Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Bustamante.
Hi Natalie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started using cannabis to heal my body after a lifetime of health issues. A back fracture at eleven years old left me dependent on pharmaceuticals to manage my pain. The pain killers I was prescribed had side effects that still affect me today. By the age of fifteen, I was taking 4-5 pills a day. My doctors kept prescribing pills to patch the holes that were slowly sinking my ship. I took a disabilities studies class when I was at school and did my final presentation on the pharmaceutical industry. My deep dive into the monster that is Big Pharma resulted in me telling all of my doctors that I wanted to stop taking every single pill. They all heavily advised against it.
A move to Asia changed my life. My health insurance would only give me three months worth of my pills and I had no return date in site. I slowly weaned off every pill before my move and I never looked back.
During the time I began to consider getting off my medications, I started learning about healing through food. I followed a vegan diet for almost a year and began introducing anti-inflammatory foods into every meal. When I first heard about CBD, I was already using cannabis. Cannabis had helped me manage a lot of symptoms I was dealing with like insomnia, anxiety and back pain. After reading about CBD for what felt like weeks, I had a lightbulb moment.
All of the benefits I was seeking in the cannabis plant were coming from the CBD and not the THC.
I moved back to Miami after living abroad to start working with CBD. I had no idea what I was doing and started ordering samples from all the major farms in the US. I found the farm I currently work with and went to visit them in Colorado to see the plants and lab in person.
Most brands on the market are private or white labeled. This means they are just adding a label to the product so most of the CBD we see on shelves is the same CBD with a different aesthetic. I decided I wanted to make my own unique recipe that stood out in such a saturated market.
A very long and painful year later, The Tonic was born. To my knowledge, we are still the first and only CBD that is water-soluble, nano-emulsified and diluted in water instead of oil. We now have a line of beauty products that are all infused with our proprietary recipe.
I get to help people feel better every single day and I can’t imagine a more fulfilling life. All of the health issues I went through are worth it when I read the testimonials from my customers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a female in cannabis has not been easy. It is a notoriously male-dominated industry and men are almost taken aback when they hear me talk about my product. I have had men question the science behind my product to my face, even though I have the lab testing to prove my claims. Manufacturing is an absolute disaster no matter your gender. Finding a manufacturer that was willing to make my recipe took many months. They were all nervous to put CBD through their machinery out of fear it could contaminate products they were manufacturing for other brands. Banks don’t give loans to cannabis businesses as we are considered “high risk”. We are put into the same category as casino’s. No one wanted to process my payments. It took six months to get approved for Square’s Beta CBD program.
My inventory had already arrived at this point after a year of tweaking our recipe, and I had thousands of units ready to be sold but none of the website platforms wanted my business. This is something all CBD businesses dealt with at the time, but all of our money was sitting in inventory that was slowly expiring. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I barely slept for six months because I thought we would never get approved to accept payments and that all of the money we invested in the inventory would all be for nothing. The cherry on the cake was definitely having to explain to the conservative Latino community in Miami that my CBD does not come from marijuana and that it will never get them high. The stigma around cannabis is changing but when I started my company people still didn’t really know what CBD was. I wouldn’t have survived the first year and a half of starting Vital Tonics without the support of my two best friends who had already started their own business and dealt with their fair share of struggles.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
To most, I am known as “NatyintheKitchen”. Even though I never ended up pursuing a career in the culinary world, my heart lies with food. On the weekends, I am usually cooking a meal for friends and taking pictures of vegetables at farmer’s markets.
I am also known as a cannabis advocate (duh) and someone who is kind of obsessed with healing through plants. Tell me a problem you are having with your body, like your hair falling out, and I will quickly recommend a natural product that can help. My friends, and strangers on the internet, treat me like a doctor. I get everything from pictures of rashes to calls from friends that need to be talked down from a panic attack. I joke that I became Miami’s therapist overnight because at least once a day someone will share their story with me. People will reach out on Instagram to tell me about their anxiety and what they think is causing it. The fact that people open up to me about something that as a society, we grew up hiding is one of the things that makes me insanely proud of myself. People find comfort in talking to me and the fact that I get to use a lifetime of health issues to help others is a gift and an honor. I still can’t believe I get to help people feel better for a living. I hope to be a spokesperson for mental health, natural healing and cannabis forever.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
My best friends are my mentors. Businesses owners that sell my brand have also become mentors. My best advice is to be humble and ask questions. I don’t have any shame in admitting I don’t know something and I always lean on my network of friends and mentors to help guide me when I am in doubt.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.shopvitaltonics.com
- Instagram: VitalTonics
