Today we’d like to introduce you to Ed Mahoney.
Ed, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Our story of Artistic Organics in Frisco began with the need to find a solution for a degenerative condition of Auto-Immune disease that plagued my partner. She had been diagnosed with Hashimoto among other health issues and unfortunately, traditional medicines were not solving the issues. In fact, she was told that by age 50, she would end up in an assisted living arrangement.
As a result, my partner Kellie had begun to do research on various non-traditional medicines and supplements that may help with her condition. This is where she came across CBD and other cannabis-related products.
Through her research, she began testing and researching CBD more in-depth and was ultimately asked by her practitioners to help educate their teams to better serve their clients. As she became more educated on CBD and other cannabinoids, she saw an opportunity to serve the general public by opening a store in Frisco.
I have over 17 years of business ownership in Frisco and I had been coaching her on various aspects of business development when she approached me with the possibility of combining our different skill sets to create Artistic Organics. Over the past eight years, we had worked together on our HOA board and knew we worked well with each other. We both felt strongly that coming into a new industry would be better accomplished with similar mindsets, but different skills to bring to the table.
We knew that the balance of family and work were important to us, so we decided that Frisco would be the home of our Artistic Organics store. We also knew that the education level on CBD and cannabis was limited and education would become a key factor of our business strategy. As a result, we host monthly CBD Wellness education classes to help people understand the history of the plant, the benefits, the myths, and the legality of CBD and other cannabinoids.
Here at Artistic Organics, we have a very specific 12 step process to research a product before it is put on our shelves. This includes COA analysis (Certificate of Analysis: aka “Labs”), strain, method of extraction, and assumed benefits and applications of a particular product. If it doesn’t meet our stringent standards, it doesn’t appear in our stores. We value quality far above any other criteria when deciding to carry a product. In fact, both Kellie and I visit farms all around the country to get the in-depth knowledge necessary to understand the plant and the products they produce. As a result, you will find a wide array of exceptional products for many different ailments and lifestyles.
Has it been a smooth road?
Opening a new retail store in itself is an arduous task. Opening a new retail store in a brand new industry that very few people understand is unbelievably difficult. One of the major issues we came across early on when opening Artistic Organics was the confusion of the legality of CBD and hemp-derived products. Since the federal government legalized hemp and its by-products through the Farm Bill of 2014 and 2018, it still took Texas a while longer to pass SB1325 to ultimately make CBD completely legal in Texas. Initially, there was a lot of confusion about the legality of hemp, but now most people understand that hemp is legal and can help with many ailments such as Anxiety, Pain, Inflammation, and many more serious Auto-Immune conditions such as Crohn’s disease, MS, thyroid, and arthritis.
Educating clients on the differences between CBD product lines is one of the biggest challenges we face. With so many franchises, MLM, and independent operations opening up, we have seen gluttony of CBD products hit the market in a very small period of time. Various news stations and research groups have conducted an undercover analysis of products offered by stores and the internet all over the county and found that in some cases, up to 80% of the products bought do not contain the amounts of CBD in the bottle, and even worse, have contained unhealthy levels of metals and solvents. As a result, consumer confidence has dropped dramatically and many potential consumers may think that CBD in general simply doesn’t work. This is one of the primary reasons why Kellie and I personally visit our suppliers to understand everything that goes into the growing, processing and manufacturing of our products. We go to specifically find products that can help with conditions such as pain, inflammation, anxiety, hormone issues and overall with balancing the body.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Artistic Organics is a locally owned and operated CBD Wellness company that specializes in Hemp-derived products. We match our CBD product line with symptomology and lifestyle to create a specialized plan to help our clients find relief with their conditions such as pain, anxiety, inflammation, auto-immune conditions, hormone issues and overall assistance with balancing the body. We are well known for our in-depth level of knowledge of CBD and other cannabinoids that far exceeds the basic knowledge that you find in larger chain stores. We host relaxed monthly classes that go into the history, benefits, myths, and legality of CBD to help our consumers fully understand what to expect and not expect from CBD products.
Artistic Organics is extremely particular in the brands and strains we carry. We have a very stringent 12 point criteria platform that we conduct when considering carrying a product line. We have both researched well over 150 CBD products and product lines over the past two years with less than 5% making it to our shelves. We value a quality product with an extensive cannabinoid and terpene profile far above simply having things to show in our store.
All of our staff at Artistic Organics go through a certification program designed to offer the most in-depth education on CBD and the cannabis plant so that they can have a knowledgeable discussion with our clients about their symptomology and which products will fit their lifestyle.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
DFW, in general, is a great place to start a business. Currently, there are over 75 CBD stores in the metroplex. While not all of them are doing well, quite a few stores who’s owners understand and carry quality CBD are doing very good. I foresee an influx of CBD stores dropping out of the race and making room for better and more qualified operations down the road. It’s definitely not as easy as many people think. As more big-box type CBD stores open, I believe it will be harder for smaller operations to do well unless they have a solid strategy with an exceptional product line.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7227 Main Street, Suite 300
Frisco Texas 75034 - Website: www.artisticorganics.com
- Phone: 469-388-1099
- Email: info@artisticorganics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbdfrisco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtisticOrganics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbdfrisco
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