Holistic peddling

She is an architect with a penchant for interior design. He is a surveyor with a background as a yoga instructor. Together, they are going on 12 years of marriage and have now gotten into retail sales of CBD products to provide alternative relief options to the residents of Evangeline Parish and the surrounding areas.
The she in the equation is Jill Stevens. “I always liked design and anything art related as a child,” she said regarding what made her interested in architecture.
“As a teenager,” she said, “I really enjoyed watching home remodel shows. I liked space planning and design. I actually didn’t know I wanted to be an architect at first. I decided to go into interior design. While in that program, I learned about architecture and realized as an interior designer I would need to work with an architect forever. So, I cut out that man and became an architect.”
The he in the equation is Robbie Stevens, who has been surveying since 1997.
“After high school,” he said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just worked at a little gas station where we pumped gas and fixed flats. It was a full-service gas station.”
Through a family friend who owned her own construction company, Robbie was given a job as a surveyor and worked on rights of way and establishing boundaries. After working there for four years, he learned what was needed to become a licensed surveyor which included a four-year degree.
“I quit working at the construction company and went to work for one of my dad’s friends who did rural boundary work in Grant Parish,” he said. “I worked there for a couple of summers while I went to LSUA. From there, I moved to Baton Rouge.”
While in Baton Rouge, Robbie worked several jobs to pay his through college. “I worked for a surveyor and a bike shop,” he said. “I did post tension cables, and I taught yoga. I went and lived with Hindu Indians for 10 days and trained under them for a year to get my certification.”
Robbie’s yoga background got him into holistic medicine and was a factor in his athletic background.
“I did triathlons for 10 years,” he said. “I always did yoga for my triathlon training. In 10 years of doing triathlons and cycling, I never had a sports related injury. I never been big on taking medicine. I don’t tolerate medicine well.”
That fact first piqued Robbie’s interest in CBD. He started using some of the products and found they made a big difference.
“Robbie started the talk about CBD and the different products and how he found benefits using the products,” Jill said. “I started using some of the products and got relief from them as well.”
The couple then started doing their homework and researching different products. Their research led them to Cypress Hemp, which is, as Robbie said, owned by a person who was run over multiple times by a drunk driver.
“It crushed her pelvis,” Robbie said. “She was in a wheelchair for about a year, and she was out of school. While she was out of school, she started researching. That’s how she founded her business.”
Jill said, “She could not tolerate prescription pain medicine. She was looking for alternative ways to get relief because she couldn’t take it.”
Jill continued, “She’s a biological engineer. She knew she got relief from hemp and CBD products. She graduated in biological engineering to start a hemp farm and to make the products to provide relief for people.”
Based on all their research, Jill and Robbie decided to become a Cypress Hemp retailer.
Becoming a retailer, though, meant treading through all the red tape and regulations. “It was a long process that was only just recently completed,” Jill said. “Robbie started it in December. Most of it was for credit card and bank stuff.”
The hassle created by the regulations is paying off with the response coming from the community.
“We’ve had a lot of older farmers come in because they have knee pain or back pain,” Robbie said.
Jill said, “We’ve actually had elderly people come in here who are open to any product out on the shelf that is going to provide relief. I’ve actually been surprised at how many people who have come in already and know about the products.”
In the short time they have been selling CBD products, both Jill and Robbie see how rewarding the decision is.
Robbie said, “It’s rewarding for me to hear people say that it helped them and that they’ve gotten relief from products they’ve bought from us.”
“This is not either of our primary jobs,” said Jill. “We’re not banking on this business as a means of income. We are really excited about offering healthy alternatives to pharmaceutical medications to people who are like-minded and interested in healthier options.”
She concluded, “It’s nice to know we’re taking the steps to provide something for the people of our community that can help them and benefit them and make them happy. Hopefully, we can make a difference in their life.”