Today we’d like to introduce you to Garrett Greller.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Since the age of 14, I suffered from arthritic pains in my knees, hips, back, and ankles.
In a span of 2 years, I had seen multiple doctors who were unable heal my pain. Most doctors blamed it on growing pains. They had me try nearly everything to ease the pain including:
- Anti-inflammatory pills that had me throwing up
- $1500 injectable shots in my leg up 2 times a week
- Topical pain relievers
- Physical therapy, acupuncture, eastern medicine
NOTHING WORKED.
After wasting thousands of dollars on medicines that did NOT work and had terrible side-effects, I feared that I was going to live in pain forever.
Feeling all hope was lost, a family friend recommended trying a CBD based topical balm that was only available at the local California approved medical marijuana dispensaries.
OF COURSE, MY PARENTS AND I WERE SKEPTICAL. HOWEVER, A DEFINING MOMENT FOR MY PAIN CONTROL OCCURRED AFTER RUBBING IN THE UNBRANDED CBD BASED TOPICAL RUB. THE PAIN SUBSIDED. THIS PRODUCT WORKED BETTER FOR ME THAN ANYTHING I HAD TRIED UP TO THAT POINT…
…EXCEPT FOR ONE PROBLEM.
I am now a 21-year-old student at Indiana University and no longer living in California. This means I cannot use the rub that was legally available in California, because it is a prohibited substance in Indiana.
Thus, was born the idea of creating and formulating a legally accepted form of hemp-based CBD, called UNCLE BUD’S TOPICAL PAIN RELIEVER.
Our “Trusted Family Formula”, CANATREX™, is what made Uncle Bud’s really work to ease my pain. Made by a domestic FDA registered manufacturer, CANATREX™ is blended with legal CBD and additional natural ingredients like EMU oil, Olive oil, Coconut oil, and Methyl Salicylate.
Now, I have a legal and effective solution to treat my aches and pain, and get my active life back, and help the millions of AMERICANS who suffer from daily pains.
Check out the video of my journey to becoming pain-free at the link below!
https://vimeo.com/170316182
Has it been a smooth road?
It is not been a smooth road since starting this business from the beginning, however nothing has ever stopped us.
Initially, I had the plan to use my emotional story and unique product to launch Uncle Bud’s on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website. With a goal to raise $15,000 of pre-sales in a 40 day campaign, I worked hard for 6 months prior strategically planning each and every step to ensure we would hit the goal.
When we first launched on Indiegogo, the product went viral and we were able to raise 75% of our goal within the first 10 days of the campaign.
However, on the 10th day Indiegogo shut down my campaign without any notice, and with $12,000 in pre-sales already raised. The refunded all of the customers that needed this product, and did not give me a reason why they shut down my campaign. My months of hard work and planning were now gone, and I had to find a way to launch this product with no capital. My Dad (business partner) and I took the risk, assuming we could win back most of those initial customers back, and we opted to order the first round of production. Almost 2 months after being shut down, we launched our website and worked incredibly hard to get as many of those sales back as possible. Luckily, our loyal customers really wanted the product and we were able to have an amazing first 3 months of sales that started us on along our journey.
Along the way, we have had many similar issues as the story above, because so many banks still will not work with companies who use CBD in their products. Although we are FDA compliant and legal in all 50 states, finding a merchant bank has been one of the biggest struggles along the way. You have a lot of sketchy people out their trying to take advantage of this terrible banking situation, so it is important to be very careful with who we trust our money with. We were working with Paypal for nearly a year and a half, and one morning they decided that we could no longer transact with them. So it has happened 4 times since launching a little over a year and a half ago, that we have been shut down or stopped by banks. However, each and every time we have been able to find a solution to keep our customers pain free.
The biggest struggle is knowing that we are a legal product, but these banks and some people still look at it as if we are selling an illegal drug. Uncle Bud’s is just as legal as Icy Hot, Bengay, or Tiger balm, yet if the word CBD or hemp is heard, large entities get very scared. Knowing that this is such a grey area industry, we are now prepared for anything to turn and even more ready to solve the problem as quick as possible. Even though a lot of the time I worried about not making it over the bumps in the road, we have, and each struggle has been a learning experience.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Budsworth Labs story. Tell us more about the business.
At Budsworth Labs LLC, we work with our domestic FDA registered manufacturer, to brand and develop one of the first over the counter hemp CBD topical pain relievers. We worked with scientists, lawyers, and branding professionals to create Uncle Bud’s Topical Pain Reliever, a proprietary natural pain relief formula. We specialize in one specific product for now, that is a top of the line natural pain reliever that really works. Uncle Bud’s is made with all of the best natural anti-inflammatory ingredients such as hemp CBD, olive oil, emu oil, coconut oil. Our team now also consists of distributors, strategic partners, and affiliates to help spread Uncle Bud’s nationwide!
We are most proud as a company to develop a working product that is unique compared to the rest of the topical pain relievers on the market.
Rather than just masking the pain with skin burning chemicals, we focus on penetrating deep into the pain with our innovative formula. What really sets us apart is the fact that we have 30mg of CBD in our product, and we are FDA registered to sell over the counter in all 50 states. Not only are we one of the few that work with an FDA registered manufacturer, but CBD is what makes our product work so incredibly well. We are proud to have helped so many people that suffer from pains derived from cancer, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other activities. Customers are able to buy our product online and we ship it to their door. We also sell Uncle Bud’s to many boutique retail stores around the country in over 15 different states.
With our proprietary trademarked formula ‘CANATREX’, we plan to expand our product line of hemp based pain relief products.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The industry over the next 5-10 years is very unpredictable, because we technically are considered to be in the cannabis industry. With states legalizing marijuana recreationally, you are beginning to see a shift in the industry. People are starting to learn the difference between CBD and THC, which is a good thing. However, you are also starting to see more products just like mine pop up everywhere. However, what will continue to set us apart is our FDA compliance.
I can see marijuana being legalized in the next 10 years, and I am not quite sure if that will help or hurt our business. Being that we have been in early and a leading product in the legal CBD topical category, I am going to keep pushing this product into as many outlets as possible. Even if that means we sell to recreational dispensaries, so people from non-legal states can bring home a legal ‘cannabis’ product to use for their aches and pains.
There are people that need access to medical marijuana, and for those who cannot legally access it for now, I am giving them the opportunity to become pain free with the similar ingredients. Instead, you do not need to smoke it, you can just rub it in to receive all the medical benefits needed.
The best thing we can do is adapt with the industry, and be able to change as it changes.
The nice thing is to be able to also put ourselves in the industry of health and cosmetics. We will continue to make pain products with our proprietary formula, so we eventually can have a line of legal CBD health products. This has been a trend in this industry, take Burts Bees for an example. Burts Bees started as a chap stick, now they have an entire line of beauty products. We want to be the Burts Bee’s for hemp based products, being that we have the ability to use our proprietary formula to create a handful of pain relief products!
Pricing:
- 1 ounce tube of Uncle Bud’s Topical Pain Reliever = $24
Contact Info:
- Address: 1716 3rd street
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 - Website: http://www.unclebudsrub.com/
- Phone: 310-567-5656
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unclebuds_rub/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unclebudsrub/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncleBuds_Rub
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/budsworth-labs-llc/
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