What is CBD and What are its Effects and Benefits with David Houlihan

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate show home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne, and I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO:
Our guest today was born and raised in a small farming town in Iowa by a single mother. He came to Hawaii when he finished high school and attended Chaminade University. I was gonna say he landed in us meat inside the inside of a meteorite in a cornfield. But that’s Superman. I’ll keep going.

ADRIENNE:
So he got into his business about four years ago when he realized he needed a career change. With friends were selling the same products. He then started to research CBD and experienced its pods positive effects. Now he has four locations on Oahu and they have over 6000 regular customers. Please welcome our guest, David Houlihan. Hello, David.

DAVID: 
Hi, thank you for having me. Sure.

ATTILIO: 
Now I want to start off with it was just pure circumstance. But I was standing in front of the store in his store across from landings bakery, scarfing down some some sugar buttery rolls, some Spanish rolls over there that they’re famous for really working on my diabetes. And I was for somebody I was standing up front looking for something and then and then I remember David came outside and say hey, you need any help or anything or we help you with something and I thought that was a real nice business owner. And this is a couple of months ago It might even have been last summer but I remember because we when we when we did our our live zoom with you I recognize you in that store. And I’m like and want to ask if you had that location you did so the unbeknownst to me, that was my initial interaction with David very nice, conscientious families owner friendly

ADRIENNE: 
Midwestern guy. Yes, he did not lose Yeah, you know, coming here to Hawaii, I think he’s just made it stronger.

ATTILIO: 
He’s, he’s merging it in with the Aloha spirits, right? Yeah.

DAVID: 
Thank you so much. I, that’s my, that’s what I strive for. That’s for sure. This is the best place in the world to be. There’s no place like Hawaii. It’s easy to be positive.

ADRIENNE: 
So David, you know who so we realized you got into this business four years ago. So what was it that really I mean, I know that you had friends that were doing this, but what really pushed you over the edge to just make this

ATTILIO: 
jump to entrepreneur?

DAVID: 
Yeah, well, the first thing I had to do was have proof of product. And so that could be completely behind what we were selling. You know, that’s more important than, you know, it’d be, you know, profitable business. So my elderly mother was in a nursing home, and she had had surgery on her back on her vertebrae. And the result was that she could only walk, you know, crooked, and she had a lot of pain in her lower back and her leg. Yeah. So I sent her some of the topical and she applied it and it changed her life. She was, you know, what she was reserved to be sedentary. She was able to, you know, attend functions, in our grandkids, graduations, stuff like that. And without that topical cream working to relieve her inflammation, that wouldn’t have been possible. So I became a believer and then it became easy.

ATTILIO: 
Well, then that’s so yeah, we’re like when we have our guests on here. We’d like to get right into it. Let’s get into the meat of the subject. So we know why. Great, great experiential story on why you got involved in these types of stores what let’s hit it with what is CBD? What does that even stand for? And what is it?

DAVID:
So it’s a cannabinoid. And that is what makes up the hemp plant. Which is probably most known because it’s the cousin of the marijuana plant. Yeah. So from from the hemp plant. It can be these compounds can be extracted, like CBD and CBN, and CBG. The things that are naturally there that are grown in the plant, and when they’re put into oils, or a dummy or something you can just put in water and drink. The result is is that they they are great stress relief for pain relief or trouble sleeping, that so many of us have these days. Yeah. And there’s no side effects. So it can become a fantastic supplement and often a replacement for a lot of prescription things like Vicodin or or Xanax or Ambien. Yeah, because the gentleman’s no harsh.

ATTILIO: 
We liked that gentleman harshness, because when you see those commercials for those products, you’re mentioning side effects. The side effects include bleeding from the eyeballs, your organs, turning to mush. You know, walking into whatnot, I’m exaggerating, but there’s always those things that they read off at the end, and you’re like, huh,

ADRIENNE: 
so. So David. So you could walk into your store and give a whole list of all your ailments, and you likely would have something that will help a solution for each one.

DAVID: 
Essentially, and essentially, the different parts of the plant can be condensed into one product, for example, like CBN. That’s it another part of the plant. So we have a product called CDM Plus. This compound gives us specifically deep restful sleep. So for the many people who have trouble sleeping or staying asleep, they can use the tincture or they can eat a gummy of CBN plus, and it helps them with those challenges.

ATTILIO: 
Now that we have that can keep going.

DAVID: 
And we have you know half of our products have zero THC in them. We have about 6000 regular customers and our rewards. And a third of them to a half of them are military or federal employees. And you know they have trouble sleeping pain, stress, like anybody else, but they get tested. So they need something that is effective, that has no THC.

ATTILIO: 
It’s like hemp is the cousin to marijuana. So this is the cousin hemp is the cousin that’s gainfully employed with a good credit score and marijuana the cousin passes out on your couch and has Cheeto fingers. So that’s a

ADRIENNE: 
no but the THC level is so low that you don’t have the

ATTILIO: 
test positive. No, no.

ADRIENNE: 
It will show up on a drug test potentially but it doesn’t give you any kind of like, you know,

DAVID: 
psychoactive effects.

ATTILIO: 
That is it. Yeah. psychoactive

DAVID: 
thresholds that that that federally legal point three is the threshold. Yeah. So in terms of sleep or stress, even paying that compound in particular can be very effective.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Well, you know, I remember seeing your store too, I think I mean, there’s a good analogy, but you guys are kind of like the GNC of CBD of CBD. You can call me on that.

DAVID: 
I think that’s a very good analogy. That’s the model is very similar.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Because it’s not, you know, we think CBD back in the day, that’s more than hemp. And it’s like, you know, you go to some organic food held store and the person behind the counter is wearing Indian drawstring pants and Birkenstocks and save the West t shirt. Now, that’s, that was Lily Tomlins description of of a hippie but nothing wrong with those those articles of clothing and stuff like that. But yours is more like the GNC, you know, you’re walking in there, you got the stores, probably all across the nation. It’s a corporation that’s focused on. Yeah, it’s a franchise, you’re focused on the quality of the ingredients and making sure that you’re not providing something anecdotally that, that makes sense for people. But you know, it’s been tested and it’s safe for people.

DAVID: 
And the consistency, so over 600 stores, that’s a that’s a lot of, you know, jars and bottles of tincture and so on. So they have to be the same every time. But a lot of places sell CBD like down to earth. The Vitamin Shoppe? Yeah, but that’s like 10% of what they sell. Our stores are unique is we only sell CBD and we own so one brand. It’s the biggest, the only it’s the only USDA certified organic. Certainly government certification. So and when they are people come in our customers, we educate them first, and answer their questions and listen to their concerns. So we can put something that’ll work for them, you know, based on the history of the products and stuff.

ADRIENNE: 
So David, let’s talk about the location of these stores. What was the first location? And then where else? Can you find them? I

ATTILIO: 
know walk us chronologically to your locations.

DAVID: 
Yes, so in 2019, so November right before COVID started my first store in Aiea, right on Kam highway and right across from BestBuy. And it was upstairs and COVID hit and I stayed open the whole time and it grew and became profitable. So later in 2020, I opened a second store on Kapahulu Minute corner of Kapahulu. And Campbell, right across from where you known endings bakeries. And they have some good, fantastic stuff. And so that store took off as we came out of COVID and people started to travel. So I opened the third one in Kaneohe. Right on Kam highway across from fresh catch by Cohiba. Yes. That was that’s a great location because that’s a small community there. Yeah. So we’re very close with all the customers that yeah, and the newest one and Kahili at the City Square Mall, right next to the police station most young fishmarket.

ATTILIO: 
Awesome. You got all these convenient locations? Adrienne,

ADRIENNE: 
I was gonna say what, what other locations? Are you planning in your future? What are the areas?

DAVID: 
The next one is Kapolei. What I would prefer, that I would prefer to do is prefer to do is have somebody open it under and have it be their business, and then I can support them and the company rewards us for supporting new stores and on the outer islands. We’re looking for some of my some entrepreneurs

ATTILIO:
out there, you’re

ADRIENNE: 
looking for a partner that you can help grow this business or maybe a mentee, mentee, you the mentor.

DAVID: 
Yeah, yeah. But it’s their own business. They buy the products directly. It’s their own franchise. At some point they can sell it after it has a proven history. Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
So you’re there is like the coach and the support, because you’ve done this four time when there’s

ATTILIO: 
there’s obviously a company corporate company culture that has the franchise owners supporting each other.

DAVID:
Yeah, I’d be pretty much all the stuff I didn’t have when I started.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Dave is gonna have a personal consultation with you 10 Things you don’t want to do when you get this thing going and the 10 things you do want to do. Because, well, the good news for business owners and I know this is from the Small Business Association 90% of mom and pop startups are out of business in five years. 90% of franchises are still in business after five years and this is from the Small Business Association. So franchises have a playbook and you get it on somebody that knows how to use the playbook, that would be David. So anybody listening would probably, this is a great opportunity. Yeah, great opportunity. Thanks for mentioning that

ADRIENNE: 
couple days growing. Yeah, the rail is opening.

DAVID: 
Absolutely. And our customers, our customers that come to Aiea are all about winning, opening up the store in Kapolei,

ATTILIO: 
there you go. The second city, so it’ll be the fifth CBD store.

ADRIENNE:
And then we have listeners to for the neighbor islands. So you know if anyone is listening, Maui, Big Island, Kauai, like, give?

DAVID: 
Absolutely. That name brand is would would go a long ways. And there will be stores in all those places.

ATTILIO:
Yeah. And we know that for sure. Knowing you and knowing the product and the business model that you have the fact that you started right when COVID started, that’s the and grew, that’s gotta give you some instant credibility that you made made it through the challenging most challenging.

DAVID: 
Stress was at an all time high at that point. Yeah, for sure. It was amazing watching the whole process of the people and how their money and their debt going. And that you know, that’s amazing what they’ll share. Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
So David, if one of our listeners is interested in this opportunity, yeah. To partner and what would be the best way for them to go about it? Should they call you directly email? What’s the best way to make a connection could call,

DAVID: 
they could call directly or email me with the information that is provided at the beginning. Or even the Sunmed website is quite a bit of information. Okay. It’s better to to contact me directly.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. So we’ve got your numbers. 2958266. Is that a good number? Yep, that’s the one. All right, so that’s 808-295-8266. Again, that’s 808-295-8266. If anybody out there too, if you’re a regular listener, you just call your Adrienne and myself. And obviously, I’ll make the correction. point you in the right direction. David, what other guy? Yeah, go ahead.

DAVID: 
I have a guy who’s from Hawaii, who moved to California, he opened up two stores to get one in Lincoln and one in Roseville. Nice. And he’s been in for two and a half years now.

ATTILIO: 
All right. Yeah. That’s what we like. So you know, prior to this, were you with w two working for somebody else. Are you were you? Are you a serial entrepreneur?

DAVID: 
Yeah, no, I’ve always been I was in direct sales. And that was not a long term retirement plan. Good, good business and good work. But this is more. That was another part of the attraction was the lifestyle. I knew once it grew finance sales, I could train the salespeople and make sure they were portraying the right information to help more people.

ATTILIO: 
Well, I tell you, what, a what a good business to be in because you’re serving definitely a big need for people on this planet, which is all the stress that people go through. And they want some remedies, right? Because we know stress creates physiological it shows up in your body in the physiology and your biology. So it’s important to be able to deal with it naturally. Like you to go ahead,

DAVID: 
especially when you think long term. Yes, you know, you’re gonna have this hip pain or that stress or that trouble sleeping. You’re gonna have it for the next however many years. Yeah. Yeah, it’s got to be something safe and gentle.

ADRIENNE: 
Like pain, sleep stress, and they even have a little area for pets. What else we do?

DAVID:
The same, same similar problems. No old age, same no aches and pains. It’s really good for that. And fireworks will stress them out. Yeah, we also assign a we have a product we’ve had now just for a year we did a the company did a study with the Mayo Clinic. It’s a weight loss product called trim. And 100 people did the program just just took the product for 13 weeks, and they all lost weight, an average weight loss of 10 pounds some up to a team. And their pain went down their stress went down. Everything improved their health with their blood sugar, their BMI. All the results are we have them all presented throughout our company in every store.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. So the what would you say would be the number one reason why people come into the store? What are their health challenges that are people mostly coming in for?

DAVID: 
stress, pain and trouble sleeping? Yeah, those are the three stress largely whether it’s socially or whether it’s every day kind of a thing. And there’s a lot of people there, they’re just round kind of tight. Yeah. And you know we have stuff at tincture oil for the last eight plus hours. Yeah, so they take it in the morning, we even add things called CBG to another part of the same hemp plant. But this compound gives you alert, it’s a cognitive energy part of the plant. Okay, so it’s a daytime focus product

ATTILIO: 
you have? Do you have a lot of postal workers that?

DAVID:
Maybe not necessarily. But you definitely know when someone really needs to tell you what’s on their mind, which is all positive. So we’re gonna fix them up in the end.

ADRIENNE:
So this safe for children, because they know a lot of times the kids they also feel stressed, or maybe they have the ADHD or some kind of behavioral issues. Have you seen a lot of parents coming in for, you know, products for the kids?

DAVID: 
Yeah, yes. And I gotta say, before I started, I really never thought about that. I didn’t think about it. And you know, we can only sell to the parents, obviously. But they are asking pointed questions, and they are clearly going to give it to their kids. And I went to if my, if I had a child that was so anxious, and sometimes aggressive and couldn’t sit still, that’s a much better way to calm them down and ease their anxiety than some prescription that’s going to give them other side effects. And nobody knows their kids like they’re their own parents. And what’s going to work for them? Yeah, and they can just give them a piece of candy and got me to eat or, or, you know, it’s remarkable.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, we have a good friend of ours, that’s, you know, they’re only only, I mean, I would say 99.9% of the people that get off this island, or come to this island or airline travel. And so people are traveling on the airplane is stressful. So maybe they would imagine they probably come up by your store before

DAVID: 
on their way to the airport, flying out later that day. And that’s a great choice. And it’s all legal. So you can travel with anything. Yeah, no problem. Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
Xanax? Right? Yeah.

DAVID: 
I would say definitely. No hangover, no side effects.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. I think I think more and more people are being very conscious of what we are putting into our bodies. We’re real focused on health nowadays, now that we, you know, have higher more leisure time and disposable income that well, one people are living longer. So your Are you finding that your our older clients are coming in, because we’re living longer?

DAVID: 
Absolutely. And in the beginning, they were the core part, there’s still a large part of our group, but in the beginning, it was in 2019. So it wasn’t so, so well known. But I adore them. Because you know, they’re older. And you know, there’s, they just have to learn, learn to manage their arthritis or bad hip, bad knee. And so the topical is so popular. They just have to rub the cream on the CBD gets into those cells and just releases the inflammation. Yeah. You know, they’re, they’re the people there. They’re there. 15 minutes before we open waiting to get another jar because they’re out.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And I think too, you know, you have we talked about it on we did our live stream, you know, that sometimes the kids are coming in for the parents or grandparents. And you know, a great grandpa is super grumpy. You’re not saying slip it into their coffee, you know, bring them into the store and have a discussion about it. To see. Are you finding that they’re off into it? Yeah.

DAVID: 
Oh, yeah. No, I think it’s kind of similar to the people who are buying it for their young children. Yeah, you know, that kind of that they’re, they’re really struggling, you know, they don’t have any answers. They don’t want to give their pets likely. They’ve already tried strong prescriptions for these challenges with their parents, and the parents don’t like it. Yeah. And so it doesn’t work. So it’s a bad experience. So the CBD, you know, they can just give them a gummy that they can just eat it or they can show them that they’re just putting in their coffee or tea. And you know, they just get it into their body and it just calms them way down. And it’s natural. Everybody wins. So it’s not a prescription.

ATTILIO:
Well, what’s good about having awesome guests like you and the interesting topics is Time flies and you come to the end of another radio show. Adrienne, any final question for for David?

ADRIENNE: 
No, but thank you for coming on and sharing with us about CBD your store locations opportunity. I think this is wonderful information. I am going to be coming by and getting some some products myself. Yeah. Or for me for my friends, my mom, kids. So thank you for educating us. Yeah, no, thanks.

DAVID: 
Thank you both so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.

ADRIENNE: 
All right. All right, thank you, David.

DAVID:
All right. Have a great day. Aloha. Aloha. Okay, so that

ADRIENNE:
was David Houlihan of Your CBD Store they look four different locations? And possibly a fifth? If

ATTILIO: 
we’re looking for you entrepreneurs out there so what do they Kaneohe? Kalihi Kapahulu and Aiea? For city? That’s right. Yeah, Your CBD Store? I think the websites like sun med or anything but if you Google David,

ADRIENNE:
your CBD Getsunmed.com

ATTILIO: 
Yes Getsunmed.com sunmed.com. All right.

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