Dave Hargett of Innovative CBD: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Just keep it simple and do on to others as you would want done onto you. Stay honest and transparent at all cost. we all need to work together to make this industry more respectable and enjoyable for all.
As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing David Hargett.
David Hargett founded Innovative Nutraceuticals, LLC in 2013 but has changed the entity to Innovative PR, LLC which is an Act 73 company as of October 2019 in Puerto Rico and currently serves as the President and CEO of the company. Innovative PR produces pure, solvent-free Hemp Oil for use in the medical and wellness industries with a focus on organic alternative medicine. Innovative PR, LLC owns a number of elite brands including Innovative CBD ®. These brands represent Innovative’s internationally recognized food grade and medical grade products. Innovative PR produces the highest quality Hemp products in a variety of forms that include tinctures, capsules, salves and topicals.
A pioneer in the industry, David has designed and built a supercritical C02 extraction machine, which extracts pure, organic cannabinoids from industrial hemp grown on his own farm in California with-out the use of any hydrocarbon solvents.
David’s past entrepreneurship endeavors include ownership of the profitable nursery, SoCal Cuts. David is also a lecturer at the Cannabis Career Institute, Cannabis and Hemp Association and the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition as an expert of the standards and requirements of extraction.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I had invented my own C02 extraction machine for cannabis extractions and while doing so the girl I was currently dating had one of her daughters recently diagnosed with epilepsy. Hemp was currently illegal in the United States as it was 2013 so I flew to Spain to buy a farm and import hemp legally through the Federal Controlled Substance act so I could make CBD rich hemp oils to help treat her daughters seizures.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In 2017 My company had had numerous shipments of Hemp seized from Customs and border protection claiming it was illegal to import. I then hired a team of lawyers and filed a class action lawsuit against Jeff Sessions “attorney general” and CBP for unlawful seizure and destruction of property. After 3 years my company won a $350,000 settlement and my seized Hemp was released to me. I learned that even when you try to do things legally the Government will still try to claim hemp is illegal and you have to really fight to prove your innocence. My business had done everything correct to import and had successful imports so the seizure made no sense to my legal time and when the government gets involved and says its illegal there is not much a person can do. Thankfully we fought the system and won which not sets case law for anyone importing hemp in the future.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I would have to my funniest mistake was thinking it would be easy to start a CBD business and sell to mass market. I had to learn how difficult it really is to get your brand on store shelves and maintain market share with so much competition.
Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Innovative is currently building out a USDA Organic Certified Farm in Canovanas Puerto Rico. This new project will allow us to hire more people and bring organic CBD hemp products to our customers. We will also grow other organic produce to donate to the local community and churches in need.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I am very grateful for my attorney Michael Chernis in Santa Monica California. I would have wild ideas about what I wanted to do with my business and he was always there to help me put together the proper contracts and to make sure everything we did followed federal law.
This industry is young dynamic and creative. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?
Marketing in the CBD business is very difficult because the world we are living in people think cheap and more is better and that’s just not the case with CBD. Innovative is stall navigating the CBD marketing space trying to figure out what works beast and for s it has always been to be transparent with our consumers and showcase customer reviews and let them help us build consumer confidence.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Cannabis industry? Can you share 3 things that most concern you?
Adoption of CBD and cannabis worldwide, federal banking coming soon “hopefully” More consumers becoming aware of the amazing health benefits from cannabis and hemp. What concerns me is too much regulation of a natural product. FDA classifying CBD as a drug. Large scale manufactures mass producing Hemp products and consumers thinking all CBD is the same.
Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.
1- difficulty selling to mass market. Finding and hiring a sales team to sell in all 50 states is extremely challenging when you don’t currently know anything about selling to brick and motor stores. Thankfully my team was built from one person who tried my product and with his knowledge of the mass market industry he landed me sales reps in all 50 states and is currently my largest wholesale broker. 2- what is legal one day may not be the next. We have sold in states like Texas and Missouri for 1–2 years with no problem then all of a sudden we receive a call from a health food store saying there government made cbd illegal and they wanted to return all products. After a few months the government reversed their decision and it was business as usual. 3- be prepared to spend more then you ever imagined in legal fees keeping your business legal in all markets you plan to peruse. Every state has their own laws regarding cbd and they can very drastically from CBD percentage to labeling and things can change in an instant and all of a sudden, the product on store shelves could need a recall because of a label change requirement. 4- the competition can be fierce and will do just about anything to gain market share. When we first started in mass market Innovative was competing with 3–4 other brands then as CBD started to gain traction with consumers more brands started popping up and mostly were white label products and they would give stores free products just to get on the shelf. This made it very difficult to complete as our product has a higher price point do to the unique oil manufacturing process proprietary to innovative but consumers at the time were mainly focused on price not knowing they were purchasing an inferior product. 5- I wish I knew how unpredictable the CBD and Cannabis market can be. One day things can be going great and the next things completely slow down. The market has many ups and downs that have been tricky to navigate and predict.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
Be honest with consumers about the product you are manufacturing and selling. Its going to be a lot of work but the reward is priceless when you change someone’s life with your products.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Just keep it simple and do on to others as you would want done onto you. Stay honest and transparent at all cost. we all need to work together to make this industry more respectable and enjoyable for all.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
InnovativeCBD.com and Innovative CBD on YouTube, twitter, IG and FB.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Dave Hargett of Innovative CBD: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.