by Benjamin Schooley
Derenda Shewbert, owner of CBD American Shaman in Boerne (next to Toyota) is on the forefront for one of the hottest natural remedies in recent memory. Through a series of events, Shewbert now spends her days growing her own business, working closely with her customers, and going home satisfied that she is helping people enjoy better and healthier lives.
She begins, “Let me tell you – it was really a life changing moment. I took my mom to a CBD Shaman store in Lubbock in January of 2019. As soon as I walked in the door, my heart and my soul had found what I had supposed to be doing. I just knew it. My mom had terrible bone-on-bone knee ailments that caused her a lot of pain, and within 10 minutes of putting the cream on her knee, she was no longer in pain.”
Shewbert moved to the area in 1994 due to her husband’s work and set out to create a very successful real estate career. In the spring of 2015 her husband developed COPD, and Shewbert’s priorities shifted quickly. “I tried to be a realtor and caregiver for him. That became more and more difficult as his struggles advanced. My last real estate deal was in 2016, and I lost him in November of 2017.” After taking some time to recover, Shewbert knew that she had some large decisions to make.
“I had been wondering what I was going to do next, and then I fell into this CBD concept. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want to do real estate anymore. It was just too much stress. I wanted to simplify my life. I wanted to do something that I enjoyed doing, loved, and had fun, and I wanted to help people. I can tell you that I absolutely love what I do now.”
Following her trip to Lubbock, Shewbert began going through the steps to apply to offer the products and to become a vendor and begin the foundational work for her new business. Though it wasn’t always easy. She continues, “I immediately began looking for a location. Nobody in Boerne would lease to me initially. They told me that they didn’t want my kind of clientele in their strip centers. They thought I was a head shop, basically. But I moved forward with designing and picking out materials. My landlord here understood what I was wanting to do, and he’s been a great supporter of me going into business. This is my first ever attempt at retail and it hasn’t been easy, but I’ve had some great people around me.”
So a mere 6 months after her visit to a CBD American Shaman location, Shewbert opened her own. As the customers have frequented her business, she explains that there are some familiar questions with most of them. She explains, “A lot of people just want sleep. CBD is great for that because it relaxes you. It helps you quiet your mind for attention and focus. I tell them how it works and CBD isn’t a magic pill or oil – it gets into your system and it fires up your neurotransmitters and it helps your body heal itself. We’ve been deprived of hemp for 80-something years and our bodies were designed to have it. Stress is the other thing – anxiety. You do half a dropper in the mornings and it calms your mind down, your body down, to where it gives you a little bit of a chilled out effect. I can tell when they start feeling it because their shoulders start to relax and they say WOW – I feel better. It’s not magic, it’s just something that we need in our bodies.”
And Shewbert is loving her new passion and mission. “Knowing that this is MINE, and it’s up to me to make it work is what gets me out of bed. Outside of helping people, the responsibility of it is bigger than I expected, and I”m having a ball doing it, and so long as I’m loving it, I’m going to keep doing it. I never once think about real estate, even after doing it for 23 years, so that should tell you how much fun I’m having with it.”
Shewbert is actively looking for expansion locations everywhere from San Antonio to Kerrville as the demand continues to grow. While she has had day-to-day challenges and growing pains that exist in every business, Shewbert is thankful for the adventure she is being afforded. She finishes, “I’m working on this 7 days a week. Sure it’s hard, but I’m having the time of my life. My granddaughter even comes to work with me, each day is so exciting for me, and I’m truly having the time of my life.”
