Growing Hemp Brands With Strategy, Education, and Focus | Tyler Hoff from HempAware

Rick: Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are on the buying journey and influencing them with key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more.

Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50% by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds by letting the AI do all the work and increase conversions while you keep the marketing as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Hey everybody, welcome back to Pathmonk Presents. Today we are joined by Tyler Huff.

He’s the owner and, hemp- hemp entra- hempreneur, right? Sorry for messing that up, Tyler, but you got the copyright for it. He’s the owner of HempAware. Tyler, welcome to the show and excited to have you here.

Tyler Hoff: Thank you, Rick. It’s an honor to be here.

Rick: Of course. And, maybe we get into the basics a little bit, Tyler. We talk about HempAware. In your own words, what’s the heart of what your company does? How would you describe it to someone new?

Tyler Hoff: I am the part owner in both HempAware as well as Bulk Hemp Warehouse. Bulk Hemp Warehouse is our physical hemp product distribution company where we help people, families, small, medium, large businesses essentially live more in alignment with their values of being more sustainable and lowering their overall impact and footprint on the environment by providing high quality bulk hemp fiber and seed products.

And HempAware is our other arm. Also part owner in HempAware, and this is our way of helping hemp and cannabis brands to overcome some of the major challenges of being able to sell their products in the marketplace. One of the biggest problems that hemp companies experience, and this is with all companies, but particularly with hemp and cannabis, is that they try to do too many things all at once and end up not doing any of them well.

So we help focus in, focus on your specialty and provide marketing, branding, and educational services so that you can get out there, find your ideal customers, and sell more hemp products so that we can all create a paradigm shift on the planet with hemp.

Rick: That’s awesome, man. And it sounds like it’s not only that you’re doing this to help others, but you’re also speaking from experience, right? ‘Cause you’re running a company that is in the industry, right? So I’m sure you face all the challenges and the setbacks that come with the job title, so to speak.

So with HempAware, you’re also able to, if not foresee, maybe just help those founders or entrepreneurs navigate through those hurdles. Maybe I’m off, but it sounds like there’s a component there of going from experience, not only tactics and going by the book, if that makes sense.

Tyler Hoff: Most definitely. I’ve been doing hemp marketing, branding, sales, and education in this industry for over 20 years, and so I’m very much a proponent of education. We call it Hemp-ducation, of course, and really just focusing on your, what we call your EXTRA, your expertise, talents, resources, and abilities because the abundance lives in the extra.

And so if you can focus on what you’re really good at and create that unique differentiator in your messaging and overcome specific challenges, anyone in the hemp industry could utilize that support and service.

And I had my mentors growing up. Still to this day, having coaching and mentorship is one of the most important things. So I’m here to support as many hempsters as I can while I’m on this planet.

Rick: Love it. Tyler, maybe we touch on, well, the people you work with, right? ‘Cause, obviously you’re dedicated. You talk about who you serve a lot. Can you give us a glimpse into, or maybe an idea of, who these people are, what type of… We talk about businesses and industries, of course, but who’s the person behind that and what’s the core problem you help them solve when they come work with you?

Tyler Hoff: Well, the main problem that we solve with Bulk Hemp Warehouse is essentially helping companies and families and individuals to not cause as much of a negative impact on their health and the environment as possible by integrating hemp into their daily lives or into their product lines. And with HempAware, we really solve the problem of finding a need and filling it with hemp.

So there’s many companies out there that are either focused on hemp solely or offer something hemp-related in their product line, and they don’t quite know how to package it and develop messaging and systems and frameworks to easily find their customers and then carry them down that customer journey to getting them interested, catching their attention, to piquing their interest, and drawing them into an experience, and ultimately converting them into lifelong customers.

And so we provide systems and tools and solutions to help them develop those processes.

Rick: Got it. Okay. So you help them with also not only the practical side of things, but also understanding the thinking behind it as you’re speaking about frameworks and not only tactics, but just why you’re doing what you’re doing, and then so you can apply and multiply even going forward, right?

As a company owner or as a marketer. I’m sure that’s also helpful. But I’m curious, how do these people find out about you? To get more technical, what are your top acquisition channels at the moment?

Tyler Hoff: Our core channels of acquisition are gonna be word of mouth, primarily. Organic SEO and AEO, as they call it these days, or GEO, whatever you wanna call it. And live events, networking, just showing up at different subject matter expertise events.

Cold email outreach is another big strategy. We do a little bit of paid ads, but not too much just ’cause the whole ads game is not super friendly for hemp and cannabis-related topics. But those, I would say, are our four main channels of lead acquisition and getting in front of our customers.

Rick: Okay. That makes sense. And word of mouth, you’re never gonna… You can beat it as far as volume, right? But the quality of those leads is just incomparable, I think. And it just spans across industries.

It’s just great to know that people still trust people and you’re referred from someone by someone and that’s great. At the end of the day, speaking for what we do here at Pathmonk, but we know that the website is crucial, right? When it comes to also even attracting new clients, but maybe educating them.

How would you rate the importance of your website from your perspective when it comes to nurturing or, again, educating clients? And do you feel that it has any standout strengths that help you do that?

Tyler Hoff: Yeah, most certainly. Our website is essentially the most important conversion mechanism that we have, depending on where the customer is in their buying journey. In other words, we use it for the TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel. And we have different assets that help us along that journey or the customer along that journey.

And whether it’s lead acquisition, creating different tools, catching people’s attention, our overall sales funnel, product and service pages. So yeah, depending on what stage of the journey, our website is essentially that hub for driving traffic and conversions, whether it’s that beginning process where we’re just catching their attention and building awareness about a specific problem that our clients might be dealing with, and that could be blog posts, a podcast.

We have Hempel Wear Radio that we syndicate across different platforms, and that, of course, drives people to the website. So yeah, ultimately it’s that central hub for converting people from that first stage of top of the funnel, middle of the funnel. Maybe they’re looking at different strategies or tactics, or maybe just doing research and getting education, getting more awareness on what they need to do.

And then for that final stage of transaction or conversion is giving them actual service pages or maybe a quote page. Get a quote or set up a discovery call. So yeah, depending on that stage of the journey, the website is that central hub for carrying them down that journey.

Rick: Well, I’m not surprised, and it sounds like you definitely know what you’re doing. With all of the years of experience you have also, it’s something that at the end, we typically recommend people, they go check you out, especially if they’re in the hemp industry, of course.

But it’s just undeniable how much of a first impression that is and how much it changes for people, just checking out your brand and understanding what you’re about, even the language on it. Could go on for days about the website.

But, Tyler, maybe you switch gears for a second, and we talk about you as a leader, if you don’t mind. I just wanna know, and I’m sure our audience is also curious, what’s a day in the life of Tyler like? Give us a glimpse into running both companies even and just what do you focus on a day-to-day? What does your role look like?

Tyler Hoff: Yeah, thanks for asking. A day in the life of Tyler at HempAware and Bulk Hemp Warehouse is checking in with my team, like, on a particular stage of a project, whether it’s an SEO client or a website design project. We do brand strategy sessions on a regular basis, having discovery calls with prospective clients, responding to leads coming in.

We have regular cold email campaigns that are sending out emails and getting people interested in our services. So I’ll jump in there and make sure that we’re getting back to those leads. Checking in on our reporting dashboards, like looking at traffic conversions, email marketing campaigns, just making sure the content is flowing.

So just regular social media content, email marketing content, website, landing pages, et cetera. We also do direct mail campaigns, so we have postcard campaigns that are regularly going out, so kinda keep an eye on those. And just following up with clients. Like, the fortune is in the follow-up, as they say.

So having reminders and mechanisms in place to help me keep up to speed with either existing clients to make sure that they’re happy and getting what they invested in, and just following up with the leads. If maybe I sent a proposal, just checking on those clients, creating reminders for myself, and then keeping up with them, just following up.

And yeah, we also do podcasts, so you might see me on a, not maybe daily basis, but certainly weekly or monthly basis getting ready for a podcast, and also joining amazing people like yourself on podcasts like this.

Rick: Well, thank you so much. And it’s clear to me that this is not your first rodeo, as they say. But it’s a great way, I would agree, to meet new people, to meet great people at that.

And maybe even a great lead generation tool, right? For people listening, that’s many, how many podcasts are actually working, right? But it sounds like you have a full plate, and it sounds like you’re doing so many different things.

How do you, with that flood of content out there, how do you stay focused and on top of things as far as… You mentioned at the beginning you have mentors, right? So you have people you turn to, but you also have routines or places or, like, content, specific content. I see great books to your right.

But yeah, maybe give us an idea of what you use on a daily basis to just stay ahead or maybe inspired even.

Tyler Hoff: YouTube is my foremost resource for, like, gaining knowledge on particular topics. Claude certainly, my kind of… Claude and Perplexity for research. I also invest in specific courses or mentorship coaching.

I’m a geek when it comes to marketing, branding, and sales. Those are the three things that I really get into. Recently doing more investment in, like, the reporting and analytics side of things. And then I have a marketing professor from college that has always been there for me, so I’ll text him or call him whenever I wanna show him a campaign that I’m working on or maybe get some advice from him, and that’s always nice to have, like, personal relationships with experts in the field, to get feedback and stuff like that.

But yeah, I’m also a part of several school communities, so just in there, like in different mastermind groups, and they do live coaching calls that I might hop on and get feedback. I’m part of a sales one, a branding one, a marketing group. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question.

Rick: Yeah, it does. Absolutely. And it’s in line with, I think many times that’s in line with the success your company has or even just the type of content you put out. It’s clear that you’re doing all of those things and you have a passion for it, right?

Without that, I don’t think that’s gonna… There’s no course that’s gonna teach you that. And so even just keeping in touch with your old professor, that’s impressive, I think. I don’t know how many people actually can say that. But that’s pretty cool.

Tyler, we are towards the end of our time together here and on the back half of our episode together. We have a rapid fire segment that I really wanna jump in with you. Would you be okay with that? We have just a few questions just to… Okay. Yeah. Let’s do it. Let’s do it.

So, you’re talking about all this content. When it comes to consuming content, what do you prefer, watching, reading, or listening?

Tyler Hoff: Watching.

Rick: Okay. What’s the latest piece of content that you’ve consumed? And if it’s a video, a YouTube video, or a course or a movie even, what was it, and was there any gem that really stuck with you in it?

Tyler Hoff: Well, I’m also an avid reader, so I know I said videos, but, just finished a book called—

Rick: It can be a book.

Tyler Hoff: Yeah. I finished a book called Three Magic Words, which is, like, the premise of it is built on the idea that the phrase “I am God” is the ultimate three magic words, which represents this deep metaphysical truth that the divine creative essence that forms the universe is moving through us in every moment, and that our thoughts and our feelings, our ideas, and the words that we speak into existence are what mold and shape our reality.

So this book helps focus your attention on the words you’re saying, the feelings you’re feeling, the thoughts that you’re thinking, and to tap into that universal creative power in everything that you do. So, it’s a kind of philosophical book, and, yeah, it was really insightful.

I loved it. I would recommend it for anyone. It was written, like, over 50 years ago, so I’m really into those older books. But yeah, hopefully that was insightful.

Rick: Absolutely, yeah. No, that sounds like a good recommendation right there. Just slightly different question. We’re going into maybe not the metaphysical, but maybe more like the magical, right?

So if you had a magic wand, Tyler, and could fix one frustrating thing in your life with tech, in your marketing life even, what would you pick?

Tyler Hoff: Something related to analytics and reporting, KPIs, like just finding the data and coalescing it all into, like, one reporting dashboard. I think so, yeah, something related to data and analytics in my world, ’cause I’m more of on the creative side, and my mind goes to the messaging and the storytelling and the creative, like, brand side of things.

So yeah, I would say more on, like, the reporting analytics and KPIs, something related to that most likely.

Rick: Okay. Okay, that’s a good one. Maybe related, maybe not, but what’s one repetitive task that you’d love to put on autopilot forever?

Tyler Hoff: Responding to cold email leads.

Rick: Okay, that’s a good one. We can relate, I think. I’m sure some of my colleagues will listen to this and then, like, yeah.

Tyler, again, thanks so much for being with us today. Thanks for joining the show, and before we wrap things up, I wanna give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing that they should remember about the work you guys are doing?

Tyler Hoff: I would wanna inspire whoever’s listening to this to make their dot on the map with hemp. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you do. Hemp is possibly the most valuable plant on the planet because it provides a solution for food, shelter, clothing, energy, medicine, plastics, and fuels, and it’s the most sustainable, eco-friendly way for us to solve some of the major challenges in the world, whether it’s hunger or pollution, energy crisis type issues.

So if you can do one thing, and when I say make your dot on the map with hemp, it stands for do one thing hemp. So that dot that you would be making on the map is with hemp. So whether it’s putting some hemp seeds into your breakfast in the morning, or wearing a hemp T-shirt, or purchasing a hemp plastic product.

Like, something that you can do today, whether it’s for your business and integrating hemp as a raw material into your product line, or maybe you’re a business and you’re printing out invoices or packing slips. Start printing on hemp paper. No matter what it is that you do, just do one thing hemp, and ultimately, eventually, I believe we’ll create a paradigm shift on the planet and all be able to live much more thriving, healthier, abundant lives as a result of that.

Rick: Amazing. What a way to close, Tyler. And I wanna thank you again for being on the show with us today. And if people want to check you guys out, maybe even both companies, where could they go?

Tyler Hoff: Hempaware.com and bulkhempwarehouse.com. And same for all the social platforms, just @hempaware and @bulkhempwarehouse. Twitter is @bulkhemp. Everywhere else is @bulkhempwarehouse.

Rick: All right. Perfect. We’ll put that in the show notes, Tyler. In the meantime, thank you so much again for joining us, and I wish you a wonderful day.

Tyler Hoff: Thank you. My pleasure.

Rick: All right. Bye everyone.