Nicole D' Ortona

Someone recently told me that I am an investor, and my business is my investment, so if I put $1 in, I should be getting $2 back. Hearing it reframed that way helped me understand that I need to decouple myself emotionally from the business. It's easy to get so attached to an idea that it prevents you from shifting and changing and being malleable with what the market needs. You have to let go of thinking 'this is my baby' and start thinking of yourself as an investor who needs to look at things from a practical viewpoint of $1 in, $2 out. Detaching the emotional side is the most important thing you have to do when you start a business, because you can't get locked into a cycle of 'I'm gonna keep trying, it's gonna work' without looking at the data and making informed decisions. You have to understand when it's time to let an idea go or when you need to make a shift. There are so many companies that were reluctant to change, and the moment they did shift to something they never saw themselves doing, that's when they were really able to take off.

I would tell them don't be scared, and just do it. There are so many women out there that don't do things just because they're scared and they think they don't have the ability to do something. There were so many things I didn't know before I started this, and it's almost better that way, because you get in there and you start solving problems and you realize you can do it. Starting a business is just problem solving, and all of those problems, you can figure out how to solve them. A lot of women don't start businesses because it's daunting, and we're constantly conditioned into thinking that this is a man's world, and it largely is. The hemp industry is inundated with men, and it's tough out there for women in hemp, tough out there for women in any industry almost. We have to fight, and we have to manage these different modes of our personality, being in our masculine and being in our feminine. We're constantly being shown these narratives of lanes that we should stay in, and I kind of just think, fuck that. I can do anything any man could do. The best thing anyone could do is to just fucking do it. Don't be scared, do it, and figure it out. Solve the problems and follow your dreams.

The biggest challenges are definitely the regulatory and legal market. Texas was facing a potential total hemp ban in 2025, and I ran probably the most successful cannabis political campaign in history fighting against SB3, which was a bill to ban the entire legal hemp industry. We got a gubernatorial veto at 11:30 p.m. on the very last day after trending nationally on Twitter for two weeks, gathering 8,000 handwritten letters and 150,000 petition signatures in just two weeks. We made it through two special sessions with no ban bills passed. Now we're dealing with additional legal challenges because DSHS, the governing regulatory agency in Texas, has been going through a rulemaking process to implement new rules, and we're currently in a lawsuit with the state. Beyond Texas, there's an incoming federal ban that's supposed to take place in November. Mitch McConnell snuck a federal hemp ban into a funding bill last November, and we're working on fighting that at the federal level, hoping to get a regulatory bill passed or an extension. It's an extremely complicated market to be in, and that's honestly our biggest challenge right now. If we didn't have that impending issue, we would be doing things a lot differently in terms of where we're investing our money. We're looking at different options to potentially bring in non-THC products as the next phase of our brand, and if we have to go that route, we'll pivot the entire company to be more of a functional hydration company.

Authenticity is most important to me. The whole concept of Highgroove was to bring joy back into movement. Exercise and movement is the one thing that is truly for you, and I don't think anyone should dictate how you want to move your body or what feels good for you. There are so many stigmas about cannabis users being lazy stoners, but we're in a revolution right now with the average cannabis user. Studies have shown that people who use cannabis are often more active than people who don't. I wanted to instill a fun and rebellious environment around moving your body and bringing joy back to it so you do it more often. Creating a healthy lifestyle is something so many people struggle to do. We really like to embody a rebellious side of exercise and movement, breaking the mold and breaking the stigma, showing people that you can utilize this plant and that doesn't mean you're a lazy stoner or a worthless human being. That's largely the narrative that's been pushed around people who use cannabis for so long. We really wanted to try to break that stigma but also keep it fun and instill fun back into your life, because I don't think adults are allowed to have that much fun anymore. Life gets so serious, and there are so many things we have to worry about, whether it's your kids, making money, keeping your job, or whatever it is. We just wanted to focus on something that gives you some joy in your life.