In the "15 Years of Sourcing Secrets" episode, Kian Golzari shared a payment strategy that most Western sellers have never tried.

What currency does he recommend paying Chinese suppliers in, and why?

Answer at bottom of email

When Kian Golzari was growing up, his father traveled constantly to factories in China. While other kids were on sports teams, Kian was learning the language of manufacturing: MOQs, lead times, quality control, supplier relationships.

By the time he was building his own brands, he had a competitive advantage most Western entrepreneurs will never have. He knew how to actually get things made.

The story that illustrates this best? A client wanted 24-karat gold iPhones for Real Madrid soccer stars. Not a production run of thousands. A tiny, highly custom, near-impossible order. For most people, that request dies in a Google search. For Kian, it was Tuesday.

The difference isn't access to some secret database.

What surprised Kevin and Norm most wasn't the gold iPhones. It was Kian's advice on currency: pay your Chinese suppliers in RMB, not USD. The exchange rate math often adds up to meaningful discounts.

Something 99% of Western sellers have never even tried because nobody told them it was an option.

The insight that drives everything Kian teaches: the face-to-face factory visit isn't optional if you're serious. You get better credit terms. Faster samples. Access to new product ideas before they hit the market. And you get the gold iPhones.

Product sourcing is the infrastructure of any physical product business. Get it right and you have margin, quality, and real control over your business. Get it wrong and you're managing disasters in slow motion.

This week's episodes pair Kian Golzari's 15 years of hard-won sourcing wisdom with the emerging reality of AI-powered sourcing tools. The combination reveals a complete picture of where product-based businesses are headed.

Watch These Misfits Episodes to Dive Deeper:

Most sellers describe their customer with demographics: "women 25-45 interested in fitness." That's not an avatar. That's a census segment. A real customer avatar gets inside one person's head.

The Breakdown Framework:

The payoff: your ad copy, email subject lines, product descriptions, and video hooks all become sharper.

When someone reads your marketing and thinks "how did they know?", that's a deep avatar doing its job.

Your welcome sequence is the most important automated flow you'll ever build. Subscribers are more engaged in the first 48 hours after joining than at any other point.

A high-performing welcome series does four things:

Email 1: Delivers your promised lead magnet immediately
Email 2: Introduces your brand story and what makes you different
Email 3: Sets expectations for email frequency and content
Email 4 & 5: Makes a soft offer or drives first purchase .

Space the series over 7-10 days.

The move most brands miss: segment mid-sequence. If a new subscriber clicks a product link in email two, divert them into a product-focused sequence rather than the generic welcome path.

Track welcome series completion rate. This should be your highest revenue-per-email metric of any campaign type.

For help with email marketing for your brand, contact dragon.fish

The Brand: Cards Against Humanity

The Strategy: The game describes itself as "a party game for horrible people." The copy is deliberately offensive. The marketing has included a stunt where they sold literal dirt for $5 on Black Friday. People bought it. They once charged $6 for "nothing." Literally nothing. Customers received an empty box.

Every marketer's instinct screams that this is brand suicide. It was actually brand genius.

By being unapologetically themselves - crude, self-aware, anti-corporate - they attracted the exact people who would love them: smart, sarcastic adults who hated everything about conventional party games. The polarization wasn't a side effect. It was the moat.

The Result: They spent almost nothing on traditional advertising. Word-of-mouth, organic social, and press coverage from their stunts did the work. The product started as a free PDF download. The creators sold printed copies later only when demand demanded it.

The Lesson: Not all marketing should try to convince people. Sometimes the most powerful move is to clearly declare who you're not for. The people who belong will find you faster.

Pappy Van Winkle bourbon is so rare that bottles regularly sell for $3,000-$5,000 on secondary markets, despite a retail price of $100-300. Some stores hold lotteries just for the right to buy a single bottle. The brand is owned by the Van Winkle family, who have been making bourbon since 1874.

The extreme scarcity is real, not manufactured. Julian Van Winkle III produces only around 7,000-8,000 cases per year across all expressions. When you compare that to major bourbon brands releasing millions of cases annually, the math explains everything. Some allocated bottles are resold for 30x their retail price within days of release.

The next Collective Minds Society Cigar & Whiskey trip is Feb 18-22, 2027

Feed AI a supplier's Alibaba profile, website, and any communication you've had. Ask it to identify red flags: vague product specs, suspiciously low MOQs, missing certifications, or generic factory photos that appear on multiple listings.

• Use AI to build a supplier comparison matrix. Input data from 8-10 suppliers (price, MOQ, lead time, certifications, location, payment terms) and ask AI to score each one against your sourcing criteria.

• Ask AI to generate a supplier due diligence checklist specific to your product category. Request 20 questions you should ask every factory before placing a first order.

• Prompt AI to write a negotiation brief before your first supplier call. Include your target price, acceptable MOQ range, preferred payment terms, and a list of concessions you're willing to make versus non-negotiables.

• Use AI to research tariff codes for your product category and model out landed cost scenarios under different tariff rates and source countries.

• Have AI draft your first sample request email with specific quality checkpoints, photography requirements, and timeline expectations built in.

Sample Prompt:

AI compresses research that used to take weeks into a few focused sessions. Use it for discovery, then verify everything in person.

Q: How much does it really cost to visit a factory in China?

A four-day sourcing trip to Guangzhou or Yiwu typically runs $1,500-$3,000 all-in (flights, hotel, local transport, meals). Most sellers who go once say the savings from better pricing and reduced defect rates pay for the trip on their next order. It's a business expense, not a luxury.

Q: What is China+1 sourcing and how do you start?

China+1 means maintaining your primary supplier in China while developing at least one backup supplier in a different country. Start by identifying your top two or three products by revenue, then research alternative manufacturers in Vietnam, India, or Mexico. You don't have to switch; you just need a warm relationship before a crisis forces your hand.

Q: Can AI actually find better suppliers than Alibaba search?

AI doesn't replace Alibaba; it makes the research faster and more structured. AI can parse supplier data, generate comparison matrices, flag inconsistencies in profiles, and help you prepare better questions before supplier calls. The relationship and in-person verification remain entirely human.

Q: Is paying in RMB really worth the complexity?

For orders over $10,000, the 3-7% discount you can often negotiate by paying in RMB makes the setup cost worth it. You'll need a basic understanding of international wire options.

Kian Golzari recommended paying Chinese suppliers in RMB (Chinese yuan) rather than USD.

Suppliers often offer a quiet discount for local currency payments because it eliminates their currency conversion costs.

Watch the full conversation