Tim O’Brien, co-founder of The Healthy Place, is in a unique position. With an online store as well as three physical store fronts, he gets to speak directly with his customers and get feedback in real time. O’Brien is also the co-founder of Wild Theory CBD Co., which recently debuted Strata PM THC + CBD + CBN Gummies. While he is a big proponent of cannabinoids for sleep today, that wasn’t always the case. O’Brien said that in his teen years he flooded his endocannabinoid system, causing him to later steer clear of THC and anything related to it.
“My world view on it was that it was a part of my dark teen years. And so then I started a journey of becoming more educated because that's my job. I mean, I need to know every single nutraceutical every nutrient on the planet. It is important for me to know about it because I have a responsibility to my community here and to our businesses that we sell our brands to, to be on the cutting edge."
But after some self-education and conversations with his mentors about CBD, O’Brien said he ran with it and never looked back.
“We were actually the first in Madison [Wisconsin] to market CBD in an intentional and aggressive way. So it was a really exciting period of time to watch just mobs of people coming in,” he explained.
As a child, O’Brien would go to work with his mother at a health food store. Looking back, he said the sleep category has come a long way.
“I think back to 30 years ago when I was in the back room of that health food store, and to be honest, that wasn't a primary conversation and I think there's been so much research over the years connecting health problems to sleep issues. The reaction of the supplement industry has been to produce more products and educate more so that certainly has expanded. And personally it's expanded too for me. When I started in 2010, sleep wasn't a piece of my everyday conversation. As I learned more, it became more and more a part of my consultations, which spreads to all of our wellness consultants within our stores,” O’Brien said. “In our stores, when somebody comes in and says, ‘hey, I have health issues,’ one of our first questions I ask is ‘how’s sleep going?’”
To hear more on CBN for sleep and the evolution of the sleep category through O'Brien's eyes, listen to the NutraCast.
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