Adapt: To adjust oneself to different conditions or environments

From the Founder:

Throughout my life, a word that has resonated with me and continues to be very fitting is Adapt – particularly over the last 10 years. Nine years ago, in 2013, I was playing college football at Oregon State as a quarterback.  That fall/spring, my junior year, I tore my shoulder badly after getting hit in practice. After surgery, I was dealing with a lot of pain and inflammation management, so I started using CBD and hemp products as part of my recovery. What I noticed quickly was that when I stopped using opioids and switched to natural remedies like cannabinoids, I recovered a lot faster. I was back throwing in 2 ½ months as opposed to 3-4 months.  

During this time, I was beginning to realize that there were natural alternatives to synthetic supplements, synthetic beverages, and protein powders that the body doesn't necessarily process well. I was also concerned about the addictive quality of opioids, which we now know is a huge epidemic. That’s another reason why I started using hemp products throughout the healing process. Back then, my experience with hemp products was nothing but positive, and it has been ever since.  

Playing football beyond college was not in the cards for me, so after graduating, I moved back to California to work for the family business – Maui and Sons, a California lifestyle brand that promotes clean living, eating well, and being active. After working in marketing and e-commerce for the company, one of my friends who had retired from the NFL was interested in getting into the cannabis space. We looked at grow-op opportunities but realized that it would be very difficult to raise capital for a venture like that. Even though that idea went by the wayside, I was still enthralled with the cannabis space and wanted to figure out how get involved.   

Some of my mentors and advisors suggested that I create a product for athletes. At the time, I had been taking a superfoods powder and started looking more into the combination of superfoods and hemp. The first products I made were two CBD-infused superfoods powders in single-serve stick packs.  At the same time, my dad, being the entrepreneur that he was, had a coconut water business as part of the Maui and Sons portfolio. I pitched him the idea of doing a hemp-infused coconut water, but he insisted that I do it myself since he didn’t know much about the hemp space.  

When one door closes, you need to figure out what the next opportunity is and not be afraid to step through an open door. 

I took my dad’s advice and decided to create my own company. In January of 2020, I launched the first Adapt Brands beverage, and we started selling them in some Gold’s Gyms and some yoga studios in Los Angeles, but those sales stopped with Covid and gym closures. This gave me time to reformulate my beverage and reassess my approach to the market. That spring, I had to figure out how to adjust to the situation and come up with a new product that would fit the needs of consumers today, while sticking to the business’ core mission. 

The word Adapt just kept emerging in my life, and it made sense for what I wanted to accomplish. 

In the nine years since my shoulder injury, I’ve learned to be open to what is around me. You have to adapt to be able to compete and move on. During COVID, we saw a lot of businesses shutter because they couldn’t adjust or pivot to what was going on around them. You not only have to be able to change your organizational structure and your procedures, but you might have to change your products as well. I believe that any movement forward, whether it’s an inch or a mile, shows progress. 

The fun thing about being an entrepreneur is that every day there is a new challenge or a fire to put out. I like working hard; I always have. My dad always told me that if you take care of your business, it will take care of you. This is a time when I can afford to put in all my time and effort into the brand and go after what I have wanted this company to be for the last few years. 

So why bring a blog to the Adapt website?

Education is incredibly important to me – it always has been – and I’ve learned a lot about functional ingredients through reading, research, conversation, and collaboration with other people including business colleagues. When it comes to hemp and CBD, consumer education is critical. There are so many people who are curious about CBD and its purported health benefits; I get questions all the time from friends, acquaintances, business owners and athletes who want to know more but don’t know where to find good information. 

My goal with Adaptations, our blog, is to explore questions that consumers have about functional ingredients, as well as introduce them to Adapt Brand athletes and retailers who carry our product. I want to share why I pursued NSF: Safe for Sport certification, and how people can manage pain without taking opioids. Ultimately, what I want consumers to realize is that there are better alternatives out there for what ails them, alternatives for products that we are told we should take but that are actually more harmful than helpful. If you have topics you are curious about or questions you’d like answered, send us a message and we’ll at it to the list! I’m excited to share content with you, content I hope you will find educational, informative, and interesting.