I have found the topic of CBD to be very confusing, and Christian answered so many of our questions, and we’re really excited to share all of this information with you today.
Word from sponsor –
Marnie: Hi Christian! Thank you so much for being a guest on the Art of Living Well podcast today. You reached out to us a couple months ago and it was really perfect timing. We had been discussing how confusing CBD products are, and that we would love to have someone knowledgeable on our show, and here you are today! And you were kind enough to send us a bunch of samples to try, and I have to say, I love the CBD Salve, I’m in this routine of rubbing it into my feet every night before bed, and not only are my feet super soft, but it really feels wonderful on my feet all day long, so thank you so much.
Christian: Oh, that’s so great. Absolutely.
Marnie: So, anyway, everyone has a story, and we’d really love to hear your story, and how you got involved in the CBD industry.
Christian: Yeah, totally. So, it’s a long, involved story. I think, starting way back, you know, I’ve been in business since my 20s, my early 20s. I started in Real Estate, flipping houses and amassing rental properties in my early 20s. I got married in 2018, and decided to take a step out of Real Estate a bit, and went and explored the world. And then in 2019, one of my best friends from high school came to me with the idea of starting a CBD business. Because, well you know we’ve all heard of CBD, we’ve all heard of the benefits – or at least, the people in my circle that were using CBD heavily, it was extremely beneficial, but it was also extremely expensive. So, we got together with the hopes of knocking down price, in order to get CBD to a wider audience, so that more people would be able to experience its benefits.
So, we started in 2019. I was actually going through a really hard personal time, which I think we discussed a little bit prior to this. I was going through benzodiazepine withdrawal, which was just the absolute worst thing in the world that I’ve ever had to go through. So, we started this business up while I was going through just this horrible, horrible experience, and reinventing myself as a human being, and CBD happened to just be one of the cornerstones of my recovery, and my redefining myself, kind of pulling myself out of this self-hypnosis that comes from being stuck in a rut.
Marnie: Can you take a step back and tell our listeners what is CBD? Because they may not know.
Christian: Yeah, totally. So, we’re all familiar with cannabis and marijuana. So, marijuana has hundreds of cannabinoids in it. The main cannabinoids are THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, and CBD. THC is the intoxicating component in marijuana, or one of the few. It’s what makes us ‘high’ or impaired. CBD is non-intoxicating, it’s psychoactive mildly in that it does affect mental processes, but non-intoxicating, and it gives the benefits of cannabis without the impairment associated with it, or the plethora of side effects that people get when they’re ingesting THC, or the combination of all cannabinoids. CBD, it affects – this is a relatively recent discovery – in the early 2000s the endocannabinoid system started to hit the spotlight, which is an innate biological system that affects functions such as sleep and appetite, it’s a bridge between other systems in the body, cardiovascular, immune system, all the other systems, and it helps to maintain internal homeostasis, meaning it helps balance things out. If you have one system that is overactive, the endocannabinoid system helps regulate that, to make sure that your body is functioning properly. CBD influences the endocannabinoid system and in turn many people find that it gives great benefits.
Stephanie: That’s awesome, that’s such a great start and a great overview. And thank you, Christian, for sharing your personal story, and we have so many questions kind of diving into different aspects. How do you think, were you using CBD as part of your withdrawals and as you went through this whole process, I’d love to dive into how you think it helped you?
Christian: Yeah, totally, absolutely. Benzodiazepine withdrawal is probably one of the worst things anyone can go through, extreme anxiety, paranoia, fear, terror. CBD, it’s not like it eliminated those symptoms for me by any means, but it did really augment my recovery. I kind of look at like, I was kind of pushed back into being a child again, like my brain functions – I had damaged, essentially, my body, and I needed to get out of this rut, this system, I had found myself in – I call it dehypnotizing myself – and CBD, it helped give my thoughts weight, I suppose, it helped me gather my thoughts and focus them in the direction that I needed to to heal my body, my system, myself. And it really helped a lot. You know, there’s many things that also help, I’m an avid meditator, I take saunas, I exercise, I read a lot, I do everything, or I had been doing everything that I needed to do, but CBD really gave me that extra push to make things work. And it also helped me not be so unbelievably stressed. Honestly, I had no idea that the human body could go through the amount of stress I went through in that time period. So, CBD, it really did help, and then the other thing that really did help me too was building up a business throughout this process where I was just terrified constantly and forcing myself to step up out of this box I had found myself in, and CBD, it gave me confidence I suppose.
Marnie: So, is CBD Legal? And why is there so much confusion around it? It gets a really bad rap, what are your thoughts on that?
Christian: Yeah, so CBD is legal, it’s not federally regulated, so it’s kind of a gray area, in that sense, and that probably segways into why it’s probably got a bad rap, I think Reefer Madness, Anti Marijuana push I’m sure extends into today, and I think people associate CBD with marijuana and cannabis, and the education isn’t quite out there now for people to understand what CBD does without that impairment. I think that it gets a bad rap. I think that there’s not a lot of data, there’s not a lot of education, and it’s a gray market. We have studies that state that 70% of CBD products are mislabeled, things like that. So I think that, I think since it’s such a new fresh industry, there’s a lot of greed, and this is the reason we’ve started this business, because CBD manufacturers and growers are making far too much money, and that hinders the growth of the market and it hinders consumers ability to tap into this new, well not new but new in our eyes, this new wonderful medicine, that’s available, not only available, but has been along side human for thousands and thousands of years.
I have this hope that CBD will help humanity Segway back into our roots, not that there’s anything wrong with our current medical establishment, although maybe I have a different opinion about that, but I think that we could all benefit from getting in touch and in tune with ourselves and with nature again. I feel and I believe very strongly that CBD is going to help us and is actively helping us reconnect with those roots.
I think it probably also gets a bad rap because certain medical establishments don’t want us to reconnect with those roots, it takes away from their profits.
Stephanie: Okay, I love everything you just said. I’ve never heard it explained that way, about your hope and vision that it will help humanity get back to our roots, because I think that is something that’s woven into a lot of conversations on this podcast, and I couldn’t agree more. I know we could go down a rabbit hole with pharmaceuticals, and we won’t go down there now. But just, for listeners out there I know there are many different types of products that you can use, so I’m wondering, just even basics, we have the oil, and the balm, we’ve taken CBD gummies before, so what’s the difference between all the forms you can take, there’s full spectrum and broad spectrum. Kind of going through some of that, do you have to take it every day for the rest of your life? Or how does that work? To really receive benefits.
Christian: Yeah. That’s totally subjective. Many people want to take it consistently. It builds up in your system, same with many drugs that we take. If it builds up in your system it’s going to have a more lasting effect, it’s going to have a more powerful effect. So many people do like to take it every day, but it’s not necessary. It’s not like Prozac or SSRI’s where you need to take it every day for a couple of weeks for it to build up in your system before you notice anything. Very subjective, very up to the individual, and I think that without the regulatory framework there’s no dosing guidelines. I don’t think that there can be dosing guidelines for substances like this, because it is so subjective, and we have very specific individually defined reactions.
We have CB1 and CB2 receptors, which I mentioned our endogenous cannabinoid system, these receptors are throughout our entire body, from our brain to our gut to our skin, and they’re actually the most plentiful receptors in our entire body, no other receptors are as dense as our endocannabinoid receptors, and that’s a testament to the fact that it bridges all of our biological systems, so we need these receptors plentiful throughout our body so the endocannabinoid system can do its job properly. So, we have things like topicals, where you rub CBD or other cannabinoids into your skin via a salve or a lotion, and like I mentioned you have cannabinoid receptors throughout your skin, so when you rub it into your skin it doesn’t get into the blood stream, but it does get into the affected area. If I have knee pain for instance, I might rub some topical on there, it won’t affect my anxiety, or mental processes, but it might aid in some inflammation help on my knee, which can provide a relief of pain, which can be very helpful.
Marnie: Can I interrupt you for a second? I have a question there, because I was under the impression that when you rub products on your skin that they do get into your blood stream.
Christian: Yeah, very minor amount, such a minor amount that it’s not going to, at least from my understanding, it’s such a minor amount that it’s not going to affect your mental processes. When you do a transdermal patch for instance, that’s designed to get into your bloodstream, where if you’re rubbing it into your skin, I think it gets into the receptors in your skin before getting into the bloodstream. Yeah, I could be a little wrong there, but that’s at least how I understand it. I believe the bioavailability through your skin is extremely small. And again, I don’t think that there’s that much data on this stuff right now, so I’m learning as I go, and I think that’s important for listeners to understand, we’re still figuring this stuff. But I do know that if I rub salve on my knee that it’s not going to help my anxiety.
Stephanie: There’s different, based on your symptoms or what you’re trying to address there are different products?
Christian: Yeah, totally. Then we have tinctures where it’s mixed in with an oil or an alcohol. We don’t do alcohol tinctures, I rarely see alcohol tinctures on the market for CBD, but that is something that maybe someone is making at home, they may mix with alcohol. And the tincture is, yeah, I’m not allowed to make claims, but I can say that for me personally, the tincture, it helps my overactive thoughts, it helps my stress levels, and then many of our customers also say the same, and it helps them tremendously. It also doesn’t work for everybody, it doesn’t help everybody, but for many people it does. And again, we could probably use more data on this stuff.
And then you have gummies, edibles, there are concentrates, or vapeables. We have customers that get anxiety attacks, and when you’re ingesting a tincture, you can put it under your tongue for sublingual absorption, which helps it kick in quicker, but it’s still not instantaneous, so many people like to vaporize, they’ll put CBD in their E-cigarettes, where they’ll take a puff when they’re feeling overanxious or over stressed. That’s another way, we don’t sell any vapeable products, although our tinctures could be mixed into E-cigarettes for instance, so as of now that’s kind of the array of CBD products that are out there on the market.
And then you mentioned Full Spectrum, Broad Spectrum and CBD Isolate. So those are the main 3 types of CBD. Full Spectrum is your full plant extract. So, you’re getting all of the cannabinoids, and usually they’re extracted from hemp plants which are very high in CBD content and very low in THC content. We’re working with hemp plants mainly and hemp is federally designated as a cannabis plant with less than .3% THC content, where it’s kind of interesting how the government labels hemp vs cannabis but that’s just how it is. It’s the same family of plants still, just a different cannabinoid content, so full spectrum is the full plant extract, and it contains terpenes and flavonoids, and this is another aspect of plant medicine that we don’t see at all in our western one, single bullet cure. The flavonoids and the terpenes, in cannabis at least, it brings what they call the entourage effect, where all of these different components are working on your endogenous cannabinoid system, and they’re working together synergistically to compound the effects and compound the benefits. So full spectrum contains terpenes flavonoids and all of the cannabinoids that have been stripped from the plant, which encourages the entourage effect, which allows them to all work together to gain more benefit or to have more traction, or to easily bridge more of these biological systems.
Then we have Broad spectrum, many people don’t want any THC, they find when ingesting even a little bit of full spectrum CBD oil, if they have no tolerance or are extremely sensitive, they might find that it makes them feel a little weird or it might make them tired. THC can cause people to have overactive thoughts where CBD does the opposite. Some people don’t want to ingest THC at all, maybe they have stigma, or they have had bad past experiences. So that’s where you get broad spectrum. Broad Spectrum is the same thing as full spectrum, all of the Phyto cannabinoids, the flavonoids, the terpenes, but it goes through another process called chromatography, which allows them to isolate an individual compound and pull it out. So that’s Broad-Spectrum CBD.
Then you have CBD Isolate, which is pure CBD. Just the CBD molecule. Many people, it kind of goes back to everybody is really different. Some people would prefer that entourage effect and get all the other cannabinoids and terpenes and flavonoids, where others may just want CBD itself. It’s very subjective and everybody is very different, that’s what makes it difficult to get regulation and dosing guidelines on stuff like this.
I always recommend, when I was getting into this really heavily, I used CBD Isolate first, and then I moved to full spectrum. Now I use full spectrum, but I have friends that don’t like full spectrum, they would much rather use isolate. So, it’s very subjective and it definitely takes trial and error. I kind of like that, too. I think there’s this beauty of getting in tune with whatever you’re ingesting. Any food, or… It kind of gets back to the idea of thanking your food, or growing your own food, you’re going to have an energetic connection with it that can be scientifically proven, and I think that is probably true for CBD and it’s kind of nice to be able to test and find out what works best for you. I think we’re going to find what works better for us if we’re able to do that personally rather than to have a doctor tell us to do this or this is what works. That segways back into the idea that we’re getting in tune with ourselves and with the world again.
Marnie: So, I’m, just to clarify, to make sure I’m understanding this right. All the CBD’s that you talked about, CBD Isolate, Full Spectrum and Broad spectrum, they’re all currently legal, so the amount of THC in full spectrum CBD is small enough so that it’s legal?
Christian: Correct.
Marnie: Okay, so that’s one thing I wanted to clarify. And another thing I wanted to clarify is I’m not a big proponent of vaping personally, or E-cigarettes or any of that. Let’s now moving forward focus on the products that you’re actually offering because I would love for you to share with our listeners how you’re vetting your products to ensure they’re high quality and how they go through testing and all that.
Christian: Yeah, totally. So, we, we purchase all of our CBD from very top-notch individuals, which we’re very, that’s very important. I want the people that are growing our CBD to be like minded to me, I mean lots of people are in business to help people, but most people are in business for themselves as well, so it was very important for me in finding a CBD distributor, a grower, to find people that were like minded to us. So, we vetted out our growers, and all of our CBD is tested prior to purchasing, so it goes through pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, cannabinoid content, before we purchase it. And then all of our products are actually manufactured by ourselves in house, which A. allows us to keep costs down, and B. allows us to know exactly what’s going into this product. I’m a trusting person, but I would rather do this type of thing myself if I can because I’m absolutely sure that it’s being made properly. There’s also a component of making products with care and attention and love, it’s an energy thing for me and I feel like that’s extremely important and that would be gone if we outsourced our manufacturing. So, all of our products are manufactured in house, they’re all very simple, basic ingredients. No chemicals, no fillers. Just pure tested, vetted, CBD. All of our products also go through our testing through a local facility here in the twin cities that tests cannabinoid content. And this is another thing, I think I mentioned before that there’s a study that shows that 70% of CBD products are mislabeled. One thing that we do now that helps us stand out from the crowd is we put a QR code on every one of our products that takes you to a testing page on our website and you can scan it with your phone, and it shows you exactly what’s in that product. We think that that’s one of the more important things. And as regulations come, I would imagine we will see more and more companies doing that kind of things, but we don’t want regulations to have to tell us to show our customers what’s in our products.
Stephanie: Well, I love the transparency you’re providing. Marnie and I talk about clean beauty products and there’s a lot of CBD showing up in CBD products, but how do you always know, I think it’s just marketing sometimes and there could be a very small percentage of CBD but you’re paying so much because of the markup.
I love the values you have instilled in your business and in your product. I was just looking back on your website. So, you sell, the CBD Isolate, and the tincture I saw, and you have some full spectrum but not broad spectrum, is that correct?
Christian: Yeah, so we’re still so fresh. You know, it’s just my business partner and I, we’ve only been selling for about 6 months. And since it’s just the two of us we have a very limited product line as of now, we’re actually coming out with a whole new line of products, where we have a bunch of new isolate flavors and we’ll be doing different salve sizes, and we’re looking at gummies, and broad spectrum will be after that. So, we’re biting it as we go and we’re taking the steps that we’re able to take, and I think as we grow now, we’re able to start, we’re hiring on marketing teams and we’re hiring on people that will help outsource our work so we can focus on building better products, and doing things like this, which really help not just us in our business, but helps consumers out in the world know what they’re getting into, so that they can make better more informed decisions.
Stephanie:I think it’s great what you’re doing, and I love the local vibe and the local feel to it, obviously, being in Minnesota. What’s your favorite CBD product, and why do you like using it?
Christian: I use the salve all the time, daily, I mean I use the tincture daily too. I have back issues, I was in karate when I was a kid, I was kicked really hard and flew back three or four feet and landed right on my back, I’ve had back issues ever since then. When I was flipping houses for instance, every few weeks I’d take a few days off because my back was blown out entirely. There were periods of time where if it was blown out it could be… And I’m only 31, too, so I’m young for all this, but it would be blown out for a week at a time. That’s painful, that’s extremely limiting. With CBD salve, for me personally, if I’m applying the salve consistently it will be one or two days and I have full functionality again. I might be a little sore still, but it seriously has helped me out. So, I use that also preventatively. My wife and I will give each other massages with it. The anti-inflammatory effects… you know inflammation is the silent killer, or one of the silent killers, inflammation and stress, and CBD affects both. I think using the salve preventatively for me has helped save my back from being blown out time and time again. I also use tincture religiously. I’ve slowed down considerably since I’ve healed, my body is considerably better than it was a couple years ago, but I really enjoy the tincture. My brain goes really fast, which is a great thing, and I don’t complain about it, but there are little tangents that it goes down that aren’t conducive for what I’m trying to do. CBD helps me not go down those paths, it helps me stay focused. I don’t know if I hear many people talking about CBD for ADD or ADHD, but man, it seriously helps me stay focused, but that’s just me, everyone has their own benefits and reasons for using.
Marnie: So, I have a question about that. So, if someone wanted to experiment with a tincture, how do you know how much to take?
Christian: Yeah, so in the industry we always say start low, start slow, and work your way up. That’s kind of the standard way to go. It’s very subjective. Our lowest tincture is 750mg per oz, which comes to 25ml per ml, or per dropper you’re getting 25ml. We’ve actually found on the market there’s a lot lower doses out there for people, where they’re actually getting maybe 5mg at a time. Personally, I think that’s a little too low, from what we’ve found people don’t get the benefit from that that they would at say 25 or 50mg. So, we always say start low and start slow, work your way up. I would personally start, if I was new to it, I would start with a half of a dropper of that 750, that 25mg per ml, so 12.5mg and I would try that a few times a day, and maybe after a day or two if I’m not noticing anything I would up it to a full dropper. And you can continue upping it. The WHO came out in 2017 and they had a study that said that CBD was likely safe, well tolerated, in individuals up to 1500mg a day, so 1.5 grams a day is safe and tolerable. That was the highest end of their spectrum that they tested, so I would imagine that that could even be brought up, but that’s what they tested. I would say start low and start slow, start with 12.5-25mg 1-3x a day, or whenever you feel it’s needed, and then work your way up from there.
Personally, when I was going through the most troubles, I was needing 300-600mg 2-3x a day, which is a substantial amount for anyone looking for anxiety relief. But then if you get people with epilepsy for instance, to stop seizures they recommend doses of 300mg or up. It’s very subjective. Starting slow is the best way, and you can always take more, but you can’t always take less.
Stephanie: I’ve had CBD before a couple years ago, and I would dabble in it very intermittently, and I would take it before bed. And I’ve talked to a lot of people, and I can ted to get very, like my mind is racing, I have a lot going on, and I can get a little stressed and anxious at times, so I’d keep saying I need to do this, but I would just do it so intermittently I would never notice a difference, so you inspired me. And now I’ve been taking your products, but I’ve never taken it more than once a day, and I probably only had a half to one dropper, so I’ve probably only had 25mg max. So, I think I need to get into a routine. So, if someone just wants to help with anxiety or stress, especially with the pandemic there’s been more of that, but you definitely need to take it daily is what you were saying, maybe even a couple times a day in small dosages?
Christian: The apparent effects really only last 4-6 hours, so it does make sense to continue taking it throughout the day. And yeah, if you’re taking it daily, it will build up and the effects will compound over time. I also want to say that we have found that most of our customers find, and I would love data on this at some point in the near future, but most of our customers find that their sweet spot is between the 50-200mg range, 1-3x a day. And then, a lot of people also take less in the morning and take more at night. There is an innate daily tolerance that gets reset when you go to sleep. Right now, I’ll maybe the 100mg in the morning and then 200mg at night. A year ago, I was taking 200-300mg in the morning and then upwards to 600-700mg at night.
Marnie: Would this be considered a depressant?
Christian: It wouldn’t be considered a depressant, I don’t think you can label it as a depressant or a stimulant, as it effects the endogenous cannabinoid system. If it relaxes you, that could be considered a depressant, but no I don’t think it’s classified as a depressant.
Marnie: Okay, I was just curious. So can you share with us a story, from one of your customers as how CBD has helped change their life.
Christian: Sure, I have one quick story. We just did a survey, and we had a customer say that her mother decorates cakes for a living and her hands get really sore, she has really bad arthritis. And within a few days of using our salve she was fully functional again and her hands were just fine, and she was able to work considerably better. And these are stories that we hear all the time from our customers, it’s the most rewarding aspect of being in this business. And then there’s stories about people who quit drinking, or other habits or addictions. There are people that have been able to do job interviews that they never would have thought they’d been able to do before. I think it ties back into the idea of getting in tune with yourself and getting confident, and if you have something that allows you to take a step back and kind of see where you’re going and see these thoughts that you’ve created for yourself, it kind of gives you a boost of confidence, it takes away that anxiety a little bit that’s associated with doing these things or dehypnotizing yourself.
Stephanie: It sounds like it helps you get out of your head, and your mind and your thoughts and the external noise and really get in tune with your body and what you want, what’s going to truly bring you joy and ground you, kind of getting back to that initial thought, getting in touch with nature.
Christian: Yeah. So, I also found that for me, I meditate for an hour or two every day, this is something that saved me throughout my troubles, and I would say it continues to save me constantly, and CBD has helped me with that. It’s not only helped me to become a better meditator or to be able to go in depth more, but it helps me with the confidence, and it also helps me get into that groove even without CBD, so if I don’t have CBD around, I’ve trained myself, or I’ve hypnotized myself, or however you want to phrase it, to be able to go into these long periods of meditation, and that’s largely thanks to the help of CBD, and it’s something that’s lasting outside of taking CBD. These benefits from substances, substances are tools, and the goal should be to bring that knowledge into your life, into your daily activities without those substances, and I think CBD is one of the prime examples for that. Maybe not for people that have extremely overactive anxiety, but I think most of our customers, if we asked them, if you were to stop taking CBD do you think that you’ve progressed in the sense where you’d be better functioning than you were prior to starting this regimen, I think most of our customers would say yes, for sure, and I’d for sure say that’s the case for me.
Stephanie: That’s awesome. And you know you mentioned the baker with her hands and having arthritis. Was she using the salve then?
Christian: Yeah.
Stephanie: I was just chatting with a client who has arthritis in her knees, and I hadn’t even thought about that.
Christian: Yeah, yeah. It does really help. I also want to mention that we pack a lot in our salves, in our products. We’re able to be so affordable since we do it all in house, that we’re also able to test these higher aspects of dosing, that dosing spectrum. I’ve seen one-ounce tins with 50mg of CBD in there and people say it works for them, and some people say that doesn’t do anything for me. So, we put two grams in our two oz tin, 2000mg. We find that most CBD products are notoriously underdosed, and that’s maybe one of the reasons why many people have said that CBD doesn’t work for them, because they actually haven’t been trying the larger doses. And it’s tough when it costs 100 bucks where you only get 20-30 small doses out of. You’re not going to want to take multiple doses to see if it works.
Marnie: Well, I love the salve. I’m going to have to buy more because I’m almost out, but I absolutely love it.
Stephanie: So Christian, where can people find you? I know you’re in Minnesota, but you can order online, so people all over listening can order. Can you share how people can buy your products? And also share your special offer for our listeners?
Christian: Yeah, absolutely! You can find us online at www.mnnicebotanicals.com, you can order anything on there. Stephanie, Marnie and I have all worked together to offer you a discount code for 10% off, the code is ‘theartoflivingwell’, so if at checkout, you can get 10% off just by typing in ‘theartoflivingwell’. We’re working on getting into stores locally, we’ve been largely focused on the internet aspect of it the past 6 months, but now that we’re getting this marketing team together and getting a distribution network going, we are going to be getting into stores. We are in my mom’s knitting shop, 3 kittens needle arts. I don’t know if any of your listeners have heard of that, it’s in Mendota Heights, but she sells our salve, and it sells extremely well for her, and her customers absolutely love it. And we’re in various dispensaries and shops around the country right now, just from what we’ve got from our online presence, but soon here we’ll be getting into all the stores in Minnesota. That’s another thing that I would like to say. If you know anywhere that would be interested in carrying affordable CBD products- and again we literally are priced at 1/2 -1/3 of everywhere else in the world right now, I haven’t seen anyone that comes anywhere close to our prices, and that’s all because we’re so small and we do everything in house – but if anybody that listens knows any stores that would benefit from carrying our products, or maybe they already carry CBD products but they’re too expensive, please get in contact with us, or email us. We will reach out personally to those stores and get our products on their shelves. Because we would love the help right now, too. It’s just the two of us and having our loyal customers being our sales reps is such a benefit. I think with a personal business attitude like this we can all work together to help more people out, to make this wonderful medicine more accessible to more individuals.
Marnie: Absolutely. Well thank you so much for that. I’m excited to buy some more products myself. And Christian, as we wrap up, one thing we like to ask all of our guests is what does that art of living well mean to you?
Christian: Yeah, absolutely. I think that we’ve been hitting on home with that this whole topic. I really think it’s very subjective, I think that everybody has their own method, and we’re all discovering these methods as we go. I don’t think that what works for me, what allows me to live well – I think that myself in a few years is going to have a much broader more defined viewpoint on that. And there’s various things that we can do that are universal, eating right, meditating, working out, taking care of our body, and then there’s the variables, that are very individualized, and I think that CBD is one of those things.
Stephanie: Well, I love that, thank you. I think everything you’ve shared is super relevant to our audience, and I’m excited for everyone out there to try your products. I’m excited for myself. This is motivating me to get on a regular routine, and report back, and let you know how I feel. I could use a little bit of that grounding myself.
Christian: I think we all could, right now especially. Well, I seriously appreciate you both, and I really appreciate all of your listeners, and I’m just so happy and thrilled to be here. And I hope that this isn’t the end of this conversation.
Marnie: Absolutely.
Stephanie: Absolutely. Have a great day, Christian.
Christian: You, too.
Marnie: Have a great day, thank you.
Christian: Thank you guys.