WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 And so the idea is you start not with the intent of saying this is going to be the one thing I'm going to be referring to my life, 2 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:08.720 which is the fallacy that employees have, that whatever they pick is going to be the thing they're going to do for the rest of the lives. 3 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:15.760 When in reality it's I just have to do a thing that I'm good enough at that I can learn the game and the thing is once you start taking steps, the next step becomes illuminated. 4 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:23.280 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more progress, how to keep them longer, 5 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.040 and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. 6 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:39.040 Yeah, so thank you so much for taking the time. This is a conversation I've been looking forward to for a while because I've discovered your stuff around the time you were blowing up seemingly on all of the social platforms. 7 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:47.040 And then and then I came across your book and I listened to an audible and around the same time all of my friends had also discovered the book. 8 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:53.040 They were just like we were all mess with being like, oh my god, have you read a hundred million dollars, it's just absolutely sick and it's just like jam packed with value. 9 00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:59.040 So firstly, thank you for that and for providing that as a 99 cent service to the world broadly. 10 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:03.040 How do you think about pricing for that book by the way? 11 00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:09.040 I mean, I think it's always like what's the you know what problem we're resolving and so for me like the point of the book is not to make money from the book. 12 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:21.040 The point of the book was to you know help as many businesses make money and then I mean the the play for acquisition not comes are very long play you know what I mean which is just I believe that there's lots of. 13 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:35.040 I think that the biggest inflow of deals will actually come in five years from all the people who consume the stuff and have gotten to you know three five 10 20 million and they want to work with that position not calm who are not at that threshold yet. 14 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:39.040 But it's guys who want to go to a hundred and they're kept at 10 and they're trying to figure out what to do. 15 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:43.040 That's that's what I'm making all the stuff for. 16 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:49.040 But yeah, so the problem that we're solving is like how do we get this nismany hands as possible and so giving it away for free. 17 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:55.040 I actually don't think would have gotten as many hands because I wanted to use because if Amazon makes money Amazon push it right and so. 18 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:04.040 I had to make and so at 99 cents Amazon gets two thirds of the revenue from the thing if I was at 2 2 2 99 that it's I get two thirds and they get one third. 19 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:08.040 And so my at least my mental argument was it's easy to sell 99 something. 20 00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:16.040 I can tap into the traffic that Amazon will provide and what problem my solving which is master's distribution you know many people is possible and I think there is also a tiny element of. 21 00:02:16.040 --> 00:02:24.040 Free versus paid there's like an emotional difference of like I paid something I mean it's a difference between customer and of where you know what I mean and so. 22 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:33.040 That was that was at least the the thought process behind it and yeah just that was that there wasn't too much more thought than that. 23 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:41.040 So one of the things that you open a lot of your content with is the phrase to the effect of my name is Alex Ramose I own acquisition dot com. 24 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:51.040 And I'm going to help you get to 3 million revenue if you're more than 3 million in revenue then talk to me I want to acquire you but if you're less than 3 million revenue I want to help you get there and I have nothing to sell you. 25 00:02:52.040 --> 00:02:55.040 And that's that's interesting so it's. 26 00:02:55.040 --> 00:03:06.040 It's interesting a because like the way people were describing you when it was sort of on the grapevine when you first started blowing up was that phrase that and I have nothing to sell you. 27 00:03:06.040 --> 00:03:28.040 And that was that that really tapped nicely into some something in the zeitgeist where everyone knows someone's always trying to sell you something and then just the fact that you're so blasé about throwing the word 3 million out there where for most people they hear that number and they're like shit their pants because like 3 million is a lot of money but the way you seem to talk it like it it's it's almost like it's it's not and it help like for me at least helped me. 28 00:03:28.040 --> 00:03:38.040 Change my mindset around multiple millions to the point is that it didn't seem like such a big deal so I wonder if you can just kind of speak to that a bit like what's the philosophy behind the introduction. 29 00:03:39.040 --> 00:03:53.040 Yeah I mean so many many of the things that I feel like I've gotten some notoriety for have been you know sheer accidents that it's it only seems masterful in retrospect then more than it was you know intelligent design. 30 00:03:53.040 --> 00:04:11.040 I got frustrated because a lot of people are like he's just trying to sell a course this is like early on because you know what and I was like I said I'm not I have nothing to sell you I was like I have nothing to sell you it's a the very first thing I can't remember which one it was I just said it like I was just annoyed when I said that and then you know the comments just like port on it. 31 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:32.040 So I just need to be more like more explicit about this I people just don't know I was like I have nothing so I've a 99 cent book like you know I mean like if that and that's actually the one thing that I've struggled with is because like the Internet doesn't do well with nuance and so they're like you know so we're like he's tried to make money like do it like yeah in the book does make money the book makes probably about 60,000 a month in income. 32 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:49.040 Then I make from the book yeah so I mean like it makes money but like relative to my income it's just like it's a relevant like it doesn't even you know what I mean like it doesn't it doesn't my top employee makes a million plus a year like it doesn't do anything for me so it's just like for context right. 33 00:04:50.040 --> 00:05:11.040 So anyways all that say the thingy process was more just me trying to be explicit and in terms of talking about three million I may even change it I may I've changed it on some a lot of my profiles to 10 million and up but the biggest issue that most people have between zero and three specifically it's just ignorance. 34 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:26.040 People just don't know what to do you know what I mean and so like just you know getting to six figures is literally just like sell something to someone like that's all you have to do to get six figures like one channel one product one avatar like that's it you don't have to do anything else. 35 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:36.040 And then you know when you get you want to get to seven figures then you just do that and then add the word consistently which is you do you know you input put the inputs in the system in a way that's consistent so that you get a consistent output so. 36 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:46.040 It's whatever way you acquired this customers whether it was reach outs whether it was content whether it was paid ads whether it was affiliates whether it was referrals whatever the thing was that got you the customers cool. 37 00:05:46.040 --> 00:06:03.040 Do that consistently and you'll be a million you don't mean which is which is still only 20k a week it's not like a huge number you know one to three is usually increasing output of that that main thing to a small degree and really just like baseline efficiencies and building out the core team. 38 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:14.040 So usually at that point going one to three is getting the person out of delivery to a large you know to a large extent and usually they get their first kind of first follower first like one or two. 39 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:28.040 I'm trying to think the right word to how to say this competent individuals who are helping them out and then you know a handful of frontline and so it's usually like companies that's a three million they're like five to 15 employees and so. 40 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:40.040 There's usually really only like two ish good ones and the rest are okay right and so at that point you know going from three to ten is usually where we can at the minimum level that we take people on. 41 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:53.040 And it's not because there's something magical about three million is that three million typically checks two boxes box one is that they product market fit at some level people want something from like something they're selling is resonating enough that they can generate sales. 42 00:06:53.040 --> 00:07:06.040 And the second thing I guess there's three boxes one is that the second is that they have at least one reliable acquisition channel that they're currently doing and the third is that they've a core team in place so they demonstrate product market fit they have a reliable acquisition channel just at least one. 43 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:22.040 And they have a core team in place which may be relatively dysfunctional and have very few key players but at least they have some semblance of structure and so if they have they think me those minimum requirements then we can at least start from at least some level of leverage to start helping them grow. 44 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:32.040 Okay so I'd love to talk a lot about that that initial bit that you sort of threw away with like oh one product one channel one one one. 45 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:44.040 So for a bit context a couple of weeks ago I happened to be on on vacation on some Greek island and I posted an Instagram reel of like hey this is the creator life I'm working on my iPad and stuff. 46 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:53.040 And there are a few comments from people being like I'd love to live this sort of lifestyle but I just don't know where to start and that sort of that idea of I'd love to be able to. 47 00:07:53.040 --> 00:08:00.040 You know if we imagine 99.9% listening to both people listening to this if you told them they could make six figures a year doing what they love they'd be like. 48 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:18.040 My blown would absolutely love that so I wonder if we can kind of explore that zero to six figure jump or sort of process let's say someone has got a full time job let's say they're working in I don't know consulting or something corporate and they love the idea of I want to make living doing what I love how how would we break that down. 49 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:29.040 And this is under the assumption that they hate doing what they're doing yes I was like I always like to class like I've gotten players that make million bucks a year plus so like you can absolutely become filthy wealthy and that's income right so a lot of businesses that are. 50 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:35.040 10 million dollars a year the owner might only take a million bucks in income depending on you know margins etc and so like. 51 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:47.040 A lot of a lot of employees will wish for they see top line as income which is just a very employee mindset they're like if I make six figures a year I'll make six figures a year it's like well really want to make six figures a year probably make 500 grand a year. 52 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:57.040 I mean revenue wise at least if you don't want to have just bought yourself another job right because so let's let's talk through this transition so if you're an employee. 53 00:08:57.040 --> 00:09:08.040 When you make the switch you're still an employee you're just employee the different business that you happen to own and you are basically 100% of the expenses and so the business itself actually makes no money you as the sole employee of that thing and the boss. 54 00:09:08.040 --> 00:09:26.040 Guess to call your own shots but you were still the employee right so you're wearing all the hats etc and so it's relatively nuanced you know I mean like if you're a six for consulting job and then you start consulting on the side for example through your own LLC you have the same job you just got rid of the person who is giving you direction now you are responsible right. 55 00:09:26.040 --> 00:09:37.040 The thing that most people have to do is they have to go get money right you have to go make money and the way you do that is you self stuff right and the way that you can even begin the conversation self stuff is that you have to have people who show interest. 56 00:09:37.040 --> 00:09:45.040 In the thing which means you have to make your products know and we do that through advertising right there's five ways to advertise which I just went over earlier. 57 00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:56.040 And so it's like pick one of those five ways start doing it on a consistent basis bring people in what do you sell them that's what the hundred of all offers is book is four is like this is how you figure out what to sell. 58 00:09:56.040 --> 00:10:05.040 And then you sell them the thing and then after that you'll have some delivery now usually if you have a consistent method of advertising and selling with with what to sell from the offer. 59 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:20.040 Then you can start getting people to help you on the level of deliver you have which comes down to breaking the delivery into chunks rather than holistically and say how can I specialize labor because you trying to say I just need somebody to do what I do is silly right you need to figure out how can somebody do. 60 00:10:20.040 --> 00:10:28.040 How can I get how can I get five people to do 20% of what I'm doing and do it consistently right and then you can increase your advertising sales is very high leverage thing in the beginning. 61 00:10:28.040 --> 00:10:49.040 If you spent all day selling just you you would have enough for five people to do work right and say then you would have a business you know so let's say someone's listen to this and they're thinking all right cool I know I like I've read I like to speak to you to you to me I've got I've got to sell a thing I don't I don't know what to sell I don't ever have any skills I don't I don't I don't know what I could possibly offer to the world yeah how do we how do we break that down. 62 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:57.040 Yeah this is actually a topic that I um I cover more in the leads book that's coming out soon relative terms six months. 63 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:16.040 Everybody knows something all right and so the idea is what do you have like everyone has unique depth of knowledge in certain areas because you've been alive and your eyes and ears have taken inputs period right and so I like to think of of people starting like say if you look at every familiar with why commentator. 64 00:11:16.040 --> 00:11:35.040 Yeah I see yeah but so yeah yeah so why commentators one of the most successful you know I don't know if they're technically VC their start you know seed capital startup investors in Silicon Valley and they have a various individual structure and they have criteria for what they look for in companies and one of the most important criteria that they look for is past experience. 65 00:11:35.040 --> 00:12:02.040 And so they're okay with somebody who's super young et cetera but they want to they want you to have experience in the industry because there's just so much ignorance debt that you have to pay down if you literally know nothing about an industry like there's just so much like if your dad was a mechanic you know so much about cars just by osmosis of being around a mechanic for 18 years and so I like to think past jobs you've held you will know stuff about that industry. 66 00:12:02.040 --> 00:12:23.040 The jobs of your parents are things that you will know about that industry and then you've got personal interests and so I think that if I put those into three buckets it's like parent stuff past jobs of self and current interests and so it's like of those three things which of those three buckets do you think you could help someone do a thing better. 67 00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:49.040 And so the idea is you want to sell the most valuable thing right and so the most valuable thing is what is the problem that I can help somebody else solve that I could charge the most money for or in reverse that could make them the most money and then I will be able to charge a percentage of the money that I'm able to make somebody else in this thing now that's in a B to B setting in a B to C setting it would be how valuable do people perceive the problem that they have as right whether it's like I can teach music. 68 00:12:49.040 --> 00:13:02.040 Tons of people want to be able to learn how to and if you're better you know because you've had a side interest in that also maybe you have a side interest because you're really good at adding the songs well there's tons of musicians who love who hate that part would love to have it so it's like we all know how to do stuff and all we have to do is. 69 00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:12.040 Package the thing that we're doing and I think the big problem is that people expect that they're going to have a perfect business but if you look at the track record of all of I can't think of an entrepreneur besides Jeff Bezos who's a freak of nature. 70 00:13:12.040 --> 00:13:26.040 Who's first business is most people have a graveyard of failures behind them and so the idea is you start not with the intent of saying this is going to be the one thing I would trust my life which is the fallacy that employees have. 71 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:46.040 That whatever they pick is me the thing they're going to do for us lives when in real it's I just have to do a thing that I'm good enough at that I can learn the game and the thing is once you start taking steps the path the next step becomes illuminated you trying to think a hundred steps into the future when you have no context is is irrelevant because chaos is going to break your plan anyways and so do what you know. 72 00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:58.040 Do what you know exchange I like service businesses to start because they are the in my opinion the lowest risk to start because you're just it's just your time right so service businesses meeting do stuff for money. 73 00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:01.040 Like a little in a cleaning windows. 74 00:14:02.040 --> 00:14:12.040 Clean houses like whatever like all of those are just service businesses right and they're fine and a lot of people think they need to have some novel idea to start a business one I mean the best in my opinion if you're getting into it. 75 00:14:13.040 --> 00:14:17.040 The best way to start a business is just look at what everyone else is doing and just try and do it better. 76 00:14:18.040 --> 00:14:27.040 And there's obvious holes like if you've if you've gone to if you've gotten your dry cleaning it's like can I do this in half the time as this guy if I do the lawn care what are the things people hate about lawn care. 77 00:14:27.040 --> 00:14:45.040 They leave the the trimmings are on the edges are all all shitty the person doesn't speak English that well well cool then I've got advantages right so it's like what are things that I already know how to do our have past experience and what things because I have past experience I know that other people struggle with that sucks about this thing and then I will solve that specific problem and it could 78 00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:48.040 also be a problem that other people solve to you just try to do a little bit better. 79 00:14:48.040 --> 00:15:05.040 Like it's it's it's not rocket science you know what I mean and then you exchange you start selling your time for money so yes you're still trading time for dollars you don't need to reach redirects that for that just yet right you're still trading time for dollars right but the point is that you're you're trading that time for money in order to learn not to earn. 80 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:17.040 You need to earn in order to pay your pay your rent eat et cetera but the major thing you're doing is you're paying down ignorance that so the vast majority of your income is coming in the terms of in the form of education rather than earning. 81 00:15:17.040 --> 00:15:37.040 Yeah there's a few a few things there that I think are really interesting the first is that I think if we think of sort of how an employee thinks versus how an entrepreneur thinks we're a business owner an employee sort of mindset is often sort of the activity that I'm doing where the entrepreneur is more like the problem the specific problem that I'm solving. 82 00:15:38.040 --> 00:15:59.040 And I found that when people in in our team have started doing freelance work and now they have more of an idea of what a creator business looks like and they can solve a specific problem they're just like oh my god it's so easy to make money whereas before they were thinking of this service is like I am I offer writing as a service or something like that but as soon as you connected to a problem that preferably a business house businesses can pay for it suddenly. 83 00:15:59.040 --> 00:16:13.040 Suddenly the eyes eyes light up and you realize hang on what does money even mean if I could if it's seemingly so easy to make it yeah I like what you think about service based businesses because it's it's not that sexy like when you hear people on podcasts you don't tend to hear of someone who. 84 00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:21.040 Built a service based business and it went really big you tend to hear the stories of like the tech entrepreneurs that builder and that built an innovative product and stuff. 85 00:16:22.040 --> 00:16:31.040 They don't see the hundred failed startups like the failure rate on tech startups in my like is just as high as everything else except it usually takes capital and it doesn't take capital start a service business. 86 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:43.040 So with you like my understanding is that you quit your corporate job to and started that started the gym business and I wonder if we can kind of explore explore the story there a little bit more I can actually even rewind that there is a half step in between there. 87 00:16:43.040 --> 00:17:12.040 So this is also covered in the leads but I'll give a sneak peek so what I did is I actually because I've been interested in fitness right that was my interest so like I had past experience I was obsessed with fitness I've been in at that point I was 23 I've been training for eight years I had several state records so like I was a pretty you know I was pretty into it right and it was to the point where people were asking me for stuff all you know we work out programs and things like just because they knew my interest right and so as a quick you know pro tip for everybody. 88 00:17:13.040 --> 00:17:42.040 If you've got stuff that people ask you to do for them because you're good at it maybe you're good at tech it's like can you help me set up my like Wi-Fi and stuff you know blah blah blah it's like that means you're solving problems you can chart like what people ask you to do as a favor is an indication of the things you can charge for later right so I had all these people who are asking me not all these I mean I handful people who would ask me for programs and stuff and so what I did was during my last year of consulting I started something called the free training project and so the free training project was 89 00:17:43.040 --> 00:18:13.000 I would charge 500 to a thousand dollars but I would as I wouldn't charge it they had to donate that to the charity their choice in exchange to work with me right and so that way I wanted people to value it but I they weren't paying me directly so they get it right off they felt good I had a ton of good will also in the marketplace too because I was like I'm doing all the stuff for charity I got I got all these people reach out to me like this is so cool blah blah blah right and so after a year of doing that I had probably I don't know 12 really good test of like great before and after pictures that I 90 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:28.240 had collected from my clients and I told them that was part of the deal I was like I'll like you have to donate it I would like to do this for real later but you have to let me use your testimony and they were like that's fine so once I had that I those first you know 10 12 customers who had who had great 91 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:35.440 before and after pictures I transitioned many of those customers said hey I'm going to do this full time now are you comfortable paying the same 92 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:41.240 you're paying to charity except just making it charity of Alex because Alex can eat either and so and that was actually how I 93 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:47.120 transitioned from not for profit or donating everything and I'd even set up the entity I just told them to just 94 00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:52.320 literally donated and send me the screenshot I didn't even do anything like that and so I didn't have a 95 00:18:52.320 --> 00:18:58.400 website all I had was an LLC and a PayPal account so like for everybody's like I don't know how to start a 96 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:03.840 business I was like you literally just need a bank account and a way to process money that is it like two 97 00:19:03.840 --> 00:19:08.080 things and you can Google how to figure out if you can't figure out from Google entrepreneurship might not be 98 00:19:08.080 --> 00:19:12.880 for you all right but you let like think about there's 30 million businesses in the United States 30 99 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:18.960 million other people have figured this out which means you can too so bank account payment processing make 100 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:23.520 the first 10 free or some sort of charitable thing so that people like don't feel weird or you don't 101 00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:29.040 feel weird about selling etc after you have it after providing the service to people you can transition 102 00:19:29.040 --> 00:19:34.000 people from free service to paid service and if they don't want to start paying you then that gives you 103 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:40.400 insight is to either you suck right or they suck which is also possible too but either way a certain 104 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:44.560 percentage of those people will continue to stay and pay and now you have income now you can also ask 105 00:19:44.560 --> 00:19:49.680 this people for referrals which is exactly what I did so I think half that business came in just for I 106 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:54.720 got you know the initial ones came in from friends and family and me posting and so I was I'll close the 107 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:58.960 loop on what I said earlier a year later after I had the testimonials I made a public post being 108 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:04.800 like hey I've got this thing now I made a website which is that was my big enough I made a website 109 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:11.200 I still have the post I found it is 2013 I was like I made a I made a website and I am now 110 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:16.080 open for business and so if you would like you know training stuff let me know this what I'm doing 111 00:20:16.080 --> 00:20:21.040 now I had some testimonials and go check out the site whatever and so from there I was able to get 112 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:26.560 I think about 20 guys who were willing to let me do just like almost bodybuilding type stuff because 113 00:20:26.560 --> 00:20:31.840 I was kind of like I was part of the bodybuilding back then and so I think I want to say I got 114 00:20:32.560 --> 00:20:40.640 20 guys at 200 bucks a month and so I was making $4,000 a month from those people and it took me 115 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:46.320 four hours every Saturday to do the fulfillment what was the fulfillment I just I would just update their 116 00:20:46.320 --> 00:20:53.280 training programs and send them nutrition like update their macros updated meal plans and then like 117 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:59.200 new workouts before week et cetera and then I and everyone had my cell phone and I would just text 118 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:03.360 them the new stuff and they had any questions they could hit me up like it was a very simple business 119 00:21:04.800 --> 00:21:10.320 and so that's what I did it was just one on one online and it only took me four hours on Saturday 120 00:21:10.320 --> 00:21:15.920 morning and to show you what kind of person I am I hated it even though I loved fitness I hated 121 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:22.480 having to do something the same thing every day like on the delivery side so I ended up having 122 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:26.080 the genius idea of saying oh I need to own a gym because then I'll be a business owner I'm really 123 00:21:26.080 --> 00:21:31.440 just self-employed right now and so that's what got me to start my gym rather than probably doing 124 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:35.680 the wiser decision saying okay this cost you four hours a week and you're making four grand a month 125 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:40.720 maybe you should do this for 40 hours a week but doing more of it to me felt like a horrible idea 126 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:45.680 so I didn't want to do anymore so how did you jump from that to there for I should probably own a gym 127 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:50.640 oh I don't think that's the differential jump is not high yeah it was not okay it was not an intelligent 128 00:21:51.280 --> 00:21:56.960 I always thought I was gonna own a gym that was I mean that was the not always I had done a 129 00:21:57.840 --> 00:22:01.840 so these are the three things that I was deciding between for my business I was decided 130 00:22:01.840 --> 00:22:07.600 between a test prep company because I was really good at center testing and I had a process for how 131 00:22:07.600 --> 00:22:14.800 I how I did it I had a yogurt business idea because I was a big yo fro yo guy guy and I was like 132 00:22:14.800 --> 00:22:19.520 I'm a avid consumer of this shit yeah I feel like I know and I hated there's so many things I knew 133 00:22:19.520 --> 00:22:24.080 that I thought I could I actually know a lot about the other business now um and I was good 134 00:22:24.080 --> 00:22:28.320 to finish so those are the three things that I felt like I could do for anybody's listen like those 135 00:22:28.320 --> 00:22:32.240 are the three that I was picking between the yogurt business cost 250 grand a startup I didn't have 136 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:37.440 that money so I couldn't do that one um I had saved about 50 or 60 grand a camera with 50 or 60 137 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.160 at the time um a 23 and then the test prep business I actually did a ton of work on um and I was 138 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:49.440 gonna partner with a professor from my university to do with me and so I set up all the initial 139 00:22:49.600 --> 00:22:56.320 materials um and based on a miscommunication I'll just put it that way um he ended up either taking 140 00:22:56.320 --> 00:23:03.120 the materials and not and using them without me to start a business consulting thing either way 141 00:23:03.120 --> 00:23:06.160 it became clear that what I thought was happening versus what he thought was happening were not the 142 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.160 same thing um and that left the very sour taste in my mouth with test prep I do think it was the 143 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.320 smarter business that probably should have done um and so all that was left was fitness and so 144 00:23:14.320 --> 00:23:19.200 fitness sounds like I already know that um people already want me to help them with it so I'll just 145 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:23.840 start that and so the gym was the that was the what what I would have said is like the legit 146 00:23:23.840 --> 00:23:27.360 business I didn't think that the online thing was legit because remember this is 10 years ago 147 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:32.160 so like it wasn't what I don't even thought it was that was that was a that was a concept of 148 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:36.400 legitimate business you know what I mean so I was really early days on it and so uh you know 149 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:43.200 from there I hit up 40 gym owners uh to see if I could just basically apprentice for them and 150 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:50.320 just work for free uh one guy hit me back he had a mastermind uh I joined his mastermind 151 00:23:50.320 --> 00:23:55.200 for $10,000 even though I didn't have a gym and I said are you sure that it makes sense for me to 152 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.880 join he was like oh yeah sure um and it did actually make sense for me because then I could learn 153 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:02.080 from all the mistakes I've really also was making before I started so I was like okay this works 154 00:24:02.080 --> 00:24:07.120 and so I learned all the stuff that I could from that mastermind and from him um he ended up signing 155 00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:10.480 yeah it's actually a couple of questions on that front yeah so 156 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:18.640 most nation real quick if you are a business owner that has a big old business and wants to get 157 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:24.400 to a much bigger business going to $50 million plus we would love to talk to you and if you like 158 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:28.480 that would like to hear more about it go to acquisition.com and you can plan anywhere on the page 159 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:31.440 and talk to one of our team and see if we can help you get there 160 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:37.280 the test prep thing is interesting I didn't I didn't know that part of the story so my first 161 00:24:37.280 --> 00:24:41.120 business that went well was also a test prep business and I still have the evernote document from 162 00:24:41.120 --> 00:24:45.680 2012 where I was like shit I need to make some money what am I good at uh and what could I possibly 163 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:50.560 do and it was like test prep and web design and I was like cool let me make a test prep course 164 00:24:50.560 --> 00:24:54.080 thing and let me advertise it on a website because the fact that it's hard to make a website look 165 00:24:54.080 --> 00:25:00.720 pretty and that that's what ended up ended up making the money initially um on the on the gym front 166 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:08.080 so it seems to me like there's two leaps there um leap number one is I want to do this thing 167 00:25:08.080 --> 00:25:12.880 like I started gym maybe um and therefore I'm going to work for free oh I don't want to 168 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:16.560 business yeah I want to own a business therefore I'm going to work for someone for free that 169 00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:21.440 that that is seems like a bit of a leap uh which these days seems very unfashionable to even say 170 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:25.440 because everyone then goes down your throat for being that's only available for the privilege 171 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:29.840 etc etc and then be on that also the privilege working for further yeah the working for free 172 00:25:29.840 --> 00:25:35.360 thing it's it's quite unfashionable to suggest that people work for free um all right at least I 173 00:25:35.360 --> 00:25:39.280 mean I was making four grand a month from my little online thing so I made money from that 174 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.480 now I offered to work for free but I he quickly was like I don't feel good about I'll just pay you 175 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:48.880 and so he paid me he paid me like minimum wage but I mean I think I made like I don't know 176 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:52.080 twenty hundred bucks a month whatever it was I don't even remember what it was because I made 177 00:25:52.080 --> 00:25:56.560 more from the four hours a week on Saturday than I did from that but I again but the point wasn't 178 00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:03.680 to to earn you know I mean it was to learn and I had saved up 50 grand so I knew I could live for 179 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:08.880 you know at least two years on that um I tried to live on I was I spent four hundred bucks a month 180 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:14.240 splitting a bedroom um and then I ate not you know I spent a hundred dollars a week on food I was 181 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:18.080 eating you know I was spending nothing to live and then the rest of my time was at the gym trying 182 00:26:18.080 --> 00:26:21.280 to learn the thing that's always struck me about you like when I when I've heard other interviews 183 00:26:21.280 --> 00:26:25.440 is that you're so matter of fact about all of this stuff and whereas to me like at every stage of 184 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:30.160 the journey I know people who are at that point who have gone the other way and decided you know what 185 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:34.320 or I couldn't I couldn't possibly leave my 40k a year job even though I'm living with my parents 186 00:26:34.320 --> 00:26:37.600 and I don't have any any kids or anything I couldn't possibly leave that and take a pay cut because 187 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:42.320 that would be bad and you're supposed to make more money as you go older rather than less and 188 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:47.280 yeah do you kind of get that probably I guess a sort of people you speak to these days are mostly 189 00:26:47.280 --> 00:26:51.360 the sort of three to ten million plus rather than the people they're just struggling struggling to 190 00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:55.600 get started by imagine most of the people that follow you tend to be in the beginner camp 88 so 191 00:26:55.600 --> 00:27:02.800 I wonder if you can how do you know that we have a survey on our site oh yeah nice yes 88% of 192 00:27:02.800 --> 00:27:07.680 people want to start a business at least that follow me so I wonder if you can speak more to this 193 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:13.360 idea of like learn versus earn because I think that's a good model and this idea of paying down 194 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:17.200 ignorance debt I think I think that's a great model that more people could yeah it's the most 195 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:21.680 expensive cost every like right now everybody costs everybody cost me a billion dollars a year to 196 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.600 not be to not know what to do to make a billion dollars or I do know how to make a billion dollars 197 00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:28.720 and I just have to wait and pay down my time debt which is what I feel like I'm doing right now 198 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:33.440 I'm just paying down time and so I think understanding whether it's a lack of knowledge or it's just 199 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:38.080 a timeline thing like those are big differences you know I mean at the baseline right you can be 200 00:27:38.080 --> 00:27:41.520 doing the right thing but just be 10 years behind when it's going to come to fruition you will get 201 00:27:41.520 --> 00:27:46.320 outsize returns on the on the information right on the knowledge and the lessons that you will learn 202 00:27:46.320 --> 00:27:51.760 and so you want to you want to pay that ignorance down as fast as you can because as soon as you 203 00:27:51.760 --> 00:27:57.920 have that knowledge you'll be able to skyrocket straight to 20 50 100 500 a month like very quickly 204 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:02.480 because you know how to do it right so people are like getting obsessed about these microchanges 205 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:07.520 when the big scheme changes like this is why in my opinion all of the money that some would be 206 00:28:07.520 --> 00:28:13.680 spent and like this is relatively controversial um it's a whole S&P 500 versus S&E 500 but like 207 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:17.840 you will get a significantly higher return investing in your own ability to make money 208 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:23.520 then you will in any any market and so if you look at all the vast majority of very very wealthy people 209 00:28:23.520 --> 00:28:28.800 they have tremendous earning capacity right they know how to do stuff that makes money right so it's 210 00:28:28.800 --> 00:28:33.840 like we got to go get that and so there's really not like if you were to if you were to dollar cost 211 00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:40.160 average a thousand dollars a month into the S&P 500 for for you know 50 years sure you'd also not 212 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:45.440 fun life but you could do that if you wanted to you could do that you absolutely could right um 213 00:28:46.800 --> 00:28:53.360 or you could take that thousand dollars a month join a mentorship program every year you know 214 00:28:53.360 --> 00:28:57.440 what I mean and this is why my whole argument against like college is not that I'm against college 215 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:02.480 I think it's just overpriced and so you could take 200 that like you want to you want to have a 216 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:07.600 trippy thought in like in the US you can get a student loan for the full amount of college is about 217 00:29:07.600 --> 00:29:11.040 $200,000 if you go to like a really nice private school like that's that that's what you can get 218 00:29:11.040 --> 00:29:15.600 subsidized to the government $200,000 and you don't have debt payments for like a very long time 219 00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:21.760 here's a crazy thought you could take that $200,000 you could buy a fucking rental property that makes 220 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:27.520 you $4,000 a month and then you literally exit the system before you even got into it with the 221 00:29:27.520 --> 00:29:31.440 money that they're giving you to become a worker which is just fat and you wouldn't even have to pay 222 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:36.320 the pay down the debt service for the real estate a buddy of mine did this he's a PhD student he got 223 00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:41.680 grants to go to school he still took out the student loans and he finished finished his his PhD 224 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:48.320 with 20 homes and $10,000 a month of income from from doors that he didn't even have debt service on 225 00:29:48.320 --> 00:29:55.440 because it was it was student loans crazy just as as a fun side yeah that's so but but I won't 226 00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:00.880 even get into that one but if we just think okay I'm paying $2,000 a month if I'm paying if I 227 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:05.440 if I if I if I'm working for not working if I'm going to school for $25,000 a year so 100 grand 228 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:11.520 for four years whatever I paid $2,000 a month is there another place that I could spend $2,000 a 229 00:30:11.520 --> 00:30:16.640 month and get a superior return on my ability to earn money and my argument would be yes there are 230 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:21.920 many places most places arguably will give you a better return on your money than a traditional 231 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:27.440 four-year degree at this moment right and so you take the you take the $2,000 a month you go and you 232 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:33.440 buy a six-month mastermind on placing ads you buy a six-month thing on selling you buy a six-month 233 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:37.680 thing on making courses whatever maybe takes you 18 months well you're still two and a half years 234 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:44.640 ahead of the other guys so what you don't I mean yeah I think this is this is like a key a key like 235 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:48.560 mindset shift because I'm just thinking there's so many conversations I've had with friends and 236 00:30:48.560 --> 00:30:52.960 people in my audience over the over the years where it's like you know they've got like a regular 237 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:58.320 job maybe earning 50k or something or even 30k like whatever and they're like I know I want to 238 00:30:58.320 --> 00:31:04.640 make some money on the side therefore um you know talk to me about investing I like do I pick 239 00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:11.600 stocks or index funds and I'm like I mean index fund but like hang on like how much money how much 240 00:31:11.600 --> 00:31:16.640 money do I make yeah you're poor there's like you're not going to make you're not going to make 241 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:19.600 breath take in the thing and here's here's the thing is when you when you do the dollar cross 242 00:31:19.600 --> 00:31:22.800 average thing because everyone likes to put in the excel sheet everyone gets excel rich the thing 243 00:31:22.800 --> 00:31:27.040 is just that by the time you retire with four million dollars on that excel sheet four million 244 00:31:27.040 --> 00:31:31.360 dollars will be a million dollars today just not a lot of money now people like that is a lot of 245 00:31:31.360 --> 00:31:34.640 me it's not when you're trying to live on it and you got like 30 more years to live it's not it's not 246 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:39.120 a lot of money right and that's in you know what I mean like it's it's just if you just take take 247 00:31:39.120 --> 00:31:43.440 the compounding of 4% a year on inflation and do that for 40 years and then see what the money 248 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.040 really looks like right like people aren't taking the inflation into account and that's just not 249 00:31:47.040 --> 00:31:50.400 because it's hot topic now that's just always whatever it is I think it's around 4% has been the 250 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:55.680 compounding rate of inflation and so point is and this is the simplest example I have that can 251 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.520 illustrate the concept the same PhD guy that good friend of mine he is a daughter his daughter got 252 00:32:01.520 --> 00:32:06.080 a job at a bowling alley minimum wage she just you know let's people to the tables and get some shoes 253 00:32:06.080 --> 00:32:12.400 or whatever it doesn't mean she could spend $500 and get a weekend certification to become a 254 00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:17.680 phlebotomist all right phlebotomist draw blood for people all right all you need is a two-day certification 255 00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:22.000 so you get the certification cost 500 bucks her earning capacity would go from $7 an hour to 256 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:30.160 $25 an hour just from that one thing so she has two options she could wait eight weeks save 257 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:34.880 up the money and then spend the money on their certification right and then her earning capacity 258 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:41.520 would go up it would triple immediately or she could borrow the money from her parents and then 259 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:45.920 do it that weekend pay the money back the next week from the earnings that she had and then have 260 00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:54.080 and then be seven weeks ahead of her other other path right or she could save up the $500 and put 261 00:32:54.080 --> 00:33:03.440 in the S&P 500 and make $2.50 a year nice and so the and so the thing is is they're they're making 262 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:07.440 these these these assumptions and they're just not thinking through the math which is like the 263 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:10.480 problem they have is they don't make enough money they have income problem I don't have an 264 00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:13.840 investing problem right the nice thing is that if you're poor right now I mean do you have learned 265 00:33:13.840 --> 00:33:19.600 how to live on less which is a good habit so keep living on not a lot but then this is where like 266 00:33:19.600 --> 00:33:23.600 this is where I don't understand people because like my my plan B for like if the gym didn't work 267 00:33:23.600 --> 00:33:28.240 because you have to like for me it's always risk mitigation so plan B was if I didn't want to do 268 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:31.760 the entrepreneurship thing after that I'd have a good story for business school so that was that 269 00:33:31.760 --> 00:33:36.720 was one path which they love you know having people try stuff whatever the other path was and this 270 00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:41.520 is probably the real path as soon as I started I knew I was going to go back um was that I would 271 00:33:41.520 --> 00:33:47.040 strip at night and I would drive Uber so if I drove Uber during the day I could make I knew if I 272 00:33:47.040 --> 00:33:51.840 drove all day if I drove 12 hours a day I could make like 80 90 grand a year if I just did that 273 00:33:51.840 --> 00:33:56.960 and then at night in four or five hours I could probably pull another 150 in and so I could make 274 00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:03.680 250 thousand a year just stripping and driving Uber maybe even more now once I got the first 275 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:08.400 level of skills I learned how to sell I realized that my base levels my base level opportunity rose 276 00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:11.760 because then I was like I could just sell cars and make 400 thousand a year and keep my clothes on 277 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:18.000 right I could sell cars and then I wouldn't have to strut so that became my you know my new 278 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:24.080 baseline now once I knew how to once I knew how to market and sell then my new baseline became 279 00:34:24.080 --> 00:34:29.200 actually what started which which became my my inner intermediary model between when I owned 280 00:34:29.200 --> 00:34:33.200 my chain of gyms and when I started doing gym launchers when I flew out and would do the turnkey 281 00:34:33.200 --> 00:34:37.920 sales system because then you had a market and you had a sell and so what I did was I would just run 282 00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.960 ads I would spend the money on the ads I would get the leads I would work the leads I'd sell the leads 283 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:50.480 and I kept all the cash so when I did it on my own no employees I'd make 100 grand a month like zero 284 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:55.440 employees I mean I had to work 14 hours a day but that's all I did if I did that for a month I would 285 00:34:55.440 --> 00:35:00.800 make 100 grand and so that became my new baseline right of how much I could make on my own and so 286 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:06.560 like my baseline has continued to rise as my skill set has improved and sorry I could go down 287 00:35:06.560 --> 00:35:10.560 that trajectory but basically going back to the girl going back to the girl a lot of people are in 288 00:35:10.560 --> 00:35:15.520 the girls position and are saying I am going to save my $500 on the next eight weeks and try and earn 289 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:21.040 two and a half to five dollars a year on that money when they should be trying to solve the problem 290 00:35:21.040 --> 00:35:26.240 how do I create another $50,000 a year in income well let me let me like boom she can triple earning 291 00:35:26.240 --> 00:35:30.480 capacity and if she lives on the same 750 she now has a thousand dollars whatever that is 292 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:35.120 $25 an hour times times two thousand she's making 50 grand a year so now she can still live at 293 00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:39.920 her parents house have $30,000 a year and for $30,000 a year you can go buy any education you want in 294 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:45.360 the world any skill you want is available for $30,000 a year any any sub ten million dollar skill 295 00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:51.280 I'll put it that way so where the girl we want to spend money on increasing our our ability to 296 00:35:51.280 --> 00:35:58.000 own more rather than trying to screw around with 3% returns in the S&P 500 yeah so hence sort of 297 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.000 when you're when you're working for free and maybe I don't know take a bit of pay cut apprenticing 298 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:05.760 for someone else you're understanding you're learning how the business works and you're learning 299 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:09.520 how specifically that business works I the gym business because you maybe wanted to own your 300 00:36:09.520 --> 00:36:14.560 business and you were interested in fitness and you're also learning how generally business works 301 00:36:14.560 --> 00:36:20.400 through like sales marketing operations all of that sort of stuff so what happened next in in your 302 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:24.640 story yeah so I joined the mastermind and then he quickly was like you know why I'm asking I 303 00:36:24.640 --> 00:36:28.000 it felt weird for him to not pay me because I was just there all the time so he he started paying 304 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:32.640 me me whatever it was minimum wage and so I was there from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day with him so 305 00:36:32.640 --> 00:36:36.240 that was that was what we did so 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. I was there with him every day and then I he 306 00:36:36.240 --> 00:36:39.840 would go home I would stay for a few more hours to just like work out hang out at the gym so I 307 00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:44.880 was pretty much there all day every day and then for the next I think 12 weeks that's what I did as 308 00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:50.400 I just you know hung around the gym I learned learned how to sell learn how stuff worked learn 309 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:55.120 that email like learn I learned sales was a thing I didn't know the term sales I didn't know email 310 00:36:55.120 --> 00:36:59.040 lists existed like I didn't know any of the stuff like I truly had no idea how many of the stuff 311 00:36:59.040 --> 00:37:04.720 work and so I learned a lot very quickly just from observing normal business happening right and I 312 00:37:04.720 --> 00:37:09.680 think small businesses are more useful for people to be at because like corporate it's so specialized 313 00:37:09.680 --> 00:37:13.280 because the coverage is so big you have such a myopic view of how business works you have no 314 00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:17.760 idea you are actually the very special cog that does one thing right so you don't see the holistic 315 00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:21.760 you were small businesses because everything so shrunk down you can see end to end how things work 316 00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:27.200 it's like we do this we do this direct mail piece a certain percentage call call phone we set the 317 00:37:27.200 --> 00:37:31.360 appointment they buy a membership they go to the trainer who helps them like you know me like you 318 00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:36.800 can see the whole life cycle right so 12 weeks later I was do it every weekend I would go out and 319 00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:42.320 look for locations when I found location that I liked I still had my 50 grand saved up 320 00:37:43.360 --> 00:37:47.440 and so then that's what I spent I spent I think most of that to outfit the facility I think I 321 00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:52.720 had 10,000 left over because I knew I had two months worth of rent saved up which was 5,000 a month 322 00:37:52.720 --> 00:37:56.800 in rent and I had and honestly in retrospect it was one of the riskiest things I've ever done 323 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:02.160 like I went straight to a 5,000 arm of the lease and I had no idea what I was doing that's a lot for 324 00:38:02.160 --> 00:38:06.480 rent oh I'd never even made money before I mean like I didn't use funny because I can only 325 00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:11.120 think about this in retrospect but like the the the online business that I had I didn't have a 326 00:38:11.120 --> 00:38:14.800 reliable way of getting customers I just like the people that I knew and I immediately 327 00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:17.440 was making money from that but I wasn't keeping everyone always and they're starting to go down 328 00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:20.480 and I was like I would yeah so I was like oh I'll just sign a lease for way more money than I've 329 00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:30.720 ever made in my life that sounds like a reasonable thing to do.