Beegle builds dozens of hemp brands

A lifelong musician, Morris Beegle of Fort Collins found himself at a crossroads with one industry falling apart and another one needing a leader to centralize its many arising factions.

Beegle, founder of Hapi Skratch Entertainment, moved out of the music and entertainment industry to develop a dozen hemp-based brands through the umbrella, We Are For Better Alternatives, WAFBA LLC, which he co-founded in 2015. WAFBA focuses on hemp-based paper and merchandise and produces conferences, expos and trade shows to provide education and advocacy about the benefits of hemp and cannabis in manufacturing, nutrition and other sectors.

“How can we get the industry together to help collaborate and build a foundation?” said Beegle, president of WAFBA in Fort Collins.

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The brands under WAFBA include Tree Free Hemp, a hemp paper and printing services provider; Let’s Talk Hemp, an education and advocacy platform and monthly podcast for conferences, festivals and broadcast media channels; and Colorado Hemp Co., a marketing, media and event producer that offers six events, including the NoCo Hemp Expo, the Southern Hemp Expo in Nashville and the Hawaii Hemp Conference. Other brands on the list are Silver Mountain Hemp Guitars and Cabinets, One Planet Hemp and the HempEvents.org event calendar.

At the time Beegle helped found WAFBA, he anticipated hemp and medical and recreational marijuana becoming legal from observations he made while working in the music industry. After graduating in 1988 in music business and management from the Music Business Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, he worked in the corporate world in middle management for a music wholesaler until 1995.

“I just wanted to go and start my own company to see how that goes,” Beegle said. “I’ve always been a creative. I wanted to start things and do things other people aren’t doing.”

In 1995, Beegle founded Fort Collins-based Hapi Skratch, a music and entertainment production and distribution, concert promotion and artist management company, where he was company president until 2011, when he closed the business.

Beegle had other stints in the music industry that included serving as a contract project manager from 2008 to 2009 for Backbone Recording Studio in Loveland and owning P&D-Production & Distribution from 2005 until he closed it in 2016. P&D was the manufacturing arm of Hapi Skratch that manufactured and packaged music products and provided commercial printing services.

“The internet crushed the business, and everything went digital,” Beegle said. “I was looking for another avenue to take my skill set.”

Beegle, interested in social causes, saw many benefits to hemp, including how it could partially replace some of the crops that require chemicals harmful to water and soil, such as wood, cotton and soy. Hemp also can be used as a rotational crop to put nutrients back into the soil and remove toxins, he said.

“Agriculture is one of the leading causes of greenhouse gases and climate change. Our agricultural practices need to change,” Beegle said. “Hemp is a more durable fiber. … It’s easier on the earth to grow, and the final products are easier on the earth. … Hemp can play a key role in changing our whole agricultural system in the coming five, 10, 20 years, which is important for the future of our planet.”

Beegle started his hemp products and business ventures under another company, The Humble Empire LLC, which he founded in Loveland in 2005. The Humble Empire is an entertainment consulting and marketing company with an emphasis on earth-friendly and ecologically conscious business practices. It’s engaged in music production and distribution, events, merchandise, printing, licensing and business management.

Beegle co-founded Colorado Hemp Co. in 2012 with Elizabeth Knight and placed the hemp merchandise company and three of his hemp-related brands under The Humble Empire, including Tree Free Hemp and the hemp expos.

“I always felt hemp was a great alternative for changing things in our society,” Beegle said. “The chips kind of fell where I thought they would fall. … I don’t think you can stop the progression of this at all.”

Beegle and Knight co-founded WAFBA to take on the four brands and over time, added another eight brands, now working with a third partner, Lori Buderus.

“We separated all these entities that synergistically work together for events, promotion and merchandise,” Beegle said.

Beegle and his company started the hemp expos when he saw a need for a centralized location for education about hemp and marijuana and the lack of a place for retailers to come together to exhibit their products. He noted three sides to the cannabis market — food and nutrition, medical marijuana and adult recreational marijuana — and wanted to provide education about it. His expos present a forum to discuss legislation and regulation, compliance, policy and potential markets.

“Colorado is in a unique position to be leaders in this lane,” Beegle said. “The market needs education, and we happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

Janel Ralph, chief executive officer of Palmetto Harmony, a health and beauty shop in Conway, South Carolina, commends Beegle for bringing together the industry and giving those involved in it a multifaceted platform.

“Morris has created an environment through NoCo to have a sustainable hemp industry by connecting reputable growers, manufacturers, product developers and retailers,” Ralph said. “He’s given credibility to an industry that at one time was viewed as an illicit drug. He’s made it more credible by creating a reputable platform that people can do business around.”

Beegle so far has held expos, demonstrations and conferences in Colorado starting in 2014, Hawaii starting in 2017 and Nashville starting a year later. Beegle also works with other event promoters and producers on hemp-related events.

“Morris has continued to provide the best and biggest platform for all things hemp,” said Tim Gordon of Functional Remedies and International Hemp Solutions and president of the Colorado Hemp Industries Association. “The efforts Morris puts around education and awareness of hemp and hemp products through his multimedia platforms has given the industry a strong voice. … Morris’s drive for smart, accurate education on a professional platform has given him a leg up on other events across the country. It’s his drive to be the best.”

Morris’s first hemp show, the NoCo Hemp Expo, began in Windsor in 2014 with 330 attendees, moving to The Ranch in Loveland the next year with a turnout of 1,250 and increasing over the years to 6,000 in 2018. The show outgrew the venue and moved to the Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center this year with a turnout of 10,000 attendees. Next year, it will move again to the National Western Complex with three times the space of the convention center, more than 400 exhibitors and an expected turnout of more than 20,000 attendees March 26-28.

“Morris and the CoHempCo team have made tremendous contributions to the industry since the first launch of NoCo Hemp Expo,” said Annie Rouse, co-founder of the Anavii Market in Lexington, Kentucky. “That event and the rest of their events have introduced educational opportunities to the public, allowing individuals to meet and greet with companies and learn about general industry information, which is essential as we develop this nascent, but rapidly growing, market.”

Beegle does public speaking at hemp and cannabis conferences as part of panels or solo presentations. He plays golf and plays the guitar — his brother is well-known guitarist Dave Beegle. Last year, he launched Silver Mountain Hemp to manufacture specialized guitars, ukuleles and speaker cabinets out of hemp composites.

Since 1997, Beegle has volunteered for Realities for Children in Fort Collins as the music and production director, coordinating the music talent, sound production and staging for the annual Realities Ride & Rally, a poker run and fundraiser for children at risk.

Beegle and his companies also won a few awards. The Cannabist Awards awarded Colorado Hemp Co. as the Hemp Company of the Year in 2015. The Hemp Industries Association voted the NoCo Hemp Expo as the Hemp Event of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Beegle also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Music Business Association.

“I’m a promoter of the plant and the planet,” said Beegle, father of two sons, ages 11 and 16. “To me, I feel fulfilled knowing what I’m doing is A, inspiring other people to get on this train and, B, will make a difference for my kids and grandkids.”