“5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Founded my Company” with Annie Rouse Co-Founder of Anavii Market

I had the pleasure of interviewing Annie Rouse is a serial entrepreneur in the hemp space including co-founder of Anavii Market, an online market for premium verified CBD and founder of the CBD brand Nature’s Hemp Oil. Annie recently published her podcast series, Anslinger: The untold cannabis conspiracy — an interview-narration style podcast highlighting Big Pharma’s role in cannabis prohibition analyzed from 10 years of archival research. She is Founder and President of the Kentucky-based non-profit, Friends of Hemp collaboratively working to approve hemp as an animal feed and is a published author. Annie earned a US Fulbright Scholarship to study hemp in Canada, received her BS in Economics from UK and holds a Masters in International Environmental Policy and an MBA. To explore more on Annie and her journey visit her blog, Think Hempy Thoughts.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was already in the hemp industry before forming Anavii Market, but I was embedded in the grain and fiber side and thought CBD was an over-blown market. But in 2015 I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme Disease, which is essentially a neurotoxin. So knowing that cannabinoids like CBD were known neuroprotectants, I thought I would test its effects. About 10 days after use, I realized that my overall well being improved, so I kept going. When I ran out, I tried another brand. At this point, I didn’t have the same experience. As I started to understand the CBD space, I realized the quality and consistency problems, which motivated me to take a step forward to resolve the issue. From there, Anavii Market was formed.

Can you share your story of Grit and Success? First can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

When we first started Anavii Market, the products we were selling were in a legal grey area, so it was very difficult to be taken seriously by investors and banks. It took a lot of educating to get local small business support which meant that we had to find unique ways to raise money, receive grants and obtain community support.

Now we still face troubles with banking so we’ve had to work in conjunction with the brands we retail and even some competitors to overcome banking hurdles. It is still a challenge, but fortunately these challenges are starting to loosen.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

This sounds funny, but I love Chinese food and oftentimes I would find motivation in fortune cookies.

So, how are things going today? How did Grit lead to your eventual success?

Today Anavii Market is on the up and up. We still face challenges, but we are moving into our growth phase as opposed to start up. We wouldn’t have made it to this phase without grit. The hemp industry and specifically the CBD industry has a TON of hurdles, so we had to really dig in, be patient, be creative and keep going. We know what we are doing is the right thing, so it makes it easy to stand behind and follow through.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Not sure if I can think of one… most of my mistakes were not very humorous. My dumbest mistake was forming a company that didn’t have real revenue yet late in the year, so I was nailed with taxes even though I didn’t really make anything. In retrospect, I should have waited, but I was so excited to form a business, I jumped the gun and it cost me $175 in taxes. Not a big deal now, but definitely a dumb mistake then.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We aren’t just any CBD retailer. We have a rigorous vetting process for the brands we decide to carry. Our promise is personal. It spurred from a poor experience that I had with CBD so we never compromise on quality. We don’t want to just sell CBD to the world, instead we provide the best quality CBD to those who need it with truthful information and exceptional customer service, because a customer’s success is our top priority.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

It’s important to remember that patience is the key even though everything feels urgent. I have found that oftentimes if you have to try to force something, it’s because it isn’t going to work. So if you find yourself forcing something, take a bird’s eye view and reassess, it might not be the right move.

If you need time to think, go out in nature, take a walk, get a fresh of breath air and don’t forget that when building a company the workload doesn’t ever end, so take time to step outside the office and have fun, it can often lead to better results when you return to the grind.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My business partner Jason has been essential in building Anavii and we wouldn’t be where we are without him. But outside the company, we received a grant early in our development from Bluegrass Angels and a fellowship from Awesome Inc out of Lexington, Kentucky. Both achievements provided substantial support in developing Anavii.

If you are looking to start a company, reach out to your community and find what kinds of opportunities are available for fellowships, grants, business plan and structure support and networking events.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Anavii Market’s tagline is “where wellness thrives” and it is true to the core of our business. We provide wellness and truthful information to the world on this increasingly confusing CBD market. The goodness we provide is quality, consistent health products that we know are effective in improving lives.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Don’t start a new company in December, wait until January so that you don’t have to file taxes for an entire year when you only operated in that year for one month.

Be humble, yet confident and listen to advice. Confidence is key to selling yourself, your idea, or your brand, but humility is just as important. You don’t know what you don’t know, so ask for advice, listen and be thankful.
Don’t let the government slow you down too much. If the CBD industry waited for the FDA to provide guidance on CBD as a food and supplement, we wouldn’t have a CBD industry.

Don’t forget to have fun. It may seem like everything is extremely urgent, but in reality, everything takes time. Prioritize what you need, check things off, but don’t forget to step outside the office, breathe, exercise and be you. It’s easy to forget or think you don’t have time, but worth it to get a fresh perspective.

If you are being told to go somewhere or do something, but you really don’t want to, get your butt up and go. The universe may be telling you something. You can’t capitalize on the future if you don’t make today happen. I can’t count how many times in the past I thought, “ugh… I don’t want to do this,” but from those very experiences, I have had tremendous outcomes. Don’t let the world pass you by, you’ve got to make things happen if you want to succeed.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I like to think I was part of both the hemp movement and the no-straw movement. Both of these tremendously impact a mass amount of people for the better because of the health impact associated with both. The next movement I’ve started to join is Lyme Disease Awareness because it is something I suffer from and so do thousands of others.

How can our readers follow you on social media? @anaviimarket @thinkhempythoughts

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!