WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 Do you know the business that you're really in? 2 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:03.840 I spent the vast majority of my time 3 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:06.440 founding a company, getting really excited about it, 4 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:08.080 and then once I actually get into it, 5 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:09.840 once things actually get rolling, 6 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:12.840 I think the problem that I was going to have to solve 7 00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:16.040 is actually not the problem that I end up having to solve. 8 00:00:16.040 --> 00:00:18.280 And every time I get into one, I think, 9 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:19.880 oh, this one will be easier than the last one 10 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:21.880 because I'll know how to solve this key problem. 11 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:23.240 But that's because that business 12 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:25.840 has an entirely different set of problems. 13 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:27.440 And once I realize that, I realize, 14 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.320 oh, this is where my work begins. 15 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:31.720 This is the business that I'm actually in. 16 00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:33.480 If you don't know me, welcome to the show. 17 00:00:33.480 --> 00:00:34.800 This is the game where we talk about 18 00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:36.520 making more money, scaling companies, 19 00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:38.200 and business stuffs. 20 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:39.680 My name is Oxymus, I'll be your host 21 00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:42.080 on this magic carpet ride of a day. 22 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:43.880 I promise you that if you were in a business 23 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:44.720 and you're trying to scale it 24 00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:46.800 and trying to make generational wealth with it, 25 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:48.360 this one will be worth it. 26 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:51.240 I have made the mistake in almost every business 27 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.800 that I've been in, in thinking I was getting into one business, 28 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:56.640 one in reality, I was getting into a very different business. 29 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.360 And discovering the real business that you're actually in 30 00:01:00.360 --> 00:01:02.960 is what will unlock the amount of growth 31 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:04.920 and money making that you really want to get into. 32 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.680 It's usually the second and third level 33 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.760 of entrepreneurship within whatever opportunity 34 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:10.600 you're pursuing. 35 00:01:10.600 --> 00:01:12.320 So let me give you an example to kind of make this real. 36 00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:15.280 When I got into the gym business, I liked fitness. 37 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:17.240 And so I thought that the business 38 00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:22.080 was gonna be about macros and results and workouts 39 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:22.920 and all of that. 40 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.560 That's what I thought the business was gonna be about. 41 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:27.360 But once I got into the business, 42 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:30.040 I realized it was actually just about marketing and sales. 43 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:33.360 That specific business is about marketing and sales overall. 44 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:36.440 Now, when I make these generalizations, 45 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:37.960 all businesses are like cars. 46 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:39.680 Like if you don't have wheels, the car's not gonna move. 47 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:40.960 If you don't gas, the car's not gonna move. 48 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:42.520 If you don't have an engine, the car's not gonna move. 49 00:01:42.520 --> 00:01:44.320 But the question is, what is the biggest limit 50 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:45.600 or what's the biggest thing that gives you 51 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:48.360 the most return in that specific vehicle 52 00:01:48.360 --> 00:01:49.920 or that specific business? 53 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.160 And so I'm gonna walk you through four or five different businesses 54 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:54.840 that I've been what I thought it was 55 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:56.120 versus what it really was. 56 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:57.520 And then I'll turn it back to you 57 00:01:57.520 --> 00:02:00.280 and thinking about how you can apply that same methodology 58 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:01.520 and I'll bet you many of you, 59 00:02:01.520 --> 00:02:03.520 and I get this because I have a lot of conversations 60 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:04.720 with Business Center today. 61 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:06.920 They don't know what business they're really in. 62 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:09.440 So I thought it was about fitness, 63 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:10.800 but it was actually about sales and marketing. 64 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:12.200 If you look at the biggest fitness companies 65 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:14.120 the world, especially in the gym space, 66 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:16.680 their acquisition machines, 67 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:18.880 that's what they are very, very good at. 68 00:02:18.880 --> 00:02:21.600 The actual fitness component of it 69 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:24.160 is actually pretty minor, right? 70 00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:26.320 And I'll tell you this from talking to the franchise 71 00:02:26.320 --> 00:02:27.960 or assume many, many locations 72 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:30.520 or privately owned ones have thousand plus locations 73 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:32.720 that the fitness stuff is almost an afterthought. 74 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:33.480 They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, 75 00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:35.440 get people to sweat, move around, whatever. 76 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:38.320 Because the reality is that within fitness, for example, 77 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:39.720 the biggest problem is that people don't show up 78 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:41.120 because of other reasons. 79 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.920 And so you have to always go get more customers. 80 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:45.520 The good news is that everyone's trying 81 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:46.960 to lose weight three times a year. 82 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.040 And so there are plenty of people. 83 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:50.160 So that was the first business 84 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:52.280 that I misunderstood what business I was really in. 85 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:54.080 Now thankfully, quickly I learned that 86 00:02:54.320 --> 00:02:57.120 then that became the skill set that I doubled down on. 87 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:59.400 Now with that, I then was like, okay, 88 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.080 well, I'm going to start a self-encoder, 89 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:02.560 which was prestige labs. 90 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.000 Now again, I thought that business was going to be 91 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.320 all about the product. 92 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:09.480 I thought it was all going to be about the stuff 93 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:10.320 that's inside of it. 94 00:03:10.320 --> 00:03:12.160 And so I got to Dr. Cashy, my good friend, 95 00:03:12.160 --> 00:03:13.720 who's biohazard, PhD biochemist, 96 00:03:13.720 --> 00:03:15.160 one of the smartest human beings on earth. 97 00:03:15.160 --> 00:03:17.120 And I said, hey, man, can you make the best products? 98 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:18.680 I said, make a sandwich you would actually eat 99 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.320 because he made all these things for Olympians. 100 00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:23.640 And he would put together these trash bags 101 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:26.520 full of like specific ingredients and specific compounds. 102 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:28.440 And he's like, dude, these are going to be way too expensive. 103 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:29.920 Like it's not going to be commercially viable 104 00:03:29.920 --> 00:03:31.200 based on the quality of the ingredients. 105 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:33.240 And I was like, dude, just make the best product 106 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:34.760 off of your how to sell it. 107 00:03:34.760 --> 00:03:38.360 And so that was the focus that I had in prestige labs. 108 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:39.520 But guess what? 109 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:40.680 Once I got into that business, 110 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:43.320 I realized that it actually had very little 111 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:44.520 to do with what was in the bottle. 112 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:48.920 Because basically anything that's in a bottle 113 00:03:48.920 --> 00:03:52.560 that you don't taste, the vast majority of products 114 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.560 that are out there benefit off of placebo and no-cebo effect. 115 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:56.920 Basically, people taking something 116 00:03:56.920 --> 00:03:58.320 and then they feel better because it takes something. 117 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:00.840 And I want to be clear, placebo effects are real effects. 118 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:02.640 So like, I'm about the effect. 119 00:04:02.640 --> 00:04:04.080 Whatever works for you, works for you. 120 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:05.800 And that's not really the point of this talk. 121 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.120 But more so that I got into the business thinking 122 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:10.200 that what was inside the bottle was the thing that mattered. 123 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:11.960 But the reality was what was on the outside of the thing 124 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:13.960 the bottle and the thing that the bottle was next to. 125 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.800 Meaning it became what I realized almost too late 126 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.440 was that it's a business that's based on brand. 127 00:04:19.440 --> 00:04:21.960 It's based on branding and it's based on media 128 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:24.160 in terms of having tons and tons of traffic. 129 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:26.920 And so I thought I was building a product-based company 130 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:29.160 that was going to be based on what's inside the bottle 131 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:31.520 when everything that was limiting the business 132 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:32.680 what was on the outside of the bottle. 133 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:34.160 And I saw the guys who were the biggest in the space. 134 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:35.800 And this is the little tell-tale sign, by the way. 135 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:37.000 If you want to hack this, 136 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.040 is you look at the people who were the biggest in your space. 137 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:41.920 So take your model, take it to a natural extreme, and look. 138 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.640 And I think there's a lot of wisdom that can be found from that 139 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:45.640 and trying to reverse into, like, 140 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:47.120 what are the things that make this different? 141 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.600 Now, you might be like, and here's, 142 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:49.640 this is what I used to do. 143 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:51.400 All right, so like, don't make this for sick. 144 00:04:51.400 --> 00:04:52.840 When I was in the gym industry, I would look, 145 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:54.320 like, when I started out, I was like, oh my God. 146 00:04:54.320 --> 00:04:56.160 I can make way better workouts than those guys. 147 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:57.480 That's because those guys don't give a shit 148 00:04:57.480 --> 00:04:59.400 about their workouts, because that's not the main thing 149 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:00.240 in the business. 150 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.160 I got into the sub-business, oh my God. 151 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.800 Like, these guys are making hundreds of millions of dollars 152 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.320 on this product that's just mediocre. 153 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:08.400 Like, the thing is, is that most of the customers 154 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:10.640 that are buying it don't even know the difference anyways, 155 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:13.320 which means that your differentiator 156 00:05:13.320 --> 00:05:15.000 isn't actually making it different. 157 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:16.680 You're the only one who knows your differentiator, 158 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:17.520 which is not good. 159 00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:19.960 Your customer has to realize what the differentiator is. 160 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.480 And so the thing is, is that for most supplements, 161 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.120 the differentiator is, LeBron takes it, 162 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.080 or so and so takes it, or I think this is cool, 163 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:29.800 or my friend Sally likes it, right? 164 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.520 Or, and I'll be clear, on a consumables perspective, 165 00:05:32.520 --> 00:05:35.760 if it has a flavor, then the flavor becomes very important 166 00:05:35.760 --> 00:05:37.120 in the long run in terms of how good it tastes, 167 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.480 because most people take AG1, because they think it tastes good, 168 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:40.680 and because they feel good about it, 169 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:41.840 not because what's inside of it. 170 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:43.920 All right, so just to be clear, I got into the gym business, 171 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:44.720 and I thought it was about fitness, 172 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:46.040 but it was really about marketing sales. 173 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:48.200 I got into prestige labs, the sub-business, 174 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:50.000 and I thought it was about the stuff inside the bottle, 175 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.720 and really about brand, and building a big media traffic machine. 176 00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:55.480 And then I was like, okay, I think I'm getting the hang of this, 177 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:57.280 of just making mistakes over and over again. 178 00:05:57.280 --> 00:05:59.600 So then I got into the software business, 179 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.400 and I was like, okay, I get it. 180 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:03.120 Everything's about marketing sales. 181 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:04.360 I'll be able to sell the shit out of this, 182 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.760 and guess what, we sure as hell could, 183 00:06:06.760 --> 00:06:08.080 because I knew how to market and sell. 184 00:06:08.080 --> 00:06:10.640 And so then I got into the software business, 185 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:12.480 and I realized, by the way, side note, 186 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.760 software tends to sell itself, you know why? 187 00:06:14.760 --> 00:06:16.480 Because if you can't have technology to say, 188 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:17.720 hey, there's that thing that you're doing, 189 00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:19.000 that this will do automatically, 190 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:20.880 not a very hard pitch, 191 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:23.000 but the problem with software is actually delivering 192 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:24.360 on the promise. 193 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:27.480 And so it actually is a very product-driven business, 194 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:29.320 because anyone can sell it. 195 00:06:29.320 --> 00:06:31.520 The software's not that difficult to sell. 196 00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:33.600 At least this isn't my experience with this, all right? 197 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:36.640 So take that with my big Himalayan-sized grain of salt. 198 00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:39.120 For me, that's what I realized that product is the main thing, 199 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:40.720 and guess what, I don't understand it out. 200 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:41.840 I outsourced the product. 201 00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:44.960 I had an outsourced dev team make the product for me, 202 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:47.080 which I then realized was the core part of the business. 203 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:48.200 It's like starting a sub-company 204 00:06:48.200 --> 00:06:50.880 then trying to have an agency build your sub-company for you. 205 00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:52.040 If you're in the sub-business, 206 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:54.120 or you're in the consumer product goods business, 207 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:56.840 outsourcing acquisition, outsourcing brand, 208 00:06:56.840 --> 00:06:59.560 outsourcing media, it's like, 209 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:01.360 it's, that's the business. 210 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.840 Like that's the business you're in. 211 00:07:02.840 --> 00:07:05.800 It's not the stuff inside the bottle, all right? 212 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:06.880 So I'll give you another one. 213 00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:11.880 So, I had a gym owner from many, many years ago. 214 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:14.400 He was in, he became a gym owner. 215 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:16.720 He was a licensed, awesome guy. 216 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.680 And he started, he had a couple of locations 217 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:21.240 and his wife started a cleaning business 218 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:22.320 because they got into Airbnb's 219 00:07:22.320 --> 00:07:23.480 because he started making money to the gym. 220 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:24.320 So he started investing, 221 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:25.400 and he realized he actually liked real estate 222 00:07:25.400 --> 00:07:26.560 better than he liked the gym, which is awesome. 223 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:28.080 Great. 224 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:30.080 And so they started a cleaning company 225 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:33.160 to clean houses for the Airbnb's, 226 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:35.240 but then they realized they got in the Airbnb community, 227 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.040 and they also got in just like that area. 228 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:37.880 And they were like, you know what, 229 00:07:37.880 --> 00:07:39.760 we could probably just sell cleaning to other people. 230 00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:40.920 And so this was interesting. 231 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:41.760 I had dinner with him. 232 00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:43.160 And he was saying, I was like, 233 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:44.320 so what's your LTV to CAC? 234 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:46.200 He's like, oh, dude, CAC's like $25. 235 00:07:46.200 --> 00:07:47.520 And I was like, what? 236 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:49.640 He's like, oh, getting customers in cleaning? 237 00:07:49.640 --> 00:07:50.560 Not a problem. 238 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.600 And he was like, this is so different from the gym business 239 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:55.800 because the gym business, getting the customers, 240 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.280 getting, have to arm wrestle Suzy for an hour to get her 241 00:07:58.280 --> 00:08:00.360 to say, yes, she's gonna stop eating crap 242 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:02.080 and start coming to the gym three times a week. 243 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:03.920 But if you just say, hey, I'm gonna clean your stuff 244 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:06.920 and you don't have to do anything, not a very hard sale. 245 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:08.080 And so you said the real problem 246 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:10.480 that I'm having right now is actually getting people 247 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:12.080 to do the cleaning, right? 248 00:08:12.080 --> 00:08:14.080 He's actually getting hot, you know, 249 00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:15.800 people who speak English, who don't steal, 250 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.400 who show up on time, and do all that. 251 00:08:17.400 --> 00:08:19.680 And like, do a good job consistently. 252 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:21.120 Means that the problem, that's actually the problem 253 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:21.960 of the business. 254 00:08:21.960 --> 00:08:23.960 And so I had this, it was a great moment for me 255 00:08:23.960 --> 00:08:27.360 because I love seeing, finding out what is the real business 256 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:28.560 behind the business. 257 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.240 And so if you're in the cleaning business, 258 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:32.440 you're not in the cleaning business, 259 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.640 you're in the recruiting and training business. 260 00:08:34.640 --> 00:08:37.960 You have to learn how to get low skill labor 261 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:42.960 in high volume to show up for you consistently. 262 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.000 Which is a cultural thing, it's a training thing. 263 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:46.600 And part of that has to do with brand, 264 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.360 but a lot of it is just having the incentive system 265 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.120 structured such that that type of person 266 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:53.040 can still succeed. 267 00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:55.120 And he had a cool little thing that he did. 268 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:57.280 He did it, he had a setup where they got paid 269 00:08:57.280 --> 00:08:59.040 not by hour, but by clean. 270 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:00.840 And so they were actually incentivized. 271 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:02.800 And so basically, and this, by the way, 272 00:09:02.800 --> 00:09:05.640 big pro tip on business, is you wanna have paired incentives. 273 00:09:05.640 --> 00:09:09.120 So it's like having quality and speed. 274 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:10.880 And so it's like if you have a customer support team, 275 00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:13.160 you wanna measure them not just on like percentage 276 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:14.840 of tickets that are absolutely resolved, 277 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:16.720 you also wanna have speed of completion. 278 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:18.800 If you only have one, then you have lots of people 279 00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:20.280 responding as quickly as possible, 280 00:09:20.280 --> 00:09:21.280 but not getting it done. 281 00:09:21.280 --> 00:09:22.840 And on the flip side, if you just do on 282 00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:24.360 whether the ticket is completely resolved, 283 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:25.920 people won't move fast enough. 284 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:28.600 And so it's having paired metrics. 285 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:31.400 Andy Grove talks about this in high output management, 286 00:09:31.400 --> 00:09:33.600 really good book, if you ever like wanna learn more 287 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:35.280 about ops, pretty high level though, 288 00:09:35.280 --> 00:09:36.200 just to be really honest with you. 289 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:37.200 But it's a great book. 290 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.040 Anyhow, and so the paired measure for him 291 00:09:40.040 --> 00:09:43.520 was you can clean as many houses you can in a day, 292 00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:45.120 and I pay you per clean. 293 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:47.920 And so that drove up his productivity per employee. 294 00:09:47.920 --> 00:09:49.680 And so the paired metric was that, 295 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:51.160 if you don't do a good job, 296 00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:53.800 you have to go back and do it again in no cost. 297 00:09:53.800 --> 00:09:55.040 And so that was the deal. 298 00:09:55.040 --> 00:09:56.880 And that was also part of his offer for the cleaning thing, 299 00:09:56.880 --> 00:09:57.800 and it worked really great. 300 00:09:57.800 --> 00:09:59.400 And so like if you don't think we do a good job, 301 00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:00.720 we'll come back and clean your whole house again, 302 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:01.520 and we'll do it for free. 303 00:10:01.520 --> 00:10:03.240 And so that was the paired metric. 304 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:05.720 Again, so he thought he was getting the acquisition business 305 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:07.800 like dude, I can get customers all day long in this business. 306 00:10:07.800 --> 00:10:10.560 And he came from the gym, and expected it to be the same. 307 00:10:10.560 --> 00:10:12.880 And so I've noticed this is this continued thing, 308 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:14.600 is that what I think I'm getting into 309 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:16.960 is actually not the real constraint of the business. 310 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.240 And I'm gonna, I don't wanna leap frog ahead here, 311 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:20.920 but like this is a little bit of foreshadowing 312 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:22.040 for the woman in the red dress. 313 00:10:22.040 --> 00:10:23.800 All right, so I'll just leave that there. 314 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:25.920 All right, so I'll give you one for the, 315 00:10:25.920 --> 00:10:27.640 anybody who's in like the consulting space 316 00:10:27.640 --> 00:10:29.080 or professional services space. 317 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:31.160 If you sell to businesses, you sell how to market, 318 00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:33.720 how to, I mean, even accounting, you sell lawyer stuff, 319 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:36.080 you do consulting in general, any of that stuff, 320 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.760 you think that you're in the marketing and sales business, 321 00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:40.480 because that's what people will tell you, right? 322 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.880 But if you really wanna play this game at a high level, 323 00:10:42.880 --> 00:10:45.040 now again, it's a car. 324 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:46.280 If you have no marketing and sales, 325 00:10:46.280 --> 00:10:47.880 you're not gonna have a business, right? 326 00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:50.600 But which is the things, is the thing that unlocks 327 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:52.160 the biggest level of growth? 328 00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:54.160 It's actually, again, look at the biggest companies 329 00:10:54.160 --> 00:10:56.000 in the space, you look at EY, Ernst & Young, 330 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.320 you look at KPMG, you look at, you look at McKinsey, 331 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:00.760 you look at Baine, you look at BCG, 332 00:11:00.760 --> 00:11:02.520 it's been these big public massive firms, 333 00:11:02.520 --> 00:11:05.480 multi-billion dollar, hundred billion dollar companies. 334 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:08.960 What is the thing, what is the business they're really in? 335 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:10.840 They're in the recruiting business as well, 336 00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:13.600 and specifically the talent management business, 337 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:16.120 because different than the cleaning business, 338 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.440 now structurally it's recruiting for sure, 339 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:20.720 but it's at a completely different level. 340 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.440 They're trying to skim the cream of the crop, 341 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.400 because how do you scale expertise? 342 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:28.320 They're intelligence on demand. 343 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:29.880 If you go to the, you go to Pulsanale, 344 00:11:29.880 --> 00:11:32.720 you go to some big law firm, right, in Manhattan, 345 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:34.800 right, some big law firm with a Manhattan address, 346 00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:37.480 they have to attract the absolute best and brightest people. 347 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:40.000 Otherwise, the brand will degrade over time, 348 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:41.880 but how do you attract the best and brightest people? 349 00:11:41.880 --> 00:11:43.880 Well, that's why a lot of these professional services 350 00:11:43.880 --> 00:11:45.480 and businesses are based on partnerships, 351 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:47.800 they're limited partnerships, they're LLP's, 352 00:11:47.800 --> 00:11:49.120 all right, and so that's because anybody, 353 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:50.320 they have a track for eventually 354 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:51.680 becoming an owner in the business, 355 00:11:51.680 --> 00:11:55.200 and most service-based businesses that rely on expertise 356 00:11:56.240 --> 00:11:59.440 have tracks for people to have small slices of ownership, 357 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:00.840 and they're willing to have a small slice 358 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:02.280 of a two hundred billion dollar pie, 359 00:12:02.280 --> 00:12:03.400 rather than start out on their own, 360 00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:05.480 and they also have sub-specialties underneath of that. 361 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:09.600 You're an IP lawyer, you're a defense lawyer, whatever, 362 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:10.720 they've all these different, you know, 363 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:11.840 sub-tracks underneath of that. 364 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:14.800 And so, again, you get into the consulting business 365 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:16.320 and people say, hey, it's about marketing and sales, 366 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:17.960 but really if you want to scale, 367 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:20.560 and again, this is the thing, if you want to scale, 368 00:12:20.560 --> 00:12:22.040 if you just want to make money, then sure, 369 00:12:22.040 --> 00:12:24.280 just market and sell and you can make a buck, right, 370 00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:25.320 that's not the problem. 371 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:28.160 But if you want to get big, you want to build an asset, 372 00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:30.840 the business you get in there is on talent, 373 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:32.480 and how do you retain talent, 374 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:35.080 and how do you improve the value of that talent, 375 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:35.920 and make them look? 376 00:12:35.920 --> 00:12:38.520 Because otherwise, what happens if you do a great job 377 00:12:38.520 --> 00:12:39.360 with talent in that business, 378 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:40.600 but you don't retain them? 379 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:42.560 They take your customers and they leave, 380 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:44.320 they start their own shop, they hang their own chandelup, 381 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.160 that's the game there, right, 382 00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:48.560 and so the gig, what you have to figure out, 383 00:12:48.560 --> 00:12:50.720 this is the big billion dollar problem, 384 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:52.000 is what you have to do, all right. 385 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:55.960 Now, I'll leave it at that because I think I made the point. 386 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:58.400 Now, here's why this is important, 387 00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:01.360 is that if you know the business that you're really in, 388 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:04.640 you actually can get paid to solve the right problem, all right. 389 00:13:04.640 --> 00:13:06.920 Now, the way that I like to think about this is that, 390 00:13:06.920 --> 00:13:08.840 like, as entrepreneurs, we get paid to solve problems, 391 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:11.080 and the bigger the problem, the bigger the payoff. 392 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.800 And so I like to imagine, like, I've got this big, 393 00:13:13.800 --> 00:13:14.840 massive wall in front of me, 394 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:16.080 and the thing is, I see the wall, 395 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:17.400 but I don't know how thick it is, 396 00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:19.800 but I have an idea that it's pretty thick, 397 00:13:19.800 --> 00:13:21.040 right, because I'm like, shoot, 398 00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:22.520 I don't know how I'm gonna get through this wall, 399 00:13:22.520 --> 00:13:24.520 but I like to mentally envision myself, 400 00:13:24.520 --> 00:13:26.760 that there's this big pile of money on the other side, 401 00:13:26.760 --> 00:13:27.880 and I remember having this conversation 402 00:13:27.880 --> 00:13:28.840 with the portfolio company, 403 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.080 we're like, hey, we think that we need to build software 404 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:33.600 into this business and actually transform this business 405 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.320 from a media company into a software company. 406 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:37.560 And it's like, this is a big strategic bet. 407 00:13:37.560 --> 00:13:39.480 Like, a lot of resources, a lot of time, 408 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:41.680 basically a lot of lost growth. 409 00:13:41.680 --> 00:13:43.960 Like, instead of us gassing it on this side, 410 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:45.800 we're actually gonna basically maintain here, 411 00:13:45.800 --> 00:13:48.880 and then deploy a lot of resources into growing software. 412 00:13:48.880 --> 00:13:50.600 And so I was talking to the founder, 413 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:52.960 and he was like, this is really hard. 414 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.280 This is gonna be really, really hard for us to do. 415 00:13:55.280 --> 00:13:58.000 And I was like, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be really hard. 416 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.040 And I said, but if we solve it, 417 00:14:01.040 --> 00:14:04.440 we get an extra $250 million. 418 00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:05.840 So does that feel worth it? 419 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:07.880 And he was like, well, when you say like that. 420 00:14:07.880 --> 00:14:11.200 And I was like, right, so for 250 million bucks, 421 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.560 when I solve it, yeah, it feels a lot more approachable, 422 00:14:14.560 --> 00:14:16.200 or at least it feels worth it. 423 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:17.840 And so I'd encourage you to think like, 424 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.480 what is the ultimate price tag of me 425 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:21.480 solving this problem worth? 426 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:23.080 And then all of a sudden, you're like, okay, 427 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:25.440 then you can actually appropriately allocate 428 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:28.040 your personal resources to solving the problem, 429 00:14:28.040 --> 00:14:30.360 because it really will make you a lot of money. 430 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:35.280 Now, a lot of times we need to frame the problem 431 00:14:35.280 --> 00:14:36.760 for what we get by solving it. 432 00:14:36.760 --> 00:14:39.000 Otherwise, we avoid solving it. 433 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:42.000 And so knowing the business that you're really in 434 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:43.760 isn't really what you think it is. 435 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:46.840 It's often the second or third order effect. 436 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:48.640 And that's the big wall. 437 00:14:48.640 --> 00:14:51.200 And so you come in like my friend did. 438 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:52.560 He starts acquiring customers like, 439 00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:53.760 I'm gonna make so much money here. 440 00:14:53.760 --> 00:14:56.520 And he's like, oh shoot, I got to hire and staff people. 441 00:14:56.520 --> 00:14:58.480 Boom, he sees this big wall. 442 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.560 And he's like, oh, I'm not equipped to solve this problem. 443 00:15:01.560 --> 00:15:03.080 And this, here it is. 444 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:03.920 This is the meat. 445 00:15:03.920 --> 00:15:05.360 This is the part that I've been waiting to get you 446 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.400 and hammer you guys on. 447 00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:09.480 Is, hey, if you have entrepreneur friends 448 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:11.120 or you have employees or you have teammates 449 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.960 and you think that they need to hear this. 450 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:15.800 Don't be lame, share the game. 451 00:15:15.800 --> 00:15:17.080 That's how this podcast grows. 452 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.440 It's how we can get this knowledge out there 453 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:22.720 and improve the world by making private enterprise better 454 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:24.240 and better because I believe that entrepreneurs, 455 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:25.920 the only people who are gonna fix this world 456 00:15:25.920 --> 00:15:27.320 and we need to help each other out. 457 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:28.480 Don't be lame, share the game. 458 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.040 Oh, and if you screenshot this 459 00:15:30.040 --> 00:15:32.400 and tag me on Instagram, I will definitely like it 460 00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:33.480 and probably respond back, 461 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.800 but I'm also sharing as many of them as I possible can. 462 00:15:35.800 --> 00:15:39.720 The woman in the red dress appears now. 463 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:43.360 As soon as you realize the business you're really in 464 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.360 and you also realize that you're not equipped to solve it 465 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:48.280 because you don't know what the hell you're doing 466 00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:50.680 and you don't know what you got into to begin with. 467 00:15:50.680 --> 00:15:53.000 That is when the woman in the red dress appears. 468 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:54.640 Now, if you're not familiar with my stuff, 469 00:15:54.640 --> 00:15:57.080 the one in the red dress is any shiny object. 470 00:15:57.160 --> 00:15:58.160 It's the distraction. 471 00:15:58.160 --> 00:16:00.080 And the interesting thing about the woman in the red dress 472 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:01.320 is that the better you get to the business, 473 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:02.320 the hotter she is. 474 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.760 And so you learn to say no to a two out of 10. 475 00:16:05.760 --> 00:16:07.680 Yeah, because you've got some crackhead lady 476 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:08.520 on the side of the street. 477 00:16:08.520 --> 00:16:09.320 It's like, okay, she's like, 478 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:10.160 hey, let's go. 479 00:16:10.160 --> 00:16:11.000 I'm good. 480 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.240 I'd rather just not get climidious, 481 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.360 slash whatever you've got, right? 482 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:16.920 And so all businesses have shit. 483 00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:18.080 They all have shit. 484 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:19.920 They all have a big brick wall 485 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:21.320 that you have to come in contact with. 486 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:22.480 And guess what? 487 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.480 That's why you get paid to solve the fucking problem. 488 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:27.760 That's why you make outsized returns 489 00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:29.760 is because you have to be willing to confront 490 00:16:29.760 --> 00:16:31.240 with the sledgehammer in hand, 491 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:33.600 not knowing how thick the wall is going to be 492 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.400 and start hammering away at it 493 00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:38.080 with the hope that when you get to the other side, 494 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:39.120 it will have been worth it. 495 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:40.480 And often it is. 496 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:43.160 Now, I wanna drive this point home. 497 00:16:43.160 --> 00:16:44.640 So if you have a roofing business, 498 00:16:44.640 --> 00:16:45.760 if you have a restaurant business, 499 00:16:45.760 --> 00:16:47.680 if you have a dry cleaning business, 500 00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:49.960 all you have to do is look at the world 501 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:52.120 and see is there any version of this business 502 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:53.480 that is a billion dollar company, 503 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:54.600 or even a hundred billion dollar company, 504 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:55.880 whatever your goals are. 505 00:16:55.880 --> 00:16:58.600 And most times you'll find that there is that. 506 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:00.880 But you'll also find that it just takes time to get there. 507 00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:02.280 Because the amount of times I have, 508 00:17:02.280 --> 00:17:05.840 let's say small business actually happens a lot, right? 509 00:17:05.840 --> 00:17:08.880 Is hey, I've got a roofing contracting business. 510 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:09.720 Okay, cool. 511 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:11.760 And they say, hey, should I jump into a different opportunity 512 00:17:11.760 --> 00:17:13.000 and I'm like, well, okay, what are you doing? 513 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:14.680 They're like, I'm doing four million top line, 514 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:15.840 I'm doing a million bucks in bottom line, 515 00:17:15.840 --> 00:17:17.080 I'm okay, okay. 516 00:17:17.080 --> 00:17:21.720 Well, why don't you just 10X the size of your company? 517 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:23.680 And then they say, well, 518 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.320 I've got this big concrete wall in front of me, right? 519 00:17:26.320 --> 00:17:28.800 What they described next is the real problem 520 00:17:28.800 --> 00:17:32.040 of that business, the business that they're really in, 521 00:17:32.040 --> 00:17:34.000 that they didn't know they were getting into. 522 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.360 And I want to be clear, this only happens at scale. 523 00:17:36.360 --> 00:17:38.480 All right, so once all businesses, 524 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:40.440 like if you're new to entrepreneurship, 525 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:42.440 you got to figure out the basics of everything. 526 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:43.800 You got to figure out that a wheel is round. 527 00:17:43.800 --> 00:17:45.680 You got to make sure that gasoline is combustible. 528 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:47.160 You got to make sure that there's some sort of engine. 529 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:48.760 It might be a sewing machine in the beginning 530 00:17:48.760 --> 00:17:50.000 that's powering your car, 531 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:51.680 it might be a remote control car. 532 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:53.560 They can only go 10 miles an hour. 533 00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:55.200 But there's got to be some engine, 534 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.880 otherwise you're not going to get any movement, right? 535 00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:59.320 But when you start really wanting to achieve scale, 536 00:17:59.320 --> 00:18:01.000 there's going to be a big, hairy problem. 537 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.080 There's going to be a big concrete wall in front of you 538 00:18:03.080 --> 00:18:05.000 that you don't know how thick it is. 539 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:07.960 And that is the work. 540 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.080 That is where the enterprise values are locked. 541 00:18:10.080 --> 00:18:12.320 And the vast majority of the time, 542 00:18:12.320 --> 00:18:13.480 when we're investing in a company, 543 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:15.040 or we take over a company, 544 00:18:15.040 --> 00:18:17.480 we are just comfortable with the fact 545 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:18.480 that there's a concrete wall 546 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:19.960 and we're just going to chip away at it. 547 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:21.440 And so a lot of the work that I do 548 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.320 is actually expectation management with the team 549 00:18:23.320 --> 00:18:25.320 is saying, yeah, this is going to take two years. 550 00:18:25.320 --> 00:18:26.920 Yeah, this will take three years. 551 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:28.080 And they're like, wait, three years? 552 00:18:28.080 --> 00:18:30.440 I'm like, yeah, well, I'm in this for, 553 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:32.280 like, I mean, let me put it this way. 554 00:18:32.280 --> 00:18:34.240 If in five years, we had a hundred million dollars 555 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:35.720 to enterprise to this business, is it worth it? 556 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:36.560 They're like, well, yeah. 557 00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:38.520 I'm like, do you think we can solve it in five years? 558 00:18:38.520 --> 00:18:39.960 I'm like, well, yeah. 559 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:42.320 But then guess what they don't do? 560 00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:43.880 Be willing to wait five years. 561 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:45.560 And so the thing is, is that sometimes it takes 562 00:18:45.560 --> 00:18:46.880 somebody from the outside to say, like, dude, 563 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:47.760 let's zoom all the way out. 564 00:18:47.760 --> 00:18:49.440 If you solve this for a hundred million bucks is worth it? 565 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:50.280 Yeah. 566 00:18:50.280 --> 00:18:52.160 Well, it's going to take that long. 567 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.040 Oh, huh. 568 00:18:54.040 --> 00:18:55.280 And then things start to settle. 569 00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:57.720 And then you get less frenetic energy. 570 00:18:57.720 --> 00:18:59.960 The amount of wasted effort for entrepreneurs 571 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:04.080 that goes into this ideation of what else they could be doing 572 00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:06.000 with their time or with their skill sets. 573 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.480 Honestly, it's like, oh, great analogy. 574 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:12.240 It's like being single versus being married. 575 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:13.120 All right, hear me out. 576 00:19:14.120 --> 00:19:15.920 Is that when you're single, at least for me, 577 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.720 when I was a guy, I would say 30% of my time 578 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.640 was being genuine, maybe 40% of my time might have been higher. 579 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:22.720 Anyway, I'm not going to answer. 580 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:25.880 Was allocated to like the idea of chasing tail. 581 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.120 So it was like, man, what if that worked out? 582 00:19:28.120 --> 00:19:29.120 What if that worked out? 583 00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:30.760 And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm spinning multiple plates. 584 00:19:30.760 --> 00:19:32.160 I'm, I'm doing lead nurture, right? 585 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:33.000 I'm working the pipeline. 586 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:34.000 I'm planning seeds. 587 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:35.600 I'm, I'm making a quippy comment. 588 00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:37.400 I'm responding to a story, whatever. 589 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:39.600 And so I'm working leads. 590 00:19:39.600 --> 00:19:42.000 And so as I was doing this, right? 591 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.560 All my attention was going to possibility 592 00:19:44.560 --> 00:19:47.840 was to potential, was to what if, right? 593 00:19:47.840 --> 00:19:49.560 As soon as I got married, the thing, 594 00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:51.600 the biggest gift that marriage got me, 595 00:19:51.600 --> 00:19:54.360 was it got me 30% to 40% of my time back? 596 00:19:54.360 --> 00:19:55.840 Was I didn't have to think about this. 597 00:19:55.840 --> 00:19:59.440 Like this part of my life was not done, but like solved. 598 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.560 As in like, I'm going to be with Layla. 599 00:20:01.560 --> 00:20:03.080 Cool, great. 600 00:20:03.080 --> 00:20:06.920 Now all the extra attention that used to go to like possibility 601 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:10.160 in terms of what, who, of who else could be, 602 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:12.760 goes back into the main thing, which for me was business. 603 00:20:12.760 --> 00:20:14.360 Now within the business, it works the same way. 604 00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:17.840 It's that I think most of you guys are dating your business, 605 00:20:17.840 --> 00:20:19.720 but you need to get married to your business. 606 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:21.480 You guys are trying to have friends with benefits 607 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:23.360 with your business, trying to go on dates, 608 00:20:23.360 --> 00:20:25.160 maybe date a couple of the business on the side, 609 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:27.240 have some side checks, and then you're wondering 610 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:30.080 why your relationship with your business is in that healthy. 611 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:32.000 If you go all in on the business, 612 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:33.600 the business will go all in on you. 613 00:20:33.600 --> 00:20:35.440 And I promise you, it's just that the guy 614 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:38.280 who's beating you right now, he's just committed. 615 00:20:38.280 --> 00:20:39.400 He's just married. 616 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:40.440 He's just married to the business. 617 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:42.280 He's like, I'm, I mean, if it takes me five years, 618 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:44.400 but like, where am I going? 619 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:45.400 Like I'm in this. 620 00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:46.960 I'm in it for the long haul. 621 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:50.280 And he sees what the value of a 30 year marriage would be, 622 00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:53.640 or a 50 year marriage would be with his business. 623 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:57.480 And so if you know the business you're really in, 624 00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:00.360 which you usually find out a couple years into the business, 625 00:21:00.360 --> 00:21:02.160 which is once you solve the basics of business, 626 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:04.480 you realize, oh, this is the big, Harry problem. 627 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.520 And then you don't know how long it will last, 628 00:21:06.520 --> 00:21:08.280 but I promise you that someone else has solved it, 629 00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:10.400 and I promise you that they weren't super geniuses. 630 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:11.720 They just were willing to commit. 631 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:15.200 They were willing to swing the hammer at the wall 632 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.040 for a very long period of time and willing to zoom out 633 00:21:18.040 --> 00:21:20.120 and say, I can think in five year increments. 634 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:22.880 And do I think that if I put everything I have 635 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:25.200 and not get distracted with the woman in the red dress, 636 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:27.400 not have the side chick, not have these, 637 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:29.400 these other businesses I'm flirting with 638 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:30.920 that I'm keeping warm on the side. 639 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:32.760 These networking lunches for this guy 640 00:21:32.760 --> 00:21:33.840 might do a partnership with, 641 00:21:33.840 --> 00:21:35.480 even though it has nothing to do with this business, 642 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:37.200 because he says, hey, you're good at this, 643 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.680 I'm good at this, we could do this thing together. 644 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:40.520 None of that. 645 00:21:40.520 --> 00:21:43.320 I mean, no, I'm just gonna keep slamming at this wall, 646 00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:46.280 because if I just get this one thing right, 647 00:21:46.280 --> 00:21:48.320 if I just break through this wall, 648 00:21:48.320 --> 00:21:51.400 I won't unlock all of the wealth that I've ever wanted. 649 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:54.200 But there is a big, thick, massive, gray, 650 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:57.120 boring wall between there and where you wanna go. 651 00:21:57.120 --> 00:21:59.000 And it's just who's willing to keep swinging the hammer 652 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:00.920 for a long period of time without getting distracted 653 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:02.400 and without thinking they're smarter than they are. 654 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:03.880 I hope this podcast helped you do two things. 655 00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:05.880 One, is avoid the woman in the red dress 656 00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:08.440 because she makes you believe that she will have 657 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:11.640 a different set of problems that she will have. 658 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:12.840 She makes you believe that she doesn't have 659 00:22:12.840 --> 00:22:14.280 the problems that your current wife does. 660 00:22:14.280 --> 00:22:16.520 When the reality, she's gonna have an entirely different set 661 00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:18.200 of crazy problems you're gonna have to do with, 662 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:20.080 and you're still going to have to solve them. 663 00:22:20.080 --> 00:22:22.000 All businesses have shit. 664 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.360 And number two, is that I hope that this makes you go 665 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:25.520 all in on the business you have, 666 00:22:25.520 --> 00:22:27.520 confront the big wall of concrete 667 00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:29.680 and realize that there is a big payday on the other side 668 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:31.360 and you just have to start chipping away.