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GWBC Radio: Ellen Tacher with Prime Sunshine

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Ellen Segal-Tacher, founder and CEO of Prime Sunshine CBD, is a native Of Charlotte, graduated with a BS in Investigative Journalism from the University of Florida and an MBA from The University of Miami. Prior to her career in CBD she was the top sales person for two fortune five hundred companies.

Ellen is a pioneer in the hemp/cannabis industry, the first female cannabis company owner in NC, created the first CBD brand out of North Carolina, opened the first CBD store in the state – and the first woman to own a brick and mortar and online dispensary in Charlotte, which is known to be a male dominated industry. She started the company from the ground up, never took investment funds and grew the company to over one million dollars in sales by year two.

Prime Sunshine CBD, as a company, aims to help people overcome their physical, mental and emotional challenges naturally from what has Mother Nature provided and the human body requires. The brand is available in over 400 grocery stores and retail locations throughout the United States and is the first brand to be sold in a hospital.

Ellen was attacked and mauled by a pit-bull and used CBD oil to slowly come off several mental health prescriptions and pain medications following the tragedy. She located an heirloom seed that dates back 1000’s of years and began helping other woman. Since then, she’s helped over 6000 people around the world feel better, donates 10% of all sales to those in need, and gives away product weekly to disabled veterans and those in the community that can benefit from the use of cannabis but doesn’t have the means to buy it.

Connect with Ellen on LinkedIn and follow Prime Sunshine on Facebook.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business. And this is going to be a good one. Today, we have with us Ellen Tacher with Prime Sunshine. Welcome, Ellen.

Ellen Tacher: [00:00:28] Hi. Thank you so much for having me today. I hope everybody’s doing well.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about Prime Sunshine. How are you serving folks?

Ellen Tacher: [00:00:39] So, we are the first all-woman-owned cannabis CBD hemp company in North Carolina. We grow all of our plants on a research institute campus, and we’re aligned with the medical school at University of Kentucky. We’re different than a lot of the other products. People don’t know that all CBD’s not equal and that we do not grow from genetically modified female plants. We grow from seedling in the most fertile soil in the United States.

Ellen Tacher: [00:01:09] So, when people ask me how do I know what a good CBD is, it really starts with the actual seed, the quality of that seed, which is the heirloom seed, dates back about 6000, and is internationally pedigreed, proprietary and certified. And then, our soil is the most fertile soil in the United States where we grow. So, that’s really how you start to know what quality is. When you walk into a store that sells CBB, they don’t really know what’s in the bottle other than what they’re told.

Ellen Tacher: [00:01:49] We’re an FDA-registered facility, ISO 9000. The farm is 210 years old. They’ve been growing hemp for over 210 years. So, we had brought a very famous star onto our farm in the early ’90s, Woody Harrelson, and got him arrested for planting four French hemp seeds. Then, he was acquitted, and the defense attorney became the governor. And then, our farm president sued the DEA over 24 years ago and won, and actually began the legalization vocalization on behalf of hemp around the globe.

Ellen Tacher: [00:02:35] So, I really got lucky when I found the seed. It was the only seed that would allow me to prevent having anxiety. I have generalized anxiety disorder. So, it helped me come off of my anxiety medication, my depression medication. I stopped drinking. I began to sleep through the night. And all I did was start helping other people, other women that I met, and the company grew organically just from helping people who needed CBD and began to learn about it. And so, it grew organically. It wasn’t a company that I actually woke up one day and started it. It was organic, simply from learning how to help myself naturally, and then helping other women that I met. And we went global.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:33] Now, what were you doing before you got involved in the cannabis business?

Ellen Tacher: [00:03:38] So, I went to college to be a news reporter and a journalist. And I was a medical investigative reporter out of Shands Hospital, which is how I found the seed, because I noticed while I began to research and learn, because it was so many years ago, we didn’t even call it CPD back then, I looked for a seed, something to give me more consistency since the other types of brands I was trying would change every month. Like one month, I would sleep well, and the next month, I wouldn’t.

Ellen Tacher: [00:04:13] So, I found the seed, and then I found the farm by looking through archives of studies in the ’90s out of Shands Hospital, which was where I was based out of as a news reporter. And I was lucky to find that an actual hemp family had been around for generations and generations who owned that seed. So, we know what seed, what hole, what plant, and what row is in every bottle.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:47] And like you said, that’s not the case in most of the CBD, right? That’s-

Ellen Tacher: [00:04:52] It is not. These companies have gotten so big that they have to buy from hundreds of family farms, indoor, outdoor, from genetically modified female plants that are grown into like a hefty bag indoors that have never seen the moon shine, the sunshine, or the starshine. And the hemp plants receive a lot of phyto and micronutrients from the moon and the stars. So, nighttime for the growth of those hemp plants are very, very important. So, it’s just too hard for them to be consistent and to know what’s in every bottle because they’re getting the oil from all over the world, literally.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:36] So, now, is your operation more of a boutique operation or it’s large enough to scale and to serve people all over the planet?

Ellen Tacher: [00:05:46] Yeah, we had to pivot a little bit, and we just had a pivot learning with the Women’s Business Program. And we do private labeling. So, if there’s anyone listening to this show today, and they would like to have their own brand, we can formulate and manufacture that brand for you, create your label, and you can have your own brand, or we could just send you our blanks, and you can package as you would like.

Ellen Tacher: [00:06:20] We also have an affiliate program, and we’re offering this today for anybody who wants to get into the CBD business but doesn’t have the time, and they don’t want to make an inventory investment, they can become an affiliate. And every time somebody purchases, we give 30 percent of that sale back to the affiliate. So, it’s a referral program, and we’ve had to pivot because we closed our little store during COVID.

Ellen Tacher: [00:07:00] And we have a coupon code today for all the members, 30 percent off everything on our website, and it’s WBENC30. And you just use that at checkout. That’s WBENC30. You can sign up for the affiliate program on the website. And if you have a non-profit or fundraising for school, you can always sign the school, or your church, or your non-profit organization up. And when you share the affiliate link, your organization will automatically get 25 percent of all sales that come in from your affiliate, like for the lifetime of that link. So, it’s a great way to get your CBD, and not have to pay for it, and also to get back to the community.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:47] Now, can you share a little bit about CBD for people who aren’t educated about how it works for people with anxiety and other ailments?

Ellen Tacher: [00:07:58] So, that’s a very loaded question. So, I’m going to kind of give you the explanation from a 10,000-square-foot view, okay, because there’s so many plant materials, including all the cannabinoids like CBD, CBDA, CDN, CBG. Even THC is a cannabinoid. THC is a CBD, and CBD stands for cannabinoid. And you have in your body an endocannabinoid system. All mammals have one. And we have two different CB receptors in our body.

Ellen Tacher: [00:08:36] So, with the hundreds of cannabinoids, and your receptors, and ligaments, which are receptors that run all over your body, work together synergistically to help move the body closer to homeostasis and balance. That’s why a lot of women, I know for myself, I had severe hot flashes going through menopause, and they actually went completely away, but I didn’t realize it because I didn’t put two and two together and realized that it was the CBD that got rid of the hot flashes, and I started sleeping through the night. I mean, it just helped restore balance to my life. And it leaches the toxins from our food and our water out of our tissues.

Ellen Tacher: [00:09:26] It’s used around the world. If you’re a stroke victim in Israel, you get CBD. Most of the assisted living elderly population get it every day. And I recommend the full spectrum. But if you’re drug tested, or you’re a nurse, or you’re a flight attendant, or a truck driver, or doing something where you can’t have any THC, then we have a whole other list of products that are just THC-free.

Ellen Tacher: [00:09:51] But with COVID, I’ve seen just everybody, including myself, is just dealing with anxiety with all of what’s going on with the politics, and racism, and fires, and climate change, and people being unsure about what tomorrow will bring. It seems like everybody has anxiety right now. And if you are suffering from anxiety, you’re welcome to send an email to support@primesunshine.com, and we can scheduled time to speak, and kind of see what’s going on, and create what we call a dosing schedule for you because cannabis is different for each person. So, we’re happy to work with you and make a suggestion of which products should work together for your specific issues.

Ellen Tacher: [00:10:45] And I think that’s why we’ve been real successful, if you read some of our Google reviews, because we do help people find the right frequency and dosage over a period of time. We have an online support group that is free. We’ve got cannabis nurses in there, we’ve got psychologists, we have veterinarians. We provide education. So, you’re not just going into some strange store buying a bottle. You’re actually coming to the source where we provide financial aid.

Ellen Tacher: [00:11:16] If you’re a veteran and you have your veteran’s card, we have Veterans Program. If you’re disabled, if you want help getting started in your business, if you would like to be a reseller, you can. You could also use the link to get involved, but you don’t have to do anything except share the link on your social media.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:43] And how is CBD consumed? Is it a pill? Is it, like you mentioned, oil? Like how does a person consume it?

Ellen Tacher: [00:11:53] So, that’s kind of when I was talking about the customer support, kind of figuring out what products are most helpful, there are topicals. okay. And so, that CBD is absorbed through the skin. A lot of people with joint pain, neck pain, knee pain, hip pain, that gets applied directly to the affected area. So, that’s one way to deliver CBD.

Ellen Tacher: [00:12:17] Another way of sublingually, which I am an advocate of, which is under the tongue. You take a dropper full or whatever your dose is, and you place it under the tongue, and you hold it for a minute, and you swallow. Then, we have gummies. Actually, we even have THC gummies now. They’re called Delta 8. So, they don’t get you high like marijuana, but they relax your body. So, it’s been great for sleep and anxiety for me at night and during the day. So, you can take it in an edible form.

Ellen Tacher: [00:12:48] So, we’ve got topical, we’ve got edibles, we have sublingual, which goes under your tongue. And that’s the highest bioavailability. It’s about 85 to 90 percent bioavailable. We have to be real careful with all these multilevel marketing groups out there that have all these fancy terms like nano and cold press. There’s so many marketing things that you really have to get right down to basics and know. If the company can’t tell you what strain, what seed, what farm, what soil and water that plant has had, then they really don’t know where it’s come from.

Ellen Tacher: [00:13:28] And besides those methods of delivery, you can also smoke the flower. And that’s a very inexpensive way to use for anxiety. Like for social anxiety, you could take one or two little puffs from one of our smokeable CBD with terpene pins or you can actually smoke the flower.

Ellen Tacher: [00:13:55] Another delivery is capsules, which we have three different types of capsules. We have joint support capsules, which have glucosamine and chondroitin in them, and white willow and some other herbs for inflammation and joint pain along with the CBD. Then, we just have an every day. These are all THC-free capsule that you would just take every day. And again, we would help decide which combination is right for you.

Ellen Tacher: [00:14:21] And then, we have a sleep capsule, which is 25 milligrams of CBD along with valerian root and melatonin. And then, there’s the gummy for sleep. So, there’s all different ways to deliver the CBD. Somebody like myself that has got issues, I’m a little bit malabsorptive, so I tend to use a higher milligram strength, so I absorb more. ANnd those are the things that you learn as you get started, especially for those of you who’ve never used it before. It’s a little bit of a learning process, but in about three weeks it takes to get fully comfortable with finding your dose and your frequency.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:09] Now, when you were starting the business, is this something that you got investment for or did you kind of bootstrap this? How was kind of the beginning like for you?

Ellen Tacher: [00:15:21] Well, it’s kind of got a happy or sad story, really, but a happy one, I guess, because it did change my life. My dog, Enzo, he’s a standard poodle, I let him out my backyard. I was going through a divorce to use the restroom on a Sunday morning, and he was immediately attacked by like a pitt mix. I’ve nothing against pitts, but that was the type of dog that it was. And the dog just belied my dog, and punctured him, and crushed him all over. And then, he crushed my ulnar nerve and bone. So, it bled out in my backyard.

Ellen Tacher: [00:15:58] So, I woke up a couple of days later in the trauma unit at the Carolinas Medical Center. And a friend of mine’s older brother brought me some CBD, but we didn’t call it that back then, and I just started over a six-month period. My depression lifted, and I was forgetting to take my sleeping pill, and sleeping through the night. And we just didn’t know enough about it back then, but so many good things were happening.

Ellen Tacher: [00:16:26] And then, as time went on, I shared my story with other people and started helping them just, really, to cover my own use of it. And then, I start to really learn the history of the farm and the seed, and began to come off of about five or six different medications, and other people started having the same experience. And it just grew very organically out of a pretty tragic happening. Watching your dog get eaten alive was very traumatic. He’s here with me right now, and he’s doing great.

Ellen Tacher: [00:17:03] And we also have a dog treat, by the way, that have five milligrams of CBD. And he takes a CBD right in his food. And then, I supplement one little pet treat every day. And he’s been running a fever. So, the CBD actually helped get a fever down. We didn’t know that, but that’s what it is. So, it helps with inflammation. And dogs have an endocannabinoid system too.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:27] Now, from the business standpoint, so it just kind of organically grew. And then, you got more and more involved and started kind of distributing it in a variety of ways?

Ellen Tacher: [00:17:39] Well, it wasn’t legal back then. It was illegal. So, I kind of had to hide it and keep it under the low. And we are the first in Charlotte. So, I had to deal with the police and the FDA. And we weren’t able to take credit cards. We got kicked off at Google, and Apple Pay, and PayPal, and Square App, and Cash App, and Stripe. The credit card companies wouldn’t let us process CBD back then. It was considered a Schedule One drug.

Ellen Tacher: [00:18:12] So, just trying to balance how to help people be able to pay, for about three years, was difficult. So, I didn’t know all that time that I was building a business because it wasn’t an industry back then. I was just helping people, and then covering my costs by providing and helping other women. And then, I was actually going through a divorce. I forget if it was my accountant or my attorney who said, “You’ve got to have an EIN number, and you have to register with the Secretary of State. You can’t just sell like that.” I didn’t know. And that’s how it started, just surely by a personal tragedy and followed by healing.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:58] And now that it’s kind of an established business now, it’s legal to sell and buy. Now, did anything really change or just maybe the structure of the business? But is it the same kind of business where it sounds like you’re still helping folks, and you’re trying to educate them, and to give them some relief from some anxiety and some issues that they’re dealing with? It sounds like it’s a similar type business, but now it’s just more formalized.

Ellen Tacher: [00:19:25] Yeah, we’re in several hundred grocery stores around the United States, pharmacies, veterinarian offices, chiropractic offices. Doctors refer their patients to us every day. We’re in about 300 different retail establishments around the United States. So, that’s one division of the company.

Ellen Tacher: [00:19:47] The other division is the private labeling and manufacturing for other brands or other people that want to have their own company. And then, of course, we formulate and manufacture per the specs that someone gives us a product that they’re looking for. So, there’s several different.

Ellen Tacher: [00:20:07] And then we have this affiliate program, which has really taken off like wildfire because there are thousands of people around the world who’ve had wonderful experiences. And all they’re doing is sharing this link with their friends and family in social media. And people, when they purchase, they’re getting 25 percent, and they can either get paid out every month, or just get their own CBD for free, or give back to their church, or their group, or school group.

Ellen Tacher: [00:20:35] So, that’s just been going out like gangbusters.  I wish that we had done that sooner because we really have so many people around the world that are dedicated to to our brand. If you read some of the Google reviews, and it’s interesting because that’s where I really find out the experience of customers, they’ll say that they’ve been on this brand, that brand, this brand, but it wasn’t until that they found Prime Sunshine CBD and our formula is that their life really began to change. And that’s really when I don’t feel like working or it’s not as fun anymore because it’s work and it’s legal. It was kind of fun under the radar there for a while, but it’s really been miraculous for a lot of people.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:29] Yeah. And it’s a great story. Now, how has GWBC helped? Like, what compelled you to get involved with GWBC?

Ellen Tacher: [00:21:38] Well, we’re in the Ingles Grocery store chain. So, they asked if we were a member for tax advantages. So, at that time, they weren’t taking CBD companies. It’s just you would think that we’re selling … My own brother, by the way, who died at 52, he had rheumatoid arthritis, and he took Enbrel and, it killed him in four months from acute onset lymphoma. And it had killed, I believe, somewhere between 11,000 and 14,000 people, I had found out since like 2014 or something like that.

Ellen Tacher: [00:22:16] So, the fact that I couldn’t even put a gummy bear on a credit card charge, but doctors could knowingly prescribe medication that killed my brother, and it actually says on the commercial how it will kill you while the family is playing with their Irish setter at the parks throwing a Frisbee, it said exactly how my brother would die. That being legal and us not being fully legal for a gummy bear in all 50 United States is bizarre.

Ellen Tacher: [00:22:46] So, we do ask for people to learn about the use of cannabis throughout the world as medicine. Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical and McKesson were the leaders in the sales, distribution, manufacturing and growing of cannabis up until 1937, our own pharmaceutical companies.

Ellen Tacher: [00:23:08] So, I urge everybody to become an advocate for plant medicine, especially medicine like this that’s tested, and there’s clinical trials, and there’s lots of information. A lot of doctors several years ago would say, “No, I can’t recommend it because there’s no proof.” Well, there has been proof, and it’s been used. We’ve got stories back to the 16th century of doctors using the oil from hemp for children having seizures. So, it dates back. It goes back about 15 million years that we have documented medical uses from the 16th Century and onward.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:44] Now, what is the best way for people to learn more? What’s the website?

Ellen Tacher: [00:23:50] My website for Prime Sunshine is www.primesunshine.com. You can also become a partner with us there on the affiliate page. And you can use for 30 percent off today and tomorrow, WBENC30, for 30 percent off everything on the website. And if people do end up listening and finding out about this coupon code and use it, then I will make it a permanent benefit for our community.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:27] Wow, that’s great news. Well, thank you, Ellen, for sharing your story today.

Ellen Tacher: [00:24:33] Well, thank you so much for having me. This is wonderful. And I look forward to hearing all the other amazing stories from the other women in our group.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:43] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on GWBC Open for Business.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business. 

GWBC^® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.