Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guest, we have Erin Babcock. Erin is a young and ambitious Gen Z entrepreneur, public speaker, and model with a vision to elevate health and harmony for humanity. 

She played college soccer at the University of Akron. Where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science in 2021. That same year, she and her best friend and college roommate partnered with the team to Open Primo Gardens Inc., a CBD retail and manufacturing lab in Columbus, OH, that produces natural products for individuals and helps other businesses start their own unique CBD brands.

This year, Erin graduated with her M.S. from the University of Maryland in medical cannabis science and therapeutics. She’s a passionate educator about cannabis and the endocannabinoid system and is determined to share this information with others to improve well-being and end the stigma.

She’s a partner in an educational initiative called Cannabis Business Practicum to help startups and small businesses thrive in the cannabis industry. Erin’s brand, EE Erin Energy, includes aspects of entrepreneurship, public speaking, and modeling related to harmony and everlasting evolution. Erin is what I call an extraordinary Mexican.” I’m glad to have her on the show. Erin, are you there?

Yeah, hey Cosmos.

Hey Erin, I appreciate you coming on this show, and yeah, thank you for coming.

Yeah, for having me.

Erin, I know that you’re an entrepreneur, like you’re a Gen. Z entrepreneur, and you’re into You’re passionate about cannabis and the cannabinoid endocannabinoid system. Can you tell? The audience will learn a little bit more about your background, your story, and how you got started.

So, it all starts with me being an athlete and playing soccer. A lot of my childhood was centered around soccer practice and getting to my games on the weekend. So, I was kind of laser-focused on that and with that, I kind of had a stigma against cannabis myself, and I never really even looked towards using it because I didn’t know. I just believed that it was a bad thing, and I wasn’t supposed to touch it, and I knew I wanted to go play college soccer. It was a drug, so I didn’t even consider it, and I was really into sports medicine classes in high school, so I automatically drew towards exercise science as a degree, and I always enjoyed helping people, like just helping others made me feel good, so I kind of programmed it into my head… Oh, the healthcare system.

So, I was planning to become a physician assistant. Through my studies at Akron, I took all the prerequisites for that, but I ended up getting a couple of injuries throughout my soccer career and one in college that were stress fractures in my shins. So, I was missing a lot of my sophomore season—pretty much the whole season. And it took a toll on me because soccer was kind of the constant that I had in my life. From the age of 2 to That point in my life and not able to be on the field. And kind of getting treated differently by the coaching staff and others like that because college sports are a business and you’ve got to perform and be healthy to be on the field. That sort of thing. So that took a toll on my mental health.

And I ended up stopping playing soccer my sophomore year, so I had to rediscover who I was without this thing that had been a part of my life for so long. I feel like a lot of athlete’s kind of go through that identity crisis after identifying with you. Being this athlete for this sport for so long and then you kind of have to figure out who You are, but. I did, and I was in college. I’m still just figuring it out and having fun. And then COVID struck, so that shook the whole world.

At that point, I was still in my head. Like PA School, Physician Assistant School was the path, and I started filling out those applications for different graduate programs, and my stomach was turning. I could feel it. And it didn’t feel good.

So, I noticed that. I was somewhat aware of it, like, oh, that doesn’t feel right. Am I doing the right thing then? COVID hit, so it was everybody went on pause, and I got a chance to reflect on my life and ask myself, Am I going down the path that I’m supposed to be going down? Does this feel right? It didn’t feel right.

So, I got to hang out with my friends that summer. Got more exposure to cannabis. So being a college athlete, I didn’t even look at it until after I was done playing soccer. And then here and there I did. And then when COVID hit. I became more interested in it, and it helped open up my creativity like none other. Before that, I was a very rigid student-athlete with my school studies and my soccer. I was like, get things done, which is kind of masculine energy is dominant, and then I allowed myself to flow more through COVID and got creative. Me and my roommate’s best friend at the time, we’re now business partners. But we were coming up with these crazy ideas and dreams that we had. And at the time, we just called them crazy ideas. But if you look back like they’re all business ideas, kind of like they’re all business ideas.

I didn’t even consider myself an entrepreneur back then. But then one thing led to another during COVID, and my mom got into the cannabis industry. She got her health cultivation license in Ohio, kind of going through her journey to discover essential oils. And then other natural health solutions. And then, finally, the cannabis. And CBD is what we both work with now.

She got into the industry and started building a little community network, and I got invited to this meeting that I randomly went to with her, and basically what happened was that we met these people from Colorado. Who has this idea… Primo Gardens Inc. is a retail storefront. And a lab in the back. Produces CBD products and other cannabinoid products for retail sale to consumers. But then we also white label and custom manufacture for other people who want to have their own CBD brand. We met these people and it just opened up my perspective to, like, wait. I don’t have to go to PA school like I Can do something else. And I can help people by doing something else. 

So, I didn’t know that much about CBD when I first got started. I just knew a little bit about cannabis land. I knew that it made me feel good from time to time, but I dove in. We got to know these people.

A lot of feeling good, to be honest.

Right, right. It improves your mood, your relaxation response, and your ability to enter a state of flow. All of those thing’s cannabis can help with but. I just grew more interested. We connected to our team in Colorado and got to know them a bit more. We also got to know the industry a little more about the plant. And then I called my best friend, she came up to me right after this meeting was over and was like, I think our lives just changed. And she’s like, what are you talking about? But I told her about the meeting I sat through, kind of. This whole concept and funny one of the ideas that we had back during COVID during isolation was a CBD or cannabis-infused cafe where you could get drinks and pastries and stuff. And so some sort of infusion? But now we have a lab where we make CBD-infused products like tinctures, topical salves, and stuff like that.

So, it’s very similar. But this is more of a lab than a kitchen, but it just happened like that, and we opened the doors of Primo Gardens, Inc. in Columbus in July 2021. We started kind of building out the business while she and I were still graduating from our undergrads at Akron, so we hopped straight into it, and I started my master’s program at the University of Maryland that summer or fall. And that was about a year and a half, two years later, I’m finishing up, or I just graduated this week.

Congratulations.

Yeah. Thank you. So.

I have so much to get into here, but one of the things I wanted to ask you So I know that over the past so many years, there’s been a lot, a lot like the cannabis has been legalized in many states, right? And obviously, there’s a lot of controversy and stigma surrounding it. Could you tell me and my viewers a little bit more about the stigma surrounding cannabis and, like, what is the reality of the entire thing from your perspective?

Yeah, definitely. So, there’s a history and background to this plant. And for as long as any of us—any of you listeners, Cosmos, me, and everybody else—has been alive, cannabis has been stigmatized. It’s been given this terrible reputation. It stemmed from misinformation and a kind of propaganda from the last century, so…

So, for the last 125 years, there has been a stigma. It started with the Spanish-American War when Mexican immigrants started coming to America to escape the war, escape conflict, and seek safety. Before that, cannabis already existed in America; people were growing hemp. Hemp was a resource that’s a lot of people were involved in, like, a lot of our early presidents grew hemp and cannabis, but when the Mexicans started to immigrate, the term marijuana. Came more about, and so that’s like it was just racially tied to this movement, and yeah, but it’s like for thousands and thousands and thousands of years before this last 125 years, cannabis has been used medicinally, therapeutically Industrially by everyone, all cultures like it was first dated back to 2800 BC, used by Chinese emperors for their medicinal healing purposes as well as fabrics and clothes like that. 

But during the 1900s It just got a lot of misinformation thrown around at it. From 1930 to 1960, what is now the DEA So before, it was like the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. But they, like, really went hard on cannabis and just spread all those things about how it brings… It makes people sad like it makes you commit more crimes, and it makes you want to do it.

That’s all nonsense.

Other people and it’s just Like that. The endocannabinoid system, which we all have, exists in all creatures besides insects. So even like sea creatures, this system has been around in ancient sea creatures longer than plants have been around. We have a system that innately interacts with this plant therapeutically. Everybody reacts differently, with THC being the primary psychoactive component. Some people can have a bad experience, but overall, there are hundreds of compounds in that plant that don’t provide a euphoric effect but have very balancing effects.

So, the stigma I don’t know. I’m here to squash it for sure and help educate people about this plant and the endocannabinoid system. It’s essential to our health and our balance, and as individuals, we have a system in us that can bring about therapeutic benefits without consuming too many, like external things like pharmaceuticals and other prescription medications.

So, Erin, there’s so much to ask over here, but one of the things that I noticed is that you became an entrepreneur in this industry, which is relatively new. It’s almost kind of like the Wild West because it just got legalized in the last five or ten years. 

Could you tell me over the years, like, what the process is because you know a lot of Gen Z People your age is just busy trying to figure themselves out? What they’re going to do, like they’re trying to get a job and all of that stuff. They’re under the impression that after four years of college, you just have to do that and then get a job and all that. But from your perspective, what is the reality of the situation out there?

Yeah, it is pretty wild with the industry being so fresh and with regulations. Every state in the United States has different rules for Cannabis and hemp and every country then also has separate rules. There’s some federal regulation where cannabis, the THC-dominant cannabis, is a Schedule I drug, which means no medical potential and a high potential for abuse, which are both not true.

I remember when I was in college, there were a lot of, like, my fellow college mates, so, man, it would be so cool to just start like an end, like a business around cannabis. And then it’s our passion will be like, So chill and everything. And then, simultaneously, we’re making money. It’s a dream. But it’s just illegal in all states. But after five to 10 years, it’s starting to get legalized in different states. So, you’re pretty much kind of spearheading, almost like kind of pioneering in some sort of way, In the state.

But one of the Questions I wanted to ask is, as a young entrepreneur, you know, there was like an identity crisis that you had, and a lot of Gen. Z people have an identity crisis when they’re just coming out of college or they’re in college. They’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do. What is your journey? If you could elaborate on that, how would a Gen. Z person get into entrepreneurship from your perspective?

Yeah, it’s definitely about being open to new perspectives and new beliefs honestly, if you’ve got to be kind of aware that there are other possibilities, like just because you thought that this was your path doesn’t mean that You know, I was successful in my undergraduate degree and everything leading up to it by external views, but my inside wasn’t necessarily fulfilled.

So, you can do your four-year college experience and think that getting a good job at this company is where your heart is at, but you’ve got to just be open to the possibility that it might change your path might change. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but whatever does happen was meant to happen, so accepting it is kind of like being aware of the change and accepting it. OK, that’s different. change, it is different. Change can be scary, but those are just emotions that pop up too, trying to protect us.

It’s just a subconscious kind of reaction because your body wants to of staying in familiar. And stay kind of unchanged, but growth is where the change is at, so being open to new opportunities is like thinking I was going to go to Physician Assistant School and then listening to my gut. Listen to the queues. Ask yourself how you feel. Be honest with yourself. Are you happy doing what you’re doing? Going down this path? 

And if you’re not, then try to do a couple of new things here and there when you have free time, you can put yourself out there to do the new experiences, and then you can start to feel what feels right. you, and then maybe you can make a business out of it. Maybe you can do something about it. But I mean it; it’s all subjective. For sure, everybody’s journey is different, but

The impression that I got in some of the calls that I was in was that I, like everybody else, wanted to make a business out of weed and cannabis.

Yes, that’s true.

That was the thing to do; they Just couldn’t do it legally at that time.

And now, yeah, there’s so much more opportunity. To do it.

Pivoting is one of the hardest things to do right, like when we’re in college, and then I remember that when we’re in college, we’re just busy with school, we’re pressured to go on a certain path, and a lot of students and university students are pressured by their family and then by others, their teachers, to go on a certain path. 

But truly their passion and their hobby aren’t something else, right? And they just don’t know how to pivot. So, what is your perspective on how to pivot? From what the path is, you’re going down this path, but you want to do whatever your passion is. You want to. Monetize it. How would you advise your fellow Gen Z people on how to get that?

Yeah, it’s a challenge if your family or other people are kind of pushing you down a different path rather than being there to support you, having the support of those people is going to help. Add to your performance, and it will be like My parents support me completely my mom is also in the cannabis industry, as I mentioned, so I’m so grateful for that, and for my business partner Angela, whose parents also support us. It’s hard to go out if you don’t have that support system. It’s hard to take a leap of faith.

So, you’ll probably have to take little steps at a time. Maybe you find a mentor who has done what you want to do, and you seek them out. Try to spend a couple of hours a week with them, learn from them and just try to like them. Absorb some information until you can fully take that leap. Minimize your risk type of thing. 

But if you can do whatever, you’re doing what you can. Being the happiest, like, happiest is such a subjective feeling, but whatever makes you feel the best If you can feel that way, The longest, like during the day. Then that’s just the best place to be. The more positive thoughts you have, the better you feel. The more things you do that make you feel good, the better your life is going to turn out, the better your quality of life is going to be. I mean, probably the healthier you’re going to Be the happier of all those things.

I want to. Live somebody else’s life. Live your life for somebody else. I wouldn’t do that. I would live your life for you. And if something’s calling you that you think could be your career, like your business, how you make money in the world, or just something that you can do, that is a passion project. If it’s going to make you feel good, then I feel Like, trying to do it for sure.

And the reason I’m Asking her is that, like, I had a very similar situation when I was in university, right? My parents put me down the path of electrical engineering, and it’s a good degree if you want to make good money. But my heart was just not in it. My heart was in helping people and just saying financial education and All that stuff, like the engineering degree, just took so many hours of my time. I was passionate about psychology. All that, but my parents are just like, No, you got to… 

This is what society wants you to do. This is how it’s going to go. It took me in another direction, and even though they were getting these job interviews where the money was good, my heart was just not in it. And I asked myself, Am I going to do this for the next 40 years of my life? And the answer was Hell no, I won’t do it for you for four years. I can’t even do four years. But the reason I’m bringing this up is because a lot of people in college and university,

They’re facing the same thing; they’re doing this degree, but they’re not passionate about it. Their heart is just not in it, and more importantly, and it’s like the next question I want to ask you, they’re having this identity crisis similar to what you had, and they are too afraid to pivot. You know, because it’s like a scary thing, like going after a business. It’s not easy.

So, from your perspective, how would you advise somebody who’s going through an identity crisis and wants to do and monetize what they’re passionate about but is just afraid of getting out of their comfort zone?

Yeah, I feel like that’s part of not caring about what other people think and not being scared to fail too, so I mean to do that, I mean. You do have to have a lot of self-confidence, self-worth, and self-love. Other people are going to tell you; you know you can’t do that. That’s not what society tells us. We can do it.

So, there are to many people doing that. But I mean, the belief you have in yourself just has to overpower that. And I mean, in any situation, if you can show yourself love and grace and then spread that to other people, I mean it. It always starts with us. Being there for ourselves gives us the ability to help other people to the greatest extent possible.

No, that’s true, right? I think what I would have to add is that when you’re in college, like your support system, you need to create a support system of like-minded people that are interested in entrepreneurship. I feel like you and your best friend had a support system with each other, but a lot of times, like people, they have these crazy businesses ideas, just like you. did, but then their friends, the five people around them, are you like, Dude, what are you? Talking about that, that’s freaking crazy. Like you’re out of your mind. Come on. Like, just get a job, man. It’s like $70,000 a year. It’s pretty good pay, and yeah, it’s just like it comes down to, like, what is life about? Right, like, what’s the point of living? Life if you Don’t live for other people’s dreams. Live for your own.

Live for your own sake. I feel like trying. Help as many people as you can. Testing ourselves in new ways—like we were saying earlier, you kind of have to do new things to grow. And you said, What’s the point of life doing it for other people or whatever? What’s the point of it? Life is like if you’re not growing if you’re just kind of existing. I mean, what’s the point of that? Like, grow, kind of expand into the most expressive version that each of us is meant to be, and not just unleash? In our most authentic selves, you just start to peel back the layers, and it’s supposed to be fun. It’s fun to follow your dreams and discover who you are and discover your why and your purpose, it’s challenging. For sure,

It’s also fun and so kind of having that outlook on life: it’s happening for us, and we all have these fun little journey quests that we get to go on and do the best that we can. And I mean, if you have a passion, if it’s like a burning desire, then like you’re probably meant to do it. You’re probably meant to like to Follow it and do something with it, at least. And so, just like Taking that first step Towards it, it might just be, I don’t know, something small. Like if you want to start a business, maybe you get the domain, and that’s your first step, and then the universe will start to align. For you, you’ll meet the perfect person, and that will help you build your website or something like that. Like it or not, it just starts to work out.

So instead of being able to be aware of that burning heart desire and just start to take steps towards it, don’t. Just get the degree because it’s hard when it’s like your family is maybe supporting you to get that degree and like this and that. But I mean, we all have 15/30 minutes a day to spend time on something else that we want to spend time on. We can make it in at least that amount of time. I read something. The thing today or yesterday that said that if you spend 18 minutes a day on something for an entire year, you’re in the top 95% in that skill that you did because it’s all about consistency.

So, it’s like 18 minutes is not that much time a day. But if you do it every single day, then it compounds.

Well, yeah. I think one of the hardest things people find is, ok, I have this as a hobby. And like, I really feel like I can do this for a long time, like the rest of my life, but they just don’t know how to monetize it, right? They’re doing this one thing, which is like university and College in this case, but now they’ve got to slowly transition, and they think that it’s going to be the way Mark Zuckerberg found Facebook. It’s got to be like that. Great idea and everything. But no, it could be a relatively simple idea. You have to figure out why entrepreneurial education is so important Because then you can figure out how to monetize the thing that you naturally enjoy doing.

That’s honestly something I’m doing, right now.

So, I have Primo Gardens Inc., which is My CBD business We sell CBD products and manufacturing services, and that’s going, but in my brand, I’m figuring out my services and my products, and like, what am I selling? And I have a background in medical cannabis science now, and I want to be a speaker and tell people about the endocannabinoid system and how to achieve health, harmony, and well-being. I want to bring well-being back into our lives because there’s just so much unwellness out there. Mental illness, like how anxious, depressed, and sad people are, and just like their lack of sleep. The people who can’t sleep at night in this country are so many. 50% of people will have sleep issues. Just all of it, these are imbalances that the endocannabinoid system can help with.

But I’m in the process of monetizing that, figuring out who I talk to, and how can I get the word out there and do what I love while making. Is that sort of business too?

So, Erin, what is the biggest lesson you learned during your process of transitioning to becoming an entrepreneur in this field? What was a challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?

One of the biggest challenges is just being new to it. This is my first business, so it’s my first entrepreneurial experience. And usually, your first one isn’t a home run. I’ve got to fall down a couple of times before the wheels start running, right? Right. I mean, the wheels fall off, and you’ve got to go repair the car.

See, this is this. This is where the problem occurs, like when people give up after the first try because they fail. But you’re saying you have to keep going, you know, so.

And that’s where the passion comes from. I mean, if you’re just doing a job because somebody else told you to do it. It’s because it makes good money or for some other reason that I don’t like. Fueling you is like giving you energy as well, so you’re giving energy to it by doing it like you’re just spending effort and energy. It should be filling you up too because it’s like a passion, so that’s important in entrepreneurship. If you’re going to be the person who is kind of the steam engine for the whole operation. If you’re the entrepreneur of the business. I mean, your heart probably isn’t hurting a little bit.

And so, with CBD, I’m passionate about that. So being able to overcome those challenges, I am motivated to keep going and have a taste of this entrepreneurial life, even though I do put a lot of hours in because we’re still getting things going. I don’t think I’ll work for anyone else because we can work for ourselves, and you can make it work, and you can learn. The business things like, yeah, running a business is new. But we’re in an amazing organization that I found by networking with people and meeting amazing people, and then maybe you get involved in an organization and you just learn so much about business, ask questions, and stay curious. Yeah, everything’s hard; lives are hard. Nothing is like Super Duper Easy, but like we’ve been saying, on the other side of these challenges is where the growth lies. And so, once you get on the other side, you feel better than you’ve ever felt before.

So, you just keep pushing. You just keep pushing to go further, but it is important to relax, give yourself grace, and not beat yourself up. And it’s not a total grind, grind, grind. We have to take care of ourselves, self-love is a top priority like looking out for yourself, supporting yourself, and forgiving yourself. Accept yourself. All of those things

No, I agree. You know, growth lies in the challenge, right? If you’re not challenged, if you don’t have resistance, how are you? Are you going to grow.

Erin, Speaking of this, for your generation, what do you think is the biggest hurdle that the Gen. Z generation faces when it comes to realizing the American dream? And how do you think they can overcome it? From your perspective.

Honestly, I think one of them at least relates to what you’re just talking about that it’s going to be hard like life is not super, super easy. And I feel like What I hear from a lot of the older generations I talk to is that I’m friends with and I have older mentors, and they give their perspective on my generation, and it’s like We get this, and we give off this impression that we don’t work that hard. That is what we’re saying.

I thought it was the millennial generation. We’ve been told that we are lazy, 

I feel like we are too, but it’s like there’s also like a work smarter, not harder, and times are changing social media and technology, things change. So, like, we have to adapt to new beliefs and stuff like that. But I guess thinking that it’s going to be easy and that we should get things handed to us, like this and that, I feel like it’s a hurdle. 

And also, just like I don’t know. The education system doesn’t teach us how to, like, thrive in this life. It teaches us how to survive. Pop-out as a nice little employee like we don’t. Learn about mindfulness or anything that can help. We relieve stress through meditation or these things that we like. Can you help us with Mental illness, which is something that affects everybody, around the world, people struggle with it, but I feel like it’s becoming more and more common being a kid like ours should not make you anxious and depressed.

So, if we were able to teach about the endocannabinoid system, there are so many different things. It’s a system that’s interconnected throughout our whole body, and it has receptors located in every single cell. Well, not every cell, but within the cells of every single organ system. What it does is interact with molecules that our own body produces and interacts with. It has an influence on every function that takes place because of the interconnectivity, like our appetite, our memory, our mood, emotional processing, and learning. Immune response, pain sensation, sleep all of these things, and we can naturally boost our endocannabinoid levels through different lifestyle habits and the cannabis plant.

So, exercising, socializing with people, having healthy conversations, and smiling and hugging people is meditation, including Omega Threes and Omega Sixes in your diet. These are things. That helps to bring us balance, and they can naturally help bring harmony to our mind and body, which helps with mood regulation, stress reduction, physical discomfort, and so getting. Balanced again, like I feel like that’s just such a huge issue that people are facing. We’re just not feeling good about the foods that we’re consuming and the activities that we’re participating in. We’re doing like We have to incorporate these lifestyle habits. And mindsets that like it can get better. Let’s have a positive outlook on this and make the world a better place again. I don’t know. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it, and I feel like a lot of Gen. Zs do too, but we got to get ourselves right before we can spread it to others.

Sir, I think what you’re seeing is relevant because, like, Gen. Z is the first generation that is fully born into technology, right? Millennials, there’s a transition, but essentially, everything is chaotic and changing so fast, like just 20 years ago, 30 years ago, when I was about 5 or 6, the Internet was barely beginning. 

And now this is An Internet generation, and it’s all chaotic. And what a lot of people are doing is going into a reactive mode, especially the younger generation, right? Gen. Z and the millennials, because they don’t know how to adjust to the changing circumstances because everything is changing, like what was working for the baby boomer generation and what was working for even Gen. I am now going to work for millennials and Gen. Z because we’re just living in a new age, where there is no job security.

And so, when you’re talking about the end of the communal cannabinoid system. What was coming to mind is that you cannot control your environment, but you can respond and focus on yourself. If you know how to influence your body, you can naturally respond to the environment in a calm and collected way. But that’s the thought that came to mind.

Exactly, yes. And I feel like it’s important to try not to let external things trigger us because, at the end of the day, we don’t have control over things outside of our body. But we do have a lot of control—a lot more than we think of our body and how we feel. Our mind controls I know you’ve heard that before, but just in that sense, it can help with that and with us growing up in this technological environment. We’ve got to not lose the connection component too. I mean, we’ve got to hold on to that, that none of us can do super great things on our own like it takes a team doing a specific part that they’re super good at. 

If you’re creating a song or music there’s somebody who likes producing the background. There’s somebody who’s doing the vocals or somebody doing this instrument or that instrument. There’s there are a lot of pieces that come together to produce that, and cannabis has a similar effect. A concept where it’s called the entourage effect, which means that all the different components in cannabis work together synergistically to produce a bigger effect than any of those components on their own. So that’s kind of the same as, in real life, humans coming together and collaborating on things to do good in the world. 

So yeah, that’s also a tip for Gen Z: keep connecting with people. Communication is so important in my college experience. I didn’t grasp that, like I didn’t grasp it into stepping into entrepreneurship, because I had so many limiting beliefs about myself, saying that I was shy, nervous, and socially awkward.

I don’t believe you’re shy. 

You didn’t know me. I’m a whole different person. That’s what life is about. It’s about changing, growing, and becoming a new version of yourself that’s how we kind of get there. I mean, I have this. My brand is called Air Energy with three E’s, and have This is Elevating, Expand, Evolve, and the elevate part is all about self and the endocannabinoid systems, that kind of getting yourself to harmony to a place where your point of attraction is just lifted, and then expand is when you send that energy and by sending those good vibes out to other people, you can start to impact others. You can try new things, and then, like the collaboration with other people that happens in there, you get to evolve, and that’s you that does have those skills, that knowledge, all of those things. You tried it in the expansion phase. You are now that new person, so we can squash these. Limiting beliefs is what I’m saying.

Yeah, I agree. They call it the Gen Z. It’s like the end of all good things. No, it’s the beginning of a new era, you know. This generation will rise. To the beginning of an era. It’s like the closing of one way of doing things and the beginning of another. So, if you’re like Gen Z and you’re viewing this, you’ve got to. Know that you’re in a very special generation, which will lead to a new era altogether. 

Erin, on a different note, can you tell us a little bit more about Primo Gardens, Inc. and, like, more about what it does with the products and all of that?

Primo Gardens, Inc. is our CBD retail and manufacturing facility. It’s based out of Colorado, but I have a location in Columbus. Oh, and we make all kinds of CBD products. So, we have products for sale in our retail area and online, and they’re kind of standard formulas. And then, because we have our lab, you can also get a custom product made specifically to target an imbalance.

So, some featured formulas that we’ve created, or a PM one for sleep, AM for Some energy, and a mood boost in the morning put us in the zone for focus. This body relief is kind of like aches and pains, and one called Peace of Mind is for stress, but basically, you can build a custom blend with different essential oils and terpenes and pick the concentration of CBD and whatnot. And we’ll help somebody build it because you might not know what all the oils do, but if you just want it to taste a specific way, you can do that. But if you wanted to do something specific, we could help you sort out the oils and build a custom blend to target that.

I know quite a few people who would be interested, but they’re back in South America. You’re in Ohio. They’re all there in Texas, Florida, or whatever.

Oh well, we should. So yeah, we have our website and then also with having our Lab, we can wholesale our own Primo products to people who just might want to carry quality CBD products.

And then we White label. 

So, if somebody wants their own CBD brand with their name and logo and kind of a choice for the scent and flavor options, then we do that, as well as custom manufacturing. So if you’ve got a new product idea or a formula that you already have, you’re coming with an ingredient, like if you already have the distillate, the CBD distillate that goes into with it, then, we can help you make a custom product on a case-by-case basis, but yeah, really just helping to make these products that help bring balance to people’s lives. 

The use of CBD helps boost the naturally occurring endocannabinoids that we produce, thus stimulating the endocannabinoid system. And bring about Positive neurological and physical changes, so it helps in that way, I mean. On the business side of things like everyone having an endocannabinoid system,

So, CBD can be used by anyone. And yeah, I’m out here to try to get more people to try it. Some people don’t get that euphoric effect, so some people can get thrown off and say, oh, I didn’t feel anything, but it doesn’t give that kind of neurological change that can be improved. Your mood and have Like that sort of neurological change. But because you don’t get the euphoric effect, sometimes people say that, but then I ask them. Do you feel stressed? Does your back still hurt? Or whatever they were complaining about. And usually, it’s no.

So, if you’re just like, you get returned to your normal, everybody has a different normal. We all have a state of balance, but it just helps to bring you back to it. And yeah, so that’s Primo Gardens. Yeah, we’ve got our retail store that anybody can come into in Columbus. OH. And then we also have our website, primogardensinc.com, where people can shop.

Erin, I know you’re really into education, and I know you were working on this educational initiative called Cannabis Business Practicum, so could you tell me in the audience a little bit more about that and what it does? 

Yeah, I’m excited about that project. So, I’m working with a cannabis compliance pioneer. She kind of was one of the front ends during Colorado.

But America is all about pioneering.

Yeah, exactly. So, I partnered up with her, my business professor, my business sales professor, my marketing professor, and me. So, I am a CBD store owner, and I have my education in cannabis science now, but we’re creating this educational kind of platform for people who want to get into the cannabis industry, like we were talking about earlier, or people who are already in the industry and just want some guidance, help, and support to grow their businesses.

About half the university and college students all across America would want guidance on how to, monetize cannabis, and just make a living from it.

So, we’re, like, condensing all of our backgrounds and knowledge and coming together, and to bring this educational platform, it’ll have, like, downloadable resources that people can get free webinars on. We’re going to be hosting, and then eventually, 6 to 8-week-long programs for people to really dive into it and get their business going how they want it.

No, that is awesome. When you were talking about that, I just had an image of the pioneering spirit, the founding fathers had the pioneering spirit. Spirit of going to the future, like 250 years from now, and then seeing what Now this generation is pioneering. It would be in the cannabis field. Just thinking that is, really funny.

Yeah, but yeah, so I’m excited about that. It’s been kind of on the back burner while I’ve been finishing my degree, but I just got that diploma. So, we’re going to get that fired back up and have some other exciting projects coming. 

Just like, educationally, I met some people on the West Coast who are already doing this natural health webinar series, and then I was talking to her about the endocannabinoid system, and She was very intrigued, so I think I’ll be joining that. Some people. I’ll be posting that on my LinkedIn and social media accounts, though, so if people want to connect with me there, then I can keep them up to date on that. Kind of stuff.

That is awesome, Erin. So, Erin, how can our audience connect with you and your work so that they can get to know more about you and your work? 

Yeah, I would say LinkedIn is one of the best places to find me. You can find me at Erin Babcock, and I just added a comma Ms. to the end so you can find me there, or you can e-mail me at info@primogardensinc.com And you could just contact me there, and I’ll direct you anywhere or answer any questions or other curiosities that people have about this industry, this plant, or anything else that my story intrigues you about.

That is awesome, Erin. I’m really glad that you took the time to come on this podcast and share your experiences on becoming an entrepreneur while doing university and all of that. And I would hope that at a later time. You should come back to this show.

Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me, Cosmos.

I want to conclude this show by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s something extraordinary within every one of us, and we must awaken it and unleash it. Bye for now. See you. In the next episode.