"Combining Cannabis and Sex: Challenging Taboos and Enhancing the Experience" The founder and CEO of Lavinia, Katie Enright, joins Susan Burns to share her journey from initially studying to become a nun to creating a unique product that combines cannabis and sex. The product, which challenges taboos, serves as a lubricant and enhances the sexual experience by leveraging cannabis's vasodilating properties. Despite launching during the pandemic in 2020, the product gained popularity and garnered positive reviews. Produced by PodConX Bodacious Women in Cannabis - https://bodacious-women-in-cannabis.simplecast.com/ Susan Burns - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sburnslegal/ Lavinia - https://ohlavinia.com/ Katie Enright - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-enright-5b3075219/ Recorded on Squadcast
"Combining Cannabis and Sex: Challenging Taboos and Enhancing the Experience"
The founder and CEO of Lavinia, Katie Enright, joins Susan Burns to share her journey from initially studying to become a nun to creating a unique product that combines cannabis and sex. The product, which challenges taboos, serves as a lubricant and enhances the sexual experience by leveraging cannabis's vasodilating properties. Despite launching during the pandemic in 2020, the product gained popularity and garnered positive reviews.
Bodacious Women in Cannabis - https://bodacious-women-in-cannabis.simplecast.com/
Susan Burns - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sburnslegal/
Lavinia - https://ohlavinia.com/
Katie Enright - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-enright-5b3075219/
[00:00:00] Happens in the beginning and then what? You try to recreate it during the interview and it doesn't happen. So, um, do you have any questions about how we're flowing or anything like that? Or do, um, no. Yeah. Do you wanna gimme an, an, uh, overview, just so I know? Sure. I'll introduce you. I'll ask you about your background, um, and what you do and why, and how, and.
Um, trials and tribulations. And what makes you bodacious? Although I, I have an idea, but, and I, you know, want you to talk about your journey and the product and why it's so good and I'm so bummed I can't get it. I'm not in California. Where are you at? I'm in Minnesota. Oh. I'm a Midwestern too. Yeah. I love that.
I'm gonna make sure focus my do not disturb is on. Okay. Perfect. Just so we don't have any noise. Okay. And is this on [00:01:00] camera or just, uh, voiceover or just, well, the, the, the actual production is just audio, but we're doing this so we can see each other when we're talking. I think that's so smart. 'cause so often it's so awkward when you don't see somebody.
Yeah. Or sometimes if I'm saying something and the, the person will be like, Yeah. Okay. Beer or whatever. So, um, yeah, Dan, the guy that produces Dan Houston, that produces a podcast, suggested that, 'cause the first couple were just audio and he said, do video. You have a much better Yeah, absolutely. Smart of him.
Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So you're ready to roll? Yeah. Okay.
Hi, this is your podcast host Susan Burns. As a cannabis lawyer by profession, nothing delights me more than showcasing Bodacious women in cannabis. Today [00:02:00] we are talking with Katie Enright. Katie is the founder and c e O of Lavinia. What you may ask is Lavinia. It's a product that challenges. Taboos by combining cannabis and sex.
Now, what piqued my interest the most is that Katie was initially studying to be a com become a nun. So if this combination doesn't excite my oppressive Catholic school, school girl upbringing, I don't know what would welcome. Katie. Katie, thank you so much for having me. Um, You know, it's an absolute pleasure.
So you are, you are, you are probably the most out there person I, in terms of product that I've interviewed. So how do you combine cannabis and sex in a product and make the world a better [00:03:00] place? And how did this all start and how did you get from studying to be a nun to diving deep into two taboo?
Subjects, especially in the Catholic background. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot there. Yeah. Uh, so cannabis and sex are like peas and carrots. Uh, they go together really well. Do peas and carrots go together really well. I've always thought of that, that there's gotta be two more complimentary things that I can say than peas and carrots.
But anyways, that's the old peanut butter and jelly. Peanut butter and jelly there. That's so much better. So it goes together like peanut butter and jelly. Um, uh, cannabis is a vasodilator, which basically means that increases the size of the blood vessels, which increases blood flow. So anytime that you have that in a sexual situation, boom, like it's, it's magic happens.
Um, So I, you know, was studying to become a nun. I decided not to. I, I did a discernment period in Ireland and I met a, a Belgium Knight named [00:04:00] Francois. And I didn't know that there were Belgium knights in the world. And as soon as I met him, I was like, maybe I don't wanna take a vow of celibacy and all of the other vows.
Um, so I decided not to become a nun, but cut to, I didn't know anything about sex, um, because I was prepared to take a vow of celibacy. I literally didn't know anything. Um, and I was really scared of being bad or sexually inadequate or, you know, I didn't know what was expected and, um, kind of how everything works.
So I started taking like classes and webinars and like literally started to study sex because the only educational base I had was, I remember in fifth grade when they awkwardly. Bring you into a room with, with ev, with all the other girls and you talk about stages of development and very awkwardly talk about sex.
And um, and that was really my only formal sexual education, so I kind of had a lot of gaps to fill in, so to speak. Um, and yeah, and then I was training for a marathon and I started to incorporate cannabis in my recovery. [00:05:00] And I realized I did some research and I was making balms for myself in my kitchen.
And, um, I realized that you could use cannabis to enhance your sexual experience, in particular using it as like a lubricant. Um, and I tried it and it was amazing, but the balms that I was making for myself had were what coconut oil was the base. And for me personally, co coconut oil almost instantaneously causes yeast infection.
It. Kills good bacteria, you know, like it's, it's not great. It's not a great lubricant. Um, so I literally went to a dispensary the next day to buy the product just because I wanted to be a consumer of it and I couldn't find anything that didn't have coconut oil. And so literally I just started making it for myself and my kitchen.
Um, and then just giving it to friends and friends of friends. And I was bartending and somebody came up to me when I was bartending and was like, Hey, are you the weeded loop girl? And I was like, as soon as he said that, Well, then he said, can I get some? And I was like, oh sure, of course. And he's like, I'll buy it from you.
And as soon as he said, I'll buy it from you, something in my brain clicked and I was like, oh, this is a [00:06:00] company, this is like a business. Like other people. Strangers want this that have never, you know, that have only heard reviews. Um, and that's when I started going through the process of, of starting the company.
And how long ago was that? Um, that was probably 2020. Well, 2019, 2020, 'cause I kind of futzed around for a little bit. We, we spent about a year and a half in r and d. We did 25 different formulations. I did every possible thing you could think of, um, before we came out with the, with our orgasmic blend, t h C and c b D.
Oh my gosh. Okay. So you started about three years, four years ago. Yeah, the 20, I guess. That's right. We launched in 2020 at the very end of 2021. Okay. Stop. Not too bad. You couldn't get it out there during the pandemic. I know. You know what's so funny is been super hot. I know. It's such a [00:07:00] bummer. I'm sure they are though.
We would've had more happy people, probably less real to stay home. Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, um, so now I know what the, what your inspiration is, but do you, have you had, since I know, and then you went through many formulations of the product and mm-hmm. Finally found one that you said, bingo, this is it.
So have you, other than trying to find the right product, combination of ingredients, are there any challenges that you've experienced, uh, as you've been growing your business in the last couple years? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there's, I think there's just kind of, uh, challenges at, at every corner, but like, it's, it's kind of also how you view it.
Do you view it as a challenge or do you view as an opportunity to make your product better? Um, as an opportunity to grow? Uh, we had a, a. A pump [00:08:00] issue, unfortunately, when we first launched. And so we've changed our packaging. Um, but that was, you know, uh, horrifying. Definitely not what you'd like to happen when you first launch a company.
Um, but again, that, that's, that's all part of the growth in the story. And when, whenever you're starting anything, um, it was a really good lesson to start small, you know, order, order the smallest amount possible. So if there is an issue, you can fix it right away. Okay. And, um, are. How are you? Are you getting any negative feedback, I should say?
Is there No, you know what's really cool about our product is that we actually have, um, data, so there's a vibrator called the lioness that has sensors on the side that records the pulsing of the vaginal walls during a sexual experience. So what's so cool is that we, we actually have data that we can say this orgasm was better than this orgasm.
It was better than this orgasm. So we actually have like graphs to show how it works. I would say that the. Um, there is a 15 [00:09:00] minute to half hour onset time, and that is crucial to the success of the product 'cause it's just like an edible, like it needs that time to increase the size of the blood vessels and increase the blood flow.
The thing is, is it's a silicone-based lubricant. And so people are like, oh, I've used Lu before. So they put it on and then go to town and 10 minutes later their sexual experience is done. Um, and it's like, no, no, no. It needs to just, it needs 15 minutes to marinate. We like to say, you know, marinate for 15 minutes to a half hour.
Um, and so that's kind of, I think educating people as to like, that there is an onset time and why that onset time is really important to adhere to. And so I've had people be like, oh yeah, it was. Like the lubricant itself is, this is a really very silky, very amazing feeling lubricant. So people, I have said, you know, that they enjoy the experience of it, but haven't experienced the heightened effect of the cannabis.
And every single time I'm like, well, how long did you leave it on for? And they're like, oh, like 10 minutes. My, my, the whole thing, you know, was 10 minutes. And I'm like, and then they try it [00:10:00] again and they're like, holy cow. That was amazing. Okay, so the important emphasis, importance, foreplay. Yes. Yes. Or, or you can just put it on before.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There is something that's called, uh, you know, there is nanotechnology that would make the product work a lot quicker, but the problem is, is that it tastes really bad. So we tried it and then we had, like our testing group say that they had to brush their teeth, like. Ha after going down on somebody while using the product and then they didn't continue their sexual experience.
And I was like, that, that's enough for me to be like, you know what, the, it's worth, seven extra minutes for a better space would definitely be a buzz. Kill on. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Brush your teeth. Yeah. Um, so what about pushback, like negative pushback, uh, from people that think that it's. You know, well, I'm thinking about my Catholic upbringing because sex is bad.
[00:11:00] Pleasure's bad cannabis is bad, you know, but anything like that, media pushback or backlash about. You know, it's interesting. I would say I haven't, um, like personally, I mean, I, there are some members of my family that still don't know what I do for a living because, you know, it would be pretty taboo. Uh, that's my dog.
I wanted to say hello. Uh, that would be pretty taboo. Hold on one second.
So that I would say that there's, you know, some of my family, uh, doesn't even know about it. It's very funny 'cause we both have red hair, so we're like the two gingers. Um, so I would say some of my family members don't know. Um, but the, I'd say that the hardest part for me, the most. Uh, is the fact that we're trying to advertise to really highly taboo, um, things like sex and cannabis, uh, it's nearly impossible.
I mean, it's really, it's [00:12:00] really, if you look at Oh, restrictions, exactly. Like if you look at a traditional marketing, marketing strategy, we cannot pursue any of those outlets. Because it's like, we can't do Google ads. We, and you know, if we're allowed to because of cannabis, we can't because it's a lubricant.
Um, so that's honestly been like the most challenging part for us so far is, um, is the fact that we're trying to really normalize something that is taboo, but is also great. Like sex is really important to the continuing of our species. Um, cannabis is so healing and so amazing and has so many great. Uh, benefits to it, but it's been, you know, criminalized for so long that it's just, it's very, um, I, I would say honestly, that's the most frustrating part and the part that has been the biggest challenge of our company.
Okay. Yeah. What a, what about the, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. So for you, probably you have to do more podcasts, [00:13:00] speaking engagements, uh, just in person networking or, or, Uh, now we do Zoom networking or events. That would be your, that would be your. Best way it seems like. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm actually gonna school to be a, a certified, uh, cannabis educator and then also to be a, a certified sex educator as well.
'cause we would love to tie sex education into our company because, um, It's really, a lot of people use porn as their sex education and porn is amazing for so many things, but porn isn't an accurate representation of what a real life sexual experience is like. It's two paid performers that are paid to do positions that are not the most comfortable, but are the most profitable.
So, um, so that's something that, you know, I'm really excited to bring that aspect and that element into our company. Good for you. So that's what's on the horizon, huh? Yeah. Yes, exactly. Do you anticipate developing more? Tell us the name of your [00:14:00] product. So the name of the lubricant is called Ojai. We are actually, I'm very excited.
We're about to launch with an anal shooter for enhanced, uh, pleasure during anal sex. And that is called, oh, hello. And then we're also right about to launch with before sex gummies and after sex gummies. Um, so it's, it's really, uh, very exciting 'cause we've kind of had this in the works. Also for years, like I said, we like to really take a lot of time in r and d and make sure that, that the formulation and that it's a product that we're really, that we're really proud of and really comfortable with.
Um, so, so it's kind of funny that it's like it's been in the works for a long time, but it's like all coming out like the same few months basically. Okay. All right. And it, is it marijuana based or hemp based? Your product? Cannabis based, yeah. So it's cannabis based. And then, um, we are working on a hemp line, uh, for a broader distribution just because it's very challenging to only be able to be sold in the state of California.
And then you have to, if you wanna expand [00:15:00] to other states, adhere to all of their manufacturing regulations, all of their different laws, all of their packaging laws, um, and. A lot of those places are vertically integrated as well, so it's a little bit more challenging for brands to come in, um, unless you grow as well.
Um, so, so yes, so hemp is, is the next path as well. Okay. Um, well that makes sense. I personally am a, I'm a huge fan of, uh, hemp and in particular, I don't know about vasodilation though, do they have the same vaso dative properties? I. They do? Yeah, very similar. They're not, it's not quite as effective, I would say from the data that we've collected from the vibrator, it's about 80% as effective as cannabis.
So if cannabis is a hundred percent, it's about 80%, which is still better than nothing. Yeah, I would say anything's helpful. How about Katie, anything that when you started this business, [00:16:00] you didn't ever think something so magnificent would happen as a result? So what's so. Yeah, it's, it's very funny because I, I never envisioned myself as a, that I would be starting a business.
Uh, my background is in film. Um, I went to the Warner Brothers directing program. I started off as an actor. Um, I thought that, that the entertainment industry was gonna be like the home that I lived in. Um, and so it's been such a, Interesting journey to suddenly come into the business world because it's such a different world.
It's so, um, yeah, it's just so unique. It has its, uh, unique challenges. I'm actually writing a show about this kind of journey just because I'm like, why not, you know, combine both of my loves and passions and into one. Um, but yeah, I, that's a great idea. Thanks. Yeah, it's super fun. It's, yeah. So, so [00:17:00] that's your, that's your benefit, your hidden benefit.
Yes. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it gives you just a whole nother, it just, the perspective I have on life now is a lot different, um, because, Like my viewpoint, isn't it? It I can kind of see all viewpoints now, whereas before I would just see my viewpoint and I don't know if that's maybe a little too obscure, but um, yeah, it's, it's just, it's broadened my horizons I guess I can say.
So both from, from your forays into, uh, creating the product and from feedback from. Consumers. Yeah. And, and exactly. And just in everything, like before I kind of thought of everything as a consumer 'cause that's what I was, right. And so now when I think about, you know, a different product when I'm at the store, I think about, oh, the challenges that that product faces where I think about this or I think about that and it's things that I would never have thought of before starting this company.
Mm-hmm. Very cool. [00:18:00] Yeah, it's very funny. Um, it's like, oh, this shelf space isn't good. Oh, this color isn't good. Oh, this Ty, this typography, they should use the, you know, it's all of a sudden you have an opinion about everybody else's stuff where, whereas before I, I don't feel like I'd even maybe notice.
Yeah. And labels. Exactly. So Yeah, it makes such a difference. Exactly. So, and where, where can people find your product? Only in. California. So currently we're only available in dispensaries in the state of California. Like I said before, we are gonna expand, um, to a hemp line, which you'll be able to buy, um, at different locations.
We haven't launched that line yet, so I'm not exactly sure where. Um, but on our website, o lavinia.com, um, there is a where to buy section. So you can type in like your, um, zip code and find the closest dispensary to you to buy the product. Do they ship? Not, not across state lines, [00:19:00] unfortunately, question maybe clause, but until then, yes, yes.
That would be nice if we had some changes on that. Um, so Katie, I, I would have my own opinion about what makes you Bodacious, but what is it that you think, what's your particular brand of Bodaciousness? I think, uh, that that has actually changed for me. But I think that, um, thinking outside the box, Is mine.
I think that I'm able to see things now in a different way, in a different perspective. And, um, and I'm al I I, I also am able to see things in a really positive light, which I think is really important when you're doing anything because it's not about what happens. Like the best thing could happen to you, but you know, nine great things and one awful thing.
And you foc if you're the type of person that focuses on the one awful thing. Everything is gonna be miserable. And, um, and I think I, I dunno if I ever was that person, but [00:20:00] I think now I'm definitely like, uh, just my, my outlook on life. And my viewpoint is just life's too short and I just wanna have fun and, uh, create really cool products that enhance people's lives.
And I wanna have a great life myself and, you know, I want everyone to have a great sex life. So. Awesome. Yeah. So we go to ola.com Yep. O h. Exactly O H l A v i n i a.com. Okay. And are you on social media or I'm, yeah, I'm on Instagram. I'm underscore Katie underscore enright underscore. And then we also have O Lania, uh, is on in, uh, Instagram as well.
Okay. So you, but you still, you have to be so careful. Yes. Yeah, we do. And we try to really walk that line. It's very challenging 'cause you can be shut down at any moment and then your platform is entirely gone. Yeah. [00:21:00] So, It's a pain to get it back. And it's really kind of, it's, it's, to me, it's kind of sad because what we're trying to do is really promote really healthy, uh, a really healthy relationship with sex.
Um, and, and it's, it's quite challenging to do. You know, and, and that's what makes me a little bit sad is that it's just, um, I think that there's a lot of people that really desire this information and, and literally have no place to receive it. Talk to us a little bit more about that, Katie, about, you know, in your interest in sex education and, and, um, the availability of that information and, you know, just providing people with the ability to enjoy sex in a healthy way.
I. It's, yeah, I mean that, that's the thing right now. I think there's like two websites that I know of, I, I know of. Um, O M G Yes is a great one where they talk about sexual education and they talk about different positions and different um, things and they really empower [00:22:00] people by giving them a lot of knowledge.
Um, but you know, that's a paid subscription. There really isn't a place that's like almost a free platform where people can go and learn about, about a healthy sexual experience. So what makes you so interested in that? I mean, I know you've discovered this great combination of products that enhance the sexual experience, but why then drive for the education part?
I think it's probably because I didn't really have any, um, and I didn't really have access to any, and I really had to go and pursue it myself. And I feel like. I, I wanna be able to give people a platform where they don't, it's not, uh, scary or intimidating. Or they don't, or shaming. Or shaming exactly. I, I think that that's really, really, really important.
Especially, um, if you have a little bit more of a religious, uh, background. Sometimes it's very challenging to find, to find any education about sex. Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] Well bless you for doing it, Katie. Now we need more education. For sure. Thank you. So, um, yeah, so nia.com and Nia on Instagram and underscore and write on Instagram.
Yeah. Underscore nr ig ht. Alright, well thank you so much. Stick with me for a second if you would. Yeah, of course. All right. Such a pleasure, Katie. Yeah.