Today we’d like to introduce you to Karissa Scholz.
Karissa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It’s been over five years since I decided to embrace a journey that I had no idea where I would end up. I think that deep down, I’ve always known that I was going to live a life of adventure. One that didn’t follow a path that was set out for me. I’ve always been drawn to the unknown, drawn to taking risks, and drawn to figuring things out “my way”… aka the hard way.
I stepped away from a very corporate job about five years ago. I realized I was consuming myself with days filled with work that I didn’t truly care about and that my mid 20 years old idea of “success” maybe wasn’t right for me after all. There were some unfortunate events that happened in my life right before I took this “explorative” journey. In my eyes, I realized I had two choices. 1 – Dive deeper into a career that already took over my life and ignore my desire to work at something I loved and was passionate about. Or option 2 – Quit my career, live off the money I had no time to spend while I was making it, and truly sit down and try to figure what made me happy, who I was, what did I like doing, and how could I blend all of these things together that I hopefully would soon discover and into a lifestyle that is sustainable, fulfilling, and one that I could be proud to say is my own? I chose option 2. The one that I had no idea what in the world I was going to do and the one that I knew was going to take a lot of self-reflection and personal growth.
For the next year, I spent a lot of it traveling to other countries, because if there was one thing I was sure about – it was that I KNEW I loved traveling and meeting new people. It was the one thing in my life that always made me feel like myself. It was the one thing I could depend on. I knew I could always take off and learn something that would change me for the better. During the times I wasn’t traveling that year, there was a lot of sitting in my apartment in Santa Monica. A lot of sitting and thinking and sitting and thinking and oh – did I say thinking? 😉 I listened to a lot of podcasts to help inspire me (Derek Sivers specifically changed me). I’d take daily notes in my new notebook, that was hopefully going to one day tell me what I needed to do… or not do. For example: for a minute…. I honestly thought there was a gap in the cat tree market… Thank goodness I didn’t go down that path. I wasn’t lying when I said I was exploring every option to try to figure out what made sense to me. I made lists, thought bubbles, idea clouds, Pinterest boards, you name it – I was trying it. I started a travel blog, I started taking photos, and I began to build out my personal Instagram > www.instagram.com/bykarissa.
Travel blogging led me to so many amazing and genuine connections within the travel community through my Instagram account. Soon people were asking me, “how are you doing what you’re doing?” So instead of getting paid for “travel jobs” – I started working with other startup entrepreneurial companies. Which eventually led me to creating my own CBD company – SYZYGY! I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am today without the knowledge that I learned from a wonderful man named Steve, who also has a CBD company (O2 CBD). One day I hope I make it big, so I can show him how much I appreciate his mentorship and friendship.
For the past 18 months, I have been working on my very own CBD & Lifestyle Brand – SYZYGY [SIZZ–UH–JEE].
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
A main challenge at first was trying to figure out what I wanted my company to be. I’ve always loved listening to people’s stories, I’ve always loved helping people no matter what form of “help” it was & I always knew one day if I was able to create my dream job – it would involve connecting with other like-minded people. But at that time I wasn’t living my dream life – so I didn’t have the confidence to embrace that kind of a “job” – I told myself that I had to be my 1st client, “I have to coach myself into getting to a place that I’m proud of and follow the advice I’d give to someone else.” I realized it’s a lot easier to tell other people what they should be doing, but it’s a whole other ball game to follow your own advice. I realized I spent too much time on other people & not enough on myself.
Today, I sit here with so much confidence in knowing that I made the right decisions for myself. I know what makes me happy, what my struggles still are, where I need to improve, what I’m good at, & where my business is going! I figured out how to build and run my own company, I figured out that I get to CHOOSE who I work with, I figured out that I didn’t want a life that was compartmentalized. I wanted a life that was whole, one where my work life didn’t need to be separated from my social life, one that my work life could be done from anywhere in the world, one that didn’t take away from my personal life, one that all felt connected together.
CBD has played a large role in my life for the past five years. Not only in business – but in my own personal life as well. Being able to take something (CBD) that was natural vs. taking prescription drugs from the doctors for my anxiety was a game-changer for me. There were a string of very traumatic and life-altering events that happened to my family and somehow in some of my darkest years, something beautiful was also formed. During this time in my life, I took the opportunity to question what I really wanted out of my everyday life … “what would the ideal workday look like for me?” I no longer wanted to work at something that meant nothing to me. I wanted to build, I wanted to create, and I wanted to connect. All of this led to the creation of SYZYGY.
Last year I quit the last couple of gigs that I had and went all in on SYZYGY. I wish I could put into words how insanely rewarding, terrifying, confusing, happy, exhausted, frustrated, insecure, confident, lost, and meaningful this journey has been for me. The most important part was never giving up, no matter how hard and impossible it would seem some days, I just had to keep going.
SYZYGY – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The SYZYGY Brand is a model of my lifestyle values and intentions. From our industrial hemp plants to our state-of-the-art extraction and purification facilities. After trekking around the globe, cheering with new strangers, creating stories from the unknown discoveries, we found the alignment to our true selves. With a new set of ideas and visions, we made our strong-willed CBD products to serve as a liaison between individuals and the connection with the mind, body, and world.
Faithful to our values, SYZYGY’s Broad-Spectrum CBD ( 0.0% THC) hails from Colorado and is carefully tested with a team of experts in Los Angeles to ensure purity and high-functioning ingredients. With none of the bad, you can focus on the good: your alignment, productivity, mindfulness, and presence in the moment. It’s my version of a better world!
SYZYGY specializes in creating the most natural CBD products on the market. Not only in our CBD extracted from broad spectrum hemp, but in our terpenes as well. Our team & partners have gone through great lengths scouring the world for the purest, botanically-derived and most consistent sources of terpenes available! If you refine essential oils even further – you can isolate specific terpenes for maximum purity and benefits. Each terpene has its own unique scent and variety of benefits. And that is exactly how we created our unique SYZYGY CBD blends!
CBD is known to help with stress, anxiety, pain management, anti-inflammation, immunity-boosting, and overall help bringing your mind and body into homeostasis – balance. Our CBD is packed with active & natural ingredients… like ↠ alpha-Pinene which is naturally found in hemp, rosemary, eucalyptus, orange peel and yes… you guessed it, pine trees!
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Known Health Benefits of a-Pinene:
• Anti-inflammatory
• Memory boosting
• Cancer-fighting
• Anti-anxiety
• Anti-microbial ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Healers have used a-pinene for centuries. They’d scrape bark from coniferous trees, make a resin, and use this to treat people with congestion or infections. So with the assistance of our trusty SYZYGY scientists – we decided it was the perfect addition to add into our CBD formulas.
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We never use any harmful fillers in our formulas such as PG, VG, MCT, or Vitamin E acetate. We believe that plant terpenes and organically grown CBD are best!
We stand apart from other CBD companies because we aren’t just selling products, we’re creating a connection and a community of like-minded people who love to explore the unknown and step outside of the box.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Connection and alignment are two very important things to me – so when it came to developing a brand, I wanted to make sure that it had a strong voice, that it wasn’t just another company looking like the next one, and that there was something that was either going to make people feel like “wow, I definitely connect to this” or “ummm, not sure if this brand is for me,” I want to be niche, I want to be different, and I want to connect to those who want more out of a company.
Traveling has had a huge impact on my life and I have big plans for what SYZYGY will turn into. It’ll be more than only a CBD company, it truly will be a lifestyle. Who knows, maybe you’ll be at one of our travel retreats one day. 😉
Pricing:
- Refresh CBD Pen – $44.99 ($35.99 w/discount)
- Unwind CBD Pen – $44.99 ($35.99 w/discount)
- CBD Dog Treats – $19.99 (15.99 w/discount)
- CBD HydroCell Face Mask – $11.99 ($9.59 w/discount)
- Immune Boosting Elderberry Gummies – $19.99 ($15.99 w/discount)
- 20% Discount for readers: VoyageLA
Contact Info:
- Website: www.livesyzygy.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/livesyzygy
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/livesyzygyworld
- Twitter: www.instagram.com/bykarissa
Image Credit:
Larsen Sotelo
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