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Hack & Grow Rich Episode 10: The Dealers & Distribution

 Distribution, part two.

So how did it work for me with herbal ecstasy? So, the interesting thing was that I finally came up with a formula and if you listen to the earlier podcast, it started out with a bunch of goo filled bags that were literally made in a bathtub and you had to eat all this goo and it made you a little bit nauseous. But it did work. It did get you a little bit high and excited. And then we narrowed it down to 20 pills that were horse pills and people got still got nauseous, but it was better than bags of goo and then we got it down to 10 pills and finally reduced it to 15 capsules that were very tiny. And then finally, finally into five beautiful pills with butterflies and the letter E emblazoned on the back. And that was the final iteration of ecstasy, because people could take one, they could take five depending on what they needed. How did I get it distributed at the very first when I was making it? So, this is very interesting because I was looking at different avenues. The vitamin stores wouldn't even talk to me. Of course, I was packing the stuff literally in my garage and girlfriend's bathtubs and whatever I could package it. I was basically taking the pills, putting them in baggies. I had whole machines where I was pressing them at home. Finally, we got a Chinese herbalist in Chinatown to start producing them for us. And he had a little hodgepodge handmade machinery. And once we ramped up, we finally went to major manufacturing. But in the beginning, what I did was I thought baggies were great. I printed up some little butterflies on these little cards and we stuck the cards and little baggies, the actual baggies. The drug dealers used to sell ecstasy in those days.

And I went to the clubs and I looked at the drug dealers. I made them, my friends and I spoke to them. I spoke to the drug dealers. And I said, hey, guys, you know what? The supply of ecstasy is running out. I knew that it was running out and I knew that they knew that the supply of ecstasy was running out.

And I told them, I said, hey, you guys are going to be out of product. Plus, even if you had product, people could get hurt. You can go to jail. There are all kinds of problems. Why don't you just try my stuff? Let me front it to you. Let me forward you my product. Give people a choice. You'll make just as much, if not more, with mine than selling the illegal stuff. No risk. And let me know how it goes. And I did that in one club in L.A. and the guy came back and he was floored. He sold it all in one night. Everything that I had in the backpack, I think it was ten thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise gone. And he got my number. He had a pager, I had a pager, and I started supplying him. And he introduced me to other drug dealers in the L.A. area, Miami, New York. And I spent a good portion of several months traveling around and my little Nissan, three hundred Z X that I had purchased with me. Money that I had made and meeting people with bags of drugs and briefcases full of drugs, I mean, not real drugs or ecstasy, I should mention, and giving them these pills in exchange for cash, I was printing money in those days. It would cost me less than twenty-five cents a unit. They would retail for twenty dollars. I would sell them wholesale to the dealers for ten dollars, cost me twenty-five cents. I would sell them for ten dollars. But it all started with the distribution. It all started with finding this avenue that nobody else had where it was completely blue ocean. There's a book called Blue Ocean thinking I think that talks about this, how you want to always try to be in the blue ocean somewhere where you are creating a niche or finding a niche and then dominating that niche before all the sharks get in and the water turns red.

And that's how it was with our ecstasy in the beginning, nobody else was doing it, nobody else was selling stuff like that through the clubs, and I made millions selling it through the clubs. And then it got the attention of stores and stores came to me. Other distributors came to me. These people who were drug dealers selling illegal drugs became legitimized and they got real life distributorships and they got real life territories. And they started selling our product into retail, into smoke shops and sex shops and vitamin stores and record stores and novelty stores and everywhere where we could possibly sell our product. Our product broke barriers because it was rock and roll. It wasn't just a vitamin. If you had a vitamin and you tried to sell it into warehouse records or tower records in those days, these were big record stores. They would laugh at you. They bought our product. If you had a vitamin and you tried to sell it to Urban Outfitters, which was a cool, cool place in those days where all the cool kids would go to buy their stuff, they would laugh at you. But they came and they bought our product. They sold our product and Seven-Eleven thousands of 7-Eleven and they sold it in the Jancis. They sold it everywhere. And it all started with distribution. It all started with me and a backpack going into these clubs with hand packaged product and convincing the drug dealers to change their ways and to sell a legal product. So, when you think about success, think about distribution, nothing more important when you're in the physical products business.

Transcript

Shaahin Cheyene 00:00

So in the last episode, we talked about distribution, and the importance of distribution as far as selling the product. In this episode, I'm going to explain to you a little real-life example about herbal ecstasy and the ecstasy phenomenon, and how distribution was everything for us. So take a listen, make sure to comment and like below. And let us know if you like this channel, make sure you subscribe. We'll keep putting out content. see on the next episode. distribution, part two. So how did it work for me with herbal ecstasy? So the interesting thing was that I finally came up with a formula. And if you've listened to the earlier podcast, it started with a bunch of goo-filled bags that were made in a bathtub and you had to eat all this goo and it made you a little bit nauseous, but it didn't work. It did get you a little bit high and excited. And then we narrowed it down to 20 pills, they were horse pills, and people got still got nauseous, but it was better than bags of goo. And then we got it down to 10 pills. And finally reduced it you know that 15 very tiny capsules. And then finally and five beautiful pills with butterflies and the letter E and Blizzard and on the back. And that was the final iteration of ecstasy because people could take one they could take five depending on what they needed. How did I get it distributed? At the very first when I was making it. So this is very interesting because I was looking at different avenues. The vitamin stores wouldn't even talk to me. Of course, I was packing the stuff, literally in my garage and girlfriends, bathtubs, and wherever I could package it, I was taking the pills, putting them in baggies. I had home machines where I was pressing them at home. Finally, we got a Chinese herbalist in Chinatown to start producing them for us and he had a little hodgepodge of handmade machinery. And once we ramped up, we finally went to major manufacturing. But in the beginning, what I did was I thought baggies were great. I printed up some little butterflies on these little cards, and we stuck the cards in little baggies. The actual bag is the drug dealers used to sell ecstasy in those days. And I went to the clubs, and I looked at the drug dealers. I made them my friends. And I spoke to them. I spoke to the drug dealers and I said, Hey, guys, you know what the supply of ecstasy is running out, I knew that it was running out. And I knew that they knew that the supply of ecstasy was running out. And I told them I said, Hey, you guys are going to be out of product. Plus, even if you had product people could get hurt. You can go to jail. There are all kinds of problems. Why don't you just try my stuff? Let me fronted to you let me forward you my product, give people a choice, you'll make just as much if not more with mine and selling the legal stuff, no risk. And let me know how it goes. And I did that in one club in LA and the guy came back. And he was floored. He sold it all in one night. Everything that I had in a backpack. I think it was $10,000 with the merchandise gone. And he got my number. He had a pager, I had a pager, and I started supplying him. And he introduced me to other drug dealers in the LA area Miami, New York. And I spent a good portion of several months traveling around and my little Nissan 300, Zx that I had purchased with the money that I had made. and meeting people with bags of drugs and briefcases full of drugs, I mean, not real drugs, herbal ecstasy, I should mention and giving them these pills in exchange for cash, I was printing money in those days, it would cost me less than 25 cents per unit, they would retail for $20. I would sell them wholesale to the dealers for $10 cost me 25 cents, I would sell them for $10. But it all started with the distribution. It all started with finding this avenue that nobody else had, where it was a completely blue ocean. There's a book called Blue Ocean thinking I think that talks about this, how you want to always try to be in the blue ocean, somewhere where you are creating a niche or finding a niche and then dominating that niche before all the shops get in and water turns red. And that's how it was with herbal ecstasy. In the beginning. Nobody else was doing it. Nobody else was selling stuff like that through the clubs. And I made million selling it through the clubs and then it got the attention of stores and stores came to me. Other distributors came to me. These people who were drug dealer selling illegal drugs became legitimize and they got real-life distributorships and they got real-life territories and they started selling them product into retail into smoke shops and sex shops, and vitamin stores and record stores and novelty stores. And everywhere where we could sell our product, our product broke barriers because it was rock and roll. It wasn't just a vitamin. If you had a vitamin and you tried to sell it into warehouse records or Tower Records in those days, these are big record stores, they would laugh at you. They bought our product. If you had a vitamin and you tried to sell it to urban outfitters, which was a cool, cool place in those days where all the cool kids would go to buy their stuff. They would laugh at you. But they came and they bought our product. They sold our product in 711 1000s of seven elevens. And they sold it in the GNC they sold it everywhere. And it all started with the distribution. It all started with me and a backpack, going into these clubs with hand-packaged products and convincing the drug dealers to change their ways and to sell illegal products. So when you think about success, think about distribution. Nothing more important when you're in the physical products business.

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