We were lucky to catch up with Erin Morris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The goal to have the best CBD business in Colorado formed while I was recovering from a major traumatic accident. I fell while slot canyoneering off grid in Utah, breaking my leg and crushing my back. I downclimbed, crawled, scooted, and piggyback rode the remaining 7 miles to an exit point that I could not exit from. I was stuck. My partner made a rope bed, we put a water bottle between us to keep it from freezing, and then hunkered down and waited. Hoping for a rescue, not knowing if our friends had gotten out and found help or not. About 10 hours later a helicopter broke the canyon’s silence and landed, rescuing me.
After surgery and during recovery, I was relying heavily on CBD to help me sleep and to reduce inflammation. I had some experience with it in the past related to back issues. I thought that since I was living in Denver now I was at the source and could get a good quality, consistent, dependable supply of CBD. That wasn’t true! That efficacy waxed and waned. The quality was great when it was great, but I could not find a dependable brand.
I met my current partner during my recovery and he started bringing over jars of CBD from a friend’s farm. It was consistently good and it was better than anything I had ever had before. This was my AHA moment – I realized I needed to start this business to offer a consistent, dependable, great quality CBD to those who truly need it to heal and manage chronic pains and issues.

Erin, 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’m an artist and graphic designer who spent a decade living in Costa Rica before coming to Denver. While in Costa Rica, I was living amongst some of the most amazing healers and had access to ideas and methodologies for healing that were not normal back in the US. I think this exposure gave me the tools to know how to help heal myself the best I could without always having to succumb to strong prescription drugs. Some of those methods include meditation, yoga, massage, things as simple as grounding my bare feet into soil, and of course CBD.
I want people to know I’m dedicated to the quality of our product because I care about other people’s quality of life and I use our product myself. I only want the best of the best for me, and the best of the best for them.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We sell on our own site using WooCommerce and WordPress. This choice was made by me and it was a really easy choice. I run a design agency and have helped many clients make the ecommerce choice, so I didn’t even really need to think about it. The advantages of WooCommerce are that you own all your content, you can be super creative in the look and user experience, it’s low cost (since I’m a designer) which aligns with our bootstrapped business choice, and it’s easy to integrate with other platforms while growing the business. I wouldn’t always recommend WordPress for startups since there is a hefty upfront cost and then a monthly maintenance fee. It’s a great solution if the client wants customization, but if their sales process is simple then it’s not necessary upfront UNLESS they have a budget to build it.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My business partner and I are both running other businesses (service based), so this CBD business is a pet project, or side hustle. We laugh at this because it’s not your average side hustle, it’s not easy! Learning how to manufacture, adhere to FDA guidelines, pay the right taxes, and do basic things like assemble and ship off orders etc has been a huge learning curve! One of those learning curves is where the heck to get customers. We initially thought we would do well wholesaling in markets outside of Colorado since the CBD industries there are not saturated like they are here. Well, we were wrong – those customers require more education and exposure than we have the time for right now and the store owners see $15 gas station CBD and want that same “deal”.
So we pivoted. We upped our SEO game and now have some pretty incredible customers all over the US that are buying directly from our website. We also have benefitted from local customers who just so happen to be seeking the same thing I was – a dependable source for CBD in Colorado.
We do some markets and festivals, but mostly to test out marketing strategies and get live feedback on the product. Our main source comes from Google (and we’re slowly building by word of mouth now, too!).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://milehighcitycbd.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milehighcitycbd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MileHighCityCBD/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@milehighcitycbd