Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Sunmed | Your CBD Store with Areli Bryan
Ever been curious about CBD and its health benefits? Caught up in the swirl of misconceptions and desperately seeking clarity? Allow us to shine a light on these mysteries as we host Areli Bryan, the multi-star owner of Sunmed | Your CBD Store. Anecdotes from her personal journey with CBD serve to debunk myths and highlight the significant role of cannabinoids in our bodies. Aurelie also stresses the importance of purchasing CBD that comes with a certificate of analysis, so you can be sure of what goes into your body. As we navigate Areli’s journey to embracing CBD as part of her wellness routine, we unearth the birth of Sunmed | Your CBD Store in Florida and its growth journey.
In the latter half, Areli powerfully underlines the significance of educating customers about CBD products and the third-party certificate of analysis that accompanies each SunMed CBD product. We delve into the fascinating world of cannabinoids, their health benefits, and their part in the endocannabinoid system. HearAreli passionately discuss SunMed CBD's all-natural product range designed to enhance focus, energy levels, and mood swings, along with a unique insight into their sponsorship for the APP Pickleball nationwide. She also shares a heartwarming story of resilience during the ten-week closure of her store due to the Farm Bill of 2018. As a bonus, we explore their breast cancer sponsorship initiative, their support for small businesses, and the exciting range of products on offer! Be sure to tune in and get informed about CBD! #GNPNorthport #SunmedCBD #CBD #Painrelief #Hemp #CBDHealth #CBDProducts
There you are All right, and on with the show.
Speaker 2:This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Aurelie Bryan. Aurelie is the founding member and is a multi-star owner of SunMed CBD, and SunMed CBD is here in Northport. It's the, as I understand it, the second store in this very successful company. Aurelie, how are you this morning? I'm doing great, patricia. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm really excited to meet you and talk to you about your company. Tell me about it.
Speaker 3:So SunMed, your CBD stores, started in Brenton, florida, with the first store and then I opened the second store right there in downtown Northport on Main Avenue, and we've been open for five years now. We're very excited to be part of the Tuscaloosa community. I actually lived in Tuscaloosa for 12 years. My kids were born in Northport, alabama, so Tuscaloosa County is dearly to my heart and so, but we love being in downtown Northport. Now we have over 400 stores nationwide, from coast to coast, and we just opened three stores in the Atlanta International Airport. We have one at the atrium before you cross security, then we have another one right it's a kiosk right when you cross security, and then we have a big store on Conqueror's D. So we're very excited. I love that. You know everything started right in Main Avenue well, the second store nationwide, but right there in Main Avenue and it's been an amazing journey. I could say that God's hands have been all over our company since day one.
Speaker 1:Well, great things happen in Northport. I know that for sure, tell our listeners about your journey, rayleigh. How did I mean tell us about how you got into SunMed? How did that come to you?
Speaker 3:So I was dealing with anxiety and I was dealing with some health issues and one of my really good friends told me about CBD oil and I was kind of skeptical about it. I wasn't you know like very I wasn't ready to really give it a try. But I went through so many doctors and finally I was like you know what, at this point I will try anything. So she sent me a bottle of the water soluble and I started taking it and I remember like in within three weeks I started feeling really, really good. Like I was like oh my goodness, is this how like normal people feel like every day? So I don't know, it helped tremendously with my anxiety and my cardiologist also noticed that my thyroid levels were getting leveled and he asked me what was you know? What was the difference? Like what was I was doing different from the last time he saw me and I was like well, I'm gonna be honest with you, doctor, I am taking CBD oil and that was it like it helped me so much.
Speaker 3:Like my anxiety was very debilitating and I feel like it started after my second pregnancy. The post-partum depression was terrible and I felt like that triggered a lot of things and so when I started taking CBD and I started feeling better, I was like you know, we need to get this to our community. We need to get this to my family. I need a lot of my friends that were dealing with the same thing. So that's what you know. I thought you know, this will be great to having the community, and it was back in the day in 2018. It was still kind of like a gray area and so it was definitely a challenge, but God's hands was all over it since they won. So that's where we are we open, like I said, the second store in main avenue and then from there it kind of everything we never thought like.
Speaker 3:This was just like a hobby for me, like something that I wanted to do to give back, and it was a natural alternative.
Speaker 3:I have been all my life taught by my mother about like natural alternative, like plants and, you know, like natural oils, and so I was very familiar with that part of it. But then, when I learned about CBD and also the need of a brand that is trustworthy, with lab reports, because you know that was one of the biggest challenges is that there were so many bad actors out there that we wanted to bring a brand that people could trust and that we can have like a brick and mortar where people could come in the store and educated about CBD and what is this all about and what's cannabinoids and what's broad spectrum and what's full spectrum, because the same questions I had. I was like you know, they gotta be the same questions that everybody's having about CBD. So we jumped in right in the beginning of the stages of CBD cannabinoid in the not just only in the state but nationwide, and we just it just grew super fast within expected that it was gonna be such a huge wave. So yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 1:It is a huge wave and a lot of it is education and the lack of it. So I mean I would love for you to sort of unpack for us some of the misconceptions that people have about CBD.
Speaker 3:So one of the main ones is do I get high with this product? So All of our products are derived from hemp. So hemp and marijuana are two different plants. So hemp it doesn't have a high concentration of THC, which is this, you know, what gives you the psychotropic effect, and so it has all the benefits without the high. So with CBD derived from hemp you do not get high. Also, in the country you there's a rule where it has to be point three percent THC on full spectrums, less than point three percent on THC. So that is one of the misconceptions. Also, it's very important that when you purchase CBD that they are giving you a certificate of analysis that tells you exactly what you're putting in your body. So that's very, very important.
Speaker 3:There's also cannabinoids. That is not just CBD. There's other ones like that comes from the hemp plant, like CBN, cbg, thcv, that help with different other other things. Like, for example, cbg is gives you like a natural Pepper in your step, like a little boost of energy. Cbn is more for sleep. So just you know different cannabinoids that come from the hemp, but not just CBD. Cbd is great, but there's other cannabinoids that you can find in the hemp plant that are very beneficial, beneficial, health wise oh.
Speaker 1:My gosh. We could do a whole series of podcasts just about.
Speaker 3:Yes, there's a lot of information. There's definitely, and you can come to our store because all of our stores. That's what separates us from our competitors. Number one is that we are all about educating. We want to make sure that we answer all our Customer's questions, because everybody has a question, everybody wants to know more about it. And the second one is our certificate of analysis that you can. In all of our products, you have a Certificate that comes from a third party that tells you exactly what's in your product. So those two things together are very, very important.
Speaker 1:So I'm a child of the 70s don't don't want to tell anyone exactly how old I am but you know I had to. I have to travel a road, yes, from where it was a recreational but you know, Illegal thing to do. And Nancy Reagan told me this was my brain on drugs. And you know I. And then Um, suddenly here is CBD made of the same plant. You know that that I had left behind. Yeah and um, I had no idea that there was a that CBD could create, Like healthy things happening in your body.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It works really beautifully with our endocannabinoid system and that's one of the systems that we all have in our bodies and we don't talk much about it. We naturally Create. Our body naturally creates cannabinoids. Actually, our breast milk is full of it and there's a CB1 and CB2 receptor that works beautifully. When you introduce CBD to your endocannabinoid system, all you're doing is like promoting your body to produce more, and there's so many different benefits that you get from introducing cannabinoids to your endocannabinoid system. It is a huge system.
Speaker 3:I am not a doctor, obviously, but you know I've learned being in the business. I have to educate myself because I have, like over 11 employees that have to make sure that they're educated and they can answer questions and so forth. And we also have an on-staff chemist, dr Ferrari. He's got the coolest name that he helps us tremendously Like. He stays very connected with, like, what's happening and all the different benefits of the hemp plant, and he has worked before with the University of Florida. He has worked with the University of Michigan. I am under the understanding he's doing a work with the University of Alabama. So he's our on-staff chemist that keeps us informed and educated about, for example, the endocannabinoid system. So if you want to learn more about it, you know, feel free to come into our store. We have, like, all the information you know, ready for you to come in and grab it, and we will answer all your questions about it too, as well, so we have an endocannabinoid system.
Speaker 3:We all do, and also our pets. Our pets have one too.
Speaker 1:So we already possess organically in our body these receptors that are that relate to this plant Correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's why there's so many benefits that come from it, which is incredible.
Speaker 1:That is like sort of like God reaching down and saying you know, okay, I brought you plants for every, for everything, including your endocannabinoid system. That's correct. Yes, that's pretty cool. So, aralee, we could go off on a. I think we have gone off on a tangent about CBD, but that's not the only part of your life. What do you do for fun when you're not so?
Speaker 3:I'm not the type of pickable it is. I started not too long ago and I absolutely love it. It's so much fun. I love to spend time with my kids. I spend a lot of time with them. I have a 11 year old and a 14 year old and that's what I do for fun. I like to play, pick a ball and just spend some family time.
Speaker 1:That sounds like fun. I've been invited to pick up pickle ball with a local group here and I haven't done it yet. And I've had. I've had people tell me about pickle ball. I just need to get off my duff and go out and experience it. It sounds like fun, that's right.
Speaker 3:It's amazing, and actually Sunmet is the actual official sponsor for the APP Pickleball like nationwide. So our brand sponsored the Pickleball tournament nationwide. We just had the last one, I believe, in Atlanta. We had a tournament in Birmingham too as well.
Speaker 1:On the subject of sponsorships, because I think we skipped over it, but I am aware I'm a breast cancer survivor and I'm aware that you are supporting the breast cancer cause.
Speaker 3:Tell me about that? Yes, we are. We partnered with the Breast Cancer Foundation nationwide and all of our stores are participating and we have products with a pink sticker and when you purchase products with a pink sticker, we're donating a dollar to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which is amazing. So we're wearing this t-shirt all the time. If you go to my store in North Port Alabama, you will see, in Main Avenue, you will see my girls wearing the pink t-shirts. You will see our stores beautifully decorated with pink balloons and the ribbon and if you come in and purchase any of the products with a pink sticker, we will donate a dollar. So you'll be part of that and we give you a little sticker that you can write your name and put it on our window. So that's what we're doing, but not only my stores, but it's nationwide. So we are very, very excited about it. And if there's anybody out there that has a beautiful story, like yourself, patricia, that you are a breast cancer survivor, we are collecting those stories so we can share it nationwide. So that will be amazing. If you would love to share your story, we can put it in what we're doing with the Breast Cancer Association and we're also doing things locally.
Speaker 3:I have a store in Lakeland, florida, and we're working directly with the Breast Cancer Foundation for Central Florida. We're going to do a paint night with them and 10% of our procedures are going to go to them. We're a huge stuntman and your CBD stores are huge. About giving back to the community, that's very, very important to us, not only just taking from our community, but giving back to our community, because everywhere we have stores, people are wonderful and they support our small business, because even though we're a big company where we have stores nationwide, the owners are I want to say 90% of the owners are local. They're locally and where they have their stores, so they're small business owners. We go through the same things that a small business owner goes, so we love to give back to our community because they're a huge blessing to us All right.
Speaker 1:Small business owners are the engine for every city and I like to tell people, because I just like to say it, there are heroes. Oh, thank you. Yes, can you describe maybe a life challenge that you had? You mentioned that you had a health issue and that brought you into CBD. Is there a life challenge that you rose above and it made you a stronger person?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Actually, when we opened our store, right after we opened our store, they closed us down for 10 weeks right there in Northport and we just, you know, we trusted God and we knew from day one that we did things the right way and it was just a matter of trusting. You know his plan for us and thankfully, the farm bill was signed in the month of December of 2018 and we were able to reopen our stores. But those 10 weeks that we were closed, it gave us the opportunity to work directly with our local authorities and educating our local authorities about CBD and hemp, and we joined the hemp round table and really that was a blessing because it pushed me and my husband to get more involved and fight for hemp to be legalized and be able to purchase it in Alabama, not only in Tuscaloos County but in the state of Alabama, because my store was the first CBD store in the entire state of Alabama.
Speaker 3:So that was definitely a challenge, but we reopened our store in December of 2018 and it was amazing when we came back, the community was ready for us and not only locally but nationwide, like it kind of put us in the map, and it was great. So it was a challenge. Thank you, we rose and we trusted God and we just keep going. And here we are.
Speaker 1:Isn't there amazing the way that works.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, um what's, what's the one thing you would like our listeners to take away about um sunmed cvd?
Speaker 3:That we are Um dedicated to bring the best product to the shelf. We follow the standards from soil to oil Um. We have introduced new products into the market. We have our all-in-one daily mushroom gummies and that's another uh product that you know. There's a lot of education to to to to share with everybody. Uh, these are just like daily supplements. They're not psychoactive. Um. The all-in-one um Mushroom gummies have 10 powerful mushrooms that are amazing, like mitake shiitake lions made. They're great for um focus energy, to um give you support with your mood swing. It's just such a great, great Um supplement. So not only we carry cvd products, but now we carry other products. We also have our super greens.
Speaker 3:Um, these two products don't have um any cannabinoids, but it does have amazing antioxidants. The detox uh blunts blance. I'm sorry, it helps with your performance. It's so good, it's all natural um we're we're focused for health and wellness and we're here to to educate and help and um give it a try. We have free samples. All of our stores have free samples. So if you're like you know what I'm, I want to give it a try, but maybe I'm not ready to Spend a lot of money. I want to see how it works. First come to our store, we'll answer your questions and we give you some free samples to take home and you see how it works for you. And then, once you try it and you love it, you can come back and purchase.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the ladies in northport are wonderful For just talking to you as long as you need to be, um, as long as you need to be addressed and and answer all of your questions. So I encourage people to go in and just uh, you know, explore. Maybe something you don't know about maybe could make your, uh, your life a little bit better. Um, how can listeners learn more? And? Um, about sunmed cbd. What's the best way to get a hold of you?
Speaker 3:Yes, so you can come to our store at 900 main avenue in northport, downtown northport and um. Or you can go to our website, getsunmedcom. That's our website or facebook page. Your uh, get sunmed, northport, alabama. Um, we can. You can just um, go in there. Our instagram is the same get sunmed, northport, alabama. Or I can also give you the phone number to the store. I'm sorry, I don't know my heart, but it is 205 737 79, 84 and you can ask for tia, clara or lindsay.
Speaker 1:Absolutely a reilly. It's been great meeting you. Thank you for stopping by the studio.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, patricia. It was a pleasure being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmp northportcom. That's gmp northportcom, or call 205 809 4910.