Scaling up a purpose-driven brand with Sophie Morrison from Paso

The Growth Journals is a series of interviews to explore how businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs tackle the toughest growth challenges and aims to give you an insight into how you can create better, more sustainable growth strategies.

Before we get into it, here’s a quick summary of my takeaways:

• Create a brand around a purpose rather than a product to open your horizons
• Listen to your customers, they are ultimately the most important voice and can help to enhance your product
• Balance your sales strategy when starting out; combine owned channels and retailers to maximise reach whilst managing profitability.
• Being an entrepreneur is a long-term game. Believe in your product and don’t expect overnight success. (Fun Fact: QR codes were invented in 1994 and had to wait 26 years for a global pandemic before the idea took off!)

“We aren’t a one product (CBD) company, but rather a differentiated brand focused on solving problems”

Tell me a bit about Paso and your journey so far.

I used to live in the US where CBD is more prevalent and I used it to control my anxiety. When I came back to the UK my cousin [and co-founder of Paso] who also uses CBD wondered why it hadn’t caught on as much in the UK. So we looked into the market and found that on the one end there are the medicinal, wellness focussed brands and on the other end you have “vaper bro” brands playing up the cannabis angle. There was nothing in the middle. And this was where Paso began. We saw a gap in the market for a unisex brand that de-stigmatises the use of CBD so people would not be scared to try it and be able to capitalise off its benefits like we did!

CBD is becoming a fairly crowded market these days so how do you see Paso differentiating itself?

Well, we began as a CBD company with a large range of products because we wanted to be able to provide something for everyone. But we realised in the UK market people don’t care about the underlying ingredient, they care about the ultimate effect. Am I relaxed? Can I fall asleep? Has my pain gone? What this taught us is we aren’t a one ingredient (CBD) company, but rather a differentiated brand focusing on solving problems. Our mission is to help people relax and sleep through a range of products that actually work and in formats they actually want.

“Our growth strategy is focused on delivering high quality products at affordable prices whilst continuing to be flexible to what our customer want”

You’ve mentioned the UK market and touched on some of the problems you hope Paso will help to solve around sleep and relaxation. How have your customers informed the products you sell?

We learnt that our customers want products that have a high impact. The more familiar, easily accessible products like chocolates and gummies — despite being great for brand building through editorial partnerships and introducing new customers to CBD — are less effective and not what our core market is after. Our growth strategy is focused on continuing to deliver high quality products at an affordable price point, and continuing to be flexible and responsive to what our customers and the market wants — high strength wellness.

And in terms of getting in front of customers, you are ultimately a D2C brand but what has been your growth strategy beyond this channel?

At the beginning we focussed on offline and getting into as many stores as possible. We got some key accounts and signed a signature brand account, Selfridges, which was a great stamp of approval. We recognised that retailers were key as whilst you sacrifice some of your margin you can build up brand awareness. Then COVID happened and every retail shop shut!!! So we realised we needed to get organic traffic to our website. And here we tried everything — affiliate marketing, SEO, social, community-building through our newsletter. We also completely revamped our website to optimise the journey and make the products standout on the page to make the buying journey much easier and more streamlined.

“As a small business you can only think about what is the solution, you can’t get stuck on the problem”

Clearly Covid has been a huge challenge for so many businesses, particularly ones just starting out like Paso. But putting Covid to one side, are there any other challenges you have faced?

Obviously, as with any small business cash is not limitless so you have to be smart with what you invest in. There is loads of stuff we want to do but we have to prioritise and think about what will generate us the best ROI or makes the most sense for us now. Also being in the cannabis and CBD market makes things a touch more risky — one day your packaging is compliant the next its not! But as a small business you can’t get stuck on any problems or hiccups, there is always a solution or a workaround (and there has to be when you are on a budget!) you just have to put your heads together and think outside the box.

You went from a career in consulting to founding your own business. What have been your learnings from starting a business from scratch?

When it’s your own business, things that I used to be apprehensive about trying I now have no choice, but to just do. We need to do everything possible to make this work. You lose your shame and ego. And it forces you to prioritise your time and think critically about what is the most valuable use of your time. Outsource the skills where we don’t have them and don’t dwell on things. It’s all about ROI and what will drive sales.

“People can get so crippled by the feeling they have to be an expert that they don’t put anything out there or move forward”

And if you could go back to the start of your Paso journey and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

I used to think everything meant so much and put pressure on myself. And you have to remember — everyone makes mistakes and it doesn’t matter as long as you learn from them. You have to make mistakes in order to succeed. Nothing isn’t solvable. Also, it’s ok to be wrong and it’s ok to admit you don’t know the answer. People can get so crippled by the feeling they have to be an expert that they don’t put anything out there or are slow to progress.

Now a final round of ‘quick fire’ questions! I’m going to ask you a series of questions and I want you to reply in short, sharp answers. Ready?

What’s your favourite book at the moment?

• This is an odd one… I’m reading my granny’s manuscript about her life living in Florida during the depression. It’s fascinating and really relevant to now.

What’s your single biggest takeaway from Covid — business or personal?

• That we must all be flexible (both professionally and personally) as things can change so quickly. It really tests our creativity — if we can’t do that, what can we do — and can open up new opportunities or ideas.

If you were a cocktail what would you be and why?

• A chilli margarita because it’s got some umph, it’s full of energy and tequilas an upper.

Who do you look up to?

• I look up to anyone who has made a business successful. You get excited at the beginning but it’s all about sticking with it and patience. It takes time, it’s a slow burner, you have to be in it for the long haul and truly believe in your product.

Where do you see Paso being in 5 years time?

• I really hope it’s a global sensation, that we’ve hired a bunch of cool, diverse humans and we’re selling a range of products that I’m proud of and feel the benefits from with my own sleep problems!

To check out more about Paso, head over to their website or Instagram!