We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Megan Lyman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Megan, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
our story
Cannibabe is a California-based, female owned CBD company dedicated to creating high quality products made with quality ingredients.
Cannibabe products are handmade, gelatin free and vegetarian grade for simple digestion.
Each product is carefully handmade by our official Cannibabe team. Lots of love in each order!
Hemp is making a comeback of global proportion, many calling it the “miracle plant”.
Pure CBD oil extraced straight from the natural source – the American hemp plant. All natural!
about the ceo/founder
megan lyman
I was born and raised in the northeast in the small town of Gilford, New Hampshire. I grew up easily spending most of my time outside in the dirt playing with the neighborhood kids.
When I was 12 years old, my entire family was taken by surprise when I was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular cancer in my right shoulder. During my three-year battle with this rare cancer, there were many moments when I questioned “why me?” or “how does this happen?” I didn’t understand my life’s purpose yet, but at a very young age my strength and resilience was tested and I knew nothing other but to hold on and push through. After a three year up battle and mentally over coming life’s biggest fear, death, I received some good news. At the age of sixteen, my tumor was pronounced as benign, I had the opportunity to move on with my life, cancer free. I made a promise to myself then that I would live my life to the fullest potential, never saying no to opportunities and that I had a true passion to help people who are suffering.
As a young teenage girl with a new outlook on life, I began advocating for many nonprofit organizations that had supported my family through the years while I was ill. Years later, I was crowned Miss New Hampshire 2012 which not only funded my college education but offered me an opportunity to share my platform and my passion to serve my community. The year as Miss NH also allowed me the opportunity to partner with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and spread advocacy about the amazing work they do for kids suffering with life threatening medical conditions. I was lucky enough to have my Wish granted when I was 16 years old.
After my years of pageantry, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Education from New England College. With future plans to be an elementary school teacher, I knew my heart searched for a way to help people on a larger scale, something I knew was going to be bigger than myself and was going to take years to completely figure out what my future had in store for myself. Post-graduation, I followed my heart to Tampa, Florida in search of my dreams and chasing the sunshine. I spent years working hard for other people and being thrown into the ringer psychically, mentally and emotionally.
I found myself diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Ulcerative Colitis is in the Crohn’s Family – it’s a very nasty intestinal inflammation issue due to poor alkaline diet that is becoming more and more prevalent. After being approached with many western medication routes to health, I quickly had flashbacks to my youth. Spending so many years of my life on medications, in and out of Boston Children’s Hospital, years spent over medicated, I knew a western medication treatment plan was not an option for me. After seeking a more holistic treatment option, I discovered the Florida Cannabis Coalition. I quickly joined the group to learn as much as possible, which being my journey of understanding the Cannabis plant.
My discoveries led me to a complete lifestyle change. In October 2017, I moved to the West Coast where I could legally pursue the holistic healing I knew my body needed. Three months after my move, I found a woman who had been treating patients using high doses of CBD and THC. Two months of treating myself oral and with suppository treatments, along with a strict diet and, my health had completely changed. My love for the plant grew that much more and I knew I had found my life’s calling. By that point, I had started working as the doctors’ personal assistant. I was quickly exposed to the truth behind a plant – opposite of the negative stigma cannabis has. I was introduced to hundreds of other people like myself, using cannabis to heal. People who had failed attempts at their bodies excepting Western medicine and were looking for answer holistically. The knowledge I have learned is too good not to share. It has been an amazing opportunity to educate so many people in California but my brain has always been working on a bigger plan. I created Cannibabe™ with the mission to teach and educate people about the cannabis plant.
Megan, 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?
once CBD became federally legalized, I saw an influx of companies start producing products. from everything I had learned about healing the body naturally, the one take away for me was, INGREDIENTS MATTER! I saw these companies launching CBD tinctures made with hard oils and synthetic ingredients & CBD gummies contains sugar, artificial food coloring and gelatin…are ingredients that create inflammation in the body. With everything I had learned via the struggles I went through, I saw it as my new mission to start creating CLEAN simple ingredient CBD products for people like me, who were truly trying to heal themselves using the benefits of CBD and not so much using it because it was recently trending. It has been my mission since 2018, starting with just one product to know offering eight products, ALL made with simple ingredients your body craves, high amounts of CBD with the power to heal!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I started Cannibabe in October 2018 before federal legalization in December 2018. Since day 1 we have faced discrimination from marketing our product, still to this current day from Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. with the title that we are a “drug” because the lack of education around CBD on social media platforms. We have been shut down from three major processing companies for over a total of 30 days, and most recently in August 2023, because of “health claims” made by customers that have seen major benefits from using our products. And lastly, we have fought our way through most CBD companies who 1) white label their products and sells whatever the cheapest wholesale product they can get or 2) market their product as “CBD” (taking advantage of the lack of regulation in the industry) when in fact their products are made with Hemp Seed Oil/Cannabis Sativa Hemp Seed Oil – uneducated consumers try these products, they don’t work in the ways they’ve been promised and then these consumers believe CBD doesn’t work from them when Seed Oil is in fact extracted from the seed of the hemp plant and CBD is extracted from the grown bud of the plant, providing a HUGE difference in potency!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Keeping our business alive through the Pandemic, we had to make a huge shift. We knew we had a product that could really help people through the tough time, but we also knew there was a huge uncertainty for a lot of people in the future of their work and income. We offered an insane sale almost immediately in March 2020 and did everything we possibly could as far as outreach and provide education to our customers that we were there to help and sincerely wanted to help. We also were offering next day shipping, which for a small CBD company, a team of 2 at the time, that manufactures, produces and ships all orders, we were working 14 hour days for a few months but we knew it was what was necessary at the time and I am so happy to saw it not only helped us grow into the brand we are told but connected us that much closer with our customer base and gave them the comfort that we truly care about their well being.
Contact Info:
- Website: cannibabe.com
- Instagram: @officialcannibbabe
- Linkedin: [email protected]
- Other: please reach out to us at [email protected] we’re extremely passionate about what we do and LOVE to share Cannibabe!
Image Credits
Damion Lloyd Photography