“You want me to put what, where?”
Hello Again knows they’re marketing something unusual. Asking people to insert cannabis suppositories is a request usually met with laughter or disgust – but the joke is on them because this stuff really works.
I first came across Hello Again back in 2021 when I entered the cannabis space, and I cheered last year when I found out the company was under new leadership and going national. I sat down with Lisa Williams to talk about weed, vaginas, menopause, and what it’s like to enter the M&A space in cannabis.
Science Rolls Its Eyes at Women’s Hormonal Cycle
Ask any woman who gets a period, and she’ll be happy to tell you – these hormonal fluctuations are no walk in the park. From the common lethargy of the luteal phase to the emotional turbulence of PMS and the back-breaking, butthole-seizing cramps that feel like your uterus is trying to escape your body with a melon baller, periods take a mental and physical toll on women. And once you get to peri- and full menopause? Good luck.
Modern medicine has pretty much overlooked estrogen-based endocrine systems for as long as medical studies, as we know them, have been conducted. Women’s hormonal fluctuations made them “too unpredictable” to study, and it wasn’t until 1993 that women were even included in clinical trials. (That exclusion is thanks to a 1977 ban on women “of child-bearing potential” in clinical trials.) In science’s eyes, women are just small men. But ask anyone with a biology degree to tell you how wrong that is.
Women are left to pop Advil and Tylenol left and right and suffer in silence, like our bodies aren’t shedding literal ounces of blood. You may be allowed to take a day off after a blood draw, but god forbid you call out because it’s day 2 of your bleed.
So where do suppositories fit into this discussion?
Suppositories are an ancient system of medical delivery. References to “bullet-shaped” delivery methods date back as far as ancient Babylonia, 3,500 BC. Like cannabis, suppositories were an important part of our ancestors’ medical repertoire that has fallen decisively out of fashion (but at least they were never outlawed.)
Cannabis, the Endocannabinoid System, and Your Uterus
The endocannabinoid system is a master regulatory system that oversees every single biological function you have. Sleep, appetite, mood regulation, hormones, you name it, and the ECS is the overseer of it. I said hormones, and yes, the ECS oversees the 28-day cycle of women’s hormones, as well as hormonal changes like puberty and menopause.
The ECS has receptors on every organ in your body, from your skin and stomach to (gasp) your vagina and anus. Using cannabis-based products in these areas can deliver timely, plant-powered relief. The walls of the vaginal and anal canals are mucous membranes, soft, highly absorptive tissue, which makes this area of the body ideal for medication delivery.
Imagine – your period makes its monthly arrival, bringing with it stomach-aching cramps. You pop in a suppository and go lie down. 20 minutes later, you’re feeling better and ready to tackle the day. If that sounds too good to be true, you need to try Hello Again.
But let’s back up for a minute. Lisa Williams, the CEO of Hello Again, came from the B2B world outside of cannabis, and within a year, had opened a cannabis marketing agency and acquired a B2C CPG company – a massive transition for anyone, let alone a woman who, by her own admittance, didn’t really understand the cannabis plant.
How did that happen?
Meeting Hello Again
I first stumbled across Hello Again when they were based in California, using THC. Today, the company is led by Williams, using hemp-derived THC so the suppositories can be sold across the country. Williams was kind enough to share some of Hello Again’s new formulas with me when the company sponsored the Canna Boss Babes Suite at MJBizCon in 2024. You can read my full review of the product here.
Williams first came into the cannabis industry in 2020. She started her own marketing agency and, about a year into business, took on her first cannabis client. Williams freely acknowledges that she knew very little about weed or the industry when she took on her client – but she’s a quick study. In 2023, struggling for direction, she made the decision to niche down into cannabis, and in 2024, The TOKE Agency was born.
Williams didn’t come from a cannabis-friendly background. As a child of the 80s raised in Texas, she had “the fear of god” instilled in her about drugs. Remember those brain-frying-in-a-pan commercials? Williams sure does.
She dabbled with cannabis in college, but ultimately didn’t enjoy being high. She had a brush with the plant through a boyfriend who used her to help distribute, but chalks that up to college craziness.
“I got married, I had kids. Cannabis wasn’t a part of my life. I went forever without smoking.”
Even as her kids got older, Williams’ beliefs around cannabis stayed the same, which brought Mom and kids on a collision course when her children experimented with cannabis in high school. What changed her mind was entering the industry with TOKE. She came because she saw the need for marketing for cannabis businesses, but she stayed because of what she learned.
“When I first started going to conferences and meeting people – the availability of weed was overwhelming.” She said. But as Williams began to talk to people who loved the plant and dig into the research around cannabis for her clients, her mindset changed.
“My whole outlook on the plant shifted when I dug into the research. I had to educate myself on the truth about this plant, not the fear I had been taught. It really is just a plant.”
Still, living in Texas and being “out and proud” with cannabis is not without its repercussions. “I lost a couple of friends because of the industry I work in. Some people are open and welcome to the idea, and others just aren’t.” Williams told me.
Learning about cannabis brought Williams to the ECS, which also helped her learn about her body. “Western medicine always wants to give a pill or a path. There’s no question about your diet, lifestyle, stress. When I accepted cannabis into my life, it was part of a bigger shift.”
Williams is not, and probably never will be, a smoker. But she enjoyed a low-dose gummy or beverage here and there. Her favorite way to use the plant? Hello Again suppositories.
“There’s this messaging that hormone replacement therapy and synthetic hormones are women’s only option. I want women to know that’s not true. I want to offer an alternative for woman at all stages of their life. Hello Again is an option, it can be part of your personal cocktail of wellness.”
Menopause and M&A
On LinkedIn, Hello Again’s marketing, and in our conversation, Williams is open about her struggles with the transition into menopause.
“If it were easier for me, I may never have come to Hello Again. When I started peri-menopause a decade ago, no one talked about this. I had symptoms that I had no idea were menopause-related. I thought I was losing my mind.”
Between the random pains that took mobility from her shoulder to recurring UTIs and the worst brain fog of her life, Williams knew she couldn’t live like this. So she began to search for holistic, natural menopause solutions.
“I spent thousands of dollars with a functional medicine doctor. I did everything – supplements, strength training, walking, meditating, eating clean, leaning on my support system. Nothing worked. I wasn’t sleeping, I couldn’t think, and it just wasn’t sustainable.”
Enter Hello Again.
“I tried it once and then bought the company,” Williams laughed.
Entering the B2C Space
It’s funny now, but a year ago, it was a terrifying proposition. Williams was fresh into the cannabis space, still making connections, with no background in mergers, acquisitions, finance, or law. When I asked her what it was like navigating that daunting process, she credits her partners for helping her through it.
“My business partner was very familiar with the world of M&A. I told him I wanted to buy the company, and he had a letter of intent together in days. It was a challenging, new process.”
But the challenges didn’t stop after the acquisition.
The banking service Williams had used for 25 years denied her a business account for Hello Again because it’s a hemp product. The company was kicked off more than one payment processor. When they finally secured a bank, it wouldn’t talk to the payment processor on the back end.
“There’s a huge learning curve entering the direct-to-consumer world. I knew nothing about e-commerce – I spent my entire career in the B2B space. We had to take a legal cannabis product from California and turn it into a legal hemp product for all 50 states.”
There were product reformulation challenges and marketing challenges, building a website and a marketing funnel, and even something as simple as packaging stopped Williams in her tracks.
“I wanted something beautiful to send people, but packaging is expensive, and ultimately, people just throw it out. These were all the steps in a process I never considered.”
Another unexpected challenge? Suppositories melt.
Hello Again has a short list of ingredients. Each one is necessary and adds an important benefit, but that also means there are no preservatives or ingredients to hold the suppositories together in the heat. And when you’re shipping across the country, front porches can get hot.
“The first time I tried the product, I opened it and it leaked all over my hands,” Lisa said. “But the packaging holds them into shape, as long as they’re cool.”
To combat this, Hello Again shares information with every purchase about how to properly store these little pills, and suggestions to cool them after shipping if you live in a hot area. It’s all a part of Williams’ plan to elevate the conversation around cannabis, suppositories, and yes, menopause.
Hello Again: It’s Weed, For your Vagina
In the span of five years, Lisa Williams went from working at a 9-to-5 job to starting a marketing agency and then buying a B2C CPG company. It’s no small transition – or feat, but it speaks to the power of the plant to move people. Cannabis is not a big, scary, brain-melting drug, but a natural plant medicine that has been tailor-made by nature to help people. For some people, that means the ritual of rolling and lighting a joint, or infusing oil to make edibles. For others, it means applying a topical or inserting a suppository.
Hello Again is an innovative product that offers women (and men) a unique and direct delivery system. It leans into the medicinal side of cannabis, calling up a medical form more common to our foremothers than modern medicine – but the same could be said about cannabis herself.
