This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to the program. This is "Side Hustle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau, and we have looked a couple of times at cannabidioles. If you're not familiar with that term, you might be familiar with CBD. We've considered this product a few different times on the show in various forms. It's a non-psychoactive substance that comes from the cannabis plant, and this plant, of course, also produces psychoactive substances in the form of THC or marijuana.
But CBD is more specifically used for pain relief and also to treat anxiety, all kinds of other stuff, which we'll touch on a little bit in the story. Now, this story, I really love the guy who's doing it. He's a professional boxer. So this professional boxer packs a punch with high-quality CBD oil. After years of dealing with chronic pain, he discovers the magic of CBD oil and teams up with his sister to become a ringside evangelist for it.
This guy's actually a contender for the world title fight. So we'll talk about that as well. Here is a message from our sponsor. I appreciate them. And then we'll delve into this medicinal story.
[Music]
Mike Lee is no stranger to pain. Ranked number three in the world in his weight class, his professional boxer with a 21 and O record literally gets punched in the face for a living. He has to deal with pain all the time, from broken bones to a chronic soreness he's developed throughout his years of training. A few years ago, Mike's relationship with pain deepened even further. He was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in his joints.
He was soon prescribed painkillers and he didn't like that. They made him feel terrible and he gave the idea of putting something so artificial and potentially harmful into his body. He searched for a more natural solution, but couldn't find anything that packed enough of a punch to combat his symptoms. Then last year, CBD oil was taken off the US anti-doping agency banned substance list. Mike rejoiced.
He had heard all kinds of people talking about how CBD oil could be a miracle or at least an effective treatment for some. Mike was even more excited that it was derived from a plant. He tried it out and began seeing results right away. "Where had this been all his life?" he wondered. He wanted to find the highest quality CBD oil possible.
So he began researching. Through that research, he spent hundreds of hours learning about this product and that caught him thinking. Back in his college days, he'd been a business student at Notre Dame. Simultaneously, he ran a food delivery company. He fell in love with the idea of creating something of his own and he learned how to hustle.
So years later as a full-time athlete, he knew what to do. It was time to get back in the ring, the business ring, you know, the side hustle ring. He would learn to stock, market, and sell CBD oil. With it just being taken off that banned substance list, he knew this was the prime time to move. Mike had a feeling that his sister Angie would be interested in the idea too.
Angie works as a podcaster and a coach for young female entrepreneurs. Not only that, but she has a passion for helping people and she believes that Western medicine has taken a turn for the worse. He knew she'd be excited about providing people with such a natural solution. When he suggested it, she instantly said yes and the two got to work. Now that Angie was in his corner, they needed some money.
They decided they were gonna invest their own cash into the company instead of raising capital. Both of them didn't like the idea of people other than them having any stake in it. They knew it was a risk. They had heard so many stories about how life-changing the oil was. And of course, Mike had experienced it firsthand.
Then came the issue of the name. For two months, the siblings had no idea what it would be. One day they were taking a walk and chatting about it. The oil could do so many things like help with pain, anxiety, even sleep. One of them said that it fed the soul.
In that moment, they knew it would be called Soul CBD. Now that they had the name, they could start talking about Soul CBD on their various platforms. Both of the siblings had significant audiences. Remember, he is professional boxer number three in the world. And their audiences came with very different demographics.
By the time they launched in August, the response was overwhelming. Because they marketed to such different demographics, they were able to gain testimonials from all kinds of different first-time users. It was incredibly inspiring and it motivated them to work harder. From there, they focused on learning more about what their customers wanted. Mike says that like in boxing, preparation is key.
Before fighting, you have to spend countless hours studying your opponent. Mike believes that when companies forget this and lead with their ego, it is always a mistake. So he applied the same logic to Soul CBD. And what he discovered was his customers wanted transparency. With something like CBD oil, which is commonly misunderstood and also new in lots of ways, it was a big deal that they knew the product was safely sourced and of high quality.
Soul CBD now includes information about where the hemp is grown, the lack of GMOs in it, and it has a purity guarantee, meaning that it is 0% THC. Remember, THC is what causes a psychoactive experience when you smoke or otherwise consume marijuana. On their website, they have a frequently asked questions page where you can see the answers to questions like, will I pass a drug test? And they say that the answer to this question varies. Will you pass a drug test?
Well, that's kind of up to you. But if you don't pass it, it's not because of Soul CBD. As time went on, they added additional products like bath bombs, cream, and even CBD oil made specially for pets. The market research and the attention that the siblings gave to their customers paid off. By their third month, Soul CBD had already hit over six figures in revenue, more than matching their initial investment.
In the future, Mike hopes to use his boxing platform to spark an even larger audience for the product. In fact, this year, he's training for a world title fight. So whatever happens, we at Team Side Hustle School have confidence he'll continue to roll with the punches. [Music]
Awesome, so cool. I think this is the first time we've had a professional boxer featured on Side Hustle School.
And the Side of Soul is not boxing. I don't think I would encourage most people to get into that in their off hours, but he's already into it and seems to be doing pretty well. Now I like this part about how he did so much market research, really took time to understand his audience and what was important to them. And what was most important to them was knowing about the product and feeling reassured about its sourcing, about the lack of psychoactive effects. Presumably other athletes are buying this as well since he's an athlete.
I would imagine a lot of his followers are too. And so just addressing that upfront and providing as much information as possible, that's something that provides that reassurance and allows people to say, okay, maybe I'll try it out. So is there a side hustle in your future or perhaps in your present? Is there something that's lurking there or something you've been interested in for a while? Why not take the next step?
Why not get in the ring? Maybe there's a story like this just waiting for you, but you gotta take action. You gotta do something about it because inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Thank you so much for listening. Our show notes for today's episode, including links to Soul CBD, anything else I mentioned, are at sidehustleschool.com/780.
That's episode 780, can you believe it? Wow, just noticed that, 780 episodes. Guess what's coming up tomorrow? It's episode 781. All right, I hope you'll come back.
I'll be here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
