Guilty Til' Proven Innocent. Roger W Upchurch
with Seymour and Betty and my idea was to get a construction loan at a bank to build a house "on spec" But I didn't know if I could get a loan without help, since we had just moved there, and my job at that time was just framing' houses. The five of us one evening went to Red Lobster. Seymour loved playing with Shelby and quizzing her on math and she loved it too. Shelby would always order the most expensive thing on the menu. When our dinner was done and we were having coffee, I got enough nerve to tell Seymour I wanted to build a spec home. I really wanted to become a custom home builder in Indianapolis. I told him I already had the plans and had my eyes on a lot at Geist in a subdivision called Windsong. I told him I was going to try to get a construction loan and may need a co-signer. I asked him if he would co-sigh it for me. He sat there for a minute and the silence was killing me. Then he said that he would not do that, and he was sorry. I did not know what to say, I was hurt.
Then after a couple of tense minutes, he pulled out his checkbook and wrote me a check for $100,000. He said Roger I will be your banker and fund your homes. Wow! I could hardly believe my ears and eyes! It just goes to show you that "If you don't ask for something — you will get nothing! "
The only terms were that he would make $2,000.00 per house, plus interest on the money owed. That was a great partnership, and we built many houses, for many years.
I built custom homes for many years in and around INDY, and Peggy and I lived in a lot of new homes I built. My wife was a great decorator, and when people saw our homes and how beautifully decorated, they were, they wanted to buy them! In 1999 1 also became a mortgage broker. I did this because I could see the "writing on the wall" so to speak, that the building business was on the downward swing again.
Our daughter Shelby no doubt learned her niche' for home decor from her mom (Peggy). Today, Shelby owns a successful interior design center in Carmel, Indiana, about fifteen miles north of Indianapolis called Luxe Home Interiors.
By 2008, home builders and mortgage brokers were nearly all shutting down. The economy was crashing. There were no new homes being built. And since there were no new homes being built, there were no new home mortgages to write! Most of the mortgage lenders such as Countrywide, Washington Mutual, and many others had closed their doors. I decided not to renew my mortgage brokers license since I could not obtain any mortgages anyway. We were in a recession. I retired from both.
I was doing some construction, flipping some houses, and starting a networking company that I called Professional Alliance Board (PAB). I recruited professional members to help businesses in the capacity supplying a Board of directors. Helping business owners with decisions that are important and others may hold them accountable. We also provided speakers, such as Ken Dilger (a Pro Bowl tight—end with the Colt's), and Dave (The King) Wilson, a local celebrity comedian in Indianapolis.
Misty got married and moved to Phoenix with her husband. My daughter Shelby graduated in 2002 from Hamilton Southeastern High School. Shelby is like me, in that she is a great salesperson, and aggressive in the right way. Also, not afraid to take chances, and sometimes she does not always make the right decisions, but she perseveres and comes out on top! She's definitely a daddy's girl. She attended a small interior design college in Chicago. She lived in Wrigleyville the whole four years while there. She lived with a roommate and they lived in three different locations in Wrigleyville and always on the third floor where I had to move her three times caring her stuff up the steep stairs. Well, that is what dads are for. She is still friends with her roommate as of today.
One day we were visiting Shelby, and we were drinking, and we walked by a tattoo parlor and Shelby said dad let us get a tattoo.
I said OK let us do it. She said you go first. I had a business card of my mortgage company called Shelby Financial. So, I used the logo which just said Shelby. My first and only tattoo, of course Shelby chickened out and thought it was hilarious.
Their first apartment was above a Starbucks and just across the street from Wrigley stadium the home of the Chicago Cubs. We went to a lot of pleasant bars and restaurants including Dickta's. Those were the fun times.
Chapter Six
If you do not take a risk, you will go nowhere.
In late 2009, a friend of mine named Doug whom I met while in the mortgage business, was my lender rep. He called me one day and said he had a business opportunity that he would like to discuss with me over breakfast the next morning. I said sure as I am always open to new adventures and making money. The next morning, we met for breakfast. He said that his brother, Brad had a recipe to make synthetic marijuana, and he called K2. He said that this product is legal and gives you the same feeling as the actual thing. He said that I was a good marketer and salesperson and thought I could do really well with this product. I told him I would do some research and get back to him. When I got home researched the product, and I could not find anything about it being illegal.
I called him and said I am in and I think we can do well. I agreed to get some sales going, and I believed it was a good product that would become in high demand. We agreed to a deal, and for his brother to send us some product to begin. His brother was sending us the product in bulk, in bags containing a kilo which is 1.2 pounds. The K2 names were already determined which was Summit, Blonde, Blue, Citron, and a couple of others. Summit was the strongest and Citron was the weakest. The strongest gives you more of a high and of course, is the most expensive. The first product we received from Brad was called K2 Summit" We ordered some aluminum bags, printed some labels, bought a set of digital scales, and, well we were in business! I started working on a marketing plan. At that time, I did not know what the ingredients were, but I had to know. I learned that the ingredient that gave you the "high" was a chemical powder imported - from China and the first of the powders was JW18.
That chemical was mixed with herbs bought from a few different places within the country. We could use different herbs for each product, such as Damiana, Lavender, and many others. Summit was the best seller, while citrus was the least popular in sales, and of course, that makes sense. The amount of chemical used determined the strength of "high" you would experience. The various herbs we used did not affect the high but would give unique flavors and appearance. You would then roll it and smoke it like the actual thing which everybody knew. On the label was “Not for Human Consumption” sure that is going to stop people from smoking it.
Soon after, I created a website called K24U2.com where I advertised all the products available. I printed some flyers and sent them out to a great many convenience stores, tobacco shops, head shops etc, I opened a checking account and a PayPal account, as well. We named the Company Driftwood Distributors. I only tried the product two or three times and it sure worked, I thought I never would stop laughing. I smoked marijuana little when I was younger, and I remember this new product giving me the same kind of "experience" as the real thing. A mellow feeling, nothing violent, just make me laugh. I gave some free samples to friends if they wanted to try it, and all their feedback was totally positive. They said it was just like real marijuana. I also later discovered that this product does not show up on urine tests — which, as you can imagine, made this product more attractive.
The website was working well - and just within a few days I was getting orders and seeing deposits in my checking account. The online orders were mostly individuals buying small amounts but getting more every few days. It was not long until I started getting calls from stores interested in stocking the products.
I felt like I was starting to go crazy! The business was generating about $10,000 a week on the website alone and much more from the store orders. The problem was that I physically could not handle all that by myself. Doug said his brother Greg would come to INDY and find a warehouse, and we could start manufacturing products there. They would hire a staff of employees, and a sales team and I agreed to work with them in the capacity of a "Head of Sales" and whatever else needed to be done. In a few short weeks, we had hired the staff, including a secretary and all the employees needed to make and sell the products. Greg lived in St. Louis, and Doug lived in INDY. Greg came over about three days a week and was really tiring of the commute. Early in 2011, Greg said he wanted to retire, and he asked me if I wanted to buy them out. I did not have to think about it long and soon agreed to buy them out to the tune of ONE MILLION