“I still think purity’s going to end up being the ultimate test…in order to get a really pure product you’re going to need to be consistent. Purity is the driver.”   – Barry Atkins

Barry Atkins is the President & COO of Eagle Hemp CBD based in Tampa, Florida. Eagle Hemp has crafted a manufacturing process whose goal is to be rigidly consistent and maintain the highest level of quality and purity available in the marketplace. 

Barry has extensive prior business experience in sectors as diverse as tech and tortilla chips, and has brought that expertise into the CBD world. While at first glance there don’t seem to be many industry parallels, Barry discusses the lessons he learned through his startup experiences that he’s brought to bear. Barry’s first rule is that not a single process works the way you expect it to on the first try. But, with a problem-solving spirit, he’s succeeded in producing a full-spectrum oil that’s purified at the sub-micron level, and still smells and tastes great. Also in this episode, Barry weighs in on the regulation and future development of hemp cultivation in America, why he’s a proponent of CO2 extraction, and the market for CBD pet products.

“It’s super important right now, when we talked about the whole sustainability thing; people care. And that leads back to the whole branding thing, whether it’s clothes, food, whatever, consumers are becoming smarter and when we talked about, ‘does it matter what kind of oils are in a pen’ yeah it all leads back to that, whether it’s your clothes or anything that you’re putting into your body people care more nowadays than they ever have.” – Rae Brown

Rae Brown is a Brand leadership professional with an entrepreneurial drive. She previously worked as Creative Director for Burb and HIKU where she built the Doja brand, digital environments, and retail experience. Rae is a committed leader with experience inside fragmented start-ups and established public corporations.

Rae fell into the design industry while attending Vancouver Film School. Her interests led her to New Zealand, likely the dentist, Fiji, and after getting hitched, on to the Middle East where she found much of the inspiration that flavours her design style. She returned to Canada, and after having a child, launched her new business making baby toys, which came before the well-known online stores of today. It was a great success, selling her products locally and globally, but it got old fairly quickly, autonomy won out and she sold the business to return to design. Today she is leading the design of OCIO and driving an exquisite brand offering and experience. She shares stories, insights, and advice for those in the cannabis space and takes us down the road of what she feels is to come in the land of psychedelics.

While the natural inclination at moments of uncertainty is to pull back, its companies that instead, pool their resources into research and development, welcome fresh talent with new ideas, and design novel products that can deliver on the needs of an inevitable changed market. Amongst the more familiar names like Apple, Netflix, and the Tesla's of the world is Kelowna-based extraction manufacturer Vitalis, applying that very same mindset led by the mastermind of its innovation, Co-founder and CTO James Seabrook.
 
"...one of the coolest things about working with an OEM is, you have an
idea, and you can work with a great group of individuals to bring that idea to
a concept, get it to a prototype, build it, realize what was wrong, improve it,
and then actually bring it to a finished product. That life-cycle is something
that I love to be a part of.” – James Seabrook
 
James Seabrook is an engineer from the inside out. From twig turned into candlestick and floorspace-invading LEGO® empires James was born to innovate and build all kinds of cool shit (his words). He co-founded Vitalis Extraction Technology with a genuine desire to identify and solve problems with the highest industry standards and unique capabilities for deliverables. James has imagined and brought to life exceptional equipment for the extraction industry and has embraced a new-found respect for the current disruption as a means for improvement and ingenuity.

Guest // Natasha Raey, Serial Entrepreneur, Well-being Pioneer & Founder of Sky Cannabis

“I don’t know if we need more cannabis start-ups I think we have a lot, but for sure on the consumer packaged goods side of things, we need more of that, just so there’s more variety, and then also more communities so people can share and learn because I think that’s a missing piece. Even going into psychedelics, that’s one piece where a lot of people don’t have information or education. If you think of your average housewife who is all of a sudden hearing about how great micro dosing is for anxiety, that’s exciting for her but then the buck stops there, where does she get it. I think building communities and teaching people more about products and how to access them is something that’s needed.” – Natasha Raey

As a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist, Natasha Raey has been one of Canada’s leading pioneers for the weed and wellness movement. A background in primary health care, together with a continuous stream of start-ups across the spectrum of industries and interests, Natasha is a champion for enterprise, promotion, and well-being. Equally vying for her attention is the elimination of cannabis stigmas; even her pastor is riding the nay-say train! Elegant advocacy, credible data capture and reliable resources are the way forward (a government blunder or two does not hurt either), and Natasha is committed to its momentum.

The increasing interest in cannabis and psychedelics is giving rise to an entrepreneurial surge, but it is not for the faint of heart. Insight, advice, pitfalls and wins; there is no need to reinvent the wheel when the innovators are lighting the way.

Guest // Mary Babitz, Founder & President of Cascade Sciences

"If you have a college degree that's swell. If you're an engineer, I would actually prefer you don't be an engineer. I prefer that you be a MacGyver. I want somebody that can take duct tape and a paper clip and turn it into a rocket ship…We work closely as a team...I am not the smartest person in the room, but I surround myself with people that complement each other with their strengths." - Mary Babitz

The story of how Cascade Science has taken the cannabis industry by storm begins with a young man walking into an equipment manufacturer, cash in hand, to purchase a six-figure drying oven. Nothing odd there - aside from everything. It was the increasing frequency of these moments that prompted Mary to explore the notion that their products, while designed with quality, safety, and cutting-edge tech for the likes of NASA, pharmaceutical and aeronautical industries, could serve an unintended purpose for an entirely different customer base.

Not only is she one of the most prominent driving forces behind post-processing equipment - from vacuum, and decarb, to drying, homogenization, isolation and crystallization reactors - Mary is the epitome of savvy in a not so linear line of work. Over the years, she's pivoted her business to serve a booming industry, paved the way for female entrepreneurship in a male-dominant industry, and is always the first to say that the best way to succeed is to surround yourself with MacGyvers.

Guest // Kayla Mann, Cannabis Trailblazer

"Camaraderie is the biggest thing people trying to do this shit on their own - yeah you have the luck-ability to succeed. I think we're in this today, growing this industry and flying the plane while building it. The biggest thing for me is our relationships; they are everything….. "The people that are going to succeed in this industry, you hope it's all the ones that care and that we can all do it together." – Kayla Mann

Getting started in an industry with few benchmarks and ever-changing regulations can be tumultuous and challenging. Amidst the ruckus, Kayla Mann has proven herself as a force to be reckoned with - blazing trails in marketing, financing,launching and growing one successful company after the next - her latest hinged on “fish-shit” (legit). 

With a curious spirit, a sharp mind and a magnetic presence that seeps through the microphone, Kayla takes our listeners on a raw journey of what it takes to navigate the complexities of such a young industry, unpacks some realities of the start-up life, and solidifies why collaboration is the only way forward if you plan on being a success story in this business of weed.

 

Guest // Kiran Dayaram, GMP Specialist

"That creates a consumer confidence issue it's not necessarily like anybody necessarily got hurt, because the cannabinoid content wasn't as advertised. But if I buy your product because the box says 'x' and I can't trust the box anymore - maybe I just won't buy your brand at all anymore."

Manufacturers and entrepreneurs alike are trying to get their piece of the 'Green Gold Rush' that is CBD and THC. Unfortunately, the rush has brought with it a lack of certifications, leaving an inability to verify that the products they're creating are of high quality or safe and the very reason Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) has never been more important. Thank goodness there are clever humans out there that know what it takes and how to set those entrepreneurs up for success like our 'Kiwi' friend Kiran Dayaram. He's helped some of the world's leading cannabis companies avoid detrimental mishaps and scale their operations into the most strictly regulated emerging markets.

'The Extraction Insiders', was spurred from our desire to educate our listeners about what it takes to succeed in industries where there is no blue-print. 

Join us as we speak with the entrepreneurs and extraction industry innovators who have found their niche and share 'aha' moments, pitfalls, and tough lessons they’ve learned along the way, so you don’t have to.