Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Norby.
Hi Dawn, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Our son was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. While waiting for is bone marrow transplant, Make A Wish San Diego approached us and offered him a wish. Well, he wished to go to Scotland and play golf at St. Andrews. Two weeks later, our family was on a plane to Scotland. This trip and his memories got him through chemo and the transplant. It was then that I decided I wanted to pay it forward and volunteer for Make A Wish. Before I could inquire about volunteering, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Finally, being done with my treatments and Trevor getting his all clear from Aplastic Anemia, I reached out to Make A Wish. After training, I was assigned my first wish kiddo. He was going through Leukemia, and I was familiar with all of his side effects as I just finished going through what he was dealing with. Hi mom approached me and asked if I would please make a salve out of CBD to help him with pain. I said certainly and off I went to look up what CBD was as I had no clue at the time. Researching, I discovered Hemp CBD from Isolate that is 100% THC free and safe for kiddos. I also located someone who grew it organically as well as processed it without chemicals. I purchased some, made an all-natural salve and took it to him mom. Well, low and behold, he came barreling down the stairs to play with his brother for the first time in ages. His pain was gone! I told my husband, and he suggested I make more and take it to the doctors at Children’s Hospital for them to offer to patients. It was a huge hit! Now we make not only our salves but also 18 other products. We still make each batch in small, controlled batches with our all-natural, organic Hemp Isolate. This was 9 years ago, and we are going strong! We ship Nationally and have a 98.6 customer return rate for re-orders. We love what we do and know our products are the best on the market.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We just started taking off with our company, Budding Botanicals when Covid hit. We ended up moving from California to East Texas during Covid and it was a direct hit to our company as we weren’t able to get our products into the hands of people as things were still closed or there were no options on marketing. We still had our customers in California but growing here was difficult in the beginning.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We make all-natural CBD from Hemp products safe for all ages. We are known for using Hemp Isolate, so all of our products are 100% THC free. We like to speak with our customers to better understand their needs. We make custom blends for our customers and most of our newer products came from customer suggestions. We are set apart from other brands because of our quality is better than others on the market. We are most proud of our newest product that just hit the market- our MOAB, (Mother of all Balms). It is available in 2 varieties. One as a balm and the other as a liquid. Comparing these products to what is available over the counter, our products have 4 and 6 ingredients. Over the counter products have between 17 and 24 ingredients. Even after 9 years, we are still made in small, controlled batches and we still enjoy speaking and educating the public on the benefits of CBD.
What’s next?
We are looking to expand our white labeling businesses as well as expanding our reach of customers. Networking is very important to a small business, and we do this a lot through shows and craft fairs. We are in talks with cruise ships about carrying pour line of coral reef safe sunblock’s and also speaking with oncologists about our balms to relieve pain associated with radiation treatments.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buddingbotanicalsca.com/
- Instagram: Budding_Botanicals
- Facebook: Budding Botanicals
- LinkedIn: Dawn Norby
- Twitter: @BuddingCA
