Kind Lab Interview with Rachel Daugherty, Founder of Fine Healing Goods
KL: Please introduce yourself.
Rachel: Hi! I am Rachel Daugherty, founder of premium cannabinoid wellness brand Fine Healing Goods, and my cannapreneurial journey all began with an MBA and a bait-and-switch bath bomb. Shortly after graduating with my MBA in hand, I began to focus on starting a family, but faced several hardships along the way. I live in Georgetown, Texas, just a few minutes north of Austin, where Fine Healing Goods is headquartered with my husband and baby girl.
KL: When & why did you start Fine Healing Goods?
Rachel: After 12 years of infertility treatments, including three rounds of IVF, multiple surgeries, six miscarriages, and a failed adoption, my body and mind were both in serious need of help. During that time, my husband begged me to try CBD, the solution he turned to for his arthritis, but knowing little about CBD aside from social stigmas, I decided it just wasn’t for me. I believed CBD was scary, derived from marijuana, and only belonged on the shelves of vape shops. Instead, I turned to traditional medication for treating my stress, anxiety, and depression. But after throwing my back out one evening, my husband drew me a bath, secretly dropping in a CBD bath bomb in the hopes of providing me with some much-needed relief—and it changed everything.
I emerged completely transformed, free of pain, less stress, and reduced anxiety. And once I found out that CBD was the reason, I immediately began researching the ins and outs of cannabinoids. Almost instantaneously, I knew that my mission in life was to spread the word about the natural healing alternative, working to destigmatize CBD and make it more approachable to people, especially women, like myself who believed it “just wasn’t for them.” Pulling from my entrepreneurial background, I opened the first day spa in Austin, Texas to offer CBD services in 2016, which was an introduction for much of her clientele to the benefits of cannabinoid wellness. It was only natural then that my next venture, Fine Healing Goods, was a parlay into the cannabis space, creating products that could be used to create her in-spa experiences at-home.
CBD helped me heal from mental and physical pain after my journey with infertility. I wanted other women to know this all-natural relief is real and effective. I wanted to share with as many women as I could that relief doesn’t exist in a bottle of wine and a Xanax. Trust that I know that personally.
KL: What is the short and long-term mission or vision of Fine Healing Goods?
Rachel: My short term mission was to create an approachable brand, so that more people would begin using the healing properties of plants. The long term vision is to continue to expand the Fine Healing Goods line to include products that speak to everyday use, while increasing our practices to be more sustainable and even more effective than they already are.
KL: Why did you choose to focus on skincare?
Rachel: When I began Fine Healing Goods, there were already many options for hemp flower and tinctures, but not many effective options that also pampered, so I wanted to create products that I would use to relax and heal at the same time. I do not believe you should have to sacrifice effective healing for a luxury feeling, so I created FHG to combine the two!
KL: What makes you passionate about the Hemp industry?
Rachel: Although my involvement in the cannabis industry started with Fine Healing Goods, it doesn’t stop there. I am fiercely passionate about the quality of our products, operating under a “seed to sale” mentality in our partnership with a family-owned hemp farm in Colorado. Our process involves knowing the soil, the farmers, and the manufacturing process, and ensures testing from planting to product, prioritizing quality, and adhering to strict guidelines to maintain organic certification, while using two separate third-party labs to ensure accuracy across all products.
I have now become an advocate, both for women in the cannabis industry and underrepresented groups who are facing criminalization for possessing, or selling the same cannabis that I use in our own products. My mission, Profits with a Purpose, is part of my ongoing effort to decriminalize CBD by donating to nonprofits, like National Bail Out. Similarly, I advocate for inclusion within the cannabis community, supporting women-owned businesses through my membership in the Female Founder Collective, a network of businesses led by women, and launching the first-of-its-kind women in cannabis consortium in 2020.