Episode 103: From Teen Activist to CBD Entrepreneur | Jessica Assaf | Co-Founder of Prima
Jessica Assaf’s activism began at age 13 when she joined a local cancer study and discovered how many beauty and personal care products contained harmful ingredients. By 15, she was testifying in California for cosmetic safety reform. That passion for health, transparency, and safer consumer products shaped her entire career. Today, Jessica is the co-founder and Chief Education Officer of Prima, a science-backed hemp CBD wellness brand she launched with Christopher Gavigan and Laurel Angelica Myers. She shares how she went from nonprofit advocacy to Harvard Business School, why she chose entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change, and what it takes to build a brand in an emerging category. Jessica talks about the science and stigma around CBD, the importance of business compatibility, and the lessons she’s learned about leadership, purpose, and resilience. Her story is proof that curiosity and persistence can turn an early cause into a lifelong mission.
“Business is the most effective way in a timely manner to change the issues we’re facing.”
-
Honest Company
Hemp
Active Plant Compounds
Cannabis
Prima.co
Marin County, CA
Marin Cancer Project
Teens for Safe Cosmetics
SP-44 Signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Johnson & Johnson
OPI
NYU
Harvard Business School
Yes Men
Gasland
Cannabis Feminist
Christopher Gavigan
Laurel Angelica Myers
Healthy Child, Healthy World
Blue Mercury
Kansas
Israel
Albania
West Africa
California
Jessica Alba
Jessica Capshaw
Susan Feldman - founder One Kings Lane
Marla Malcolm Beck - founder Blue Mercury
Paris Hilton
Snoop Dogg
Ricky Lake & Abby Epstein - film makers
Ruther Bader Ginsburg -
Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Meet Jessica Assaf
03:20 How a Local Cancer Study Sparked Her Activism
06:15 Testifying for Cosmetic Safety Reform at 15
10:40 From Nonprofit Advocacy to Harvard Business School
14:50 Why She Chose Entrepreneurship for Impact
18:30 Building Prima with Christopher Gavigan and Laurel Angelica Myers
22:10 Breaking Stigma and Building Trust Around CBD
27:40 Science-Backed Wellness and Product Transparency
31:00 What True Compatibility in Business Partnerships Looks Like
35:20 Challenges of Launching in an Emerging Industry
39:00 Lessons on Leadership and Resilience
43:10 The Future of CBD Wellness
47:00 Advice for Turning Passion Into a Career
Really just targeting them from an activist perspective, doing protests and direct actions and really trying to get press around this issue that no one talked about. 'cause at the time I was also getting feedback from my high school friends, like, aren't there bigger issues in the world than makeup? Why don't you just stop wearing makeup?
And I didn't like that because I, I think we should still be able to use these products that make us feel good, but we should be informed consumers.
That's Jessica Soft and this is the powerful ladies. Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy, and in this episode I am so excited to introduce you to the charming and passionate Jessica Asof, co-founder and chief education officer at Prima. She's a great example of how to curate your own life by being true to yourself, what matters to you, and being willing to fall down the rabbit hole of our passions.
Let me know your favorite parts of this episode by leaving a comment in our Instagram or@thepowerfulladies.com. I have a special bonus for all of our listeners. Are you ready to level up your wellness and self-care routines and have peace of mind that the products you're buying are good for you and the planet without having to Google every ingredient@prima.co?
You can find supplements, body care, and skincare that are all made with you and the planet in mind, so you can get back to feeling your most powerful self. Use code powerful ladies at checkout to get 20% off your order today. Visit prima.co. Before we jump into this episode, I invite you to come and join my Powerful Ladies Thrive membership all month in February.
We're discussing how identifying your business love language is the key to not only doubling your business, but also spending more time in your zone of genius and align with your purpose. Join us today@thepowerfulladies.com and jump into our twice weekly group coaching sessions to kickstart everything that matters to you and transform your year.
Well. Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a treat and I love, um, how we've been connected because of the power of pr. So your PR person knows a client of mine, so she called me and said, I have great clients. I cannot wait them for them to be on your show.
So, so grateful.
Again, powerful women connecting, powerful women always the best.
Yes, exactly. Let's begin. Um, please tell everyone who you are and what you're up to in the world.
My name is Jessica Soft. I'm 30 years old living in Los Angeles, and I'm one of the co-founders of Prima, which is the hemp CBD wellness brand based here.
And I've also been an entrepreneur and activist since I was 15 years old. So lots more I've done, but that's where I am now.
And how is Prima different than what's out there in the market already?
Well, prima was founded by Three Health Advocates. So I started the company with Christopher Gavigan, who started the Honest Company with Jessica Alba many years ago.
And Laurel, Angelica Myers, who is with Christopher and Honest for many years, launching hundreds of products. And for us, prima is really the expression, the deepest expression of our values in a product format. So we've spent our careers really trying to. Change health, consumer health and really empower consumers to understand the safety of their products and demand safe alternatives and really reclaim the power of their health.
And so we came together after all of us had spent many years trying to re help to reformulate products and really advocate for pure purification, pure and safe products. And 10 years ago that was really a big deal and it's what we needed. But now we're at a different time as consumers and we're finally coming back to this place of understanding and elevating plants and active plant compounds is almost like the next phase of the wellness industry where it was avoiding toxic chemicals and now it's returning to nature.
And I've been using cannabis personally for over a decade to treat my own stress. And so when I saw that California was gonna legalize recreational cannabis, it really felt like a perfect time to also reposition hemp CBD as this mainstream wellness tool. So we came together to design a line of products.
We do supplements, skincare, and body care. So really a portfolio of products and a holistic solution for stress. Using the power of plants. So while hemp is our hero, we also elevate other functional botanicals that also are misunderstood and people don't understand yet, and combine them synergistically with the CB, D to really help target.
Stress, which is something we all deal with. And also the, the things that manifest, that stress manifests into. So sleeping issues, mood issues, irritability, things like that. We really wanna provide over the counter solutions that transform how you feel so you can go out and do whatever you're meant to do in this life.
Um, so we, you talked a lot about different things that matter so much to me, and I think a lot of people say about efficacy of what we're using in and on our bodies. You know, kind of how they're created on the backend. You know, are they natural? Um, what was it about those things that mattered so much to you, and why did you wanna put them into these types of products when there's so many choices to kind of choose where that could go?
Well, it all started actually when I was 13 years old, living in Marin County, California, Northern California. I grew up going to the farmer's market. Organic was a way of life. It was such a value set for me. But yet, when I was 13, I read an article in the newspaper that the breast cancer rates in Marin County had risen 60% in eight years, and no one knew why.
And I was sitting there, I know I was sitting there as a 13-year-old. I was watching. Children at my school, their parents go through cancer treatment. Just watching that and seeing them, and that just always kind of sat with me in this weird way where I was like. What is going on in Marin County that is causing high cancer rates when we live such healthy lives?
And so I became a volunteer at the age of 13. I didn't know what to do, how to fix this, and so I became a volunteer because I heard nonprofits were really the only path forward for me. I would call UCSF hospital, like how can I change this cancer stat? And they're like, go volunteer. So I went to volunteer.
And I found an organization called the Mein Cancer Project. We went door to door. We, we went to a hundred thousand households in one day, and we asked a series of questions, lifestyle questions about cancer incidents and certain lifestyle choices. And there was one question about cosmetics and personal care products.
And I was like, wait, what does this have to do with cancer? I had just started wearing makeup. For me, makeup was a rite of passage. It's like, wow. As a young woman, I could make my eyes look better, a bigger, I could cover up my, you know, my zits and just find that source of confidence through these products.
But yet that question just rubbed me the wrong way because I was like, why is that a question? On this cancer survey, I went home, I was with on my purple first version of the Mac Compute desktop computer, and I started googling. Makeup and cancer, and the first thing that came up was. Really. Um, I searched my great mascara ingredients 'cause that was my favorite mascara.
The pink tube with the green top. And I found that there was an ingredient in there, propane glycol that I did research on. And it was also an industrial compound used to wax airplane wheels. And I was like, wait a second. This industrial chemical used to wax airplane wheels. I'm also putting on my eyes every day, and it just didn't make sense to me.
So I started doing a ton of research only to realize that it's really a loophole in federal law that allows the multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry to really put any raw ingredient into the products, and without any pre-market safety approval or testing, put these products on the shelves. And it's, it's, you know, similar in the food industry, there's all these issues and supplements, but for me, the makeup issue really stood out because I was like, this, this, these products that are meant to give women more confidence are compromising our health.
Like, that's not okay. So I really started a war against the ingredients in my products. I was one of the co-founders of a team led coalition called Teens for Safe Cosmetics. At the age of 15, we lobbied for legislation. We got a bill passed by Governor ar Arnold Schwarzenegger actually signed the bill, SP 4 84.
That was the first piece of legislation that would require cosmetic manufacturers to disclose carcinogens to the Department of Health Service. So at least if you're using carcinogens, you have to report them. That should be the first step. Which is, you know, basic common sense to me. But in this industry it's really revolutionary.
So that was passed and worked with a lot of companies demanding reformulation. So like getting the baby, you know, the carcinogens outta baby shampoo, the phthalates out of nail polish. Really just targeting them from an activist perspective doing protests and direct actions and really trying to get press around this issue that no one talked about.
'cause at the time I was also getting feedback from my high school friends, like. What, like, aren't there bigger issues in the world than makeup? Why don't you just stop, stop wearing makeup? And I didn't like that because I, I think we shouldn't. We should still be able to use these products that make us feel good, but we should be informed consumers.
So that was the first 10 years of my career was really activism and advocacy, and I reached this point where I was like, this is hard work. I'm exhausted. It is so much effort to try and convince companies to change their behavior when they don't. They don't have the same value set as I. Do they believe something different?
Um, and so I realized that I could apply the passion to business and create solutions, and that would be more effective for changing this, even though I, I was able to accomplish a lot as an activist, you know, convincing Johnson and Johnson to reformulate OPI nail polish, all of these big could.
Conglomerates, but that wasn't good enough. Just because you take out one chemical doesn't mean that your product is the best that consumers deserve. So after 10 years of activism, I went to NYUI created a major combining public health, documentary film, and social activism. Worked with a lot of activists in New York, the Yes men and Josh Fox from Gasland, really to understand how media could be applied to changemaking.
But then I reached this position where I was like. It's it's business. Business is the way to effectively, most effectively, in a timely matter, change this issue. So, got my MBA at Harvard. I was the youngest woman in the class of 2016, which is a really big deal for me 'cause I'm the first woman in my family to attend graduate school.
And also if I wanna be in business, I have to understand the language of business to have a seat at the table. So that was really important for me at the age of 24 to go get my MB. At Harvard, I was the youngest woman. I stood out like, you know, so, so much. But it was so good for me. And then, you know, moved back to Los Angeles and really took on cannabis as the next frontier because the cannabis industry was in the same position the natural products industry was 10 years ago.
Just misunderstood, underdeveloped, a lot of products, but very few brands. And that's when I heard that. Across all industries. In 2016, the cannabis industry has the highest percentage of female executives compared to all US industries. So it hit me like, whoa is cannabis, the new feminism Is cannabis the first opportunity women have to design, build, and lead an industry from the ground up with no glass ceiling or what we say grass.
Ceiling. And so I started a cannabis community for women called cannabis feminist, did a ton of events, market research, and then ultimately realized that we had a bigger opportunity to. Think about the non-psychoactive properties, the non intoxicating properties of the plant, positioning it as a universal wellness tool.
So that's when I collided with Christopher and Laurel, and we really decided to build kind of like a plant powered solution to a lot of the issues we face today. So it's been a long journey. So many learnings, so many fumbles and failures. But I finally landed with just the, the BR brand that I've been wanting to build really this entire time.
So, so many things I wanna dive into. First, congratulations on being the youngest at the Harvard MBA. That is such a boss move. I love that. You know, I think that there's. Being someone who also was an MBA. There's such a weird distinction of like what it means to have an MBA. And I remember ages ago they had, I think it was Xerox or somebody had a commercial where they were like trying to teach the MBA, how to like use the photocopy machine because like they didn't have any practical business skills.
And I love that business school has evolved so much now where it's much more entrepreneurial, it's much more hands-on. It's much more about being a change maker than it is about just going into Wall Street or finance, or where it used to be. Um, so congratulations. Um, and I also love that you brought up the fact that the solution to so many of our problems is through business.
I had a, I've had a nonprofit in the past and I was working with nonprofits, coaching them how to actually make it work and function. 'cause so many people who are activists have no business background or mindset or perspective. And we closed it eventually because it was just as easy for me to help those people as a for-profit company, in fact, easier.
And I think that's an also a misconception, right? There's all these pressures that, oh, people will donate versus buy something. And it's like, no, the people would actually much rather buy something than donate because they know how business works. They don't know how charities work. And a lot of charities have a lot of.
Barriers between the people who want to participate and the people who are trying to do the good work. So I'm now a pro advocate of moving people with great ideas into for-profit business models because it makes everyone's job easier,
easier everywhere. I cannot agree more. And both of my business partners came from the nonprofit world.
Christopher was the CEO and Director of Healthy Child Healthy World, and we realized the same thing. It's so frustrating though, because a lot of the people behind the nonprofits have the passion, have the vision. Mm-hmm. They don't necessarily have the funding. So I found in nonprofits, we spent most of our time trying to get the money to do what we wanted to do.
Whereas gives you a platform and you know you can really do what you want with it.
And it's so much easier to have everybody involved benefit because, you know, we, we think, uh, nonprofit and activism has to be this martyr system. And like I am like, no, please, no. You know, as part of Powerfuls origin and, and what I do in all my other businesses really is to get people out of this martyrdom cycle.
Because you can have fun, you can make money, and you can change the world all at the same time, like all at the same time. Um, so I love that you spoke about that and that's exactly what you're doing now. Um, I'm also super impressed at how you've known that this is your purpose and path for so long, so many people struggle with like knowing what is their thing.
And I love that you just keep exploring the next step. Like, oh, that's interesting. Let me look at that. You really start to see how all the things you've kind of chased down are all adding up now. Did you do that strategically or is that just how it's worked as you've like followed kind of your heart or what you're curious about?
I think the core of it is that I'm not afraid of failure. Yeah. Yeah. Because there is no failure if you see life as a series of constant pivots. So actually believe there, I haven't failed. I've just made perf these perfect pivots, and that's something you need as an entrepreneur because you can't be so set on your idea.
It's not about the idea, it's about the vision. It's about like, I want to cure cancer. Honestly, I'm doing it through. Prima, but my, my core vision has always been the same. And I was also doing it in my cannabis work too. So it's like, you know what you wanna do. I've always had this just innate knowing, and not to get too deep, but it may be related to when I was six months old, I had some rare blood virus.
They didn't know what was wrong with me. I spent many weeks in the oncology ward. They didn't know what was going on. I wonder if that energy is still within me, because I saw that at the age of six months. I ended up being okay with some weird blood virus that went away, but I've had that inside of me, so I've always known that's what I wanna do.
And so I'm, I so embrace the pivot. I mean, it's been challenging. I've definitely impacted a lot of relationships because I have no fear in realizing, right. You know, I had a guy move across the country after business school to start a cannabis. Ran with me and intuitively I just knew that it wasn't right.
And so I think if you are so fixed, you, you, you so trust your intuition more than anything, more than anyone else's advice. You're able to make those, those pivots. But it's all been the same thing for me. It's just been different expressions of the same set of values. Um, but I also think it's just not being too.
Stubborn on your ideas. Like, I'm so okay being wrong. I love being proven wrong because that means that there's something else to learn. So I think it's just kind of like resilience, of course, but also not seeing a change as a failure. It's just a strategic pivot.
Yeah. We um, in that we have a community called Thrive, which is the powerful ladies, entrepreneurs community.
And we were having our group call the other day and I was talking to people, I'm like, listen, if somebody challenges your business or they're pushing back on a sale. To me, I get so excited then because I'm like, oh, that means I didn't tell you something. 'cause if you aren't excited, that means I missed telling you something.
Awesome.
Exactly, exactly. We need to reframe that. Mm-hmm. I mean, the human mind is meant to continuously expand and reconceive of truth. So I'm just, I love that aspect. Mm-hmm.
And I love that this, um, episode is so fitting into our, our theme this month, which is how to discover your business Love language.
Because you clearly are operating in your love language with your business right now.
Yep, exactly. And that's the best part of finding the right team, is when you realize that it's a puzzle. It's not like you're meant to work with people that are similar than you. You're meant to work with complimentary people.
That's true compatibility. Then you are able to shine in your light and you know, focus on what you're good at.
How has following this path. Added value to your life that you didn't expect? That's a great question.
Having a purpose just gives me so much comfort and focus. I think there's so many things that I'm passionate about. I love cooking. I love dogs. I love, love and all of these things. But having that one. Sense of knowing that one singular purpose has just allowed me to filter out things that don't matter.
Mm-hmm. It's also given me so much strength and bravery in other aspects of my life because I know that this is what I'm meant to do in this lifetime. I know it's, you know, I'm, I'm meant to really build a really successful business and help millions of people, and so that conviction has allowed me to make really, really difficult decisions in other aspects of my life, so, mm-hmm.
This is a whole story, but I got married and divorced while I was building my business because the business was soaring and my relationship was stagnant, and I realized that we weren't compatible. So knowing that this business is the culmination of 15 years of just heart and soul and hustle. Mm-hmm. And I know the potential here.
And so if. I really had, it allowed me, it gave me the strength to break my own heart and end a marriage after less than a year and go through a really, really brutal nine month divorce that almost broke me, but instead just showed me my strength because I had three months. My heart is so deeply in my work that it almost allows for me, it allows for that certainty that I'm making the right decision in other aspects of my life.
Yeah, there's, there's, um. When you have that knowing, it really does root you in confidence in somewhere else. Because if that knowing isn't there, like, or the the yes isn't, in other places, you feel it so much more dramatically because you know what the optimum feeling is. So it does give you the strange perspective of like, Ooh, like, okay, like the same inkling that tells you we have to go fix that business-wise, shows up everywhere.
And you're like, I don't wanna go fix that in my real life. Fine, okay, I know I have to deal with it, right? 'cause anything that you resist persists. So it does give you that. I think that amazing visibility, the thing that shocked me when I leap from corporate life into full-time wellpreneur was. The peace I had.
Because you think like there's so much stress being an entrepreneur and there is, but it's like not stress that you experience in other ways. Like when you're not doing what you're meant to do, it shows up heavier. Like the only stress I have all the time is, okay, let's make all the numbers work. But that's a game that's not like, it's not gonna give me a heart attack and it's not going to keep me small in what I'm doing.
Yeah. So it was weird to go from all these stresses, usually other people's stress. Oh, I now just need to go make this work, and I know I will, and I'm committed to it. So now it's like, all right, we just, we just do the plan. Exactly. It's like
the chosen stress, because it's your stress again, when you take on other people's stress, it's overwhelming and depleting.
Yes.
The stress that keeps you going and it makes you feel alive and you know, it's the chosen path. So I joke about that all the time with my, with my entrepreneurial friends. Startup life. This is the life we chose. It never ends, you know? No. This always there because you always, you never feel like you're doing enough and there's so much more to do.
Mm-hmm. But you're so excited about all of the things to do because it's yours. So Yes.
Yes. I personally have to battle like. Stopping work, not because I am a workaholic, but more because I'm like, no, but this is so fun. Like what do you wanna do on Saturday? I'm like, oh, I wanna work on that project. And I have to be like, no, put it down.
I need to go be with humans and I need to like care and nurture the rest of my life 'cause I could so easily be happy. Just doing all of the projects. And I know long term that's not healthy. Exactly.
That's why
you have a
team to sometimes stop. You get some.
Yes,
yes. I so relate to all of that.
One thing that I love about, um, I.
When we started, right, we had to talk about, oh, it's on video. And you decided to like, let me change shirts. And I was in my head, I'm not sure what shirt was coming, but I wasn't expecting this awesome bright tie-dye t-shirt. So to me that says so much about you. So what is it about you that like when you're like, I'm gonna be on camera, I'm putting on this shirt, like tell me what's behind that.
Well. I used to live in New York for many years where I would only wear black, and then I moved to California was black and everyone looked in black. When I moved to California and started pre-med, it also, and also got my MBA, it gave me so much more confidence to just like be myself. Um, so when I said, oh, let me get dressed, that was, you know, for my PJs to, I strategically put on, I love wearing.
Jewelry from my grandparents. Mm-hmm. It makes me feel like I'm, and 'cause I feel so connected to my ancestors, I feel like I'm doing this work because I'm carrying all of the ancestors, all the women that couldn't do this with me. And I'm doing it for them too. And so I love to just be like, my grandparents got me this, these are my grandma's earrings.
So I love to wear them with me. So I feel them. And then when I was thinking about. To wear. I just thought, you know, everyone needs a little bit more color. Like everyone, it's so easy to go black and white. But this is actually a female designer, so I thought to bring, you know her on mm-hmm. Queen Estrada, New York based.
So I just love to kind of represent my beliefs through mm-hmm. Clothing and it's also. I mean, it hasn't always been this way. I feel like I'm finally stepping into my confidence more where I'm just not ashamed to just, you know, intuitive, intuitively put on some color. So,
yeah. No, I love it. And I had to realize mine were all tucked in, but they're the same, right?
Oh, like from, from my mother, and then this is like my dog's name, right?
Oh, that's great. Exactly. Yeah. Everyone would wear these. It's so nice to just know people's names.
Yeah, exactly. Everyone thinks it's my name, so sometimes they get some strange like coffee back when I used to be able to like interact with people more and they'd be like, oh, bandit, your orders up.
I'm like, that's my dog. That's, but that's okay. That's a great idea.
I
actually wanna get another one with
my dog's name
too. Yeah. Yeah. So many women who are ready to start their business and have great ideas, they get stuck in two places. One is finding the right partners and the other is finding the money.
Um, having gone through that process, what would you advise other women to do?
That is such a good question. For me, it was finding the person to find the money. Mm-hmm. So I, I've been a solo entrepreneur for so long. Even through my activism, I felt like I was doing it alone and I was okay with that. It built up strength and resilience.
But I reached this point where I was like, I don't wanna do this alone. And we're not meant to do things alone. Right. We're meant to do things in community. And I also had to. Get rid of this idea that I had to build a company with women in business school. I was so set on building an all female team from all over the world where, you know, in photos we would literally look like global, powerful women.
So I started a brand in, in business school because Harvard wanted to be more entrepreneur and entrepreneurial. So they gave. Students seed funding to start a micro business. And I took that seriously. I started a single ingredient facial company that we launched in Blue Mercury with five global women.
So together we were from California, Albania, west Africa, London, and Kansas. You know, just all, mm-hmm. Diverse. I'm Israeli. Like there were, it was just, it was so beautiful and visually it was perfect, but behind the scenes we could not get along. We could not agree on everything, on anything. It made me realize like it's not about the image.
It's not about, mm-hmm. You know what it looks like in photographs. It's about how it functions, and that was also such a lesson for me romantically too, in all aspects of my life. And so I had to break down this idea that I had to do it a certain way with a certain type of person, because then when I moved to California.
I started working by myself again, and I realized, wait a second, I actually wanna build a business with a man who I want gender balance, you know, I wanna be able to be in my feminine because part of my mission is also to bring femininity back to business. Mm-hmm. In business school, I got notes from a, from a male investor that my body language was too girly and I needed to practice in front of a mirror and be more professional.
So that's also part of the motivation with this t-shirt and this look is like, yep. Be professional and respected, but you can still express yourself and be different. And so when I moved to Los Angeles and I was building cannabis feminist, it hit me. I actually don't wanna build a business with other women, with only women.
Mm-hmm. Because again, that's not the point. It's about building businesses and women can thrive as leaders and change the game for other women. So I actually intuitively realized I want a male business partner who is older than me. Smarter than me has done this before. I wanna learn from someone. I don't wanna be the CEOI don't know everything yet.
I, I was 28, you know, I, I had so much more to learn. I think a lot of people get out of business school and they're like, okay, I'm ready to be CEO, I'm ready to be president. It's like. You need to understand how to manage, like you need experience. And then when you go out and and fundraise, you realize it's not about raw potential, it's about your track record.
Mm-hmm. So you actually need people who've done this before because I would pitch and they'd be like, oh, great. Harvard Business School, press all this stuff. That's great. That doesn't mean anything to us. Like mm-hmm. Where's, what have you built? Like, what's the valuation of your last company? So that was a big reality check.
And so I literally described. Christopher, his persona on paper. You know, and I really believe in manifestation, not that if you say something it'll come true, but if you decide what you deserve and what you need and you, you reach for the stars and you don't settle, you can actually. Orient your actions and your energy towards that because it's, you realize like most, most women just don't ask for what they really want, you know?
Mm-hmm. Settle. We, we think, oh, this is what we deserve. But if you go there, then your actions and your energy starts to go there too. So that's the, the law of attraction and the power of manifestation. So I described this person, and I also described him as like being so comfortable in his, in his feminine too.
And I literally met Christopher at Cafe Gratitude, and I was like, oh yeah. This is him. And that's like the day we met was the day I realized, this is my, my business partner. The business partner I've been waiting for. And then he introduced me to Laurel. And then it was just like, we're trifecta but power.
You know? But it was, it was that unlock that I don't have to do it alone and that I wanna work with a specific type of person that I could be in my power. Yep. And it was about that the puzzle, you know, the puzzle of compatibility. You're not supposed to work with people that have the same skill sets as you.
That's just a recipe for disaster. There's also meant to be a hierarchy of power for a reason, for decision making. And so the minute I met Met Christopher, my life changed. Um, every investor conversation was just a joy and a thrill, and it made sense to them. Like, oh, this is the guy that built a billion dollar company and this is his activist raw passion, you know?
Mm-hmm. Harvard School sidekick, and then Laurel too. Um, so. That was such a lesson for me that I don't have to know, know everything. 'cause there are people that do, and those people also need me to help with their vision. Um, so it's funny because he had just built a business with Jessica Alba and here I was like, Jessica, a 2.0.
Can't get rid of Jessica's. He must have had some past life issues or something with Jessica's. 'cause he's married to Jess, Jessica too. Jessica Capshaw. And so that was just, it was so relief. I finally felt like I could take a deep breath because again, I'm good at specific things. He's good at fundraising.
So then it was just like, oh, I don't have to be an expert at that. I can just learn and also focus on what I'm good at. So I think it's all about compatibility. It's all about. Realizing you don't have to do it alone and you can still be the most power. You can be a more powerful female leader if you find your male counterpoint, or, I mean, you can do it your way, but for me, I realized I needed the masculine energy so I could be in my feminine.
And so that was just the big lesson. Um, but I also think that you have to follow your intuition on whether someone is your person, because this is. More important of a decision than who you marry, who you sign these papers, you know your operating agreement. Mm-hmm. Who you decide to found a company with.
You will spend more time with, with this team than you will with any other person in your life. And it's also, you have to sacrifice things. So I've sacrificed some friendships because Christopher said to me when we first started, you know, working together. Hobbies, family, friends, business, choose two basically.
Yeah. You can't, you can't be the best friend while you're being the best entrepreneur, while you're being the best, you know? Mm-hmm. Sister and daughter. So you really have to just be okay saying, okay, for the next five years, I'm gonna be a really bad friend, but that's okay. 'cause when I have money and I can take my friends on vacation, I can Totally.
So I think it's been this process of just being okay, letting things go, and realizing that when you, if you want your business to succeed, you just gotta. You gotta focus there.
Yeah. And, and then it's a fun game of how do you win some of those things back, right. Because it really is like the sliding scale.
Um, people thought it was weird that I was sharing like my calendar, online calendar schedule, like with my mom and my friends. I was like, no, no. Like my love language is, you're on my calendar. So just like all my meetings, like if you book a time, it's really gonna happen if you leave it into a text message.
Who knows if I'll respond in like three weeks. It's not personal. I think about all of you all the time. Yeah. And like, I don't know why Apple has not set a text message back to unread. Why is that not a feature? Yep, exactly.
But I like what you say there about my love language because I also think. Being an entrepreneur requires you to get super clear on what works for you.
Yes. And make sure that there are people in your life that know you enough to see that. Because for me, I also, I get so many text messages, I'm not the best at responding in a timely manner. 'cause I've got emails and Zoom and then at the end of the day, I don't wanna look at my phone. And so I want people in my life that can just be okay with that and not take that personally.
But again, it also requires kind of the growing pains, realizing that you need to be sure what you need and just. Accordingly.
Yeah. And it, it's even such a great, um, example when I'm inviting people to the podcast, because typically I invite people, give them the link, they take care of it all themselves.
We send other emails out like, Hey, this Sunday your episode. Most people don't respond to any of it. They just book and show up. And I've had people on my team be like, doesn't that make you uncomfortable? Aren't you nervous? I'm like, no. 'cause I would do the same thing. I don't, why would I respond to a message I don't need to respond to?
Like, I'll be there. I said, yes, like it's happening. And so it's really interesting to see, you know, I, there's. Yes, you need to choose what your priorities are, which I think you have to do all the time, but also so much of entrepreneurship and doing entrepreneurship successfully and thriving in that is what are you going to eliminate?
And you know, one of the simplest, like hacks I tell, I tell the community is, and clients like have a breakfast. It's the same every day. Because we have decision fatigue like the, the more things we can just decide that match with where our goals are going. We don't need to decide them every day. So same outfit, same breakfast.
We know we're eating healthy, we know we're gonna look good, and that's fine. Now I can put all my brain power to the things I can't systematize.
Exactly. That's how humans work best too. Not having to focus on a million little things. Yeah. Have to be locked and then be able to put that energy towards the things that matter.
Yeah. What are some moments with your business that really show up as highlights for you where you're like most proud of so far? Hmm. That's a great question.
Christopher and Laurel, they always tell me, 'cause they're a little older and more senior, you know that it's really. Life and entrepreneurship, it's all about the moments like you really remember when you look back at your life, you just remember these moments.
Mm-hmm. And they're not things that you, that you think you're gonna remember, but it's just been such a, a pleasure and a joy, um, this entire time because it's also shown. Me a level of worthiness, like, wow, I'm worthy enough to work with these people and to learn from them and to love them and respect them, and I admire them so much.
But little things, we were in our hemp fields. This was before we even conceived of products, but we were traveling the country to find the best hemp because good hemp starts with good soil and hemp as a plant pulls up the constituents of the soil. It's grown in. So if you don't have good soil and good sun, then you're not gonna, you're gonna have dirty hemp.
Mm-hmm. So we found some hemp in Oregon. And we were in the fields, and at this time we have no idea what we wanted the brand to be called. It is so hard to think of a brand name.
Yes.
Actually raised money. We raised our, you know, $3 million seed round as Mpia. That was our name. So our first pieces of press was around Mpia, which.
Is a weird, you know, now it seems like a weird name, wouldn't it? Hemp is still perceived as, you know, dirty hemp rope and things like that. But we are in the car and um, this Spanish song came on the radio. It's beautiful song. We're in the field and the word prima was said, and. Christopher's like, oh, prima, that's a nice sounding word.
And I was like, huh, that is a nice sounding word. And we're in the fields and I Google what does prima mean? And the first thing that comes up is in Spanish, it means female cousin. And literally hemp is the female cousin of marijuana. They're sober. You know, the sober female botanical cousin. It just hit me like, whoa.
And then we looked deeper and we saw that prima also in other languages means things like first, best, top quality, excellent. Mm-hmm. And we were like. Yes, yes, and yes. Such a cool aha moment. You know, it's like the little things like that. But I would say more than anything, the biggest moment has been to see our products and shelves at Sephora, because we're one of the three CBD brands that are on shelves and mm-hmm.
As a, you know. Teenage beauty activists trying to get Sephora to recognize the importance of clean and also the power of plants. That was such a milestone for me because I had been trying to get Sephora to bring on clean products as an activist for so many years, and then to see our products as a part of their Kleenex, Sephora program in their CBD section, that we help them, we help them conceive of the standards.
I, I still can't believe that we're in there. We're in over, you know, just about 300 stores. Um mm-hmm. And just thinking about where I started as a little beauty activist, you know, trying to get people to care about this. Mm-hmm. And now to see two of our high performance facial skincare products in Sephora was such a, a milestone.
Still kind of gives me chills.
No, I mean, the whole story of Prima gave me chills over here. Like I love those moments and so many entrepreneurs who have been on this podcast talk about this level of faith they have, that there's something bigger than them no matter what. Their spirituality is, or where they stand, they're like, there's something else because too many, too many crazy things happen at these moments where you're like, I'm just here to to see it.
I did not come up with this.
I'm just here to witness the magic of the world. It really allows, yes, I mean, I. I wrote a blog post about the honest company in business school because I saw what was happening from the PR perspective with them and I under, I thought there was something else going on. So I wrote this blog post, was The Wall Street, was the honest company set up by the Wall Street Journal that got me on the phone with Christopher.
You know, this was in 2000. 14 or something. Mm-hmm. And then now, you know, just by chance, and now we're building this business together. It's just so interesting because, again, to your earlier point, that was a random decision that I made, you know, um, impulsively, but that, that just changed the course of my life forever.
So it almost makes everything make sense.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. The, the, so often it doesn't make sense until we look backwards and, and I think often when people come to me and they're stuck about like, how do I start? What do I do? I'm like, honestly, just start, pick one and just keep seeing where it goes.
Like there's no way to, um, you can't create it in advance the way that, where you'll see it when you look backwards because it is these micro decisions, but. The only thing you can do is keep following like what makes sense to you? Yeah. And like, keep going. Yep. I think it's
all about creation. Mm-hmm.
Don't just think about something in your head. Put it out there. So the only I'm here is because I started doing, you know, activist events when I was 15 to get press, and then that press ultimately gave me a platform. So it's like, even if you don't know what you're doing, like I put, I made a cannabis feminist Instagram account when I moved to la Now we're at, you know, over 47,000 followers and I haven't done anything to that account.
I've just. Put up content that I believe in. So, but yet now that gives me a platform to talk about Prima. And so it's really just like, do everything you can to build yourself up. Mm-hmm. So that you can get in touch with the right people. You know, the only reason I was doing all the cannabis feminist stuff, he saw press I got in the New York Times and he dmd me that we need to actually meet.
So it's like, even if you think what you're doing is just for creativity or just for education, do that and then that'll lead you to the next. Mm-hmm.
When you hear the words powerful and ladies separately and combined, what do they mean to you and what do you think of?
Powerful to me says resilience, strength, bravery, ladies, historically is kind of the opposite for me.
So when someone says, ladies, it's kind of like the soft, the not so serious, the, you know, need help. But together powerful ladies to me. It says the future, which is a time and a place in which we can be in our lady self, we can be in our feminine and be powerful and be mm-hmm wrong and brave. And that's the perception.
They're not two separate things that are almost like at odds. They are the future in which women can be women in their feminine and they're masculine and be taken seriously and have a seat at the table.
I love that. When you think about the life path you've been on, right? We've talked a lot about Christopher and the impact he's had on you.
Who are some of the women who have been key influencers and guiding lights on your journey?
So many both living and um, not living. But the biggest driver for me is just my female ancestors. I feel them. I talk to them. I thank them because I really believe that I am here because they couldn't do what I'm doing and I'm doing that work for all of us. Mm-hmm. So I'm really. Driven by and motivated by the spirit of the women that came before me and could just be housewives that was really just, and moms, that was it.
Mm-hmm. And even my grandma and my mom, 'cause they're, they both didn't work and they raised children. My mom raised four children, my grandma three, I'm so motivat motivated by them and the way that they. Live their lives too, in such a different way. Like they are super devoted to their partners. Mm-hmm.
And I'm so in a different place and I, I almost appreciate that contrast. Mm-hmm. I've been so lucky to be, um, connected to all of these incredible female entrepreneurs that have reached out, um, just by chance. And now are, are mentors and friends. Susan Feldman, who started One King's Lane. She just sent me a LinkedIn message when I moved to LA and started, you know, then she would invite me to the Jewish holidays and she's been such a force.
Mm-hmm. And Malcolm Beck, who started Blue Mercury, she again, I just took a meeting with her in business school and she. Took a chance on me and let my little tiny business go, you know, distribute in her stores, but now is still such a mentor and these women are so resilient themselves and they've been through so much and that gives me so much strength.
So I'm so inspired by other female, older entrepreneurs who are now just mentors and forces in my life.
Yeah. Uh, part of the powerful lady's mission right, is paying empowerment forward. And so I love that they reached out to you and then when you reached out to them, it was, it was equally received because we, one of the other misconceptions so many people have is that you can't just go and say hi to somebody.
And I'm like, no, LinkedIn is awesome. Like DM them on Instagram, send them a LinkedIn message like people respond. Who accessible when you need them
to be even. Mm-hmm. You know, Paris Hilton promoted a show I did on cannabis, Snoop Dogg, and so now I'm connected with her on, on Instagram. It's just these women.
She's also someone I'm so inspired by because she's built a platform kind of pretending that she's. Not as smart as she is mm-hmm. When she's the smart one. Just kind of orchestrating all of this in front of us and building a hundred million dollar company. So I'm very inspired by women that may not be taken seriously, um, in the public, but they're just doing that to establish a platform to get things done, to live their lives.
So I'm very inspired by that. All different, different types of, of personalities through the lens of the feminine.
There, there is, and you know, it's. There's so many people, male or female, who what you see is the brand, not them. Yeah. And it's so easy to confuse that. And some people, it's one and the same.
Like there is no difference. And they, you think they're a brand, you're like, oh no, that's really actually them. Exactly. And
just this idea that. Someone's brand can create a perception around the person, but in the end, they're the ones on top because they're orchestrating this brand to get the power for the platform.
So it's kind of this indirect route. Yes.
Yeah. And how great is it when you get to have your, your contact list and your, you know, Rolodex that people know that term anymore? Uh, I think it's more of a euphemism, but to just have all these people who, you know, are carving their own path, like, to me that's.
The circle that I want. Like, are you choosing what's authentic to you and what you really want to do? Um, 'cause I could sit at a dinner table with people like that forever. Yep.
Exactly. I know. Mm-hmm. I just had a conversation last week, just reminded me of two others. Ricky Lake and Abby Epstein. Mm-hmm.
The filmmakers who have just tackled some of the most important female issues through film, never for Money, just because they feel it's the right thing to do. Their next film is around birth control, and I'm just, I'm so inspired by them. Yeah.
And, and yeah, it's, we, I feel really lucky to be in this time when so many cool things are happening of more and more people stepping in and I, and there's some, a weird crossover of entrepreneur becoming like the chic thing to be again, even though it's what we were doing for like centuries before the 1950s.
That, and, and the activism approach crossing over right now is so interesting to me because. It is like a light bulb went off and you went, oh, like we can do all this together. Um, how are you seeing that show up around you, um, in addition to the filmmakers you've mentioned and of course, your own businesses?
Well, in terms of Can you, can you clarify that question? Sure. So where, where else are you seeing activism and entrepreneurship showing up for people? Like as they're gonna do both?
I think consumerism is activism. We don't think about it that way, but everything you buy align with your values. That's why it's so important to at least know the ingredients in your products.
And I see even Google, the founders with everything you buy, see the faces behind. You know the products. Yeah. Because that's the soul, that's the energy that is going into the product. So I, but I also think it's so interesting what you said brought up this idea that brands are almost becoming our source of religion, healthcare purpose.
You know, in this, in this time where our healthcare system, there's a lot of distrust and religion too. It's almost like brands are taking the place of all of those things, which is really exciting, but it puts a lot of pressure on the brand because when something happens in the world, we feel like we have to say something all the time.
Mm-hmm. You know, like when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, I was at a Jewish holiday dinner and we were frantically texting like, we need to say something. This is a huge moment in history, almost acting as like the public, like the news platform. Yeah. And so it's interesting to see this, um, this time for brands where there's a lot of responsibility, but a lot of opportunity to use your platform as almost a way to change philosophy.
Yeah, but all goes back to consumerism, and I think that we need to take that very seriously, that what you buy. Really supports something one way or the other. So make sure you know what you're supporting.
Mm-hmm. And it, it all has that, uh, red thread of, of being intentional. Right? Because I love that we're starting to separate consumerism from capitalism, right?
Like, people say capitalism, they're like, oh, it's horrible. It's like, hold on, like hold on. The consumerism is usually what we're talking about. Right? And even in that materialism inside of that. So, um, I love that we're at a place where. It's getting re-looked at of how do we really be intentional? Like I'm obsessed with any food, agriculture, soil, documentary, like the things, all the stuff about what's in your products.
Like I could watch those all day long and. It really comes back to as well, to coming what we were talking about earlier, about what we have to reduce as an entrepreneur because time and money are like the, the things that we're always evaluating. So how are we spending our time? How are we spending our money?
What are we doing with the things that we're purchasing? I do feel like there's a lot more pressure on the individual person to carry that weight. So I agree with you that having brands like Prima, where. The pressure's taken off. Like just buy it. It's good for you. It's awesome. It checks all the right choices.
Um, it's, it's a relief because I don't wanna be someone who has to read every package all the time, because that's a whole job.
Because that's just so much work. The consumer shouldn't do have to do homework to ensure the products are safe, especially 'cause we're trying to target a vulnerable population that's stressed out.
And the last thing we wanna do is create more stress. Just understand, trying to provide for you. And so that goes back to why we are so passionate and committed to third party standards and certifications. 'cause again, it shouldn't be a brand. Telling you their products are safe, the brand is. So we need these third party certifications and standards to uphold a level of safety and transparency and accountability.
So again, it's not the brand telling you.
Yeah, and that's originally why so many of the. Governmental organizations were created. Right. But now, now they're all suspicious. I know, I know. There's still some good ones though. There are. There are. When you look at what's coming up for you in 2021, obviously 2020 was crazy for everybody and there's still the hangover of 2020 that's happening.
Um, but what are you excited about and what are you really looking forward to?
I keep going back to this word of creation because when you're in survival mode, which I was for all of 2020, I was, I just turned 30 the next day we went into quarantine. Mm-hmm. I went through divorce, all of these things happen and so I was in a state of survival mode and I definitely had, you know, times of depression and anxiety, and when you're in that state, you.
I can't even think about creating something because you're so just stuck and it's dark. And so coming out of that, which I'm fully out of, I'm so happy about that. I have all of these urges to just create things. Um, I really, really want to. Help other women understand, um, what true compatibility is. Mm-hmm.
Just based on my experience, I now feel like I have this responsibility to help people understand the difference between compatibility and chemistry just to. Ensure that no, that, you know, less women go through what I went through romantically. So I'm really passionate about that and stepping out because I think you realize you're healed when your pain can be turned into purpose.
Mm-hmm. You're able to take something negative that happened to you and use it as a op and as an opportunity to help other people. So I'm really, really passionate about that. And I'm just so passionate about, um, just prima finding ways into more people's lives. It's really hard to be a CBD company. We can't advertise on Facebook traditionally.
Mm-hmm. We can't get mainstream retailers with our supplements yet. Be, and those are theoretically the one, the products that show you the power of Prima is the mm-hmm. The, so we're really kind of trapped. So it's like we have to do everything in our power just to be seen, just to be a consideration.
Mm-hmm. And I'm excited about. Where that'll take us creatively and how we can kind of reposition our brand as not a CBD brand. We're the science of stress relief. And by the way, your skin issues are just stress. Nothing's wrong with you, you know? Yeah. Um, we're all just in a state of stress, and so I al I also wanna help to normalize stress so people don't stop thinking that something's wrong with them and realize that we just need better tools to deal with the ebbs and flows of life.
Like this is, stress is normal. Chronic stress, that's where we run into. Mm-hmm. So that's what we're trying to solve for.
Yeah. No, I love that. Um, I feel so lucky because there are so many guests that I've never met before. They show up and it's been such a delight to talk to you. I'm like, oh, we have like so many core things that I think are aligned and a story.
And I'm like, oh, well I'm just so excited when I meet someone new and I'm like, oh, I'm keeping you. So we're keeping you. I know. It's just
so lovely. I, you know, I honestly, I like to keep my weekends pure, but I felt so good about this and I was like, I feel like this is gonna energize me, and I just feel so fired up.
So thank you so much.
You're welcome. You're welcome. How can everyone who is a fan of you and what's in more about Prima, how can they connect, follow you, and support you?
Well, you can follow us along at Prima, we're P-R-I-M-A on Instagram. That's where we do a lot of our brand, you know, awareness, storytelling, and education.
We also have a website called prima.co co. It's not.com. And one of the first things I did there was build out a magazine with about a hundred pieces of content, really normalizing the human experience, sharing stories from all walks of life. Mm-hmm. Tell people realize that they can reclaim their health and happiness, so check that out.
We have. 14 or so products that are really life changing and you can follow me along at Jessica Asaf, but one A, so it's J-E-S-S-I-C-A-S-S AF on Instagram.
Perfect. We'll have all the links and all the correct spellings on our posts that we do for this as well. So everybody can go to the powerful ladies.com/podcast and see it all in the show notes.
So no one needs to remember how to spell anything if they don't want to right now.
Also, email me, I, I'm here for everyone. So I'm jessica@prima.co. I love hearing from people and I also feel this responsibility to pay it forward. So if anyone needs business advice, reach out.
I love that. Thank you so much for being a guest today, and I cannot wait to stay in touch and see where this year takes you.
Thank you so much, Kara. I so appreciate it. Happy Sunday.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. All the links to connect with Jessica Prima and cannabis feminists are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com slash podcast. There. You can also leave comments and ask questions about this episode. Want more powerful ladies, come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, where you can also find some free downloads to start being powerful today.
Subscribe to this podcast and help us connect with more listeners by leaving us the five star rating and a review. If you're looking to connect directly with me, please visit kara duffy.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. Without her, this wouldn't be possible.
You can follow her on Instagram at Jordan K. Duffy. We'll be back next week at the brand new episode. Until then, a hooper taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: @jessicassaf @prima
Twitter: @jessassaf
Website: prima.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaassaf/
Email: Jessica@prima.co
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
