I was turned on to Golden Apple Cannabis Co. by my buddy, Loshel. I recently got some CBD products from them to help with sleep, anxiety, and inflammation. Then I figured, why not do a Q&A with them to learn a little more. So, this Q&A is part business and part COVID-19 related. If you haven’t seen them, we have done several COVID-19 related Q&As recently with small, local businesses to see how they managing.
Thank you again to Shawn for doing this and for the help navigating the CBD world.
Note: if you’d like to check out their products, go to this affiliate link here.
Matt: When was Golden Apple Cannabis created?
Shawn: Golden Apple Cannabis was created in 2015. Previous to Golden Apple I was cultivating cannabis in Southern California for medical marijuana dispensaries. However, after moving to the Central Coast (North County) in 2014, a decision was made to become vertically integrated (seed to sale) to control the entire supply chain and to be able to offer our products direct to consumer.
So, although I’ve been in the cannabis industry for over a decade, Golden Apple as a brand and entity is around 5 years old.
Matt: Why did you start this business? I mean, other than being entrepreneurial, you must have had an idea about how CBD/THC can truly help people, right?
Shawn: Absolutely. I believe most people who have been in this industry for any length of time have a special relationship with the plant and have a good understanding of how beneficial cannabis can be for people. We’ve all seen cannabis products affect people with very positive results ranging from helping with physical ailments, to depression, and all the way to improving their lifestyles by weaning off or lessening the use of particular substances like opiates or alcohol.
It’s really wonderful to be able to be involved in a business that you can truly feel good about products that you offer – that you know has a great and positive impact on the people who use them.
Matt: What does your company currently specialize in?
Shawn: We specialize in all things cannabis. This means cultivation, manufacturing, R&D, sales, consulting, etc. Not only are we interested in THC, but in all cannabinoids (currently there are around 120 known cannabinoids but more get discovered all the time), terpinoids, flavonoids, biomass of the plant, etc.
Currently, we are restricted by particular regulations in terms of what we can sell on our website. On our website we have CBD health products and terpenes. However, we have many other cannabinoid products in our R&D pipeline such as CBC, CBN, and CBG products.
We also have a permit going through the process for THC dominant cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, and retail in North County. We are working on a large facility build out for the THC side of the house.
Matt: How can people learn more about the benefits of CBD? Is there a resource they can go to?
Shawn: Absolutely! We have some great resources on our website on the benefits of CBD. We have a beginners guide: https://goldenapplecannabis.com/cbd-beginners-guide/ and a CBD FAQ page: https://goldenapplecannabis.com/cbd-faq/
There’s also other great external resources such as project CBD: https://www.projectcbd.org/
On top of that, I always encourage folks to reach out to us via email, text, phone, social media, etc. if they have any CBD or cannabis questions. I’m always interested to know what people’s understanding is of cannabis and to see how I might be able to help them digest all of this information.
We are activists for this plant as well, so part of what we do is try to help people understand the potential of cannabis and strive to culturally normalize it so everyone will have greater access. As it becomes more understood – it becomes more normal. When this happens it moves out of prohibition and is more accessible. More access and understanding of cannabis means the potential to have more impact on people so they can regain more health and balance in their lives.
Matt: Has the COVID-19 concerns impacted your company? If so, how?
Shawn: COVID-19 has not impacted sales thus far. Thankfully, in California cannabis is labeled as an essential business due to it’s health impact on people. And I think more than ever everyone is looking for products that can boost their immunity, help with anxiety issues, help them sleep, and generally help them to become more healthy.
Matt: How have you adjusted in the face of this pandemic, if at all?
Shawn: The pandemic has slowed down our permitting process and new building construction. However, we’re also currently focused on getting our website sales side of the house up and going since e-commerce is new for us – and Covid-19 hasn’t shut down the internet yet so we can still try to leverage that particular vertical.
Matt: What are your future plans with the business? You pick, 6 months from now, 12 months, 24 months?
Shawn: We have many different and unique products in the pipeline that we’re very excited about. They will be new for the industry and we hope to cause a bit of a splash.
In addition, as mentioned, we have a large facility planned in North County. However, due to the painstakingly slow process regarding cannabis permitting locally I expect that to take another year or so to come to fruition.
Lastly, we’re working on a podcast, always adding more useful content to our website, increasing distribution of our products so more people can access them, and getting even more involved with community outreach and activism!
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