I was in the basement of this building to sell bodybuilding supplements. And I was great at it.  I sold pallets full of creatine, whey protein, an ephedra-loaded  pre-workout drink called Ultimate Orange and other products.  My territory was the Midwest U.S.  I sold to gym owners who put a markup on the products and sold them to their members.  

I arrived in this hellhole on the backs of a major battle with depression.  Business was struggling, I had to leave the house I loved, I had the worst case of Writer’s Block ever and the Love Boat had hit a glacier and sunk.  During my depth of winter, I could feel stress hormones coursing through my chest on a daily basis.    I often wondered if I did permanent damage to myself with all that cortisol.  I smoked cigarettes to generate enough dopamine in order to get through each painful day.

I knew about supplements due to my interest in nutrition and my experience selling exercise equipment.  But selling them wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing.  I was in the investment business but I really didn’t have that many clients.  My other ventures were not generating any revenue.  Although it was spring on the calendar it was a dark, dreary winter day each day for me. 

The supplement industry is the most “whorish” business I’ve ever been around.  The company I worked for was started by a bodybuilder from California.  He was a marketing genius.  He obtained a computer file of all the gyms in the U.S. and made arrangements with a distributor located across the river to supply our products.  Each morning I turned on my Acer computer and reviewed the gym owners who I had been talking with on the phone (this was pre-websites and online sales).  This was cold calling at its finest.  Many of my original calls to gym owners were about things other than supplements.  It took a few calls to convert a prospect to a buyer.

During my time in the basement, I sold to 105 different gyms.  Some of them were faxing in orders on a regular basis.  There were other fellows sitting at desks with Acer computers covering the rest of the country.  

I have many stories to share but I’m going to give you just three.

There are many markups in this industry—enough to make a street corner drug dealer envious.  When the manufacturers of the products saw that we were having some success selling to gyms, they set up their own Acer computers and started calling the gyms.  So, our suppliers became our competitors.  Truly, there is no honor among thieves.

The compensation called for an hourly rate and commission.  After two months, the hourly rate was supposed to be increased.  On the Friday before the increase was to occur, we had one of our many meetings.  The owner of the company told us that we weren’t getting the revenue he expected and the long distance phone bill was running much higher than he hoped for.  Our hourly rate increase was going to be on hold.  But we shouldn’t be too concerned, he told us.  We were making commissions at this point.  As we left the building that day, I saw the owner get into his beat-up old Acura and drive away.  On Monday morning, he arrived in a new pearl white Mercedes-Benz.  One of the other salespeople asked him why we didn’t get our raise and he was able to get a new car.  The owner answered that he purchased the car with his own money.  The business money was separate.  I certainly know about business capitalization and he was correct but the timing was bad on his part.  However, it was inline with the nature of the business we were in.

At one point, the owner of the distribution company sent his wife and young daughter into the basement.  The daughter was selling Christmas gift wrapping for a fundraiser.  To keep peace in the basement, I ordered some wrapping, gift bags, and ribbon.  It would be delivered at a point in the future.  As the wife and daughter climbed the steps out of the basement, I had the thought that the gift wrapping had more value to it than the pills and powders I was pushing.

However, I was not there to pay for my gift wrapping.  I had gotten out of the basement.  I’m not going to share the details of my deliverance out of the supplement industry here.  It’s been written about and discussed in seminars. You’re going to have to read about it or be fortunate enough to be in the audience for one of my presentations.  

I will give you this preview—I got out of the basement in a most unique way.  The cast of characters in my “escape” from winter to an invincible summer includes the Pittsburgh Business Times and Highmark.  Over the years, I’ve tried to thank both entities but they won’t accept my heartfelt “Thank you”.   Maybe employees of the PBT and Highmark will read this and finally accept my gratitude.  

A more detailed telling of my adventures in the supplement business can be found in this book and in this article.