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

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I’m Stephanie Curtis, an entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. My journey hasn’t been pretty, but my view and outfit usually is! When I was 21 years old, I packed up my stuff and drove from a small town in Upstate New York to Los Angeles with my best friend and her dog, Daisy. I initially moved to pursue a career as a fashion stylist, but life took me in another direction. I had gotten an internship for a fashion firm in DTLA that obviously wasn’t paid, so I needed a job to pay that LA rent! I applied to a hundred jobs and eventually got a call back from a dispensary that was oddly enough 4 minutes away from where I was living. I went in for an interview and got the job on the spot. I always joked I was living two lives, assisting on editorial shoots during the week and working with pounds of weed on the weekends.

My father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease when I was 15 years old. As I was working at the dispensary and dealing with medical patients on a regular basis, I began learning everything about the plant. I started using what I learned and applying it towards my Dad. My day to day would include steaming vintage Alaïa and running around to showrooms in LA one day, and the next, in a lab coat getting dirty and learning about the plant from the source. The grow room taught me as much as the showroom, but eventually I began spending most of my days in the soil.

I believe life will bring us exactly where we are meant to be. With that being said, opportunities began to fall in my lap in the plant medicine world and once I committed myself to the world of holistic healing it was clear I was acting in alignment with my purpose.

In the cannabis space, there is no blueprint. Back in 2014, we didn’t use resumes. We weren’t even allowed to use banking systems! All of us in the space were ultimately the pioneers, creating our own lanes. Laws and regulations changed on the daily, which meant to be in that space, you had to learn to be like water, fluid. Adapt and navigate. It taught me a lot of out of the box approaches that 10 years later, I am now using in my business practices.

Stephanie, 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 Stephanie Curtis, an entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. After ten years of forging my own path, which to this day my mother still says “I don’t know what to tell people that you do for a living”, I have a pretty cool eco-system going on. I am not the type of person who is able to do a 9-5 job for another company, I have done it and paid my dues, but it is not for me. It was a goal of mine to create a life I ultimately enjoyed and felt fulfilled in my day to day. I currently have a lifestyle wellness brand called UMORÉ, which means mood in Italian. Combining my plant knowledge with my stint of going to cosmetology school, I began formulating my own products back in 2018 in my North Hollywood kitchen. Now, I have three labs I work with throughout the country, I am relaunching my brand this spring with a new lineup of products, an even deeper connection my what my mission is with this brand. And the mission remains, to help others find their real cool mood. The products we are launching are a CBD recovery topical, a Tallow Balm for the skin and body, and functional mushroom and CBD dog treats. (I am a big dog lover, animal lover in general!)

I am a minor partner in a cannabis company called TICAL. For our day to day, I do a lot of our marketing, creative work, and honestly wear whatever hat I need to wear. We started off as a small team of 5 boot strapping the company working off sweat equity, to now being in 11 different states with a team in each state.

Lastly, I opened a holistic dog training business in the San Fernando Valley. After going through a serious health scare back in 2022, the opportunity fell in my lap and I knew as I was going through my own rebirth and healing journey, being around animals would be something my soul needed. I went back to school to learn the ins and outs and it’s something that never feels like a job.
*Add dog bumper sticker “I didn’t save them, they saved me” here

I love having my hands in a few different projects, but ultimately they are all rooted in some sort of holistic healing. I believe that is why I am here, to be a vessel for knowledge, whatever that means.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Back in 2022, I went through a severe health scare. I literally almost died, had to learn to walk again, and lost half of my hair. It changed me to my core. I spent a month by myself in the hospital, trying to understand what on Earth was going on. I was scared and felt like my life was over. I felt like I had so much more to do in my life. The doctors told me I would need pharmaceutical treatment for the rest of my life. Once I got out of the hospital, I spent the next few months at my parents recovering. Eventually when I was able to get up on my own, I would practice walking to the bottom of the driveway and back. That was my life for a few months. I was completely stripped of everything I ever knew. I began to remind myself of how magical and powerful our bodies are and how we can overcome anything. I put focus on the inner dialogue that I was having with myself and told myself on a daily basis I was going to defy the odds. I began to tap back into the arsenal of knowledge and resources I had in the holistic healing space. I took things into my own hands. Now, as I type this, I am a different type of beast. I had no idea the strength, courage, and dedication that was within myself even existed.

A few things here. I believe I had to go through this, to be a voice to show how capable we are as humans to defy the odds. I see myself in such a different light now. It also was a testament to myself to practice what I preach. I learned so much about how to heal the human body for my dad and others, and now it was time for me to put that knowledge into use. One of the healers I work with said to me “They wouldn’t believe you if you didn’t have to go through it yourself.” And that stuck with me.

I went from learning to walk again with a walker to now playing soccer on a weekly basis. When I was told I wouldn’t be able to be as active, I decided I was actually going to learn a new sport. I will never allow someone else to put limitations on me. I now welcome challenges with open arms. I like to say I could probably take on a Great White Shark at this point, but I’d prefer to do that from a cage on vacation instead!!!

Have you ever had to pivot?

2018. For those who work in Cannabis, we all know this year changed the trajectory of everything. This is the year that cannabis went recreational. While this seems like a “positive” thing, it really was ultimately the downfall for a lot of companies. Prior to 2018, most brands ran things in-house with their teams, like that company I had been with. We were all a family, we even had our own team in a softball league on Wednesday nights. Our team worked so well together and had our systems down to a T. When the regulations changed, we did not have a distribution license, therefore we had to hire a distribution company. One thing after another, our company began completely plummeting, as we began having to outsource companies to work for us to comply with the new laws. I’ll never forget it. Our whole team got laid off in one day. The company could no longer sustain itself. It was honestly heartbreaking. All of our lives changed. Thankfully my dad had taught me to save money, so I had a cushion. Instead of freaking out I decided to go to Paris and London, get inspired, and come back and start my own brand.

I had gained a lot of knowledge and people were constantly reaching out to me for recommendations on health and wellness related things. I thought to myself, I am always recommending other people’s brands, why don’t I just start my own? This was the beginning of UMORÉ. On a side note, that wasn’t the original name of the brand. I had to change it due to a copyright issue with the first name. UMORÉ was inspired by my old blog, In a Real Cool Mood, which was pretty much a mood board of my life in blog format writing about holistic wellness, fashion, and whatever else tickled my fancy.

I try to welcome the unknown with open arms as opposed to fear. None of us make it out alive anyways, so go for it. I also always believe things happen FOR us, not to TO us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.umorethelab.com (currently under construction for relaunch)
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/stephcurtis & www.instagram.com/umorethelab

Image Credits
Personal Photos