#165 Eat well, Feel Well - Carrie Solomon, Greater Goods

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

As we continue to check in with guests from previous shows, we circle back to Carrie Solomon, co-founder of Greater Goods and, as we learn in this podcast, Microjoy as well. Microjoy is new since our last show with Carrie, episode #67, released in March of 2021. For a quick background recap, Carrie and her husband started a medical cannabis company in 2014 with a very potent and great smelling topical, and then quickly launched an edible line of truffles and chocolate bars. The products were a hit and they rapidly expanded in their home state of Oregon. That has continued into a thriving cannabis business in the recreationally legal market. In 2019 they took their creations to a wider audience of consumers outside of our the state, launching Greater Goods to provide high quality products that were also conscientiously crafted and joyous at the same time. Since Carrie and her husband are both food and CBD enthusiasts, they only use ingredients that are organic and delicious, including fine chocolate, locally and responsibly sourced inclusions to add fun flavor profiles to their products, as well as Oregon sungrown hemp oil. However, in 2020, as the couple rolled “profoundly into the depths of the pandemic” as their website says, they noticed what that they missed the small joys, the miniscule interactions, of daily, routine life and assumed there were many others who felt the same way. Those infinitesimal moments that had punctuated life without trying; the microjoys in life. And their second business was born. Microjoy offers uncomplicated remedies that actually work and taste good; each formula created to address a specific challenge meant to be effective, quickly. Handmade in their own facility ingredients are sourced from the best suppliers – same philosophy as Greater Goods – and created to help unveil a more calm, well-rested, resilient person. The couple’s background in CBD, hemp and dabbling in certain mushroom ingredients has helped create the mood-enhancing gummies in Microjoy and the candy selection, tinctures and gummies offered in Greater Goods. Carrie makes a big point that there are NO psychedelic ingredients or effects from any of the company’s products. The big difference between the two companies is the phenomenon called microdosing. The benefits of microdosing are leveraging the use of certain mushrooms to be sub-perceptual to merely sub-perceptual levels to assist in managing traumatic events or depression by creating more activity in the brain. In more pedestrian language, it helps prevent shutting down and going into a funk. Most people use this method episodically, but some use long term for more chronic situations. The couple has evidently hit on a hot market, as their Greater Goods and Microjoy products are available in 12 states in the US, with many locations in both Oregon and Texas. They also have gone international, now selling in both Amsterdam, Netherlands and in Australia. Of course, you can buy online at https://hellogreater.com/ and https://microjoyful.com/. Follow them on IG @grtrgoods, FB @hellogreater, IG @microjoyful. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

Thank you for Listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast.

Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers
Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design
Production Coordinator: Kayleen Veatch