Svn (7) Questions with Two Cranes Botanicals Premium CBD Brand
When we first received samples of Two Cranes Botanicals beautiful products, they came with these beautiful gold origami cranes.
We wanted to learn more about who was behind this brand, so we sent Susun Chung and Hanna Yi, the Co-Founders of Two Cranes Botanicals, Svn (7) questions to get to know them better.
1. Can you tell us a bit about each of you? What are your backgrounds and how did you get into the CBD Wellness space?
Susun - Yoga/Lagree instructor, avid mountain girl, health advocate, and finance professional, living in sunny Denver, Colorado. Most recently in tech finance, I have spent much of my career in banking and finance for Fortune 500 companies. As an athlete and active individual, I sought after balance from the stresses of the everyday corporate routine and received certifications in yoga and Lagree. I’ve always sought ways to raise my awareness, consciousness and find balance. While working for a Wall Street firm on the trading desk, I set up a company with the firm to instruct yoga sessions during lunch and after work, not only satisfy my own mental health needs but to help those around me in the trenches. The daily grind is something I understand so intimately. The cumulative effects of working 14-16+ hr days and inability to care better for my health and mind were devastating. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, severe hormonal imbalance, and adrenal fatigue due to the stress. It was the perfect storm which led me to leave my job in San Francisco and move back to Colorado, my homeland. I had to make drastic changes and make a complete shift in mindset about what my health truly meant to me. I had never tried and had little interest in marijuana and cannabis in the past and also held the same negative stigma around CBD. I was ignorant as to what hemp-derived CBD was until I starting doing more research. The more I learned about it and tried it for myself in its purest form, I was convinced of the power of this plant and the effects it had on my body. I found CBD through the means of finding alternative solutions to regain my health back. My health has been rehabilitated and I no longer have the autoimmune issues since my CBD journey. I made a promise and determined two years ago at the women’s march in Washington DC that I would start a business with my sister that would make a positive impact in people’s lives and that it would empower other women.
When I am not working on Two Cranes Botanicals, you can find me on the slopes, doing yoga, adventuring, volunteering, playing the violin or hunting for healthy delicious food.
Hanna- I am currently a busy mom of two young boys and live in the greater Seattle area. I have been a yoga instructor for over ten years, trained in over four different modalities and am also a certified Lagree instructor. My career has been varied in different industries. In the realm of the beauty of wellness, I worked for a luxury makeup brand in marketing and sales and also had a business distributing luxury skincare online. Previous to that, my career was in the non-profit sector serving a marginalized group in marketing and communications. If I’m not with my loved ones or spending time on Two Cranes Botanicals - I love teaching yoga, discovering new cuisine, traveling, volunteering and playing the cello.
We both found CBD through varying degrees of health crisis and to help manage day-to-day anxiety. Susun was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, severe hormonal imbalance, and adrenal fatigue due to stress, several life transitions and getting off of synthetic hormones. Hanna was desperate to her health back after having her second child. She found that being exhausted from caring for her two kids, the anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed were more difficult to manage and sought natural means for support. After finding the transformative power of CBD, we simply wanted to share this powerful tool that we had found with our family, friends, and others. Two Cranes Botanicals was born out of the idea that high-quality CBD oil from a trusted, verifiable source can be life-changing.
2. What’s the story behind the name “Two Cranes”? We love that you send origami cranes in your orders, such a nice touch!
Thank you!
In Korean, Chinese and Japanese tradition, cranes stand for happiness, health, good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years.
We loved the meaning and agreed a couple of years back that if we have the opportunity to work with one another that this would be the name. Being Asian twins passionate about health and wellness, the name was perfect. It was only confirmed when our dad presented us with a sketch of Two Cranes and informed us that our grandfather had a Korean rice wine distillery (makkoli) that used the same name in Korean translation (ee-hahk). Full-circle doesn’t begin to describe how we felt when hearing this.
3. You are identical twins. What is it like working so closely with each other?
We couldn’t be more thrilled to work, dream and create with each other. It’s something we had talked about for so long but never really formulated how that would happen since we had led very different professional and personal lives. The commonality of being passionate about helping people and finding healing and passion about wellness had always been something we shared so we knew this was the direction we had wanted to pursue. For a moment we thought it might be a yoga studio.
We are very much in tune with each other. There are times we’ll purchase the same exact brand and design of clothing at the same time in different locations. It’s freaky. It’s helpful when we can be on the same page and work in the same direction without having to explain at length, that said good communication has been key in working together. We do talk to each other a million times a day, or it feels like it anyway. Sometimes it’s a blessing and other times a struggle. Sometimes we joke we have a shorthand language that must sound crazy to those listening. We are learning to work with each other in a professional way which we have never done. Actually, that’s not true. We ran an enterprise selling Botan rice candies to our friends on our school grounds during recess in elementary school. We are constantly learning about each other on this journey. It’s fun to find that we don’t know everything about each other after all!
We find it to be a huge blessing to be able to share in the highs and lows of running a business together.
4. Can you tell us a bit about your products? Where are they sourced and how involved are you in the formulation and manufacturing process of your products?
CBD oils by Two Cranes Botanicals are made in Colorado from 100% non-GMO, organic hemp sourced from a single farmer. We are intricately involved in the process from seed to harvest, formulation, production, and distribution of our hemp. We are a two-women crew with a lot of amazing partners. Integrity, consistency, and quality are everything to us. Formulated specifically to support total body and mind, each product is also twice tested by ISO- accredited third-party labs. The oils are also vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free, and tested to show no trace of herbicides, pesticides, solvents, preservatives, or fillers.
Two Cranes Botanicals are made in small batches to ensure consistency and contain less than .1% THC. Currently, the product line features three concentrations of full-spectrum CBD oils in 300 mg, 725 mg, and 1000 mg. We will be releasing our second formulation that infuses Asian in the coming months and the release topicals are in the pipeline as well.
5. We love your #CBDforhope initiative where you donate a portion of the profits from every sale to a non-profit organization. Can you tell us a bit more about this and some of the non-profits you are working with?
Yes. Giving back where we can is vital to us. Each quarter, we support a different non-profit organization that supports vulnerable women and children, mental healthcare and plant-based research. We want to create a lasting impact on people’s lives and the communities we live in.
We believe that no effort is too small in creating a global impact and we feel we can help in these efforts one bottle and drop at a time. We believe that a healthy mind, body, and spirit lead to stronger individuals and communities. We feel strongly that it is important to explore and contribute in a variety of ways.
More specifically and personally, Hanna has always had a passion for working with underprivileged women and children, locally and globally, specifically around human-trafficking. She believes in the power of plant and movement therapy and has seen firsthand the impact nourishing tools can have in empowering those that do not have the privilege or access to these tools.
Susun’s heart has always been for the youth and women empowerment. She has been a company advisor for Junior Achievements for several years. She also sits on the board for New Dimensions Radio which is an educational platform that aims to foster the process of living a more healthy life of mind, body, and spirit by deepening connections within the communities in the natural world. She was also a volunteer instructor for yoga for the people which served communities that did not have access to yoga.
Our current non-profit we are supporting is Jubilee Women’s Center.
Hanna has personally worked and volunteered with the center in the past. It’s a safe place for women that need help breaking out of the cycle of homelessness and hopelessness. Some other’s we have worked with:
6. What trends are you seeing in this space right now that you are loving?
We love seeing how positively the public is responding. Here’s a brief list of a few things we are loving in this space:
- Magic and support that is happening between women. We love how visible and vocal women are in destigmatizing CBD and how it is helping to highlight and normalize the importance of caring for one’s mental health.
- We love what we’re seeing in Cannabis and fashion, for instance, the appeal and use of hemp through mainstream fashion.
- The culinary aspect is very exciting as well.
- The different platforms that bring real-life opportunities to connect in meaningful ways.
- The conversation around those that are a minority in the industry - women, people of color, specifically, there are some platforms connecting AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) in this space that is pretty exciting.
7. Now a fun one. What shows are you binge-watching on Netflix right now?
- -Salt fat acid heat
- -Anything Ali Wong - Always Be Maybe
- -Queer Eye
- -Game of Thrones
- -The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- -Black Mirror
