We recently connected with Chloe Bee and have shared our conversation below.

Chloe, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
There’s a CVS on many street corners… open all the time, and I wanted to have an herbal apothecary in the highest rent district in the city of Tempe. Yep.. Familiarity with the word, “apothecary” evolved to be one of the biggest public / perception challenges for the first few years… Since I was obsessed with plants and botanical medicine already, I thought that perhaps more people knew about the basics of herbal self-care, looking to Earth for medication, and empowering themselves with health knowledge. That just wasn’t the case at all for the first five years I was in business. Then, all these shining stars, elders, influencers, team members, and loyal customers began trusting us. 10 years later, we exchange with hundreds of people from the Valley of the Sun that RELY on us for their source of medicine. It has been a huge risk to be present amongst nightclubs and general epic-centers of toxicity. That remains to be taxing on our staff. I chose to stay on Mill Avenue because herb folk, Earth people, whimsical healers, powerful diviners, plant whisperers and multi-media artists need to be seen in the mainstream. For so long, us knowledge-keepers have been marginalized, teased, demonized and misunderstood. Before the pandemic, we fostered countless regulars that came to us for addiction solutions, smoking herbs, organic kratom, blends to help with pain management and withdrawal from chemical substances and for public education classes on quirky herb-centric topics. During the pandemic and now, we are seeing an overall awakening of adoration towards naturopathic, integrative, esoteric, and Earth-based practices that surround herbalism. During the first 18 months of the pandemic, we were able to keep our doors open everyday with high volumes of requests for immune herbs, cough syrups, and interestingly… divination tools, crystals, vaginal steams.. things on the more mystical side. Why? People are truth-seeking. Veils have been lifted. More people are seeing into HOW they can CONNECT with TRUTH and LIGHT. Plants photosynthesize ALLLLL day and boast marvelous quantities of chlorophyll, minerals, and constituents that oxygenate the blood, move stagnation, and revitalize the senses. Humans want that. Deep down, I feel some people resist our shop when they walk by.. they laugh and keep walking with their beer or their ice cream (no judgement). What I see is a familiarity to chemical lies, modernity and convenience when people laugh at what we do. It’s a risk, but we are untouchable as herbalists. We are practicing ancient ways of health and wellness that is backed by thousands of years of benevolence and evidence. What I FEEL more and more now with Happy Healthy High Horny Herbs being so long-standing is a sense of openness, and straight up demand! We can’t keep some herbs in stock! The trends are in our favor now and people want to heal their roots through drinking roots. It’s fabulous!!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Rainbow Bliss Botanicals is a product line and crafted concept of super high-quality, fresh & small-batch teas, tinctures, salves, aromatherapy solutions and fun ritual-based amplification tonics like aphrodisiacs and dream blends. Rainbow Bliss Botanicals can be purchased online and in different retail locations throughout the West Coast and Hawaii. Happy Healthy High Horny Herbs hosts 100% of Rainbow Bliss Botanical’s remedies, but also carries hundreds of bulk single & organic herbs, clean CBD products, candles, eco-friendly gifts, local art from jewelry to paintings, and looooots of incense & resins. Through offering monthly addiction support circles held around the first of the month, and having a staff trained on addiction-soothing curative plants, we offer kratom, California poppy, mulungu, Mucuna, damiana, skullcap, kava kava, passionflower, and so many more powerful plants that help people reduce their dependency on alcohol and pharmaceutical pain medications. That is a deep passion of mine.. to help people get off of prescription drugs, or lower the list of drugs they take. Not only pain meds, but more so blood pressure, cholesterol, prostate, ADHD, depression, and anxiety medications. Superfoods, lifestyle, diet, and herbs can heal and reset patterns in the body. Fact. As for me, I run both companies with a sole ownership position where I work everyday answering calls, emails and planning ahead with vibrancy. The two managers of HHHHH also make medicine for the Rainbow Bliss Botanicals line. Shannon is the main woman in charge at the shop and behind the scenes making medicine. She is a graduate of Southwest Institute of the Healing Arts with a degree in herbal medicine. Connor is a self-taught specialist in nervines (herbs for nervous system health), mind-altering plants, inflammation management, and pharmacological synergy. Outside of the herb shop, I see clients 1-1 for full intake and resolution. This is an herbal consultation with a series of questions that help me paint a clear picture of goals and patterns in regards to a person’s constitution.  I do that (75-90 min) with a diagnostic focus on traditional Chinese medicine and Western Herbalism for a sliding scale $95-$150. From here, I create a protocol and custom formula of herbs and supplements for each person. We recently just hired four more herbalists, so our team just sprouted and each one of them presents a unique profile of wisdom from midwifery, to hormone balance to indigenous wisdom to wild-crafted in the Southwest. Come meet them!!!!

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
YES!!!!!! No doubt about it. I will keep learning and growing forever..

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Honestly, I would like to learn more about marketing and outreach.. but I feel word-of-mouth has been our most powerful tool. Once people leave jazzed, they tell their friends. Also, our location gets a lot of beautiful first-time browsers coming through, so that helps to spread the word and open their hearts towards alternative medicine.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rbbotanicals.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhealthyhighhornyherbshop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HappyHealthyHighHornyHerbsTempe
• Linkedin: other IG: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowblissbotanicals/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV-OpaEyisM9dUf2Co-ulA We do have our education channel about our blends and more – search: Happy Healthy High Horny Herbs
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/happy-healthy-high-horny-herbs-tempe-2
• Other: We are located at 609 S. Mill Avenue in Tempe. Open 11am-8pm..sometimes 9pm. Come meet us!

Image Credits
Headshot (first photo) : Tracy Wright Corvo Other images: Shannon Stapleton and Chloe bee