This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Greetings, good morning, afternoon, evening, whatever time it is in your part of the world. Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School," and this is, in fact, episode 1802.
I'm so grateful to work on this show for you every day, and I hope you're doing well during the holiday season. I always hear from lots of people who have ups and downs and such, so I just encourage you to take care of yourself and maybe check up on somebody as well, because you never know what somebody's going through. All right, today, let's talk about CBD oil, all right? We've looked at this a couple of times. I recently worked on a "Throwback Thursday" episode, in fact, that I will bring you in the near future, featuring the co-founder of a CBD brand that started as a side hustle and is now a pretty big brand, doing extremely well.
Well, today's feature is kind of on a similar track. We've got a pharmacist who creates natural health products that improve the bottom line one drop at a time. CBD oil products produce big profits. That's what we're calling it. I'll bring you the story in the form of Inspiration Plus Action right after this quick message from our sponsor.
Hey, stay tuned. [Music]
As a pharmacist, Najifa Chaudhary was no stranger to stress. She was responsible for the health and wellbeing of a large number of geriatric patients, and she had to get their prescriptions right every time. So it's perhaps ironic that when her anxiety required treatment, Najifa didn't turn to traditional medication. She used CBD oil instead.
Now, in case you don't know, in the cannabis plant, what up cannabis? There are over a hundred different cannabinoids or chemicals. And two of the best studied chemicals, let's call them the greatest hits, are CBD and THC. Now THC is the chemical responsible for producing an altered mental state, what you might typically think of when you think about cannabis. CBD doesn't produce a high, but some people have found it helps with pain, inflammation, insomnia, anxiety, and seizures.
Using hemp-derived CBD is now legal in all 50 states because of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018. Anyway, back to our story. After using CBD oil for several months and talking to others, Najifa realized that most people didn't know what it was or how it could help them. She also learned that the CBD industry was unregulated and wide open to confusion. Pretty much anyone could put anything in a bottle, slap on a label that said CBD and sell it.
Now as a pharmacist working in a corporate job that could do random drug testing at any time, she was nervous. She didn't want to stop using CBD oil, but she wanted to know exactly what she was putting into her body. And since she was so passionate about it, as well as how well it had helped with her anxiety, a friend suggested that she start her own brand. That suggestion was all it took. Najifa started researching.
She went to conferences, networked with others, and filed for an LLC in February 2019. She also convinced her husband, who had never built a website in his life, to make one for her. And together they hired a graphic designer from Upwork to make her logo. In a particularly frugal move, Najifa used university interns as pre-social media help. In total, she spent about $6,000 to get her new business up and running.
She called it Dr. Peace Lily, and most of that money went towards inventory. Najifa officially launched in the spring of 2019 with three products, all organically grown and manufactured in the United States in an FDA registered lab. Early growth was slow because she could only work her business after she was done with her nine to five job. She had to teach herself everything about marketing in her spare time, but she did.
Najifa put her focus on building brand recognition and developed a strong PR campaign. News media outlets were interested in learning about CBD from a healthcare provider, not just a random seller. She was featured on a local TV station, several radio shows, and many podcasts. This PR push unlocked the potential of Dr. Peace Lily, and Najifa decided to focus growing the business through in-person events and farmer's markets.
Now, sometimes she was blocked if a venue didn't allow CBD vendors, but that didn't slow her down. Najifa would reach out to a local business and hold a vendor day in their space instead. This allowed her to connect with customers face-to-face and answer any questions they had, especially their concerns and what they were looking for. It was perfect market research. With business picking up, in April 2021, she decided to leave her corporate pharmacist job to focus on Dr. Peace Lily full-time.
Najifa continued filling all orders herself until September when she hired an operations manager. In fact, she now has three employees. The business brings in around $9,000 a month in sales and expects to have $50,000 in profit this year. An excellent start, of course, but Najifa has big plans for the future. She's currently looking for a strategic partner who can help her scale her business to become a national brand.
And to help with that, Najifa is soon moving to California to network with investors. She's also planning to start another brand, providing comprehensive medical reviews. [Music]
What is your idea? What is your passion? How can you monetize it?
What do you wanna do to go from idea to action? I encourage you to follow these stories, follow our case studies, see what people have done, try to understand how they got going, what obstacles they encountered, how they overcame those obstacles. There are so many free resources out there, including, of course, 1,800 free episodes in the archives. You can access all of them at sidehustleschool.com. My books also are low cost, especially "Side Hustle" and the $100 startup.
Should cost less than 20 bucks each at any bookstore. This stuff is not too difficult. Like anybody can do this, or at least anybody can do something. So that's my hope for you today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.
To find the show notes for today's episode, including links to everything I mentioned, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1802. 1802. If you've got a comment or question, you can leave it for me there as well. I hope you'll subscribe, follow, and come back tomorrow. That's it for now.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
