“Women—in a broad age range—are experiencing stress at very high levels. As someone who has lived this, I wanted to offer an experience just for them. I want women to take a minute to just feel good…”
–Lisa Lytton, Moodbox CBD
How would you describe yourself and what you do?
I am an explorer. I explore new areas that interest me. I’ve had different phases in my career as a visual creative, first as a senior visual editor with National Geographic working with the best photographers in the world, and then successfully making the transition to the world of software development in my fifties to create a platform for visual storytelling. Now my explorations are turning back to a very early interest in health and wellness with CBD, bringing all my skills to bear.
I look for clean beauty and wellness products made with the very highest quality lab-tested whole-plant hemp extract.
I have my own line of Moodjuice tinctures working with a small organic family farm in Wisconsin, so I know the farmers, and I trust their process.
There are organic fruit flavors for each of the four Mood Collections: Joy Orange, Sexy Pom, Mellow Blueberry, and Lemon Muse.
The Moodjuice tinctures are the cornerstone of each of my boxed collections by the same names. I find great small makers, mostly female founders, who are creating their brands in a clean and authentic way. No white-label, no big batch CBD, no isolates. Everything is thoroughly tested so I know the products are clean, without pesticides, heavy metals, or toxic molds. I won’t use it or include it if lab tests are not available. The third-party lab tests are posted and downloadable on www.moodboxxCBD.com.
When did you get started working with cannabis? What is your vision and mission for your professional cannabis endeavors?
I got started right after I attended a conference on women and cannabis in early 2018. It was eye-opening! After being in a male-dominated space for close to five years—I literally was usually the only woman in a room of 12 guys—it was a breath of fresh air. Just the amazingly different approach to sharing experiences! Women of all ages and colors were having genuine and generous conversations about this new business, and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it before. I really wanted to be a part of that kind of journey. It took me a while to disengage from the somewhat toxic situation I was in, and to build the foundation of Moodboxx, but I launched a year later.
Women—in a broad age range—are experiencing stress at very high levels. As someone who has lived this, I wanted to offer an experience just for them. I want women to take a minute to just feel good, to allow themselves a break from the emotional labor of caring for everyone else before themselves. Moodboxx is about the good feels.
What is your personal cannabis origin journey?
My personal journey to CBD really comes out of an extremely stressful work situation where I found out I was making considerably less than the younger men who were ostensibly working for me. It was stressful trying to figure out how to handle what was so clearly an unfair and really illegal situation. My cortisol levels were through the roof, and I was really actively looking for some way to calm myself so I could deal rationally with the situation.
When I started looking for what might work, I quickly settled on full-spectrum CBD tinctures. I’ve never smoked and the research on vaping, no matter what is in it, isn’t good. I didn’t want to go that route to quell my stress-induced anxiety.
I am a methodical researcher when it comes to something I’m going to put in my body so I dug deep to find out what I needed to look for in a clean tincture.
That led me to create my own line of tinctures because while there are some fine tinctures on the market, there are scores of terrible ones with no real provenance. We are still in largely unregulated territory, so consumers need to be aware of what they are getting and ask for the lab tests. I post mine on www.moodboxxCBD.com.
What is your Superpower?
I am Tenacious with a capital T. Do not tell me I can’t do something unless it is a dare.
What has been your greatest obstacle in business to date – and how have you overcome it – or are you still working on tackling it?
The whole banking situation has been messy. As a startup, I had a hard time getting credit card processing and I’m still paying about 7% per transaction. It took a long time to get, and I’m hoping to transition to a better situation as soon as I can. It is really only a matter of time before banks can’t ignore the industry any longer.
I also could have thrown up an illegal Shopify website to launch more quickly, but I chose not to. I designed and built my website on WordPress with WooCommerce. It took much longer than anticipated and probably hurt me more than if I had just started on Shopify and had it taken down six times. Ultimately, I’m glad I own and don’t rent from Shopify, but it was a pain point.
What would you like women to know about entering the Cannabis industry or exploring Cannabis?
My vision is that I’d really like for women to remain the strong voice they are today in the industry.
Now that big money is coming in, the boys want to play, and not all of them will play nice. I like how women who have been in the industry for, say, the last 6 years or so, have welcomed newcomers like me. I’ve asked for plenty of help, and with a few exceptions, I’ve received it from generous women with experience in the business.
My advice for women entering the CBD business now is to find their niche, and then niche again. My niche is really women of a certain age who are looking to take the edge off and just feel better about themselves. These women want less stress and more good feels. And really, who doesn’t want that?
The other advice—create an authentic brand and voice that you think will resonate with your target audience. I see so much crappy branding—labels that look like about 5 minutes time was invested, with no information about what’s inside. Discerning, repeat consumers aren’t going to buy that.
Connect with :
Website: www.moodboxxCBD.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/moodboxxwithlove
Instagram: http://instagram.com/moodboxxcbd
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/moodboxx
her canna life: high-minded women 