WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 So I started at zero when I started my first gyms. 2 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.480 With new knowledge, I started my turnkey sales company 3 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.180 with zero, and with new knowledge after that, 4 00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:11.640 I started the licensing business at zero once again, 5 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:14.480 each time learning from the mistakes of my past. 6 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:17.960 The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. 7 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:19.480 This podcast, the game is my attempt 8 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:20.840 at documenting the lessons I've learned 9 00:00:20.840 --> 00:00:22.440 on my way to building acquisition.com 10 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:24.000 into a billion dollar portfolio. 11 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:25.800 My hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business 12 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.200 and maybe someday soon partner with us 13 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:28.640 to get $200 million in beyond. 14 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:29.880 I hope you share and enjoy. 15 00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:33.160 When I had my job and I had a pretty decent job, 16 00:00:33.160 --> 00:00:34.880 I was making $50,000, $60,000 a year, 17 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:38.400 and I was 22-ish as a consultant. 18 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:41.160 And it was a good stable job and looked good on the resume 19 00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:43.680 and my dad could brag about it at parties 20 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:45.400 and he wouldn't, like, his son 21 00:00:45.400 --> 00:00:46.640 was doing the right thing and he's gonna do this 22 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:48.640 and he's gonna go to business school and blah, blah, blah. 23 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:53.640 And leaving that took me a lot of pain mentally to get through. 24 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:54.800 And I've talked about that before, 25 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:55.840 so I won't go into it. 26 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:57.280 But one of the things that I had to do 27 00:00:57.320 --> 00:00:59.440 was figure out what my plan B was, right? 28 00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:02.160 And Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about not having a plan B 29 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:03.360 because if you have a plan B, 30 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:05.120 then it means you're not committed to plan A. 31 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:06.040 I don't agree with that. 32 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:07.480 I like having contingencies 33 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:09.360 and knowing what I'm actually gonna do 34 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:11.960 because sometimes there are unknowns 35 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:13.480 that can mess up your plan A. 36 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:14.880 Now you might say, oh, you should commit 37 00:01:14.880 --> 00:01:17.360 even more to it, teach his own. 38 00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:19.840 That being said, when I quit my job, 39 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.080 my actual plan B because I had no skills 40 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:23.280 was that I would strip at night 41 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:24.480 and I would drive Uber during the day. 42 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.160 And I figured I could drive Uber 43 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.360 and make probably 70 to 90,000 a year 44 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:30.560 driving Uber during the day. 45 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.160 And on my strip six nights a week, 46 00:01:32.160 --> 00:01:34.880 I can make another 300 to 400,000 dollars a year. 47 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:37.240 And that's based on the strippers that I know 48 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:39.000 who work three days a week, five hours, 49 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.160 that's 15 hours a week, they make about 120. 50 00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:43.000 So if I did that 45 hours a week, 51 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.440 I would make 360 from stripping 52 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:48.440 and assuming that I would be at least 53 00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:50.960 as awesomeness stripping as they are minimum. 54 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:52.760 Then I'd be looking at 400-ish, 55 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:53.840 450 between both of them. 56 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:55.440 And I could save that in a year 57 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:56.640 and then start the next thing, right? 58 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:58.160 So that was my plan B 59 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:01.240 if my fitness career, fitness gym didn't work. 60 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:03.120 And going into that, knowing that, 61 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:04.520 now obviously I had to make, 62 00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:06.680 make peace with the fact that my dad didn't approve, 63 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:08.200 my mom didn't approve of what I was currently doing. 64 00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:09.880 And so I was like, well, if they didn't approve gym owner, 65 00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:12.240 they're definitely not gonna approve stripper, but YOLO, right? 66 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:13.760 And so I got over it. 67 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:14.920 But that was my plan B. 68 00:02:14.920 --> 00:02:16.440 And this may sound silly to many of you 69 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:18.640 and probably like, I don't have the morals for that. 70 00:02:18.640 --> 00:02:21.160 Then cool, I'm telling you how I thought through these things 71 00:02:21.160 --> 00:02:24.560 because for me showing an elbow, showing it doesn't matter. 72 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:28.320 So the next thing was, I think candidly, 73 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:30.320 if you look at the thongs a lot of the girls were today 74 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:33.040 compared to what they thought was porn like 40 years ago, 75 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:35.000 it is porn, so subjective, whatever. 76 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:36.800 So plan B next, right? 77 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.160 Was that I started learning how to sell at my gym. 78 00:02:39.160 --> 00:02:41.760 So I learned that skill and I figured, 79 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:43.320 if for some reason the gym doesn't work out, 80 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:45.000 I now have this skill that's in my pocket 81 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:45.840 for the rest of my life. 82 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.040 And I learned that from selling memberships, 83 00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:49.200 which by the way, I think is one of the best ways 84 00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:50.800 to learn how to sell because I think like, 85 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:52.320 if you learn how to sell car dealerships, 86 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:53.360 you learn how to sell car washes, 87 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:55.080 you learn how to sell fitness, some of the best 88 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:56.880 or cold calling, some of the best ones 89 00:02:56.880 --> 00:02:59.200 because you get so many reps in so fast, right? 90 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:00.680 Like if you want to start learning how to sell 91 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:02.440 and you go to like a software company 92 00:03:02.440 --> 00:03:04.240 and you have to sell a six month sales cycle 93 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:07.000 to close one deal, I don't think you really learn how to sell. 94 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.400 Like you have to learn how to get people to make decisions 95 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:11.040 on the spot over and over and over 96 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:12.520 and have immediate reinforcement, 97 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:15.320 which is why high rep sales give you such a fast feedback cycle, 98 00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:17.280 you get really good, really faster, you get out. 99 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:19.200 And so for me, learning that skill, 100 00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:22.480 which I was taking 10, 15 consults a day for years, 101 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:23.640 I learned that skill pretty quickly, 102 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:24.880 I learned how to talk through things. 103 00:03:24.880 --> 00:03:26.200 And so I knew that I had that skill 104 00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:28.360 and so I could either make my gym work as a business owner 105 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:31.040 or play in D if it didn't work, once I had that skill, 106 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:32.840 was I could go and start selling cars, 107 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:34.000 start selling mortgages for me, 108 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:35.160 cars is what I was gonna go into 109 00:03:35.160 --> 00:03:36.160 because it just made sense to me, 110 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:37.560 it was just like very straightforward 111 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:38.880 and it was one of those jobs 112 00:03:38.880 --> 00:03:40.560 that I knew I could just outwork somebody on. 113 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:42.960 So I didn't have to be better, I didn't have to be more skilled, 114 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:45.960 I just knew that if I worked from nine to nine every day 115 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:47.600 at the car dealership six days a week, 116 00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:49.480 that I would be able to make 400,000 year plus 117 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:50.800 and I wouldn't have to take my clothes off, 118 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:52.400 which didn't matter as much to me, 119 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.440 but more so that I could get my clothes on 120 00:03:54.440 --> 00:03:55.640 and maybe look a little better 121 00:03:55.640 --> 00:03:57.120 for people who do care about it later. 122 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.240 So that became my new plan B. 123 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:00.960 Now, as I got more skills, 124 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:02.240 because then I started learning how to market, 125 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:04.240 I started learning how to run ads, 126 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:05.800 I learned how to fill gyms up 127 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.760 and that became a more valuable skill than just selling. 128 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:10.320 Now, this is important. 129 00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:14.440 So after I had my six gyms, I got to actually live this. 130 00:04:14.440 --> 00:04:16.000 So people asked me the question, Alex, 131 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.480 if you lost it all, what would you do again? 132 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:19.080 I've lost it all twice, 133 00:04:19.080 --> 00:04:20.960 so I'll tell you exactly what I did 134 00:04:20.960 --> 00:04:24.160 when I lost it all, step by fucking step. 135 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:27.600 So I lost it all and I had $1,000 left in my bank account 136 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.200 because I had done $100,000 launch of a gym, 137 00:04:30.200 --> 00:04:32.280 the payment processor wouldn't pay us the money. 138 00:04:32.280 --> 00:04:35.200 And so I had to pay $22,000 in commissions for sales 139 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:37.440 I never got, so it took me from $23,000. 140 00:04:37.440 --> 00:04:39.080 That's how much money I had left. 141 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:41.240 The only thing I had left was a credit card at that point. 142 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:42.680 So I had a credit card with a limit 143 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:44.400 that I knew that I could spend. 144 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:46.840 And I was gonna spend it on advertising 145 00:04:46.840 --> 00:04:48.640 and sales guys going out in the field 146 00:04:48.640 --> 00:04:50.720 and using my system that I had developed 147 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.320 because I had skills to start over again. 148 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:56.680 And in the next 30 days, we made $100,000, right? 149 00:04:56.680 --> 00:04:59.400 From that, I also had $100,000 on our credit card bill, 150 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:00.960 but I broke even. 151 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:03.280 Now, the next month, we did like $200,000 152 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:05.280 because we had payment plans, they started stacking, 153 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:06.360 we started making new sales, 154 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:07.600 it's the start of going up and I was like, 155 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:08.880 oh, this might work. 156 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:11.040 And then, for those of you know the story, 157 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.760 gym started refunding people at the end of their programs, 158 00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:15.960 some gyms didn't do the coolest thing and said, 159 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:18.640 hey, hey, sign up for me, refund through them 160 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:20.040 because I'll just do the same thing 161 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:21.800 that you're already doing with me for half the price, 162 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:23.360 which really screwed me. 163 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:25.880 I didn't understand how controlling the flow of money, 164 00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:27.200 what kind of risk that was exposing me to 165 00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:28.960 because I was young, I was 26, whatever. 166 00:05:28.960 --> 00:05:31.160 And so I learned that lesson, right? 167 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:33.960 And so, I lost everything again. 168 00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:37.120 And this time, even more because I had like $150,000 169 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:40.600 in basically debt that I had to cover in the next 30 days, 170 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:42.480 not in revenue in profit. 171 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.000 And I had never even made $150,000 in profit ever. 172 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.480 The biggest launch I ever done was probably about $80,000 173 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.080 to $90,000 in profit in a month. 174 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.200 And that was just me, but I already said all this overhead. 175 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:52.800 So I knew I needed to do way more than that 176 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.240 to make $150 with the cover overhead 177 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:57.040 and to have twice as much profit. 178 00:05:57.040 --> 00:05:58.720 And so that's where desperation, 179 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:00.680 a lot of times leads to innovation. 180 00:06:00.680 --> 00:06:02.280 And so for me at the time, 181 00:06:02.280 --> 00:06:04.080 I got on the phone with guys 182 00:06:04.080 --> 00:06:06.920 that I had done these launches for with our sales team 183 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:09.320 and sold them on me just teaching them 184 00:06:09.320 --> 00:06:11.200 how to do this whole sales system, right? 185 00:06:11.200 --> 00:06:14.520 And so the key there was that I didn't have a gym anymore 186 00:06:14.520 --> 00:06:16.720 because I sold my gyms and then I took the money 187 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:18.320 and I'd lost the money from the sale of my gyms. 188 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:20.720 So I basically had nothing, I lost everything. 189 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:22.520 And so rather than start from scratch, 190 00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:24.360 I wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna start a gym again. 191 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:26.760 I said, let me call people who have gyms. 192 00:06:26.760 --> 00:06:29.680 I have this skill and then I'll plug into them 193 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:32.520 and I will give them the money that I know 194 00:06:32.520 --> 00:06:35.880 that my system can make them and get a percentage of it. 195 00:06:35.880 --> 00:06:37.560 And so the average gym that used our sale system 196 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:39.680 would make $30,000 in their first 30 days 197 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.000 and new cash collected. 198 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:42.680 And so I charged half of that. 199 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:43.840 Now mind you, they could keep that system 200 00:06:43.840 --> 00:06:45.000 for the rest of their lives. 201 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:46.920 But for me, I charged half. 202 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:48.200 And when I started doing that, 203 00:06:48.200 --> 00:06:51.120 people started making $30,000 and telling their friends 204 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:53.080 and because we're like, how the hell are you making all this money? 205 00:06:53.080 --> 00:06:54.680 They're like, oh, this kid from the internet. 206 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:57.320 And so then they would call me up and I did it again. 207 00:06:57.320 --> 00:06:59.160 And because of that, this is the second time 208 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:00.280 I lost everything. 209 00:07:00.280 --> 00:07:03.400 I learned the point of leverage and the power of media 210 00:07:03.400 --> 00:07:05.560 because I was able to license the whole system 211 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:07.360 rather than actually flying out and doing it 212 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:09.160 and incurring the operational overhead. 213 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:12.040 And so I have lost everything twice. 214 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:15.160 The first time I switched to just doing marketing and sales 215 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:16.400 and plugging in everyone else's network 216 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:18.880 and then I added in workers to do it. 217 00:07:18.880 --> 00:07:21.520 And the second time I lost everything, 218 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:24.040 I switched, instead of having workers doing the sales, 219 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:26.320 I taught someone on location to do the sales 220 00:07:26.320 --> 00:07:28.920 so I didn't have the airfare, I didn't have the hotel, 221 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:30.160 I didn't have the commissions, 222 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:31.640 I didn't have the ads meant I had to pay for, 223 00:07:31.640 --> 00:07:33.160 I didn't have any of those costs. 224 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:36.160 I still got to take a percentage of the upside 225 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:38.280 to that business because if you think about the upside 226 00:07:38.280 --> 00:07:40.240 that I was able to provide in my original model, 227 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:42.160 when I would fly out somebody to the gym, 228 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:44.720 I took most of the economics upfront. 229 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:46.920 And then they would get a small portion of the people 230 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:48.440 who converted on the back end. 231 00:07:48.440 --> 00:07:51.080 Now they had no risk, I took on all the risk there, 232 00:07:51.080 --> 00:07:52.720 but they were also not motivated to do a good job 233 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:53.880 because I was the one who made the money. 234 00:07:53.880 --> 00:07:55.240 I was the one who held the back. 235 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:56.920 And so this way it flipped the dynamic 236 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:58.800 where I was helping them make tons of money 237 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.000 and then they loved me rather than hating me 238 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:02.400 for being the person who ripped all this cash 239 00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:03.440 out of their business. 240 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:06.040 And so I have lost it multiple times 241 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.000 and these were my plan B's as I went. 242 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:11.480 Now once I got to that point, if I were to lose it all again, 243 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:13.440 I would be going to businesses that were similar 244 00:08:13.640 --> 00:08:16.360 to one that I built and say, I can help you add 245 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:17.360 X amount of money. 246 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:18.880 And if you really want to think about it, 247 00:08:18.880 --> 00:08:20.440 even though I didn't lose everything 248 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:22.360 when I sold Jim Lentz and sold Prestige Labs, 249 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:23.800 I did start at zero again. 250 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:26.760 Now, the only way that I'm not actually starting at zero 251 00:08:26.760 --> 00:08:31.600 is that I have money, but I haven't used any of the money 252 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.080 in acquisition.com. 253 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:34.360 So every business that I have started 254 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:35.960 has been profitable since day one. 255 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:37.040 I have a different way to do a business. 256 00:08:37.040 --> 00:08:37.920 There are plenty of business. 257 00:08:37.920 --> 00:08:39.800 You start a software company, a lot of times you need 258 00:08:39.800 --> 00:08:40.640 capital investment. 259 00:08:40.640 --> 00:08:41.640 You want to start a manufacturing business, 260 00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:43.240 you got to have capital investment by equipment. 261 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:44.440 But the businesses that I have started 262 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:45.800 have been ones that were built on skills, 263 00:08:45.800 --> 00:08:47.720 which is why I'm such a big advocate. 264 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:50.120 In general, if I can be known as an advocate for skills, 265 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:51.520 that's what I'll be known for. 266 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:54.000 Because I have lost everything twice. 267 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:55.400 And the biggest realization of my life 268 00:08:55.400 --> 00:08:57.120 was that I didn't lose everything. 269 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:58.800 Not only did I not lose everything, 270 00:08:58.800 --> 00:09:01.280 I lost a fraction of what I thought I had lost 271 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:02.760 because I still kept onto the thing 272 00:09:02.760 --> 00:09:04.320 that no one could ever take from me, 273 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:05.640 which is the skills and the experiences 274 00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:06.960 and the lessons that I had learned 275 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:08.960 through the path that I had walked. 276 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:11.760 And so unless you have a mental disorder, 277 00:09:11.760 --> 00:09:14.400 you keep the lessons with you for life. 278 00:09:14.400 --> 00:09:16.120 And in different videos I've said, 279 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.280 I would pay any amount of money 280 00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:21.720 to make an obvious truth real for me. 281 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:24.600 And so the most valuable thing that I had 282 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:26.480 are lessons that I had paid to learn 283 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.760 blood sweat tears and money to learn 284 00:09:28.760 --> 00:09:30.840 so that I could apply them to a new reality. 285 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:34.080 And so when I have zero, multiple times, 286 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:36.600 I applied my new reality, which was not the reality 287 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:37.680 that I had when I started my gyms. 288 00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:39.600 Because technically, when I started my first gym, 289 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:40.920 I also had zero. 290 00:09:40.920 --> 00:09:43.160 So I started at zero when I started my first gyms. 291 00:09:43.160 --> 00:09:46.400 With new knowledge, I started my turnkey sales company 292 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:49.440 with zero and with new knowledge after that. 293 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.880 I started the licensing business at zero once again, 294 00:09:52.880 --> 00:09:55.920 each time learning from the mistakes of my past. 295 00:09:55.920 --> 00:09:57.080 And if you wanna go fourth time, 296 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.120 I started at quote zero, which is acquisition.com 297 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.440 because I sold the majority interest in those companies. 298 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.560 The only reason this wouldn't be zero 299 00:10:02.560 --> 00:10:05.440 is if I had taken a lot of money to inject into the business, 300 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:06.280 which I have it. 301 00:10:06.280 --> 00:10:10.640 But I will say one thing is that I no longer have fear 302 00:10:10.680 --> 00:10:11.840 around money. 303 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:14.440 And so it allows me to play the game differently. 304 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:16.680 And so for example, at this point, 305 00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:21.120 if it had been 3.0, Alex, so like last cycle ago, 306 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.680 I might not be as heavily investing in the people 307 00:10:24.680 --> 00:10:25.880 and the infrastructure that we're building 308 00:10:25.880 --> 00:10:28.600 with acquisition.com because I would wanna have 309 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.840 a healthier margin to take out of the bank counter month. 310 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:33.960 But since I don't need the money from the business, 311 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.280 and I know where I'm trying to go in 20 years, 312 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:39.760 I'm willing to actually play a higher risk game. 313 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:41.600 So the way I play the game is different. 314 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.320 And so if we go back to the definition of learning, 315 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:45.560 which is similar condition, different behavior, right? 316 00:10:45.560 --> 00:10:47.880 So I'm the same conditions I did each of the times 317 00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:49.640 of for this, except my behavior is different. 318 00:10:49.640 --> 00:10:51.080 Rather than trying to just rent as much money 319 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:52.360 out of the business as I can, 320 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:54.200 because this is my fourth go round. 321 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:55.360 And I don't need the cash. 322 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:57.280 And what I want is the equity value. 323 00:10:57.280 --> 00:10:59.920 I will reinvest into the people that will build this thing 324 00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:01.960 into the behemoth that I wanted to become. 325 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.360 And so going all the way back to what do you do 326 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:07.640 if you start with nothing, you start working, 327 00:11:07.640 --> 00:11:09.680 you start taking action, you take doing steps, 328 00:11:09.680 --> 00:11:12.160 and realizing that the thing that you were earning 329 00:11:12.160 --> 00:11:14.800 above everything else is the learning, not the income. 330 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:16.800 Because that is the thing that you will take with you, 331 00:11:16.800 --> 00:11:18.040 that is the most valuable thing, 332 00:11:18.040 --> 00:11:20.360 is the ignorance tax and the debt of not knowing 333 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:22.760 that you were paying down with the actions you take. 334 00:11:22.760 --> 00:11:24.240 And so when you do that, 335 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:26.000 and you do it for an unreasonable amount of time, 336 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.400 you will get to where you're trying to go. 337 00:11:28.400 --> 00:11:31.480 Hey guys, love that you're listening to the podcast. 338 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.280 If you ever want to have the video version of this, 339 00:11:34.280 --> 00:11:36.880 which usually has more effects, more visuals, more graphs, 340 00:11:36.880 --> 00:11:38.240 you know, drawn out stuff, 341 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:40.760 sometimes it can help hit the brain centers 342 00:11:40.760 --> 00:11:41.600 in different ways. 343 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:42.480 You can check on my YouTube channel. 344 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:44.200 It's absolutely free to check that out 345 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:45.280 if that's what you are into. 346 00:11:45.280 --> 00:11:47.040 And if not, keep enjoying the show. 347 00:11:49.760 --> 00:11:51.680 So when I started Jim Launch, 348 00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:53.760 I put no money into the business 349 00:11:53.760 --> 00:11:55.560 because I had no money. 350 00:11:55.560 --> 00:11:57.640 The money that I had in my bank was like food. 351 00:11:57.640 --> 00:12:00.640 And so that business had to make money in order for it 352 00:12:00.640 --> 00:12:02.320 to have any money to work with, right? 353 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:03.560 People were like, what was the capital injection? 354 00:12:03.560 --> 00:12:05.360 I was like, sweat. 355 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:06.960 That was a capital injection, right? 356 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:09.480 And so I was able to trade my time for money. 357 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:11.040 And I did that trade as many times I could 358 00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:13.520 to get money so that later I could trade it for more money. 359 00:12:13.520 --> 00:12:15.640 Now, the prestige labs business, 360 00:12:15.640 --> 00:12:17.960 which was the business that we started after Jim Launch, 361 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:19.680 you know, I had to iterate Jim Launch twice 362 00:12:19.680 --> 00:12:20.880 before it actually really started working, 363 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:22.760 but once Jim Launch started really scaling up, 364 00:12:22.760 --> 00:12:24.760 I had tons of cash from that business. 365 00:12:24.760 --> 00:12:26.800 And so either I could put it into indexes 366 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:29.120 or I could put it into a supplement company. 367 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.720 So the supplement company cost me about $4 million 368 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:33.360 to start and you're like, well, that's crazy. 369 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:36.600 Well, I could either have put that $4 million 370 00:12:36.640 --> 00:12:39.680 two years ago or three years ago into the S&P 500, 371 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:41.200 which right now would be about the same. 372 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:42.400 Give me everything's that. 373 00:12:42.400 --> 00:12:44.920 Or I took that $4 million, put it into prestige labs 374 00:12:44.920 --> 00:12:46.040 and later was able to sell that 375 00:12:46.040 --> 00:12:49.040 for probably 25 million three years later. 376 00:12:49.040 --> 00:12:51.960 So I put the money in the form of inventory in tech 377 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:54.920 because I had to build a custom point of sale for gyms 378 00:12:54.920 --> 00:12:56.760 and inventory system and I'd get into it. 379 00:12:56.760 --> 00:12:58.200 And so that $4 million investment 380 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:00.320 I ended up five vaccine in three years. 381 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:01.120 Great deal. 382 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:02.120 Jim Launch cost me nothing 383 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.240 and I probably sold that for another 25-ish 384 00:13:04.400 --> 00:13:06.720 because they didn't parse out which was worthwhile. 385 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.280 It was sold, those two specifically were sold as a bundle. 386 00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:11.640 And so that cost me not so much, 387 00:13:11.640 --> 00:13:13.960 my return on that was basically infinite. 388 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:17.040 The acquisition.com business, if you call it that, 389 00:13:17.040 --> 00:13:21.480 the hold co of acquisition.com didn't cost money to start 390 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:26.280 because I had already had acquired 20 to 30% 391 00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:27.320 of three different businesses 392 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:28.800 before I really started acquisition.com 393 00:13:28.800 --> 00:13:30.080 because I wanted to see if I liked working 394 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.760 with other entrepreneurs as a minority partner 395 00:13:32.760 --> 00:13:34.960 because I've only been majority up to that point 396 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:36.800 of my career, I've always been number one. 397 00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:38.800 And so it was a different dynamic for me 398 00:13:38.800 --> 00:13:43.200 to how can I influence somebody to see the world that I see, 399 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.760 the way I see it so they'll make the same decisions I would 400 00:13:45.760 --> 00:13:47.360 so that I can maximize the likelihood of success 401 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.040 without forcing them to do it. 402 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:50.960 And so it's a different position for me now 403 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.200 but I tested that theory out for a year 404 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:55.360 while I still had Jim Launch procedural apps in Allen 405 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:58.040 before selling them, Allen, side note. 406 00:13:58.040 --> 00:14:00.840 I put I think one and a half million dollars into start 407 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:02.520 and that was sold for an all stock deal. 408 00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:04.120 Not allowed to say what the price was 409 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:06.360 but we were doing 12 million in top line 410 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:08.320 trailing 12 months before we sold it. 411 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:09.880 So it's all I can really tell you. 412 00:14:09.880 --> 00:14:11.360 So the return on that was also good 413 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:12.400 but just in a different format 414 00:14:12.400 --> 00:14:13.440 because I didn't want the tax flow event 415 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:14.760 so I worked out fine. 416 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:18.400 The acquisition.com business, business, hold co. 417 00:14:18.400 --> 00:14:22.600 The companies in that hold co already cash flowed to me. 418 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:24.560 And so all of the money that acquisition.com 419 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:26.440 has been built off of has been built off 420 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:28.360 cash flow from businesses. 421 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:30.440 So it's been cash flow positive day one. 422 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:32.360 And I tend to build things that way 423 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:33.880 when I'm starting at zero. 424 00:14:33.880 --> 00:14:35.440 So if you think about it, Jim Launch started at zero 425 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:37.200 I was cash flow positive basically day one. 426 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.880 My gyms started at zero were cash flow positive day one 427 00:14:39.880 --> 00:14:42.280 acquisition started at zero. 428 00:14:42.280 --> 00:14:43.680 In that I didn't put money into them 429 00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:44.720 were cash flow positive day one. 430 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.960 Now, prestige labs in the software, 431 00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:51.000 they were businesses that I could put capital into 432 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:52.800 and get a return on the capital. 433 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:55.560 And so I felt like within my bucket 434 00:14:55.560 --> 00:14:57.960 and my audience and the needs that I already had access to 435 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:00.200 I could make a significantly higher return 436 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:02.720 by starting those sub corpse within kind of like 437 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.760 the larger bubble of Jim Launch, et cetera. 438 00:15:05.760 --> 00:15:07.960 And so it's the same kind of concept here 439 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.000 in terms of what we're gonna do later with acquisition.com 440 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.520 but for now that's always been the game for me is 441 00:15:12.520 --> 00:15:15.480 when I start fresh, I don't like putting money in 442 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:17.800 because I think it makes you lazy as an entrepreneur 443 00:15:17.800 --> 00:15:20.400 because I think that you will always solve the problems 444 00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:21.800 that you ask for yourself. 445 00:15:21.800 --> 00:15:23.120 You will answer the questions that you ask 446 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.640 which is why I think you can tell so much more 447 00:15:25.640 --> 00:15:27.560 about how someone's thinking by the questions are asking 448 00:15:27.560 --> 00:15:29.040 than even the questions they answer. 449 00:15:29.040 --> 00:15:31.240 So when someone says, hey Alex, how do I make $100,000 a year? 450 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.000 I can already tell that they're so far away 451 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.640 from making lots of money because it's the wrong question, right? 452 00:15:35.640 --> 00:15:39.840 Rather than like, how do I get somebody to give me $10 million? 453 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:41.400 Much more interesting question, right? 454 00:15:41.400 --> 00:15:42.360 And you can answer that question 455 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:43.480 and I'll tell you a quick story on this 456 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:44.720 because it's so important. 457 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:48.240 Good friend of mine makes $40 to $50 million a year, 458 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.560 50% now margins, single person business 459 00:15:50.560 --> 00:15:52.480 works three days a week, half days. 460 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:53.960 That's the business that she's built. 461 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:56.560 She, just so you go for the ladies in the audience. 462 00:15:57.520 --> 00:15:59.600 She asked me to sit down with her 463 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:01.320 and she said, I want to do a consulting project with you 464 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:02.160 and I want to answer one question. 465 00:16:02.160 --> 00:16:03.800 She said, how do I make $5 million more 466 00:16:03.800 --> 00:16:06.240 and do no more work in my business? 467 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:07.200 I want no time for me 468 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.840 and I want to make $5 million profit extra. 469 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.120 And so we sat down and within 90 minutes, 470 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:13.800 I was like, I think you should do this. 471 00:16:13.800 --> 00:16:14.640 And she did that. 472 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:16.600 She made $5 million extra in her business. 473 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:18.520 And so the questions you ask, 474 00:16:18.520 --> 00:16:20.480 dictate the problems you'll solve, right? 475 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:22.400 And so for me, the reason that I tend 476 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:24.760 to have cash repositive businesses day one 477 00:16:24.760 --> 00:16:26.240 is because that's the question I choose to solve. 478 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:27.600 Like, how do I build a $10 billion thing 479 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:28.960 with no capital upfront? 480 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:30.080 How would I do it? 481 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.160 And so acquisition.com is the answer to that question, 482 00:16:32.160 --> 00:16:34.400 by the way, you're curious. 483 00:16:34.400 --> 00:16:36.280 Create tremendous goodwill in the marketplace, 484 00:16:36.280 --> 00:16:37.960 build an incredibly strong brand. 485 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:39.000 Have a brand that's so strong 486 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.080 that the moment you gain access to something, 487 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:42.800 it and of itself becomes more valuable 488 00:16:42.800 --> 00:16:44.680 through association with you. 489 00:16:44.680 --> 00:16:46.040 So then you can't lose. 490 00:16:46.040 --> 00:16:47.200 And I'm just telling you, that's the strategy. 491 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:48.520 That's what we're trying to do. 492 00:16:48.520 --> 00:16:50.040 And so I do think that there's a little bit 493 00:16:50.040 --> 00:16:51.200 of entrepreneurial laziness. 494 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:53.640 I've seen software guys who raised lots of funding 495 00:16:53.640 --> 00:16:54.920 and I asked them why are you raising funding 496 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:56.880 and they're like, because I think it's what I'm supposed to do. 497 00:16:56.880 --> 00:16:59.800 And they spend money because they have money to spend, 498 00:16:59.800 --> 00:17:01.680 rather than because it is solving a specific problem 499 00:17:01.680 --> 00:17:02.520 in the business. 500 00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:04.320 And so I think, and this is just like, 501 00:17:04.320 --> 00:17:05.640 Alex from a spiritual standpoint, 502 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:08.160 like I feel like if you really were creative enough, 503 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.440 you could figure out how to start anything for nothing. 504 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:13.320 Like Nike's founder, Phil Knight, 505 00:17:13.320 --> 00:17:15.280 there was a moment where he ran out of money 506 00:17:15.280 --> 00:17:17.760 and he couldn't pay payroll and he needed to 507 00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:18.680 or he was gonna go out of business 508 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:20.440 and he'd maxed out all the credit lines. 509 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:22.160 And so he went to his vendors, 510 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.720 the people who actually manufactured his shoes for him. 511 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:27.480 And said, I need you to pay my payroll this month. 512 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:28.320 And they were like, what? 513 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:30.240 He was like, because if you don't pay my payroll, 514 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:32.600 then I won't be able to buy from you next month. 515 00:17:32.600 --> 00:17:34.000 And he got him to do it. 516 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.960 And so necessity is the mother of invention. 517 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:38.480 Another way of saying that is desperation 518 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.040 is the mother of invention. 519 00:17:40.040 --> 00:17:41.400 When you feel like there's no way out, 520 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:42.800 you ask different questions. 521 00:17:42.800 --> 00:17:44.800 And so when I started with zero, 522 00:17:44.800 --> 00:17:47.640 and not even zero, when I started at negative $150,000 523 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:50.240 a month in profit, the question that I was trying to answer 524 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:53.800 was how do I make $150,000 in profit in 30 days with nothing? 525 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:54.680 And it was a very different question 526 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:56.240 than how do I build a big business? 527 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:59.280 Because up to that point, the questions that I was asking 528 00:17:59.280 --> 00:18:02.240 for myself and then answering was how do I build a big company? 529 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:03.520 Rather than how do I make a business 530 00:18:03.520 --> 00:18:05.160 that makes shit loads of money? 531 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:06.320 And sometimes when you ask different questions, 532 00:18:06.320 --> 00:18:07.960 you get different answers and you act differently. 533 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.680 And so when I'm thinking through the zero question 534 00:18:10.680 --> 00:18:12.200 which gets asked all the time, 535 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:13.880 I think if you improve the quality of your question 536 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:15.440 of how you wanna do the thing, 537 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:18.800 you will answer it much better than you probably currently are 538 00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:20.720 when you set your goal for $100,000 a year, 539 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.560 because then you're only gonna think in vehicles 540 00:18:22.560 --> 00:18:24.080 that will get you $100,000 a year. 541 00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:25.080 And then once you do that, 542 00:18:25.080 --> 00:18:26.440 you can only maybe double or triple your effort 543 00:18:26.440 --> 00:18:27.440 to get to 300. 544 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:28.960 Whereas if you say, how do I get to 100 million, 545 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:30.240 you think differently. 546 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:31.840 All right, most of the nation keeping awesome. 547 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:32.680 Bye.