Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy and Greg Autry.
Hi Tracy and Greg, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Tracy Autry. My husband, Greg and I own Sweet Sensi CBD, a local small batch Cannabis Company that creates CBD products including sweet edibles, topicals and pet products. CBD is the abbreviation for cannabidiol, one of the many cannabinoids, or chemical compounds, found in marijuana and hemp. My husband started cultivating cannabis over 20 years ago. He has an enormous amount of knowledge and love for the plant. It has always been a passion of his. We both grew up in Texas and wanted to keep our roots here so for many years he commuted to legal states spending time leading his team in those industries. He had a very profitable farm in California and was successful in many of the cannabis competitions during that time. In 2018 Farm Bill HB1325 was passed and would legalize under 0.3% THC Hemp here in Texas and set a framework for state and federal regulations. This meant we could now do what we loved from our home state!
We started our journey, building our facility in our hometown of Lakeway. The facility includes an indoor deep water culture hydroponic farm and commercial manufacturing facility where we extract the CBD oil and create our unique clean products. This happened right before Covid-19 hit and I ended up having to stay home with our two young boys for that year. When our boys went back to school in person I was able to join our team full time. Teaming up with my husband I have learned so much about the plant and the industry. I have also learned that I have a knack for managing people, other than my kids, and balancing a company that is constantly growing. I took on the role of heading up our marketing and events department. It has been an interesting ride learning not only all the normal marketing tools used these days with all the social media but also realizing how limited Cannabis companies are with being able to advertise and what they can and cannot say about their products. We have a great marketing team and spend a lot of time getting out in the public eye at farmer’s markets and festivals so we can directly talk to our customers.
In fact, we put on our own festival every year called the Texas Hemp Harvest Festival. We created this festival to help the farmers and CBD companies advertise and talk with the public. We had two stages full of incredible live music, we had 70 vendors, delicious food trucks, several speakers on stage, including Robert Ramirez Head of Texas Department of Agriculture Hemp Program, advocating for the future of Cannabis in this state. We even put on a Hemp Competition. This year it will be on Veterans Day weekend at Carson Creek Ranch and I am super excited to enjoy food, music and Hemp again this year!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Cannabis industry has always had its own unique challenges. As with any successful business, we did have struggles however we just call them obstacles to overcome. As an example most recently when we opened our facility here in Texas Covid-19 hit and although it was a struggle for most we held our own and have continuously grown being able to help our customers, farmers and retailers through the pandemic.
We’ve been impressed with Sweet Sensi, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What has always made Sweet Sensi different in this industry is the fact that we do it all. We grow the hemp, we extract the oil ourselves and create our own products. Most CBD companies out there are buying their oil from out of state or out of the country. They have no idea how the plants were grown, what chemicals were used like growth regulators. And the extraction process most likely used solvents as most do. At Sweet Sensi, we make sure every aspect from seed to sale is clean and pure. My husband was a part of the creation of what is called a Rosin Press. The Rosin Press extracts the oil that contains all the beneficial cannabinoids from the flower. There is no manipulation to the plant, no stripping anything out and trying to put it back in. We simply take our really good bud that we have grown ourselves and press it in a specialized bag with low pressure and low heat. What comes oozing out is this beautiful golden oil called Rosin. Completely clean and natural. And that is the reason our products work. Once you try our product, you are coming back for more because it works.
Our very first customer still buys from us today. We do everything to keep waste very minimal with the structure of our farm. We make sure our product containers are either compostable, recyclable or reusable. We believe if you’re going to do things right, do them right in all aspects. Plus, we make super delicious edibles like our one-of-a-kind Fruit Chews, a sweet taffy candy. We also have three different types of gumdrops in multiple flavors. CBD Gumdrops with flavors like apple, lemon, orange and strawberry. Then we have our Snoozedrops with melatonin in a blackberry flavor and our most popular, Elevated Gumdrops in peach, pineapple, mango and guava passion fruit flavors! So much flavor and sweet taste and only all-natural ingredients. And we have tinctures flavors like Cinnamon Vanilla, Cherry Limeade and Peppermint. If you’re not into sweet treats, we do have capsules and then we do have topical products that can help as well.
Our relief salve and Athletic Rub are amazing, in fact our Athletic Rub received many awards including Texas Hemp Awards and High Times Hemp Cup. Many of our products have won High Times and Texas Hemp awards over the last two years. Another favorite of mine is our lotion and soap, it keeps my skin soft and smooth and it smells really good. At night I use our All Terrain Oil and a face serum, my husband uses it as a beard oil, that is why we called it All Terrain Oil, you can use it on all the terrain of your body. I just love the products we have created! Even our two dogs benefit from our Dog Treats and Pet Tincture. In fact, if you look at our pet products, our own sweet dogs modeled for the packaging! Cooper, our male labrador retriever is on the Pet Tincture and Haley, our female is on the Dog Treat bag! It’s a family-owned and operated company!
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Helping people. That is why we do what we do. We have seen our products make a difference in people’s everyday lives. When a customer reaches out to us and can’t stop talking about how our product was a game changer for them or for a family member or a pet it brings us the most joy. It means all of our hard work caring for the customer and providing for them a product that they know is safe for their body is paying off. Everyone we talk with usually needs relief from something and it’s a pleasure and a blessing to be able to help them find that relief.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sweetsensiwellness.com/
- Instagram: @sweetsensiwellness
- Facebook: @meetsweetsensi
