WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.160 The biggest mistake that I see entrepreneurs who are, you know, two million, three million, five million 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:09.040 is that they are trying to solve their business growth problem by just coming out with thing after 3 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:14.320 thing after thing after thing for that audience rather than thinking maybe I should expand my audience. 4 00:00:16.080 --> 00:00:20.080 The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game is my attempt at 5 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:23.600 documenting the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion dollar 6 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.120 portfolio. My hope is that you use the lessons to grow your business and maybe someday soon 7 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.160 partner with us to get two hundred million dollars in beyond. I hope you share and enjoy. 8 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:37.120 Mark Bell just flew out. Awesome guy to do a podcast here with me in Vegas. We worked out, 9 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:41.760 shot the shit. It was a great time. And there was this really important point where he said, 10 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:45.760 you know, I wish more people would just peel weight off the bar. He said, I always respect a guy 11 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:49.200 who's lifting with stronger guys and says, you know what guys? I'm going to peel some weight off so 12 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.840 that I can do this weight the right way. And I thought it was such a beautiful parallel in business 13 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:57.760 and one of the most common mistakes in business that I see entrepreneurs at all levels make. 14 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:03.840 So acquisition.com probably talks to 25 new companies a week that are coming out, you know, 15 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:09.200 approaching us about us potentially, you know, investing in their companies. And one of my biggest 16 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:15.680 pet peeves, comma, entrepreneurial mistakes that I see across the board, especially in that like 17 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:22.800 sub five million range is something that will destroy your business for the long haul. 18 00:01:23.440 --> 00:01:28.960 And the reason is not because the strategy is wrong, but because it's too advanced. And I will 19 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:35.360 explain what I mean in a second. So the easy analogy for what I'm going to try to explain is 20 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:39.360 something that you that hopefully people can resonate with at the gym. So if you're working out 21 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:44.400 with someone and one person is stronger than the other person and the strong guy goes first and has 22 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:49.520 three plates on the bar doesn't really matter. The weaker guy might go up and if he has an ego, 23 00:01:49.520 --> 00:01:54.000 give it a shot, even though it's above his pay grade, it's above his strength level. And even if 24 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.480 he could pull it off, it'd be poor and it'd probably be risky because he isn't strong enough, right? 25 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:06.400 And business is a lot like that in ways because oftentimes entrepreneurs will have the right 26 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:11.200 strategy lifting the weight and lifting heavier weight is not wrong and it's the right way to get 27 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:16.240 strong, but it's just too advanced for where you're at right now. And it takes humility like the 28 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:19.680 guy who says, you know what, I'm going to peel a plate off because it's like I can do that weight 29 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:25.040 better so that I can someday level up and get strong enough to do that more advanced thing. 30 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:30.960 In weight and lifting, it's linear because you just add plates to the bar. But in business, 31 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:36.560 it's about complexity. And so the adding the weight to the bar is complexity in the business, 32 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.880 whereas simplicity oftentimes is what scales. So you might imagine, imagine somebody comes up to 33 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:47.520 you and says, hey, I want to start a digital bank because I think that all of this stuff should be 34 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:54.000 central and we could have payments and blah, blah, blah. That's a hard business to build. Elon Musk 35 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.360 can build it because he's a thousand pound squatter. It's not to say that if you tried to build it, 36 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:06.480 you're wrong for the idea. It's that you just might not be there yet. And so back to what I was 37 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:10.800 saying with the entrepreneurs that we talked to on a regular basis, the biggest mistake that I see 38 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.960 is that they put on shoes that are too big for them. And the way that they do that is that they have 39 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:21.840 something that starts working and then they let this insipid phrase melt into their mind and take 40 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:27.840 over their actions, which is I'm leaving money on the table. And so they have this thing that's 41 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:32.080 working. And then they think to themselves, well, well, I don't want to fur that business out 42 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.680 because like they should get that for me. And then they try and glob that. They're like, oh, yeah. 43 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.600 And then I need to do this too. And I need to glob that so that they so I can get more money 44 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:48.080 on every customer. Is that a great strategy? Yes. Is the execution of that strategy very advanced 45 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:55.280 from an operational perspective? Yes. And so here's the thing. I had a buddy from high school 46 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:58.480 approached me and he was like, hey, this is what I'm doing with my contracting business. So he's 47 00:03:58.480 --> 00:04:03.920 a general contractor. And he was, he was, he was roofing primarily. And I was like, okay, sweet. So 48 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:07.680 you're just going to see how you're roofing business. He's like, yeah, but I also do some like flips 49 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:12.640 in real estate because we like, you know, fix some stuff there. And I was like, okay, so you do roofs 50 00:04:12.640 --> 00:04:17.280 and you do real estate flipping. He's like, yeah, but I mean, we also do some general contracting 51 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:23.520 work just kind of like fix stuff inside of houses. I was like, okay. So you do roofing. You do general 52 00:04:23.520 --> 00:04:30.560 contracting work and you flip houses. And he was like, yeah, I was like, okay, why? He's like, 53 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.320 well, you know, we have these resources. I'm trying to like make the most of all of it. And I, 54 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:37.520 you know, some of these clients, we fixed the roof and like, hey, can you fix some of my house? I'm 55 00:04:37.520 --> 00:04:43.360 like, I could do it. So then I do it because I don't want to leave money on the team. And the question 56 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:49.280 is what problem are we solving? If the goal is to grow the business, do we think that we could have 57 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:54.160 a hundred million dollar roofing business? The answer is yes. Do we think we could have a hundred 58 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.080 million dollar general contracting business? Answer is yes. Do you think we have a hundred million 59 00:04:58.080 --> 00:05:04.720 dollar flipping houses business? The answer is yes. Can you have all three? Very unlikely. 60 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:11.040 Unless you're an Elon, unless you're a freak, but most people aren't. And that's okay. It's normal. 61 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:17.600 Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. 62 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:20.960 And so the only ask that I can ever have are you guys that you help me spread the word so we 63 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:25.360 can have more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products and have 64 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:29.760 better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can 65 00:05:29.760 --> 00:05:34.400 rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I have to do is you can just leave 66 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:38.640 a review, but take a 10 seconds or one type of a thumb. It means the absolute will to me and more 67 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:45.120 importantly, it may change the world for someone else. The biggest mistake that I see entrepreneurs, 68 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.840 you know, two million, three million, five million, ish, is that they are trying to solve their 69 00:05:49.840 --> 00:05:54.720 business growth problem by just trying to glob as many different things as they possibly can. You 70 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:58.240 know the people I'm talking about, they have an audience. And so then they just start coming out 71 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:03.520 with thing after thing after thing after thing for that audience rather than thinking maybe I should 72 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:08.000 expand my audience and keep selling the thing that I'm really good at, the thing that I'm best at, 73 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:13.440 the thing that's the best leverage for my opportunity in my skill sets. And so it's hard for people to 74 00:06:13.440 --> 00:06:17.920 say or even peel back. So this is you and you've got five different products. You sell to different 75 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:23.040 avatars. You sell very clearly different services. You might want to say, okay, which one of these 76 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:28.000 are my best at? And which one of these do I think I could serve the most people with? And find the 77 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:31.600 one that Chris, you know, Chris crosses those two things and say, I'm going to forget about the rest 78 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:35.040 of stuff and go all in on this one thing. Because the problem that we're trying to solve is that we're 79 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.800 trying to make more money. And so us doing all these other things, it distracts from the core business 80 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:46.560 opportunity. And so that's where we need to peel weight off the bar. We need to peel things down 81 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.400 and focus on the weight that we can do and get more repetitions in it that this weight so that we 82 00:06:52.400 --> 00:06:58.720 then can earn the right later to maybe add one thing in at scale. Maybe when we have someone who 83 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:05.120 can run that and drive that rather than you, right? And so it's probably the number one red flag that 84 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:11.760 I look out for. It also tends to stem from a little bit of greed and people like they're looking at 85 00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:15.840 other people's paychecks. I'm sending this guy so much business. I'm sending that guy so much business. 86 00:07:15.840 --> 00:07:22.400 Good. Great. Get into the commission. Call it a day. Move on, right? And they try and bring these 87 00:07:22.400 --> 00:07:27.440 things in house. And a lot of times they're not cordial. It's just it's just it's globbing. And then 88 00:07:27.440 --> 00:07:31.760 you have this amalgamation, this frankenstein looking business that no one wants to touch. Because the 89 00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:35.600 first thing that we do with a business like that is we would simplify it. We'd peel weight off the 90 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:41.440 bar and we'd say we need to do more reps and more volume with the weight that we've got. And that 91 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:48.000 parallel applies so beautifully in entrepreneurship that I felt the need to make this because so many 92 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.720 of the entrepreneurs we talked through are making this mistake. And I say this because I before I 93 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:58.640 started making money had a car practice agency. I had a dental agency. I had a gym turnaround 94 00:07:58.640 --> 00:08:04.960 business and I also had five locations six locations, whatever that was six locations. So I had 95 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:11.840 this many businesses at the same time. That wasn't making no money. And so I do I think that I could 96 00:08:11.840 --> 00:08:17.040 own all these businesses now. Sure, I'm strong enough to own those businesses now. But then I wasn't. 97 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:22.640 And so what did I have to do? I'd to peel weight off the bar until I was left with one. And then I 98 00:08:22.640 --> 00:08:28.400 did more reps with that one with the one plate on the bar. I did as many reps as I could. And then 99 00:08:28.400 --> 00:08:33.120 I was able to level up my entrepreneurial skill set on a clear opportunity of all of the opportunities 100 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:38.400 that I was best at. And you have to just say no. And this is just like the woman in the red dress, 101 00:08:38.400 --> 00:08:43.680 saying no to increase in attractiveness as you get better. When I was starting out, I might consider 102 00:08:43.680 --> 00:08:47.920 a thousand dollar a month thing. But when you're making a hundred grand a month, you probably aren't 103 00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:51.440 as interested in a thousand dollar a month thing. You just ignore it. But you have a harder time 104 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:56.160 ignoring another hundred thousand dollar a month thing, right? But you have to say no to that to get 105 00:08:56.160 --> 00:09:01.200 to a million a month. Because what happens is you get to a hundred and then you do another thing 106 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.960 and then you're attention split and then you can't get past here. And so you have to peel the weight 107 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.920 off the bar and then you do more reps. And the thing is that even at that next level and you're 108 00:09:09.920 --> 00:09:13.280 at a million a month, you look at this other thing or like there's this other opportunity in some 109 00:09:13.280 --> 00:09:18.560 million a month. But usually peel the weight off the bar and you do more reps. And so the only 110 00:09:18.560 --> 00:09:22.400 reason you shouldn't be doing more reps and adding to the bar, adding to the stuff that you sell 111 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:26.720 is that you literally have no more people to sell to. And until you have that problem, 112 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.440 you should focus on the one thing. And the secret is that most people really never get into that 113 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:35.920 problem because they're not even close to the size of the market. So most of you nation, 114 00:09:35.920 --> 00:09:40.400 you're an entrepreneur, focus on the one thing, peel weight off the bar, do more reps at the 115 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:52.080 weight that's appropriate for you and then wash your gains, both financial and physical stack.