How to grow a business in challenging times: Pure Sport CBD

28 May 2021|Brand Story, Business Growth, Latest Posts

By Grayson Hart, Co-Founder of Pure Sport CBD. I started Pure Sport CBD alongside my friend and pro rugby teammate Adam. At the time we both benefited hugely from CBD and were able to replace pain killers, sleep better, recover from injuries quicker, feel more focused and less stressed. It really was a game changer, but the issue was no CBD brand in the world was certified as safe for drug tested professionals in sport and other careers that are drug tested. The industry was poorly regulated too so there were risks for all CBD consumers. There was a big gap in the market to provide very stringently lab tested and certified CBD.

Because we were desperate for it ourselves, we made it our mission as customers to find a solution, and then quickly turned to the idea of creating our own range because almost zero CBD brands in the world were providing this desired level of clarity.

We used our savings to create these products to be the best and to have the most stringent and clear cut lab testing around. We became the first brand in the world to have a full range of CBD products officially certified to be 100% safe and clean for drug tested professionals world wide.

Where this left us, however, was with the most premium and trusted CBD products available, but with no marketing budget and no actual experience between us on how to grow a business.

Thankfully our brand has grown from strength to strength and to a point that far exceeded both of our expectations. It has taken a huge amount of time, effort, problem solving (I have learned business should change its name to “Problem Solving” ) to get to where we are today and we have such a long way to go!

Here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way:

Be authentic:

Allow your own voice to come through. This took a while and was scary because we all have self doubt. We all try to sound and look like the big boys in business, but people appreciate and relate to realness. Everyone has got that bit of underdog in them. This does not mean you don’t take pride and have the highest of standards, but rather you allow your true voice, passion and commitment to come through the brand, and this makes striving for better easier.

People see through inauthenticity right away. We never tried to portray an image of being bigger than we were, we showed up to meetings and let people know we did not know the answers to some things and that we were not experts. People actually want to help you when you are humble enough to say ‘yes I really do need your help and expertise’.

Grayson Hart, Co-Founder of Pure Sport CBD

Passion:

When going through very challenging times where things just are not going to plan, the one thing you can always fall back on to keep you driven is the passion you have for the brand you are building. For Pure Sport, this was set on a solid foundation of knowing we had left no stone unturned to create products that were the best and most trusted. Even though we were the underdog with no budget! With this stellar product, we always wanted to push forward and see it through.

People:

Trust your intuition when it comes to who you bring onto the team. When you are hustling to get through the noise of a flooded market and you don’t have the cash of the big boys to stand out, you need to go into the trenches with those who will fight to progress the brand the way you will. Learn from people and appreciate their expertise, but just because they’re an expert and like your brand doesn’t mean they’re the right fit. When you are on to a winner, many people will want a piece of the pie and many believe that their past success or titles makes them a great candidate. But trust your instinct, what are they really bringing to the party? Are they backing themselves or is the risk all in your court if they don’t pull their weight. The ones that will hustle with you will be willing to back themselves from the start.

Build a brand over selling products:

Of course you want to sell products, that is your bread and butter, but the thing is how? The answer is in building a brand rather than just a product.

Building community around a lifestyle and sense of belonging has been essential to us. We have some amazing ambassadors who are essential to us. They are people that love the products and naturally and authentically represent us because they know who is behind the brand and they are part of the Pure Sport family. On this same note, our customers are seen as our number one ambassadors. We treat them with the respect and time of a key ambassador. The buy in and connection and word of mouth sharing we get from this is hugely valuable to us. Unfortunately, there is no quick hack for this. It’s all about your time, commitment and passion in every interaction, every piece of content, every email, every event. Sometimes this can be tiring, but if you believe in your products and you alway remind yourself how meaningful it is to humans to truly care and connect with them, you’ll find the motivation. Especially in challenging times like these, having this philosophy can keep you motivated and energised. If every customer feels helped, or a part of your community, then that’s a victory on the board.

Never forgetting why you started

Thankfully for us this is easy, we needed the amazing benefits of CBD but we could not trust what was out there so we created that for us and others. We have a genuine journey that continues to unfold and never forgetting why we started and having a team thats driven by the being part of the journey is essential.