Mike Shouhed is the Bravo TV star who’s one of the latest celebrities to get into the CBD Business. Photo credit: Picuki.
Pure, Premium and Effective is the message that Au Santè, a Beverly Hills-based CBD company has been echoing since its launch in 2019. Derived from the minds of Mike Shouhed and Ted Dhanik, this company providing their full-spectrum CBD-infused products to the public to boost health and fitness.
The co-creator of the company and Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset Star, Mike Shouhed reflects on a conversation that he had at the gym with Dhanik that gave birth to the concept of Au Santè.
“We were chatting about CBD and we both came to the conclusion that anything that is out there is not potent enough and if it is, it is too expensive,” he tells Emerald. “So we came together to create a brand that has the optimum potency; does what it says; and make it affordable so that people can use it and benefit from the medicine that CBD is.”
“To Your Health”
Au Santè takes its name from a French term that means “to your health,” which is a celebration or cheers to an individual’s wellness. That is the premise that their company is built on.
From their gummies, to their full-spectrum capsules, pet joint formulas and CBD oils, all of their products feature Oregon-grown hemp. All ingredients are organic, non-GMO and are lab-tested for purity.
Post from @ausante on Instagram.
Dhanik, co-creator of Au Santè, says their high-quality ingredients set them apart from other CBD companies.
“There are very few products that do what they say they will do and that is because the sourcing of the material, which includes the CBD and the other ingredients, are not necessarily from the best places — we have found the best farms to source our products,” he says. “We use only […] full-spectrum [formulas] that contain the benefits that broad-spectrum and the other versions of CBD are missing […].”
Dhanik also explains that the company uses “a lot as far as volume in each capsule, so it is effective and we blend it with other active ingredients, depending on the application, [which] makes it very effective, of high quality and fresh.”
Product Benefits
Au Santè carries a variety of products with different potencies, including their 100 mg CBD Bath Bomb, or gummies with 10 mg of CBD each.
Au Santè also features non-CBD products, including a Cognitive Brain Formula with ingredients like ginkgo biloba leaf extract.
Ginkgo biloba extract, according to the Mayo Clinic, contains “flavonoids, which have powerful antioxidant qualities, and terpenoids, which help improve circulation by dilating blood vessels and reducing the “stickiness” of platelets.”
Post from @ausante on Instagram.
Shouhed further emphasized that their products have been beneficial for his personal health.
“Our products have worked wonders for me and [Dhanik],” he said. “For myself, I use our sleep CBD to get a good night’s rest. When I wake up, I take our capsules. It helps me with whatever is ailing my body.”
Additionally, Shouhed explained, “some of my favorite products are our joint formula, our brain formula, and turmeric [CBD capsules]. Our gummies are amazing. People love them. It just makes you feel good and helps you to function at an optimal level.”
For instance, research shows that CBD is effective at treating a range of conditions, including skin issues, pain, inflammation, anxiety, arthritis, seizure disorders and more.
Challenges Faced
“Essentially, CBD is a crowded space so there are some challenges that we face with education,” he explains. As such, Dhanik said Au Santè uses social media to continuously educate the public about CBD products. “If you look at our Instagram, we are constantly educating people. The entire premise of our social media presence is to teach others and get them to understand the differences, how we are different and what they should be looking for in CBD and biodynamic products.”
Educating the public is a responsibility that his organization does not take lightly.
“Education remains a top priority for us because the space can be confusing for consumers. It is our job to educate them from a narrative perspective to let them know that we are doing all of this for our products as well.”
Post from @ausante on Instagram.
One of the ways the company seeks to do this is through online discussions with consumers about how they can use CBD to boost their health. For example, the company works to inform its followers of the ingredients in their products, and how they promote wellness.
AuSante also facilitates dialogue through their Frequently Asked Questions page.
Learning Their Customers’ Wellness Needs
Additionally, the company is committed to helping individuals “live a calmer, healthier, more well-balanced life” by learning about customers and their wellness needs.
For those interested in CBD products, Dhanik expressed that AuSante will guide them and help determine what products are the right for them.
“So there are some questions that we ask like do you have inflammation issues? Do you have digestive issues? Do you have anxiety [or] stress?” he continued. “How much caffeine do you consume everyday? How is your sleep [like]? You know, things like that. Are you active? Do you work out a lot? Do you have joint pains?”
Dhanik said that “these are all types of questions that CBD has the answers to or specifically what our products were designed for. We have products to address all those types of concerns that consumers have.”
Post from @ausante on Instagram.
The COVID Impact
Shouhed says that Au Santè stood firm throughout the pandemic and provided relief to a lot of people that were struggling with their health.
“[We] were very fortunate. We were not impacted negatively, and I think our consumers were very lucky as well. Throughout the period of the coronavirus, a lot of people were dealing with anxiety and falling sick,” he added, “However, a lot of people reached out and thanked me because our CBD products helped them to get through a scary time. People were just grateful that our products existed and helped them through this entire ordeal that the world went through.”
In fact, research from High Yield Insights shows that “almost one in four U.S. CBD consumers have started using CBD in the last six months [of 2020], equivalent to 9 million new users […].”
Many new users turned to supplements and gummies “[…] to take the edge off their pandemic blues,” explains a senior consultant with High Yield Insights in a press release in late 2020.
Dhanik echoed Shouhed’s view on the impact that the pandemic had on their CBD company.
“We had a surge in sales during the pandemic because people were stressed out. They were dealing with a lot of anxiety as well as other unknown health factors. So to relieve anxiety, people were buying a lot of CBD, not just from us but from other brands as well,” he says. As for Au Santè, he added, “we had a lot of repeat business. All our customers continued to buy because CBD is effective for all the stuff that the pandemic brought on to people.”
As for the future, Dhanik hopes to build the momentum, and contribute to equitable causes.
“We will be contributing soon,” he assured. “We are a pretty new company but it is definitely in the plans for us.”
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