“Failing is learning and learning will lead to success. I have seen many people with great ideas give up at the first hurdle, yet great ideas and innovation are the very key to success.” – Claudia Avila-Batchelor

Founder@ Interview

Interview with Claudia Avila-Batchelor

“Failing is learning and learning will lead to success. I have seen many people with great ideas give up at the first hurdle, yet great ideas and innovation are the very key to success. And if these were easy to execute everyone would be doing the same thing, which they are not. .” – Claudia Avila-Batchelor

Today we feature Claudia :Avila-Batchelor, the founder at Dermactiva CBD. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.

Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I am the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Dermactiva, a Hemp and CBD topicals company. Our unique formulas have been created and manufactured in Colombia (where i’m from,) by the man who was the first person to be granted a government license to work with Cannabis products in the country over 25 years ago.

Our wisdom and heritage is therefore unrivaled in the sector, and further enhanced by the organic and hydroponically grown Cannabis Sativa oils we use as a base for our products.

A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?

I took one of my best friends on a surprise holiday to travel around Colombia in 2017. At the time CBD products were still at a relatively nascent stage and more so in Colombia, where the connotations add a whole different layer to the subject matter.

To our surprise, we found a growing cottage industry in various towns we visited, but they were mostly Indigenous and native people who were coming down from the mountains to sell their beautiful lotions and potions on the street. The marijuana plant has been used by Indigenous people for spiritual, medicinal and sacred purposes for thousands of years so it was something that was respected locally.

The novelty and curiosity led us to buy a few different products which we ended up using on burns, sprains, insect bites, and more. Janice King – my best friend and now business partner- used some of the products on her rosacea with tremendous results. We were intrigued and wanted to understand more about CBD’s benefits.

We spent the last week of our holiday buying as many different products to bring back to the UK and started testing them on ourselves and our friends and family. Once we saw how a great many of the products were we decided to create our own. Fortuitously, Janice also had almost three decades in healthcare and cosmetics, having worked in large companies including Alliance Boots and Superdrug.

This meant that from a business perspective we understood all the regulatory aspects and added our own layers of additional independent testing and consumer trials to ensure we came up with a premium and efficient range for our brand. My background was essentially media and marketing plus i had an avid interest in natural products due to my Hashimotos autoimmune, so our combined skill set made for a viable partnership to create products based on a problem solution proposition.

Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?

Our company is based in London and we create topical Hemp and CBD wellness products that have been based on 25 years of Colombian cannabis wisdom and heritage. Although UK-based, we have just launched in Italy and will be launching in Colombia and France by the end of 2022 due to demand and also because the laws are more relaxed in those (and many other!) territories.

Being legally licensed in the UK and having the Colombian heritage has really put us in a unique position as these are almost like the gold standard of combinations in terms of credibility and legality due to the UK having such stringent laws in relation to CBD products.

That level of filtration really works to our advantage as consumers and retailers can trust what is in the products due to the rigorous testing.

What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?

First and foremost- the products work. Our consumers have almost unanimously raved about the benefits they have enjoyed as a result of using our Dermactiva warming cream or cooling gel, and the same has been for 95% of the consumer trial participants for our new products. Nothing else matters because even with the most sophisticated marketing and huge promotional budgets- if a product isn’t good or delivers on its promise then it will fail.

And especially now when consumer reviews are all so important and can expose weaknesses in a second. That alone is the omnipresent ‘AHA’ moment. We also wanted to create products based on a problem-solution foundation because so many other brands are so generic. CBD absolutely cannot be a cure-all for everything! We have also strictly adhered to MHRA regulations which are there to protect consumers – that is key to garnering trust. Without a doubt, however, Janice’s healthcare expertise has been a key factor in our success, as well as us finding the most incredible and knowledgeable experts in Colombia and the UK.

In general everyone from family and loved ones have been supportive, and the industry as a whole has been very open and those in it for the long term and right reasons are great. We all rise together so any legislations that can help move this very beneficial sector forward are very welcomed and have helped to weed out a lot of the cowboys.

We have spent almost five years rigorously ensuring that we create the best products possible so patience has indeed been a virtue, yet really worth it in the end for the efficacy of the products and the loyalty of our consumers.

Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?

Where do I start? Suffice to say that importing cannabis products from Colombia to the UK at any time would be challenging, never mind in the midst of a pandemic!

However, we have a solid structure and all necessary licenses and permits in place (even a narcotics license to import into Italy!) so any initial challenges were more to do with naivety and being pioneers rather than a lack of planning.

The biggest challenge so far has been the supremely difficult task of marketing, digital or otherwise.

Because of the nature of our product, everyone from google through to social media platforms shut us down, shadow ban us and basically, won’t allow advertising. In spite of us following the strict guidelines and regulator procedures, our legal and licensed products get tarred with the same brush as anything unregulated.

We understand why however this is very frustrating. To counter these obstacles we simply turned our business proposition from 70-30 digital to now a 70% bricks and mortar model, and support word of mouth (the most effective marketing tool!) with great educational content on our socials and digital magazine. Things will eventually change and yet in spite of these issues we are still here and growing which is testament to the quality of our brand ethos and efficacy.

I think we were somewhat naive and overtly optimistic in how challenging and restricted digital advertising for CBD and Hemp products is. And more importantly, all of our customers and independent consumer trial participants have given us staggering testimonials about how great our products have been in treating a number of their health conditions however we can’t mention these and have to edit the testimonials heavily.

We therefore have to be very creative in the way we can tell consumers what our products do without telling them exactly what they do! While we absolutely support regulations and no one should be able to make medical claims without the proper licences, in time i hope there will be a happy medium for our customers to be allowed to use their voices. This is super frustrating so word of mouth has been a very old school and powerful solution for us as a significant number of customers are those whose friends or loved ones introduced them to our products.

If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

I guess i would tell my younger self everything that we have lived through in order to give myself confidence!I love working for myself so there was never the question of being afraid, specially when working with such a talented friend and partner.

My advice for my younger self would be that whatever product/brand or service you launch has to be the best and most efficient it can be and that will be half the battle won. At the same time, set out your brand values and purpose which will dictate your USP.

Take calculated risks and if things don’t work out look for a different way to overcome challenges- there are usually solutions to most problems you just have to look through a different lens to reach an answer. There is always a price to pay for being a pioneer but that is what makes your brand unique and special. And… if anyone doubts you prove them wrong with the quality of your work or product.

I have never regretted becoming an entrepreneur but wish i spent more time enjoying the process as its been an exciting journey, made fun by learning so many new things and meeting like minded people in the industry. Most importantly- my own wellness and that of countless others has benefitted from what we have created and that in itself is the most important and fulfilling aspect of what we have achieved.

https://www.dermactiva.co.uk/

We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?

. Proprietary CMS that was built by Scene (www.scene.io) and allows us to manage all content, sales, stock in a really easy to use way. No need for designers and coders so super time and cost efficient! In my other life I also work with Scene as a Creative Director so it was easy to apply this platform to our business after having seen the results from other global brand campaigns i helped to launch.

2. Shopify. (www.shopify.co.uk) This is by far the best stock management and marketing tool for any growing business. Their back end is really easy to navigate and they also have some cool webinar-type helpful tutorials that are easy to follow and implement. These first two business tools are fantastic for us as we are still a small team so easy to use and self-managing platforms are key.

3. Last but not least- our team! We have a small team of creative and enthusiastic freelancers who have supported us from the beginning. These guys were all recommended by friends or just caught our attention as they were helping to lead and shape the industry. They are by far the best assets we have! As we are currently gearing up to launch in two other territories before the end of the year the most important thing for us i would say is replicating the talent we have here in the UK. Then everything else will take care of itself.

What do you know now that you wished you had known before?

I think we were somewhat naive and overtly optimistic in how challenging and restricted digital advertising for CBD and Hemp products is. And more importantly, all of our customers and independent consumer trial participants have given us staggering testimonials about how great our products have been in treating a number of their health conditions however we can’t mention these and have to edit the testimonials heavily.

We, therefore, have to be very creative in the way we can tell consumers what our products do without telling them exactly what they do! While we absolutely support regulations and no one should be able to make medical claims without the proper licenses, in time i hope there will be a happy medium for our customers to be allowed to use their voices.

This is super frustrating so word of mouth has been a very old school and powerful solution for us as a significant number of customers are those whose friends or loved ones introduced them to our products.

What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?

Too many to mention! I know i have mentioned this before but really… can you IMAGINE how difficult it would have been to launch Colombian Cannabis products into the UK during a pandemic?

Every day we survive this challenging industry is another day that makes us stronger and more efficient. The thing that genuinely makes me proud is every single time that anyone tells us that we have made their lives better, they are back doing the things they loved or their wellness has improved through using our natural products. That is really the most amazing feeling.

What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?

To make our products as widely available to anyone who needs them because we know that they will have an improved quality of life. And to form a partnership with a larger company with the same ethos as ours because that is the way we will achieve my previous comment.

To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?

Failing is learning and learning will lead to success. I have seen many people with great ideas give up at the first hurdle, yet great ideas and innovation are the very key to success. And if these were easy to execute everyone would be doing the same thing, which they are not.

“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Dermactiva CBD”

To learn more about Dermactiva CBD Visit www.dermactiva.co.uk

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