Paisley Hervey
hemp is loaded with nutrients. And this crop is a wonder crop. It can help so many people with so many different things.
Finola Howard
That's Paisley Harvey of emerald farm County Wicklow focused on bringing cutting edge natural products to the Irish market, which includes CBD oils, mushrooms, natural skincare and more. She'll demystify some of the assumptions about these products and infect you with her pure spirit, pragmatic attitude and trust in herself. I think you'll be inspired and want to find out more about this business that has managed to get stocked in 800 stores nationwide. In such a short space of time. I'm Finola Howard, intuitive marketer, your host and founder of how great marketing works. I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or nurse. And your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you. Because great marketing is your truth share. I came across this wonderful lady with this wonderful story at an event I was out recently. And the subject or the topic or the nature of the business is in a space that we're not used to talking about. And I thought it would be such an opportunity to hear her share the story of emerald farm with you today. So welcome Paisley Harvey from Emerald farm.
Paisley Hervey
Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Tell
Finola Howard
us a little bit first about No, no, tell us that lovely love story because we can tell by the sound of your voice if you're not from Ireland. So and you have this amazing story of how you bumped into an Irish man and ended up here.
Paisley Hervey
I do have a really amazing story and an amazing husband that brought me here to Ireland. Okay, so now this is gonna go back quite a bit of years. So it might age me, but I guess that's okay. In 2004 I met this boy, I was great. I was graduating high school and I met this boy in my hometown of Bakersfield, California. And he was not from Bakersfield, California. He was living there with his family. And he was actually from Ireland. And he had been living in California for a while for quite a few years. But I had met him organically. This was before Facebook before Instagram. Before really anyone had like a cell phone. Yeah, I met him organically. Friends fell madly in love. Young Love, but you knew that there was something there. And we dated and fell. We just loved each other so much. And about a few months later, he said to me, I'm moving back to Ireland. Moussa. What? So I embrace that. And I said let's stay together. And he was like, Yeah, let's give it a shot. And again, before Facebook before FaceTime, those things did not exist. I we stayed together. I've stayed in California, he's he moved to Ireland, we would write letters, snail mail letters to each other every single day. We would buy what no one probably knows what these are, who's younger than 35 but calling cards so I would purchase calling cards and I would call him through my home phone. And we actually kept in really good touch for it being 2004. I then took my graduation money, my high school graduation money and instead of like doing what most people do like saving it for college, I bought a plane ticket to Ireland. And I did my international trip by myself for him. And I fell in love with Ireland and I was here for three weeks and I have always since then. I don't know whether it was my first trip here or it was because of him. It was probably a combination of all of it. I fell in love with it. Ireland and I just knew I was like, I know I'll be back one day, I didn't know how I didn't know when. Fast forward, my husband actually moved back to America about three months after I had visited. So we started dating again, we were together, and then it got to the point where we were very young, and it was getting quite serious. And we were both like, Okay, well, he was more like, Okay, we need to live our lives, we need to figure out who we are. So I'm moving to Colorado, and you're staying here. And you for a young girl that's like the end of the world, right? You're devastated. Your hearts broken. And you're like, Oh, what am I gonna do?
Finola Howard
Did he split up with you? Yeah. Yeah.
Paisley Hervey
We then yeah, he broke. He broke up with me. Yeah, I'll never forget it. It was like, in front of a friend's house. And he, you know, I kind of understood where he was coming from. But at that moment, my brain was still quite young. And I was like, What's going on, you know, oh, the world was ending because I was 19. And I was like, first love, my world crumbled. Lo and behold, he moved on to Colorado. I actually did not speak to him for 11 years, not in an animosity sort of way. We kept, we still had still the same friends just mourn. I did was doing my thing. He was doing his thing. So he was living in Colorado, I decided I'm gonna make something of myself and I moved to a town called Santa Barbara did like the whole college, while 20s thing then I moved to LA. And then I was turning 30, I've turned 30. And I was like, I kind of had a bucket list. And one of them was to go to Europe again. And I needed to, you know, so I hopped on a plane, and I went to I flew over to Germany. And I did the whole Oktoberfest thing, because I just was in that place in my life where I wanted to do that and party and enjoy, like that whole scene, and I was there. And Jacob, my husband, she was on Facebook, and he had seen that I was there. And I hadn't really talked to him in 11 years. And he sent me a message on Facebook saying, Hey, I'm living back in Ireland, I see that you're just over in Germany, you should come over. And let's hang out and let's, you know, party for a little. And I was like Ireland, I always loved it. So I was like, Yo, lo bought a ticket over to Ireland from Germany. And that's where the love story started. Again, I got off the bus from the Dublin Airport, and I got off and I saw him and it's like time had not it just like there was no time in between those 11 years. It was like, we picked up right back where we were, we were just wiser, more mature, had experienced other things in life and had such a so many stories to tell each other. But our love was still the same. And it was amazing. So my little stay in Ireland and grid, and I said I'm coming back. And he's like, do you want to move here? And I was like, Yeah, basically.
Finola Howard
So he was right. He was right, those all those years before.
Paisley Hervey
He was right, he needed that separation. We needed to grow. And I was and I am very grateful that he did that. Because I don't think I would have if we had stayed together. We probably wouldn't be together. Do you know what I mean? Like we wouldn't if we were 19 I'm going to be honest, like 19 to like 30 like so much happens and like we probably wouldn't be together. So yeah, here right? He was right. Which is great. I figured out a way for me to get back over to Ireland. And I moved here and that's just I've always been that way if I have something in my mind, I go and do it. I can't. I don't really think too far into it, which I think is quite risky, but it's also super beneficial because you know, I just dive deep into whatever I'm doing. If I have a goal if something's in my head and I want it I go and I do it. So I was like I really want to move to Ireland and I I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna give myself three months to do it. And I did it. I did it in three months, I moved to Ireland, and I got here. And yeah, as I had said at that event, this is where reality strike you come to, you know, you have this fantasy fairy tales, rainbows, butterflies, the honeymoon, and you dive into this relationship that you haven't been in for 11 years, same person, but different. Same with me, I was the same person. But things have happened to create other things. And it almost became like, I loved him so much. But I kind of was coming into a situation I didn't really know. And that's where I learned a lot about, you know, addiction and mental illness and mental health and all of that, because I hadn't experienced that myself. Nor had I ever lived with anyone else. I flipped with like, girls, you know, friends, but like, I never like romantically I'd live with someone. So it was I came into this, this world, in another country, it was someone who I deeply loved and knew was in there. But the party was over. Do you know me and I was three months before I'd come and it was party fun, fun, fun Party Party Party. And then it's like reality, you get into this reality of this is real life. And when is the party going to stop for you, honey. And that's where the love grew stronger. Because he was dealing with so many other things. And then I had to deal with them. And we just fell even more in love. Because I was with him helping him through whatever the demons they were. And luckily, with a lot of support, and him just working on himself. You got through that. And that's essentially how he created emerald farm.
Finola Howard
Can I ask you a question? So were you angry Paisley to discover that, you know, you gave up everything or you moved to another country to discover something there that you hadn't realised was happening? And what happened that made him want to recover?
Paisley Hervey
Yeah, um, no, I was so far from I mean, there were things that made me angry, but I wasn't angry at him. I would say it was just more like the sadness. But no, I wasn't like, Oh, why did I move here? I shouldn't have moved here. I was like, oh, no, I was I moved here to help him. There was a reason why we came full circle. So, um, I think like, a lot of it, his mom was very supportive. I was very supportive. So I think he saw that, like, there's people that love him, and he just needed purpose. And so that's what I think really drove him to get better. And he, a lot of times when people do have issues with like addiction or mental health, a lot of that can be they don't know what they want in life. It could be a lot of boredom. It's, you know, the boredom comes loneliness with the loneliness come sadness. So it's just a spiral. You know, you just spiral into this, this shell of like, a, like, I need this to make me feel better, or, you know, they're just in the depression. So I wasn't angry at all. I was. I was determined to help him because I knew he was in there. And I think because I knew him from previously. Does that make sense? I knew him some years before we might have been like kids, but I kind of knew he was in there. He knew he was smart. And I knew he had something to offer to the world. So yeah, no, I wasn't angry.
Finola Howard
And so when he was when you were 19, you sensed that he had something to offer the world even though Yeah.
Paisley Hervey
Oh, yeah, he is. What did you sense he's just a ray of sunshine. He's so funny. He's so smart. He lights up the room when he walks into it. I just knew he had something. He was just smarter. He thought out outside the box, he was clever. You know, like he was a little bit ahead of his time in terms of everything. And I don't know if that's because he came from another culture, or is that because he was just how his brain is wired, but he was always, he was always funny. He was always like, so loving and like charismatic, but like not in the in an annoying like too much sort of a way it was just very subtle. He has he has a thing about his eyes are very kind. So people feel very comfortable with him. And he like animals even he's just very there's something in him that not everyone has. So I saw that then. So but that just stayed in my you know, even that, like the darkest time of our relationship, but was still there. So that's what I saw.
Finola Howard
But I also have to, I have to applaud you because your reaction is not conventional. No, I know. You didn't judge him. You came you came with. You just saw. It wasn't him. Like it's a very unusual response, a beautiful response. What do you think it was in you that was allowed you to be so filled with love to do that? I know you were filled with love, but it's very easy to move into judgement in that situation. And you didn't?
Paisley Hervey
I don't know, intuition. I honestly, I don't know. I can't I don't I don't know. I just was like, but I knew I was supposed to be here with him. In my heart, I was like, No, we need to do this together. We got, you know, we're sticking together. There's a reason why we came back. You know, we have a mission to accomplish here. So let's get it together. And that I think that's what it was. It was like, I don't know, I haven't actually no idea. But it was just a gut feeling. You know, that woman's intuition. You've mentioned
Finola Howard
he? Oh, yeah. You mentioned a lot about purpose and mission and a reason to be here. And that he needed a reason he needed a purpose. Tell me about that. Tell me about the and this is how emerald farm was born. Yeah.
Paisley Hervey
So it got to a point where, you know, he was, you know, in a really good place recovery. And like, he was just so like, had ideas. And he always kept this like little notebook of ideas. And most of his ideas had to do with like the food industry. But that industry isn't necessarily the healthiest. So he was thinking, what's actually an industry that I know, that I've worked in, that I know a lot about, that I can actually help create here in Ireland that's healthy. And so he has come from a background of growing hemp and doing all that in California. And he thought there needs to be a really good traceable, good quality Irish CBD on the market. And it will help others because it will help them with their anxiety. It will help them with their sleep. It will help them with their gut. And he thought why don't I just start what I know and help others because it's helped me. So that's how emerald farm started in a nutshell, basically, it was he wanted to create a product that can help others because it has helped him so he thought CBD why not? And he worked very hard at figuring out how to do that without knowing a lot of people here Yes, he he kind of grew up here but people didn't know anyone who grew have paid have it no And mind you like at this time he also was very shy because he was still like in this like mindset and but he knew he could create something really good. So he knew in order to do that he kind of had to step out of his comfort zone and it's He hadn't have stepped out of his comfort zone, emerald farm would not have existed today. So he went and he found, how can I do this? You networked with farmers across Ireland, and a sound farmer that was willing to rent us space and work, you know, has, you know, had this land and just we he found a connection with this guy. And it's been such a great relationship. And that's where he then Jacob started formulating. And that's where our first range came out. And we were lucky enough that Jacob even stepped further out of his comfort zone, and said, Now, how am I going to sell this product. And what he did was, he presented what she had never done in his life. Now, again, like I said, he's very curt, he's very, like a ray of sunshine when he walks through the door. But like, public speaking isn't really his jam, you know, it's more my thing. I'm the talker. I love like 1000s of people in talking, I love to do that. Jacob had never done that. So again, he had to step out of his comfort zone. And he had to go in front of like a panel of people to present his product, and say why they needed to buy it. And distributor, this amazing oil. And they, they did they were like, This is amazing. Now there were, you know, a lot of constructive feedback and a lot of you know, things given ideas given to us and vice versa. And from there, that's where it was presented. And then six months later, it hit the shelves of Ireland. And that's really, really rare. And that's what I mean, it was like, he has something, he just he's a go getter. He's creative. And that's how emerald farm just became this beautiful brand and company. It's because he decided to get healthy. He wanted to make other people healthy. And he had to step outside of his comfort zone. Bravo.
Finola Howard
Telling me, I would love you to share. People are nervous of CBD oil. Right? As you know, we spoken about this a little bit so they're nervous about the relationship with hemp. CBD is there you know, I'd love you to share some a basic introduction to CBD oil, any of the normal concerns that people would have around addiction, that idea that they could become addicted, that it is all of that stuff? So can you share and also I think it's really interesting. You said this great phrase to me when we first spoke which was the idea that hemp is the superfood of all superfoods.
Paisley Hervey
Yeah. And I stand by that today. It is the superfood of all superfoods. Hemp is loaded with nutrients. And this crop is a wonder crop. It can help so many people with so many different things. And it does so many things. It's not only good for you as a human nutritionally and inside and your gut and inflammation and your brain and all of that. But it's also environmentally friendly to grow. It can you can build houses out of it, you can build, you know, mattresses, I mean, there's concrete, there's so many things that this crop does. It's almost endless. And so when I say it's the superfood have superfoods, it's a superfood, but it's like super super because it does incredible things across the board. And in Ireland, it is been grown for hundreds of years. It's been used in all sorts of ways. And when you press him, it creates a beautiful oil that is really good for your endocannabinoid system. And it just starts to send these positive signals to your CB receptors. And everyone has them. They're connected to all parts of your body, your even your skin, your eyes, your gut like your brain, it's they're connected everywhere. And so, you know, when they say like happy gut, happy brain, it's very true. And is about 90% of your serotonin I read now I could be far I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. I'm just a brand owner and but I heard that about 90% of your serotonin actually lives in your gut. And if you treat your gut with respect and give it those nutrients it needs, you could see a significant improvement in your overall health. It comes down to the inflammation. If you reduce the inflammation in your gut, everything starts working just a little bit that course it helps with sleep and relaxation. And sleep is extremely important for your mental health. And your overall well being a good night's sleep is probably the best thing you could do for yourself. You are on fire in the next day you don't feel groggy, your health improves, you know it your blood cells improve sleep is is you you need it, you have to have it if you don't have sleep, you are lacking in so many ways mentally physically and emotionally so that's where CBD oil also helps you it's just it again it's like hemp superfood a super foods and when you press it into an amazing gorgeous cold pressed oil which we do, which is so good then you can actually contribute to your overall health. Now everyone like your but everyone's body works differently. So you know, of course, it might take a little bit longer for Susie's oil to get into her endocannabinoid system. Well, Bob's might be a little bit quicker, you never know. But that's why we call it a lifestyle product. Because our CBD oil is a lifestyle product it's not an instant fix. You know if you have a headache you don't go take emerald farm CBD oil, you take emerald farm CBD oil daily so it gets into your system. So then eventually it starts reducing inflammation, sending the positive signal to your CB receptor and then then in turn your your headaches reduce. So that's how it works. It's not an instance on like a paracetamol. It's not you know, anything like that. It's literally a lifestyle product, but it's doing wonders for your inside and out. So again, like you happy gut if you suffer from stress, and then it comes out into your skin, let's say in psoriasis or even like eczema, if you take CBD oil orally. Now this doesn't go for everyone, but most people like there, they see significant improvement in their psoriasis and their skin irritations because that's all coming from the gut. So happy gut, happy brain happy skin.
Finola Howard
And we hear this a lot about inflammation so bringing inflammation down can just solve so much.
Paisley Hervey
A lot of the foods we eat in this in a lot of our foods cause inflammation a lot of our lifestyle causes inflammation we're at you know not people aren't as active as they were and we're at computers more and then of course the foods that people are eating are more processed and you know, there's you know, the bad oils as like canola oil isn't bad but it it's not good for you in terms of like all these added things into the products that are causing your body to become inflamed. And like lifestyle in general. And so the more you can reduce inflammation, the better and the like they say hemp is actually a natural anti inflammatory and that's what's the the actual hero here like let's let's take more heavy than less than your inflammation and get your belly into a good position. So you're feeling right and your brain is feeling good and all together. You're mentally in like such a clear space. Hopefully, you know oh along with them. Sure, there's other things to help with that. But a lot of times, if you treat your gut with respect, then you get a lot out of it. A lot of good things come up that
Finola Howard
love us. So there was some challenges about bringing a product like CBD oil into Ireland. Can you share some of that with us? Well, I
Paisley Hervey
think bringing any type of food supplement into Ireland is quite difficult. They are, you know, it's, there's strict guidelines, which is great, because there needs to be traceability in all products that we are consuming. Now, like, because there wasn't a lot of education in Ireland on this particular product, it was a little bit harder getting it into the market, because it was there was a grey area in terms of laws, rules, regulations, you know, a few years ago, it's very much cleared up now. And there's a lot more strategic rules in place and all of that. But yeah, when we first brought this to the market, there were a few other companies out there that were, you know, in the CBD trailblazing world, which is great. And it's not an easy thing to do, because you have to first educate. And you don't necessarily always have to educate consumers on food supplements. And I think that's where it was really hard is because there wasn't a lot of information on CBD in Ireland. Now, if you had gone to Canada, if you had gone to America, especially California, like CBD was everywhere, it was CBD everything right? For years and years. So because Ireland was a bit behind in with some of these products, it was like they had to start from ground zero and be educated and what it does and how it's grown and how it's process. It's so yeah, the first two years were very difficult, and making sure that we were doing everything in line. And we created a really great traceability programme, so that you're able to see from seed to oil, basically the whole process and everything. And so traceability is super important for any product. But I think it's also really important for CBD because you want to know where it's coming from, you want to know where it's grown. Ours is grown right here in Wicklow, which is amazing. I mean, not a lot of people can say that they grow hemp in Ireland, but mostly in the garden of Ireland. So we're very fortunate with that. And it became, it became, I think, a little bit more accepted about last year is when we started to see a huge turn in. I would say consumer, and also like customers, such as like pharmacies and health food stores, they were, there's more people were like, give it to us, we meet this, we want to sell it, people are asking about it. Were the first couple of years, it was like, I don't know, maybe I'll keep that behind the counter or, you know, but now it's like, give it to us, like,
Finola Howard
what do you think changed that?
Paisley Hervey
Ah, I think media change that. I think they're there. People have a lot more access now to being able to see how it's working across the world. And it's not just Ireland, which is super important that there's people all around the world, growing hemp, or there's people all around the world making CBD oil and the stories in the media about how it's helping so many people is really beneficial. And I think that's what's really helped in terms of this in the Irish market. And I also think being able to say like we're a trusted brand, and we you know, we can give you, you know, from seed to oil, what we do, how we process it, where we process it all of the ins and outs, which is really important for to say we're Irish proudly. I may not be Irish, but I'm really proud to have an Irish product on the market that I'm extremely proud of the product. Now because it was difficult at first. We've been on the brand now Now in year three, and this is the year for most businesses where you're like, you know, that's a pivotal year for business owners, right? Um, but I will say that we've pivoted tremendously with emerald farm. And that's just because we are. We're a brand that we think outside the box. We know that, okay, we're not we'd never said we wanted to be a CBD brand from the get go, we always wanted to be a health and wellness brand. Because we knew we had so much more to offer than just that one product. However, that product is our baby. That's our products that we, we, that really relates to us as business owners. And we know you know, we know a lot about it, and we, we just we love CBD. But we also knew you can't just grow with CBD. You gotta like you got to offer more. We are people that can offer this country so much more and really amazing products with amazing ingredients. And maybe even things that you wouldn't even think so we just saw one day we're like, okay, so CBD is great. It's doing well we'll do CBD soap. Okay, CBD soaps doing good. Let's do cold press juices. And you're probably thinking like, wait. So this idea of like pivoting and thinking outside the box, and being open minded to change is extremely, extremely important in the first few years of your business. Because you don't know unless you try. And in order to grow your business, you need to grow as business owners. And so we thought, all right, not a lot of people are doing cold pressed juices. But hey, they were super popular in California. So let's try it here. Right. So then with the cold pressed juices, we opened up a juice bar located in Round wood. And with the juice bar, we thought okay, well in the juice bar, we'll sell our CBD and we'll do our CBD soaps. And I'm like, but what if we went a little bit extra. And we were like, Let's just sell things that make you feel good. So my husband was like, ah, candles make you feel good. I'm like, ooh, shower tabs may feel good. So we just started kind of adding on to our portfolio of products. And what was great about the brick and mortar juice bar was we saw what sold, we got to have in person feedback from our customers and our consumers, which is what has helped us I would say grow to where we are now. So we started up as this little juice bar. We made amazing juicers, but it wasn't sustainable in terms of time. And they just weren't sell it. They weren't popular like they were in California. So yeah, so then that's where you have to then step back, reevaluate and say, What's working here and what's not. So then we decided, Okay, well let's expand this juice bar. Take out the juices, add more products that make you feel good. Let's focus on what we're good at. So food supplements now we do mushrooms, we do superfood powders, protein powders, and then we still do the home fragrance so we do candles. We do home where we do all the things that make you feel vibey and good. So that's where we are today. So we went from began to skincare now skincare Yeah. Natural Skincare so these products are all the best ingredients. You can get natural ingredients. And I would say you walk into our store and it smells just like Oh, it smells so good. You don't want to leave because you have the aroma and nothing's being burnt enough. We're not burning candles. The candles are the lids are off. You can smell them if you want. Then the skincare just has this aromatherapy. Oh Just beautiful scents to it that just, you put it on and you just feel powerful and you feel good in your skin. Then you have the CBD then you have our CBD soaps, which are like nothing else on this planet. They are absolutely incredible, palm free, all natural. And then of course, we have our mushrooms that are again, something that was very popular back in California now making its way over here in the UK and Ireland and are starting to become a very popular product. But there's a lot of other things that you need to know.
Finola Howard
Can you explain Paisley about the types of mushrooms because you you explained them to me really well you talked about Lion's Mane ratio is the correct ratio or the quadriceps ratio, and cordsets what is the difference? What are the things that each of those do
Paisley Hervey
so we so our mushroom range is the three for now. So there are 100% fruiting body mushrooms, which means it's only the mushroom and we actually produce it as capsules. So you actually just have to take a capsule of it. And basically, I'll talk about the first one which is Reishi. And you would consider reishi, almost like the blood mushroom. It's really good for blood pressure blood sugar levels, it's great for your immune system. So Reishi is I always tried to explain it to customers who are not familiar with the mushrooms that Reishi is targeting blood blood flow, circulation, all of that throughout your body. And then you have coordinate saps corridor steps are so good. Okay, I would say they're the underdog. They're not as talked about as Reishi or Lion's Mane, but they have benefits that you will see bait in, let's say your workout routine or your performance level as an athlete, so it's an anti inflammation mushroom, but it also boosts your energy levels and boosts your, the part of your brain that makes you want to like work out and work harder in your workout. It's an in it's an incredible mushroom for someone who is in that in that world. But it's also great for people who have inflammation issues as well. So that is quite a sap. And then lion's mane is actually I would say the most popular mushroom at the moment. And we call that the brain, mushroom. So that's really for cognitive health. And it focuses it basically helps you focus, it helps your attention span. And it helps you remember things that you I swear you would not have remembered before taking it. Like it is an incredible mushroom where you feel so alert. And so on fire in terms of like I got this I'm going yeah, I remember you I remember your name, what's your phone number, I remember your phone number. It's like a mushroom that will make you feel like you just have you're just conquering the world. And so I would say like people love that about it. And so that's lion's mane is gonna is the most popular one right now. But overall, like there's all such great mushrooms with such great health benefits. And so we have actually created this range of the three we like to do things in threes here at Emerald farm. So we started out with three CBDs. And then we started out with three CBD soaps. And now we're starting out with three different types of medicinal mushrooms. Now, that now we've expanded on to the CBD with a menopause range as well. So which has become very popular, and I'm very like, I would say very close to this product, not because I'm going through it, but because when I was interacting with customers all through last year, the women would come in, they'd be like, do you have anything for me? I'm going through this, I need this. And I just felt like what there needs to be something for these women that's natural and healthy, and something that they you know, don't have to be like, it's so taboo, you know But like, let's, let's not make it that way, let's, let's take CBD and make you girls feel good again. And so that's where we produce our paws CBD. And it's really targeting like hormonal balance. And so we have that as well. There's so vanilla, there's so many things in the works. And that's what makes it so exciting.
Finola Howard
Is there a danger? So I'm just gonna ask you some business questions for a moment, because it's really exciting. And I know you've had to pivot and that has been challenging. But you have such a high energy and a belief and a trust that it will work out, right? How is business going and tell me how businesses going.
Paisley Hervey
So business is going really well. There, the reason for that is because we don't just, we have different avenues of business. So we were open minded to making sure that we were seeing and we were a brand that was tangible to everyone. And that's what's important, okay, and I'm gonna emphasise this a lot like, we wanted to be the a health and wellness brand. That's affordable for everyone. Okay, so making us affordable. But having these elevated products that are cutting edge with top of the line ingredients is extremely like has helped us extreme, like tremendously. And then we not only do online, but we are in 800 stores nationwide. So there's a distribution part of our business that's really doing extremely well.
Finola Howard
Which stores are you in in 800? stores just for everyone to know? Well,
Paisley Hervey
we it's it there's a varies, but for most, we are in boots, these are the top stores, we're in where boots were in Holland and Barrett, we're in chemist warehouse, we're in orange health food stores. We're in health food stores across Ireland and pharmacies across Ireland. Bravo. Thank you. That's the first huge thing we're very proud of.
Finola Howard
And you should be because I have to say this to you, because it was, it is these are cutting edge products. And with cutting edge products, it's risky. And you put a lot of yourself into them. So I know that the legislation, the fear, the lack of education would have been huge barriers, and you did have to pivot to get revenue coming in and other streams. So bravo. I have another question for you. Yeah. And that is, is there a danger? That in the effort of pivoting so much, that you could spread yourself too thin with too many products, and lose the essence of the business? Ah,
Paisley Hervey
yeah, definitely. I could see that. That's a great question. And that's where we found ourselves at one point was, okay, let's scale back. And let's focus on what we're good at, let's focus on the food supplements, let's focus on the home fragrance collection, we actually brought in, now we have a business partner, which is great. So now we're not spreading ourselves too thin. He's has a great CV, and he's helped us tremendously. And so what we've just basically done is sometimes in order to scale up, you need to scale back and that is what we have done. We have seen and like I said, like we have different so the store that we have today is I like to call that like a test store. It's almost like we try products there, see how they sell what the feedback is, who's buying it, and then we get to say, okay, that's working, that's not working. It's a great way to see you know, firsthand. But you're right, you can definitely spread yourself too thin hence why we stopped the juices we've stopped a lot of products that we you know, just weren't working and that weren't you know, something that we felt was going to be part of us as emerald farm. And now we focus on what we're good at my husband is amazing at making like food supplements and knowing like what do you know is gonna work? He researches it. He goes in to California, see what's happened in there. And our business partners amazing with distribution. So we have that and we know what's going into the distribution avenue I Like the retail part of it, because that's like, I just love my little store. And it's so great. And then we have online and online is going to be growing at the moment, we just do our CBD. But I would say in March, it's gonna be a whole new website with our skincare. And everything that we feel is going to make your life a little bit better. And you are happy as a person and your whole health and well being at its finest. So yeah, you're right, you can spread yourself thin. And you don't want to get lost in who you were, from what you started as we started as we want to make people healthy and happy. And so that's what we you can kind of lose yourself for a moment. And then you need to be like, hold on a second. Let's be let's focus, we need to go back to where we were like, Jacob, you started this because you want to make people healthy and happy. So let's go back and make those products that make people healthy and happy. So who doesn't? I
Finola Howard
like I like that. You are, you're exploring and causing edge, as you say. And it seems that you've got this really beautiful balance between exploration and innovation and disruption, and sense checking. It's really, you know, there's this nice ebb and flow, where you don't get too far down one direction that you that you suffer because of it. Like, really, it's really, how are you a How are you doing that?
Paisley Hervey
What was really important is having the truth with yourself, which is funny to hear your podcast. At being realistic and saying like, Well, that was a terrible idea. And let's know what I mean, like being honest, as being like, okay, like, hold on, hold the door here, let's figure out what's really going on. And I think how we do that is first of all, like, working with your husband might seem like, Oh, that is real, it can be challenging, but it's actually super beneficial, because we have each have something different to offer to the business. And we both know how to ground each other when one person might be freaking out. And the other person is somewhat calm for the situation. And then if the other person is freaking out vice versa, it's very strange how like, we can both ground each other. Now bringing in this partner who has like a really good overview on certain aspects of the business as well. And he can kind of reel it in and be like, okay, guys will reel it in. And it's almost like we have this little triangle of trust. And we can kind of trust that one person can be the reality check. One person can be the dreamer. And one person can be the innovator. And then but it's not that same person every day, it all changes, which makes I think for a really great team working together.
Finola Howard
I love it. Who else would you like to leave people with today, if
Paisley Hervey
you're a business owner, don't give up. Stay open minded. And the business you start with is not always the business you end with. And so be open minded to pivoting and trying new things. And then to all of your listeners, I would say just don't give up on life and the people that you love. If you do see something in someone like don't give up on them. And don't judge and know that like you're you're here for a reason. So maybe you're in that person's life for a reason. And vice versa.
Finola Howard
A beautiful message from a beautiful person. Thank you. Thank you praise. Well, it's true. Thank you. So thank you so much for Joel I loved
Paisley Hervey
it. You're just so amazing to talk to you and I could talk to you for days, I could talk for days.
Finola Howard
I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you'd like to find out more about Paisley connect with her on LinkedIn, and check out emerald farm cbd.ie or Emerald farm.eu. And of course, and boots, Holland and Barrett are chemists warehouse. And if you'd like to support the show, follow or subscribe on your chosen platform. It really does make a difference. And reach out and let me know your takeaways from this episode. What would you like to know more about? Send me a quick message and I'd reply
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
