Savage CBD Interview at Their HQ offices in Irvine, CA

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Hi, I’m Courtney with Leafreport and I’m here with Brittany from Savage CBD at their headquarters in Los Angeles, California. So Brittany for starters, why don’t you tell us about the company and its history?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

It’s interesting. So we come from the vaping industry that we started, Savage enterprises started as actually a brick and mortar store way, way back when, six years ago. They never really wanted to get into manufacturing and then it just kind of all snowballed from there. So we come from the vaping industry, but we’ve been in CBD specifically for about three years and mostly manufacturing wholesale, B2B and then from there it’s kind of jumped into all facets of business, retail and online and yeah.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Great. Tell us about the range of products you have and the highlights of each of them.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Oh man, we have a ton. So we’ve got your vapable CBD, like open system juice that you would put in your tank or your pod system. We’ve got pens that are disposable for vaping. We’ve got cartridges for vaping, of course all CBD. And then we’ve got topicals, lotion, roll-on, balm. We’ve got a whole pet line, pet spray, pet treats, pet shampoo. We’ve got gel caps or soft gels like pills that you would take. A full spectrum soft gels. We’ve got tinctures of course, four flavors of tinctures, three different strengths. We have a ton of edibles CBD. Our gummies, which is probably our most popular product we’ve got. We’ve just added drink mix. We’ve got lemonade, pink lemonade and orangeade CBD drink mix.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

We’ve got the revive wellness shot. I think that’s it for edibles. Then we’ve got flower, CBD flower, two different strains, four ways in which you can buy it. Pre-rolls, grams, quarters, eighths. We’ve got, I think that’s pretty much… Oh and shatter, CBD shatter.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Wow, great. Sounds like you have a nice variety of products there.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Something for everybody, hopefully.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

What would you say is your best selling product and what makes it such a good product?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

I would say if we’re talking online, it’s the CBD gummies and I think it’s because they taste amazing. I’ve been to a million different vape shows where their CBD in a million different CBD shows and everybody has a gummy and not all are very good tasting. They have that like really earthy taste or almost like a really chemically taste and I don’t know why that is, but ours don’t taste like that and we get nothing but great reviews about them. Also there’s 50 milligrams in each single gummy, so they’re pretty strong I think for the gummy world and so that’s probably our most popular product.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

But also tinctures. Everybody loves a good tincture and I think by far and away ours are the best tasting. Again, they don’t have that weird, gross, plant, like you’re chewing on a CBD leaf. Tastes like they’re really, really super good and they’re very, very strong. They’re actually our strongest products that we offer. They started at a 1000 milligram, they go to 1500 and then 2000 is where it caps out. They’re a little more expensive, but absolutely worth the money. They’re just super good. All the reviews say that, so yeah.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Very nice. What sets you apart from other companies and brands and what makes you unique?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

A couple of things. Well we do all of our own manufacturing where I know a lot of… And there’s nothing wrong with it, but I know a lot of other companies white label their products or have it manufactured by another manufacturer, but we do everything in house and for very specific reasons. So that we can pivot with the times, pivot with the industry very quickly and get things out to the consumers that are really good product. I think also we spend a lot of time here on the marketing side, dealing with the consumer and educating them and just being a part of their life, so that they know that it’s not just a website but that there’s people behind the brand because ultimately none of these products or all of these products, the next company also has in some form or another.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

I mean some of them are a little unique more than others, but ultimately at this point we’re not selling you gummies. We’re selling ourselves really and the people behind the brand I think is super important. I think that’s why we have such a loyal following and are so successful is because we spend a lot of time making sure that the end consumer has a really good experience from start to finish. We also do a webinar every two weeks for B2B, so the wholesale side of things. Educating shops on how to sell CBD, educating shops on what CBD is so that they can then educate their consumers. There’s a lot that goes into CBD. It’s not just a product. “Here’s some gummies.” People have questions. The consumers are getting smarter. I think long gone are the days of the salesman knowing more than the person who’s buying it.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Everybody has a kind of level playing field. You can look up anything on Google just as easily as I can. And so it’s really important to be knowledgeable about what you’re selling and like I said, there’s just a ton that goes into CBD. So I think we’ve taken on the role of educating everybody that we’re selling to because we want everybody to be successful and know the great things about CBD. So those are some things I think that sets us apart.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

That’s great. So tell us about your manufacturing process here.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Yes. So we, I think everyone would love to have our own farm,, but we don’t have our own farms. So we’ll get the raw materials in and we ask for COAs when that’s delivered and before we even start with a… We’ve worked with the same guy for three years because he’s very trustworthy and we know what we’re getting and he’s never failed us. From time to time, we’ll have to just due to the harvest and things like that, things dry up because it’s an organic matter. So when we are work, if we need to get stuff from a new supplier, we get samples first. Test those samples. Make sure that the COA matches. If the COA doesn’t match, we’re not going to work with that supplier. But when the COA matches, we get it in and we’ll test it again, not just the samples.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

We’ll test the supply that we get from them at our third party lab test. We don’t do any testing here. We’re not allowed. We send it off. We pay that money to get those raw materials tested. Once we’re satisfied with those results, we then have our chemist along with the CEO and the CFO’s input and other people around here essentially make the product. A lot of it’s R&D, trial and error. This went well, this didn’t go so well and it doesn’t happen overnight, but I think that’s why our products are so good. But once we’re satisfied with the end result, batch it out, make as many products as we need to and then we’ll send those final products off for testing once again, just to make sure for transparency, traceability and so you know what you’re getting or what we say is in the bottle is actually in the product.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Testing, super important. And of course that is below the legal 0.3% THC level, which is required by the FDA. So that’s pretty much it and then it goes up on the shelf and it’s packaged and sealed and all of that sort of thing and then we wait for orders. Order goes out and it gets to you on your doorstep.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Wow, great.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

But we also have like a lot of quality things in place. We have a quality manager here who makes sure, pulls random batches off the shelf just to make sure that everything is going well, everything’s batched and has a number. Everything has a QR code. Every box in every label has a QR code, which I feel like is pretty standard practice these days. Most companies have that, but that way you the end user can scan this code at any point and pull up the lab results for said product. That’s really important. We have a lot of SOPs in place, standard operating procedures just to make sure that all of the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed. I mean just basic stuff. It’s might not seem basic, but it’s really important to keep the quality of the product A number one.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

That’s great you’re doing that. And how do you ensure the product’s quality, purity and cleanliness?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Well we have clean rooms, labs. It’s cleaned all the time. Like I said, we have a quality manager. Random pulls of different products to just make sure that it is what we say it is and that the correct measurements we’re going in there and then if it’s not up to all our standards, because there’s not really a standard necessarily that’s… It’s not a regulated industry. So we kind of make our own and that sounds weird, but make our own standards here. Here at Savage of what we are okay with and what we’re not okay with. And if it doesn’t pass our standards, we redo it, throw it out, redo a new batch if that makes sense. So we just like to hold ourselves to a very high standard and that way everybody has a really good experience. So it takes a lot of people to make sure that this happens and some, it doesn’t go perfectly every time, but we try and do our best.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

That’s great. And what is your transparency policy?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

So every lab test is posted on our website. We update them every month and we’ll post them up. I’m actually the person who does the posting. I don’t take it to the lab or anything, but they say, “Hey, we got these new tests. Post these up.” I’ll post them up. Anybody can download them at any time. That’s really important to us. I know it’s super important for the shops and also really important for the consumer. We will answer pretty much any question that anybody has within reason as long as it’s not giving away obviously proprietary information or trade secrets and things like that, but please, if you have a question about our products, a lot of us, most of us here… Not most of us, everybody in this building should be able to answer most questions about CBD and if we don’t know, I will find the resource to get you that answer.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

We have a working phone number. We have working emails. You can DMS on most social medias. We do our best to get back in touch with whoever it is in a timely manner. Again, we’re not perfect. We do our best, but please reach out. I mean that’s really important that we’re like people behind the brand and not just a website who doesn’t respond I guess.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

That’s great for the user to know.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

It is.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

And do you, a third party test your products?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Every single product is third party tested. Not only the finished products but the raw materials first before we even start making product is tested. That’s super, super important. One, to stay within the law but also so the end user if you’re buying, let’s take this Epsom salts. If we say that it’s 150 milligrams of CBD in this jar, the test will show that it is 150 milligrams plus or minus 5%. That’s really important because you want to know that there’s 150 milligrams if you’re going to be spending 40 bucks on some CBD Epson salts. It’s super important. We get it, you know?

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Great. What are your recommendations for the beginner user? Someone who has heard about CBD and is wondering where to start, is worried about legalities, efficacy or safety issues?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

That’s a question that we get all the time and on our website we actually just redid it and we made a beginner’s tab, Products for Beginners because jumping into this it probably would be really overwhelming, but what I would suggest is something like, think about your lifestyle. If you sit at a desk all day and you probably need a product that’s like, I don’t know, ease? It’s a really bad example, but just think about your lifestyle.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

What type of product would fit into your lifestyle? Do you take baths a lot? If you take baths a lot, maybe the Epsom salts are for you. If you aren’t a bath taker, probably don’t pick this product or if you really like candy and you feel like eating your CBDs, the best way to go, gummies might be a really good option. They’re pretty nonthreatening. You open the bag, you eat the worm. If you’re a vaper and you’re pretty familiar with vaping and disposable products or filling your tank, we have some really good vaping products. They’re really extremely popular, but we get that not everybody vapes or wants to vape their CBD, but if you do we have that option too. What was part of the question? The other part? I feel like I’m [inaudible 00:12:10].

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Someone who has heard about CBD and is wondering where to start, is worried about legalities, efficacy or safety issues.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

I mean we get a lot of questions like, “Can I pass a drug test?” or “Is this safe for me?” or “Am I going to get high?” Or “Am I going to be able to operate machinery?” or whatever it is. Again, it kind of comes down to your lifestyle. If you have to pass a drug test or take a drug test for whatever reason in your life, you need to use our products at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that you will pass or fail a drug test, even if it’s isolate CBD. While the tests might say non-detectable amounts of THC, it’s scientifically impossible to completely separate THC away from the CBD just because it’s organic matter.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

It doesn’t mean it’s not in there or that it is in there. It just means that it’s not detected by this really small instrument. So if you need to pass a drug test or you’re worried about that aspect of it, use it your own risk. We always suggest maybe talking to the person who’s administering the drug test first. Let them know your situation, why you want to use CBD and that way you are transparent from the very beginning and so everybody’s kind of aware of what’s going on. The safety, I mean CBD is non-psychoactive. So the THC, the cannabinoid that everybody kind of knows about, just marijuana and weed and stuff and THC’s the one that’s psychoactive, giving the user the head change or that high feeling. CBD is a completely different cannabinoid that does exist both in the marijuana and the hemp plant, but doesn’t have that psychoactive effect.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

So I use CBD personally. I’ve used most all of these products and I’ve never gotten a head change. I use it for like hurting shoulders or I’ll take a gummy when I can’t sleep at night and really all that happens is I get a better night’s rest or my shoulder doesn’t hurt quite as much or maybe even if at all, depending on the day. But also, do your own research. I’m just one person who works at a CBD company in the marketing department. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a physician. So please read your blogs, talk to your doctor, talk to other people, get their experiences, what worked for them, join some groups, add yourself to some forums. It’s really on the consumer as well to do some education. So just read.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Great, thanks. And that’s all the questions I have for you Brittany. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us or the users about Savage CBD?

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Savage CBD, not only is a really cool company to work for, but I think the products really do speak for themselves and like I said earlier, it’s not really the product, you’re kind of buying into us as well. We spend most all of our days here in the office making sure that you have just the best experience possible and that’s our number one goal so that you can go do things that you want to in your life again or maybe you stopped working out. Now you can again or whatever it is. We hope these products allow you to live the healthy lifestyle that you think is healthy. So that’s it. That’s it.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:

Great. Well it’s been great talking with you today and thanks for having us at your headquarters.

Brittany – Savage CBD:

Thanks so much for coming.