SavageCBD Interview at the Miami USA CBD Expo

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Hi, Courtney Quinn here, with Leaf Report at the USA CBD Expo in Miami. I’m here with Brittany from Savage CBD.

SavageCBD – Brittany: Good to be here.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Brittany, what would you like to tell us about Savage?

SavageCBD – Brittany: So Savage is a company that’s been around since 2014. We actually come from the vaping industry, and we’ve been in the CBD realm for about two years now, so quite a long time for CBD, as it’s quite the hype and pretty new this year, I think, and a little bit of last year. So yeah, and I’m the marketing director there.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Oh, very nice. How do you ensure the product’s quality, purity and cleanliness?

SavageCBD – Brittany: Sure. So we work with like one guy, and we met him three years ago and he’s super trustworthy, but essentially, we get the raw ingredients in and then we test them in a third party before we even start using those products, to make sure that his COA matches the COA we get from third-party lab. And if it does, then we start production. After production, we again take all the finished products back to the lab, make sure that it is what we say it is in the bottle, within a five percent plus or minus. Sorry, plus or minus five percent, and that’s how we ensure it in third-party lab test results, really.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: That’s great. What is your transparency policy?

SavageCBD – Brittany: So we are super transparent. I think we have a really unique marketing situation, specifically, because we market from the floor up, meaning we really reach the consumers, versus … We obviously still do B2B, but it’s important for us to go live every week on Facebook. We actually do it twice a week. We constantly comment on Instagram and Facebook. You know, we’re engaging with the consumers and answering their questions, because it’s not only selling a product, but there’s education that goes along with the CBD, and they just don’t know, and it’s our responsibility to educate them.

While they have to educate themselves and research on their own, if we can help them and make sure that they understand what it is we say it is in the bottle, that’s fine, and if they don’t even want to buy our product, I just want them to understand, hey, make sure that whoever you’re buying from a has lab test results, a working phone number, an email where you can get ahold of them. Ask these questions before you put anything in your body, because you just don’t know unless they’re being transparent.

So we try and be transparent as much as possible. All of our lab test results are online. Every product has a QR code that anybody can scan at any time and pull those up, and they’re updated every 15th of the month.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Wow, that’s something very unique. I’ve heard that you actually go live with your consumers, so that’s great.

SavageCBD – Brittany: Yep, every week.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Awesome. Tell us about the range of products you have and the highlights of each product family.

SavageCBD – Brittany: Sure, so we’ve got vapeable CBD e-liquid. Essentially, because we come from the vape industry, it was a pretty easy bridge into the CBD world. So we’ve got those. Those are made with CBD isolate, and there’s three different milligrams: 250 milligram, 500 milligram, and 1,000 milligram.

We’ve got tinctures, two flavors, and those are a full-spectrum product, and there are two flavors, pink grapefruit and lemon-lime, and those come in 1,000 milligram, 1500, and 2000 milligram.

We’ve also got cartridges. We’ve got an isolate one and a full-spectrum cartridge. We’ve got disposable CBD pens. You just vape and throw it away once you’re done. We’ve got topicals, lotion, aloe, and sunscreen, which is pretty unique, because I don’t think anyone else has a sunscreen. So we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on that. Actually, physically at this show, we’re out of the sunscreen, because everyone was super, super hyped about it, which is cool.

We’ve got a pet spray, so CBD for your pets. All it is, is MCT coconut oil and CBD, so it can be sprayed on their food and their mouth, topically used on their fur. And then we have soft gels, as well, so you know, full-spectrum capsules, if you will. You can swallow them.

And then I think that that … Is that it? I think that’s it. So it just depends on how you want to take CBD. We’ve got it for you. Oh no, we have gummies too, gummies. So we’ve got a full wide range of products.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Yeah, very nice. What are your recommendations for the beginner user? Someone who has heard about CBD and is wondering where to start, maybe worried about legalities, efficacy or safety issues?

SavageCBD – Brittany: Sure, so if I was a consumer and I was just getting into the CBD world, I would read a bunch of blogs. I would research before I did anything. Just like everything, like when I’m buying a car, I’m researching, I’m looking up. I’m not doing it that day. I’m finding out all the information I can and then go to the website, or if I’ve heard of something, I would call them. Honestly, I would call them and ask for, like I said, lab test results. I would make sure they had a working phone number, email them, ask questions, whatever questions they had. And then I know CBD can be expensive. That’s the other thing we get asked a lot, is why is it so expensive? It’s an expensive product, so maybe start with something a little on the cheaper side, a cartridge or a vapeable. They’re not as expensive as a tincture.

And then read a dosing chart and kind of get a feel for that and how much you take, and it does involve a little bit of math to get the dosage. So I would just tell them, just take the milligram of whatever you’re using. Say you have a tincture that’s 1,000 milligrams. You take the 1,000 milligrams, divide it by the size of the bottle, which is 30, in our situation, and you get 33.3 repeating, and that’s how much CBD you get in one mil.

And all of ours have measuring sticks, so that’s how you kind of know. So I always tell people, like half a mil, depending. Start there and go up or down or just stay there, whatever works for you, but give it a chance to work, because it’s not just like a one-and-done situation. Kind of make it part of your daily routine and stick with it, because everybody is different and everybody is different, and it’s not necessarily going to be the case that our stuff works for everybody, and some of our stuff does work for everybody, you know. So it’s just stick with it, find what works for you. Even if it’s not our product, like just stick with it.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: That’s great advice, thank you. What would you say makes your company unique? What sets it apart from other companies and brands?

SavageCBD – Brittany: I think first of all, our packaging and our graphic designer does an amazing job. If you look at anything except for the vapeables, she actually hand-drew. Everything is different on every box. A different art, a piece of artwork on every box in our packaging. I love the way it looks. It looks like it belongs at a Trader Joe’s or your local wellness store. So that’s first and foremost. Our packaging is amazing.

Secondly, our transparency, and obviously, having lab test results and being knowledgeable about the product, because there’s a lot of people in this industry who don’t know. You ask them questions and they honestly don’t know how to answer those questions, and that’s kind of sad. From a consumer standpoint, you got to be asking these questions and the manufacturers need to know the answers. So there’s that.

And then the way that we market. Like I said, straight to the consumer. We focus solely on the consumer, because you’re the ones spending your dollar bills, and we want you to spend it with us, but if you don’t, at least we can educate you for like an hour every week or two hours every week on our live streams. So I think that it’s really just, you know, getting in touch with the consumer as much as possible, and I think we’re really good at that, and that’s definitely what sets us apart.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Yeah, that’s great. Very important. Do you have any thoughts you can share about the current legal status of CBD?

SavageCBD – Brittany: I mean, just my personal opinion, I wish it was more legal and like not so red tape. I mean, every state is different. Every other state has a different law. Every county has a different law. I mean, it’s awesome that you can grow hemp on industrial scale. Like, I know that was passed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean …

I just wrote a blog about this. I know TSA has loosened up a little bit, but traveling with CBD, I read something about people getting arrested in Dallas for CBD products at the airport, and I just think the national government and the local state governments and police officers and anyone who’s involved needs to also be educated, as well. For sure, they need to be educated and kind of understand the difference, and I know it’s hard, because there aren’t really regulations in this industry, so it’s hard for them to tell if there’s THC, just based on the packaging alone. So I think that’ll come down the line. But educate yourselves, government. That’s what I would say. Honestly, that’s what I would say, is education for everybody.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Great. Thanks for your input. What do you think a user should look for in a product?

SavageCBD – Brittany: Quality. Transparency. Do they have lab test results that you can go to at any point and look at? Can they answer the questions accurately and to your satisfaction or can they not? You know, if they can’t answer your questions, I probably wouldn’t buy from them. If they can answer your questions honestly, openly, and even if it’s a, “Let me check; I’ll get back to you” kind of situation, because look, we’re all still learning. We don’t know everything. It’s such a broad industry, and there’s so much to know about it, but I would just definitely, definitely do your research and make sure that it’s a reputable company who’s got everything working and at least trying to do the right things.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Great. What are your recommendations for the beginner? Oops, already asked that in the last one. Do you use CBD yourself? If so, which products?

SavageCBD – Brittany: So I do. I use our tinctures. Either one is great. Lemon-lime is my favorite and I use about a mil of 1,000 milligrams every night before I go to bed, for no particular reason, other than I find that I’ve slept better, but I didn’t have any ailments before. Just because I work at the company, it’s probably important. Try the products out. But yeah, that’s what I use. So every night.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Great. How do you see the future of the CBD industry?

SavageCBD – Brittany: I think it’s just going to continue to grow and grow and grow. It’ll get a little bit more regulated, and I hope that people, manufacturers, companies, start doing the right thing. I know not everybody isn’t doing the right thing and not everybody is doing the right thing, and I just hope that everyone starts putting out good products, quality products and educating themselves and the consumers, and I think it’s just going to grow. I mean, I really think the sky’s the limit, honestly.

So I just want to show you guys this is, I’m like one of our disposable pens. It’s berry mint. We have three flavors. It’s 200 milligrams in a half-mil cartridges. It’s just an all-in-one. You literally take it out of the box and start vaping, and then once the battery dies, you just throw it away and get a new one. Pretty cool device. If you’re new to it, it’s very easy, pretty unintimidating. I like it. This is the tincture. It’s my favorite, lemon-lime. I don’t know if you’re going to be able to see this, but like I said earlier, the graphic designer drew. It’s something different on the bottom. Every product has a different picture that she hand-drew, so the packaging alone is amazing, but it’s great. It’s a 30-mil bottle, a full-spectrum product. It’s the most expensive one we have, though, so just keep that in mind, but definitely worth your money.

The lotion I love. If you’re into topicals, if you have arthritis, you need to pinpoint a certain area on your body, use this. It’s 300 milligrams, so it’s really going to be able to penetrate that dermal layer, which is important, because the skin is so thick. It’s actually the slowest way to absorb CBD is with topicals, but I just use it because I love the smell of it. It’s lavender citrus. It’s a 60-mil bottle, but a little bit goes a long way. I would just use it for your face, probably not a whole body situation, but you do whatever you want.

And then this is my favorite vapeable. It’s called Serene. It’s a double green apple candy. It’s just meant to be put in your vaporizer, but if you’re vaping CBD, the important thing to remember is keep the wattage very low, 10 to 15 watts. That’s all you need. Otherwise, if it’s too hot, you’re just burning the CBD and essentially not getting all the benefits from it. And you’re just vaping flavored apple juice essentially. So keep your wattage low, get a pod system, put it in the pods system; 10 to 15 watts is literally all you need. So those are some of the products that we have, and yeah.

Leafreport – Courtney Quinn: Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

SavageCBD – Brittany: Yeah.