YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Alex Hormozi - Tax Secrets, Acquisition, Productivity, Diet, Training, Lifestyle, TRT & Nootropics

Alex Hormozi - Tax Secrets, Acquisition, Productivity, Diet, Training, Lifestyle, TRT & Nootropics — Transcript

by More Plates More Dates · 37,605 words · 5,065 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00I would say we live like [ __ ] Um,
0:04okay. And I say that and I say that
0:07Caleb's cracking up, but like I mean I'm
0:11just being real cuz like at some point
0:12I'm like I just said it like these are
0:14the four things you can spend money on.
0:15Like what else are you going to spend
0:16like and so it's you know um like we go
0:20out to eat we probably spend
0:23$12,000 a month on on food.
0:35We're here with Alex Hermosi who is a
0:38highly requested guest. I don't know if
0:40you saw on the Graham Stefen pod that
0:42you recently did. I made a comment just
0:44cuz I was interested in watching and
0:46then it got upvoted to the to the top
0:48and everyone was like, "Make it happen.
0:49Make it happen." So, yeah. Oh, sweet.
0:52No, I didn't know. It's a good That was
0:54a fun pod. Those are good guys. No.
0:56Yeah. I like the fact that it was uh
0:58they really got into more of your I
1:02don't know vision of I don't know like
1:04worldviews and kind of things that were
1:06above and beyond like general surface
1:08level entrepreneurial advice and stuff.
1:10It was like really really insightful and
1:12I think a lot of people definitely
1:13resonated with it a lot. Well, I
1:16appreciate it. After I got after I got
1:17out of there, I actually got in the car
1:18with Leila and I was like I was like I
1:21don't know if I stuff, you know what I
1:23like they just asked it and I was like
1:24well here's what I think you know and um
1:27I you know honestly the the response was
1:29I would say overwhelmingly positive.
1:31Most people were like dude I feel the
1:32same way and I feel like you put words
1:33to it or you know what I mean things
1:34like that. Of course, I had plenty of
1:36people who were like, you know, you
1:37know, you're going to go to hell and all
1:38that kind of stuff. But, um,
1:41yeah. So, a lot of I don't know how many
1:44people have seen your stuff already to
1:47kind of, uh, you know, already have an
1:50idea of who you are, what you're about,
1:52and stuff. And I don't want to get too
1:54in the weeds on your entire upbringing
1:56to acquisition.com because that could be
1:59a whole pot in itself, and I know you've
2:00talked about it multiple times. So, as
2:03far as like what I found from your
2:05channel, like how people might, you
2:06know, why I align with your content so
2:08much, like I found you to be Alex is one
2:11of the only channels that has like
2:13experience in the trenches and actually
2:16documents practical advice that got him
2:19from zero to 100 million in annual
2:22revenue. I don't know if that number is
2:23like, you know, big or whatever, but
2:26just in general, like he's a very
2:27accomplished entrepreneur and I find a
2:29lot of his content very applicable to my
2:32situation. And it's unique in that it's
2:35not like there's any secrets held back
2:37where you have to jump into like a
2:38master class or something to kind of
2:40like find out the real answers to
2:43things. You just like lay it all out
2:44there and it's very unique
2:46entrepreneurial content. So, I've found
2:49it extremely valuable myself and I feel
2:52like a lot of you guys might uh find
2:53interest in some of the stuff he talks
2:55about too from entrepreneurship,
2:56worldviews, bodybuilding stuff, which
2:58you haven't really touched on a whole
3:00lot these podcasts. So, I'm looking
3:01forward to
3:03not at all man. I haven't I that was by
3:05I mean as you can imagine it was by
3:07design. I mean I just I uh you know I
3:10had you know I had a chain of gyms first
3:12and so everything I had was about
3:13fitness. Um, and then I think I mean the
3:16day I started my gym was the day I
3:18realized that I liked fitness. Sorry, I
3:20liked business more than I liked
3:21fitness. And so fitness became my second
3:23love the day that I started my business.
3:26Um, and so that was definitely a
3:27significant switch. Um,
3:31but then once I went full into like
3:33talking about gym business, which was
3:34gym launch, and that started like 2016,
3:37um, I pretty much stopped talking about
3:38fitness alltogether because I didn't
3:39want to be like a a I didn't want to be
3:42a fitness dude. I wanted to be a
3:43business guy and then to the same degree
3:45I already look the way I look and so um
3:47I mean I'm sure you deal with the same
3:49thing but um I didn't want to get you
3:51know snap judgments are how people make
3:54you know navigate the world so I can
3:55understand that and so everything I
3:57could do to try and not emphasize that
3:59is what I've done up to this point. Um
4:01Caleb and I have had some conversations
4:02about whether I will uh you know maybe
4:05show like 5% of the the fitness stuff
4:07because it is a part of my life. Uh but
4:10I just haven't spoken about it much. So,
4:12like obviously gym launch, you know,
4:15hugely aligned with the fitness, you
4:17know, industry and whatnot, but more of
4:19like like I don't even know if people
4:23realize what goes into like getting
4:25people in the doors of gyms or how these
4:27gyms are scaling and like how you've
4:29kind of like built this infrastructure
4:31of not not necessarily like having your
4:34own gyms, but you found a way to not
4:37only take your experience in gyms
4:39yourself, but then transition to helping
4:42Jim scale and bring in a shitload of
4:44customers and just like that process and
4:47how you built up the companies from
4:50scratch. Um could you just give like a
4:52sweeping overview of like you know when
4:55you started you built this company, this
4:57company and this company, your recent
4:59exit and like where you're at now with
5:00acquisition.com.
5:03Yeah, I'll give the the the business
5:04highlight reel. Um so I um I started one
5:08gym Southern California. It was in
5:09Huntington Beach. Uh that was my first
5:11gym. Slept on the floor. Figured it out.
5:13Um at month 15 up in my second location.
5:17Uh opened up three more after that in
5:19Southern California. Uh two of those
5:21were corporate locations uh that were
5:23actually merged into Yamaha. So we
5:25actually did a corporate contract with
5:26them, which is actually pretty
5:26profitable deal for us. Um ended up
5:29selling uh all five of them uh to
5:31different people. So, I sold uh one no I
5:33sold three to a partner, one to a
5:36competitor, and one
5:38to one to a client. So, I had uh and I
5:42did I had a an asset sale, an LLC sale,
5:45I had uh an allcash deal that was
5:47financed, I had a seller finance deal.
5:49So, I had like every type of deal it and
5:52it's funny because in retrospect, I'm
5:53like, "Wow, that was actually amazing
5:54experience, but at the time I was like,
5:55why can't these all just be clean, you
5:57know?" Um, so anyways, I I did I had
6:00those five, opened up a location um on
6:02the East Coast cuz I thought I was going
6:03to do this kind of launch and go model
6:05and ended up not being a good idea. Um,
6:07and then I went back to doing what we
6:09were doing, which was doing turnarounds.
6:10So, we kind of would fly out, fill a gym
6:12up in 30 days, go to the next one. We do
6:14that for about 2 years. We did 30 30
6:16something gyms. I think it was like 32
6:18uh turnarounds. And um then we had the
6:20brilliant idea or I failed my way
6:22into uh maybe we should just show people
6:25what we're doing rather than physically
6:26flying out to their locations and doing
6:28all this work. Um and so we switched to
6:30licensing and that's when everything
6:31really blew up. And so that was really
6:32Jim launched the licensing business
6:34which is like they would have I'd be
6:35like here's the ads, here's the copy,
6:37here's the videos, here's the pages,
6:38here's the headlines, here's you put
6:39your stuff in, this is the follow-up
6:40sequence to get them uh to show up. This
6:42is how you set up your lobby. This is
6:44the script. Here's white labeled
6:45versions of our meal plans, our grocery
6:47list, our food prep instructions, eating
6:48out guides, blah blah blah. Put your
6:49logo and all that stuff. Um, you know,
6:51then once you sell them, here's the
6:52script for the halfway sale. Here's the
6:54script for the supplement sale. You know
6:55what I mean? And then here's how you
6:56convert them into memberships. This is
6:57the price point you should do it at.
6:58Here's how you discount it. Like all
6:59that stuff. So, we just handed that that
7:00system over. Um, and we got a we it
7:04exploded, you know? I mean, I think we
7:05did 26 million in our first full 12
7:07months of business. Um, which is pretty
7:09pretty nuts. Uh, from a grow and that
7:11was like I mean it was nuts. I have no
7:13it was it was we you know I I don't it's
7:16funny because like the the further I get
7:17from it the more I the more I don't take
7:19credit for it. I think there was I think
7:21there was a confluence of events that h
7:23that happened together unbeknownst to me
7:24behind the scenes that ended up creating
7:26an outsized return. Um and so uh you
7:30know that's when Jim Lynch blew up. Uh
7:32two years after that I started Prestige
7:33Labs which are a supplement company. Um
7:35at that point I think we had a few
7:37thousand locations that were licensing
7:39our business model. Um, and so we sold
7:41through that distribution base. So
7:42basically, you know, if a gym has 20
7:44people who come in per month to sign up
7:46for, you know, memberships or trials or
7:48challenges or whatever, we just say,
7:49"Hey, after you sell them the service,
7:51just sell them supplements, right?" And
7:52so, you know, if you have a,000 people
7:55selling 20, it's 20,000 customers. And
7:57that's how that business, you know, grew
7:58pretty quickly. Um, and then, uh, we
8:01started Allen, which is a leadworking
8:03software because the next constraint
8:05that most of them had was that they
8:06wouldn't work the leads that they would
8:07get. Uh, and so, you know, I saw where
8:09messaging was going, where machine
8:10learning was going, and I was like, you
8:11know, I bet you we could automate a big
8:12portion of this. And so, um, we were
8:14able to do that and and get twice as
8:16many people in the door compared to the
8:17average front desk person, um, for about
8:20a fifth of the price. So, they were
8:21like, awesome. And so, uh, we grew
8:24Allen. Um, and then, uh, and then all in
8:272021, uh, we exited all three companies.
8:30We exited, uh, the software company in I
8:32think June, uh, and we did that to a
8:34strategic partner that was an all stock
8:36deal. Um and the other uh deal was a c
8:39all cash deal um which was uh
8:43prestigious gym launch we sold as a
8:44bundle um to APG which is American
8:47Pacific Group out of uh San Francisco.
8:49So the Allen automation like not working
8:52on leads, how do you use the software to
8:55automate that process or to maximize the
8:59leads so to speak? Is there like like
9:01automated Facebook return messages or
9:03like how like what is it exactly?
9:05Yeah. So there's a lot of So we we
9:08really lucked out because we got um the
9:11guy who won the machine learning contest
9:12out of Russia. So there's Google in
9:15Russia. It's not Google, it's like their
9:16version of Google. And they hold this
9:18like machine learning contest every year
9:19for coding. And we got the guy who won
9:21it. Uh really really bright guy. So so
9:24English, uh but super bright. And so he
9:27basically just applied machine learning
9:28to every component of of the funnel from
9:30click to show. Um, and so like there's
9:33lots of things that you're able to
9:34figure out where like it would be better
9:36to get 100% of people scheduled and have
9:3950% of them show than it would be to get
9:4290% of people to show and only get 30%
9:44scheduled because your throughput there
9:45would be 27% versus 50, right? And so,
9:48you know, we started looking at the
9:50total throughput of a marketing campaign
9:52from click to show. Um, and we found out
9:54some pretty interesting stuff. And so a
9:56lot I would say like twothirds of it
9:57came from optimizing kind of best
9:59practices that we were able to to
10:01discover which is like the more hours
10:03per day you're available the more shows
10:05you get which sounds silly but people
10:07don't do it you know um the sweet spot
10:10on throughput is having 30-minute time
10:12slots even if it's an hourong session
10:15having the ability to choose on
10:1630-minute time slots gave you more we
10:18actually thought it was 15 and we would
10:20get more people booked but then they
10:21would overlap so there'd be more gaps so
10:23we'd actually have fewer people able to
10:24show up because of the inefficiencies in
10:25scheduling. So having it on a on a
10:27perfect 30-minute cadence allows people
10:29to have more. So ideally you'd have as
10:31many time slots 30 minutes a day. It
10:33could be hour, it could be whatever. And
10:35you'd want it to be seven days a week
10:37ideally. And um just as a side note,
10:39like with one of our companies, we
10:40actually just all we did was change the
10:42way they were scheduling and we increase
10:43sales by 50%. Wow. And so it's like it's
10:46just a thou, you know, a 100 golden BB's
10:48that you apply to a business to make it
10:49grow. And so we're really fortunate that
10:51we had that for the Allen. Um but yeah,
10:53with the sequences is, you know, uh uh
10:55what's the intonation of the of the
10:57messages? What's the cadence that we do?
10:59How quickly do we respond? Um how many
11:01times do we message somebody before they
11:02show up? Uh are video images are videos
11:05better or images better? Should we keep
11:06it pure text? Should we send a map link?
11:08Um and you know, how many is the right
11:10amount? What's the how how many is the
11:12right amount before you bug the [ __ ] out
11:13of somebody, they don't show up? Um and
11:15so it was really just testing all those
11:16different variables and just using data
11:18to tell tell the story and then just
11:20optimizing towards it. Hm. And in
11:23hindsight, you're glad you did the
11:25software company or was it like a huge
11:26[ __ ] hassle? Okay. I am incredibly
11:30grateful that I did it for how much I
11:32learned because I've I apply everything
11:34we learn in the software companies to
11:35every other company that we use. Uh
11:37because like I didn't I would say I
11:39didn't understand customer success and
11:42the quant side behind success and LTV
11:44and things like that until we got into
11:46the software game. Um but in terms of my
11:50reward on that business is delayed
11:52because it's really depends on how the
11:54strategic uh rolls you know rolls it
11:56into their into their company and that's
11:57going to be delayed for another 5 years.
11:59So I mean in terms of when I see the the
12:01fruit of that they had 4,000 businesses
12:02on their platform. We had I think like
12:04500. So you know they're just plugging
12:07that into all their whole distribution
12:09network.
12:10So, as far as where you go after that,
12:13you sold the companies and then you
12:14started acquisition.com, which is your
12:18essentially like big mega corp that's
12:21going to hold a portfolio of minority
12:23stakes and other Yep. companies that
12:25have, you know, a startups or whatever
12:27that have 3 million a year or more in
12:29annual revenue up to a certain limit and
12:32you try and grow them from 3 to 50 or
12:35100 or like what is the general range
12:38again? And by the way, acquisition.com
12:41is it a CC Corp and it holds LLC's or
12:44No, it's an LLC. Um actually um but I
12:46have we have gone I'm actually looking
12:48at anyways doesn't not to get into legal
12:50jargon. Um but uh it is currently an LLC
12:53and uh it holds LLC's. I think we have a
12:56couple escorts but it it it does it does
12:58have interest in LLC's or that's that's
13:00the way it's structured right now. So uh
13:03deal size, you know, the smallest
13:04companies we'll take on is doing 250,000
13:06a month. the biggest company we have
13:07right now yesterday did 320,000. So like
13:10there's a range, you know what I mean?
13:11In terms of of size of company.
13:15Um so we take them, you know, I would
13:17say where we feel very comfortable is
13:19going from like 3 to 50. Um that that
13:22feels very good to us. Um you know,
13:24going beyond that, the entire portfolio
13:26does over over that amount. And I told
13:27you that company specifically, but
13:29they're not, you know, they're not doing
13:29300,000 every day. They're probably
13:31closer to 200 a day um right now. And
13:34so, you know, that's like a $6 million a
13:35month company. Um, I don't know even
13:38what is that 72 whatever. Yeah. So,
13:43uh, yeah. So, we feel we feel good in
13:45that range, which I would consider low
13:46mid-market. Okay. Yeah. And is there
13:48like a net profit target you shoot for
13:50too when it comes to like I know you in
13:52general you talk about 3 million annual
13:54revenue is like your minimum, you know,
13:57if if you're under that kind of like
13:59that that's the ideal minimum scenario,
14:02but net profit like what do you I know
14:04these are e-learning companies, so the
14:05margin I'm assuming is a lot higher. So
14:09is there like a target you shoot for in
14:11general?
14:13Yeah, the minimum. So, it's 3 million
14:15with a million bucks in profit is kind
14:16of like the the minimum that we start
14:18with, but like I'm less picky on how
14:20much margin they have coming in because
14:22we know what we know what we're going to
14:24do to to move it. You know what I mean?
14:25So, it's like I'd rather have all the
14:27the other things in place so that they
14:29have the potential, you know, they like,
14:31well, at the end of the day, we we're
14:33looking for an entrepreneur who's who's
14:35got, you know, unequal character,
14:36sincere cander, and competitive
14:37greatness. We want to see a marketplace
14:38where we see the potential to provide
14:40lots of value to and we want to see
14:41depth of experience in in their ability
14:43to fulfill on those promises. And so a
14:45lot of times people are, you know, when
14:47I see somebody who's like, hey, here's
14:48how I made 10K a month with an agency
14:50thing and they never scaled their agency
14:52past 10K a month, there's very limited
14:54value that they're going to be able to
14:54provide to the avatar because they never
14:55really like did it. And I think a big
14:57part of why, you know, Jim Lynch was so
14:59successful is that like we always knew
15:01what the next like 10 steps were because
15:02we didn't, you know, and if you've ever
15:04had this from like a mentor perspective,
15:06I I I used to think I had heard when I
15:09was coming up that you should have
15:10somebody who's only like one or two
15:11steps ahead of you because, you know,
15:12it's been more recent for them, blah
15:13blah blah. But I would say like the more
15:16I've had some weather, you know, or some
15:17time under the belt, the more I prefer
15:19to have people who are a few steps
15:20further ahead because if you take two
15:22steps ahead and then you realize that
15:23you should have you have to take 10
15:24steps backwards because you did
15:25everything wrong, that sucks. And I
15:26think that that's a lot of the advice
15:28that's given out out there today, which
15:29is why I made the YouTube channel to
15:30begin with. Um, so we look for the depth
15:32of experience so that we can figure out
15:34a way to have uh to create a premium
15:36brand that can command higher profits or
15:38prices and then translate to higher
15:39profits. But to answer the original
15:41question, which is what kind of uh
15:43profit we're looking for of the
15:44companies or what we think we can get
15:45to, um I would say the most profitable
15:46company we have right now is about 60,
15:48you know, 60% net margins. Um Jesus, I
15:51would say we Yeah, usually we target
15:53around like 40 H. So like when these
15:56companies are in growth mode though,
15:58too, if they're all LLC's with flow
16:00through taxation structures and they
16:02have 60% net margin or 30%. Does that
16:05mean that you and Leila just take that
16:07hit personally because it flows right up
16:09to you and you're like I don't know how
16:11much active distributions you take from
16:14them as they're growing presumably.
16:17I don't know if it's is it like just
16:18enough to offset your tax burden or like
16:21how does that play in cuz I'm thinking
16:22you have no active income from cash cow
16:25companies like a gym launch anymore. So
16:27now I have these LLC's under me all like
16:30siphoning up net profit that I'm
16:33responsible for but no other income
16:36other than my you know so these
16:39businesses are much more like you know
16:41the Berkshire Hathway businesses they
16:43are cash cows and they and we optimize
16:45for net free cash flow um obviously we
16:48want to grow the companies but because
16:49of the nature of the companies that we
16:50choose or that we work with there's
16:53virtually no capex so there's no capital
16:54expenses that we have to reinvest to
16:56grow the businesses
16:57So we don't have to buy new inventory.
16:59We don't have to buy new machinery. We
17:00don't have to buy really anything. The
17:02only thing that we have to spend more
17:02money on is is talent. But anything
17:04that's in this type of business, the
17:06talent is getting amplified by the fact
17:08that they have some sort of digital
17:09products or services or tech enabled
17:11services that enable us to get 10 times
17:13more for that person anyway. So anytime
17:15we're adding somebody, we're getting 10
17:16times the return to begin with and you
17:19know to start with. So they can cash
17:21flow as they grow very well.
17:24Okay. So is there like do you take
17:26distributions at the early stage to
17:28offset your tax burden essentially and
17:30just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We take
17:32distributions like owners would. Okay,
17:34cool. And as far as like like I know
17:36you've mentioned you take on e-learning
17:38companies preferably because that's kind
17:40of like your bread and butter. Like for
17:42me prior to seeing gym launch I my
17:46experience of seeing e-learning was
17:48stuff like Alex Becker how to make money
17:51online stuff like that. and you know
17:54those like big master classes of how to
17:56like start a Shopify store or like
17:57whatever. That was my concept of
17:59e-learning modern. And then I also saw
18:02some of those like I don't know I think
18:04there's like masterclass.com or they
18:06have some expert teach you how to like
18:08play the [ __ ] piano or like whatever
18:09they're an expert at. Like what do you
18:11guys I've heard you mention hair salon
18:14as an example. How to scale a hair
18:16salon. I feel like like dentist
18:18chiropractor. Yeah.
18:20So was it sort of just like spinning gym
18:23launch into each different type of
18:25business essentially or like So I would
18:28say that there's three I've never
18:29actually talked about this so this is
18:30fun. So um I would say there's three
18:32subcategories within like education. So
18:34you've got education for a specific
18:36skill that would be like violin or
18:38whatever right I would say there's uh
18:40mass market education around business or
18:42income generating skills. So I would say
18:44non-income non-income skills which would
18:45be like a B2C consumer uh education
18:48thing. Uh and then there's uh B to I
18:51would say like B2B TOC which is kind of
18:52like biz op uh how to make money doing
18:55something. Um and then there's I would
18:57say uh kind of niche down expertise
18:59which are more like improvement
19:00offerers. So it's you already are a
19:03wholesaler, you already are a auto
19:06mechanic, you already are a hair
19:07stylist, you already are a massage
19:08therapist, whatever it is. And if you
19:10just do these 22 things, you can make
19:12five times more money, right? And uh
19:15there are advantages and disadvantages
19:17to each of those. We have all three of
19:19those types within the portfolio. Um I
19:22think that a lot of reason that the
19:23space so right now the space is getting
19:25more I would say institutional
19:27attention. I mean it's it's super young
19:29still. Um because they are seeing the
19:32tremendous amount of cash flow and scale
19:34that these companies are achieving. It's
19:37just not it just hasn't been it's still
19:39wild west. It's still early days. And I
19:42think that you know the demand for
19:45skills is not going anywhere. And I
19:46think as formal education is has failed
19:50many people in their desire to you know
19:52have skills that can equip them to make
19:53money um these things aren't going away.
19:55And so our bet is on the fact that the
19:58players who are who are the best at
20:00their specific skills uh in terms of
20:03teaching and the monetization model that
20:04they wrap around it are going to be I
20:07think it is a winner take all model um
20:09which is if you are the best math
20:10teacher the best math teacher should
20:12teach math to everyone and with
20:13technology they can. And so that's kind
20:15of how we're structuring what we're
20:17making our bets on. So like
20:19hypothetically, if I'm a hair salon or
20:22something and I'm looking to like teach
20:24people how to scale their business, do I
20:28was I assume if I'm looking for a
20:30business, for example, locally, I'm
20:31going to go I'm probably still going to
20:32go to Google and be like, you know,
20:35sushi place near me or hair salon near
20:37me, like do you stay up to date on like
20:40Google algorithm changes yourself? So
20:42then when you come in you can be like
20:44these are the current SEO strategies or
20:46this is the gray hat tactics that you
20:48want to be aware of like like how do you
20:50kind of like finagle that because
20:52obviously you probably don't have the
20:53time to stay on top of that [ __ ] too. So
20:56no no of course not. Um no I don't have
20:59that. Uh and so when we're so I'll kind
21:01of walk through the process. So if we're
21:03we're taking a company on who's at 3
21:04million usually they have some level of
21:05product market fit which is why 3
21:07million is the cut off. Like if they're
21:08below 3 million like they're still kind
21:09of figuring their stuff out. they still
21:11don't even have a core team yet. So,
21:12usually at 3 million, 250 a month,
21:13you're doing, you know, you got a core
21:15team of like 10 to 20ish u people, you
21:18know, you have a a consistent
21:20acquisition channel. It might not be as
21:22high as you want, but it's consist. It's
21:23reliable, right? You're getting
21:24customers, you know, month in month out,
21:26right? And so, usually at that point,
21:27this is where I think a lot of people at
21:28that level will make the mistake of
21:30saying, "Oh, I need to just do more
21:31marketing." Um, and that's usually not
21:33the answer. Usually, they need to
21:35increase their lifetime value per
21:36customer. So we need to, you know, stop
21:37losing people in the back end, get the
21:39the customer experience we need to be,
21:40make sure that we're tracking the right
21:41metrics, get, you know, customer
21:43segmentation in place so we can match,
21:44you know, the product suite to the
21:46desires of the customer and make sure
21:46that we're selling the right things to
21:47the right people. Um, and so we, you
21:49know, pair all that things in, you know,
21:50we might have to add some element of
21:51recurring to the to the business. We
21:53might peel off things that are
21:54consumption versus, uh, you know,
21:55continuous and then price accordingly to
21:57that. And so we'll do those things
21:59first. And a lot of times we need to
22:00hire a handful of people who have
22:01experience in those arenas and then put
22:03them into the business, right? And this
22:04is a big part of formalizing it. And so
22:05that that alone without even increasing
22:08acquisition will usually do the first
22:09triple. So most times we can triple the
22:11first business without even without even
22:13doing anything to the acquisition. The
22:14second triple and we think in triple. So
22:16it's like first triple is typically uh
22:18going to be the back end. The second
22:19triple will be um adding channels of
22:21acquisition. And so um now at this point
22:24because we have fixed the back end we
22:26have significantly more gross profit per
22:27customer that allows us to go uh go to
22:29these other channels far more profitably
22:31and acquire customers. And so we have
22:33more room to make mistakes. we have cash
22:35flow to fund the growth, all that kind
22:36of stuff. Um, and so if if we were
22:39helping uh hair salons, I'm not going to
22:43help hair salons. I'm taking somebody
22:44who already is the expert in that. So,
22:46they're up to date on the Google blah
22:48blah blah blah blah, you know, the map
22:49stack and, you know, the best referral
22:51strategies and how to partner with uh,
22:53you know, chiropractors send you hair to
22:55to send you hair clients um, and you
22:57know, paid ads and whatever, right? So,
23:00is this the sort of thing where you
23:02would have like if you had Facebook ads,
23:05whatever it is of your acquisition
23:07channel, you're trying to drive them
23:09into like a ClickFunnel where you then
23:10teach them how to scale their business
23:12via expert that's at the top with like
23:15that's the the whatever business you
23:18have is like the gym launch but for like
23:21I feel I'm just trying to make sure I
23:22understand completely like Yeah. Yeah.
23:24So, so with this hair stylist example,
23:26right? So, if there's a if there's a
23:27hair stylist who let's say her name is
23:29Sarah and she's making 4 grand a month
23:31and that's her life, right? And so she
23:33sees an ad for, you know, Tammy who's
23:36making 20,000 a month cutting hair too
23:38and she's like, "Well, hot darn. I'd
23:40like to make $20,000 a month instead of
23:41four." And so, you know, she clicks the
23:43thing, she watches a video that's like,
23:44"Okay, it's because they're they're
23:46doing way more, you know, extensions and
23:49colors than they are cuts because that's
23:51more profitable per hour. That makes
23:52sense. But how do I sell that stuff?"
23:54Well, you can schedule a call and they
23:55can walk you through. Cool. Okay. She
23:56schedules a call, walks through it. She
23:57says, "You know what? It makes sense for
23:58me to spend $5,000, which is one month,
24:00to get to $20,000 every month. The
24:02exchange makes sense. Cool." So then
24:04they would walk her through the
24:06strategy, which is like, "Okay, from
24:07here on out, here's how you schedule
24:08your time slots. Here's the scripts that
24:11you use to get new customers. When you
24:12make your Instagram post, this is how
24:13you do it. When you set up your maxep,
24:14this is how you do it. When you get your
24:16referrals, here's the referral script.
24:17Here's, you know what I mean?" And so,
24:18you go through all these things, and
24:19then piece by piece, they implement each
24:21of those kind of golden BB's into the
24:23business, and then the business
24:24incrementally grows.
24:26Okay. Hm. Okay. I think I understand.
24:29So, it's basically taking existing
24:32experts in their space who are trying to
24:33teach but teaching them how to scale
24:35their teaching essentially. Correct.
24:38It's an education. We're an education
24:40company. Okay. So, it is it's almost
24:42similar to like the Alex Becker of like
24:45every random niche of, you know, hair
24:48salon, whatever whatever niche it is.
24:51Okay. Got it. So, I can see how that
24:53would be like exceptionally profitable.
24:56I've considered that model before back
24:58in the day when I was trying to look at
24:59ways to make money, but like I don't
25:02know. Have you ever considered that
25:03yourself doing master classes on
25:05entrepreneurship or is that just like
25:07Well, I have a YouTube channel. That's
25:08my master class and I don't need to
25:10charge for it. Yeah, that was why I
25:12identified with your stuff so much is
25:14because it was the first time I've seen
25:15somebody not try to push you into one of
25:17those things. It was just like here's
25:19all the [ __ ] info. take from that way
25:21you will sort of thing. So yeah. Yeah.
25:24It's a it's awesome, dude. Yeah. Really?
25:27So like as far as when you first come in
25:29and find holes to fill and like you
25:33specifically, what do you have like a
25:36meeting every week with each company or
25:38portfolio or like how do you allocate
25:40your time to filling those holes?
25:45Well, we have a team. So it's not just
25:47us. So, you know, we've we get people
25:48from, you know, Harvard Business School
25:50and private equity groups who are
25:51growing portfolio companies and we bring
25:53them in. So, they already have tons of
25:55trench experience from what they're
25:56doing beforehand. So, you know, one of
25:58our big things is we try and hire people
25:59who've already won an Olympic gold, not
26:01who are who say they can win an Olympic
26:02gold. So, we want you to who have
26:04already won a gold medal and just say,
26:05"Cool, just run that race here." And so,
26:07then they just can recreate the things
26:08that they already know. Now, we already
26:09have our playbooks too for specifically
26:11this size of company. And so the nice
26:13thing is that a lot of businesses
26:16ha often have especially because we're
26:18so specific in the types of business
26:19that we that we work with. They they
26:21have the same problems at the same
26:23points. And so you know just creating
26:26the the paint by numbers or the money by
26:28numbers playbooks for like okay here's
26:30how we remove the founder from the
26:31marketing. Here's how we set up the
26:32customer segmentation surveys. Here's
26:34how we you know create the creative
26:36cadence for organic. Here's the creative
26:38cadence for paid ads. Here's how we pick
26:40our messaging buckets on the marketing
26:41perspective. Here's how we do compliance
26:43so we can actually make sure that we're
26:45not being scammy weirdos, right? And
26:47that would just be like marketing for
26:48example. And same thing with sales. It's
26:49like all right, here's our speed to
26:50contact. This is how we track you know
26:52utilization per rep. This is how we do
26:54our call reviews. This is what our uh
26:57you know monthly cadence needs to be for
26:59the sales director. This is how they
27:00these are the ads the sales director
27:01needs to run to get the best sales guys.
27:03This is the interview cadence. Like it's
27:04just it's just business. It's just like
27:06this is how you build it, you know. Um,
27:07and so in terms of how we allocate it,
27:10we look at the whole business and we say
27:11just where's the biggest lever here cuz
27:14all those things need to get done
27:15between now
27:16and which of those things need to be
27:18done first. And so a lot of times we
27:20only pick three big rocks that we're
27:22going to focus on and that'll probably
27:23be the first year and making sure that
27:25we truly execute those things cuz a lot
27:27of times if you think about probably
27:28even you know your business or your
27:29businesses you're like if I just did one
27:32of these things for this business by the
27:33end of the year we'd triple. And so it's
27:35really being ruthless in our
27:38prioritization and just keeping the
27:40founders and the leadership teams
27:41focused on that one priority because if
27:43you get that right, you can usually mess
27:45up a ton of other stuff and still turn
27:47out okay, right? So like obviously you
27:50have a lot of people on your team who
27:53you've vetted and had headhunted or
27:56whatever it is who are capable of
27:58fulfilling these things on your behalf.
28:00So where you plug in yourself obviously
28:03right now a big ROI on your time is
28:06building social presence to then
28:09establish you know the perspective that
28:12you're the guy to go to to grow these
28:14three to whatever million dollar
28:15companies to the next level. As far as
28:18how you plug in directly with the
28:20portfolio companies though, if you have
28:22this team under you that is able to
28:24facilitate, are you oftent times trying
28:26to find more people that are of that
28:30same caliber of your team and you're
28:31like interviewing people yourself or how
28:33do you plug in with the portfolio
28:35companies? Exactly. It's a combination,
28:37you know. I mean, it's it's what what
28:39constraint are the majority of them
28:40dealing with that we if for some reason
28:41we cannot handle, which most of the
28:43times we can, but we might say, okay,
28:45we're, you know, Leila and I are
28:46spending a lot of time on this
28:47particular thing. Uh, so I think we need
28:50somebody who's going to handle this
28:51particular slice, right? And so, I mean,
28:53the benefit so most businesses go from
28:55generalist to specialists over time,
28:57right? So, it's like it's harder to find
28:58the jack of all trades in the beginning,
28:59which is usually why the owner does a
29:01lot of that in the beginning. And then
29:02over time you know we replace the you
29:04know the the the head hunting function
29:06which is something that you know we
29:07replace if we replace the you know the
29:09consecration function we create the
29:11replace the the sales directing function
29:13like all of these you know all these
29:14pieces and then in terms of how we
29:15interface with them directly they they
29:18very much are treated the same way the
29:21companies that I owned before selling
29:22are treated which is we treat them like
29:24we own them. Quick side tangent to bring
29:26you a note from one of our sponsors.
29:28What am I saying? Side tangent
29:30interruption. What am I saying? I don't
29:32know. This is seed daily symbiotic. This
29:34is what I use on a daily basis as my uh
29:38gut support supplement essentially. So
29:40for me, I had been spending a bunch of
29:42money on I Herb, Amazon, buying a bunch
29:44of different formulas, um strains,
29:46random stuff, and kind of just uh you
29:48know, taking shots in the dark. Frankly,
29:50don't really understand the gut
29:51microbiome. It's an area of research
29:53that heavily interests me, but I just
29:54don't understand it very much. So, I try
29:56to educate myself by watching um
29:58podcasts, uh science-based creators,
30:01actual like people in the trenches who
30:03do this stuff and like look into the gut
30:06microbiome, the gut brain axis
30:07interactions and try and learn more
30:09about it. And it seemed like this
30:11formula was the one that had the most
30:13reinforcing data behind from a human
30:15evidence perspective, had the most
30:16people I respected in the industry
30:18talking about it and actually saying
30:19that they used it. And this included
30:21people who weren't just sponsored by the
30:23product, too. people who actually had
30:24digestive issues that were using it,
30:26people who had Crohn's, for example,
30:28that were um looking for any kind of
30:30support they could get of their gut. Um,
30:32so for me, that was enough to kind of
30:33get on board and put my own money down
30:35and see, you know, what it's all about.
30:37Fortunately, since then, they've
30:38actually sponsored uh the channel, which
30:40is super cool. Anytime there's an
30:41alignment like that, you know, I get
30:42super thrilled about it. And obviously
30:44if you guys are looking to optimize
30:46yourselves, you know, in the same way I
30:47am, you know, I'm always trying to eek
30:49out extra performance from a mental
30:51clarity standpoint, from a digestive
30:53health standpoint, whatever it is. Um,
30:55especially time efficiency standpoint,
30:56too. So, this is something I use as a
30:59reinforcement essentially of my
31:00digestive health, gut barrier integrity,
31:02gut immune function. Apparently has
31:04interactions with cardiovascular health,
31:06dermatological health as well, and
31:07micronutrient synthesis, which is
31:09obviously, you know, of high interest to
31:10a lot of individuals here. So, for me,
31:12again, this is my like insurance policy
31:14of sorts for my gut. And, um, if you
31:16want to support me, you know, you can
31:18check it out, too. It's linked in the
31:20description below, and you can save 15%
31:21off your first month supply of Seeds DS1
31:24daily Symbiotic by using code Derrick at
31:26checkout. Thank you to Seed for
31:27sponsoring today's video. And back to
31:29our regularly scheduled programming. So,
31:32you know, I I do everything that I would
31:34do for Gym Launch. I do everything that
31:35I would have done for Prestige Labs
31:37while being the owner, which means that
31:39like I'm I'm not going to write ad copy
31:41because it's not a good use of anyone's
31:42time because if I write the ad copy, the
31:44business dependent on me, right? But if
31:46I can usually help make or guide
31:47strategic decisions, then it absolutely
31:49is worth the time. And so for us, you
31:51know, we have we review all the
31:53company's data monthly, which is exactly
31:54what we do when we own all the
31:55companies. We review the data monthly in
31:57terms of their financials. We are
31:58interacting with them usually on a daily
32:00or semi- daily basis from a from like a
32:02messaging back and forth uh perspective.
32:05We have open office hours all the time
32:07during the week so that we can hop on to
32:09solve you know specific issues um you
32:11know for the portfolio companies um and
32:13at the end of the day like we just make
32:14ourselves available like the as much as
32:16it appears that I am extremely active on
32:18social um a big part of that is because
32:21uh Caleb and the team make me look a lot
32:22cooler than I am. Uh, and so the vast
32:25majority of my time I'd say I would
32:28conservatively 80 realistically 90% of
32:31my time is spent growing growing like
32:34the portfolio companies because they
32:36grow I make more money. So it's like I
32:38don't need more companies like
32:39Zuckerberg didn't need a side hustle.
32:41You know what I mean? Like I can just
32:42get a handful of companies that are
32:44really good and that's that's the
32:46Bergkshire Hathway, you know, way is
32:47just find really good companies and let
32:49them grow. So, how many do you have at
32:52this point under acquisition.com? And
32:55then how many hours do you spend on each
32:57one kind of per day? We spend eight. And
33:00then per day, it varies dramatically by
33:03what season the business is in. And do
33:06you have like a consolidated
33:08communication medium? Like I at this
33:11point, I have so many [ __ ] threads,
33:14dude. There's like a Slack, there's a an
33:16Upwork, there's, you know, group
33:18threads, there's text, there's Signal,
33:20there's WhatsApp. And I'm like, holy
33:21godamn [ __ ] dude. Like, so everybody
33:25everyone plays our play our way. And
33:27that's part of coming on to
33:28acquisition.com. So everyone uses our
33:30tech stack for for CRM because it pipes
33:33into our tech stack. So we can see the
33:35data and it gets pushed in real time. So
33:36we don't waste all this time
33:38aggregating, cleaning data, which is a
33:40pain in the butt. So that's a huge one
33:42that gets that's streamlined right off
33:44the bat. Uh the second thing is from a
33:46communication standpoint, everyone's on
33:48Slack. And so that's it. Everyone's on
33:50Slack. That's the way it works in terms
33:52of communication. So in terms of
33:53systems, we only use three. You know, we
33:55use Zoom, we use Slack, and we use
33:56HubSpot. That's it.
33:58Huh. Never used HubSpot. You'd recommend
34:01it presumably. Okay. Yeah. It's I mean
34:04honestly it it's more it's more
34:06important that you have deep expertise
34:08within a CRM than I think the particular
34:11CRM you choose like a massive company
34:13you know massive companies use Zoho
34:15massive companies use Salesforce massive
34:16companies use HubSpot it's I think it's
34:19less important which one you choose more
34:20so that you are really good at the one
34:21that you choose. Yeah. Yeah. As long as
34:23you have everything consolidated and you
34:25don't go insane in the process. Yeah.
34:28So for you, if you have you guys have
34:30eight companies, you said under
34:32acquisition. Was that before you started
34:35like your really aggressive rise on
34:37social media? Was that at zero or were
34:40you already had No, I had um I
34:43[Music]
34:46had three or four. I can't remember what
34:50timing wise was. It was either three or
34:51four. And how many more applicants do
34:53you have now relative to that?
34:57Uh I mean I didn't even really have I
34:59mean the applicants before were just
35:01people who reached out to me that you
35:02know from okay from from the sale or
35:04just from no you know industry stuff
35:06whatever they had heard of what we had
35:07done. Um oh you know what it's four so
35:11we had four we had four we've only taken
35:12to four more since since this rapid
35:14rise. Okay. Um but the thing is is it's
35:17kind of like what I was saying. I mean
35:18our our quote acceptance rate right now
35:19is 02% of companies that that apply. Um,
35:23and it and it's just because we're not
35:25in a rush. There's no there's no finish
35:28to the race. It's much more like, do we
35:30think that we can add a lot of value to
35:32these businesses? And if we don't, we
35:34just say like, hey, here's what we would
35:35do. Not sure if it's a perfect fit. Wish
35:37you the best. You know what I mean? And
35:39hey, that's why we make all the free
35:40stuff. So, like, hey, like, go use all
35:42that if you know if it's not a fit. And
35:44how many companies do do you actually
35:47end up on a call with to screen versus
35:50because if you have a 0 2% acceptance
35:52rate or whatever? I talked to every one
35:54of them. Really? No. God, no. I I
35:57couldn't. I just Yeah, that's what I I
35:59was thinking. That's [ __ ] impossible.
36:01Even if I even if I took one minute per
36:03Yeah. It would it wouldn't make sense.
36:05Um so do you have like one seuite guy
36:07who just like has a front line? He's
36:09like the gates to get through to you or
36:11Leila sort of thing. Yeah. So, HubSpot
36:13um has automated rules in terms of
36:15decision-m. So, there's lots of black
36:17and white metrics that we can apply for
36:19decision- making to the applications
36:21that come in and that'll automatically
36:23screen, you know, probably 80% of them.
36:25Um, and then from there, the 20% that's
36:27remaining, he will probably visually
36:30screen another 20% out. So, probably get
36:33it down to 60, sorry, another 80%. So,
36:34there's 4% that are left. And then from
36:36there, he'll probably talk to those 4%.
36:39And then um of that 4% he'll probably
36:42push 1%. Um to like a second call um and
36:47then at that point we'd kind of talk
36:48about um you know it's it's a it's not a
36:51it's not a sales process. You know what
36:52I mean? It's a 90-day process. We do
36:54diligence on the company. We talk to
36:56their entire leadership team. Uh we we
36:59want to get a good we want to get a
37:00pulse of the company because otherwise
37:02we can't figure out what value we can
37:04provide. like if you know what I mean
37:05like if I don't know anything about the
37:06company then how am I going to say
37:08here's all the holes I can fill when I
37:09they might not have those holes. So it's
37:11only when we very clearly understand all
37:13these things together and it checks
37:15every box that we then move forward and
37:17that's kind of the I mean right now the
37:18the average portfolio company that we
37:20have triples their profit within the
37:21first 12 months. Wow. So, like it's if
37:24and to be fair, we we pick a tiny itty
37:27bitty sliver of a box, which is if you
37:29fit if you can sing the a ABC backwards
37:32in Arabic, you know, sitting on on one
37:34foot and rubbing your head and patting
37:35your belly, um you know, and you're a $3
37:37million plus education entrepreneur, uh
37:40you know, in a niche or, you know,
37:42teaches an income skill. Um then then
37:45you're, you know, we're your
37:46huckleberry. Um, and that's just because
37:48I looked at the the people who have
37:49really good um uh private equity funds
37:52and they they niched down for good
37:54reason because you learn a ton and the
37:56more times we do it, the better we get
37:57at it. Uh, and so then we could the more
37:59paint by mer numbers this becomes so we
38:01can just say with more and more
38:02confidence and increased certainty and
38:03faster decisions that we can get them
38:05from point A to point B.
38:06So you mentioned you have screening
38:08criteria that screens out 80% of people
38:10in HubSpot but like on your on your
38:14website for example you put in your
38:15name, your website, email, phone number,
38:18annual revenue, annual profit, book a
38:20call when you when you book a call like
38:23how do you get screened above and beyond
38:24like couldn't do you have a bunch of
38:26people just lie on this form and then
38:27how do you Well the button says book a
38:30call uh because it converts better than
38:32submit but the second second screen
38:35there if you were to submit you know,
38:36click book a call. In order to book a
38:38call, you have to fill out the company
38:40intake form, which is like 20 questions.
38:41Okay, so that's the next thing. So,
38:43there's 20 questions there um that are
38:46much more in depth, which is like how
38:47many acquisition channels do you have?
38:48What percentage are they attributed to?
38:50You know, what is your churn right now?
38:51What's average price? How many, you
38:52know, what's your sales velocity? How
38:53many units per month are you selling?
38:55And so, we get a much better uh, you
38:57know, where are you incorporated out of,
38:58how many founders do you have, what's
38:59the, you know, all all those types of
39:02questions that we would want to um
39:03normally figure out. And those are
39:05usually questions that we would ask on a
39:08phone call. We just ask them beforehand
39:09and then from there we can get a really
39:11good pulse on the company because if we
39:13look at somebody's website and you know
39:15on and we know what platforms they're
39:17advertising on, we can look at their
39:18advertising which is what we'll do.
39:20We'll go look at the advertising, we'll
39:21look at the stuff. Um but oftentimes a
39:24lot of people apply and don't meet the
39:25black and white metrics. You know,
39:27they're like I'm going to be at 3
39:28million. We're like, well, you know,
39:30yeah, it's not good enough. Yeah. I
39:33mean, yeah, it's and it's not. And I and
39:35I and I I love the community and I and I
39:37and I root for everybody to do it. Um
39:39but it's just because of the nature of
39:40it's just it's a time constraint, you
39:42know what I mean? And so
39:44there's a reason Warren Buffett has a
39:46hard time allocating his capital. It's
39:48because there's not that many hundred
39:49billion dollar fish that he can spend
39:51his money on. Like he could double his
39:52money if he bought million dollar
39:54things, but then he would still have 149
39:56billion
39:58999 million left to spend. He just
40:00couldn't do it time-wise. So, you know,
40:03so with the current market and stuff
40:06crashing, you know, crypto's down, stock
40:08market's down, presumably you're pretty
40:11thrilled that you are liquid right now.
40:14Like I I think you if I recall
40:16correctly, you're like out of everything
40:17right now, right? Like just sitting on
40:20Okay, so you timed that pretty well
40:22obviously. So, so for you being like
40:26futureminded about what your overall
40:29vision is for
40:31acquisition.com and knowing that your
40:34ROI for an investment on a $3 million
40:37annual revenue company or whatever is
40:39exponentially better than at best a 10%
40:42return on a good year in the stock
40:44market. Like, are you at a point where
40:45you're just like, "Fuck, real estate,
40:48stock, crypto, none of it. I can just
40:50invest in myself in my own like uh you
40:53know acquisition structure.
40:56Yeah. I mean that's a I mean sure we own
40:58a few buildings and things like that but
41:01um acquisition.com is 100% the wealth
41:04vehicle and it's I mean and you probably
41:06know this. It's just
41:08um all the all the people that I see
41:10that are the wealthiest have found games
41:13where they can create unfair advantages.
41:16You know what I mean? Where they have
41:17something that's in their favor. And so,
41:20you know, we the nice thing with
41:21acquisition.com is that we spent 12 to
41:2318 months really thinking through how we
41:26wanted to build it, the structure, just
41:28everything uh to put to put into place.
41:30Whereas every other company up to this
41:32point has been a little bit more
41:34reactive. You know, it's been like, oh,
41:35there's, you know, this is what
41:36everybody wants. Let's go make it,
41:37right? Um, this one was like, what do we
41:40want? Um, because the people that are
41:42the wealthiest that I know have things
41:44that took them 20, 30, 40 years to
41:45build. And so I was like, well, if this
41:48thing's going to be a billion dollars
41:49plus, then it's gonna take time, you
41:50know what I mean? And we're not tech, so
41:52it's gonna it's, you know, we're not
41:54gonna, you know, I mean, it's not going
41:55to be, you know, a single tech explosion
41:56of some adoption of some thing. And so
41:58we have to be really methodical about
42:00how we approach it. Um, and so it's
42:02probably going to take 10 years or or 20
42:04years, which means that I and Ila both
42:06have to enjoy it. Um, it has to be
42:08something that we find meaningful. um
42:10and that we can that we are excited to
42:12do every day and that we don't that we
42:14continue feel challenged and stimulated
42:16from because the other thing is I know
42:18that I can I can do any business for 3
42:20to 5 years but I know at that point I
42:22start to get itchy um which my tracker
42:25shows I start to get itchy and so with
42:27this business part of the reason we
42:28designed it this way is that I can go
42:30all in on these businesses get exposed
42:31to different industries and if I want to
42:33say let's say I see an opportunity in um
42:37uh shoot
42:39you know, sales recruiting, whatever. I
42:41can say instead of me starting a sales
42:43academy, I can say, well, why don't I go
42:46find a sales academy that I think's
42:48awesome and then get exposure to that
42:49opportunity. And so that way I can do
42:51all the stuff that I want to do and help
42:52that company kind of execute those
42:54things. And then that way, uh, I still
42:56stay focused on my main thing, which is
42:57acquisition.com, without being
42:58distracted, but I get to participate in
43:00kind of some of the upside. H. And when
43:02you go from minority stake, like
43:05obviously this varies on situation to
43:07situation, but there's is there like a
43:09minimum of amount of equity you look for
43:11to have enough skin in the game for it
43:13to be worthwhile? Yeah. So, it's a it's
43:16it's a really good question. By the way,
43:17I'm loving this interview by just
43:18letting you know. This is great. I love
43:20to talk about this stuff. Um,
43:23so it has to be enough that we care, but
43:25it can't be so much that they stop
43:27caring. So, that's the balance. There's
43:28like a fine line there, right? And so we
43:30found that to be like 20 to 30%. Um is
43:33enough that we are really we're
43:34meaningfully invested and the founder is
43:36still meaningfully vested in the
43:38outcome. So everybody is just charging
43:40full on uh you know towards towards the
43:42goal.
43:44Okay. And that's our sweet spot. I feel
43:46like I probably know the answer because
43:48you have enough of an infrastructure
43:50team-wise to kind of like carry out the
43:52objectives you have seemingly. But is
43:54there like you have eight companies
43:55under you right now. Is there like some
43:58capacity limit where and obviously you
44:00haven't got there so maybe you can't put
44:02like a hard stop on this but is there
44:04like a breaking point where it's like
44:05holy [ __ ] we need more team to support
44:07the amount of companies we want to have
44:09under us right now like for sure for
44:12sure yeah we would we we run a pod
44:14structure so you know we'll have a
44:16handful of people who are specialists
44:18over a specific pod cuz even if you're
44:20doing a weekly meeting with each one and
44:22you've like really really dialed it in
44:25to a point where you're like super just
44:27basic oversight mode of them. I feel
44:29like that still adds up to where you're
44:32like in a monthly oversight meeting with
44:34like 20 companies or something. It's
44:36like you're doing a big [ __ ] meeting
44:38like every day to a point where you have
44:40no idea what's going on with anything
44:42essentially. Well, it depends on what
44:44the type of the meeting is, right? And
44:45so if it's, you know, if if if we have a
44:48cadence to check in on how they're doing
44:50on a playbook that I'm not required for
44:53that, like the playbook's documented,
44:54this is what we need to implement. Here
44:55are the ads to get the person in place,
44:57you know, to to run this play, etc.,
44:59right? Um, from a monthly perspective,
45:02me reviewing the numbers, we already
45:04clean the data on our side so that we
45:06can see it just the key the key numbers
45:08that we care about. Uh, because at the
45:10end of the day, I'm sure like when you
45:11read financials for your own company,
45:12it's like I'm not looking at everything.
45:14I'm looking at the handful of things
45:15that matter to me. Um, and so I'm
45:17looking at net free cash flow. I'm
45:18looking at growth. I'm looking at sales
45:20units. Um, I'm looking conversion
45:22numbers and that's about it. You know
45:23what I mean? That's and you know the
45:24turn is kind of factors in for all the
45:26customer lifetime value stuff.
45:28Um, in terms of to to circle back to the
45:31original question which is like is there
45:32a cap? There is a cap for the current
45:35capacity but right now we have more
45:36employees than we have portfolio
45:37companies for context. So this isn't
45:40like uh but again this is the this is a
45:42type of business model where like um for
45:44example APG American Pacific Group who's
45:46the the private equity fund that that
45:48purchased majority shares in gym
45:50launcher prestige uh I think they have
45:52like 13 people you know what I mean um
45:56you know what I mean and so it's you
45:58know Berkshire Hathway has 19 employees
46:00and they have you know 500,000 employees
46:03through their you know portfolio
46:04companies or whatever it is some
46:05enormous number um and so I talked a lot
46:09about leverage. Um but like finding
46:11opportunities where your inputs have the
46:14discrepancy between inputs and outputs
46:15is high. And so you know in this
46:17business uh the goal when we were
46:19structuring it was like how can we how
46:21can we provide tremendous value um to
46:24companies without
46:27um without being limited in that way
46:29like you were like you were saying.
46:31Yeah. And so that was the goal but for
46:33us because of the nature of how our
46:34things work um we can we can attract
46:37talent that they cannot attract. we can
46:39have people work on their company that
46:40they would never have access to. And in
46:42that way, the only people who would get
46:43access to those things would be funded
46:44companies. And so, in a lot of ways,
46:46we're able to give entrepreneurs who are
46:48bootstrapped an advantage that they
46:50would never normally have. They would
46:51never have access to this level of
46:52talent um to help them grow their
46:54company. And then in so doing get such a
46:57huge multiple on the equity appreciation
46:59that happens from what when they start
47:01with us is usually valueless. And I
47:04don't say that as a slight, but more so
47:05just the reality is that if you have a
47:06personality b, you know, driven brand
47:09and you're doing three million bucks a
47:10year, a million bucks in cash flow, like
47:11there's not a lot of people are going to
47:12want to buy that from you and let you
47:14walk away. Like it's just there's the
47:15buyer market is minuscule. Now if in
47:17five years it's doing 30 million topline
47:20you know uh 10 or 12 million in IBIDA
47:23and you're completely removed from the
47:25face of the business and it's really
47:26become hairstyle academy rather than you
47:29know Sarah Lee's hairstyle you know
47:32secrets or whatever um that does have
47:35enterprise value and that absolutely can
47:37be sold for 50 80 $100 million and so
47:40for us it's like that equity
47:42appreciation for the founder they would
47:44it would be unlikely that they would get
47:46that kind of personal wealth increase
47:49without having just tons of experience
47:51doing it and we can just shorten the
47:52curve. Now, when it comes to valuations,
47:55I've seen drastically different numbers
47:59when it comes to one times revenue,
48:01three times IBIDA, this that and a lot
48:04of times you'll have like an expert
48:06value it and it's like way the [ __ ] off
48:08from what you expected or like when
48:11you're is there a certain strategy you
48:13use where it's like these companies,
48:15they're a good opportunity, but their
48:17valuation model is just like way off
48:19from yours and if so, how do you kind of
48:22like reel them back into reality.
48:25Well, none of the companies that we're
48:26working with are coming in with the idea
48:29that they're going to like this isn't a
48:31liquidity event for them. You know what
48:32I mean? Like they're coming presumably
48:34some of them want you to put skin. Oh,
48:37like do you ever have to buy into
48:39companies though or is it more just your
48:40value? Sometimes but not always. Okay.
48:42Sometimes but not always. So again, it
48:45just depends cuz like my payroll is
48:46higher than some of these companies
48:48entire revenue. So, like the amount of
48:49time if I were to bill hourly for what
48:51we're going to front before we even
48:52receive our first dollar is usually more
48:54than I would put into the company for
48:56the the appropriate amount of equity.
48:57And we're purely based on the fact that
48:59we're going to make it up on the back
49:00end. So, those companies you do buy into
49:03though, how do you quantify what that
49:06buyin is?
49:08Like some sort of calculation that you
49:11defer to presumably. Yeah, 100%. But
49:13like it is it's much more important like
49:17it's not a big deal negotiation point is
49:20my is my thing because like many of them
49:22the cash that they're getting if they if
49:24they get cash Yeah. is not material and
49:27so it doesn't matter to them and it
49:28doesn't matter to us. And to the point
49:29that you said about like having skin in
49:30the game, if a $3 million company that's
49:33doing a million bucks in IBA, right? If
49:35if we valued it at a million bucks,
49:37let's just say we valued at a million
49:38dollars, which I don't think anyone
49:39would buy it for a million dollar, but
49:40let's just say we valued it at a million
49:41dollars, and I bought 20%, which would
49:42be 200 grand,
49:45does is that's not going to like change
49:47anything in my life. And I say that and
49:49I I hope that comes off the right way,
49:50but it's like that's not going to get me
49:52that's not skin in the game for me. You
49:54know what I mean? Like the skin in the
49:55game is the fact that we can take this
49:56thing to here, right? And that's what
49:58I'm that is the that is the thing that
50:00drives me, not the 200. So like the 200
50:03grand would mean no make no difference
50:04to me and likely this person if they're
50:06making a million dollar a year, it
50:07wouldn't make any difference to them
50:08either. And so it's that's kind of where
50:10this comes cuz we're taking them at this
50:11stage. At that point, I see even the
50:13negotiation process, you end up losing
50:15more money just talking about it than
50:17whatever amount you could gain
50:19otherwise. But once you've taken it to
50:2250 million and you have your guys on
50:24your side saying it's this and you have
50:26their guys on their side who wants to
50:28buy your company saying it's that do you
50:30have like what is like the deferred to
50:34Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to make sure
50:35that I'm answering the right question.
50:37So are you saying how are these
50:39companies valued at exit or how are
50:41these companies valued at purchase on
50:42our on Yeah. I kind I kind of changed
50:44the question in the middle. Sorry. But
50:46yeah, once you once you build it up,
50:48like how do you cuz that delta can often
50:51times be substantial.
50:54Oh yeah, that's that's the whole I mean
50:55that's that's that's our whole game. You
50:57know what I mean? Like the whole game is
50:58that we that we're taking something that
51:01doesn't usually have a lot of intrinsic
51:02value. It's usually just a guy or a gal
51:05who's got a thing and they're selling
51:07it, right? But as soon as they stop
51:09selling it, money stops. So there's not
51:11a lot of reliability to the revenue
51:13stream which is why the value is almost
51:14nothing right
51:16if we're doing the example I said so 30
51:18million top line 10 million bottom line
51:19we'll just use that as the as the as the
51:21number um they right now it depends
51:24everything depends on the churn within
51:26the business so how reliable the future
51:29so I would say there's two big pieces
51:30one is how big is the market and slash
51:33how likely are they to capture the
51:35market uh multiplied by how much are How
51:40sticky is the
51:41revenue? So, if we're gobbling up market
51:44share and it just keeps compounding and
51:46stacking on itself because everyone
51:47keeps loving the thing that we sell,
51:49then it's going to be tremendously
51:50valuable. If it's a much more
51:52transactional company, uh, then we're
51:55going to get a much lower multiple. And
51:56so, I would say, you know, the range is
51:58huge there. I would say it's probably
51:59like 6 to 12 is is kind of the multiple
52:02range there. Uh, for a company that was
52:03doing 10 million, it probably be like,
52:05you know, maybe 8 to 12. Uh, but again,
52:08it also will depend on the terms of the
52:09deal. So you'd have, you know, a certain
52:11percentage that'd be rolled in equity, a
52:12certain percentage that would be seller
52:14finance, certain percentage that would
52:15be, you know, consulting back, um, and
52:17then a certain percentage that would be
52:18cash. And so, you know, all those things
52:20added together might be the 8x, but you
52:22maybe cash portion might only be five or
52:24whatever. So, we're talking a multiple
52:26of IBIDA right now or Ebida. Yeah. Okay.
52:30For these types of companies, it's going
52:31to be on IBIDA. So, you're saying a
52:34company that has a net of 10 could be
52:36worth like 80 is what you're saying?
52:38Yeah%
52:40huh if if they have if if there's a if
52:43there's a story of growth that is
52:44believable that has a high likelihood of
52:46occurring if they have multiple channels
52:48of acquisition if they are not dependent
52:50on the founders's face um if they have
52:52low churn or you know lower or negative
52:54MR um you know high gross margins um you
52:58know low capital expenses like all if
53:00they have all of those things then yes
53:02and I don't know if this is something
53:04you can even disclose so feel free to
53:06you know not answer But when you were
53:08selling gym launch, Prestige, Allen, was
53:12there like a number that you thought you
53:14should get versus what they thought they
53:16should get and then you met in the
53:17middle and like what was that range?
53:22I think we still gym lunch for what it
53:23was worth. Okay. Like a fair valuation.
53:26I don't think I don't think we got I
53:27don't think we got paid. Um and I don't
53:30think we got destroyed. I think it was a
53:32fair value. And because of also the
53:34terms of the deal, we got, like I said
53:36earlier, like it was an all cash deal.
53:38So we we could have. So here I'll tell
53:40you a side note. So if I wanted to, and
53:42our bankers even said this and I was
53:43like, I just can't do it cuz I would
53:44look at myself in the mirror. But they
53:46were like, if you want to like jack this
53:47value up for like the story, they're
53:49like, we could paper this deal to get to
53:50100. Like we'll just we'll just load you
53:52up with earnouts that are like, yeah, if
53:55Jim Launch does a hundred million in
53:56IBIDA the year after, then Alex gets a
53:59$50 million bonus, right? Like cuz the
54:02likelihood that happens is zero. And if
54:03it did happen, they'd be [ __ ]
54:04thrilled, right? And so then I could
54:06say, "Hey guys, I sold for $100
54:08million." And that would be really sexy.
54:10It would also be completely false. I
54:11mean, it would be true by the letter of
54:13the law, but I would I would not feel
54:16legit. And so the number that I shared
54:18is the actual number, 100% cash, no
54:20consulting, no earnout, no no anything.
54:23Um, that was the that was the deal. And
54:26what were what were the percentages you
54:28guys sold again in the total amount? 66.
54:31We sold 66 of two and we sold 75 of the
54:36software company. Okay. And then you
54:39retain equity in that and do you have to
54:41be like oversee it with the same
54:43capacity that you do your other
54:45portfolio companies or like We do
54:48though. We do but we don't have to. We
54:49have zero contractual obligation. I just
54:51love the team and I I talked to because
54:53I mean we spent six years together. So
54:54like it's like hey man I can't help you
54:57anymore for anything that you have cuz
54:59like even if it wasn't a company at this
55:01point if they moved to a company that I
55:02didn't own at all I would talk to these
55:03people the exact same amount that I do.
55:05Um but we have no contractual obligation
55:07to do so. I do it cuz I love them. And
55:09what was the amount again? Sorry. So 66
55:12and 70
55:1446 total or what was it again? No, that
55:16was just for the that was just for Gym
55:17Launcher Prestige. Okay. And then Allan
55:19was what again? Uh I that one's on
55:22India. Okay. Don't worry.
55:24And the thing I had to and that's
55:25standard normally you have normally it's
55:28it's standard boilerplate to have an NDA
55:30for the uh total amount of the
55:32agreement. Um but I knew I was going to
55:34build acquisition.com and so I was
55:36specific up front. I was like I would
55:37like to be able to to say this partially
55:39to prove the point that you had which is
55:41like these companies are sellable and
55:42they do have value if you build them the
55:44right way. Right. And as far as like
55:47strategy and tactics for taxation on
55:51that
55:52exit, I know your I I had tax as like a
55:56separate topic for later in the
55:57conversation, but I feel like I should
55:58just jump to it now because it's
55:59relevant. But like your your strategy on
56:02it, I've heard you say multiple times
56:04how you've taken tons of, you know,
56:07consultations and this and that trying
56:09to learn about all of the different ways
56:10to save on tax and then in hindsight
56:12you're like, "Fuck it. I wish I just
56:14like paid my [ __ ] tax and didn't even
56:17try any of this weird exotic stuff with
56:19corporate exits. Do you feel the same or
56:21how did you guys structure that? Okay.
56:24Yeah, I I feel the same. I mean, there
56:26is a clear tax structure that we could
56:27have done to pay no taxes. Um it's it's
56:30it's called like a cascading um
56:33disregarded trust uh structure. So it's
56:35basically there's a $5 million exemption
56:37per per disregarded trust and you have
56:40to have a different person who is in
56:42charge of each or who's a benefactor of
56:43each of the trusts. It also gets around
56:45estate tax later if you're going to you
56:46know donate not donate pass it on to
56:48your kids or whatever. And so um you
56:51know we could have basically done a you
56:53basically multiply the amount of money
56:54that you have times $5 million or
56:56divided by $5 million and that's how
56:58many trusts you have to set up um with
56:59different benefactors in each of them
57:01and you have to trust whoever you're
57:01putting as the benefactor um and all of
57:03them. And if you do it that way and you
57:05wait 36 months so that it can't be
57:07unwound like there's a whole bunch of
57:08hair, right? And so I was like, dude,
57:11this isn't how I'm getting to a billion.
57:13Like I'm not going to
57:14save like the 20% here is not going to
57:16get me to some people like, hey, pennies
57:18add up. And they do. I agree with you.
57:20But in terms of like there's one thing I
57:23because I could see both stories cuz
57:25like here's story one. Alex gets to a
57:27billion and didn't pay any taxes and did
57:30a bunch of stuff to get there. The story
57:32that I would say there and I would
57:33defend is like, hey, I played by the
57:34rules of the game and don't you
57:36everybody should play by the rules of
57:38the game and be good at it. And I don't
57:39think there's anything wrong with that.
57:40Um, on the flip side of that, there's
57:43like we got to a billion and we paid
57:46full boat the whole time. H, it's cuz we
57:49love the game. Yeah. So, and I think
57:52that that's and again, not to say
57:54like do do I, you know, do I expense a
57:56dinner if we're going out? Sure. You
57:58know what I mean? Whatever. But is that
57:59going to make a material difference in
58:00my taxes? No. So, um, you know what I
58:04mean? Uh, but big picture stuff, like if
58:06anything's gray, I
58:09just if it's gray, I just I've just over
58:12time I've just stopped. That's not how
58:14the richest people do it. The richest
58:17people do it by get by equity
58:18appreciation over time building
58:20businesses and they get a multiple in
58:22those businesses. That's how they that's
58:23how they do it. And that's all taxree.
58:26Yeah, it's all taxree. When do you
58:28expense dinner? By the way, you it just
58:30popped into my head. Do you literally
58:31take a picture of your receipt and like
58:32categorize it when you get home? Okay. I
58:35mean, I don't, but I mean the team does.
58:37Yeah. So, you just hand it to your team
58:38when you get home or like how's that?
58:40No, I take a picture and I send it to
58:41building. Yeah. Okay. Got it. All right.
58:44And you always take pictures. You can't
58:46just go buy a credit card statement.
58:47Does that not work? No, I take pictures
58:48cuz you want to show it's itemized. M
58:51That way it's not like it's by the Damn.
58:54For a while I was doing that and I was
58:56like, "This is a [ __ ] hassle." And
58:58then I started just going by credit card
58:59statements. And now I'm I realize I
59:01should probably have been taking
59:01pictures that whole time. So well the
59:04thing is like if I'm signing it with my
59:06hand, my phone's right there. So I can
59:08just take the picture. It's not too bad.
59:09And I just literally just text it. And
59:10that's In Canada, you don't sign
59:13anything. You just like get your your
59:15cards. Yeah. It was weird cuz I was in
59:16the States recently for a business trip
59:18and then I totally forgot that they
59:20don't have uh the card scanners that
59:22just like auto charge you. They make you
59:25like sign a receipt still and like add
59:27the tip and stuff. Here it's just like
59:28they give you a machine, you type in the
59:31tip, and then Okay. And then it that's
59:33it. Yeah. Yeah. There's some places that
59:35do it here now, but it's still mostly
59:37signed. Yeah. Okay. As far as the uh
59:41challenging aspects of scaling companies
59:43now for you that you're in this position
59:46with
59:46acquisition.com, do you find the
59:48challenges are largely the same that
59:50faced the companies you built like gym
59:53launch and stuff or is it like a whole
59:55new unique set of scaling problems where
59:58it's like, you know, headhunting enough
1:00:00people that are on your team that are
1:00:02going to carry out the work at the
1:00:04quality you need and then overseeing
1:00:06that team to make sure their quality is
1:00:07spot on or like what are your big
1:00:09challenges now
1:00:14like existing problems that you're like
1:00:16actually dealing with
1:00:20finding good people is always a constant
1:00:22you know what I mean whether when we had
1:00:23gym launch and prestige labs and
1:00:25acquisition or the portfolio companies
1:00:27you know and I would say that that's the
1:00:28thing that we invest the most time in is
1:00:31how do we because the thing is is like
1:00:33from the from the private equity
1:00:35perspective it's like you can buy or you
1:00:36build that's kind of like the age-old
1:00:37thing it's like do we want to buy this
1:00:38thing or do we want to build it
1:00:39ourselves? And I think if you chunk down
1:00:41one level within a company, you can buy
1:00:44or you can build. So you can buy the
1:00:45talent or you can train people who don't
1:00:47have the talent to have the talent. And
1:00:49so we tend to be buyers on the micro
1:00:51level and builders on the macro level.
1:00:53Does that make sense? So like with
1:00:55companies, I mean obviously we're buying
1:00:56into these companies, but the the vast
1:00:58majority of the equity value we're
1:00:59building rather than buying, right? So
1:01:00we're not doing lots of roll-ups. We're
1:01:02actually organically growing these
1:01:03businesses. But on a micro level within
1:01:05the businesses we prefer to find I mean
1:01:07if there's the opportunity to to promote
1:01:09with from within we'll obviously do
1:01:11that. Um but a lot of times the
1:01:13companies that we're working with the
1:01:15founder is the most experienced person
1:01:16in the business and the I it's my belief
1:01:20that a business is limited by the total
1:01:22intellectual capity of the entire
1:01:24company. And if every person has a
1:01:26subset of the knowledge of the founder
1:01:28then it means one man is the cap of the
1:01:29business. And that is typically what
1:01:31happens when they're at three, five, 10
1:01:32million. Whereas when you see a $30
1:01:34million company, usually there's three
1:01:36or four people that all know a ton of
1:01:40stuff about different things and that's
1:01:41why they are that big. And so I see it
1:01:43as like a Christmas tree where it's like
1:01:44the bigger the the top amount of
1:01:47knowledge is, the wider the base is, the
1:01:48bigger the company grows. Okay. And as
1:01:51far as so we spend all our time up there
1:01:54right now. When you find these people,
1:01:57it's a lot harder to find really good
1:02:00like seauite level employees and whatnot
1:02:02and executives than I don't I don't know
1:02:04what it if it used to be better in terms
1:02:06of talent pool cuz I'm just kind of like
1:02:07into this for the first time now of
1:02:09hiring like really highlevel people and
1:02:13often times trying to figure out how to
1:02:15compensate somebody who's like an A
1:02:17player. It's very very uncharted waters.
1:02:22Often times it's like how do you
1:02:24determine somebody for like I'm like an
1:02:27influencer sort of who runs a company
1:02:30that does like disproportionate traffic
1:02:33and has like a unique kind of product
1:02:35offering or services and then bringing
1:02:37in people who can reflect the quality of
1:02:40work I need and oversee like 50 people
1:02:43and do this and do that. And it's like
1:02:44where do I type in on Google like what
1:02:46this guy gets paid like How do you
1:02:48determine pay structures for top guys?
1:02:51Yeah,
1:02:53guys. It's come to my attention that
1:02:56some people are not
1:02:59manscaping, disgusting pubes, hairy
1:03:02backs, butt crack hair. What are you
1:03:06doing? You got to take care of that
1:03:07[ __ ] This is where support for today's
1:03:10show comes in. Manscape, the best in
1:03:12males below the waist grooming. This is
1:03:15the package for the performance package
1:03:184.0. This is something that basically
1:03:21has everything you need down to the last
1:03:24butthole hair bro. This is um the
1:03:27lawnmower 4.0 is included. This trimmer
1:03:29is the future of grooming and perhaps
1:03:31the greatest ball trimmer of all time
1:03:32after going through four iteration
1:03:34changes. This is the fourth generation
1:03:36trimmer. Features a cutting edge ceramic
1:03:38blade to reduce grooming accidents. It's
1:03:40also waterproof so you can say goodbye
1:03:41to mess on the floor. Pubes on the
1:03:43floor. Not a good look, bro. And in
1:03:44addition to that, taking your grooming
1:03:46to the next level with the Weed Whacker
1:03:48nose and ear hair trimmer. Also not a
1:03:51good look. Having either of those things
1:03:52popping, bro. [ __ ] bad. In addition,
1:03:55their crop preserver ball deodorant and
1:03:58crop revor ball toner will change the
1:04:00way you approach your hygiene regimen.
1:04:01Your balls will thank you. as said on
1:04:03the inside of the package. In all
1:04:05seriousness, I think individuals should
1:04:07all be manscaping because if you're not,
1:04:09that's like a such a [ __ ] ridiculous
1:04:12like disadvantage to have over other
1:04:14males in the dating marketplace, bro.
1:04:16Like, imagine a girl goes down on you
1:04:17and you just like have done absolutely
1:04:19no hygiene. You have done you have no
1:04:21hygiene. Like, that's not a good that's
1:04:22terrible. You know, you want to feel
1:04:24clean. You want to feel confident. You
1:04:26want to just not be a disgusting uh
1:04:29[ __ ] woolly mammoth, bro. It's not
1:04:31good. Take time to take care of yourself
1:04:33and go to manscape.com. Get 20% off plus
1:04:35free shipping with code Derek. In
1:04:37addition, if you're a fitness guy, the
1:04:40difference in how lean you look when you
1:04:42Manscape versus not when it comes to
1:04:44your abs, chest, vascularity on your
1:04:47arms, especially even though you don't
1:04:48have that much arm hair or you might, I
1:04:50don't know, like some people are way
1:04:51worse than others. But even when it
1:04:52doesn't seem like you have that much and
1:04:53it's fine, the difference in
1:04:55vascularity, if you've been, you know,
1:04:57very lean, you know the [ __ ]
1:04:59difference. It's literally like a few
1:05:00percent body fat seemingly instantly
1:05:02pulled off of your body when you shave
1:05:04properly and Manscape. So anyways, you
1:05:06can check it out link in the description
1:05:07below. 20% off and free shipping code
1:05:09derek at manscape.com. Thank you for
1:05:11supporting today's video and back to our
1:05:14regular scheduled programming. So I'll
1:05:16say right now I'm I'm going to be
1:05:17putting my Leila hat on because this is
1:05:19100% all the stuff that Leila does. Um
1:05:22I'll give a couple general statements
1:05:23and then a little bit more weeds. But at
1:05:26least as we see it, we see compensation
1:05:28as the ticket to get in, which is we
1:05:32have to have it at a point where A
1:05:33players would say yes. We believe that A
1:05:37players do A-level activity because of
1:05:40who they are, not because of what
1:05:42they're getting paid. And so it's like
1:05:45you have to have the bar high enough
1:05:47that they're going to want to work for
1:05:50you. But most people like salesmen sell
1:05:52because they are salesmen. the comp has
1:05:55to be enough that they're going to want
1:05:56to start working for you, but they're
1:05:57not going to sell less hard because of
1:05:59the comp. That's at least our our
1:06:02compensation philosophy. We also tend to
1:06:03pay very well for that, but for the
1:06:05reason because we want to attract the
1:06:06best talent, you know what I mean? And
1:06:07so that's like big picture number one.
1:06:10Um the second thing is that I think from
1:06:12a tactical perspective and I learned
1:06:13this from lay this is not mine. Um you
1:06:15learn a lot about the role by
1:06:16interviewing for the role. And so you
1:06:18learn a couple things. One is you learn
1:06:19what the act like you can go to
1:06:20payscale.com and there's you know glass
1:06:21door things like that to try and figure
1:06:23out how much someone's going to get paid
1:06:25but there's so many unique natures of
1:06:27like a role in this type of business
1:06:28blah blah blah that it's it's more
1:06:30useful to just talk to everybody see
1:06:32where everyone's at and then you'll get
1:06:33a real pulse for what the market is
1:06:35right um and then in terms of like
1:06:38figuring out the the job role and who's
1:06:40right for it I think a good litmus test
1:06:42is who am I a excited to talk to and b
1:06:45who am I learning from because the way
1:06:47that it should work in my opinion at the
1:06:49C level and above is that we get on the
1:06:51call and they're telling me what should
1:06:54happen at this stage for the business.
1:06:56If I'm like, hey, these are all the
1:06:58things I need you to do, then they're
1:07:00not the right person because the right
1:07:01person would say, totally understand. I
1:07:03would do it like this. It's because two
1:07:04other times I did it the way you said it
1:07:06and it didn't work. So, we tried it this
1:07:07way and it's been working a lot better.
1:07:08I was like, oh. And so what happens is
1:07:10as these interviews stack up, you take
1:07:12notes and then you get a really good
1:07:13idea of all the best practices and you
1:07:15can start seeing who's, you know, who's
1:07:17got game. Now, when you said when you're
1:07:19trying to figure out pay structure, you
1:07:21ask around like who who are you asking
1:07:24exactly on the interviews on the
1:07:25interviews like you're asking them what
1:07:27they Well, you could put a hu you could
1:07:28put a big range depending on experience.
1:07:30You say boom, you know, from here to
1:07:31here range with variable comp and most
1:07:33that's a negotiation anyway. So, it's
1:07:34really again what you put on the ad is
1:07:36just like the ticket to get someone to
1:07:38respond. Uh, and that's again if you're
1:07:40doing an ad, most like true executive
1:07:42positions are head-hunted.
1:07:45So, you're saying you're literally
1:07:46asking the person you're interviewing
1:07:48what they want to make is like is what
1:07:50you're saying. Yeah. What do you think
1:07:50is right for the role, right? Okay, that
1:07:52makes sense. Okay. Yeah, that's sort of
1:07:55like what I arrived at, too. I was just
1:07:57like, what is what possible other way
1:07:59could I figure out some random pull an
1:08:02answer out of my ass when it's like I
1:08:03have no idea personally to be honest for
1:08:05a lot of these roles. So yeah, I mean
1:08:07you look at Paycale, you look at Glass
1:08:09Door, you have a rough idea, you have
1:08:11your idea of what it is and if everybody
1:08:13you get on the phone with is like well
1:08:14you know I'm currently making 200 and so
1:08:16for me to leave I'd probably have to
1:08:18make you know at least that. And you
1:08:19hear that over and over again and people
1:08:20are like and you could you can ask it
1:08:22different ways. You can just say what
1:08:23are you making now? That's a that'll
1:08:24give you at least a litmus test of what
1:08:26they're leaving. And if they're
1:08:27unemployed, then they're probably not
1:08:29it's it would be less common for the
1:08:31type of level of person you're looking
1:08:32for because most of those people who are
1:08:34a players and are good at the thing
1:08:36usually do have a job. Do you ever fact
1:08:38check when somebody's like, "Oh, I make
1:08:39250." And you're just like, "Okay, yeah,
1:08:41you do." I don't think we have a way to
1:08:42do it. You know what? I mean, if someone
1:08:43if someone doesn't have that, then
1:08:44they're going to be out really quick
1:08:45anyways.
1:08:47Makes sense. Um unimpeachable character.
1:08:50It's one of the values. Yeah. your
1:08:53skills that got you to a 100 million
1:08:55versus when you were at like 10. Do you
1:08:59find that a lot of it was just hiring
1:09:01the right executive people or like what
1:09:04has changed about you and your skills
1:09:06and thought process over the last few
1:09:08years? Yeah, it's all people. Yeah, it's
1:09:12so boring. I mean, I remember being in
1:09:14the audience and seeing these big guys
1:09:16speak and being like, "It's all about
1:09:17hiring a great team. You got to hire
1:09:18people smarter than I was like, this
1:09:20guy's full of it. He just doesn't want
1:09:22to tell us the secrets. Yeah. But like
1:09:24but like that is the secret. You know
1:09:27what I mean? It's simple, not easy. You
1:09:28know, and so I think the the the the
1:09:33billion-dollar skill is being able to
1:09:36accurately judge, discern people's
1:09:39talent, and know how to lead a team of A
1:09:43players. Because I will say this, from a
1:09:46demandingness perspective, A players
1:09:48demand an even better leader than B
1:09:49players do.
1:09:51So, I think I I did this tweet the other
1:09:53day, but it's like I think this is this
1:09:55is deeper than it's going to I feel like
1:09:57hit most people, but like I think you
1:09:58have to be worthy of the team that's
1:10:00going to get you to where you want to
1:10:01go. And so, if you're like, I want to
1:10:03get to 100 million, I want to get to 500
1:10:05million. It's my belief that there's a
1:10:08team that can get you there. Absolutely.
1:10:09The question is, are they going to want
1:10:10to work for you?
1:10:12H got it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I feel like I
1:10:16kind of knew the answer, but sort of
1:10:18just wanted to hear you say it, too. But
1:10:21by the way, how did you how did you get
1:10:23uh how did you get verified on Twitter
1:10:26and you're not on Instagram? That's
1:10:28weird. I'm verified everywhere except
1:10:30for Instagram. Yeah. Like I don't
1:10:33understand it. Like that seems so odd. I
1:10:35got a guy connect I can connect you with
1:10:37him. Oh, really? Okay. They did it in
1:10:39like a week. That was actually like the
1:10:40easiest one. Really? Damn. because
1:10:43that's like one of the ones I don't I
1:10:44don't have. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. If you got
1:10:47to catch them all. Got to catch them
1:10:48all. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, that's what
1:10:51it seems like. Have you ever had to Oh,
1:10:56sorry. You were like cutting out here.
1:10:57Is my connection okay, by the way? It
1:10:59seems kind of like glitchy. Yeah, I
1:11:02think we're we're it's all good. Um I
1:11:04Anyways, go ahead. Go ahead. Um so,
1:11:08circling back to the executives, have
1:11:10you ever fired any? And if so, what were
1:11:13the reasons?
1:11:15Yeah. Um I I to be fair, I haven't f
1:11:18fired many. Uh Ila has done the majority
1:11:20of the firing. Um because most of the
1:11:22team rolls into her. So Leila very much
1:11:25like runs the businesses. Like she is
1:11:27she is really functional co CEO. Um she
1:11:31just makes me look good. Uh but it's ve
1:11:33it really is very much her. She doesn't
1:11:35get nearly the credit that she deserves
1:11:37because she really does run these
1:11:38things. Um, and she's a she's a phen
1:11:40she's I mean she's an unbelievable
1:11:43operator.
1:11:44Um, but the question was why did we fire
1:11:46them? Uh, usually it's because it's
1:11:50variety of reasons. You know, it could
1:11:51be a culture fit. Um, it could be that
1:11:53their skill set got us to where we are
1:11:55and you know they haven't been able to
1:11:56adapt to what is required for the next
1:11:58level of growth.
1:12:00Um, usually at an executive level it's
1:12:02going to be or it's going to be one of
1:12:04those, you know, one of those things. I
1:12:05mean we've had the quick early fires
1:12:06that are like a week in, you know what I
1:12:07Those are like, "Wow, missed that one."
1:12:09You know, I mean, there was one time we
1:12:11paid a a head hunter, I think 100 grand
1:12:13or 140 grand, something like that, to
1:12:15headunt a CTO for us. And um I think we
1:12:19fired him two days in. Wow. Jeez. Just
1:12:23wasn't worth it. It, you know, just we
1:12:26could tell right away he was late to
1:12:28three meetings on the first day and he
1:12:30said he couldn't figure out how to use
1:12:31Zoom. And I was like, you're CTO. How
1:12:33can you not figure out how to use Zoom?
1:12:35Yeah. Like that's that's literally Like
1:12:37that's what you're supposed to be,
1:12:39right? Yeah. Exactly. I was like, I
1:12:40don't know. We've got frontline, you
1:12:42know, customer service that's able to
1:12:44figure this out. No problem. So, what
1:12:45what am I missing here? And so, it just
1:12:46seems we're like, cool. Like, I'm sure
1:12:48you have a story. We I just don't care.
1:12:50You know what I mean? Like, at this
1:12:51level, I would in the comp that, you
1:12:53know, this guy's probably a $500,000
1:12:55employee. Like, you're expected to bring
1:12:57it, you know? And uh if you can't do
1:12:59simple things right, then you're not
1:13:00going to do the great things, right?
1:13:02Right. And as far as your finding an
1:13:05executive assistant, you mentioned, have
1:13:07you gone through eight to find your
1:13:09current one or I'm on number nine and
1:13:11yes, I've gone through eight. It's
1:13:13actually something I'm very like ashamed
1:13:14of.
1:13:16So that like process, did you have to do
1:13:20every interview yourself because it's
1:13:21your own assistant, so presumably you're
1:13:24more involved in that. I think I've made
1:13:27basically every mistake you can make
1:13:28with a personal, you know, with an
1:13:29executive assistant. Um, even the way I
1:13:32thought about it was wrong for pretty
1:13:33much all of them until this one. Uh, so
1:13:36first off, many people call themselves
1:13:38executive assistants when they are in
1:13:40fact administrative assistants. I was
1:13:42looking for an executive assistant and
1:13:44we said executive assistant, but I
1:13:45didn't even know what an executive
1:13:46assistant was. I just that was the term
1:13:47everyone used. And what I consistently
1:13:49got was administrative assistants. And
1:13:50there's nothing wrong with
1:13:51administrative assistants. It just
1:13:52wasn't what I was looking for. And so,
1:13:54um, that was number one. Number two is
1:13:56that I was not involved in the interview
1:13:59process until like the final interview.
1:14:00So they would give me like two people
1:14:02and be like pick these are the two best
1:14:03and I would basically just pick from
1:14:04those. And um I just you know and and I
1:14:08didn't know what right looked like. And
1:14:10this is like this is a really good like
1:14:12analogy for for like
1:14:15acquisition.com. I didn't know what
1:14:17right looked like. And so as a result I
1:14:19had to hire again and again and again
1:14:21until I got lucky and I found what right
1:14:23looked like. Now, for the rest of my
1:14:24life, I know what I'm going to have for
1:14:25an executive assistant. I know exactly
1:14:27what it looks like at my level, what I
1:14:28do, what my life looks like. I know
1:14:30exactly what they need to do. And I will
1:14:31be able to always have that for the rest
1:14:33of my life. And the same thing goes for
1:14:35how do I find a sales director at, you
1:14:37know, a million a month? How do I find a
1:14:38sales director at 2 million a month? How
1:14:40do I, you know, what does that look
1:14:41like? What does, how do we transition
1:14:42from staff accountant to controller to
1:14:44CFO? What does it look like? So, like we
1:14:47know what those look like and that's how
1:14:48we fasttrack this because we just
1:14:49eliminate the the the fuckups for lack
1:14:52of a better term of of of going through
1:14:54it because I haven't I've basically not
1:14:55had an executive assistant for 5 years.
1:14:57I mean, I've had one, but I haven't used
1:14:59one. They weren't really executive
1:15:00assistants. So, that was number two.
1:15:03Number three is that I actually uh well,
1:15:05I guess with the interview thing, that
1:15:06was three. So, uh number four is um I
1:15:10didn't have tremendous rapport with the
1:15:14assistants that I had before this.
1:15:15Nothing wrong with them, great people. I
1:15:18just didn't have I I didn't look forward
1:15:19to speaking with them. And if I don't
1:15:21look forward to talking to you or want
1:15:22to talk to you, I just don't. And if you
1:15:25don't talk to your assistant, they they
1:15:27have a really hard time assisting you.
1:15:29And that's on me. That's my fault. Um,
1:15:32but that was a huge thing. And so, and I
1:15:34think part of it was that I I was like,
1:15:36that shouldn't matter. I can be a good,
1:15:38you know, I can be a good leader. I
1:15:39don't have like that's it felt petty
1:15:41that I would have to like like the
1:15:42person. Um, but it was really dumb. And
1:15:45so like you absolutely should like the
1:15:46person because you want to talk to him.
1:15:48If you want to talk to like you know
1:15:49with Melanie it's like I I'll send her
1:15:51I'm like hey I just wrote this bio for a
1:15:52speech. What do you think? And she's
1:15:53like ah I think it sounds good. Or I'm
1:15:54like hey what do you think about this
1:15:56paragraph from the book? Like I I want I
1:15:58want her feedback and I'm like hey what
1:16:00do you think about this t-shirt design
1:16:01or whatever you know and she gut checks
1:16:03it with me and I I I trust her judgment
1:16:05because it's supposed to be an executive
1:16:07assistant which means that she has to be
1:16:08able to do executive functions which
1:16:10means she has to work on my behalf or in
1:16:12mystead in a lot of places. So, she has
1:16:13to be able to read emails, know what I
1:16:15would say, and go for it. And that
1:16:16develops over time, but that's how she
1:16:18can really give me my time back, which
1:16:20is why in some ways it's the most
1:16:21valuable, you know, hire in the company.
1:16:24H, as far as like, again, I don't know
1:16:27the difference between administrative
1:16:28assistant, executive, like this is my
1:16:30first time hearing the disparity. Like,
1:16:32how do you determine the compensation
1:16:34structure for EA? Do you ask them in the
1:16:36interview, too? It's the same exact
1:16:37thing. Like, what do you think this is?
1:16:39Well, the range is going to be much
1:16:40smaller. You know what I mean? So um so
1:16:43it there was two questions there. So the
1:16:45administrative assistant versus
1:16:47executive executive is like they're
1:16:48assisting at the executive level. They
1:16:49sit on executive meetings etc. Right?
1:16:51Administrative assistant typically just
1:16:53helps with administrative tasks which
1:16:55means like paperwork, scheduling,
1:16:57correspondence. That's it and that's
1:16:59usually where their skill set stops. Uh
1:17:02an executive assistant can have probably
1:17:04elements of project management that are
1:17:06in place. They can drive initiatives.
1:17:07They can have their own um you know
1:17:09quarterly goals that they're driving.
1:17:10You know what I mean? So they they're
1:17:11they're much more involved and they act
1:17:13like mini operators on behalf of the CEO
1:17:16rather than or the whoever they're
1:17:18they're working for rather than just
1:17:20like hey can you get me coffee and
1:17:21things like that. So there's just that
1:17:22there's just different levels. So that
1:17:24was that the
1:17:25compensation that you're asking about.
1:17:27Um I think it depends on you know on on
1:17:31the the company. I mean I've got a
1:17:32friend who has two executive assistants
1:17:33and and she pays them both 200 grand a
1:17:35year. So like there's there's that level
1:17:37right. And um she runs a really lean
1:17:39company and she runs a lot of stuff
1:17:41through them, right? And they run
1:17:42everything in her life. Uh and she has a
1:17:45very big business. Um on the other side,
1:17:47you know, I would say if you want a
1:17:49really good, you know, executive
1:17:50assistant, it's going to start at 70.
1:17:52It's going to start there and it can
1:17:54kind of go all the way up to what I was
1:17:55saying. So like that's the range and it
1:17:58really depends on past experience. Uh,
1:18:02and ideally a similar type of business
1:18:05and CEO to you. So Melanie, I was very
1:18:09fortunate, worked for another CEO of a
1:18:12company who's very public facing. Um,
1:18:14and so she knows what the demands of
1:18:16like podcast and writing a book. And
1:18:18sometimes I just need quiet days, which
1:18:20is like I just need to write all day or
1:18:21whatever I'm going to do. And she gets
1:18:23that. So she just clears everything for
1:18:24me. if I if like Ila's relationship with
1:18:27her executive assistant is entirely
1:18:29different than mine with Melanie. I one
1:18:30of the other issues I had is I kept
1:18:31comparing my relation like what I
1:18:33thought I should have to what Ila had
1:18:35with with Yasm mean which is her
1:18:36executive assistant and um I basically
1:18:39just kept failing because I kept trying
1:18:40to recreate something that didn't need
1:18:41to exist. Huh. And is she have your life
1:18:45scheduled out to like the minute for
1:18:47months in advance or something? Cuz like
1:18:49when I was trying to for example
1:18:51scheduling this podcast, the two options
1:18:53were like today or like two months from
1:18:56now. And I was like, "Holy shit." So is
1:18:58it like that intense where it's down to
1:19:00the minute for weeks in advance?
1:19:06That was pretty good. I mean I mean I'm
1:19:09I'm I know I mean if I have a blank spot
1:19:12on my schedule, I'll just text her and
1:19:13be like, "What am I what should I be
1:19:14doing right now?" And she's like, "These
1:19:16are your priorities. this is this like
1:19:18this is probably a 30-minute task and
1:19:20I'm like all right then and I'll just do
1:19:21that.
1:19:23So, in a lot of like she helps me do
1:19:25more, right? And also she's a huge
1:19:28gatekeeper, you know what I mean? A lot
1:19:29of times we I mean probably like you,
1:19:32I'm sure you get a ton of requests. And
1:19:33so, you know, and so we also help the
1:19:36decision-making criteria, which is like,
1:19:38okay, uh what's required for a speaking
1:19:41engagement, what's required for a
1:19:42podcast, what's required for in person,
1:19:43what's requ, you know, like what are
1:19:44what are all the things that we're
1:19:46looking for? And this is how I would
1:19:47make the decision. And so she just does
1:19:48it again again. And now I just trust her
1:19:50her her decision-m. And is she expected
1:19:53to be in house like 40 hours a week or
1:19:56how does it like cuz you guys are in
1:19:57We're all remote. We're all remote. So
1:19:59where's where's she from? Is it she in
1:20:01the states or She's in Idaho. Yeah,
1:20:03she's in Idaho. Okay. Badass Boise.
1:20:06Yeah, that's where uh one of my
1:20:08companies is actually. Oh, really? Oh,
1:20:10nice. Yeah. Yeah. I might uh buy a place
1:20:12there in the future because I'm I live
1:20:14in Canada. So, it's kind of odd cuz both
1:20:15of all my companies are US- based, but I
1:20:17live in British Columbia. So, yeah. But
1:20:21Idaho looks awesome. The cost of living
1:20:23is good. Housing you can get good. It's
1:20:25pretty chill area. It's where
1:20:27Clickfunnels is. Clickunnels, clean,
1:20:29safe, all that stuff. So, with
1:20:31acquisition.com, obviously the grand
1:20:33goal, you know, you guys want to get to
1:20:34a billion, but do you have like a do you
1:20:37segment it by like you're always talking
1:20:39about like long-term goals, you know,
1:20:42the best entrepreneurs or guys who are
1:20:43thinking like 15 years ahead kind of
1:20:45thing rather than short term, but do you
1:20:48being mindful of that? Do you still
1:20:50segment that 15 years into like micro
1:20:53one-year increments or is it more like
1:20:56billion and like that's where my mind is
1:20:58or is it like 2022 I need to get this
1:21:01done by the end of the year also. Yeah,
1:21:03I think the big picture is like the
1:21:04heart, you know what I mean? It's like
1:21:05you have to have something that's going
1:21:06to pull you. Um and to be and candidly
1:21:09the billion doesn't pull me, you know
1:21:10what I mean? Like that's more like I
1:21:12think that's going to be something that
1:21:12will happen if we do these other things.
1:21:14Um, the thing that pulls me is the
1:21:16mission, which is to document and share
1:21:17the best practices of building
1:21:18world-class companies. Like me writing
1:21:20like there's not there's there's truly
1:21:22nothing that I get more enjoyment out of
1:21:23than writing the books. Like writing the
1:21:25books and making like and when I when I
1:21:28have the time when I cuz I try to do it
1:21:29like when I make those slide
1:21:30presentations and I put them on YouTube
1:21:32like there there are very few things
1:21:34that bring me more joy in life. like I
1:21:36really really like it and it makes me
1:21:38feel
1:21:39like some of the the mistakes and the
1:21:42lessons that I learned like it feels
1:21:44like it's going to help somebody else
1:21:45and to me it feels like those even
1:21:47though I messed up I'm like well someone
1:21:49else doesn't have to and so I feel like
1:21:51I'm getting credit or like I'm like you
1:21:54know what I'm saying like somebody else
1:21:55doesn't have to [ __ ] this up and so it
1:21:57doesn't feel like it's in vain and so
1:21:58that's why I think I enjoy doing it so
1:22:00much. Um, but that's the thing that like
1:22:03really drives me. The the billion is
1:22:05just like I think we'll have even more
1:22:07credibility for the lessons that we
1:22:08taught and I think that it'll be cool
1:22:09because people will be able to watch the
1:22:11videos from when we were at, you know,
1:22:1313 million a month or 15 million a month
1:22:15uh compared to when we're at 100 million
1:22:16a month. So, I'd be like, so I think
1:22:18that'll be coolest. I I wish Bezos and
1:22:20and Musk had done that. So, this is like
1:22:22me hoping to fulfill that dream for
1:22:24somebody else.
1:22:25Um and then uh in terms of the micro, so
1:22:29the the the longest actual planning time
1:22:32horizon we have is 36 months. So 36
1:22:35months and then 12 and then quarters and
1:22:38then you know we've got you know weekly
1:22:40and monthly stuff. But that's that's
1:22:41kind of how we break things down. The
1:22:43big planning is uh 36 12 and quarters.
1:22:47That's the that's the real big stuff.
1:22:48Everything else is kind of blocking and
1:22:50tackling.
1:22:51So, what's your end of Q4 goals? Do you
1:22:55have any like set out right now or is it
1:22:57waiting until what happens in Q2, Q3 to
1:23:00figure that out sort of thing?
1:23:02Um, I would like to double I mean, for
1:23:05me, if we doubled the portfolio revenue
1:23:07by the end of the year, that'd be
1:23:08great, which we do by just growing the
1:23:11businesses, which right now we're on
1:23:12track to do. So, I'm pretty pumped about
1:23:14it. You don't set like hard deadlines on
1:23:17like book completions or anything? It's
1:23:19more just like a hobby for free time or
1:23:21Yeah. Like Yeah. I mean the books the
1:23:23books the books if anything
1:23:24acquisition.com does not need the book.
1:23:26Like the book is for me. Um if anything
1:23:28the book if anything the book makes
1:23:31acquisition.com less money because
1:23:33there's stuff that I should be doing
1:23:34right now that I mean literally Leila
1:23:35and I were having conversations about
1:23:36this last night. I I was just saying
1:23:37like I just wanted to say thank you to
1:23:40her because um I was like I know that
1:23:43there are things that I should be doing
1:23:45right now that I'm not doing because I
1:23:46want to write this book and I'm doing it
1:23:48for me. And so I just like was like
1:23:50thanks for giving me the space to do
1:23:52this cuz like this is like why do you
1:23:54have a business? You have a business so
1:23:55that you can have the freedom to have
1:23:56options. And for me writing the books is
1:23:59something that I just derived tremendous
1:24:01joy from. And so I just it's selfish and
1:24:04I really like it and so I do it. Even
1:24:06like there's so many there's there's a
1:24:08handful of big projects I should be
1:24:09pushing right now that I'm basically
1:24:10just saying until the book's done I'm
1:24:12not going to be able to do it. H Have
1:24:14you ever tried efficiency tactics to
1:24:17like I guess if you enjoyed writing then
1:24:19maybe you haven't but something like
1:24:21dictating the book and then having
1:24:23somebody format it and like rewrite it
1:24:25in a more professional way or something.
1:24:27No, I love writing. I love writing.
1:24:30Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some of the things
1:24:31that people don't know about me is like
1:24:32when I was in high school, I was the
1:24:34vice president editor of the newspaper.
1:24:35I was the uh I was the editor-inchief of
1:24:38the creative uh creative the literary
1:24:41magazine. Um I got a full ride to TUS uh
1:24:44which is a pretty good college here in
1:24:46the United States for writing. And they
1:24:48they like the writing professor like
1:24:49wrote me a personal thing was like we
1:24:51love your writing. So I'd done tons of
1:24:52writing samples because I just like I
1:24:54love to write. Um, and so it's cool that
1:24:56and I I pretty much stopped after
1:24:58college and I I I kind of refound it um
1:25:01with the first book which was gym launch
1:25:03secrets. Um, and then you know obviously
1:25:05$100 million offers and now $100 million
1:25:06leads. Um, and I I just really love it.
1:25:09So I wouldn't I would it would it would
1:25:11it would rob me of the joy and I don't
1:25:13think I when I see it in front of me I
1:25:15think better. I process the information
1:25:18better and I think I get more
1:25:19disciplined in my thinking when I write.
1:25:21So, do you does that apply for reading
1:25:24for you too or do you listen to podcasts
1:25:25more and how do you consume content
1:25:29or do you even consume content? Yeah,
1:25:32reading is the probably the biggest
1:25:33thing that I consume. Um,
1:25:38yeah, I'm not a big I'm not a
1:25:41like I don't consume a lot of content
1:25:43which makes me like a lot of times I
1:25:45feel like behind because like I don't I
1:25:47read but like I don't read that much.
1:25:49Um, and you know, I watch videos from
1:25:52now and then, but like not a lot. Um,
1:25:55Mhm. I think a lot of my like progress
1:25:57has been trying to like think through
1:25:59problems and just solving them in the
1:26:00real world. And that's where I've
1:26:01learned the majority of my stuff. Okay.
1:26:04And and like mentors, mentors and
1:26:06adviserss for sure. That's helped me a
1:26:08ton. Like that's where I would say like
1:26:09I get a lot of my guidance from. Right.
1:26:11Do you have like a certain cadence of
1:26:14meetings with them or do you no just
1:26:16like hit them up when you have a
1:26:18problem? Okay. Yeah. We're just like,
1:26:19"Hey, let me bounce this off you. This
1:26:20is what I'm thinking about this deal
1:26:22structure. Here's kind of the variables.
1:26:23Like, give me your two cents on it."
1:26:26Yeah. No, that's seems in line with what
1:26:28I do, too. So, that seems to be the
1:26:30easiest way to make it happen. It's just
1:26:32unorganized on my end. I have like 57
1:26:34different threads all over the place,
1:26:36unfortunately. I think if you maybe if
1:26:38you ask them to uh all join one, it
1:26:41might be just like this is requirement
1:26:43to work with Derek. Yeah, maybe. So
1:26:46taxes and investing. I got to talk about
1:26:48this because you're I don't know if
1:26:50you're one of the first people to like
1:26:52lay out in clear practical terms how
1:26:55individuals with high net worths take
1:26:57out loans against their assets and their
1:27:00portfolios.
1:27:02So for me thinking especially as
1:27:05somebody who has a a corporate structure
1:27:08where a lot of my money gets tied up in
1:27:10the companies and if I pay myself
1:27:12personally I eat a [ __ ] ton on the
1:27:15taxation side of things. So often times
1:27:17I'm looking at you know ways to leverage
1:27:20debt to fuel the you know whatever my
1:27:24lifestyle is which whatever bare minimum
1:27:26I need you know against the assets and
1:27:28whatnot. But for me, I always wondered
1:27:30cuz for you, I know that are are you're
1:27:33not planning on having on kids, right?
1:27:34Like you and Leila said, no kids 100%. I
1:27:37would say we're we are in the no kid
1:27:40camp. I'm not saying we're going to say
1:27:42anything forever, but like I don't think
1:27:44we'll have kids at current.
1:27:46So, if you're taking out loans against
1:27:48your assets and you've accumulated all
1:27:50of this debt by the time you die and
1:27:53they're coming to collect on it, does
1:27:56that debt get deferred onto your if you
1:27:59had kids, your kids or your family
1:28:02members, or is it simply that the
1:28:04collateral that you have put up to get
1:28:06that debt, they they just pull it out of
1:28:09your company and you've essentially
1:28:10circumvented the tax structure entirely?
1:28:12because I've heard differing differing
1:28:15answers where it's like on the one hand
1:28:17the idea is that when they like uh call
1:28:20the debt it's like let's just say I have
1:28:23my wealth management portfolio and
1:28:25they're like okay you owe $3 million on
1:28:28all this debt you've accured for your
1:28:29lifestyle they go in and they pull it
1:28:32out of my company and I've essentially
1:28:34died and beat the tax system or is it
1:28:37that they go into my company that exists
1:28:38and then like take a chunk of equity out
1:28:41of
1:28:42Yeah. So, okay, couple things. First,
1:28:47some disclaimers and then I'll I'll go
1:28:49into it. One, not tax advice. Yeah.
1:28:52Yeah. Yeah. Sure. This is not tax
1:28:53advice. Number one. Number two, I did
1:28:55not make my money investing. I made my
1:28:56money in money. So, I consider myself a
1:28:58very novice investor compared to at
1:28:59least on the like my business to
1:29:01investing knowledge is far outweighed
1:29:02towards business than investing. So,
1:29:04that's second. Yeah. Third thing in
1:29:06terms of uh what happens when we die. So
1:29:10most people, especially high net worth
1:29:11individuals, are going to have some sort
1:29:12of very big life insurance policy. So
1:29:14like when I die, there's a big nut
1:29:17that's going to go to Leila or in the
1:29:18reverse, right? Um and that would more
1:29:21than cover any kind of uh debt etc.
1:29:24that's that's happening, right? The next
1:29:26thing is that uh it depends on how the
1:29:29debt is being taken. So, if you were
1:29:32doing an asset backed loan, uh, which is
1:29:34like a collateralized loan, then they,
1:29:36as long as you're continuing to make the
1:29:38minimum interest payments, which if the
1:29:40company that you're taking it against
1:29:41can make off the cash flow from that
1:29:43company can cover the the minimum
1:29:45interest payments and it's growing at a
1:29:46faster pace, uh, then you indefinitely
1:29:50basically defer
1:29:52and then I think that's more or less the
1:29:54goal in a private company setting. So
1:29:56like for you right in in a company
1:29:58that's not publicly traded or the asset
1:30:00would not be considered like liquid um
1:30:02you would have to go through a more
1:30:04formal process of getting getting or
1:30:05putting debt on the company and it and
1:30:07especially if you want to take it as um
1:30:10as you know like as personal stuff for
1:30:12you'd have to go through something
1:30:14called a dividend recap uh
1:30:15recapitalization um of the business. And
1:30:18so
1:30:19uh that's the like big picture if it's a
1:30:22public it's a publicly traded equity or
1:30:24it's a real estate asset something
1:30:25that's a very well understood asset then
1:30:28you could there are plenty of lenders
1:30:29who will lend off that because they can
1:30:30uh adequately value the risk of the
1:30:33asset with a privately held company you
1:30:35basically have to pay for all of them
1:30:38figuring out a custom debt solution for
1:30:41you given the asset that exists. So for
1:30:44me, the the way it works for me is I
1:30:47have a bunch of companies under me and
1:30:48then I get dividends or distributions
1:30:50depending if it's a CC corp or an LLC. I
1:30:53pay a corporate tax at my like hold
1:30:56level and then that money that company
1:30:58sits on a bunch of cash and I either put
1:31:00it into a wealth management portfolio or
1:31:02redeploy it into new LLC's or whatever.
1:31:04So that wealth management portfolio
1:31:07is in the market and is being in
1:31:10invested and is cash. It's not person
1:31:13it's not personal after tax cash but
1:31:14it's corporate after tax cash. So but
1:31:18that amount I can get a personal loan
1:31:22against that amount equal well within
1:31:25reason. So I'm thinking at a personal
1:31:28level to circumvent the corporate butt
1:31:31[ __ ] that happens when I take the money
1:31:33out of the company. I can basically take
1:31:36loan against whatever my portfolio is to
1:31:39whatever extent I want.
1:31:41and get this debt accumulated, but then
1:31:43when I die, I don't know that they just
1:31:45one for one like you owed $5 million at
1:31:48a personal level. So, let's go into your
1:31:50company portfolio and take out 5 million
1:31:53and that's satisfied. Like, I don't know
1:31:55that they don't charge a personal tax
1:31:57rate when it hits that barrier again. Do
1:32:00you know if that happens? I I don't
1:32:02know. I don't know. I think it also
1:32:04depends on how the debt's structured. I
1:32:06think it's all going to depend on how
1:32:07like what type of loan you are getting
1:32:09and the terms of the loan. Cuz I'm
1:32:12wondering how people justify doing this
1:32:13when they don't even know what happens
1:32:15when they die. Because I'm thinking if
1:32:17you've taken out all this personal debt
1:32:18against your corporate funds, like even
1:32:22if the cash is there, like there's no
1:32:24guarantee that you're not getting hit
1:32:26with a personal tax at death. So, if I
1:32:29owe 5 million and let's just say there's
1:32:315 million in the wealth management
1:32:32portfolio and they take out five and
1:32:34that was all you had, does it get
1:32:36chopped in half and then your family
1:32:38owes 2.5 million or something like I
1:32:40don't well to repay a debt there
1:32:42wouldn't be a there wouldn't be a
1:32:43taxable event. So, you do circumvent the
1:32:46personal
1:32:47tax even though it you have to pay the
1:32:50you might have to pay the debt back but
1:32:52it wouldn't but there wouldn't have been
1:32:53right you would you would took tax
1:32:55against an asset. Okay. Canada may be
1:32:57different, but like in the United
1:32:58States, if you take if you take a loan,
1:33:00like I have asset worth 100 grand and I
1:33:01take a loan of 50 grand against that
1:33:03asset and I have to pay $1,000 a year
1:33:04for that loan. Yeah. Then as long as I
1:33:07make the minimum interest payment or
1:33:08someone is making the minimum interest
1:33:09payment, then I then that loan might
1:33:10never get called and that's cool. Great.
1:33:12Good for them. And if it does get
1:33:14called, then it either gets paid through
1:33:16my life insurance policy because there's
1:33:18cash that happens there and that could
1:33:19pay off the debt and then the company's
1:33:20fine. um or if for some reason they did
1:33:22call it uh then then they could go grab
1:33:27the assets that they collateralized the
1:33:28loan with to begin with. Right? So you
1:33:31would essentially be circumventing
1:33:33personal taxation at that point because
1:33:35you're using
1:33:37collateralized liquid cash that wasn't
1:33:39that was in the company to pay off
1:33:41personal debt without incurring tax.
1:33:44Okay,
1:33:46that's good. If I take my company
1:33:48public, if I take acquisition.com
1:33:49public, I can take a loan against my
1:33:51stock personally, right? And they know
1:33:53that they can secure, they can grab my
1:33:55stock from my thing whenever they want.
1:33:56That's how it works from a fundamental
1:33:58level. And do you guys not do that at
1:34:00all? Like you just use I don't and and
1:34:02that was the last caveat. I don't do any
1:34:03of it. Yeah. But that is that is how it
1:34:05works. I don't do that because that's
1:34:07just again
1:34:10I have I have I I have tons of cash
1:34:11flow. You know what I mean? Like that's
1:34:12not my that's not my my issue. I have
1:34:14very high cash flow companies. We have
1:34:16asset likes asset light companies like
1:34:18we are built to cash flow. I'm a very
1:34:20big you know proponent of of uh you know
1:34:22Warren and Charlie uh in terms of school
1:34:25of school of investing like we're very
1:34:26much like we buy companies that make
1:34:28money. Mhm. You know what I mean? Like
1:34:30we're we're not in the like let's see
1:34:32what someone will value this in the
1:34:33future as or this could be really cool.
1:34:34Like we buy stuff that makes money and
1:34:36we can see the money today and we have a
1:34:38a reasonable expectation that it's going
1:34:40to continue based on XYZ factors. So I
1:34:43don't do that stuff. I don't do any
1:34:45really crazy tax things. I don't do any
1:34:47really crazy loan things. And now that
1:34:49everything just went to [ __ ] and
1:34:50probably will continue to go to [ __ ] for
1:34:51a little bit. Um I'm happy about that.
1:34:54All right. Because all of this other
1:34:56stuff, let's say I had taken all these
1:34:57loans up to this point, I would I would
1:34:58be overlever. I wouldn't be able to do
1:34:59anything. And right now everything's
1:35:02down 50%. Maybe it'll go down another
1:35:0450%. And then overnight I'll just take
1:35:06that cash and I'll just buy something
1:35:08and then I'll have quadrupled my money,
1:35:10right? It's just like all these 10%
1:35:12things don't like at least in when I see
1:35:14how like the richest people made their
1:35:16money, they're looking for like 10x 100x
1:35:18returns in games that they cannot lose.
1:35:21They're looking for the obvious play.
1:35:22Like Charlie's like you should never
1:35:23have to do a calculation to figure out
1:35:25whether it's worth it. He's like it
1:35:26should be obvious, right? Like this
1:35:28thing was trading at 10 million. It's
1:35:29worth 1 million now and nothing has
1:35:31changed about it. Okay, this is probably
1:35:33something worth buying today. You know
1:35:35what I mean? So that's kind of like
1:35:37Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. to play devil's
1:35:39advocate to that like you said that high
1:35:41net worth people do this to avoid tax
1:35:44but then people who have high net worth
1:35:46probably wouldn't be concerning
1:35:47themselves with that to begin with is
1:35:49that
1:35:50only so like which individuals are oh
1:35:55there are absolutely people who who
1:35:57obsess about tax stuff right absolutely
1:35:59I am not one of them right okay and I
1:36:02think that basically I don't think it is
1:36:04required to become high net worth to
1:36:06obsess about this stuff and I that many
1:36:08people will be better served not wasting
1:36:1030% of their time trying to do all these
1:36:13things. Like I got a message after I
1:36:14made that tax video and somebody's like,
1:36:16"I have a personal friend who's
1:36:17extremely wealthy and he counts his days
1:36:19of when he's in New York versus not in
1:36:20New York so that he can avoid the New
1:36:22York tax." And I'm like, "Well, that
1:36:23sounds like a miserable."
1:36:25Dude, will you tell me about how many
1:36:28entrepreneurs you know who've gone to
1:36:30like Puerto Rico or like a tax-free
1:36:32place and how many of them regretted it
1:36:35versus didn't regret it? Do you know?
1:36:37Well, I I know personally a lot of them
1:36:39have come back. Yeah. And I say this as
1:36:42somebody who I moved to Puerto Rico. Oh,
1:36:44you moved to Puerto Rico in 2017. I
1:36:46moved to Puerto Rico in 2017. To be
1:36:47fair, I was only there for 4 days cuz
1:36:49the hurricane came the next day and then
1:36:50we didn't go back. Um but but yeah, I
1:36:53mean I had a friend that I uh that that
1:36:56he went there and he did the whole thing
1:36:57and uh I was like and he was traveling
1:37:00back and forth to Florida every weekend.
1:37:03Every weekend he flew to Florida and
1:37:05back. there was a flight two flights a
1:37:07week every week for the whole year so he
1:37:09could keep his his thing and I was like
1:37:11do you think if you didn't have a 100
1:37:13flights a year you would be able to make
1:37:16up the 30% that you're paying in
1:37:19taxes and he was like well [ __ ] and
1:37:22I was like and you'd be able to just
1:37:23live where you want to live cuz like
1:37:25this is the thing that Ila said and it I
1:37:27say I I I kind of get really hard on
1:37:29selling this piece because I I there's a
1:37:32part of me that just loves making more
1:37:35And I would and I would prefer to pay
1:37:36fewer taxes. Like I would, but I think
1:37:39that her logic is sound, which is why
1:37:41have all the money in the world if you
1:37:42can't live where you want to live in the
1:37:44world. Mhm. And so that's that's kind of
1:37:47the big picture, you know, um at least
1:37:49at least for me, you know, and but I the
1:37:51kind the devil's advocate argument I
1:37:53would give to me is like at what point
1:37:55does taxation become too much? If they
1:37:56if you were in an area that was 99% tax
1:37:59and you and you really wanted to live
1:38:01there, would you say, "Oh, you have to
1:38:02make a hundred times more." Well, I'd
1:38:05say like how reasonable is it that I can
1:38:06make 99 times more than I can and at
1:38:09what point does this materially affect
1:38:10how I live? Because then I wouldn't be
1:38:13as wealthy because I I don't have all
1:38:14the money in the world. But like the
1:38:16difference between, you know, I think at
1:38:18this point paying 40%
1:38:20uh versus paying 30 paying 4%, there's a
1:38:2436% difference. you know, it's a 50%
1:38:26increase in your take-home, uh, which is
1:38:28material, but the qu it's material in
1:38:32terms of the number, but is it material
1:38:33in terms of how it affects my life? And
1:38:36so, the math that I did on this
1:38:38was, am I going to care if I die worth
1:38:4110 billion or 15 billion?
1:38:44Yeah. I don't know. But I do know that
1:38:47if I talked to my 85-year-old self, he'd
1:38:49be like, did you really spend your
1:38:51entire life where you didn't want to
1:38:52live because you wanted me to have five
1:38:54billion more dollars? Yeah. And then he
1:38:56looks at me like I'm an idiot. So then
1:38:57I'm like, "All right, got it." And so
1:38:59that's that's like how I play this out
1:39:00of my head. So earlier we were talking
1:39:03about your how Acquisition.com is an LLC
1:39:07and then you sort of made it sound like
1:39:08it might become a CC Corp. Was that is
1:39:11that something that's planned or did I
1:39:13just like misinterpret that? No, I'm
1:39:15looking at the structure of that
1:39:17apparently. I mean, I was told by a
1:39:18friend of mine that that Warren Buffett
1:39:20espouses, which is like a combination of
1:39:23uh of CC corps that are structured
1:39:26through like an ESOP, which is a US
1:39:28thing for employee stock ownership plan.
1:39:30Um, and ESOPs have some particular
1:39:32things where there's there's no taxes um
1:39:36associated with the cash that you get
1:39:38from the loan for the ESOP. So, I
1:39:40actually literally just sent it to my
1:39:41lawyers to take a look at. Oh, okay. cuz
1:39:44I But again, this might be another thing
1:39:46that I tell people not to look into.
1:39:47Yeah. But Warren does it. So the thing
1:39:49that hooked me was that Warren Buffett
1:39:51did it. So I was like, "Okay, he's legit
1:39:53in terms of like his ethics and the fact
1:39:54that he doesn't do shady stuff." And so
1:39:56I was like, "Okay, if it's if there's no
1:39:58shadiness or there's no hair attached to
1:39:59it, like the trust thing that I was
1:40:01telling you about before, you know, I
1:40:02had to find 10 people that all had to
1:40:04represent, you know, $5 million and I
1:40:06have to like convince them to do this,
1:40:07then I can't touch the money and then
1:40:09the IRS could unwind it." I'm like,
1:40:10"Yeah, no." But this is like if this is
1:40:13100% letter of the law, this if I can
1:40:15structure it in a certain way and it
1:40:16benefits the employees and we also don't
1:40:18have to like cool, I'm in. So
1:40:20Birkshshire Hathaway is a CC corp just
1:40:23to clarify, but it has this special
1:40:25employee thing. I think they have a they
1:40:27have they have a setup. I'm having her
1:40:28look into it. I I don't want to speak on
1:40:29it cuz I clearly didn't know enough.
1:40:30That's why I said it's her.
1:40:33And this would circumvent the 21% CC
1:40:35Corp tax on any dividends you receive.
1:40:38Is that Yeah, it had a it had there's
1:40:40there's thresholds and things like that
1:40:41and there's holding periods. It's like
1:40:42after five years the certain certain
1:40:46amounts of money it's over $10 million.
1:40:48There's a whole thing to it. What is it
1:40:50called? But if you know you're going to
1:40:51hold for a long time, that's the big
1:40:52thing is if you know you're going to
1:40:53hold for more than 5 years, which we
1:40:54are, then that's that and that's what
1:40:56made it believable to me because I was
1:40:58like if it's just like oh just move some
1:41:00papers around and then you don't pay
1:41:01like that's too good to be true. I don't
1:41:02believe that. But like the US the the
1:41:05the the US government incentivizing
1:41:08entrepreneurs to not sell and to grow
1:41:10corporate enterprises that that make
1:41:12jobs and reinvest the money in the
1:41:14corporation which goes into the economy.
1:41:16That makes sense to me to incentivize.
1:41:18So that's why I was like look into this.
1:41:21Wow. Yeah. This looks good. I'm just
1:41:25looking at it right now cuz I have a CC
1:41:27corp and I paid what 21% on all my
1:41:29dividends and then personally if I want
1:41:32to get that money in Canada I have to I
1:41:34have a withholding tax of 5% over the
1:41:36border then it gets into my hold co in
1:41:38Canada and then I have to pay a personal
1:41:40tax too if I want to get it out. It's
1:41:42just like it's [ __ ] ridiculous. I
1:41:44mean you double tax here too. It's like
1:41:4644 if you pay. If I took dividends from
1:41:48a CC corp, um they would be qualified
1:41:51dividends, but the net net would still
1:41:53be uh 44. So, it's better to do LLC if
1:41:56you're if it's a flow through, right?
1:41:59Yeah. Like my this is not this is not my
1:42:01specialty. This is just, you know, I
1:42:02paid this is like the HR question like
1:42:05how do you set this up? I'm like I pay
1:42:06people who are much better than me at it
1:42:07and I asked them to do it. Yeah. For me,
1:42:10the CC Corp, the idea of it was always
1:42:12sort of, I guess, enterprise
1:42:14value-minded where I figured I make
1:42:16enough I have enough to sit on where I
1:42:19can survive just fine. And I guess worst
1:42:21case scenario, I could always take out
1:42:23loans against my cash or assets and then
1:42:26if you could retain all the money in
1:42:28your C corp, you can just redeploy it.
1:42:30And I I assumed that was like at a high
1:42:33level what most of the top companies
1:42:35were doing, but never even heard of
1:42:37this. Yeah, cuz what do you need the
1:42:38money for? You're not because like
1:42:39there's nothing. I mean I you got you've
1:42:43got shelter, you've got clothing, you've
1:42:45got food, you've got transportation,
1:42:46four big costs, right? And so like if
1:42:49you know what you drive, you know where
1:42:51you live, you know what you eat, you
1:42:52know what you wear, what else are you
1:42:53going to spend the money on? Everything
1:42:54else you spend money on is to make more
1:42:56money. Yeah. So it's like what would
1:42:58these cost? And then everything else can
1:42:59stay in COP to get redeployed to make
1:43:01more money. And again and then at that
1:43:02point it's what? I can make more money
1:43:04so that I can make more money. Yeah.
1:43:07Yeah. Exactly. To do what? Cuz I already
1:43:08covered my big four. Yeah. How much do
1:43:12you spend to maintain your current
1:43:13lifestyle?
1:43:16Uh I think about 50 grand a month. Damn,
1:43:20dude. And is that cuz you have like a
1:43:22what? Like a penthouse in Vegas right
1:43:24now that you're renting or what is that?
1:43:25That's with us that's with us like
1:43:27really actively trying to spend money.
1:43:29Like we I would say we live like
1:43:31[ __ ] Um Okay. And I say that And I
1:43:36say that Caleb's cracking up, but like I
1:43:40mean I'm just being real because like at
1:43:42some point I'm like I just said it like
1:43:44these are the four things you can spend
1:43:45money on. Like what else are you going
1:43:46to spend like and so it's you know um
1:43:49like we go out to eat. We probably spend
1:43:52$12,000 a month on on food. Okay, which
1:43:56is a lot. It's a lot of money, you know,
1:43:57but we live we live in a place that has
1:43:59lots of good restaurants and so we go
1:44:00out. Um on on the flip side, I spend no
1:44:04time preparing food. We don't go grocery
1:44:06shopping and we don't we've never used
1:44:07our kitchen. Not once. So lunch is
1:44:09delivered and we go out for dinner. We
1:44:11do that every day, right? The only thing
1:44:12I have in the morning is I have a bar
1:44:13and a shake and I do that every day. So
1:44:15I do a bar and a shake. I have a bunch
1:44:16of ground beef and and sweet potato for
1:44:19lunch and then I have and I go out to
1:44:20dinner and that's where I have my
1:44:21dessert and I have everything else.
1:44:22Right. The the rent here I think is like
1:44:2515 grand a month, you know, whatever.
1:44:27Um, and then I saved, you know, 20 grand
1:44:31for miscellaneous. You know, if Ila
1:44:33wants to buy a purse or whatever, you
1:44:35know, she shea likes Ila has expensive
1:44:39tasting clothing. Um, I obviously have
1:44:42very expensive tasting clothing myself.
1:44:43Um, dude, your flannels I've heard are
1:44:46pretty expensive. They are they are
1:44:48pricey, but I mean, even if I have 10 of
1:44:50them, it's like two grand and then what
1:44:51else do I do? Um,
1:44:53but that's it. You know what I So
1:44:55there's there's not a lot else that we
1:44:56um that we spend money on. And that's
1:44:58that's when I started getting into it
1:44:59where I was like, man, our our passive
1:45:01distributions far outweigh even our
1:45:03active like so that's where I get into
1:45:06the whole like that's where I get into
1:45:08the whole worldview stuff because I was
1:45:09like why am I even bothering to do this
1:45:10to begin with? And it's like we're just
1:45:11making money to make more money so that
1:45:13we can make more money to make more
1:45:14money to to what you know what I mean to
1:45:16nothing. It's just to eventually
1:45:18disappear and go back into the system.
1:45:20So whatever it's but we make more money
1:45:23because I enjoy the process of making
1:45:25money and I love documenting it which is
1:45:27why that's the mission of the company
1:45:28and we spent a long time like what's a
1:45:29what's a mission we can get behind. I
1:45:31want to document and share the best
1:45:33practice of building world class
1:45:33companies. Like it's I draw pictures of
1:45:35business. I write books about business.
1:45:36I make videos about business. Like all I
1:45:39think about is business. And when I go
1:45:40to dinner with somebody and they don't
1:45:41want to talk about business, I am really
1:45:43awkward. I have realized this. Like I
1:45:46dude and my my friends too and like
1:45:49mainly my business partners, we've
1:45:50become like increasingly more hermit to
1:45:52the point where I actually used to be
1:45:55like pride myself on my ability to kill
1:45:57it in interviews and be like socially
1:45:59fluent and whatnot. But I feel like even
1:46:01though I film videos for a living, I'm
1:46:03more increasingly socially awkward if
1:46:05it's not related to exactly what I want
1:46:07to talk about. Yes. I think I think what
1:46:09it is because I try to think a lot about
1:46:10it because I've bombed a lot of uh first
1:46:13dinners with like new people. Yeah. Be
1:46:16like, "You said nothing." I was like, "I
1:46:17had nothing to add." But I think it's a
1:46:20signal to noise ratio. So it's like a
1:46:22lot of people will make noises, you know
1:46:24what I mean, with their with their I'm
1:46:26using this Dr. C my he's my close. He
1:46:28says people make noises with their face,
1:46:29but they don't say anything. And so it's
1:46:31like they have a high noise ratio, but
1:46:32like to me there's very little signal
1:46:34because it's just like these are they
1:46:36they might be meaningful to someone
1:46:37else. And so I can appreciate that. It's
1:46:40just like for me it's just not something
1:46:41I find interesting. And so I think part
1:46:44of where why you got to where you are
1:46:45and some people might say that we've you
1:46:47know accumulated some material success
1:46:49is because like we just genuinely find
1:46:51this incredibly fascinating. And so I
1:46:54spend all my people like how do you stay
1:46:55so motivated? I'm like I I don't feel
1:46:57motivated. I just I love doing this and
1:47:00it's what I spend all my time doing
1:47:01anyways. And thank God you can make
1:47:02money doing business because otherwise
1:47:03I'd still probably be doing business and
1:47:05not making money because I like doing
1:47:06it. Yeah. I want to circle back to your
1:47:09diet at a at very soon because you
1:47:11mentioned how how you kind of like break
1:47:13down your day, but from the
1:47:15entrepreneurship side, sort of like
1:47:16capping off like productivity. Go. Yeah.
1:47:19So, Caleb asked if you could change
1:47:21batteries for 90 seconds if we could
1:47:22just Oh, yeah. Sure. Sure.
1:47:25Sweet. We can just we can just normal
1:47:27chitchat. I don't know how to do that,
1:47:30bro. Sorry. Yeah, I don't I don't
1:47:32either. We can just we can just stare at
1:47:33each other. Yeah. What is uh I don't
1:47:36want to like burn through these
1:47:37questions though. I have a good one. So,
1:47:38well, I'll ask you I'll ask you a couple
1:47:40questions. Sure. So, are you uh are you
1:47:42married? No. No. Just girlfriend
1:47:44planning. Planning on? Not not anytime
1:47:47soon. No. Fair. Kids. Oh, we're good.
1:47:51We're good on battery. So, we're going
1:47:52to go. There you go.
1:47:55Disregard. kids probably not though
1:47:57because and it sounds absurd but well
1:48:00like for me the
1:48:02ROI and like it sounds so [ __ ] up to
1:48:04talk about ROI when you're talking about
1:48:06like children or like pets or anything
1:48:07but like even getting a dog I don't even
1:48:10have time to feed myself let alone like
1:48:11a [ __ ] dog. So it's kind of like for
1:48:14me I'm just not at that point in my life
1:48:16where I can take a step back from
1:48:17anything because I'm so full bored. So
1:48:20yeah, I get it. What's your what's your
1:48:22reason for no kids?
1:48:27Um, it doesn't fulfill a need for me
1:48:30right now.
1:48:32Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'd be doing the
1:48:34kid a disservice right now, too, cuz I
1:48:36just wouldn't be giving him the
1:48:37attention he needs. And it doesn't
1:48:39really fulfill me in any meaningful way
1:48:41at this point in my life right now.
1:48:44Yeah, we're on the same page. And like
1:48:45the stuff that I'm doing is endlessly
1:48:47fascinating to me. And I don't think
1:48:48that like changing diapers or a
1:48:502-year-old would be as fascinating. A
1:48:51lot of people would be like, "Wait until
1:48:52you have your first kid." And I'm like,
1:48:53I get it. Um, but I've also seen tons of
1:48:56guys who love their work and don't love
1:48:57their kids. So, like, I don't think I'm
1:48:58immune to that. Um, and I also think
1:49:01that there's a very high likelihood that
1:49:02I don't know if I'd like the kid. I feel
1:49:05like I feel like I can be picky about
1:49:06the people I want to hang out with. And
1:49:07like even though uh I'm related to
1:49:09people in my life currently, I don't
1:49:11hang out with them because I, you know,
1:49:12we don't have similar interests. And so,
1:49:14like, if the kid really liked, you know,
1:49:16painting or something, and there's
1:49:17nothing wrong with that, I just probably
1:49:19wouldn't find that that fascinating. Oh
1:49:21yeah, it seems like the potential
1:49:23likelihood of the kid ending up
1:49:25something that skews away from what you
1:49:27generally had in mind as like what your
1:49:29dialed in focus is. It's so high that
1:49:32it's almost like the roll of the dice,
1:49:35is it is it always worth it? I I don't
1:49:37know. And I'll give the one followup
1:49:39that I have, which is like when I think
1:49:41about it because people are like, "What
1:49:42about legacy?" And you probably already
1:49:43know my views on it, which is just that
1:49:44I don't think legacy is real anyways.
1:49:46But like if like if if people are like,
1:49:49"Well, what about your future
1:49:50generations?" I'm like, "Well, I'm
1:49:51somebody else's future generation." And
1:49:53so if you go far enough back, we're all
1:49:55related. Uh and so it's like, "Well,
1:49:57then we already are all family and we're
1:49:58all distant cousins anyways." And so
1:50:00like, why don't I just help a super
1:50:02distant cousin of mine do stuff that
1:50:04they're walking towards me saying,
1:50:05"Dude, I love everything you do. Please
1:50:07help me do that." And I'm like, "Fuck
1:50:09yeah, I love talking to this stuff." And
1:50:10the people who like talking to this
1:50:11stuff, let's do that. And so it's like
1:50:13rather than try and convince somebody to
1:50:15try and love what I love, just let the
1:50:18people who already like that stuff who
1:50:20for whatever nurture nature reasons have
1:50:22come forward, I'll just help those ones.
1:50:24And I feel like in, you know, a kid
1:50:26probably takes 30 hours a week and 40, I
1:50:28don't know. Um, in that same 40 hours a
1:50:31week for 20 years, I could probably help
1:50:33a lot of people. And if I think about it
1:50:34like that, that's where I have a hard
1:50:35time justifying. And you're like, what
1:50:37about that's return on what? I'm
1:50:39like, I mean, it's return on whatever,
1:50:41you know. Sorry. Go ahead. I It's the
1:50:44kids. No, no, no worries. That's uh good
1:50:46to get some insight on that cuz I've
1:50:47been curious why you guys didn't want
1:50:49kids, too. What is the most overrated
1:50:52piece of advice you hear in the I don't
1:50:55know. I like I guess I I want to make
1:50:57this relevant to me selfishly. So, like
1:50:59in like the I don't know like uh your
1:51:02net worth area, what what is the most
1:51:05overrated piece of advice? I already
1:51:07know which one I'm going for. Okay. Um,
1:51:09okay. There's two. I gota I got to pick
1:51:11two. One of them's for Caleb. The other
1:51:13one's uh for me. So, uh, at least at
1:51:16least in the US, there's this like uh
1:51:19the average millionaire has seven
1:51:20streams of income, right? Like everyone
1:51:22like retweets this as though it's as
1:51:25though it's fact. And it's just like
1:51:27it's it's so silly for a variety of
1:51:29reasons. First one is that the way
1:51:31someone gets somewhere is not how they
1:51:32end up. So Mark Cuban has a zillion
1:51:35different income streams, but he made
1:51:36his billion with
1:51:38one. And so it's like it's like saying
1:51:42billionaires fly on private planes, so
1:51:44you should fly on private planes to be a
1:51:45billionaire. It's completely irrelevant
1:51:47what they're doing because what matters
1:51:48is how they got there. And that's why I
1:51:50think that quote is just such a farce.
1:51:52The other reason on a tactical level is
1:51:53that most people have a very difficult
1:51:55time staying focused and it takes an
1:51:56inordinate amount of effort to be
1:51:58successful at anything. And to assume
1:52:00that you have so much talent that you
1:52:01can that you can put onetenth of your
1:52:03attention into 10 things and then
1:52:05somehow compete against somebody who's
1:52:06going all in on that one thing is just a
1:52:08huge ego thing in my opinion and it
1:52:10shows a lack of clarity. Right? It's
1:52:12just like the whole idea of uh I'm going
1:52:15to do all these things and see which one
1:52:16works is so ridiculous because they'll
1:52:19all work but not at the same time. And
1:52:22so you just have to pick one and I think
1:52:24you just end up doing 10 things like
1:52:25really shitty instead of one thing. 100%
1:52:28100%. And it takes a very high skill set
1:52:31of knowing how to delegate, lead,
1:52:33manage, recruit, partner even uh to to
1:52:36be able to expand yourself. And I think
1:52:37that people might be like, "Well, Alex,
1:52:39you have eight portfolio companies."
1:52:40It's like, "Yeah, but I didn't get here
1:52:42that way." And you're like, "We've
1:52:44gotten to this point because we finally
1:52:45got those companies start." And I've and
1:52:47I've been very open about the fact that
1:52:48I think Gym Launch would have been
1:52:49bigger if I hadn't started Prestige
1:52:50Labs. Mhm. Because I split my attention.
1:52:53Yeah. And I it would have been bigger. I
1:52:55know it would have been bigger because
1:52:56there was priorities that I had as soon
1:52:57as I started Prestige Labs. I just they
1:52:59stopping they stopped being initiatives,
1:53:01right? And I could have continued to
1:53:02grow that company and I shouldn't have.
1:53:03It just it just seemed it was the woman
1:53:05in the red dress. It was like she walked
1:53:07by and I was like, man, an extra 20
1:53:08million years sounds awesome, right? But
1:53:10I could have just driven 100 an extra 20
1:53:12million years in the main thing and I
1:53:14made the mistake by looking away and I
1:53:16took my eye off the ball. It was a big
1:53:17mistake for me. It was one of my Yeah.
1:53:20Yeah, it was when I was in the buildup
1:53:23stage of my supplement company and
1:53:25before my tele medicine company even
1:53:27started. I would see guys like Alex
1:53:29Becker and think to myself, I feel like
1:53:32I could do this like online course thing
1:53:34and the val the amount of ROI he gets
1:53:37for his like these master classes and
1:53:41you have like just a good ClickFunnel
1:53:42setup and the amount of conversions he
1:53:44gets relative to his input for it. So
1:53:47[ __ ] the margin is so extreme. The
1:53:49the attra the attractive like lady in
1:53:52the red dress or whatever very very hard
1:53:54to ignore, but I think ultimately
1:53:57ignoring it and doing building my
1:53:59businesses got me like exponentially
1:54:02further than I would have been otherwise
1:54:04overall. And I feel like a lot of those
1:54:06like how to make money online course
1:54:08guys, not necessarily Alex because I
1:54:10think he has like successful um like
1:54:13Becker is the man. Becker is awesome.
1:54:15Yeah, that he has like high roast and
1:54:16like other stuff that's you know cool
1:54:18that he's doing but like Yeah, Hyro is a
1:54:20$100 million company. I mean, yeah, I've
1:54:22looked to see if Do you recommend
1:54:24presumably you'd recommend them for like
1:54:27Yeah, I think they do a good job. Okay,
1:54:29because I've considered using them for
1:54:30gorilla. They do a great job tracking.
1:54:32It depends on the type of business, but
1:54:33I mean Alex is smart, man. People like
1:54:37anybody who bets against Becker does not
1:54:39know how smart Becker is. Yeah. Yeah. I
1:54:43wonder how many of those make money
1:54:44online guys though that to taught you
1:54:47know kind of like kept the secrets to
1:54:49themselves sold like big um high value
1:54:53like courses and whatnot just wish they
1:54:55built enterprise value in like an actual
1:54:57brand instead of this like selling how
1:55:01they made it sort of thing at the end of
1:55:02the day. Yeah. So so think about so this
1:55:05is so obviously I'm in the space so I've
1:55:07given this like a lot of thought. So the
1:55:10way that most people practice it is that
1:55:11they sacrifice enterprise value for
1:55:13today's cash value. So if they think so
1:55:16think I would think about like this.
1:55:17It's like if in five years they could
1:55:20they could build a brand and not take a
1:55:22lot of money during those five years and
1:55:23then maybe sell that brand for like 20
1:55:25million bucks versus make you know $2
1:55:30million a year for the 10 years. A lot
1:55:32of people just can't say no that 2
1:55:33million bucks a year takehome for that
1:55:35for that 5y year period. And now, is the
1:55:37amount of money that they're going to
1:55:38get at the end equivalent? Maybe. It
1:55:42depends on their skill set. You know
1:55:43what I mean? Um, but
1:55:45the the idea of doing the opportunity
1:55:48versus selling the opportunity is very
1:55:50interesting because you can
1:55:52also if you know how to if you know how
1:55:55to build a brand, you can turn the
1:55:57selling of the opportunity into a brand
1:55:59and then you get the best of both,
1:56:01right? And that's basically what I'm
1:56:03trying to do with acquisition.com is
1:56:05help people do that because that's what
1:56:06I did. I lived that, you know, I mean,
1:56:08we took
1:56:0943 million in distributions while we
1:56:12grew the company. And part of that is
1:56:15because I did the other way first. So I
1:56:18grew my chain of gyms. I just pushed
1:56:20everything back into more locations,
1:56:21more locations, more locations, more
1:56:23locations. And then when I realized I
1:56:25learned more about business, I realized
1:56:26the opportunity vehicle was not ideal.
1:56:28And I had a mentor who's like, "Dude,
1:56:31you should be licensing this stuff.
1:56:32Like, you should be you should be
1:56:33helping other like you shouldn't be
1:56:35signing these leases, doing these build,
1:56:36like you shouldn't be doing all this
1:56:38stuff." And I took that to heart and I
1:56:40basically fire sold those. And I would
1:56:42have I would have had more money if I
1:56:44had just kept my first location and just
1:56:46literally pocketed all the money for
1:56:48that for that period of time that I
1:56:49spent reinvesting. Yeah. Rather than
1:56:51doubling basically emptying my pockets
1:56:53every single month into growth. And then
1:56:55at the end of it, I had nothing. I ended
1:56:58up making a terrible business decision
1:56:59after that and then losing what I sold
1:57:00the money for. Different conversation
1:57:02for another time. Um, but like that was
1:57:05when after I I was sitting there at the
1:57:07bottom and I had no money after just
1:57:08basically giving up, you know, half a
1:57:10decade to that to the the chain of gyms.
1:57:13I was like, I'm not going to do that
1:57:14again. I was like, whatever I do next,
1:57:16I'm going to make money while I grow it.
1:57:18And that was a huge priority for me. I
1:57:20was like, I'm not going to just just
1:57:21keep wishing it's going to happen
1:57:22because there's so many things that can
1:57:24disrupt a business. And so I am I'm a
1:57:27big advocate of taking at least, you
1:57:29know, decent distributions throughout
1:57:32the growth. And does that sacrifice
1:57:34long-term enterprise value? Maybe. But
1:57:38from an entrepreneur perspective,
1:57:40especially the guy who it's his only
1:57:41company, they are so overindexed
1:57:43risk-wise. Yeah. That taking
1:57:46distributions is a way of hedging your
1:57:49risk.
1:57:50Yeah. That's something I took to heart
1:57:52that you talked about is making sure
1:57:53you're taking regular distributions cuz
1:57:55for a while I was just thinking I care
1:57:59so much about enterprise value and I
1:58:01don't need this [ __ ] I can just make
1:58:02the money off YouTube and like random
1:58:04stuff and not worry about you know
1:58:06distributions. I'll just reinvest it all
1:58:08and grow 10 like way faster. But there's
1:58:10a point where it's like it's it's too
1:58:13aggressive where you're not actually
1:58:15being mindful of like your own risk
1:58:17profile.
1:58:18See? Yeah. you're you're you're skating
1:58:20too close to the knife's edge. And I'll
1:58:21say one one more thing on this because I
1:58:23this happens all the time. And this is
1:58:25just what I've seen from some of the
1:58:27some of the companies that have applied
1:58:28and things like that is that there when
1:58:31you ask if I ask an entrepreneur and I'm
1:58:33like, "Hey, are you taking
1:58:33distributions?" They're like, "No, I'm
1:58:34reinvesting everything in the business."
1:58:36And I say like, "Reinvesting in what?"
1:58:40Like what are you reinvesting in? Like
1:58:43the term reinvesting in the business
1:58:44means that you are buying assets that
1:58:46are going to increase the company's
1:58:47value. So it means you're doing some
1:58:49sort of M&A, you're doing some sort of
1:58:50tuckins, rollins, whatever of other
1:58:52companies or competitors or you have
1:58:54capital expenses that are required to
1:58:55grow the business, which might mean I'm
1:58:57buying equipment. I'm, you know, buy I'm
1:58:59expanding facilities, right? Those are
1:59:01those are capital expenses that would be
1:59:03investments to grow the business. I'm
1:59:04going to get a return on the capital.
1:59:06That is what the true meaning of return
1:59:08uh reinvesting in the business is. The
1:59:10vast majority of the time they say they
1:59:11are reinvesting in the business because
1:59:12they are just not making money. And so
1:59:14they assume that because they are not
1:59:15taking cash out of the business, they
1:59:17are reinvesting in it. When in reality,
1:59:19they just not running a very good
1:59:20business because a very good business
1:59:22spits off cash. It spews money. That is
1:59:24what a good business feels like, right?
1:59:27And so unless they have a business that
1:59:29has a requirement that grows through
1:59:31capital, Mhm. Like anybody who's in the
1:59:33in the education space who says they're
1:59:35reinvesting in the business, I'm like,
1:59:37what are you reinvesting in? What asset
1:59:39are you buying that you're getting a
1:59:40that you're getting a return on through
1:59:42your business?
1:59:44Yeah. And usually they don't have an
1:59:45answer because they're not reinvesting
1:59:47their business. They're just not that
1:59:48profitable. Yeah. I wonder how many of
1:59:50those do that in order to show like an
1:59:52inflated revenue metric through like
1:59:54rorowazes that are barely break even
1:59:57just to show I made some huge amount of
1:59:59revenue to then sell their thing though
2:00:02too to more
2:00:03people which is a common tactic. The
2:00:06guys like that are Oh yeah, it is. But,
2:00:08you know, I've uh I've yelled at some of
2:00:11those guys because I I know some of them
2:00:13um and been like I'll tell I'll tell you
2:00:15a story because I think it'll piss off
2:00:16somebody in the audience. So, so there
2:00:19was a guy that I know um he's still
2:00:21active today and uh I knew that he was
2:00:25broke. Yeah. And he made a Instagram
2:00:29video that says uh do you want to know
2:00:32how to be a millionaire uh in your 20s?
2:00:34And so I screenshotted it and I texted
2:00:36to him and I said, ' Do you know the
2:00:37definition of a
2:00:39millionaire and he was like, "Well, I've
2:00:41done a million dollars in total sales."
2:00:43I was like, "Do you want me to repeat
2:00:45the question?" He was like, "No." I was
2:00:48like, "A millionaire means you have over
2:00:49a million dollars in assets." Yeah. In
2:00:53exclusion of your primary residence. I
2:00:55was like, "Do you have that?" He was
2:00:56like, "Well, no." And I was like, "Then
2:00:58stop lying to
2:01:00yourself." And so he ended up taking the
2:01:03thing down. And I was just like, dude,
2:01:04like the thing is is that as much as
2:01:06like everybody gets upset about, so
2:01:07think about this is from a logical
2:01:08perspective for everybody who's
2:01:10listening. If we're like, this guy's
2:01:12broke, right? This guy's broke and he's
2:01:16pretending like he made all this money.
2:01:19He's already broke. Why are we upset?
2:01:21He's broke. Yeah, we like he's lying
2:01:25about having money. Okay, well then he
2:01:27doesn't have money. Then why are we What
2:01:28are we upset about? He doesn't have
2:01:29money. And the thing is is until they
2:01:31learn the lesson, they're never going to
2:01:33get anywhere big. And by the time they
2:01:35do get somewhere big, they'll have
2:01:36learned the lesson and they won't be
2:01:37full of [ __ ] Yeah. I don't know. I I
2:01:39don't get as I I don't get as upset
2:01:41about it cuz I just see it as they don't
2:01:43know any better. I don't see it as
2:01:44malicious intent. Yeah. Now, I'm sure
2:01:47you've ran into quite a few of those
2:01:49scenarios through your
2:01:50ClickFunnels days and experiences cuz a
2:01:53lot of those a lot of those guys like
2:01:55obviously there's good utility of this
2:01:57software for sure. Like it's an amazing
2:01:59platform, but there's a lot of people
2:02:00that use it who just like lie about
2:02:03their [ __ ] and sell like make money
2:02:04online courses that shouldn't be. I feel
2:02:06like for sure. Yeah. And the thing is is
2:02:09and I I have a lot of love for the
2:02:11industry because
2:02:13almost everything I've learned has been
2:02:14from that space. You know what I mean?
2:02:16And so when I think about how much money
2:02:19I've spent in total for like the
2:02:20internet marketing courses and seminars
2:02:22and coaches and masterminds that I've
2:02:23spent, I spent more on my four degree,
2:02:25four-year degree,
2:02:27and that didn't tell me nearly as much.
2:02:29And so if we really want to get real, I
2:02:31think the problem is in the expectations
2:02:33that are being set. I don't think
2:02:35there's anything wrong with trying to
2:02:36teach somebody how to make money online
2:02:38or how teach money teach someone how to
2:02:40make money using an ATM machine or teach
2:02:42money how to how to how to become have a
2:02:44marketing agency or teach money how to
2:02:45become a videographer or teach money how
2:02:46to become a better hairstylist. It's
2:02:47like I don't think there's anything
2:02:48wrong with that. I think the problem is
2:02:50that people think that if they buy one
2:02:52course they now should be a master
2:02:54entrepreneur. And so it's like how can
2:02:56you take 120 credits in college, which
2:02:58is, you know, 40 courses, just to get a
2:03:01basic degree and then somehow assume
2:03:03that you're going to become a master of
2:03:04entrepreneurship from one course. It's
2:03:07it's it's a it's a messed up expectation
2:03:09that people have and that's why they get
2:03:11upset. No one's upset that they pay
2:03:13$200,000 and they give four years of
2:03:15their lives and they can make the exact
2:03:16same amount of money as they could
2:03:17graduating from high school. Yeah. No
2:03:20one's upset about that. And it's because
2:03:22they don't set the expectation that way.
2:03:24Yeah, when I realized what went into a
2:03:27successful company from a marketing
2:03:29aspect and how little my marketing
2:03:31degree actually was impactful of that
2:03:33and h how irrelevant it actually was, I
2:03:36became pretty jaded of the whole
2:03:38postsecondary system to be honest. So
2:03:41totally I I definitely there's a huge
2:03:43place for like high quality education in
2:03:46the e-learning space for sure. Totally.
2:03:49And how do you learn stuff?
2:03:50Apprenticeship. I mean that's how they
2:03:52did it in the olden days. We just have
2:03:53tech that allows one person to be, you
2:03:55know, many people to be an apprentice
2:03:56from one. It's the only difference is
2:03:58just tech is has changed the way
2:03:59education works. And I think that the
2:04:01space has to catch up. I it's so new
2:04:03like formal education's been around for
2:04:04hundred years. Like this has only been
2:04:07around for like 20 maybe. You know what
2:04:10I mean? And if you you can you can count
2:04:12the Dan Kennedy the old direct response
2:04:14mail guys. So you can kind of count
2:04:15that. like in the way that we kind of
2:04:17all consume it now with like modules and
2:04:19courses and videos and things like that
2:04:20like it's so new and so like there will
2:04:23be I mean gym launch is an example like
2:04:25gym launch is going to grow to 250
2:04:26million like it will um
2:04:29and I mean as long as they execute on
2:04:30the things they need to do but they they
2:04:32have a very reasonable strategy of
2:04:33getting there and so what why isn't
2:04:36there an academy for gym owners like are
2:04:39you expect to just like learn how to
2:04:41just run it like where are you going to
2:04:42learn how to run a gym the business of
2:04:44running a gym is very is no one teaches
2:04:46it and they should. And so it's like
2:04:48what what does it look like? How would
2:04:50we how would we structure it and what
2:04:51expectations would we set if we were
2:04:53really trying to do it right? And that's
2:04:54what we're trying to do at
2:04:55acquisition.com. You know what I mean?
2:04:56And obviously companies that we that we
2:04:58start working with, they're not perfect.
2:04:59Of course they're not. But we try we,
2:05:01you know, we've got years to build this
2:05:02brand and slowly get better and better
2:05:04and better just like anything. And I
2:05:05think people have these crazy
2:05:07unrealistic expectations of just other
2:05:08humans that they don't even apply to
2:05:10themselves. Yeah. No, I agree. And I
2:05:13think it will eventually get more in the
2:05:15direction of where people see the value
2:05:17in these sort of things relative to like
2:05:19when you actually just like compare and
2:05:21contrast your postsecary education
2:05:23versus like a course you know there's
2:05:26there's a huge delta and like somehow
2:05:28people still will perceive it as ripoff
2:05:30scammy whatever and somehow school is
2:05:32fine even though how much practical
2:05:35information is there in the school part?
2:05:37Not a whole lot, dude. I I was learning
2:05:40I was I was taking business courses from
2:05:42teachers and and and teachers assistants
2:05:46that are making 20, you know, 5,000 a
2:05:48year. And I'm not saying there's
2:05:49anything wrong with making 25,000 a
2:05:50year, but like if the whole point is to
2:05:52teach us how to like make more money.
2:05:54Yeah. The
2:05:58entrepreneurship degree I found the
2:06:00funniest of all. I'm just like why? Like
2:06:03why are you here if you're teaching
2:06:04entrepreneurship? like, you know, unless
2:06:07you're a retired entrep like Harvard,
2:06:09Stanford, some of those professors are
2:06:11are G's, you know what I mean? And they
2:06:13really just want to give back and like
2:06:15they're savages. Like they've had
2:06:17billion-dollar exits and they've done
2:06:18multiple like they're legit, you know
2:06:20what I mean? But the thing is is I think
2:06:21there's just a huge amount that are
2:06:23underneath of that that are just not,
2:06:25you know, and I think anyways, not to we
2:06:27that horse is probably dead on the
2:06:29ground and just but I want to talk about
2:06:32your personal and professional life
2:06:34balance. So obviously you and Leila I'm
2:06:38assuming have some sort of structure at
2:06:40this point or maybe you don't. I don't
2:06:42know for like how many how many hours
2:06:44are allocated to you wake up you I don't
2:06:48know like what do you have a morning
2:06:49routine and then how do you schedule out
2:06:51things and date nights or how's that
2:06:53look? Yeah, we do the same thing pretty
2:06:56much every day. So, we wake up, we have
2:06:58coffee, we work, we have lunch, we do
2:07:02meetings in the afternoons. Uh, we walk,
2:07:05we go out to dinner, we come home, we'll
2:07:08usually have more dessert, and then
2:07:11we'll usually watch an episode of a show
2:07:13and we go to bed. And I do that
2:07:15basically every day. So, you you have
2:07:17the same sleep schedule and you wake up
2:07:18at like 4:00 a.m. at the same time or
2:07:20whatever it is. I wake up when I wake
2:07:22up. Um, it usually is like today I woke
2:07:25up at probably like 4:30, but 4:30 to
2:07:285:30 is when I wake up. I mean, whenever
2:07:30my REM cycle ends, I just wake up with
2:07:31my eyes open. Okay. And then you get up,
2:07:35you go make a cup of coffee and you sit
2:07:37there for like, how long is it until
2:07:39you're actually working in your office?
2:07:40Probably 45 minutes. Probably 45
2:07:42minutes. Leila and I hang out, we have
2:07:44our coffee, we watch the sunrise,
2:07:46chitchat about the day, chitchat about
2:07:48whatever. Um, and then we work. And I
2:07:51mean the the two biggest life hacks that
2:07:52I've had for being productive that I
2:07:55still do is number one I wake up early
2:07:57and I start working pretty much
2:07:59immediately. Um I still consider you
2:08:01know I'm not transiting anywhere. I'm
2:08:02not getting ready. I mean from the time
2:08:03my eyes are open to the time I'm working
2:08:04is probably 45 minutes. Um and I start
2:08:07early. So that's one. And the second one
2:08:09is that I just don't schedule anything
2:08:10before lunch. And we're we're pretty
2:08:12we're pretty vigilant about that. even
2:08:14with all the demands of time and all
2:08:15that stuff, I have until basically 12:30
2:08:18every day um that I don't take really
2:08:21any meetings. And that's that has I
2:08:23think those two things together have
2:08:24allowed me to I mean if I start working
2:08:27at 5:30 and I have until 12:30, I have a
2:08:29full workday completely uninterrupted
2:08:32every day before I do things like this,
2:08:35right? Like I did nothing before I
2:08:36talked to you today. Do you have like a
2:08:38task from Melanie too for that 5 to
2:08:4212:30 slot where it's like you're going
2:08:44to work on your book for this or you're
2:08:46going to film or what whatever. Okay.
2:08:48Yep. And and it's also because the
2:08:50nature of my work compared to uh Leila's
2:08:52is different. Leila has far far more um
2:08:58tasks and like she has a lot more like
2:09:0110 to 60 minute tasks and I have way
2:09:03more like 40hour tasks. You know what I
2:09:06mean? So like if I need to if I need to
2:09:08create like an entire SOP. So one I'll
2:09:11give you an example. So one of one of
2:09:12the things that I'm I have to build
2:09:13right now is um our databased marketing
2:09:15system. So it's a system that we do with
2:09:16all of our portfolio companies which
2:09:18basically creates compliant claims. Um
2:09:20allows us to track uh customer metrics
2:09:22and customer results um at different
2:09:24intervals within the company. How we
2:09:26translate that into headlines and
2:09:28guarantees um within the product and how
2:09:31it translates into marketing messaging.
2:09:32And so like all of that kind of all
2:09:34works together. It's a big thing that I
2:09:36have to put together, you know? I mean,
2:09:36there's lots of assets. There's like
2:09:37here's the surveys, here's how to
2:09:38interpret the surveys, here's how you
2:09:39translate them into headlines and
2:09:41guarantees, and here's what the
2:09:42compliance looks like, all that stuff,
2:09:43right? And so, like, that's a big thing
2:09:44I have to do. Leila's tasks are
2:09:47typically not like that. It's hers are
2:09:48more like uh have four interviews with,
2:09:51you know, this role that we're looking
2:09:53at with uh one of the portfolio
2:09:54companies. So, it's like they have a
2:09:55director of sales and she's going to
2:09:56interview their final candidates to to
2:09:59make a recommendation, right? So, it's
2:10:00like it's she has way more tasks than I
2:10:03do and they're just as important.
2:10:05They're just different in nature. H And
2:10:07if you guys don't finish like let's just
2:10:09say she's going through her bullet point
2:10:11list of tasks and she doesn't finish
2:10:13them by lunch or your meetings in the
2:10:17afternoon, do you just like chop them
2:10:18off in the middle or do they carry
2:10:20through and sometimes you'll have a full
2:10:21workday where you work for like 12 hours
2:10:23or how's that typically play out? No,
2:10:26they just start over the next day, you
2:10:27know? I mean, there's an there's
2:10:29literally an endless supply of work. So,
2:10:31you know, we just and that's where I
2:10:33think prioritization is important. A lot
2:10:34of people just don't prioritize well.
2:10:35So, they do lots of stuff, but they
2:10:37don't get anything done that moves the
2:10:39needle. When do you film? Is it in that
2:10:418 hour block when you wake up?
2:10:45Um, yeah, sometimes. I mean, a lot of
2:10:47the stuff is repurposed. And Caleb's,
2:10:49you know, coming in and he's building
2:10:50his uh the media team out, uh, you know,
2:10:52for this. Uh mostly cuz like I'm
2:10:56not I want to work on businesses um more
2:10:59than I want to make like the specific
2:11:01videos and I don't think it's
2:11:02sustainable. Um and so I didn't want to
2:11:04create an unsustain I didn't want to
2:11:06scale up to something that was
2:11:07unsustainable to then scale it back. So
2:11:09what I'm doing now is very is
2:11:10comfortable for me. This is like I make
2:11:12you know a handful of videos every few
2:11:14weeks and I usually do them in one
2:11:16spray. I'll just sit down and I have a
2:11:18couple things top of mind. I'll make the
2:11:20videos and those get spread out. And
2:11:22then we've got, you know, podcasts like
2:11:24this where they'll they'll repurpose
2:11:26different chunks. And so that that
2:11:27becomes content that also becomes the
2:11:29clips. And so the vast majority of the
2:11:32short stuff is repurposed. Uh and
2:11:35increasingly over time more of the other
2:11:37the longer clips for like YouTube will
2:11:39be repurposed. When you sit down for
2:11:41videos, that's like once a week you just
2:11:43like blast off and talk at the camera
2:11:45for like four hours or like how do you
2:11:48structure that?
2:11:51Uh cuz you have you probably have a much
2:11:54better process than I do. Well, the fact
2:11:56that I think you've said somewhere that
2:11:58you do it once a week or something,
2:12:00which is like Yeah. Or every other week.
2:12:02Or every other week. Yeah. And then you
2:12:05just make sure you have enough clips out
2:12:07of that to make. And then if you have
2:12:08like a long form
2:12:10presentation that you've done or like uh
2:12:12I don't know like you've been to an
2:12:14event or something that you can post,
2:12:15you'll post that. But it's kind of like
2:12:17whatever you thought of over the last
2:12:19two weeks as important and you just sit
2:12:20down just [ __ ] talk kind of thing.
2:12:24You don't have like somebody prompting
2:12:25questions for you or anything. No, it is
2:12:29it is astonishingly low production. It's
2:12:32that's not a guys. It's not like some
2:12:34some I'm trying to make it I It's really
2:12:37low production. I have a like I have I
2:12:39have this little pad in front of my
2:12:40computer that if I think of something
2:12:41that I think would be good, I write it
2:12:43down. And then when I have like two or
2:12:46three of them on the pad, I sit down and
2:12:48make the video that weekend. You know
2:12:49what I mean? And if I get to the video
2:12:51time and I'm not feeling one of them, I
2:12:53don't make it. And so if I sit down and
2:12:55I feel like making four, I make four.
2:12:56And if I feel like making one, I make
2:12:57one cuz at
2:13:00le good and so I don't want to waste the
2:13:02audience's time. Do you review anything
2:13:06before it goes live ever?
2:13:10Uh, not really. So, you just let them
2:13:12clip it and just assume that it's like
2:13:14it's going to be whatever it is. It's me
2:13:16direct to camera. Yeah, it's me direct
2:13:17to camera. So, like I I feel confident
2:13:20like I will stand behind what I say.
2:13:22Yeah. Um where where I feel like people
2:13:25have to watch out is where if they if
2:13:26somebody's trying to take on their
2:13:27voice, that's something that I would
2:13:28have, you know, a lot of difficulty
2:13:30with. But anytime, you know, they want
2:13:32to take a transcript and then like post
2:13:34it as a caption or post it on LinkedIn
2:13:37or whatever, like those are my words,
2:13:39like cool. You know what I mean? As long
2:13:40as it's not taken out of context, which
2:13:41usually they're really good about. Um
2:13:43yeah, then yeah, that's how we do it. Do
2:13:45you do anything to get your headspace
2:13:47right for videos? like listen to music,
2:13:49get pumped up, like do you do anything
2:13:51like that?
2:13:53No. No. Okay. You're making sometimes
2:13:55sometimes just getting No, dude. But
2:13:59like sometimes if you know you've got to
2:14:01film and you have like a really dialed
2:14:03in schedule and it's like this is my
2:14:04filming block and you're just like not
2:14:06feeling it. You know, sometimes there's
2:14:09things people will do to kind of like
2:14:10get their head in the right space.
2:14:12Wasn't sure if you had any of those. If
2:14:13I if my head's not in the right space, I
2:14:15just do something that my head is in the
2:14:16right space for. So, I'll say something
2:14:18that Leila and I are probably a little
2:14:20different about. Um, maybe we've maybe
2:14:23we've converged a little bit, but like
2:14:26this is probably going to be against the
2:14:27the discipline motiv motivation
2:14:29manifesto like mantra that is that is
2:14:31predominant. But like people are like
2:14:34you got to do stuff that you don't want
2:14:36to do. Um, I I don't I don't do that a
2:14:40lot. I I do the stuff that I want to do
2:14:43and I I just if all of these things are
2:14:46high ROI, I just do the ones that I feel
2:14:48like doing. Um, and if they're all high
2:14:51ROI, then it doesn't matter what order I
2:14:53do them in. It's like today is a content
2:14:55day. I'm like, well, if I don't feel
2:14:56like making content, I feel like writing
2:14:57a book, then I'll write the book. And if
2:14:59the day the next day I was supposed to
2:15:00write the book and I feel like making
2:15:02content, I'll make content. They both
2:15:03get done. I just do them when when I
2:15:06when I'm feeling it. Okay. I don't know.
2:15:08It's worked for me. I I have I am not a
2:15:10rules guy. I do not like rules and so I
2:15:14like having freedom and so I don't I try
2:15:17to apply that to as many places in my
2:15:19life as I can. The one thing I can
2:15:22relate to a lot is recently you showed
2:15:24your little like little hallway cubby of
2:15:27an office. It's just like a dialed in
2:15:29[ __ ] straight on. You can't look to
2:15:31your left. You can't look to your right.
2:15:33It's just a wall. For me over the years,
2:15:35the more I had windows, sound, anything.
2:15:39I can't even have my door open where
2:15:41it's like I know another room is like in
2:15:44the steppable vicinity of me. It just
2:15:47needs to be shut. So, I have a hard time
2:15:50with traveling even too cuz if I go sit
2:15:52down at a table somewhere else that's
2:15:54not my office, it's very difficult. So,
2:15:56for you over the years, have you This is
2:15:59a This is a mobile work studio. So
2:16:02that's a table that has that has things
2:16:03in it and it opens up and it has like a
2:16:05screen so I can like have a portable
2:16:07desk. It's like So I I hear you. I feel
2:16:10you. Yeah. Over the years did you kind
2:16:13of like come up with certain strategies
2:16:15to shut things out more? Cuz I feel like
2:16:18I don't know if I heard this, maybe I'm
2:16:20imagining it, but you said you at times
2:16:22you even wore a hat to be like more like
2:16:24tunnel visioned in.
2:16:27Sometimes some of the lore that comes
2:16:29out I don't know where it comes from
2:16:30that. No, I've never worn that to like
2:16:32stay more focus. I just wear it cuz it
2:16:34keeps my head hot. It keeps my head
2:16:35warm. Um, and I like it cuz I like the
2:16:38logo and I like the hat. So, yeah. So,
2:16:40like that's why I wear that. Over the
2:16:42years, has your office just become like
2:16:44smaller and smaller and smaller to where
2:16:46you've like dialed in a certain like you
2:16:48need to have a certain space the way it
2:16:50is where it's like you're not going to
2:16:51get as much work done otherwise. I like
2:16:53a big screen. That's about like that's
2:16:55what I like having a big screen and I
2:16:57like having a decent amount of desk
2:16:58space. That's about it. And I don't
2:17:03if you were overlooking Vegas with an
2:17:05office table right in front of the glass
2:17:07door or the glass window, would your
2:17:10productivity be like halfed or Oh, yeah.
2:17:12For I mean, I don't know. I don't know
2:17:13what the percentage would be. It would
2:17:14be less. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, I'm not
2:17:17Yeah. I I also get distracted really
2:17:19easily. Like I I mean, when we drink our
2:17:22coffee, sometimes I just won't say
2:17:23anything for like 30 minutes cuz I'm
2:17:25just staring at the cars like, you know,
2:17:27it's like watching fire. I just like
2:17:28stare at it. I have nothing else to do.
2:17:30You know what I mean? So like I I can't
2:17:32have some people can't like people tell
2:17:34me they're like, "Oh yeah, I work and
2:17:35like I just put jazz on or I put music
2:17:37on." Like I I put earplugs in and if I'm
2:17:41feeling really feisty, I'll put
2:17:43headphones on top of my earplugs. Like I
2:17:44need No music though ever. No. I I No.
2:17:48No. God, no. I can't think of I I only
2:17:50then I'm just listening to music. I'm
2:17:51not even I can't I cannot do more than
2:17:53one thing. Hm. So what about the phone?
2:17:57Do you leave it on airplane mode and
2:17:58like chuck it out of the room or what do
2:17:59you do with it? Yeah. Yeah. If I'm if I
2:18:02like if I need to crank, I'll I'll leave
2:18:03the phone outside the room.
2:18:06Even if my phone's off and on airplane
2:18:08mode, just that having it by me
2:18:10distracting. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Then
2:18:12you like then you get the comp, you
2:18:13know, the compulsion to like check
2:18:14Instagram or check Twitter or whatever.
2:18:16Yeah. Have you found that harder to stay
2:18:18dialed in now that you kind of like
2:18:20you're so involved with social right now
2:18:22to grow your platform to then bring in
2:18:24these companies? Do you ever find
2:18:26yourself accidentally deviating too hard
2:18:29down the rabbit holes of social media
2:18:30when you're checking
2:18:32stuff? It's like, "Holy [ __ ] I've been
2:18:34sitting on the toilet for 20 minutes now
2:18:36looking at
2:18:38Instagram." Um,
2:18:42um, I
2:18:45uh I don't I don't I don't think I think
2:18:48I'm actually okay at it. Um, as much as
2:18:50I'd love to have like a damaging
2:18:51admission right now and just say like,
2:18:53you know what, I struggle with like I I
2:18:55don't as much because I actually don't I
2:18:57have to remind myself to to like to do
2:19:00it. And um I don't I don't I have to I
2:19:05have to I have to try like I have to try
2:19:06like I have to remember to put stories
2:19:08up. I have to I have to I have an alarm
2:19:10to check to respond to comments and
2:19:12stuff because I otherwise I I just
2:19:14won't. Um,
2:19:16that's not something your executive
2:19:18assistant could do if they know how to
2:19:19speak your like you. Yeah, it's the
2:19:21voice thing. I'd rather No, I I want the
2:19:23stuff if it's going to be me. I'd rather
2:19:24respond to five people and have it be me
2:19:26than have 100 100% of people being
2:19:28responded to and it not be me. You know
2:19:30what's wild is how Instagram doesn't
2:19:32have like an admin feature where you can
2:19:34just like assign admins. You have to
2:19:36like actually physically give people
2:19:37your profile. Like, how is that not a
2:19:39thing a thing yet? It makes no [ __ ]
2:19:41sense. I don't get it. There's a lot of
2:19:43things that don't make sense. Yeah. Um,
2:19:46sleep, by the way, I don't want to
2:19:47forget your sleep hygiene is like your
2:19:50like a militant schedule. Go to bed at
2:19:53what is it like 8 or 9 or something like
2:19:55you're pretty rigorous about that,
2:19:56right? Yeah, it used to be I we go to
2:19:58bed a little bit later now. Um, we
2:20:00noticed we both noticed that we felt
2:20:02like we were we were getting better
2:20:03quality sleep going to bed a little
2:20:05later. Um, so now we go to sleep around
2:20:07like 10:00. Um I for for the whole
2:20:10period of time that we were growing Gym
2:20:11Launch, we went we were we were asleep
2:20:13by 9:00. So we really just pushed it an
2:20:15hour. I would say both things have
2:20:17changed by an hour. So I used to wake up
2:20:19between like 3:30 and 4:30 and I used to
2:20:22go to bed, you know, I would be asleep
2:20:24by 9ish and now I'm asleep by 10ish and
2:20:26I'm between 4:30 and 5:30.
2:20:30Huh. So it's like 6 and 1 half to seven
2:20:32and a half hours sleep. You don't feel
2:20:34like you need eight to be top tier or
2:20:36anything? I don't even I can't sleep
2:20:37eight. I have I I mean I haven't I I
2:20:40would say I sleep 8 hours like once a
2:20:42month and I feel like a newborn child,
2:20:45but you know most most days I I don't
2:20:48most days I wake up and it's and this is
2:20:51going to sound really corny. Um but I
2:20:53wake up and I'm like really excited to
2:20:54start working. I'm like, "Oh god, I
2:20:56can't stuff I'm doing tomorrow." You
2:20:58know, I'm like, "Oh, I can't wait. I'm
2:21:00like I just finished the first three
2:21:01chapters. I can't wait to start, you
2:21:02know, chapter 4 today." like I finally
2:21:04have like a good framework for what I
2:21:05want to hit on or um oh we've got like
2:21:07that interview with like that new you
2:21:09know VP of ops for a new company I'm
2:21:11like ah that's that's going to be a good
2:21:12one they have a really cool experience
2:21:13I'm looking forward to talking to that
2:21:14person or you know we have this podcast
2:21:16I was like I'm really looking forward to
2:21:17to meet Derek and I know you've done a
2:21:19lot of really cool stuff and I was like
2:21:20I'm just really looking forward to it so
2:21:21it's just you know stuff like that it's
2:21:24funny I don't want to miss out yeah the
2:21:27paradoxical kind of like screw yourself
2:21:29situation that happens where it mo what
2:21:32I know Like a lot of successful
2:21:33entrepreneurs who love what they do,
2:21:36it's you have a hard time even getting
2:21:38to sleep because you're so excited about
2:21:40the next day to get started and then as
2:21:43a result your sleep quality gets [ __ ]
2:21:45up and then it's harder to work well the
2:21:47next day and it just a vicious cycle
2:21:50that continues. Do you ever find that
2:21:52happens to you where it's like getting
2:21:53to sleep? I have issues falling asleep.
2:21:56I'm like I'm I've like try to keep my
2:21:58eyes open. Um yeah, I fall asleep really
2:22:01easy. this. Okay, so one thing that I'm
2:22:04sure you've seen as much as I have is
2:22:06the absurd exorbitant amounts of like
2:22:11bio hacks that people in our space use
2:22:13to optimize everything. So like whether
2:22:16it's sleep, whether it's like whatever
2:22:19it is, like what are some of the ones
2:22:22that actually stood the test of time for
2:22:24you that you felt were impactful versus
2:22:27things that you tried that were just
2:22:29like stupid? Because like even when it
2:22:31comes to sleep, there are people that
2:22:32have like a chili pad on their bed. They
2:22:34have to have the temperature set a
2:22:35certain thing. Like some of these things
2:22:37I do get, but then some of them are like
2:22:39over the top for sure at a certain
2:22:41degree.
2:22:43So I think like all right, so my my big
2:22:45picture response to biohacking in
2:22:47general is that placebo is a very strong
2:22:49effect, right? And so I think 99% of
2:22:52biohacking benefits come from placebo.
2:22:55And hey, it placebo effects are still
2:22:57effects. They're like, you know, more
2:22:59power to them. But I think where where
2:23:01they go wrong is that they become
2:23:03superstitions. And so then they can't
2:23:05fall asleep without the chili path. They
2:23:07can't fall asleep if it's not perfectly
2:23:08dark. They can't fall asleep unless it's
2:23:10silent, right? And that to me feels like
2:23:12a handicap. And then and then what
2:23:14happens is just to have baseline sleep,
2:23:16you have to have 100 things in line,
2:23:18right? And so that's where I'd never
2:23:19want to be, which is why I'm a big fan
2:23:20of like there are no rules, which is
2:23:22like I don't I don't have a strict
2:23:23bedtime. I go to bed when I'm you know
2:23:25when I'm tired and I wake up when I'm
2:23:27not tired and that's and if I like there
2:23:29was a a day two weeks ago where I just
2:23:31like I just felt out of it and I got up
2:23:34I worked for like two or three hours and
2:23:35then I slept for another four hours
2:23:36after that. I just felt completely and I
2:23:38went and I went to bed that night. I
2:23:39don't know what it was. I don't know if
2:23:41I was sick. I have no idea but I just
2:23:43like it I didn't feel productive at all.
2:23:45I was like there's no point in me
2:23:46sitting in front of the computer like my
2:23:47brain's not working. Yeah. So biohacking
2:23:50in general though um I mean I think that
2:23:54the things that people there's like does
2:23:57it is there a statistical significance
2:23:59and what's the effect size right like
2:24:01you know this stuff more than I do um I
2:24:03think the vast majority of effect sizes
2:24:04are irrelevant for just about everybody
2:24:06and so it's just the big stuff you know
2:24:08what I mean and I think that it's the
2:24:09same thing with training it's like
2:24:11progressive overload do more stuff for a
2:24:14longer period of time like eat enough
2:24:17protein and sleep and do that and do
2:24:20that for 20 years and you'll be big. You
2:24:21know what I mean? Like that's that's
2:24:22about it. Um and same thing like you
2:24:25know with the sleep stuff it's like I do
2:24:27think that having a cool cool dark room
2:24:29really helps. I think it helps. I think
2:24:31it helps you fall asleep faster. Can I
2:24:33do people in India fall asleep every day
2:24:34when it's 85 out and they don't have AC?
2:24:37Every [ __ ] day and you know what they
2:24:38wake up and they get to work and so how
2:24:41important is it? I don't know. There's
2:24:42people there who live a very long time
2:24:43and they do just fine. So, I think a lot
2:24:46of us have just like gotten pampered and
2:24:47gotten really weak. And that's always
2:24:48been like my biggest fear was just
2:24:50getting soft. And that's why I just try
2:24:52not to like believe in too many of these
2:24:54superstitions. Even if they worked, how
2:24:56much do I care? Do you do sauna or cold
2:25:00plunge or any of that stuff? No. I am I
2:25:03am a a one cup of coffee in the morning
2:25:05type of guy. No cold showers, bro. What
2:25:07are you doing? Yeah. No. No red light
2:25:09sauna. I don't even know how I function.
2:25:10You know what I mean? Like, how do I do
2:25:11it without a cold? if I don't get my
2:25:13cold plunge in, I can't talk to anybody.
2:25:14You know, I was on this podcast late
2:25:16recently that I just uh really bombed.
2:25:19Um, and it was because I I think the
2:25:21founder and I kind of disagreed because
2:25:23he was like, man, if I don't work out, I
2:25:25just, you know, I have a horrible day.
2:25:27And I was like, I don't have that
2:25:29experience at all. I was like, I have
2:25:31more energy when I don't work out. Dude,
2:25:33wish I wanted to talk to you about that
2:25:35too as an entrepreneur like the ROI on
2:25:38lifting hard especially to failure and
2:25:40the effect it has on fatigue for like I
2:25:43find days I don't work out better for
2:25:45productivity personally. Of course I'm
2:25:47exhaust I mean if I train hard my CNS is
2:25:50shot. Yeah. Like I'm good on for like
2:25:54interviews and meetings because I'm like
2:25:55way more mellow but I'm not like man I
2:25:58want to go do this stuff. I'm like I'm
2:25:59dead. Yeah. If I do leg day, I don't
2:26:01feel good. Yeah. I'm not like soaked at
2:26:04work. I'm like, "Fuck me. I want to
2:26:05die." Yeah. I eat a bunch of pancakes
2:26:08and then I'm like, "I could take another
2:26:092-hour nap." Yeah. No, exactly. I don't
2:26:13know. I always wonder that like when
2:26:15guys are like, "Oh, I don't feel good if
2:26:16I don't exercise." I'm like, "Are you
2:26:17going for a run and getting like sun or
2:26:19like what is your workout?" Cuz like for
2:26:21me, I'm like if I'm going to failure in
2:26:24the gym, I'm getting home and I'm like
2:26:25I'm my brain is at least like 50%
2:26:28capacity what it was before I went to
2:26:29the gym. So totally. Yeah. Yeah. And and
2:26:33and there's also like, you know, how
2:26:35hard do they train and and you know, and
2:26:36like I don't want to look at somebody be
2:26:37like, I don't think you train that hard.
2:26:39I don't want to say that cuz like how's
2:26:40that going to make a friend? Probably
2:26:41not. So I just say like, okay, I guess
2:26:43that works for you, you know. Cool. And
2:26:44that's not me saying that about that
2:26:45kind. I'm just saying. Yeah. How do you
2:26:48time your workouts being mindful of
2:26:50that? Cuz like for me, like my gym I go
2:26:53to, it's less busy if I go earlier in
2:26:56the day, but at the same time, if I go
2:26:58and do legs at like, I don't know, noon,
2:27:02I know that my brain is going to be,
2:27:04especially my post-workout meal, too.
2:27:06the amount of like carb fatigue I might
2:27:07get when I'm like slamming, you know,
2:27:09all my post-workout nutrition and then
2:27:11sitting back down and trying to be
2:27:12mentally sharp as if I'm like if I can
2:27:14compare like fasting to with coffee
2:27:17versus legs and post-workout meal and
2:27:19trying to do the same thing. Magnitude
2:27:22difference of work quality. So, like how
2:27:24do you play that into your schedule?
2:27:27I mean, real talk, I don't train that
2:27:29much. Um, I'm in a season right now
2:27:31because I'm building acquisition.com
2:27:32that I'm not training nearly as
2:27:34frequently. So, I was actually talking I
2:27:36we actually did a a collaboration uh
2:27:38with uh Stan Effording. Do you know him?
2:27:40We He's sponsored by Mer Health. Oh,
2:27:43okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, um yeah, Stan and
2:27:46I trained over the weekend and I was
2:27:48talking about how like I was like,
2:27:49"Yeah, man. I'm just probably training
2:27:51once or twice a week right now." And he
2:27:52was like, "Dude, enjoy the fruits of
2:27:54your labor." He's like, "You just stay
2:27:55jacked because you already put the work
2:27:57in." And it was kind of interesting cuz
2:27:58I thought about this and it was kind of
2:28:00like having passive income. uh because
2:28:02like we've already built the asset of
2:28:04muscle and there's still work that has
2:28:06to be done, but it's just much less work
2:28:08to maintain it. And so it's like there's
2:28:10a little bit of work that you have to
2:28:11maintain the passive income. So this is
2:28:13like a passive body for me. I'm
2:28:14passively jacked. Uh right now. Yeah.
2:28:17When I was actively jacked, I was
2:28:19bigger. I was 250 at my biggest. What
2:28:21are you now? I'm like I'm like 218. I'm
2:28:24like 30 pounds less. How tall are you?
2:28:26This is me like five just under six.
2:28:29Like a hair under six. Okay.
2:28:31250. Pretty hefty still at six. Oh, I I
2:28:34mean I was big. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was
2:28:38pretty big. Um yeah, I was strong as
2:28:40hell. It's great. Uh but you know, it's
2:28:42but like that was a season for me. That
2:28:44was like gym launch and I was gym you
2:28:45know gym lords is the community. So I
2:28:47had to look like a gym lord. Um and I
2:28:49you know I wanted to be the biggest
2:28:50baddest [ __ ] there. And so I
2:28:52trained like it you know what I mean?
2:28:53Like my hips were killing me. My you
2:28:55know I had all these you know little you
2:28:57know little bumps and bruises. You know
2:28:59what I'm saying? little itty bitty micro
2:29:00tears everywhere and and it was fine,
2:29:02you know? I mean, I'm good with it. It
2:29:04was a season, but
2:29:05like I I don't see myself getting much
2:29:08bigger than I am now. If I tra if I
2:29:10train hard for like 10 days, I'll be at
2:29:12230. Um yeah, but I'm
2:29:15I'm this is just not my priority. And
2:29:18the thing is is I'm sure you know, like
2:29:20the more the bigger I am, the more
2:29:22stress it's going to put on my organs
2:29:23and my heart, and I'd rather live
2:29:25longer. And so this is me. This is my
2:29:28passive body. Did you have sleep apnea
2:29:30at all when you got to 250?
2:29:34Probably. I mean, I got two nose
2:29:36operations, so I score less now,
2:29:39apparently. Yeah.
2:29:41Yeah. I had to I have to use a CPAP
2:29:43machine cuz my neck just like Oh, do
2:29:44you? Yeah. But massively
2:29:48massively impactful on sleep quality
2:29:50though. If you like efforting talks
2:29:51about CPAP all the time, too. It's like
2:29:54a huge needle mover. We got to talk
2:29:56about though your 35 lbs in 6 weeks
2:30:00video I just put in the chat. I don't
2:30:02know if you can see it. I had a
2:30:03roommate. His name was Greg Knuckles.
2:30:05He's really big in the strength space.
2:30:07Amazing name. He's one of the two
2:30:08smartest people that I've ever met, but
2:30:10also stupid strong. Anyways, he was
2:30:12like, I read this research paper. What
2:30:14if we had you lift six times a day, but
2:30:16for like 10 minutes each time? And I was
2:30:18like, cool. So, I set a timer and every
2:30:2045 minutes I would go and do one set on
2:30:22three exercises. Then I'd go back to
2:30:23work. I did that and that's when I I
2:30:25gained just a tremendous amount of
2:30:27weight. Coupled that with another thing
2:30:29that he had done research on which was
2:30:30like a pure carbohydrate diet with no
2:30:32fat. And so basically the efficiency of
2:30:34fat conversion to fat that's stored is
2:30:36almost 100%. The efficiency of
2:30:38carbohydrate storage into fat is lower.
2:30:41So the idea was like I had you know 200
2:30:43g of protein and like 800 g of carbs and
2:30:45basically zero fat. Yeah, I saw what you
2:30:47were eating. It looked like it'd be
2:30:48awesome for a diet and then horrible
2:30:51after that. Horrible and like it was not
2:30:52sustainable. But I put a ton of weight
2:30:54on and I put a ton of strength. From
2:30:55there, what I did was I dialed back the
2:30:57total volume, but I kept the split. You
2:30:59talked about every 45 minutes. That was
2:31:02natural. That was natural. 100%. That
2:31:06was natural.
2:31:08Now, okay. So, in this video, the
2:31:10picture though, it looks like the peak
2:31:13I've ever seen your physique like that.
2:31:16I wasn't as lean. I wasn't as lean. The
2:31:18peak I mean, so is this picture? I can
2:31:21show you a peak physique. Let me see.
2:31:22I'll look at it real quick. Okay.
2:31:24Because maybe this is just your editor
2:31:26putting this picture up and they don't
2:31:28actually Oh, no. That wasn't No, no,
2:31:30that was after I started tier 2. Sorry.
2:31:32There's another one where I did. So,
2:31:33that Okay, two things. So, I did gain 35
2:31:37lbs in 16 weeks. Sorry, I gained 35 lbs
2:31:40in 6 weeks. That was 100% natural. That
2:31:43was uh that was when I owned my gyms,
2:31:47right? That was the one where I did
2:31:48every 45 minutes. That was that one. So
2:31:51the big article on muscle and fitness,
2:31:52that was that one. The So these pictures
2:31:55Yeah. You can see how people are finding
2:31:56it misleading. If you look at the
2:31:58comment sections, it's all like I'm
2:32:00sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, the
2:32:02the I'm sure the video guys just grabbed
2:32:04it from like more recent stuff. But no,
2:32:06but the I Well, now I want to show you
2:32:08cuz actually if you Google Alexi 35 lbs,
2:32:11the article that comes up on Muscle and
2:32:12Fitness is the actual before and after
2:32:14um for the 35 lbs.
2:32:17And I mean, I I was showing Caleb a
2:32:19video of me doing I think it was like
2:32:21four 450 for like I want to say like 15
2:32:24or 20. I don't know. It was a lot. Um
2:32:27and I was I was squatting 405 for 20. I
2:32:30had just about a 400 lb bench and that
2:32:32was that was all natural. That was those
2:32:34are my natural numbers. Okay. How old
2:32:36are you here? This is 2015.
2:32:40I was
2:32:4120 2015. I was 25 or 26.
2:32:46Okay. Um, okay, cool. I'll put up the
2:32:48picture so people know that which was
2:32:51which because obviously everyone who saw
2:32:53that video and it's gotten some steam
2:32:55and I got tagged a [ __ ] ton in it cuz
2:32:56everyone's like, "Derek, you got to
2:32:58check this out." But yeah, it's uh, you
2:33:02know, I mean, that's still a really
2:33:03impressive before and after for sure.
2:33:04That was six weeks. That was six weeks.
2:33:06And this, I think, speaks to why you
2:33:09look the way you do on TRT as well,
2:33:13because obviously a lot of guys on Gear
2:33:15don't even look like they're on Gear
2:33:17because they don't have the baseline,
2:33:19you know, foundational infrastructure or
2:33:20their genetics just aren't as good. But
2:33:22like I trained for 16 years like before
2:33:24I went on TRT. So, as far as like you
2:33:28hitting your peak mass and like peak
2:33:31everything, like what Yeah. Did you why
2:33:34did you get on TRT and when did you
2:33:36start and like why did you do it to
2:33:37begin with? So this was when I got I
2:33:40don't know if you can see it. So that
2:33:41was when I was 250
2:33:44from 3D delts, bro. Jesus. Yeah. And
2:33:46this was this was this was uh 16 weeks
2:33:49earlier.
2:33:51Jesus. But this was actually a two-year
2:33:54process that I did with Dr. Trevor Cash.
2:33:55Have you heard of Dr. Cashy? Yeah. My uh
2:33:58business partner at Merit speaks very
2:34:00highly of him. Yeah. I mean, Trevor's a
2:34:03Trevor's a absolute offthecharts genius,
2:34:05way out there. Um, and so only reason I
2:34:09even did TRT was because he was like, I
2:34:12will I will oversee it. I was like,
2:34:13okay, cool. Um, and so I was always
2:34:16really, really, really nervous to, you
2:34:17know, put anything in my body. Um, which
2:34:19is why, you know, I I didn't want to do
2:34:21anything. But then I got my testosterone
2:34:22checked twice. So, actually, this might
2:34:24be interesting. So, after I did that big
2:34:2635 lb jump, I got my testosterone
2:34:28checked. So, I was 25 years old. So,
2:34:29that's supposed to be peak testosterone.
2:34:30I did it in the morning after I trained.
2:34:32So like everything should have been 100%
2:34:34aligned and my testosterone at that
2:34:37point and that was after bulking,
2:34:38overfeeding, sleeping 10 hours, like
2:34:40everything I possibly could, it was
2:34:42270. And uh Trevor when I told him about
2:34:47this, he was like he's like oh you don't
2:34:48have low testosterone. He's like you're
2:34:50just incredibly receptive to
2:34:51testosterone. He's like so you don't
2:34:52need much. He's like so he's like these
2:34:54ranges are completely arbitrary. He's
2:34:55like, you know, you could. And I looked
2:34:57the way I looked there and was doing the
2:34:59numbers that I just told you with 270 as
2:35:01my, you know, my testosterone levels.
2:35:03And then fast forward uh to 2018 or
2:35:072019, I can't remember what year it was.
2:35:08I think it was 2019. Uh fast forward to
2:35:102019. Um I did my I did my blood levels
2:35:13again for like insurance or something. I
2:35:14can't remember what it was. Um and they
2:35:16and they tested it and I was like 74. It
2:35:19was super low and I'm sure it was stress
2:35:20and whatever. Um and they were like
2:35:23almost were in shock. I was like, "No,
2:35:25my last one was really low, too." And
2:35:26that makes sense. And so, um, anyways,
2:35:28they gave me TRT. Um, and Trevor has
2:35:32just been overseeing it since. And I
2:35:33just stay in the normal range. But if I
2:35:35if I if it's if I have my brothers, I'd
2:35:36prefer to live a long time. And so,
2:35:38that's where I'm at with it. This was a
2:35:40cool experiment for me. It was fun. I
2:35:43got to like see what I, you know, I will
2:35:45say this is like there definitely was a
2:35:47look that I wanted to achieve that I
2:35:49spent 16 years trying to get naturally
2:35:51that I was able to achieve. And I and I
2:35:53now like some people have this thing
2:35:55where like they get to a certain size,
2:35:56they're like, I want to keep getting
2:35:57bigger. I got to there and I was like,
2:35:59I'm good. Like this is fine. You know
2:36:01what I mean? And um and I'm content how
2:36:03I look now. And I will probably lose a
2:36:07pound a year between now and when I'm
2:36:1050. I'll just probably just slowly lose
2:36:12a pound a year and I'll be a tight 195,
2:36:15you know, when I'm when I'm when I'm
2:36:16older. And I think it's natural and I'm
2:36:19good with it. It was it was a season.
2:36:20It's just like it's so funny cuz like
2:36:22right now people see the way I look and
2:36:24probably see the way you look and like
2:36:26they assume that fit. I mean I get
2:36:27comments probably like you do like at
2:36:28the airport people like, "Oh, I'm
2:36:29guessing you're going to the gym." I'm
2:36:30like, "No, like not. I'm I'm actually
2:36:33not going to the gym." As as a matter of
2:36:34fact, I actually barely [ __ ] train,
2:36:36just so you know. Yeah.
2:36:39Um, yeah, I actually barely train at
2:36:41all.
2:36:42Um, but there was a point I was going to
2:36:44make.
2:36:46Um, it's all
2:36:48good. Like now your current diet, like
2:36:51you were going to, you said you were
2:36:52going to lose a pound a year. You're
2:36:54mindful of health. You're trying to
2:36:55downsize, etc. But, oh, I've been doing
2:36:58it for 20 years. That's what I was going
2:36:59to say. I was like, I've been doing it
2:37:0020 years. Like most people who like into
2:37:03fitness, like they're still in their
2:37:04first 5 years. They're like really into
2:37:06it. I'm like, dude, well then give it
2:37:08another five and then give it another
2:37:09five and then give it two more and then
2:37:11that is when I decided to pit, right?
2:37:15I I put 17 years in. Yeah. Your current
2:37:19diet to sustain and kind of like hit
2:37:23your like obviously you have very low
2:37:25baseline requirements for sustaining
2:37:26because you put the work in, you've
2:37:28built up that bank of like muscle tissue
2:37:31essentially and you can kind of just
2:37:32cruise a little bit. What is your
2:37:35current diet? Is it like you still try
2:37:36to hit your 200 grams of protein per day
2:37:38and then you just like back fill with
2:37:40whatever you want and dessert and like
2:37:41dinner or whatever that ends up being
2:37:43sort of thing. 100%. That's all I do. I
2:37:45hit my two 200 grams of protein and then
2:37:47I just back fill my calories with
2:37:49whatever I feel like. What are your
2:37:50primary protein sources? I do that bar
2:37:53and the shake in the morning. I have the
2:37:55I have the beef and the and the steak uh
2:37:57for lunch and then uh so my breakfast
2:38:00and my lunch are always the same. Like
2:38:02they're always the same. And I usually
2:38:04have I usually knock down like 150 by
2:38:07lunch so that when I go to dinner I
2:38:08don't have to like think about anything
2:38:09and then I can just eat whatever. When
2:38:11do you say you said a bar and a shake or
2:38:14meal one? That's like a protein bar and
2:38:16like two scoops of whey protein or
2:38:18something. Yeah, like a 30 cal. Yeah, 30
2:38:20gram shake. I get one of the I get I use
2:38:22the pre-made like the box ones that are
2:38:24like a buck. I just do that. It's easy.
2:38:26And you do that during your like 4:30,
2:38:295:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. window before
2:38:31lunch. Just in the middle of it. Yeah, I
2:38:33do it at like 9 to 10. 9 to 10 somewhere
2:38:35in there. Usually when I get hungry. And
2:38:38then noon, you said steak like uh like
2:38:41what? 8 o 12 ounce 16 ounce. Yeah,
2:38:44usually 12 oz or 16 ounces of uh some
2:38:47sort of meat. It's usually ground. It's
2:38:49either ground beef or it's steak.
2:38:51Anything with that. What' you say you
2:38:53had with it or ketchup? Okay. Okay. No
2:38:56like potatoes or anything. Nothing. I
2:38:58said sweet potato. Yeah, I'll have sweet
2:38:59potatoes. Like a sweet potato mash.
2:39:01Okay. I knew you said something. I
2:39:02couldn't remember what it was. And then
2:39:03your dinner is like whatever you and Ila
2:39:05feel like eating basically. Yeah. So
2:39:07we'll go I mean we go out every night
2:39:08and you know I usually have a meat and a
2:39:12carb and a bunch of bread and appetizers
2:39:16and dessert and I do that all the time
2:39:18and that's fun. That's like what we do,
2:39:20you know? It's like we we enjoy that.
2:39:21And I don't even say that I'm a foodie.
2:39:23It's just I have uh low ROI on tons of
2:39:26food during the day cuz I I feel like I
2:39:29get more lethargic if I dude. Yeah, if I
2:39:33do that. So I prefer I I pref I prefer
2:39:36to eat never. If I could just not eat at
2:39:37all. I would That's why I was surprised
2:39:39that you gauging the ROI on this massive
2:39:42bulk is like I feel no different. I'm
2:39:44like but like my brain would be [ __ ]
2:39:46trying to do that much food. It was
2:39:48spaced out more though. You know what I
2:39:50mean? So it wasn't like these huge bowl.
2:39:52I mean, I was just eating all the time,
2:39:54you know what I mean? And I think that
2:39:55like it's if if right now, cuz you and I
2:39:58are probably more sensitive. Like, if I
2:39:59were eat a big thing now like that, I
2:40:01would be destroyed. But if I did it
2:40:03every day, either either I become
2:40:05unaware of the fact that I was lethargic
2:40:09or I got used to it. Whatever it was,
2:40:12you know, it wasn't, we still made
2:40:14money, the company still grew. Okay. The
2:40:16last thing I want to talk to you about
2:40:17in regards to drugs, and this will be
2:40:19the last topic, is smart drugs. So this
2:40:21is something that is heavily abused in
2:40:23the entrepreneurial space, guys who are
2:40:25on [ __ ] tons of aderall, medafanyl,
2:40:27bunch of different medications,
2:40:29supplements, etc. What has your
2:40:31experience been like, if any, with smart
2:40:34drugs, neutropics, stuff like that?
2:40:37Yeah. Um, I'm chewing nicarette right
2:40:40now. Um Okay. So, I'm definitely a
2:40:43stimulants guy. Uh,
2:40:46I we drink a cup of coffee every day, so
2:40:48I have that. Um Trevor wrote me like a
2:40:52stimulant cycle when I was like in this
2:40:54period of time where I was like I have
2:40:55to work so much. But the thing is like I
2:40:58usually like if I get to a point where I
2:40:59feel like I have to work like that, it's
2:41:00usually cuz like something's wrong. Like
2:41:02I need like I don't need to push harder.
2:41:04I need to pull back and see why I have
2:41:06to work this hard. And so in some ways
2:41:08it's almost like a leading indicator of
2:41:10me needing to delegate or push
2:41:11something. Um and so that's that's what
2:41:15it's become when I was like younger and
2:41:17thought I had to push through
2:41:18everything. Uh, I was like, I just got
2:41:21to grit down, like, you know, do the
2:41:22boring work. Like, shit's got to get
2:41:23done. And I think there's a reason for
2:41:25that. But, like, I don't need to work
2:41:27like that. And it's not because like I
2:41:29can't. It's because it it's silly. Like,
2:41:32there's more work to be done than I can
2:41:34possibly do, which means I have to have
2:41:36other people to help me. And so, why
2:41:37don't I just find the other people to
2:41:39help me and skip that and just move
2:41:41straight to the next point of leverage.
2:41:43So anyways, all that to say, um, we I he
2:41:48taught me the concept of rotating
2:41:50stimulants. Um, and so I try not to do
2:41:52besides the cup of coffee, which almost
2:41:54has more like it's great time for Leila
2:41:56and I. Um, that's the only thing that I
2:41:58take every day. I chew nicarette when I
2:42:00feel like it. Um, I've done nicotine
2:42:03patches, which I actually really like a
2:42:05lot. Uh, like the like you're going to
2:42:07quit smoking patches. Those honestly
2:42:09feel like aderall. Um, highly recommend.
2:42:12like love, love, love those. I don't
2:42:14think a lot of people realize how
2:42:16neuroprotective and actual cognitive
2:42:18enhancing nicotine can be if you're not
2:42:21an addictive personality. Like if you're
2:42:23not going to get hooked on it brutally
2:42:26to the point where you abuse it, like
2:42:28people who, as ridiculous as it sounds,
2:42:32people get less Alzheimer's occurrence
2:42:34when they smoke. Oh yeah. For most
2:42:36angioenesis. Yeah. And I have a ton of
2:42:38Alzheimer's in my family.
2:42:40And so that's why I've been like, "So,
2:42:42you know, promotes short-term memory,
2:42:43decreases decreases appetite, increases
2:42:46energy, has a 30-minute halflife, like
2:42:48like prevents alime." I'm like, "I'm
2:42:49in." You know what I mean? Like, uh,
2:42:51sign me up. So, yeah. So, big fan of
2:42:54nicotine. I also like if we travel, I'll
2:42:56like forget to chew. Like, I don't I
2:42:59don't Trevor told me and I believed him
2:43:02that um, nicotine on its own is not
2:43:05addictive. He said activities that you
2:43:06associate with nicotine are addictive.
2:43:09And so like smoking is addictive. They
2:43:11said nicotine is not addictive. Um which
2:43:14of course I can't even make a Tik Tok
2:43:15about that because they would ban me off
2:43:17the platform which they did. Um they
2:43:19took the Tik Tok down. They said I was
2:43:21promoting drugs or something. Um but
2:43:23yeah. So anyways, so I did that. I still
2:43:25chew nicotine. Um you know, hey, this is
2:43:28not health advice, whatever. But at
2:43:30least from everything that I've looked
2:43:31at, it doesn't seem like there's any any
2:43:33cancer. like if you just chew nicarat or
2:43:36just uh like put the patches on it
2:43:38doesn't do anything. So those two um
2:43:41earlier on in my like entrepreneurial
2:43:43career like I took aderal probably like
2:43:47twice a month you know what I mean and I
2:43:49would take really really small amounts
2:43:50because I think I'm very sensitive to
2:43:52stimulants so I would probably take like
2:43:54five to eight milligrams which is like
2:43:56not a lot. Um but that was enough for me
2:43:58and maybe it was all placebo. I have no
2:43:59idea. Um but that was enough for me.
2:44:03Um, but caffeine and caffeine and
2:44:05nicotine were the main ones. I've taken
2:44:07modafanyl.
2:44:09Um, the thing that I don't like about
2:44:11that in the halfife so long and so I uh
2:44:15I feel like I end up giving the next day
2:44:18to have Yeah. the productive, you know,
2:44:21the productive day and then you end up
2:44:22using it the next day potentially to
2:44:24make up for the fact that your sleep was
2:44:26[ __ ] I've never done I've never done
2:44:28multiple days in a row. Um, but a lot of
2:44:29people do get into that vicious cycle.
2:44:31Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, I've never done
2:44:33that. Um, but yes, it was always like a
2:44:35once in a It was like always like a once
2:44:38a month, twice a month thing and it was
2:44:39usually aderall, not medafanol. I've
2:44:42tried medafanol, but it was I I
2:44:44preferred aderall. Um, but the fact that
2:44:47uh the nicotine patch plus nicarette
2:44:50plus drinking a coffee is uh and I
2:44:53actually prefer Red Bull to coffee for
2:44:55like actually feeling I don't know if
2:44:57that's the B vitamins or whatever, but
2:44:58like if I drink if I do 120 milligrams
2:45:00of caffeine versus 120 milligram
2:45:03caffeine Red Bull, I feel it way more
2:45:05than the format is definitely impactful
2:45:08cuz like if I even those like caffeine
2:45:11tablets you would get at Walmart or
2:45:12something you take a 200 milligram
2:45:14doesn't even feel close to the same as
2:45:16like 100 milligrams from an energy drink
2:45:18or coffee sometimes. Like it's or from a
2:45:20the preworkout versus a tablet versus
2:45:23this. Wildly different feelings even
2:45:25though the milligram amount might be
2:45:26equal. It's really interesting how it
2:45:28works out. I that's something I don't
2:45:29know anything about. I just know that I
2:45:31feel much different on that. So like if
2:45:32I have a big workday, I won't do all
2:45:35those things. I'll do like Red Bull once
2:45:38a week cuz I like the concept of cycling
2:45:40has stuck with me. Uh because it's like
2:45:43if you're gonna get if you're going to
2:45:44get used to it, then you'll get the
2:45:45benefit. So it's like I want to use it.
2:45:46I don't want it to use me. So, you know,
2:45:49I'd have Red Bull once a week probably
2:45:51now. Um and I have I just ordered
2:45:54patches yesterday. I haven't used them
2:45:56in like a year or two, but I was like,
2:45:56"Oh, yeah. I forgot about these." Um so
2:45:58I'll probably use a patch uh as another
2:46:01thing that I'll do because I'm I'm
2:46:02really trying to finish my book and so
2:46:04I'll probably have more stretches of
2:46:05like intense attention. Um, yeah, that's
2:46:08my, you know, that's that's on like a
2:46:12peak nicotine day, like the most you'd
2:46:14use, how many milligrams in general? I
2:46:17chew the four milligrams. Uh, and I've
2:46:20had three a day. Okay. And what about
2:46:24like two to three a day is probably
2:46:26Yeah, usually I'll pop one in. It's
2:46:28usually like when I I basically pop the
2:46:30same piece in and then when I have to
2:46:31like eat or drink something is when I
2:46:33would like switch it. So, it's like I
2:46:35drink coffee and then I'll pop one in
2:46:37and then I'll have my snack and I'll pop
2:46:38one in and then I'll eat lunch. I'll pop
2:46:41one in and then that's it. So, it's
2:46:42usually like two or three a day. Okay.
2:46:45And as far as supplements, I just like
2:46:46having it I like having it just like I
2:46:48just like plop it in my Yeah, exactly.
2:46:51Got it. As far as like neuroprotective
2:46:54neutropics for Alzheimer's, do you do
2:46:56anything from like alpha GPC or anything
2:46:59from that side of things to support you?
2:47:01No, I don't take anything. Okay. Um,
2:47:05it's mostly cuz I I don't I don't take a
2:47:06lot of supplements cuz I don't remember.
2:47:08Right. Like I mean I told you to
2:47:11remember the better, frankly. I'm three
2:47:13days late on my pin right now. So like,
2:47:15you know what I mean? Like I I barely
2:47:16And that's like I have to do that. Like
2:47:18I I can't remember to do that. So I've
2:47:20been uh Yeah. I mean this I put next to
2:47:23my desk so I can I have that right there
2:47:25and I have my coffee in the morning and
2:47:27that's your budget. We've kept it pretty
2:47:29simple. I don't, you know, cold like
2:47:31cold plunge and outdoor walk and red
2:47:33light sauna and singing songs and
2:47:35affirmations and I just that's very hard
2:47:38for me. No. Yeah. I feel like some of
2:47:40that stuff when you get too in your head
2:47:42about it, it's like almost overwhelming
2:47:43the routine you develop to be an
2:47:45entrepreneur and it's just overkill and
2:47:48you'd be better off. I had a I had a
2:47:50young entrepreneur reach out to me. He
2:47:52said, "Hey man, I'm really struggling."
2:47:53He said, "I'm doing something that my
2:47:54mentor told me to do." And he told me,
2:47:56and so he said, "My whole morning
2:47:58routine takes me three hours." And he he
2:48:00basically did that whole checklist. He's
2:48:02like, "I walk outside barefoot 30
2:48:03minutes so I can like center myself and
2:48:05then I do the red light sauna and I do
2:48:07float tank and then I do like all this
2:48:09stuff, right?" He's like, "And it's just
2:48:10like it's killing my day." He's like,
2:48:12"By the time I start, it's like, you
2:48:13know, 11:00 a.m. And uh he's like
2:48:16because he also needs me to sleep this
2:48:17amount of hours and all this stuff." And
2:48:18I was like, "Dude,
2:48:20sometimes the work just needs doing,
2:48:22man."
2:48:23like like everyone I think I think a lot
2:48:25of this stuff is proc is productive
2:48:27procrastination or people think it's
2:48:29productive procrastination but it's just
2:48:30another form of procrastination. They
2:48:32feel like it's like watching TED talks.
2:48:34It's like you feel like you learned
2:48:36something but like you're not making
2:48:37more money. Like you got to make 200
2:48:39dials. Whatever way you want to do that,
2:48:41go for it. You know what I mean? But for
2:48:43me, like the longer I'm putting it off,
2:48:45the longer I feel like I guilty about
2:48:47not doing it. Yeah. Well, I think I
2:48:50could talk with you for hours about
2:48:52[ __ ] but I'm glad you stayed. Thank you
2:48:54for staying three hours. That was a [ __ ]
2:48:56ton of valuable insight, I feel like,
2:48:58for everyone in the audience and for
2:48:59myself included. And um as far as where
2:49:02to find Alex, you're on Hormosi on most
2:49:06Instagram on the social platforms,
2:49:08Instagram, Tik Tok, etc., I think. Uh I
2:49:11think I'm if you type in my name, you'll
2:49:13probably find it, but uh Hermoszi is the
2:49:15Instagram one. Uh, I think Tik Tok is a
2:49:19hormone. Uh, and then, uh, Twitter is
2:49:23Alex Horeroszi. Okay. I because people
2:49:26claim my name before I could even get on
2:49:28the platforms. Um,
2:49:31yeah, that was something I wish I had
2:49:32the foresight on is scooping up
2:49:34usernames. Yeah. But anyways, so go
2:49:37check out Alex and all his socials. And
2:49:39if you are a um business who's doing 3
2:49:42million in revenue or more and you fit
2:49:45the criteria that he has, you know,
2:49:46discussed and whatnot, uh check out
2:49:49acquisition.com and check out his other
2:49:51podcast. Like there's a lot of stuff I
2:49:52went I totally skimmed over from like
2:49:55the grind to get to where he's at that
2:49:56is hugely impactful for new
2:49:58entrepreneurs and I definitely recommend
2:50:00you guys check it out and appreciate
2:50:02having you on, man. Thanks for coming.
2:50:05Yeah, you bet. And if anyone's It's
2:50:07called The Game. You could probably just
2:50:08type my name in iTunes. It'll come up or
2:50:10Spotify or wherever it is that you
2:50:11consume audio content. Oh, for your
2:50:13podcast, too, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
2:50:16They're into that. Awesome. Dude,
2:50:17appreciate you, Derek. Thanks so much
2:50:18for taking the time. Thank you to the
2:50:20audience. I hope you guys find value
2:50:20from this. It means the world to me that
2:50:22you, you know, if you're listening to
2:50:23this right now and you tuned in, u you
2:50:25know, thank

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Alex Hormozi - Tax Secrets, Acquisition, Productivity, Diet, Training, Lifestyle, TRT & Nootropics by More Plates More Dates, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 37,605 words across 5,065 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.