We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joshua Roper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joshua below.

Joshua , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Starting my business was not an easy start. After graduating college as an athlete, I started dealing with muscle soreness, achy joints, and more. The pain was affecting my day, causing stress throughout the day. I did not want to fall into the trap of always taking pills & wanted to find another alternative. After discovering CBD, I quickly researched to learn more about it. Everything I found was astounding & I was eager to try it. I googled the nearest CBD dispensary by myself & went for a visit. The staff was friendly & gave great recommendations. I went back at least once a week to try different products. My love for CBD started to grow & I wanted to let everyone know about it. I always had a business niche but not sure how I wanted to start. I started to do more research on CBD & different ways it could be used & was shocked about other ways this can be helpful that most normal dispensaries weren’t showing you. So I made that my goal. My goal is to show everyone the different ways you can use CBD/Hemp. From pain management to helping with sleep issues, or aromatherapy to relieve stress, even pets & kids can enjoy the wonderful benefits CBD can provide.

Now I had an idea but I needed direction on where to start. I was a business major in college & immediately went on to start an LLC. Once I was able to establish my legal entity, I needed to create my social media. Next, how can I fund my idea? At the moment I wasn’t financially stable for business credit, so I’ve decided I will use personal funds to start my idea. Then, we created social media pages to start gaining potential customers. After that, the next step was what would I sell. I want to separate myself from other dispensaries & didn’t want to just sell what every other place had. So we went a different route with a couple of our products to have our niche. Once I knew what I wanted to sell. It was time to find a manufacturer/supplier to help with supplies. I’ve spent about a week looking over different CBD suppliers to compare products, prices & values their products. As well as working on creating & testing my products to see if it is ready to present to customers.

After about two weeks of hard research & trials of testing products, I’ve created my first inventory list to move forward. Now I have an idea, a business name, & list of suppliers I want to work with. Next, I needed to find a way to test my audience. I didn’t have the capital & experience to open a brick & mortar store but I needed to find a way to see if I can sell these products. My goal was to sell online & well in person. I wasn’t aware of how difficult the process was to sell CBD/Hemp online due to payment processors not allowing the sale of CBD or Hemp. Trying to get this setup took about three months, while I was waiting I started working on my other option to sell in person. Living in the city creates a lot of opportunities. I started with a weekly spot at one of our popular flea markets. After a couple of months of having an online presence & a place to sell, we are starting to gain traction & more followers. After one year of selling at the flea market, my goal was to begin expanding but I could not do this alone & needed help. We grew into a small team & had brand ambassadors at several big flea markets in our area, as well as at popular craft markets & events.

As we grew popular, I wanted my brand to reflect growth as well. So the next steps we focus on spending more on brand awareness, and marketing & try to work on getting our products in front of more people, so we started joint ventures & wholesales. Our goal in this phase is to grow our audience & brand. After two successful years with markets & online presence, we wanted to take the next step in our business & have a place where our customers would come to visit us. This brings us to the current day, as of two weeks ago, we opened our first CBD mobile dispensary to allow us to be on the go & meet new customers.

Joshua , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a 29 year old former college athlete who loves to spend time outdoors on activities such as golf, basketball & fishing. I’ve started getting into the CBD industry from dealing with muscle aches, stress & anxiety. My business offers a variety of hemp/CBD products like infused candles, pain cream, full spectrum tinctures, hemp made book-bags, daytime & nighttime edibles, & more. The products we have are made to help people dealing will stress, anxiety, pain, & sleep issues. We have unique products that you won’t see in most stores to give everyone a chance to try out hemp/CBD. I am most proud of our mobile dispensary and I would want our customers to know we put a lot of time, research & trust in the products we chose to sell.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I am not a big fan of using business cards because I feel like you will forget where you placed them or goes in the trash. I’ve decided to start using digital business cards that will give all my information like website links, social media, & contact info. The service I used also allows them to sign up for my weekly email newsletter. This gives me a chance to keep my customers up-to-date on what’s happening & offer exclusive discounts on new or already purchased products.

We also started a reward program for our returning customer to earn points that can be used to get discounted items or free items.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are several books that I would recommend that impact my thinking & philiosohpy. Here’s a few -Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter – This helped me build my entrepreneurial mindset
-Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy – This book helped me grow my business to the next level
-Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear – This book helped me start healthy habits to bring consistency to my business

Contact Info:

• Website: smokingmirrorsclt.com
• Instagram: smokingmirrorsclt
• Facebook: Smoking Mirrors CLT

Image Credits
Glenn Hickman with Monumental Production LLC