I remember, years ago, my first adult home party. My friends and I all got together, drank wine, and giggled together, as this woman came in and talked to all of us about her bag of goodies. After that, I told all of my friends about the great time that I had and all the toys that I had purchased but I also told them how incredibly educating her adult party was.
This, I believe, was the first push into mainstream. These were the women piloting our industry into the homes of the “vanilla” consumer, having those uncomfortable conversations, and having a great time doing it. What we have discovered now, is that none of us are really that “vanilla,” but we had to change the culture. We had to change the conventional way of thinking and let women know that it is okay to talk about sex and have a healthy sex life with their partner and a healthy sex life with themselves!
The adult retail industry has again been given the task of changing the society’s opinion on CBD.
Now we see this wonderful revolution of women, men and couples visiting our brick-and-mortar retailers. We are seeing consumers from all walks of life, going into their local boutique and feeling comfortable asking questions and genuinely wanting to be educated about the toys they are buying. The giggles have been turned into conversations and seminars, the smell of bleach has been replaced with the fragrance of pheromones. What the adult home party women did for our industry is similar to when we had to pick up the phone and make cold calls. They hustled and changed the culture.
I believe that we have been challenged, again, to change a culture. How do we make this pie a little bigger? How do we target a new customer and educate them? The adult retail industry has again been given the task of changing the society’s opinion on CBD. I have been an advocate of holistic healing for more than 15 years now, believing strongly in the science behind the endocannabinoid system and benefits of cannabis. ECS is the system in humans and animals that is composed of endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoids are neurotransmitters that bind to the cannabinoid receptors, which are all throughout our vertebrate (including the brain) and peripheral nervous system. Wait, what? Put simply, the endocannabinoid system is involved in regulating a variety of physiological and cognitive processes including fertility, pregnancy, appetite, pain-sensation, mood, memory, and in mediating the pharmacological effects of cannabis. In humans, the concentration of certain endocannabinoids have been found to rise during physical activity, contributing to the development of exercise-induced euphoria, aka “runner's high.”
The miseducation that this country has suffered has kept us sick and scared of the benefits of CBD, causing an epidemic of addiction to pharmaceutical medications and unnecessary pain and suffering when we have had a natural solution the whole time. Even the word marijuana is completely inaccurate, introduced to the public as propaganda because it made cannabis sound more Mexican, creating even more stigma. We now sit in a place where cannabis is being looked at as an alternative treatment and holistic answer, instead of prescribing many dangerous medications that we have taken all our lives. Our industry already uses hemp and hemp seed oil in many of our products and is well-versed in the benefits. We are already trusted advisors in the community, so why not use this as an opportunity to build a new market?
Williams Trading has begun to bolster this market, bringing in high-quality CBD products. We have partnered with several different companies in the distribution and education of CBD. With the addition of Green Roads, a pharmaceutical grade CBD, Sixth Gear and Earthly Body’s CBD Daily, Williams Trading offers a wide selection. We realize that this customer is different and we cater to this demographic with a whole new landing page featuring only CBD products.
Who is this customer? It includes construction workers, police officers, fire fighters, even doctors and those in the pharmaceutical industry. So many educated people view CBD as a drug even without the presence of THC, which is only one of at least 113 cannabinoids identified in cannabis. So what is the difference? CBD is non-psychoactive which means that it will not get the user high. Because of this trait, CBD appears more frequently than THC natural supplements. Some CBD has trace amounts of THC, but well under the illegal amount, less than .3 percent and offering no side effects of THC. Through education and drive, we have created a new need for the women that helped us change the culture of the sex industry. So, I call our strong road warriors, the women that helped educate and change a culture, to help us do it again. This new and exciting business is looking for its voice and we’re ready to help them.”
Charlette Lopez is an adult industry educator and sales representative with more than six years of experience. Lopez began her career as an adult retail store manager for the Love Stuff retail chain in New Jersey and Maryland. From there, she has built her career supporting Williams Trading's national distributorship, and also represents their exclusive Cloud 9 Novelties line of adult products. It is her enthusiasm and passion for health and wellness that drives Lopez as she remains ahead of the curve with her signature sales trend forecasting expertise.
