Enjoy the CBD for Massage: Improve Client Satisfaction and Business Revenue webinar.
Webinar Transcription
Karen: Hello and welcome to CBD for Massage Improve Client Satisfaction and Business Revenue, a webinar presented by CBD Clinic and “MASSAGE Magazine.” I’m Karen Minahan, the editor of “MASSAGE Magazine” and I’m joined today by naturopathic doctor, Jen Palmer, and licensed massage therapist, Pamela Heavner. Jen Palmer is the Director of Education for Charlotte’s Web, a CBD industry pioneer. She is a naturopathic doctor with 20 years of experience in the dietary supplement industry and integrative medicine profession. Pamela Heavner is a massage therapist with almost 20 years of experience providing hands-on therapy. She is the owner of Proactive Massage & Bodywork where she and her staff help clients manage chronic and acute pain through medical massage therapy. Dr. Jenn and Pamela will cover many topics related to CBD and a massage practice in this webinar, and you’re welcome to type your questions into the Q&A box, and we’ll get to those during the webinar. So, I’ll hand it over now to Pamela and Dr. Jen. Welcome.
Dr. Jen: Thank you so much, Karen. And I just want to extend a thank you to Pamela for joining us today. I’m Dr. Jen, I’m the Education Director at Charlotte’s Web and CBD clinic. And it’s been a real pleasure to work on this project with Pamela, she’s got a wealth of information, I think you’re going to be really interested in, both about clinical information and how to help build your business, which I think is really super important during this time. Thank you everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us. And I just want to give you a quick overview of what we’re going to cover today. First of all, we’re going to talk about the endocannabinoid system. You may have heard that term but maybe not quite familiar with how it works. So, we’re going to talk about how it works within the mind and the body and the skin especially, and we’re going to talk about how endocannabinoid deficiency can be a problem. And then Pamela is going to jump in on part two, and she’s going to talk to you about how she incorporates CBD, and menthol, camphor topicals into her massage treatments very successfully. And she’s going to share some case studies, which I think is always super interesting when you’re a practicing massage therapist. And then she’s going to talk about those income opportunities that I referenced earlier. And we’ll be taking questions at the end, of course, so please feel free to type them into the chat feature as we go along or you can do that at the end. But we’ll take all the Q & A’s at the end. Thank you.
So, first of all, this endocannabinoid system. Modern medicine is still learning about our bodies, believe it or not, this endocannabinoid system wasn’t actually fully discovered until the 1990s, which I really find hard to believe because it is considered the master switchboard of our body. So, it’s so important, yet we really didn’t know anything about it until very recently. And I find it interesting that even now, medical and pharmacy schools are not teaching about this super important human system, and I think because there’s a little bit of bias against cannabis and cannabis compounds work on this system, and so the schools have been really hesitant to talk about it. There was a 2017 survey which was published and it found that only 17% of medical schools were even mentioning this endocannabinoid system, which I find astounding because this is just not some theory, or it’s not some questionable thing, it’s absolutely we are 100% certain that this exists and I find it dumbfounding that the doctors are not talking about it in medical school. Whoops. Sorry about that. And so when we discovered the endocannabinoid system, this was back in the 1960s, we got some hints of it. This was when the National Institute of Drug Abuse was researching how THC works and on the brain. And this was on animal brains, and as they were doing some testing, they realize, “Oh, the brain works a little bit differently than we assumed.” And so then in the ’80s, a university researcher discovered that the endocannabinoid receptors, which are part of the ECS existed in the brains of mice. And then by the 1990s, scientists were realizing, ‘Hey, this is present in all living beings, except perhaps not in insects,” but I think that’s still to be determined.
Raphael Mechoulam is a name you might be familiar with. He was that Israeli or he is that Israeli scientist who pioneered cannabis research. And he is quoted as saying there’s barely a biological or physiological system in our bodies in which these endocannabinoids do not participate. So, obviously, it’s extremely important. So, what does science really tell us about this ECS or endocannabinoid system? Well, we know that it’s the master switchboard and it helps create balance throughout all of the body. It intersects with all the systems of our body, and that’s why we call it the master switchboard. And so these receptors can be found in our immune system, our cardiovascular system, our nervous system, endocrine system, everywhere. It really helps create balance within all of these systems to help maintain homeostasis. Researchers will summarize the ECS being tasked with these really basic functions such as relaxing, eating, sleeping, forgetting, and protecting, and we will talk about those a little more as we get into this. So, how does this ECS system actually work? Well, they are these endocannabinoids, which our body makes, and these are chemical compounds, kind of like hormones or neurotransmitters, and they resemble the plant source cannabinoids that the cannabis and hemp plant makes. So, these endocannabinoids, they’re produced from fatty acids. So, that’s a really good reason why we want to encourage our clients to get enough good fats in the diet, such as Omega-3 fats from fish.
So, these endocannabinoids, they are produced really rapidly on-demand in response to things going on outside of our body, such as stress, or pain, or heat and it helps bring about balance throughout whatever system is out of balance. And these endocannabinoids, they don’t last very long in the body, they are made very quickly on-demand, and then they exist just long enough to create balance. And then these enzymes called FAAH, they help degrade these endocannabinoids really quickly, so we’re only getting them in short spurts. And that’s a little bit different than when you’re taking the cannabinoids from plants, like, hemp, that’s going to last in your system for 8 to 10 hours. So, we’ll talk a little bit in a minute about how to support the production of these endocannabinoids in our body. So, because these ECS receptors, they intersect with all these other systems in the body, we know that cannabinoids and endocannabinoids are playing a really important role in our health and well being. For example, the endocannabinoid system moderates inflammation, and neurotransmitter production, they’re neuroprotective, they support gastrointestinal balance and even the immune system. So, in my opinion, the presence of these receptors really shows us that our bodies were designed to use these cannabinoids, whether they were from the plants such as cannabis, or whether they’re from the endocannabinoids that our body makes.
So, these endocannabinoids that I referred to, these are the two main ones, anandamide and 2AG. I love the term anandamide because it’s known as the bliss molecule, and that’s because it has this nice effect on our mood and really makes us feel like that happy contented feeling. Anandamide might also help support brain development and cognition, and it also helps in the formation of memories. But part of its role is to bring about balance is by helping the brain avoid excessive memories of traumatic events, which is really important because if we didn’t have that function, we could be actually paralyzed by a flood of negative memories, and that would put us in protective mode all the time. So, it’s good to have a balance and actually forget some of those negative things so that we can function properly. There’s some research that shows that anandamide has some beneficial anti-inflammatory properties. It can help support the heart and our cardiovascular system, it balances metabolism, and it also can help reduce that perception of pain and give us a sense of positive mood and reward. There’s some interesting animal research that kind of demonstrates how anandamide works. In this study, they suppress the anandamide production in the mice, and then they put them under stressful conditions. And what they found was they experienced a lot more symptoms of anxiety, as compared to when the researchers allowed them to produce anandamide that helped balance out that stress and give them better coping mechanism. So, this really reinforces the idea that if we don’t make enough anandamide in our bodies, which is completely possible, that can really influence our well-being and our mental health.
And then this 2AG has a lot of similar properties as anandamide, but it also helps regulate energy metabolism and inflammation in anxiety and depression. And it’s also been shown to increase when our brain has some sort of traumatic injury. So, it appears that this 2AG has a function of being neuroprotective and protecting the brain. So, these ECS receptors, they are similar to another system such as the hormonal system, we have locks & keys. So, these locks think of them as the receptors and there’s CB1 and CB2 receptors, and they connect with the keys, which we’ll call the cannabinoids, such as the endocannabinoids, or the phytocannabinoids from cannabis. And so when this key unlocks attached directly or interact indirectly, this will trigger a specific action and that overall is going to create better balance. So, there’s a variety of different cannabinoid receptors in the body, but the CB1 and CB2 are the most well-known ones and the most well researched. So when these keys or cannabinoids are deficient, the system can break down and we end up with a cannabinoid deficiency. And just like when we have a vitamin D deficiency, we know that we get a lot of health problems from that, the same thing applies to these endocannabinoids. So, the CB1 and CB2 receptors are both found throughout the entire body, but CB1 are really concentrated in the brain and the spinal cord to the central nervous system, whereas the CB2 think of them as more peripheral. They’re in the peripheral nervous system, the immune system, our digestion is rich in them, and in the organs such as a heart and kidneys and lungs. So, like I said, they are everywhere.
So, these endocannabinoids that our body makes, they also bind to some other receptor which are not technically thought of as the ECS. Some of them are neurotransmitter receptors, actually. So ,we have serotonin receptors called 5-HT, GABA receptors the endocannabinoids work with and that gives us a calming effect, and then some of these pain receptors such as the TRP, and there’s a wide variety of TRP receptors. And so other neurotransmitters also interact with these receptors. So, this is just another way to show us that the endocannabinoid system really intertwines with all these other systems of our body. And if you’ve used the CBD Clinic products, you know, they’re very rich in the menthol and camphor and those are really important terpenes that we should talk about. These are over the counter, FDA approved ingredients, natural ingredients, and we find that they work on these TRP receptors, and they help mediate sensations of pain and temperature. We know that menthol is a natural analgesic and anesthetic, and it comes from the mint family, and it’s going to be really soothing for aches and pains. It’s also known as a counter-irritants, and menthol interacts with specific receptor sites in our nervous system. These are those TRP channels, and these are nerve receptors that are involved with our perception of temperature. And because of their famous association with menthol, they even go by the name cold and menthol receptors. So when you use these in a topical cream, the menthol creates a very cooling sensation on the skin. In reality, it’s not lowering the temperature, what it’s doing is interacting with these TRP nerve receptors to give that cooling sensation, and also they cause vasodilation. So, by increasing the blood flow to the area can have a cooling effect as well. There’s a lot of research on menthol. One of the studies from 2014 found that topical menthol significantly reduced pain intensity among people who have carpal tunnel syndrome, and, you know, that’s a very difficult condition to treat and get relief from so that’s very significant. The way that menthol works is it penetrates the stratum corneum of the skin and interacts with the network of nerves that are embedded in the skin’s dermal and epidermal junction and those really reach close to the skin’s surface and so the TRP receptors are able to interfere with the pain signal sent to the brain and menthol can really alter those responses and our interpretation of pain.
Camphor’s very similar. It has anti-inflammatory properties, both of these are USFDA approved over the counter drugs for being topical analgesics and anesthetics. There was another study done on camphor and menthol product combined and it found that they were effective at relieving mild to moderate pain and inflammation when applied to the skin several times a day for about two weeks. And in another study we saw that camphor itself was effective at relieving back pain. Camphor also has anti-inflammatory properties, and that was shown in an arthritis study in animals. So, it’s really good to rub on the muscles and it can help with cramps and spasms. So, we talked about the endocannabinoid system throughout the whole body and how it creates balance, but also the skin has kind of its own little ecosystem of this endocannabinoid system. And so the CB1 and CB2 receptors I mentioned previously, they are found throughout all these dermal layers. So, they are part of the sensory nerves, they’re found in the sweat glands. You’ll see them in the immune system of the skin, and you’ll find them in the epidermis and the keratinocytes, and also in the sebaceous glands and hair follicles. So that means that this is where endocannabinoids can have activity. Another cool thing in the skin, we make these endocannabinoids, 2AG and the anandamide, and so that’s produced in the hair follicles and the sebaceous glands and the epidermis. So, you can see you have this whole little microcosm of the endocannabinoid system. So, what does that mean? So, the ECS is involved in a lot of cutaneous functions by regulating keratin cell growth and differentiation and the immune and inflammatory responses in the skin layers. So, you can imagine if the ECS is dysregulated and not functioning properly in the skin, there could end up with different skin diseases. And it has been shown to be altered in people who have conditions like fibrosis or allergic contact dermatitis. So, in addition to the CB1 and CB2 receptors, the ECS interacts with the TRP receptors and those nerve endings and so that helps modulate pain and itching sensations.
So, what does ECS do in the skin? Well, it’s in the hair follicle so it helps with hair growth and regulating and balancing. So, if the ECS there is dysregulated, you might end up with alopecia, not enough hair, or hirsutism, having too much hair, both sides of imbalance. It regulates the sebaceous secretions and inflammation. So, when it’s dysregulated, you might end up with acne, too much oil, or dry skin. If it regulates the keratinocytes and cell proliferation, and it can be found when it’s dysregulated, it may end up with psoriasis or atopic dermatitis. And it also supports wound healing, and it can help differentiate the arrangement of the keratinocytes and so that it decreases scar tissue formation. It also can be really helpful for decreasing pain sensations, and so if your body is not making enough endocannabinoids in the skin, you might have chronic pain sensations and sometimes even not knowing where those are coming from. So, the endocannabinoid system as I’ve explained really supports balance. So, what is happening when we have endocannabinoid imbalance? Well, there’s a lot of just common lifestyle things that can impact the system. Chronic stress being one of the top things and this is something that we’re seeing a lot these days, of course, during the time of COVID, and the success of stress is actually interfering with those endocannabinoid receptors and the endocannabinoid production. Alcohol, we are turning to that a little bit more to decrease our stress, but unfortunately, that’s having some impact on the endocannabinoid production and even those receptors. Although, one of the things that they did find was that drinking a little wine in moderation actually supports endocannabinoid production, so there’s a silver lining there.
And then being exposed to environmental toxins can interfere with the endocannabinoid production, particularly pesticides and phthalates are terrible. Phthalates are those plasticizers. So, getting your clients to eat good organic whole food diets is another way we can support endocannabinoid system function. And some things that we can do to increase or boost this endocannabinoid production is reducing stress and helping people with coping mechanisms so that that stress doesn’t impact it so much. Meditation is a really great strategy, exercise is super important,moderate exercise mainly. And you’ve probably heard of runner’s high, we’ve always said that that’s endorphin production that makes us feel really good afterwards, and that’s true, but also they’ve discovered that anandamide is increased during exercise and that helps contribute to that bliss or runner’s high that we get to have that really calming and happy sensation that we get from exercise. Massage is also a great way to boost endocannabinoid production, so really great thing to let your clients know that you’re doing that for them and that’s why we get that blissed-out feeling when we walk away from our massage. And then acupuncture is also supportive of this. And of course, if we’re not able to increase the production of our endocannabinoids sufficiently, we can always add in CBD and hemp extracts, both internally and to the skin, which is what you find in our massage oils. So next, I’d like to have Pamela jump in and talk to you first about how to incorporate CBD into your practice and a little bit of statistics with that. So, thank you, Pamela, for being here, and go ahead and jump in.
Pamela: All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Palmer, that was really some great information about CBD. And I’d also just like to thank everybody else for taking the time to be here today to learn a little bit more about using CBD in your practice. I know we’ve had tremendous success with CBD when it comes to pain management for our clients. So I’m really excited to share this with you and kind of see if this might be something you’d want to consider adding into your practice. So, first, let’s just take a look real quick about, at some statistics, and let’s see what it says about our industry and its role in pain management. So, we looked at the 2019, AMTA consumer survey, and the 2019 YouGov survey. And there are the state that an average of 24% of consumers have received a massage from a massage therapist in the past year. So, if you’d like to think of that number more on a personal level, if you look at where I live in the State of Virginia, we have a population of over 230,000 people in Richmond. So, using that statistic, then that would mean that an average of over 55,000 people in my community last year received a massage. So, that’s really over 1,000 clients a week looking for a massage. And according to the same surveys, the primary reason that people were receiving a massage was for health and wellness reasons. I think we’re on the next screen. And 58% of the consumers had a massage for relaxation or stress management. I know in my clinic, and I’m sure you guys have probably seen the same thing, but we’ve seen a really strong rise in the number of clients receiving massage to help manage their anxiety and chronic depression. So, next. This is a brief list of some of the numerous benefits that we’ve seen in using CBD in our practice. It’s shown to be highly effective for clients managing either chronic or acute pain, especially when it comes to conditions that are related to inflammation or muscle soreness or peripheral neuropathy. So, next thing that we take a look at some case studies and actual results that we’ve seen in my clinic so you can kind of get a better idea of what we’ve been dealing with.
So, our first case is a 65-year-old female, and she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and she was suffering with generalized body pain. So, when the client shared that her anti-inflammatories had helped reduce her pain in the past, but due to some concerns of a stomach ulcer that she had her doctor had advised her not to take them. So, we immediately thought to recommend CBD add-on to her massage since we know that the ECS or the endocannabinoid system moderates inflammation and with its powerful anti-inflammatory response, we have really witnessed with our clients who had used CBD products in the past, then we really strongly believed that this would bring her relief without the fear that her doctors had of using ibuprofen or any other oral anti-inflammatories. So the treatment that we gave her, we did a 90-minute therapeutic massage, and we use level 3 of the CBD clinic product, we use thed pain relief oil. And we spot treated it on areas that she said we’re really hurting with some of our trigger points with back neck, shoulder, hips, and her feet were really bothering her too. So, we applied it to all those areas. The results that we got were really incredible. She, post-treatment said she had no pain, she was thrilled with those results and how immediate they were. She expressed how good it was to be free from pain, so she felt amazing. And since she wasn’t hurting, even her mood changed, she was happy, more cheerful. So, she was thrilled with the results. And she purchased a jar of CBD cream from our store to take it home and to use for self-care until her next massage. She scheduled for two weeks later, and obviously, she left a very happy client.
Our next client was a 39-year-old male that worked at least 40 hours a week on his computer, and due to poor posture, he found himself sporting forward head posture. Now, I’m sure you guys see this as much as we do, almost daily in the clinic. He presented with severe neck pain and mentioned that headaches were a concern. So, since we know that over time, forward head posture can lead to muscle imbalances in the body, and as it’s trying to adapt and find a more efficient way to hold the head up, some of the muscles like the deep cervical flexors become elongated and weakened, whereas, other muscles become shorter and tighter. So, because of this with all of the imbalance, some of the soft tissues of the neck like the ligaments, maybe the muscles, the tendons, they can become strained or sprained from overuse, or overextension really, and that can be causing neck pain. So we thought the Level 5, in this case of the CBD massage cream, was going to be a good option for treatment. And we did that really for two reasons. The first one was the amount of the added terpenes, in particular, the menthol that’s in that product, because we wanted to use this to bring fast relief for any nerve pain that the client was experiencing and we know that menthol has a really strong topical analgesic and anesthetic property, and it also offers pain relief by interacting with the TRP receptors and causing that cooling sensation that your clients really enjoy on the skin. And then the second reason was, because of the higher CBD levels in that product, we really wanted to target the pain that was being caused by that inflammation and from the injury or really, maybe even the healing process itself. So, we added that to a 30-minute CBD massage, and we really focused on the anterior-posterior neck, the shoulders, and the back. And the results that he received were, again, pain reduction post-treatment. We’ve been really surprised at how quickly the CBD works on our clients. It seems like within a few matter of moments, they’re all really receiving incredible pain reduction and how they’re feeling. That we also notice he had improved range of motion, he even had improved head posture and a lot of that came from lengthening the muscles that were shortened and activating the muscles that were lengthened. He had head posture, and he also purchased product to take home to use and before his next massage. So, again, another case where we saw incredible results.
This last case, the client showed the case of SI joint dysfunction. And again, we’re looking at another pathology that involves inflammation, it seems like we’re seeing that so often these days. And in this case, the client was also experiencing a little bit of referred nerve pain. And there are several conditions that we see that seemed to mimic SI joint dysfunction, clients with bolster herniated discs that L5 or L5 commonly have really similar symptoms to that. But any either case of that inflammation is really often what’s at the root of it, so that’s why we want to target the inflammation. So for treatment, in this case, we use CBD level 3 on the area of SI joint and we were sure to use it on the other muscles that supported the SI joint function, including the gluteus maximus and the piriformis muscle which we also see so many problems with piriformis muscle these days too. Again, tremendous results with pain resolution post-treatment, he had an immediate reduction in his pain. And the client also mentioned to us that he didn’t experience any pain while dressing or putting on shoes, which really had previously been a source of pain, and also noticed a reduction in swelling in lower limbs. So, you can see in all three of these cases, immediate results profound, in fact, really profound results, and the clients left are really happy, and one product to take home with them for afterwards. So, after you’ve heard what we’ve talked about, you know, you’ve heard the incredible benefits of using CBD, you’ve seen what it does for your body and the endocannabinoid system, so you might be thinking that you may be interested in incorporating CBD massage into your practice. So, if you’d like to add it to your service menu, first, decide if you’d like to add it as a standalone service or if you would just want to add it on to your regular service or maybe even you really want to do both. So, if you choose to offer it as a standalone service, just consider using power words in your service disruption, like pain reduction, pain relief, interrupts pain signals, calming effect, soothing for your aches and pains. Go ahead and go to the next screen for me. And this is a description that will be sure and make available to you, also, if you’d like to, later on. I’m going to give you a chance, later on, to be able to have me email some of this stuff to you. But so make sure that your service menu incorporates power words like that.
And then also be sure to include exactly what the client can expect from the service. For example, are you just going to be spot treating the areas that they have for their discomfort, or are you going to use a CBD-rich oil all over? So, make sure you let them know what to expect, because if they go in thinking you’re gonna rub CBD all over every part of their body, and then you’re just putting it on their neck, they might be disappointed. So, just make sure that you’re real clear with what you want to do. For our standalone CBD massage in my clinic, we also include a 3-gram in a take-home container that has a little bag and it has an information card in it for self-care. And we do this for two reasons really. For one, people love to leave with something that they can take home, it really adds a lot of value to the service. And second of all, it gives them a chance to fall in love with the products at home. We find they often share it with their friends or their family and then they come back in to pick up a jar also. We have a full wellness store in our clinics, so that really helps to boost the overall clinic revenues when they’re sending their friends and purchasing the product, also. So, if you’re gonna offer it as an add-on to your regular services, then consider using different levels, maybe different options for them. That’s going to really help to suit your client’s different needs, and also different pain levels and different budgets. Consider placing an add-on menu in your rest area, or featuring your add-ons on your website. That’s going to help encourage your clients to add CBD to their scheduled services. They just need to know that it’s available. So, when you’re choosing a CBD product line that you want to carry, you’re gonna want to get to know the company and the process of how they make products. So, all CBD companies, I promise you, are not the same. Go ahead and go to the next slide for me. Thanks, Jen. So, take some time to get to know the company, you’re really going to want to read over their website, reach out to the customer service if you have any questions, see how fast they respond, you know, how easy are they to get in touch with. Make sure you find out how the CBD is extracted and what methods that they use to get it. You should also investigate where the company sources their CBD because there are a lot of different environmental factors like the soil pH and the climate that can have a really big impact on the quality of the CBD products. Also, do they use a certified Good Manufacturing Practices facility? And keep in mind, you have a right to know everything that is in your products, and so do your clients. So, make sure that the company you choose conducts very rigorous third party testing on every single batch of products. And then also make sure that you can view the COA online and your clients can as well.
These tests will show if there’s any amounts of any of the things that can get left behind in the extract, like heavy metals, pesticides, molds, or any other foreign substances that might be in there. And I know for us in our clinic, one of the reasons that we chose CBD was we loved how they offered different levels to accommodate the different variety of our client’s needs based on their pain levels, and again, like I said, for their budgets. That was really important for us. And also make sure that you get somebody who as a wholesaler that there’s someone there to support you from the company. We were really looking for some support when we first started to consider carrying CBD because we had a lot of legal concerns, we had questions about the products, you know, what we could use and how to incorporate into our services, also information about safety. And we were really thrilled with the support that we received. They also provided us with tips on marketing and how to grow our business, and just some really useful marketing materials. The best-of-all, one of my favorite things about why we chose CBD Clinic and Charlotte’s Web was, we have a great account rep that’s really easy to get ahold of, gives us incredible customer service, and we can really tell that, that they care about us as one of their retailers. So, now you’ve decided that you want to carry it, you know what you’re going to do, you’re going to either add it on as a add-on or you’re going to have a standalone service, you’ve picked your product line, and now you need to figure out, “How much am I going to charge for the service? I have no idea where to start.” So, there’s a few items to keep in mind when you’re going to determine how much you should charge when adding a CBD add-on or a standalone service to your practice. So first, you’re going to need to determine how much the product itself is going to cost you. So, when you’re going to figure out your product costs, make sure to include any extra costs into your price before doing the math. Like, you may have to pay shipping costs sometimes, or you might need to include use tax, you know, we should be playing a use tax on products that we’re using in our clinics.
So, let’s look at this example here. So, we use Level 3 and Level 5 as the add-ons in our clinic. We use the oil, and so to determine our costs, we need to break it down. So, if we look at the 12-ounce bottle, let’s say the Level 3, our cost landed, which is going to include shipping and tax is $46.50. So, we have a 12-ounce bottle, so we know we’re going to divide $46.50 by 12, and that gives us $3.88 an ounce. We also know that in our clinic, we use four pumps, typically it’s hard to get an exact amount, but we typically use about four pumps, which is half an ounce for one service add-on. So, then we know that our costs would be if we use five cents of it, would be $1.94. So, there might be some other costs that you may need to include other than your shipping or your use tax. So, let’s say you’re trying to control your back bar supply by distributing pre-measured amounts, then there might be a cost for some containers. So, a quick Amazon search gave me the totals for these next containers with lids. Go ahead and go to the next one. Thank you very much. So, we use, actually use the one-ounce container, even though we’re only using 5 ounces of product, it just helps control it a little bit better, gives us a little bit more room. And that’s a five cents container, we purchased 300 of them at a time cost us five cents each. So, another thing to consider is if you’re an employer and you have a staff of therapists, you might want to consider offering a commission on the upsells of the add-on services. That, then you would want to make sure that you included that additional amount when you’re determining what you should charge. Next. So, once you add up your cost for the container and the CBD product, or any other additional costs that you may have, then you can determine your cost per session. So, in this case, using half an ounce of the Level 3 pain relief oil, and a 1-ounce container will cost you $1.99 per session. So, if you charge $15 for the service as an add-on, then your profit is going to be $13.01. Next slide. So, I think I mentioned earlier that we give them something to take home with them when they leave because it really adds value to the service because our standalone service, we do charge a significant amount more for it. So we use a 3-gram container that cost us 10 cents each to make for these take-home bags, and our costs with the mesh bag and the container with a lid and the 3-grams of Level 5 pain relief. And this is the cream that we’re sending them home with which is honestly our best dollar is this number five pain relief ointment. And our clients just rave about it, so we wanted to send it home with them. But for this add-on our cost is $2.46. The next slide is a picture of the card that we include in there. It’s a little card that just kind of tells them, “Enjoy this sample that we’re sending home with you, and here’s a little bit about this product, here’s what’s in it, and here’s what it helps to do.”
We have a couple of actually different ones of these that we include. Sometimes if we have specials or other things that we’re trying to market to them, we put those on the cards. So, that’s what we include. So feel free, you know, put something inside there that markets or talks about products that you want to move faster. So that’s what we include. So feel free, you know, put something inside there that markets or talks about products that you want to move faster. So, if you decide that you’re going to use the Level 3 pain relief oil in the service, and you’re going to send your clients home with the take-home sample, then your cost would be $4.45 per service. So, if you upcharge $20 per service, then your profit would be $15.55. So, one of our goals with each CBD service that we give is to sell product. So the additional cost to let the clients try it at home and fall in love with it and it’s pain-relieving benefits are really worth the extra cost to us. Next. So, this has been a brief overview, really of how to add CBD massage to your service menu. Just remember to consider whatever your goals are when you’re trying to decide what to do. Are you gonna offer it as an add-on to your regular services or use it as a full standalone service? Are you going to be carrying a product line, and if so, what products do you want to use? Are you going just with creams, with oils or are you going to carry all of them? Make sure that you include all of your costs before you determine your costs, especially your shipping, your use tax, and any commissions that you may offer. Then set your price, add it to your service menu, and just really honestly watch the bookings come rolling in. So, thank you guys so much for being here, for this part. I know that we’re going to take some questions now, and I think Jen is probably going to jump back in and give chance to answer any questions that you might have.
Karen: Yeah.
Dr. Jen: Thank you, Pamela.
Karen: Oh, so Jen and Pamela, thank you so much. This is Karen again with “MASSAGE Magazine.” And we did have quite a few questions come in from therapists who are interested about CBD. The first one is if you could briefly explain the difference between isolate, broad-spectrum and full-spectrum CBD.
Dr. Jen: Sure, I’ll take this one. This is Jen. So, the full-spectrum hemp extract contains all of the different phytocannabinoids and terpenes and essential fatty acids and all the other really great compounds that the hemp plant makes. And a CBD isolate means that they’re only extracting the CBD compound from the plant. So, the benefit of getting the full spectrum is that you’re going to get an entourage effect, so all those different compounds that I mentioned actually support the activity of the CBD. So think of it kind of like eating a whole orange or getting both vitamin C and bioflavonoids and anthocyanins and a bunch of other great antioxidants and so you’re getting a real boost to the vitamin C, versus just taking vitamin C as an isolated pill. And then you might see that term broad-spectrum, and it’s not really super defined, there’s definitely not a legal definition of it but usually, people are using that to say, “Hey, this is not a CBD isolate but it’s also not a full spectrum, because it generally doesn’t have THC in it, and it may just have a couple other phytocannabinoids as part of it.” In a full spectrum hemp extract, you are going to see a little bit of THC in that as well.
Karen: Okay. Thank you. Does another audience member wonders if CBD topicals can be used safely on the frail elderly or hospice clients?
Dr. Jen: Yes, I mean, it’s really safe to use. The important thing to understand about using CBD topically is that it doesn’t get absorbed all the way through those dermal layers all the way into their circulation, so it’s really sticking in that whole endocannabinoid cutaneous system that I described, and it stays locally wherever you put it. And so if you’re using a CBD topically, even if it has a little THC in it, none of those compounds are going to get into the bloodstream. So, you’re not going to get the whole body benefits of it, and also, likewise, you’re not going to worry about testing positive for THC, because it’s not going into the bloodstream.
Karen: Okay. So we did have a couple people wonder if you could talk a little bit more just about CBD massage and whether or not it could result in a positive drug test for the client?
Dr. Jen: Right. So it definitely cannot because the THC and the CBD do not go into the bloodstream, therefore it’s not going to be detected on a drug test and you’re also not going to get that feeling sensation of being high when you put it on topically if it’s pure THC, and CBD obviously isn’t going to cause a positive drug test either way.
Karen: Okay. And then people are wondering about the absorption rate for the massage therapists, and if the massage therapists should limit the number of CBD massages they do in a day?
Dr. Jen: Right. So again, because it doesn’t get absorbed systemically, you really don’t need to worry about getting too much of it. Obviously, you’re going to get some in your cutaneous system. But there’s no such thing as overdosing from… Well, there’s no such thing as overdosing whether ingesting it or using it topically because CBD doesn’t work on… Even though it works on receptors in the brain, there’s no CBD receptors in the respiratory center of our brain, therefore, you can’t die from it, you can’t have an overdose. And so you might get a little extra CBD on your hands when you’re doing massage, but there’s really not going to be any kind of negative consequences to that.
Karen: Okay. And can you touch base a bit more just about the legality of using CBD topicals? We’ve had a few people wonder about state versus federal regulations and if there are state laws regarding CBD that they should be aware of.
Dr. Jen: Sure. So, in the 2018 hemp Farm Bill, the hemp was made legal in all 50 states. And so because of that ,CBD was taken off of the Schedule I controlled substance list, although THC does remain there along with marijuana, which is meaning it has over 0.3% THC. So, anything under 0.3% THC is considered hemp, hemp is considered legal. Now, the actual ingredient CBD does get into a little bit of a gray area in some states, and so there’s a few who are creating more regulatory obstacles for it. However, that’s generally with the ingestible oral CBD where you might see that kind of issue. In the topicals seems to be the one safe place that I haven’t seen any states or any stores complain about or have any concerns about when you’re using it topically. So, for all intents and purposes, we’re talking about massage oils, I don’t see there to be any problem anywhere. And if you are using the oral tinctures like Charlotte’s Web makes the ingestible products, in general, they are completely fine to use and sell in all 50 states but there’s a few regional areas that are having a little bit of debate about that. And so if you ever have any specific questions about the oral part, you’re welcome to email me, Jen, jen.palmer@charlotte’sweb.com, and I’m happy to answer any questions.
Karen: Great, thank you. So a couple of audience members are wondering if there have been any documented allergic reactions to CBD and/or contraindications with commonly prescribed medication.
Dr. Jen: So again, those would be like a drug interaction would have to do with taking it orally. And yes, you can run into that. So if somebody is taking pharmaceutical medications, I would refer them over to their pharmacist or physician. There’s not like a pat answer I can give on that because it’s a super complicated system. And in some cases, the CBD makes you need to reduce the amount of medication you’re taking. In some cases, you have to increase it. It interacts with certain enzymes that process and metabolize our medications from our liver and so it’s a very complex situation and so I always put that question on the pharmacist to discern. But topically, you could have some skin allergens more probably likely due to other ingredients in the product, particularly menthol and camphor, you know, there’s really high levels in some of these products. And so I can imagine someone might have a sensitivity or allergic reaction to that. I’m not sure if the CBD itself would cause a problem, but as a naturopath, I’ve noticed people can be allergic to anything, so I would never say never.
Pamela: But that’s all I would add to that would be we see probably about 200 clients a week and the only thing that we’ve ever experienced is not even with the camphor so much but with menthol. We’ve had a few people that have expressed that they’re allergic to it, but they usually know and so when you mentioned that those products that you’re using have menthol in it they know. But that’s really all that we’ve seen.
Karen: And so speaking of the camphor and menthol, one therapist wonders if there’s been any substantiation regarding CBD topicals, just containing the CBD without the menthol and camphor and, if that, is also effective pain relief?
Dr. Jen: Yes, there definitely are indications that show that this is CBD can be used that way. I would probably encourage them to use a full spectrum hemp extract topically if they’re going to do that. And I think it works well, I think that the camphor and menthol add another extra element of it to make it work better. But if you can’t use the camphor and menthol, it does help to just put the CBD into an oil and use it topically that way. You just might not notice as dramatic of benefits.
Karen: Okay.
Pamela: We have a lot of people in our clinic too who don’t even enjoy the smell of menthol, so they just don’t want it for that reason alone. And CBD Clinic has this wonderful product line that goes from Level 1 to Level 5, and Level 1 doesn’t have any of the menthol in it or the camphor. I think Level 2 doesn’t either I think. So they have a wonderful array of products that you can pick if you have clients who don’t that still contain the CBD, and they do still get wonderful pain relief from it. So, my answer to that would definitely be yes, you can without using the other terpenes in it.
Karen: Okay. Great, great. And do the CBD topicals bring temporary relief or do they provide a more lasting solution to client aches and pains?
Pamela: Well, I can take this one, if you want from what we…
Dr. Jen: Yes. Go ahead.
Pamela: … see, like I said about 200 clients a week. We find that they get relief anywhere from three to eight hours, typically when they have severe nerve pain, which is pretty profound for people that are really struggling. It’s not a cure, but it definitely can get them out of pain for long enough for them to rest and kind of reset.
Karen: Great. And then I’m not sure if this is really in your area of expertise, but we’ve had a few people ask about some problems they’ve seen with credit card companies not allowing people to sell CBD products, or charging a higher fee for people who sell CBD products. Is that something that you’d like to address here?
Dr. Jen: Pamela, do you have any suggestions on that?
Pamela: Yeah, there are a few companies now, I think Square is one of them, that won’t have a problem with it. It is true that they were for a while, they were charging a little higher service fee and that basically was to just cover their liability insurance. But there are companies that will charge you more. And I’m not sure if I… I think I can say this. So when we ring up our products, they are called, the CBD Clinic has I think it says pain relief on it, pain relief cream, I think it says. So basically, when we entered into our system, we just put what was on the label that said pain relief cream, so it doesn’t say CBD anywhere on it. And we haven’t had any trouble with ours. But so I’m saying that now we actually, our provider now doesn’t have any problem with it. We use Booker and we use the service provider that they use, and they don’t have problems with CBD now but they used to. So we got around it by we would just put pain relief cream, we just didn’t put CBD into the description of the product. But I do know that that has been a problem for a long time but there are companies out there now that will allow you to use their services with just a slight upcharge to cover basically their liability. Just kind of shop around and have to ask them that first thing when you talk to them.
Karen: Okay. And then you touched on this but we’ve had a question come in regarding CBD clinic wholesale pricing and kind of how that relationship works with therapists and if the general public can go online and simply purchase your products as well.
Dr. Jen: Yeah, so CBD clinic is reserved for health care practitioners, massage therapists, acupuncturists, etc. So they should not be able to purchase it, you know, also from general consumer places. Somebody reminded me, they asked, “How do I buy this?” Put the right slide on there, there’s some contact information as well as my email. You can open an account directly with CBD Clinic to purchase wholesale, and also it’s sold through distributors. So probably wherever you’re buying your other massage oils, you can purchase these products as well. And we do offer this promotion right now, if you use this promo code, Thanks10, you can get 10% off your order. And I know some of our distributors also will honor that promo code. So, if you have any questions about that, I would recommend contacting one of these account executives that I put up on the screen here and they can help you figure out how to do that best.
Karen: Okay. Great. Well, we’ve come to the end of this webinar unless there’s anything else either of you would like to add for our audience of massage therapists.
Dr. Jen: Yeah. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. I think that there was a few other things that maybe we didn’t get to here, and I’d be happy to answer them. There’s, you know, it’s very wide topic. If you’re interested in learning more about the ingestibles, the Charlotte’s Web, we are going to be selling those wholesale now as well so you can add those to your retail sales. And we are doing a webinar on that tomorrow from CBD Clinic directly. So, again, talk to one of these account executives, if you want to register for that, and they can get you signed up and logged on. And I’ll be doing that co-hosting with our pharmacist, and he’ll be getting more in details about the drug interactions that you guys asked about and so you can get a better sense of how confusing and complex that topic is, as well. But I really want to thank everyone for being here today. And thank you, guys, for hosting this.
Pamela: [inaudible 00:55:48]
Dr. Jen: Thanks, Pamela. You’re amazing. Thank you so much for joining us.
Pamela: Can I just say one more thing. Therapists wanted to know about their protocol for adding it into their practices. So we do have this little booklet for you, for you to download that kind of walks through how to add CBD into your practice. So if you’d like a copy of that, I posted an email address just email me and I’ll email it right back to you. The email is hello@brandbarstudio.com. And if you just shoot me an email to that, again, it’s in the chatbox, hello@brandbarstudio.com, and I’ll just send you a copy of the protocol. It’s a little workbook, it’s like nine pages and you can use it for yourself or share it with your staff just kind of walk through how to add it into each one of your services.
Dr. Jen: Thanks for mentioning that, Pamela. I forgot about that. And it is a really great handout tool, so I highly recommend that you access that. It gives some really great pointers.
Pamela: [inaudible 00:56:46]
Karen: Thank you both so much for being here and sharing your expertise. I know this is a topic of great interest massage therapist. So “MASSAGE Magazine” really appreciates the opportunity to partner with you on this.
Dr. Jen: Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great day.
Karen: You too. Thanks.
Pamela: Thanks.