As I reflect back over the past 2 1/2 years, it has been a rollercoaster ride – scary, thrilling, tummy-tickling, sometimes painful but especially life-changing. Like a Thelma and Louise moment on an excursion via a winding highway, every turn brings a new adventure and experience!
So much happened in a short time and a series of events propelled me in a very new direction – from cosmetics to cannabis. I was going through a major life change between leaving a 20 year career to getting yet another major surgery and dealing with the possibility of a long, painful recovery, when a friend invited me to learn about CBD. I had no idea what these three little letters represented and I had no idea how they would completely change the way I looked at health and wellness for my entire family.
It is an understatement to say that I had a profound product experience, but that is the only way that I can express what happened to me when I tried replacing all of my medications with CBD. It only took 3 months and I was off all of them – how was that possible? I felt strangely liberated and a little scared that it would all end like a dream that you don’t want to wake up from. This euphoria of relief was a god-send and I became very protective of it as I became more and more educated.
My thirst for knowledge on cannabis, hemp, CBD, terpenes and the ECS system (yes, we all have one in our bodies like it or not) turned into a need to share this and help others experience what I had. I literally should have been in rehab, not promoting a new company or line of products, but I decided to take a different route. My new “addiction” became alternative health – if I wasn’t already secretly addicted to all things “alternative”- nutritional supplements, healthy food fads – the latest cleanse, the latest juice, the latest herb or berry… yes, I checked them all out. It became glaringly obvious that this one was not just a fly-by-night fad that would go away with the changing tide. Hemp was here to stay. CBD was being researched by heavy-hitters – Nobel prize-winning doctors around the world, noted scientists in all fields of expertise were waking up to this natural solution that has been kept from us for way too long. Of course, I took the plunge and joined the company! If I could be the pied piper of dermatological skin care and vegan makeup – which did very little for my personal health- I could do it ten-fold with a solution I truly believed in.
So, I stared a business! My very own little CBD business. It was my side gig for over 2 years as I learned more and more and worked in the corporate office in operations, support and HR. I wanted to become an expert as I was in my “old world” and that was my mission. I digested as much information daily as my brain could handle and some that it could not – filing it away under the “To Absorb Later” category. I couldn’t help it – my education background forced me into being a student once again until I could become the teacher, the leader, the chief advisor, the “Go-to” chic so to speak. You have to really want something down to your soul level to embark on this and I knew in my soul that this was to be my life’s work, my purpose on this earth is to help people and this was the way I was going to fulfill it.
Today, I am living the hemp lifestyle to the fullest! The business is going international and the nay-sayers are gone now – realizing the scope of this industry and difference it can make to everyone in our lives, to our society and to our environment. The “stigma” attached to hemp and cannabis is slowly going the way of the dinosaurs and most people are opening up to a new way of looking at health and wellness. People are coming out of the woodwork to find out more and it is the most amazing feeling in the world to be able to help them!
Lesson learned: Do not hold back your dreams because of preconceived notions or what others may think. You know what is right and what is wrong deep down and this intuition will serve you well on your journey from hot-rods to hemp, or mascara to marijuana… wherever your life takes you, enjoy the ride as you inspire others!
Melissa Temple-Agosta
Feb. 2018
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