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How to Become Too Good to Fail | The Alex Hormozi Interview — Transcript

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0:00did you feel like you were really close
0:02to losing at all every day yeah it was
0:04horrible it was so stressful if someone
0:06else can make this piece of content I
0:07don't want to make it you fell in
0:10business love with Layla first before
0:12you fell in love I was really upfront
0:14about this and we both agreed I said
0:16listen here are the priorities I was
0:17like business and then us when your
0:20shit's so good you don't need to game
0:22the system that is already the game too
0:24good to fail like that's the line it's
0:26funny because like right now people will
0:27probably be like you've made it you're
0:28at like the Pinnacle of content I'm like
0:30dude we literally haven't even started
0:31like the amount of stuff that we're
0:32planning on doing for like 2024 is
0:35bananas
0:44dude so what happened with the Crocs
0:46yeah so you introduced us to whatever
0:49some guy at rocks yes Dan you know then
0:51sent us all these cool designs for some
0:53acquisition.com products which would
0:54have been dope and I would have totally
0:55wrapped him
0:57um and it was like yeah we'll do some
0:58sort of collab thing like right when we
1:00were ready to move forward I was like
1:01cool like send me whatever link I can
1:03promote and like let's do this like I
1:04didn't even really like care about like
1:06money splits or anything I just like
1:08thought it'd be dope if everybody had
1:09some yeah and then he was like well just
1:11tell us how many you want and here's the
1:13bill and I was like huh and it wasn't
1:16even that they were priced at normal
1:17Crocs they were priced at twice with the
1:19normal it was like 80 bucks to us yeah
1:22to have the Crocs and I was like
1:24there's some massive misunderstood it's
1:27like so many people if there was like an
1:29acquisition.com Croc would would rep
1:30these like for sure I like tens of
1:33thousands of people who like did the
1:35thing like I'd get this one or whatever
1:36and so um because I was a prima donna I
1:40was like no I'm not wearing Crocs again
1:42um and so after that I stop wearing
1:43rocks we're not done here I'm gonna help
1:45sort this so the story here is my thing
1:48last year at my event uh you're wearing
1:50Crocs and you were just like dude I'm
1:51ready to take it to the next level I'm
1:52super motivated promoter I was like dude
1:54I happen to know one their VP of digital
1:56there yeah and uh no we are going to
1:58rectify this yeah I just want to see it
2:00happen it's not like he's gonna pay me
2:01or anything
2:02um so that's that's a good place to
2:04start and you know it's interesting
2:05enough Dan he actually has a holding
2:08company and what I wanted to bring up
2:09was this I was at an investor conference
2:12a couple months ago called a capital
2:13conference cool and every year there's
2:16like rage I think the the year before
2:18it's like all about the hedge funds this
2:20year it's about hold codes right
2:21everyone's hold code interesting as if
2:23it's really easy to start a holding
2:24company right and and then it's like no
2:27there's a lot that goes into it I mean
2:28you have a portfolio of businesses right
2:30and maybe we can spend some time talking
2:32about how difficult it actually is to
2:35not only be creating content which we'll
2:36talk about in a second but running a
2:38holding company it's not just oh I'm
2:40going to hire operator and that's it
2:41right it's like much easier said than
2:43done yeah
2:44well to to dial in on the the hold Co
2:47side
2:49um I mean we have it's tough if we if we
2:51try to pull apart media from the actual
2:53people like I think we have like just
2:55just under 30 people who work our whole
2:57code which is like a lot of people for a
2:59holding company
3:01um but we're really Hands-On in terms of
3:03how we like add value to companies so I
3:05think there's there's kind of two models
3:06at least that I'm you know aware of or
3:08at least that we considered one is the
3:10completely decentralized model The
3:12Berkshire Hathaway model which is
3:13delegation to the point of abdication
3:15right like just like don't call me
3:17unless everything's burning and then
3:18still don't call me
3:20um and that's one model uh but part of
3:23the reason that we have basically the
3:25complete opposite model is that the deal
3:27flow that we have usually wants our help
3:29to grow so we're definitely growth
3:31Partners more than we are let's buy at a
3:33good price and hold it and just try and
3:35you know Arbitrage the the value that we
3:37can get from the business and then
3:38reallocate Capital at the holding
3:40company and so
3:41um for us we're looking at is this
3:44company in our deal box do we really
3:46like the founders because a lot of times
3:48if you're buying a company you kick the
3:49founders out and then you put it an
3:50operator that you trust Etc so like we
3:52have a lot of which actually makes it
3:54harder for us to do this because there's
3:55so many reasons that we won't do a deal
3:56like we don't like the founders they
3:58don't have a big enough Vision
4:00um we don't think the product's good
4:01enough long term which means like we
4:02won't redo product Market fit that's one
4:04of our big like that's why three million
4:06if anyone's curious like why three
4:07million in Top Line is kind of the
4:10minimum
4:11um and for it's three million ish but at
4:13least a million in ebitda Because unless
4:15you're there like usually it's you're
4:17still figuring stuff out like we want to
4:19have at least a basic product like
4:20you've done something yeah there's
4:22something that's here right
4:24um and so uh we won't redo that and then
4:27we want it to be in a couple errors for
4:30us it's usually uh consumer services or
4:33business services which is either brick
4:35and mortar chains or National Services
4:37like mortgage sales or something right
4:39uh and those are places where if we can
4:41see like an easy like 5x or something
4:44like that that's usually what we will
4:46want to pick up so if there's like a
4:47bunch of like it's kind of funny like
4:49the double-edged sort of you want a good
4:51business but my head of Biz Dev said
4:54he's like we want you to be very
4:55specifically incompetent
4:57as in like incompetent in all the ways
4:59that we are excellent okay and so it's
5:02like if someone's like oh yeah our sales
5:04process is horrible or like man we can't
5:06get enough demand Jen but we have like a
5:08huge LTV and we're really sticking on
5:09the back and like those are companies
5:12murder yeah I mean we just we just
5:14bought a 32 location uh teeth whitening
5:16chain
5:18um and I was so excited about this and
5:21then we went to the facility and the
5:23experience was fine in terms of the
5:25product but the sales process that I
5:27went through was like I was like giddy I
5:30was like oh my God there's so many
5:31things that we can do to improve this
5:33and so we just rolled out our first
5:34level and we 5x to LTV wow in one roll
5:38out and so this is 32 locations and I
5:40was like great like we just created 50
5:43million dollars in Enterprise Value like
5:45let's just roll this out over the next
5:4712 months to all 32. yeah and I was like
5:49and that will be a W for the year you
5:51know what I mean like one of the hardest
5:53parts about what we have is that you
5:54have this desire to have activity right
5:56it's like we have all because right now
5:58we get 3 000 companies a month that
5:59apply so it's continue to grow
6:02um but we don't we don't necessarily
6:03make more money by doing more deals and
6:05so it's way more about font and like
6:07that the hard part is sticking with the
6:09plan yeah and not getting like eyes
6:10bigger than your stomach and so anyways
6:12that's that's been the biggest challenge
6:14for us is like just being very selective
6:16about the deals that we know are the
6:17best deals for us not necessarily just
6:19good deals and you talk about the deal
6:21box which is Warren Buffett it's like
6:22you you wait to swing right so what do
6:24you think it is for your deal box you
6:25kind of mentioned a couple things yeah
6:26so right now and I think that over time
6:28we're probably expanded as we bring in
6:30other like
6:31um like X operators so somebody you know
6:33someone's scaled and exited business for
6:35like 100 million plus in like software
6:37or something then I'd be like well dude
6:38just come into my deal flow it will make
6:40a deal that makes some sense for both of
6:41it you don't have to spend three years
6:42building out this massive deal machine
6:44I'll just partner with you on it and
6:46then we'll you know kick off a different
6:47pod but for right now our stuff has been
6:49focused on Services uh just because like
6:52that's the world we just know really
6:53well got it and that this kind of starts
6:57to go into content a little bit because
6:58you've been very prolific in the last
6:59two years with leveling up your content
7:01did that teeth whitening company did
7:05that come through your content or where
7:06did it come from content so walk me
7:08through how that worked because actually
7:09I was having lunch and my friend has a
7:11pet holding company he's like I want to
7:12ask like how because he just produced
7:14content he's like how much does that
7:15content actually help with deal flow so
7:17what happened with that story all of our
7:18dufo comes from content so yes it does
7:21help
7:22um yeah I mean it's pretty like someone
7:24will watch a number of pieces they'll
7:26listen to a bunch of podcasts they'll
7:28buy the book they'll read the book
7:29they'll go through the course and you
7:30know they'll have spent a hundred hours
7:31with me virtually uh before they decide
7:34to take the first action which I like
7:36because then a lot of times they'll fix
7:37a lot of the low hanging fruit which is
7:38kind of nice because then you have to
7:39like have a thing that has all these
7:41issues and so they'll apply our you know
7:44head of business of well there's
7:45multiple screenings we have an automated
7:46screening that weeds out like probably
7:48like 90 just because they're not big
7:50enough or they're in a space or they're
7:51International
7:52Etc
7:53um and then once that we have somebody
7:55who immediately reaches out uh to just
7:57qualify that this data is accurate which
7:59again that's like another wave uh and
8:02then from the qualifying stage we have
8:03somebody who then does a way more
8:05in-depth business case and basically
8:07writes up a full like one-page write-up
8:09per business and then the ones that that
8:11person thinks are big enough and in our
8:14deal box then get passed on to managing
8:16director of Business Development and so
8:18then he uh takes the the deal from that
8:20point until close which is usually like
8:23several more conversations which usually
8:25weeds out most of them we usually do
8:26about two Lois a month
8:28is what that results in for us I think
8:31just for those people I'm listening it's
8:33it's hard
8:35once you're in it like you understand
8:36how hard it is right but when you look
8:38at your team it actually is a team of
8:40badasses it's like a SWAT team right
8:42yeah and so you have people that have
8:43actually been there done that you've
8:44talked about your CFO before you said
8:46it's 30 people yeah who else are kind of
8:47the key players on that hold code team
8:49because I don't want people to think
8:50this is easy oh yeah
8:53everything's easy if you don't do a good
8:55job
8:55um so it's like uh
8:59so for us we look at it by function so
9:02it's like we have somebody who's an i
9:03sweethearts me so subject matter experts
9:05so subject matter expert for I.T for
9:08finance for
9:10um HR and recruiting uh for we have two
9:13different marketing communities one
9:14that's more like the tech side like
9:15martech
9:17um and like media buying and like funnel
9:19optimization stuff cro and then the
9:21other one is more like truly like the
9:23art side of like the words the copy vs
9:26like video sales letters ads that kind
9:28of side
9:29um and then we have uh director of sales
9:31and we have a director of customer
9:33success and so each of those people has
9:35years of experience building and scaling
9:36multiple teams to bigger than most the
9:38companies that are coming to us
9:40um and now have you know experience
9:41doing their function and scaling it
9:43within each of our portfolio companies
9:45and we've just it's just a very long
9:47process of step-by-step codifying every
9:50play in The Playbook and I think that
9:52it's kind of like the the Bruce Lee of
9:54like in the big in the beginning
9:55everything's simple and then you have
9:56like a zillion you know punches and
9:58kicks and then it comes back to just
10:00like don't get hit
10:02and I think that right now we're we're
10:04getting better and better at like okay
10:06we crushed this Playbook really well we
10:08crushed this Playbook really well so
10:09right now we've got like a three
10:11Playbook that it's like weekend 10x like
10:15services companies and so I'm just
10:17trying to see like okay there's 20 other
10:19things that we do really well but like
10:20what are those like easy just massive
10:23levers that we can crank on and then I
10:25think that's where I want to just like I
10:27might even say let's get even more
10:29efficient at just do it pulling these
10:30four levers immediately 10xing the
10:32business and then saying like Okay so do
10:34we want to exit or do we want to like
10:35double down again or do a dividend recap
10:37or something like that and then reinvest
10:38for another 10. I think when we're
10:40hanging out like a like a year ago it
10:41was Service Plus other businesses and I
10:43think now you guys are honing it even
10:44more and like that's what business is
10:46right you just hone in more and more and
10:47more you get because then you get even
10:49more efficiencies at holdco and then you
10:51can get more and then it's even easier
10:53at the holding company to create value
10:55within the the portfolio companies
10:57because they're doing the same like if
10:58you're switching from [ __ ] like let's
11:00say a uh an e-commerce like the pet
11:02thing right so like let's say I had one
11:03of his companies which would not be my
11:05yo box and I'm we're optimizing a
11:07Shopify page for chewing toys for dogs
11:10and then like the next call is about the
11:14brick and mortar teeth whitening chain
11:15it's like it's such a jarring switch of
11:18like perspectives that you don't get a
11:20lot of like a creative you know benefit
11:21between both of those calls whereas if
11:24you have brick and mortar teeth
11:25whitening and the next brick and mortar
11:27photography and then the next call is
11:28Brick and Mortar gym chain
11:30and all of them are selling sessions and
11:32appointments it's like okay like run
11:35this play yeah you so you had a talk
11:37recently and and I want to go into this
11:39a little more because back in the day at
11:41least for me it was like I had this
11:43Senior Living business there's this
11:44education there's assassin there's this
11:46there's this there's this right and for
11:48you you had a like nine different
11:49businesses or whatever right I mean just
11:52how bad was it when that was when I was
11:55actually happy because I don't think
11:56people really understand
11:58how important focus is until they get
12:00punched in the gut but it's like how do
12:02you prevent that so I think the big
12:03difference is because people are like
12:04Alex you talk about Focus now but you
12:06have 13 portfolio companies but like I
12:08have one holding company and if you were
12:11to reframe it as like I own a marketing
12:13agency and I have 13 clients it feels
12:16that way except I own them you know what
12:17I mean but there's a full CEO and
12:20leadership team that run each of the
12:21companies and we have our leadership
12:24team that runs that and so like I own
12:26the holding company and that's my work
12:28you know what I mean
12:29um but where I've made the huge mistake
12:31when I was earlier on is like I have one
12:32company that makes money I'll start
12:34another and so then you end up becoming
12:36CEO of three companies and it's a
12:38nightmare and so that's the part like
12:39it's weird because I feel like I only I
12:42mean I don't want to speak this over
12:43myself but like I was only really able
12:45to understand how to do multiple things
12:48once I sold gym launch because then I I
12:51think it was the first time I was really
12:52above the business
12:54and then at that point I was like okay
12:55so the the above the business is the one
12:58thing the portfolio is the one thing and
13:01then that's when you're like your value
13:02prop
13:03as a as a hold Co it is a bit like the
13:06holding company is a business in and of
13:07itself and I think that's the big like
13:09Epiphany that I had is like it is a
13:11business and then you get really
13:13specific you Niche down just like you do
13:14in any other business on what specific
13:16type of customers even though they're
13:18not customers you serve and you talk
13:20about working so there's above the
13:22business in the business yeah you know
13:24on the business right what's what what's
13:25the difference with above in the
13:27businesses like I'm taking sales calls
13:29um I think on the businesses like I'm in
13:31leadership positions I'm managing I'm
13:33leading I'm casting the vision I'm
13:34inspiring the the team and then above
13:37the businesses the business is
13:39you you look at many businesses and they
13:42are all almost like product lines or
13:44clients as I was saying earlier
13:46um that you you don't sit anywhere on
13:49the org chart for these businesses and
13:51that's probably the easiest litmus test
13:52is like do you have a direct report from
13:54the company and I have zero yeah from
13:57any other companies yeah
13:59um it's funny uh so Neil sometimes will
14:02call me in the middle of the day and uh
14:03he'll be like what are you doing I'm
14:05like I'm working on stuff he's like I'm
14:07bored yeah it's just like right but
14:10that's it's not like that but he he
14:11works really hard
14:13um but I think the other other good
14:16comparison here is the the difference
14:18between like a parallel entrepreneur and
14:20a Serial entrepreneur because a Serial
14:21entrepreneur actually waits to the next
14:22level yeah and parallel starts multiple
14:24things yeah then to your point how are
14:26you supposed to compete yeah I mean the
14:28focus the one person who's going all in
14:30on one thing is always in my opinion
14:31going to make the most money and if you
14:33look at the wealthiest 50 people in the
14:35world they all went all in on one thing
14:38yeah and it's you know and there's a
14:40couple private Equity investors who are
14:42at that top now but I would make the
14:44argument that they're they were they got
14:45into the business of private equity and
14:48that was their one thing even though
14:49they bought and sold companies it
14:52functioned the same way as having a
14:53marketing agency except the unit size
14:55was bigger with more zeros yep do you
14:58think when you had the nine different
14:59companies was it nine yeah okay when you
15:01had the nine
15:02a it felt frantic right but did you feel
15:05like you were really close to losing at
15:07all every day yeah it was horrible it
15:09was like it was so stressful because I
15:11mean I I had nine companies worth of
15:13employees I didn't I just didn't
15:14understand operate I didn't understand
15:15how leadership worked
15:17I didn't understand management I didn't
15:19have one-on-ones I didn't have a
15:20communication Cadence and I was The
15:21Rainmaker for all the businesses like it
15:23was so ridiculous when I think about it
15:25now like it was so obviously stupid but
15:27you just don't know when you're ignorant
15:29before we move on from here what do you
15:31say to all the people now that want to
15:34start a whole they're just like I'm
15:35gonna go buy businesses because that's
15:36what cool people do yeah and I'm gonna
15:38go hire an operator you have any words
15:39for those people well right now buying
15:41businesses is like in Vogue I don't
15:43really know why it got invoke but my
15:45best guess is that we have so many
15:47people retiring right now that there's
15:48just a huge supply Spike and then a lot
15:52of people who'd never made their money
15:54buying businesses selling courses on how
15:55to buy businesses
15:57um because the thing is and this is kind
15:59of for the audience it's like if you
16:00make your money buying businesses and
16:02you're really good at it you don't need
16:04to sell a course like the best people at
16:06buying businesses buy businesses and
16:08hold them and invest like I think Naval
16:10said like the best investors don't sell
16:12courses on investing yeah you know what
16:13I mean because like if you're really
16:14good at it you don't need to yeah um and
16:16I just I like
16:18I kind of stick by that
16:20um and so it is kind of shitty and
16:22there's a lot of marketing dollars that
16:23are going behind that a lot of content
16:24being made because it's like sexy and
16:26the idea of buying a business for no
16:29money down that makes 500 000 a year
16:31which is absolutely possible you totally
16:33can't do that but the thing that they
16:34miss is that I can buy a business for
16:36zero dollars down that makes 500 or a
16:38million dollars a year yeah and know how
16:40to run it
16:41if you've never run a business and even
16:43if you do somehow magically pull off
16:45that deal
16:46you're still screwed because you have no
16:48idea how to run a business and so it's
16:49like you still lack the skills even
16:51though you can close the sale like I
16:52could sell I could sell that I could
16:54build a skyscraper and if I somehow
16:56managed to BS my way through the
16:57negotiations and close the contract I
17:00still have to build a skyscraper and if
17:01you've never built a building before or
17:02even a house very tough and the
17:05likelihood that you then lose your ass
17:07on because like you're not you'll get
17:09the business that does a million dollars
17:11in profit per year for zero dollars down
17:13but not for zero dollars and that's the
17:15piece that I think a lot of people is
17:16like it's not free like you have a
17:18liability or you have a debt if you're
17:19some sort of seller financing creative
17:21financing whatever it's like but now you
17:23owe this person yep and that's the
17:25marketing piece right I think we get the
17:27it's the headlines at the end of the day
17:29I want to talk about the the content
17:31piece so I was hanging out I was at uh
17:32speaking of real estate Mastermind a
17:35couple weeks ago this guy owns 1.5
17:36billion in real estate in Arizona and
17:38then in the middle of the pandemic he's
17:39like I'm just gonna do YouTube for fun
17:40right because he couldn't go anywhere so
17:41he grew to like 400k or so okay and then
17:44but his content is like Top Notch right
17:47it's like he understands it yeah it's
17:49like this guy's deep you can tell right
17:50tax advantages whatever and but then
17:54um Kenneth Ken McElroy okay yeah you
17:57should definitely talk super smart and
17:59but then you look at other people who
18:00are getting millions and millions of
18:01views a month on YouTube and they're
18:02talking about all these different
18:03businesses but then they know the
18:06YouTube game but they don't have depth
18:08when it comes to business right so I see
18:09it as a trade-off at the end of the day
18:12um but you're actually playing you're
18:14actually able to play both right and so
18:17um they were talking to me they're just
18:18like okay what's the point of even
18:19creating content I just I'll just go buy
18:21more business actually this was last
18:22week one of my friends um was was going
18:24to be like Eric I don't need to create
18:25content I'll just go buy their
18:26businesses and then I posted that to
18:28Twitter or X the next day yeah and uh
18:31Layla was like
18:33um so Layla was like oh no but you
18:35create leverages where we get our deal
18:36flow from and you said all your deal
18:37flow comes from that right so
18:39um I guess sure we have the same as you
18:41know we have a network and things like
18:42that come through but yeah I don't I
18:44can't I don't think we've done a deal
18:45that's not come through our deal flow
18:47and of the 3 000 that come through each
18:50month what percent actually make it oh
18:52tiny yeah right we do two Lois a month
18:54and that's not to dissuade people it's
18:55mostly because we just have a lot of
18:56people who don't have qualified
18:57businesses just to be clear like if you
18:59have a qualified business hit me up but
19:00we just have a tremendous amount that
19:02are doing less than a million in profit
19:04and they're like
19:05I'll give you five percent Alex oh man
19:09so tempting so okay if for example the I
19:13mean let's just use a fake example
19:15someone has a bunch of locations they're
19:18doing one million ebitda
19:20um well let me just read one first
19:21minimum is a million just to be clear so
19:23like art like ideally for me like I love
19:25that like
19:26three-ish four-ish you know what I mean
19:29like that's where like you're right
19:30about to hit that so we can just like
19:32boom 20 and then it's like and you're
19:34aligning with them it's like hey if we
19:36want to hold forever you're like hey
19:37like if I like you maybe yeah right yeah
19:39I'm good on either way because like we
19:40don't we don't need the liquidity yeah
19:42I'm happy to let it compound tax-free so
19:43like I'm good either side either way and
19:45I'll just rephrase over here because I
19:46think when we hung out a year ago it's
19:49you talked about how you're maybe moving
19:52more towards instead of minority
19:54investments into majority how are you
19:56thinking about it now yeah we're 100 in
19:58that in that camp are
20:00um and it's you know it's almost like uh
20:03it's almost like finding your price when
20:05you're selling a service except in the
20:07deal world and this is one thing that
20:09like if you really want to get into this
20:11world like
20:12it is such a long game because if you
20:15think about like product Market fit you
20:17have the same concept that happens at
20:18like a holding company when you're
20:19investing you have like deal fit and so
20:21it's like what's my offer but not to a
20:24customer but to a to an entrepreneur to
20:26a Founder to somebody's trying to go
20:27their business and so it takes way
20:30longer to to have enough qualified
20:32candidates to even make the offer and
20:34then it takes 90 days to even see if you
20:36can close the offer and then from
20:37closing the offer it takes another year
20:39or two to see if it was actually like
20:41worked out so like your feedback Cycles
20:43are so long that it's it's very painful
20:46as somebody who isn't Exxon whatever you
20:48want to call me
20:49um who's used to being able to like hey
20:51let's try this out and in 30 days have
20:52it both spun up tested and have data
20:54like in 30 days we might be able to like
20:57talk to a couple entrepreneurs that we
20:59think are interesting
21:00um and so anywho we have moved towards
21:04um bigger and bigger chunks of companies
21:06uh right now we target 49 uh with most
21:10the deals uh we just we just did a
21:12majority deal two months ago
21:14um and so we're now doing both minority
21:16and majority and our minority slugs are
21:18bigger because it's the same thing where
21:19it's like it's the same work for us at
21:2120 as it is at 51. and in some cases
21:24weirdly enough it's almost less work at
21:26majority because
21:29um I have fewer emotions to manage on
21:32the founder side because it's like
21:33listen I'm the one who's taking all the
21:35risk on now and so this is what we're
21:37going to do rather than saying hey man I
21:40think this is what we should do what do
21:42you think and so I have way my speed of
21:45implementation on majority companies is
21:46so much faster yeah and like what I
21:48would like to do in the next and this is
21:50why it takes years to do this but like
21:51over the next two or three years I'd
21:53love to show the difference between our
21:55minority Holdings and our majority
21:57Holdings of how much more profitable and
21:58how much faster we grew them yeah to
22:00then make an even more compelling case
22:01of like I don't necessarily want to
22:03fully exit Founders that's not my
22:04intention it's more like we have done
22:06this before like please like let me love
22:08you like let me let me just do what we
22:10already know how to do many times yeah
22:12and that like I remember I had a
22:13conversation with one of our Founders
22:14this is one of the companies we actually
22:15ended up buying with majority of
22:18um we had like six phone calls uh to
22:20talk about a price change that I wanted
22:21to implement and we implemented the
22:23price change and we doubled profit and
22:27it was big company already we doubled
22:29profit in 30 days and and like we
22:31increased the price and increased close
22:33rates like we call that a wonderful a
22:36wonderful because they were mispriced
22:38like we did a bunch of research we saw
22:39the competitors in the marketplace were
22:40we were like we're not even going high I
22:42was like we're just going up to Market
22:43yeah which is I mean I love those
22:45opportunities they're not always there
22:46but like but it if it had been a
22:49majority holding it would have just been
22:51an email I mean like this is what it
22:53needs to change to let the team know
22:54here's here the you know bullet points
22:55to talk to the sales director and he
22:57would just let him go do you think
22:58before so when you had the 20 or so like
23:02I think we were talking about this
23:03already it's like they weren't nothing
23:05weren't taking it seriously I mean maybe
23:07you just didn't have it was more of a
23:09consultative relationship and to be fair
23:11like
23:13it's not like we wield Authority like
23:15I've I'm not really an authoritative
23:16person from that perspective like it's
23:18always soft influence we've never taken
23:20a vote in any company ever like what
23:23because it's funny because during the
23:24deal processor like well how many who
23:25gets but I'm like dude we will literally
23:27never look at this contract again like I
23:28pride myself on the fact we've never
23:29taken a contract out after a deal
23:32um but it still feels a little different
23:35like no matter what anyone says like if
23:37you if you buy majority it just feels
23:39different it's like here's the plan let
23:41me know if you have questions about it
23:42or like what do you think and I want
23:44feedback more I want feedback I don't
23:47want to sell someone on it you know what
23:48I mean and I think that's the that's
23:51gonna collaborate yeah exactly yeah and
23:54so now we rewind back to the content
23:56again so yeah how how do you think your
23:58content strategy has changed in the last
24:0012 months because I I can from afar I
24:03can see some of the adjustments yeah
24:05Caleb's out here today right yeah yeah I
24:07know the team's bigger now I mean um how
24:10big is the media team now
24:12yeah it's nine and then we have some
24:13Benders so probably if you included
24:16their teams probably like 15 or 16
24:17somewhere in there okay I mean I think
24:19the big thing is is like we try and
24:21focus on content that only we can make
24:23that's the that's the big single
24:25throughput line if someone else can make
24:27this piece of content I don't want to
24:28make it and so that's why we try and you
24:31know we call them you know one of zero
24:33uh stories which is like something no
24:35one else can do and so like no one can
24:37talk about like how they bought a teeth
24:39whitening chain and then like
24:40implemented a new sales process and then
24:425x no one can say that because that's
24:44such like no one did that I did that and
24:46so someone might be like here's how
24:48Coca-Cola here's a breakdown of Cocoa's
24:50business model but like
24:52I'm not going to do that because someone
24:53else can do that but this is the stuff
24:55that I can do so it's more it's gonna be
24:57more capturing out what we're literally
24:59doing because I think the more people
25:01saw what we actually do in companies one
25:03it would get even better deal flow for
25:04us
25:05um but also it's more unique than I
25:08think what most people do so that's kind
25:09of like us trying to play more to our
25:10strengths which is like our day-to-day
25:12is our strength
25:13um and we almost diverted from our
25:15strength to create content to just like
25:17learn this game but as our
25:19infrastructure gets bigger and better
25:20we're leaning more and more so we we um
25:22we just bought a big headquarters here
25:24in Vegas and so we're going to be
25:26centralizing the whole media team
25:27that'll be our big media headquarters
25:29and so we've got the gym in there too
25:31right yep you have a whole floor
25:33um and so there's gonna be a ton of new
25:35content we're gonna be pushing out
25:36because it's funny because like right
25:37now people would probably be like you've
25:39made it you're at like the Pinnacle of
25:40content I'm like dude we literally
25:41haven't even started like the amount of
25:42stuff that we're planning on doing for
25:43like 2024 is
25:45bananas I can't wait oh it's gonna be
25:48it's gonna like we will be pushing out a
25:51lot of content and it will be really
25:53good
25:54um because you said one thing earlier
25:56but I love this statement but it's like
25:58the second throughput would be like too
25:59good to fail because that buddy of yours
26:01can uh-huh it's like you don't have to
26:03know the algorithm in my opinion like if
26:05if it if the piece is good enough you
26:07don't have to nail the thumb you don't
26:09have to nail the headline if people
26:11start watching it and they're like this
26:13is so good they will share it they will
26:15keep watching it and they'll come back
26:16and watch the next time because what
26:17happens is like if you think about the
26:18human behavior side of it if you just
26:20watch if you over deliver like crazy on
26:22one video
26:23the next time you post a video that
26:25person will click it and they don't even
26:27look at the thumb they don't look at the
26:29headline they're just like oh Alex or
26:31Eric made another video yeah it must be
26:33good because all the other videos are
26:35good and I think it's more important to
26:36have fewer good pieces than more
26:39mediocre pieces dude so here's where I'm
26:41coming from looking at Ken's during the
26:44pandemic he had videos that would get a
26:45couple hundred thousand and that's when
26:46you know you're doing pretty well with
26:47each video Neil same deal he had a
26:50couple hundred thousand some videos will
26:51get a million views or so and then same
26:53deal for me a couple hundred this is
26:54like four or five years ago and my
26:56thesis here is that you have to be in
26:59the good graces of YouTube and you have
27:00to be con you cannot stop right and
27:03because those guys Neil stopped Ken
27:05stopped I stopped we're in this box
27:07right now where I look at Nails I'm like
27:08dude your videos are the same [ __ ] from
27:11the last couple years ago but you're
27:12only getting like 5 10K views right so
27:14there's I think there's like this this
27:15Penalty Box almost I think it's it's um
27:18so in my opinion all social media has
27:19switched to the tick tock tick
27:21tockification of of social media
27:24um I you know I actually think it's good
27:27because what it does is it like
27:29subscribers mean nothing followers on
27:32Instagram mean nothing they're literally
27:33just a vanity metric now and so the only
27:36thing that matters is
27:38click retain reward that's it like that
27:41like and it doesn't matter what the
27:42platform is they're all the same is like
27:44did you get them to click did you get
27:46him to watch and did you get them to
27:47come back yeah that's it and so the
27:50algorithm like it also by doing that
27:52though it makes it there's never been a
27:54better time to start because in the
27:56earlier days when it was subscriber
27:58based it was basically an email list
27:59like you build a subscriber base and
28:01then they push out your stuff
28:02subscribers but they don't do that
28:04anymore at all and now it's just like
28:06they do look-alike audiences based on
28:08what they predict someone will like your
28:10thing or not and so you could be a brand
28:12new account and have your first video do
28:1310 million on the first upload ever
28:15which I think in some ways is like a
28:17great equalizer and it makes the content
28:19King yeah and so actually going to the
28:21shorts for a second you're a team of 16
28:23people yeah what percent of your work
28:26with you and your team goes that you
28:28think into shorts versus the long form
28:30stuff oh I mean my shorts for me is like
28:32almost no work
28:34um that's that's all the team okay
28:35that's all them so they're cutting up
28:37your long forms yeah that's almost
28:38majority but we did direct to camera
28:40stuff early to kind of like kick start
28:41things but it is I can't remember the
28:43last direct camera shoot we did
28:45um yeah because direct camera versus
28:47it's a very it's a different setup so
28:50like you're no more no more direct
28:52account not that I'm not against it it's
28:54just that they've got enough other stuff
28:56and I prefer the other stuff because I
28:57think it's more like organic yeah
28:59usability per minute of footage is
29:01highest whereas if like if we do a vlog
29:03day they're gonna get three or four
29:05shorts from a full day but they got to
29:07go through like eight hours of content
29:08whereas if I do like two hours of direct
29:10camera yeah we have like a hundred
29:12shorts
29:13it's a lot yeah yeah and so what about
29:16from this this you pull like what like
29:1820 15 shorts you would know yeah
29:26got it
29:27um and you're spend a year ago was like
29:31I think like 120 Grand a month like
29:33anything that looks like now it's
29:34probably double okay so 240. yeah and
29:37are you getting paid on on AdSense any
29:39of this yeah yeah okay I mean not enough
29:41to make it better it doesn't equal it
29:43out okay but it's okay the deal flow
29:45that's good yeah yeah no yeah like
29:47media's just like a loss leader if you
29:48want to consider from my perspective we
29:50lose money on media which is funny
29:51because people are like he makes money
29:53on his two dollar book which by the way
29:54Amazon takes you get paid like 30 cents
29:56on them yeah that's two dollars but
29:58anyways uh that just goes to fund the
30:00loot the the money losing media team and
30:03I'd say that with absolute love
30:05um you know what I mean but that's
30:06that's I mean all marketing loses money
30:08until it makes you money like that's you
30:10know it's a long game yeah and rewinding
30:13back to the deal stuff for a second so
30:14of the 24 Lois that you do that comes
30:16from content by the way so it does make
30:17money
30:18um how many of those that actually go
30:20through about
30:22pretty high conversion rate but it's
30:24also good qualification yeah but I think
30:26we've just continued to get near narrow
30:28and narrower and I like I wouldn't be
30:29surprised well our deal flow keeps going
30:31up so
30:32if we might actually have the same
30:34number of deals done on five times the
30:36amount of deal flow because we're just
30:39getting better and better at picking
30:40yeah well one more thing before we go
30:42back to content what is the craziest
30:44thing someone has offered you because
30:45here's the thing right like I do believe
30:47there is the brand Equity that you have
30:50gets you good deal in terms like
30:51agencies that come to me like yeah we do
30:53four or five million a year we'll give
30:54you 20 it's like what like right um so
30:57like what is the craziest thing
30:58someone's offered like they're newborn
30:59like anything like that honestly the
31:00people who who who who make the craziest
31:03offers usually don't have anything of
31:04value to offer you know what I mean but
31:07um I would say almost all the all the
31:09deals that we do have favorable terms
31:10you know what I mean in terms of both
31:12price and just like
31:14just terms in general like we keep we
31:16try to keep our contracts as simple as
31:18humanly possible I put this big emphasis
31:19on the legal team to make it plain
31:20English contracts and like my lawyer
31:22like had a heart attack when I was like
31:24I want a fifth grader to be able to read
31:26this contract because the biggest issue
31:28that that happens in the deal process
31:30for anyone has ever done a deal is that
31:32their lawyer starts talking to your
31:34lawyer and then they just keep having
31:35these conversations and translating back
31:37and forth and then you have all these
31:38miscommunications and
31:40the only person who wins there is a
31:42lawyer and so we've we've taken a little
31:44bit of a different approach of like
31:46let's keep our conversation as primary
31:48and then we together tell the attorneys
31:50what we want them to to do and that way
31:52like any any negotiating happens between
31:55us and that way because like I remember
31:56there was a a deal we were working on
31:58and their you know attorney
32:01who it wasn't even an m a attorney by
32:03the way if you are going to sell your
32:04company or have somebody invest like
32:06have an m a attorney anyways
32:08um it's like no he's a family friend I'm
32:10like doesn't mean he knows anything so
32:12he was like we need this non-compete to
32:14be you know 24 months and a 50-mile
32:16radius around the brick and mortar
32:18locations they asked for this yeah and I
32:20was like
32:21so the lawyers are talking for like two
32:23weeks about this and I finally I called
32:25the founder up and I was like are you
32:26planning on starting another chain I was
32:28like you still own majority of this
32:29business do you plan on competing with
32:31your own business he was like No And I
32:33was like cool then as long as you own
32:34majority of the business you don't
32:36compete with your business and he was
32:37like yeah that's fine it's like great
32:38glad we had this talk you know what I
32:40mean but like that was probably like ten
32:42thousand dollars in in lawyer fees that
32:44went back and forth that was settled by
32:46two entrepreneurs in two minutes yep
32:47just obvious stuff you know people like
32:49that kind of thing is the stuff that
32:51like hangnails you know I mean like on
32:53deals yeah so now we rewind back to
32:56content sorry for jumping all over the
32:57place yeah
32:59um the
33:01so when you're
33:02thinking about the ideation piece right
33:05so is that like are you separating that
33:08into another day is that like on the
33:10same day and then how are you thinking
33:11about like the hooks the stories all
33:13that type of stuff
33:14um the team brings everything okay so
33:16the team brings everything from like
33:17because they'll watch this podcast and
33:19then they'll be like dude that story was
33:21interesting can we do a thing on that
33:23and then because like they basically the
33:24team is inherently curious people who
33:27like my content and so like to use some
33:31Gary terms like they [ __ ] with my
33:33content and so the stuff that they want
33:35to know more about
33:36we we go into more depth on yeah and so
33:39um I haven't been asked to come up with
33:41topics in a really long time
33:43um but I'll tell you how I would come up
33:44with topics because this is how I was
33:46doing it when it was just me starting
33:47out is that I just like to use time as
33:49my as my like anchor for this so I go
33:52far past which is like what are the what
33:54are the life-changing experiences or
33:55conversations that I've had that have
33:56shaped the way my world view and so
33:58those are stories that I will tell
33:59because I think they're impactful and
34:00people get value from them
34:02um then I have recent past which is like
34:05let me look at my calendar uh over the
34:08last week and just look at all the
34:10meetings I had and I just like I would
34:12have microphone up and be like okay so
34:14uh I was talking to one of our profile
34:15companies who's trying to make a change
34:17on pricing and so this is what we were
34:18considering you know I mean I'm just I
34:19just literally go through what my life
34:20was
34:21um I have present which is whenever
34:24something comes up in the moment I
34:25always have a way to like brain dump it
34:27and so for me Twitter or X
34:29um is kind of my brain dump whatever
34:31threads yeah well my they they repost
34:33stuff
34:35um but Twitter is my is my home home
34:37base for that yeah and so they'll also
34:39come with the tweets that they thought
34:40were like interesting to make more
34:42content about
34:43um and then you've got like manufactured
34:45which is stuff that doesn't exist at all
34:49um what's an example uh like I lived on
34:52uh a hundred dollars in dirt for 30 days
34:54like here's what happened like as an
34:56example I that wouldn't be one that I
34:58would make but like because somebody
34:59else could make that yeah uh but stuff
35:01like that
35:03um and then uh and then like case
35:05studies and Vlogs so those are kind of
35:07like the buckets that that uh that we
35:10think through but most of you'll notice
35:11is just like real stuff so we don't have
35:14to come up with
35:16like what would people find interesting
35:17like well this is what I did and if they
35:19find it interesting awesome and what's
35:20like the micro there is it like one day
35:22at a time they just dump a bunch of
35:23topics on you what would we do recording
35:26because we record like twice a month
35:27okay
35:28um and this is what how much in a day
35:31okay so it's it's two full days a month
35:33is when we do the recording once we get
35:35the headquarters it'll probably be
35:36smaller chunks more frequently but for
35:38right now it's just like one eight hour
35:39day twice a month got it um but they'll
35:42have like full uh like six page uh
35:46pre-productions for every video nice of
35:49like these are these are these are the
35:51themes either store these are the the
35:52four or five stories that we think are
35:54that we've pulled from your other pieces
35:55that we think would tie well together
35:57around this topic
35:58um I talked to the team uh to get stats
36:01on some of these companies for this case
36:02study so like the media team now will
36:04talk to our subject matter experts at
36:06holdco to get like hey what was new this
36:09week did you guys do any implementations
36:10or whatever and then they'll take that
36:12and then repackage it and then that'll
36:13become content dude I mean this is a
36:15sidebar here but like I know even with
36:17Caleb and my just sense in general like
36:20you like to be friends with your staff
36:21right and which I think is good and
36:23that's how they really understand what
36:25you want and how you think as a person
36:26how do you indoctrinate them into your
36:29way of thinking I'm like a chief of
36:30staff would just be sitting and watching
36:31you and shattering you for a couple
36:32months right yeah I think it's osmosis
36:34okay I think it's just proximity and
36:36exposure and that's why that's why I'm
36:39so excited for the headquarters it's
36:40funny because as a as a previously
36:42remote before it was cool
36:45um you know that's how we scale gym
36:46launch everything we had was remote and
36:47this will be since my brick and mortar
36:49chain this will be the first in-person
36:51stuff I've done
36:52um but it's weird because I feel
36:54incredibly confident at how much of a
36:56game changer I think it's going to be
36:57dude I mean here's where I'm at right
36:59and and maybe my staff might crucify me
37:01for saying this if they find it but I
37:03I'm an introvert and I do I've been
37:06working remote at tech companies for the
37:07longest time and like we were doing
37:09hybrid even before the pandemic hit like
37:10a couple years three two but I'm just
37:13like dude you cannot replace like this
37:15right like it this is a relationship and
37:17it goes much further and I just think
37:20commercial I think commercial real
37:22estate is going to come back in the next
37:24five ten years so it just seems to be
37:26moving that way because how are you
37:27supposed to if there's this how can you
37:30compete yeah right I think you know one
37:32of the is this is kind of interesting is
37:33like if I if we had like an sop on how
37:36to handle difficult conversations right
37:39or bad news whatever
37:41if I teach an sop around that people be
37:43like okay got it these are the steps but
37:46it's incredibly different to see me get
37:48bad news and then Watch What Happens
37:51like it's a completely different
37:52experience and I think that is something
37:54that becomes memorable and that's what
37:55can change someone's Behavior way faster
37:57yeah I mean dude that like that in
37:59itself is a story and people remember
38:00stories and so when it comes to your
38:03videos
38:05because you're pretty good at just your
38:07memory I think is really good I just
38:08forget stuff right but it's like you
38:10seem to weave into stories pretty well
38:11like
38:12how much is it just second nature to you
38:15now how much are you thinking about your
38:16stories
38:18um when you're creating content yeah
38:20so the storytelling component was
38:22something that I really worked hard on
38:24and I have continued to work hard on for
38:26almost probably six years so when I
38:29started gym launch and I had to start
38:31teaching basically when I had to start
38:32teaching I realized that teaching was
38:35making connections between things that
38:37people understand and things that they
38:38don't and so that's why metaphors and
38:40analogies are so strong because they're
38:41like okay so energies so you're kind of
38:43like a car and if you put your gas in
38:45it's kind of like your body the food you
38:47know what I mean so it's like I
38:47understand this but I don't understand
38:48this but I can apply the same principles
38:50and so
38:52um when I realized that I used to just
38:53kind of like lecture people on like
38:56jargon yeah right their eyes would roll
38:59over and I just didn't get the desired
39:00result so I had to start learning like
39:02so then I started reading books on how
39:03to tell stories and um the the tldr on
39:06like how to tell a story is just uh you
39:09have a character you have an unmet
39:10desire you have an obstacle you have a
39:13guide who comes in with some sort of
39:14solution the person tries the new way
39:17yeah it works and then there's an
39:18internal achievement and an external
39:20achievement meaning like who did they
39:21become in the process and what happened
39:23on the outside and so like I just pretty
39:25much just try and think through that
39:26process of like desire unmet desire
39:28obstacle guide plan execution result
39:32the fact that you could just roll that
39:34off your tongue means like it is burned
39:36into you right because I mean I I just
39:39like sounds like the harman Circle oh is
39:41it yeah yeah like the stories are the
39:43same yeah you know what I mean yeah it's
39:44I mean it's
39:46for me I just Riff on it this I was kind
39:48of making fun of Neil and myself like
39:50when I look at both of our YouTube
39:51channels I was like you know we suck at
39:52YouTube because we just lecture people
39:54right it's like but then we we do like
39:56we do like a live recording and then I'm
39:58just sharing a story about Mr Beast two
40:00million views on Tick Tock right or
40:02anyway point is so the story is huge do
40:06you think about your hooks a lot yeah
40:08that looks everything
40:09and let me just rewind the stories real
40:11quick which books did you read to get
40:13better at storytelling
40:15um
40:16honestly I think reading fiction and
40:18then I'm a big articles guy like I don't
40:19I don't actually people would be amazed
40:21at a few books I read
40:23um I'm like really narrow
40:26I'll like binge consume a field of study
40:29and so I might read like nine books on
40:31so like when we when we started doing
40:33deals at acquisition.com I read nine
40:35books in one month on Deal making and I
40:39was like okay I feel like I have a
40:41better understanding of just the lever
40:43the tools that I have available in my
40:44tool belt that I didn't know existed but
40:46then I haven't read one since
40:48um and then same thing with like you
40:49know storytelling in general was more
40:51reading all the different uh articles
40:54and stuff that were out there about
40:55storytelling uh so that I could
40:57understand there's a million different
40:58like story you know unmet desire
41:00characters whatever but they all more or
41:02less follow that same trajectory and so
41:05to answer the first thing you said like
41:07how much do we work on the hook a lot
41:09and if that sounds like it's in contrast
41:11to what I was saying earlier it's not
41:12because if you have something that's
41:14amazing it'll get shared no matter what
41:15but if you have something that's
41:17mediocre if you have an amazing hook
41:19it'll also get shared and so if you can
41:21create an unbelievable hook you can
41:24still have content that just murders and
41:27the I'll tell you a story that isn't
41:28mine
41:29um and how it related to one so
41:32um a buddy of mine was a big infomercial
41:34guy he's a little older and he did this
41:36but he had a book that he was selling
41:38and so he had Larry King fly out and
41:40record like a one hour book infomercial
41:42promo and so it was like a big deal for
41:44him you know getting interviewed by
41:46Larry King and so he had Larry King be
41:49like and you're live with Larry like the
41:51same intro he does for all the shows and
41:52this guy's a very good marketer and so
41:54he ran the ad and he was like this
41:56thing's gonna murder I'm gonna make so
41:57much money and it tanked and he was like
41:59what is going on and so then he he was
42:02like so he started studying game footage
42:03he looked at his all-time best ads like
42:05all right I'm watching this one he
42:06watched this one and he was like
42:08I messed up the hook he's like the
42:10Hook's wrong and so he flew Larry King
42:13back out reset up the entire fake setup
42:16of Larry King live and re-recorded the
42:19first 30 seconds
42:21and then pushed out the new one with the
42:22new hook 100 million dollars in the next
42:2412 months that's crazy and so we had
42:26like my story is not nearly as
42:28significant as that but we had a video
42:29recently that was like we all were like
42:31this is a good video and it got like 5
42:33000 views or something which is pretty
42:34small for our account and so the guys
42:36just cut out the first
42:38three seconds and then it was it was
42:41basically saying like so I had this time
42:42when and then they just cut that out and
42:45just went to the when the thing happened
42:46yeah and it went from five thousand to
42:48nine hundred thousand is it because in
42:50analytics you just saw a big tank like
42:52drop off like like the they they hear
42:54the fir the first three words or five
42:55words or phrase yeah and they're like
42:57not interested yeah and so you have five
43:00seconds but it's more like two yeah or
43:03like two milliseconds in the shorts yeah
43:05tiny but it makes all the difference in
43:07the world
43:08so going back to your team then like is
43:11most of your content team based here I'm
43:13gonna give a really good go for it sexy
43:14tactic yes so this is something that I
43:16haven't even shared with you guys but I
43:17just had this realization so
43:19um so I had a tweet that just crushed
43:21this morning and I was thinking about
43:22this when I made it was I wanted to give
43:24a business example and then I used a the
43:27same principle in a marriage and then
43:29and then I did the generality of the
43:31principal but then I was like I should
43:33put the marriage one first because it's
43:34the way wider hook and then I did the
43:36business one and then it had the
43:37philosophical principle
43:39and then it way outperformed and so we
43:43would like when we're thinking about our
43:44hooks we'll probably go wide
43:47business principle uh rather than like
43:51any of the other versions of that so
43:52that we can get a you know wider demo
43:54but anyways this just like live kind of
43:56a strategy yeah I just enjoy the game
43:58like I think I think it's fun to learn
43:59the stuff you fell in business love with
44:02Layla first before you fell in love what
44:05do you mean by that
44:06well I liked her mind first
44:09um I mean I pitched on working for me
44:10the first time we met and I was like hey
44:11this might not work out but like you
44:13should totally work for me and we can
44:14make a bunch of money together and um I
44:17just said like plain black and white
44:18I'll pay you twice as much as you're
44:20currently making so but still look at
44:22the offer independent of me like it
44:24should make sense for you
44:25um and so obviously she said no for the
44:27first 30 days because I asked her every
44:29day
44:29um and she said no but then when I did
44:31the turnaround business launch three
44:32gyms came back with a big stack of money
44:35um she was like oh so this works I was
44:36like yeah and the I mean the first
44:38question you actually asked me after we
44:39process all the money because I did it
44:40together yeah a little bit of flex
44:42um we process like 120 Grand in like 45
44:45minutes and she was like I mean I'm 27
44:47she's 23. she's yeah whoa
44:49um she's like is this legal yeah your
44:52first couple of dates were you guys just
44:54like working at Starbucks or something
44:55yeah just working the other yeah I mean
44:57I didn't uh it was weird because like I
45:00just I just like liked hanging with her
45:02like I just liked her around yeah and
45:05that was uh like whenever I had the
45:06choice of like me being alone and me
45:08being with Layla I just like always
45:10wanted to be with her and she kind of
45:11had the same thing and so but we didn't
45:13have like romance chemically love until
45:16much later yeah um but I got her to quit
45:18her job and fly out with me within like
45:20six weeks and even when you guys got
45:22married you I think you like you weren't
45:25in love love yeah right really like at
45:27what point did you say she's gonna be
45:28one but we're not in love love yet
45:31um I have to say that we like really got
45:32into like love love in December of 19.
45:34okay so that was two years two and a
45:37half years after we got married okay and
45:39that was because we made a conscious
45:40decision um we were actually both pretty
45:42miserable
45:43um mostly because we were and I was
45:46really upfront about this and we both
45:47agreed I said listen here's here are the
45:49priorities I was like business and then
45:52us we got to feed the business and the
45:53business feeds us that's how this works
45:55and in December of 19
45:57um we were both like we had this like
45:59deep conversation where she's like I'm
46:01just like not happy with this and I was
46:03like me neither and so we're like I
46:06think we I think our premise was wrong
46:07and so we said well what if we just like
46:08made marriage the priority and then the
46:10business would flow from that yeah and
46:12so that's when we flipped everything and
46:14um it's actually been great since then
46:16um and again it was fine it wasn't like
46:18you know combative it was just it's just
46:20much better yeah and I think you said
46:22this before it's love is something that
46:25you decide to work on it's not it's like
46:27an active thing it's not a passive I
46:29also think there's a lot of different
46:30versions of relationships like if you
46:31think about your friendships like like
46:33your friendships with like seven
46:34different dudes that you know yeah you
46:36probably have like the the relationship
46:37is different with all of them and so I
46:39think love is a really General word and
46:41we're just more limited by like our
46:42vocabulary than anything else like I
46:44think Layla and I have a very different
46:45love than most people who are yeah
46:47married and together but I would say
46:49that it is absolutely founded in respect
46:50and um that to me was probably the most
46:54unique aspect of my relationship with
46:55her was that I I just respected her
46:58and she respects me and I would say
47:00until that point I probably had the more
47:02traditional relationships that were just
47:03like more lovey-dovey more chemically
47:05more robots Etc
47:07um but the thing is like I'm a really
47:09extreme person and so if someone doesn't
47:11like what I like like they're not going
47:13to see me very much and if they do and
47:16if they are that way anytime I do
47:18something it's gonna feel like I'm doing
47:20them a favor
47:22yeah that that tally Board of like who's
47:25doing you a favor is it would get way
47:28out of whack really fast and then I'll
47:29start resenting them because I'm like I
47:31want to do this other thing and it's not
47:32that I don't love you yeah I just want
47:34to work and that's what I want to do and
47:36so the fact that she just like the
47:38biggest thing that made me really love
47:39Layla was just that she has never tried
47:42to change me yeah like she just it was
47:44pure acceptance on this is Alex like I'm
47:47not gonna get him to dress a certain way
47:48I'm not going to get him to behave a
47:50certain way talk like I'm not going to
47:52ask him nothing she just is like you do
47:55you and I will do me next to you and as
47:59long as we've grown where we're going
48:01we'll get there and have a good time and
48:03that's who told me this um Neil told me
48:05this actually it's like I was like so
48:06why did you decide that um his wife is
48:08the one right Michelle yeah and um he's
48:10like she just let me be me yeah and and
48:13like you know we've dated right I've
48:15seen you know people come and go but um
48:17and then now you know he's he's hounding
48:19me about kids all the time right he's
48:21like you gotta get married to have kids
48:22right he's lecturing everyone um last
48:24week I might think he's lecturing Syed
48:26um the WordPress
48:27um the king and he's like you need to
48:29have more kids but where I'm going with
48:31this is do you think kids will be on the
48:34horizon for you that will change things
48:37I think it's possible I mean I was still
48:39young like I mean we have time
48:41um I mean you're still young like yeah I
48:43mean right yeah but like I'm not the
48:45limiter you know what I mean for youth
48:47in terms of appropriation
48:48um but yeah I mean she's still young and
48:50if we work cool either way yeah so if it
48:53happened like if she got pregnant
48:55tomorrow like we have a kid yeah I mean
48:57this is like this is all like conjecture
48:59at the end of the day because like you
49:00guys adapted your marriage a little and
49:02then it might adapt to the next level
49:03it's all levels right yeah I'm not
49:05worried about it yeah um I I think I
49:07would I would like to have kids at some
49:09point kind of like when people who don't
49:10who are employed or like I'd like to
49:12start a business someday yeah it's it's
49:13an easy thing to say you know yeah it
49:16sounds great but I'm sure it would be
49:17very different all right we're gonna go
49:18back to content and then I got a bunch
49:19of bunch of stuff to double down on here
49:22um so the going back to the structure of
49:26your content team like a were they based
49:29mostly and then who are kind of the key
49:31players there we're all us-based okay
49:33and most of them are West Coast because
49:34we're on the west coast so
49:37um I think right now 100 no we have one
49:39person on the East Coast everybody else
49:41is either uh Southern California or
49:44Vegas yep so what what I found is
49:48hey the reason I'm asking that is
49:49because what I what I've seen as fail on
49:51content it's because we've gone cheap
49:54and rely too much on offshore and it's
49:56like Dude Where's the strategy like
49:57grammatical mistakes they're picking the
49:59wrong areas for the hooks right so you
50:01nodding your head over there like wrong
50:02areas for the hooks just bad part like
50:04there is no story and it's like no
50:07wonder everything's falling flat and you
50:08look at the metrics right and you're
50:09nodding your head seems like it's
50:10happened to you oh I mean early yeah um
50:12but I think the big thing that everyone
50:14messes up with the content and even even
50:16the quote going cheap is that like they
50:18have to understand brand
50:20and that was I mean that's been my big
50:21Epiphany after post gym launch was I
50:24didn't understand brand when I had gym
50:26launch like I understand I don't say I
50:27understand brand but I have a much
50:28better idea of it now
50:30um and like so like my team right now
50:33has so much footage and they could clip
50:35a bunch of moments during the Vlog days
50:39and make me look bad
50:41and get a zillion views
50:43like we could do that but that doesn't
50:45help me and so a lot of people will do
50:48anything for the algorithm they become
50:50algo [ __ ] is what we call it
50:53um which is just like this is really hot
50:54right now we should make that stuff but
50:55like I'm not gonna like I If it's not if
50:59it's not on brand for me if it's not
51:01something I'm an expert in I'm not going
51:02to talk about it right and that's I
51:03think that's that's my one piece of
51:05advice for anybody who's like get
51:07starting to get into the game of content
51:08is like just talk about stuff you know
51:10about like don't worry like
51:12just don't pretend to be someone you're
51:13not like if you if you're only good at
51:15sewing then just talk about sewing don't
51:17start making content about how people
51:18should invest their money like just talk
51:20about sewing let me ask you this when
51:23you produce content now those full days
51:25now are you very much looking forward to
51:26and are you enjoying it when you're
51:28creating your content it really all
51:29depends on how much I've slept the night
51:31before
51:32look it's actually like the biggest
51:33factor it's just like how much have I
51:34slept the night before
51:36um like we just had a reporting day
51:37recently and I I basically didn't sleep
51:39at all the two nights before
51:41um and so like that was like I had to
51:43use willpower
51:44um but most times I don't have to use
51:45willpower I can just I can just rock and
51:47roll yeah and so you feel like for the
51:49most part when you let's assume you had
51:51a good night of sleep you feel like
51:52you're creating the content that you
51:53want to create I think it's always an
51:55evolving process I mean I think it's
51:56more like a pendulum I mean I think like
51:58it's more um a dichotomy to be managed
52:00than a problem to be solved and so
52:02there's like stuff that I super super
52:04[ __ ] with exclusively and then there's
52:06stuff that the audience absolutely loves
52:07and the algorithm loves and so we just
52:10try and find that middle ground
52:12um and if anything we'll probably right
52:13of center of like if Alex doesn't like
52:15it he's not gonna keep doing it yeah so
52:16yeah but like I'm looking at this on
52:18like a 20-year time Horizon and so you
52:20know we had a video that uh that we that
52:23was ready for this week that we were
52:24supposed to post and then we I saw it
52:26and I was like I don't want to post it
52:27yeah and so we didn't have a YouTube
52:29video about this week and
52:32I Will Survive I like it and so the now
52:36just trying to think from the team's
52:37perspective like all the hard work on
52:39like the edits the jump cuts the
52:41thumbnails and all that
52:43um how much effort are you putting into
52:45that now because like I actually that
52:47that one talk that you did recently I
52:50saw the I saw the headline change like
52:53three times in the span of a couple
52:55hours so yeah what's going into all the
52:56testing right now yeah it's right off
52:57the bat so our head of YouTube
53:00um I mean we'll still do a good job
53:02we'll still split tests like we would
53:03for an ad you know we'll try different
53:05headlines for different thumbnails
53:06because at the end of the day like the
53:07mission is to get real business
53:08education accessible to everyone and
53:10that means we have to meet people where
53:11they're at which is why I have to tie in
53:12more stories and I don't just like
53:13review Excel sheets on on YouTube screen
53:17shares you know I mean because like
53:18that's not going to help anyone yeah
53:19it's in fact it'll help basically no one
53:22um and so we have to make accessible
53:23which is part of the reason the Vlog is
53:25it's like that is it's a form of
53:27consumption that a lot of people can do
53:28and so we were going to be doing more of
53:31that because
53:32more people can consume it and benefit
53:35from it we will play the game just like
53:36anyone else does um but as but the thing
53:38is is like they will send me thumbnails
53:41and headlines and I'll be like that's
53:42not that's not true yeah or
53:45um I don't like how this makes the
53:48person that we're talking about the
53:49video sound yeah
53:51um I think it was like I'll give an
53:53example we had uh we had an affiliate
53:54video that went out basically explaining
53:56how you can use Affiliates to promote a
53:57business and I was talking about it
53:59within the context of the book that's
54:00like my next book that's coming out yeah
54:02and I think one of the headlines of a
54:03test that was sent to me was something
54:04like how I got or how I convinced yeah I
54:08think it was how I convinced 12 000
54:10people to promote my book and I was like
54:13if I'm an affiliate and I see that
54:15headline I was like that doesn't make me
54:16feel good
54:17and so I was so I was talking to you I
54:19was like we have to think about we have
54:20to think about it from every angle so
54:21there's there's the Alex brand angle
54:24does this reinforce or dilute the values
54:27that we have in the position that we
54:29want to associate ourselves with
54:31then we have the uh the audience like
54:34who's actually watching this does this
54:35make them feel uh more aligned with that
54:37that ultimate Mission does this leave
54:39them better than they were than they
54:41started and then it's also who's the
54:43subject of the content right like I
54:45could make content that makes me look
54:47fine and the audience would enjoy but
54:48it's me bashing somebody that's not
54:50going to be that's I'm never gonna do
54:52that because I would never I would never
54:54do that if we don't have a win-win-win
54:56then it's not right and we will keep
54:57doing it until we have a win-win-win got
54:59it I love that and that that aligns with
55:01your values yeah the unimpeachable
55:03character yeah I'm never gonna I'm never
55:04gonna throw [ __ ] I'll criticize
55:05generally and I will pray specifically
55:08Warren Buffett yeah
55:10all this so you have Mosey media right
55:12now you've got the Vlog you've got this
55:15the new studio coming and then this this
55:18podcasting I mean you've got two full
55:20days that you record already I mentioned
55:22I imagine this has to start getting
55:23annoying at some point before you're
55:25doing a ton of PODS but it makes sense
55:26because you're on the book tour right
55:27now so I only do podcasts with people
55:29that I feel like doing podcasts with so
55:30if I like so this is actually this might
55:33be kind of interesting
55:34um I will only do so this is for anybody
55:36who's trying to get me on a podcast
55:38I will do podcasts if I think the person
55:40who's doing the interviewing has good
55:42questions so I did one recently with
55:44somebody who had no like a very small
55:47audience yeah but I saw or the team had
55:50seen that he like did a ton of research
55:52on every person would watch like 50
55:54hours of content to ask like really good
55:56in-depth questions not like so tell me
55:59your origin story it's Danny right yeah
56:01yeah yeah yeah and so uh yeah Danny did
56:03a great job yeah um and so I'm like and
56:06he's doing it absolutely the right way
56:07which is like do the work and you can
56:10and you can bat outside of your outside
56:12of your league if you do the work but
56:14the flip side is like I've if somebody's
56:16got like they've been doing a podcast
56:17they've got 500 episodes
56:19they've never taken off and the first
56:22question that they ask in every video is
56:24like so tell me about yourself
56:26no thank you I'm just not interested
56:27like my audience already has 50 podcasts
56:31they can watch of me saying the exact
56:32same story yeah and so I would like to
56:34there's an element of of there's Their
56:36audience and I can do the tldr on that
56:39like in two minutes which I can
56:40understand but I'd prefer them just
56:41provide the context for me so we can
56:43actually like rip in more yeah but
56:45that's the
56:46um I don't like I enjoy the good
56:47conversations the hard part is just how
56:49many do you have yeah um and which ones
56:51do you pick because like right now I
56:52think we get like 10 requests a day yeah
56:54uh for podcasts yeah it's a lot um and I
56:57feel bad because you I wanna I want to
56:59say yes but mathematically it can't
57:02um it's not even like a reschedule it's
57:03just like it's just a no yeah
57:06um and so it really comes down to the
57:08quality of the interview
57:09um and if we can do it in person I feel
57:12like the the in-person podcasts
57:16outperform the zoom podcasts it's
57:18literally just like all of the in
57:20persons and then like all of the zooms
57:22yeah so like the best zoom podcast is
57:24probably like about as good as like the
57:26worst in-person podcast dude I mean I
57:29enjoy these right because these are much
57:30longer I think if we did this on zoo
57:31we'd probably be like an hour or so and
57:33you get I don't know why I feel like I'm
57:34way more I'm like wait I I feel like I
57:36tire out faster right like less
57:38interested I don't know just staring on
57:39a screen yeah maybe yeah
57:41um I wanted to start to dovetail this
57:43into the the book but just
57:45I'm curious you started to Compound on
57:48all the channels right Twitter LinkedIn
57:50everything how are you compounding are
57:52you like you're a numbers guide too like
57:54you're tracking the month-over-month
57:55growth like how are you looking on those
57:57I see the compounding as a consequence
57:59of what we're doing rather than the goal
58:01um what do you mean by that yeah so like
58:03we're human and we love having things
58:05that we can measure and the more ways
58:06you measure the more we can win so I can
58:08appreciate that but like we're big on if
58:11we have a piece of content that we're
58:12like this is going to really help
58:13someone and even if it's not super wide
58:15and we know it's not going to get it's
58:17not going to perform we'll we'll push it
58:19for sure and so it's I think it's really
58:22been all about the too good to fail it's
58:24like as long as we make sure that what
58:27we're putting out is high quality and
58:28that I am proud to have it out there
58:32um it's kind of like the rest will take
58:33care of itself like we will do our jobs
58:35we will do a good job we will do all of
58:37the basics and we will do it every time
58:39and if we do that on a long enough time
58:40Horizon we will get the result we want
58:42yep makes sense and as you're talking
58:45out just for whatever reason I just
58:47started thinking about
58:48your Twitter workflow which I think is
58:51probably the most interesting to you
58:52because you're you're right yeah the
58:55only one that I'm directly posting yeah
58:56you're taking a poop while you're doing
58:57it or like what are you no actually um
58:59where do these thoughts come from so the
59:01two places one is I wake up with them
59:03yeah so I usually wake up with like
59:05three or four Tweets in my head and I
59:07won't usually even get out of bed until
59:08I put them in that is nuts and so yeah
59:10so like you'll see all like a lot of my
59:12tweets are front loaded for the day
59:13because but they're super refined too
59:16I think Twitter Loki is the single
59:19greatest tool for learning how to write
59:21yeah because it forces you to have work
59:23incision and you get immediate feedback
59:25and so you've completely hits feel so
59:27good like there's just the feedback on
59:29the language I mean you get to learn
59:31really quickly and it's based on your
59:33words so I think they're like there are
59:35two things that have improved my writing
59:36more than anything Hemingway the app and
59:38Twitter like the two things that have
59:39improved my writing the most use
59:41Hemingway to tweet no no no but like
59:43when I wrote like when I write the book
59:45yeah that has helped me and and Twitter
59:47got it um but you said so the so from
59:50the the second place that I do it is
59:52when things come up naturally during the
59:53day and so
59:54I'll say something on a meeting and like
59:57literally like the team would be like
59:58that's a tweet and then I'll just I'll
1:00:00just fire it off yeah like but there's
1:00:01there's no um there's no Cadence there's
1:00:04no ghostwriters there's no like you'll
1:00:05also see two days in a row where I won't
1:00:07tweet at all so like it's just whatever
1:00:08and some days I'll tweet like 11 times
1:00:10yeah like it's just if I'm in the zone
1:00:11makes sense um I think there's a lot of
1:00:13wisdom there I I just I think there's a
1:00:15lot of Beauty in the written word and if
1:00:16you can articulate yourself that way
1:00:18then it's like your next level well dude
1:00:20I had a guy um a really a really
1:00:22successful uh Tech entrepreneur so he
1:00:25had two unicorn exits so like really
1:00:27successful hit me up on Twitter and we
1:00:30hopped on a zoom call and he was like
1:00:31dude so what's your Twitter strategy uh
1:00:33are you like in one of these engagement
1:00:34groups and I was like no and he's like
1:00:36oh dude I won't tell anybody like just
1:00:37like what's the like what's the what's
1:00:39the Playbook and I was like
1:00:41I twitch it as I think of it yeah
1:00:45yeah just like he asked like three or
1:00:46four times like he just wouldn't believe
1:00:48it I'm like yeah
1:00:49that's what it is and so and you'll
1:00:51notice because
1:00:52the tweets are usually like themed
1:00:54because it's just like top of mind so if
1:00:56I'm feeling because usually I'm tweeting
1:00:58to myself and that's what people don't
1:01:00get like my tweets are me trying to bang
1:01:02myself in the head and be like dude like
1:01:04be [ __ ] patient or like relax yeah
1:01:06like you know whatever it is or like you
1:01:08don't need to care about this person's
1:01:09opinion and so like they're so violent
1:01:11because I'm in the moment of discomfort
1:01:13and I write that to myself to get over
1:01:15the moment and move on with my day dude
1:01:16that's so funny it's like what we'll
1:01:18talk about in you your 80 year old self
1:01:20mentoring you but it's it's it it's
1:01:23weird how we use it in our own like you
1:01:24use it to beat yourself beat yourself up
1:01:26or no no sorry I use it to beat myself
1:01:28up sometimes yeah you're talking to
1:01:30yourself just like it's like reminders
1:01:32for yourself right and Gary is like to
1:01:34motivate people right so it's just
1:01:36interesting but okay so how does now the
1:01:40first book that you release 100 million
1:01:41dollar offers you sold what how many
1:01:43copies I think it's about 500 000 500
1:01:45that's a lot right
1:01:46um like what I saw like 12 000 positive
1:01:49five star reviews across 16. 16 000.
1:01:53no advertising right this by the way let
1:01:56me just read one for a second the guy
1:01:58that got on a zoom call with you he
1:02:00wouldn't believe it it's like when your
1:02:02shit's so good you don't need to game
1:02:04the system that is already the game too
1:02:06good to fail like that's the line yeah
1:02:07too good to fail I had a I had a
1:02:09roommate of mine who said that I was
1:02:11like what because this is way back when
1:02:12I had my gyms
1:02:14um and I only had one gym so like way
1:02:15back in the day and he had an online
1:02:17business so it was like way early a
1:02:18decade ago right yeah and I was like so
1:02:20what's your strategy for and he was like
1:02:22he was doing like blogging SEO stuff
1:02:23back then and he said that statement to
1:02:27me and he was like I don't do anything
1:02:28else he's like I just make sure that my
1:02:30articles are so exceptional that people
1:02:33share them and he would spend two weeks
1:02:36on one article but then they would crush
1:02:38and get shared all over the place and
1:02:39now he has a business probably worth
1:02:40like 60 70 million now wow and we were
1:02:42just like roommates in a house like just
1:02:44right yeah that's awesome okay so back
1:02:46to the book so you did the first one
1:02:48what did you I mean it's a labor of love
1:02:51first anybody that's written a book
1:02:52before you know it's a labor of love and
1:02:54plus use you like 10x 20x just to make
1:02:57sure it's damn good first book was
1:02:58amazing right what made you so quickly
1:03:01want to go to the next one and what are
1:03:04you looking to get out of it
1:03:08it man writing books is like such not a
1:03:11good use of time
1:03:13um as much like
1:03:15it's it's like it's something it's it's
1:03:17honestly like a guilty pleasure like I
1:03:19it takes too much of my time and I enjoy
1:03:21it because a lot of people don't know
1:03:22this about my background but like I was
1:03:23the vice as Vice editor of the um
1:03:26of the newspaper I was the
1:03:28editor-in-chief of the literary magazine
1:03:29I got a writing scholarship going in
1:03:31college like I've been writing a long
1:03:32time and I enjoy writing
1:03:34um and so this is the only thing that I
1:03:36get to marry my two loves where like I
1:03:37love writing and I love business yeah
1:03:39and so it's like it's my Like Chief form
1:03:41of expression that's why Twitter is kind
1:03:42of like a microcosm of that
1:03:44um
1:03:45but the point of 100 million dollar
1:03:47leads was to answer one question and uh
1:03:49the first one 100 million offers
1:03:50answered the question what do I sell
1:03:53leads answers the question who do I sell
1:03:55it to and so most people
1:03:59once they have something to sell they're
1:04:00like okay now what and this book pretty
1:04:02much walks you through how to get your I
1:04:05mean basically this book can get most
1:04:06people to a few million dollars a year
1:04:08um that I mean that's it and so I see
1:04:11this like the books are my absolute long
1:04:13game because the amount of guys that I
1:04:15see every single day that stop me like
1:04:17when we're walking who are like dude I'm
1:04:1921 I've got my thing I'm doing you know
1:04:2270 grand a month and you're on my vision
1:04:24board as soon as I cross a million
1:04:26dollars in profit like I'm hitting you
1:04:27up and so like there are so many of
1:04:29those guys right now who are like
1:04:30incubating that I know in three years
1:04:32five years ten years are gonna hit that
1:04:34and I just want to be the first person
1:04:36they call right and that's it and like
1:04:38that's a long it's my longest game like
1:04:41the books are my apps which is why I
1:04:43spend so much time on them because if
1:04:45they're not going to be good enough to
1:04:47still be referred to and sold in a
1:04:50decade there's no point in me writing it
1:04:52today yeah like what I get the book
1:04:54launch money like it cost me more money
1:04:56to put the event on that I'm probably
1:04:57gonna make from the book right you know
1:04:59what I mean and the media team my my
1:05:02losing money media team
1:05:03um
1:05:06um no you guys you guys are awesome
1:05:08um writing a book to make money off a
1:05:10book is possibly the worst monetization
1:05:12vehicle of all time it's a physical
1:05:13product you have a 16 week lead time you
1:05:16have to manage inventory counts you make
1:05:18no money on it you have to sell it on a
1:05:19platform that takes 80 of the money or
1:05:21you have to go to a publisher that also
1:05:23takes 80 of the money like
1:05:25there's no winning from a money like
1:05:27yeah the percentage of like the offers
1:05:30is top top 100 audible books still on
1:05:34Amazon two years later and top 1 000
1:05:37physical books wow there's there's like
1:05:3960 there's I think 60 million titles
1:05:43either six or 60 million that's a big
1:05:44difference obviously but a lot of books
1:05:46on Amazon and so it's a
1:05:49.000 one percent book
1:05:51and like it does I mean it makes money
1:05:53but like it makes less than any of my
1:05:56portfolio companies yeah to give like a
1:05:57a reference of scale yeah I mean you're
1:05:59not retiring from right now yeah I mean
1:06:01if I spent no money you know I mean like
1:06:03any of the companies we have makes more
1:06:05money in the book right yeah makes sense
1:06:07I mean but it's still it's like it lives
1:06:09on forever and that's cool and I think
1:06:11that's that's like the like if I were to
1:06:13Die Tomorrow the thing I'd be most proud
1:06:15of is the books because I knew that that
1:06:16would be the thing that would outlive me
1:06:18the longest yeah which is interesting
1:06:20we'll come back to the book in a second
1:06:21but I think you talked about how you
1:06:23don't believe in the concept of of
1:06:24Legacy yeah right
1:06:26um kind of is your legacy in the formal
1:06:28sense yeah I don't believe in individual
1:06:30Legacy yeah um yeah so like I don't
1:06:33believe in your name being passed on for
1:06:37thousands of generations I mean like to
1:06:39prove the point do you know what your
1:06:41great-great-great-grandfather's name was
1:06:42probably not
1:06:43right and so like that's not even that
1:06:45many generations back and so to have
1:06:46like the ego and the thinking that like
1:06:48you're somehow like your progeny aren't
1:06:49even if you somehow became king of the
1:06:51world yeah and you did have that they
1:06:52wouldn't know who you were you would
1:06:53just be like another historical figure
1:06:55that they could then Trace their
1:06:56bloodline back to and then if you do the
1:06:57math on how related you are to them like
1:06:59if you go you know 0.5 to the eighth I
1:07:02mean you're you're not related you're
1:07:04just another human and in that to that
1:07:06degree then it then relation generalizes
1:07:09to all of humanity and then you just
1:07:10become a humanitarian in which case I am
1:07:12uh pro-legacy from that perspective and
1:07:14I think that the ultimate Legacy is
1:07:16education because all of us here are
1:07:18sitting here in a house full of
1:07:20inventions that other people that we
1:07:21don't know invented and made our lives
1:07:23better and that I think is like the
1:07:25ultimate Legacy for Humanity is that we
1:07:26just fall and someone picks up the Baton
1:07:29where we left off and carries it but
1:07:31like I think the ultimate wasted life is
1:07:32one where you learn lessons and pass it
1:07:34on to No One enforce someone to quite
1:07:36truly reinvent the wheel you know Naval
1:07:39has um so the book he recommends the
1:07:40most is the I think it's the beginning
1:07:42of infinity or something like that yeah
1:07:43David Deutsch or whatever so this dude
1:07:46and it's like a super dense read um but
1:07:48like I haven't completed it but this
1:07:51guy's like you know what is wealth and
1:07:55wealth is knowledge to your point you
1:07:56just said it's education right like that
1:07:58is the thing that continues to compound
1:07:59Beyond you and me it lasts Beyond money
1:08:01yeah and like that is what should matter
1:08:03like how do we make people wealthy we
1:08:05educate them and if you think about the
1:08:07the reverse of that too
1:08:09if you had a lot of money and you gave
1:08:11it to someone how would you guarantee
1:08:13that they lose the money you have them
1:08:14completely uneducated and completely
1:08:15ignorant and so there's a there's I
1:08:18think it's sanskrits it's a super old
1:08:19like ISM but it says if you have a bad
1:08:23son
1:08:24there's no point in saving money
1:08:26if you have a good son there's no point
1:08:28in saving money
1:08:29because you have the good son he'll take
1:08:31care of himself if you have a bad side
1:08:32he's going to squander everything you
1:08:33have which basically means that at no
1:08:34point does it ever matter what you
1:08:36accumulate because either you passed on
1:08:38education in which case they never
1:08:39needed you to begin with OR you pass on
1:08:41no education and they're going to lose
1:08:42everything you had that's so good
1:08:45but I this is the thing you look at all
1:08:47the the wealthy people they can't help
1:08:48themselves they have to give it to your
1:08:49kids and we don't have kids yet right
1:08:51but I suspect if we have kids right it's
1:08:54just like
1:08:55you probably end up giving it to the
1:08:57kids right well I think
1:08:59um I really like thinking of like I mean
1:09:01and I'll probably be different when I
1:09:03have children but I don't know how
1:09:05different people will be surprised
1:09:07um if like if I wanted to create a human
1:09:08that had certain character traits I
1:09:10would then think okay what are the what
1:09:11are the experiences someone has to go
1:09:12through to have that happen and I would
1:09:14try and reverse engineer as many of
1:09:15those as I could and like having Uber
1:09:17wealth throughout your entire life and
1:09:19having a guaranteed ease of of eating
1:09:23and living and whatever
1:09:24is a great way to guarantee not
1:09:26guarantee is a great way to increase the
1:09:27likelihood that someone does not turn
1:09:29out good yeah and so I wouldn't want to
1:09:31spend the rest of my life
1:09:33after their 20 with a bunch of people I
1:09:35didn't like and so I would rather have
1:09:37them suffer to become the types of
1:09:39people that I'd want to spend the rest
1:09:40of my life with I'm with you man it's uh
1:09:43I mean let's let's rewind to our
1:09:45childhoods real quick because we it's
1:09:47for me tiger mom right it's difficult
1:09:49you're never good enough right I think
1:09:50similar kind of story for you do you
1:09:53want to talk about maybe how your
1:09:54childhood shaped you into who you are
1:09:55because I feel like there's part of you
1:09:57that's really compassionate but then
1:09:58there's the other side that's really
1:09:59tough on yourself and sometimes tough on
1:10:01other people too yeah well as a quick
1:10:03side note on this
1:10:04um I think because I've had this
1:10:06question in different forms on a couple
1:10:08podcasts about like the struggle growing
1:10:10up Etc and how that creates success now
1:10:12but I really think it's
1:10:15people suffer during childhood some
1:10:17people are successful and some people
1:10:19aren't
1:10:20like there's just as many people or not
1:10:22even way more people who have terrible
1:10:24childhoods and then don't do anything
1:10:26out of it true and so I don't to point
1:10:29back to a terrible childhood and say not
1:10:31that I had a terrible child but like to
1:10:33tough times and say that that is why I'm
1:10:35here the why is really difficult and I
1:10:37don't think anyone can answer the
1:10:38question I just know that I do these
1:10:40things because I've been reinforced for
1:10:41doing them and so that's like the Only
1:10:43Rule or law of humanity that I see is
1:10:45that you're either reward or punishment
1:10:46punished for doing the things that
1:10:48you've done and you either avoid things
1:10:49you've been punished for in the past
1:10:50even and then you keep doing things
1:10:52you're rewarded for and so like I keep
1:10:54working harder and harder on things
1:10:55because my minimum standard continues to
1:10:57rise because the more I raise that
1:10:58minimum standard the better the things
1:10:59that I have are and the more reinforced
1:11:01I am for working hard on the things that
1:11:02I work on which brings me to a quote
1:11:04over here most people keep fighting the
1:11:06same boss but the boss is being able to
1:11:08stick with it yeah and you had to learn
1:11:10that the hard way right yeah yeah
1:11:12um here I'll give you another one over
1:11:14here I'll give you your your moseyism is
1:11:16that a thing moseyisms to do something
1:11:18epic you have to convince yourself to do
1:11:20the same thing for a long period of time
1:11:21without telling yourself that you're
1:11:23smarter than you are this talk that you
1:11:24did
1:11:25um I think the talk I'm paraphrasing
1:11:27here was how you're this will change how
1:11:30you think about money or something like
1:11:31that right
1:11:32um but this talk was really about focus
1:11:34at the end of the day
1:11:35and you went to Yogurtland and decided
1:11:39that you had to redo your talk and focus
1:11:41the talk on Focus what happened there
1:11:43yeah and all these guys who were coming
1:11:45up so I so I got so I was supposed to
1:11:47speak at this event and I'd already
1:11:49finished the the presentation and
1:11:51part of the reason I don't speak very
1:11:52much is because on stages
1:11:54um one I don't like how people use my
1:11:55face to promote because again
1:11:56associations I don't want yeah
1:11:58um but also because it means
1:12:01to just give this to everybody else like
1:12:03a lot of people will promote with my
1:12:05face and then people will buy whatever
1:12:06the person who's at the event is selling
1:12:08and I have no association or anything
1:12:10and I have no way to I don't have the
1:12:11time to do the due diligence on figuring
1:12:12the person out so like if I speak
1:12:13somewhere it's not because I'm endorsing
1:12:14the person but that being said
1:12:17um I went to the Yogurtland and like
1:12:19eight or nine people were in the area
1:12:22for the next day and they sat around us
1:12:25and I spent like 60 minutes talking to
1:12:27all these guys and it became really
1:12:29clear that all of them were distracted
1:12:31they were all doing multiple things
1:12:33trying to like they they subscribe to
1:12:36the single fallacy that I think is
1:12:38number one in new entrepreneurs which is
1:12:39the uh I'll see which one works yeah
1:12:42fallacy yeah and the reality is that any
1:12:45of them could work but the only one that
1:12:47will work is the one that you work on
1:12:49and so you have to commit to one of them
1:12:52because it's just it's arrogant to think
1:12:53that you going 25 in on four things is
1:12:58because you are competing in a real
1:13:00Marketplace against somebody else that's
1:13:01in that space and to think that your 25
1:13:03is going to do anything against
1:13:05someone's hundred percent it's just
1:13:07arrogant and so
1:13:09um and one of the definitions of
1:13:11commitment that I like a lot is the
1:13:12elimination of Alternatives and so if
1:13:14you want to be committed to something
1:13:16then you have to eliminate Alternatives
1:13:17and some people use you know dicadery
1:13:19which is the Latin root of decide which
1:13:21means to kill off which is like what are
1:13:22we killing off and I think um it's kind
1:13:25of like pruning a tree uh and when I
1:13:27realize that it's like you have there's
1:13:28only so much nutrients in the soil
1:13:29they're only so many minutes in the day
1:13:30so much literal attention and focus that
1:13:32you can allocate and if anyone's ever
1:13:35worked on one project for a long period
1:13:36of time you realize that you start
1:13:38peeling back layers and getting a depths
1:13:40of understanding that you can never get
1:13:41when you're on the surface level looking
1:13:43at multiple things you're barely being
1:13:44reactive and setting up fires you can
1:13:46never make progress and like drive and I
1:13:49think that like
1:13:51this is a Warren Buffett quote to to
1:13:53give the goat his his due
1:13:55um he said the difference between
1:13:56successful people and really successful
1:13:57people is that really successful people
1:13:59say no to almost everything
1:14:01um and I think that that's it's just
1:14:02taking me a very long time to learn that
1:14:04and I
1:14:06continue to repeat it in my tweets
1:14:08because it's still just as hard for me
1:14:10now as it was then it's because the
1:14:12thing is is that the opportunities I
1:14:13have to say no to now are things that I
1:14:14would have given my left nut for you
1:14:16know a decade ago uh and so it's it's
1:14:19just it's Contin like the bars continue
1:14:21to rise on what I have to say no to and
1:14:23it's hard the whole way through and one
1:14:25of the big unlocks for me has been
1:14:27judging myself based on my actions and
1:14:30not my feelings meaning I can feel
1:14:32impatient
1:14:33but still do the patient thing so I
1:14:36might still want this to go faster and
1:14:38be upset that it's not going faster as
1:14:40long as they don't act on that impulse I
1:14:42can still be a patient person yeah and
1:14:44so
1:14:45to the same degree with Focus I might be
1:14:46interested in love jamming with the guys
1:14:48on like what if we did this what if we
1:14:50did that what if we did that but as long
1:14:51as I don't say all right buy the URL
1:14:53let's get the bank out set up let's go
1:14:54as long as I don't do that then like
1:14:57we're still focused on the one thing
1:14:59that matters most it must be tough
1:15:01because it's you're you're trying to
1:15:03educate people on the pain that you've
1:15:06been through right again be punched into
1:15:08gut nine things right but still like I
1:15:11don't know about you but in my early 20s
1:15:13I remember like yeah focus focus I would
1:15:15read you know Warren Buffett Steve not
1:15:16Steve just Warren Buffett
1:15:18um you know Bill Gates yeah the one
1:15:20thing is Focus right like you know
1:15:22and but then it's like no no but like
1:15:24I'm better I'm smarter than that right
1:15:25that you have that quote in here it's
1:15:27like thinking that you're smarter than
1:15:28you are so I feel like
1:15:29it's as much as we try to teach people
1:15:32sometimes it's like they just need to
1:15:33get punched themselves
1:15:35I think there's a difference between
1:15:36knowing that and knowing how
1:15:39so like no going through an experience
1:15:41unfortunately teaches you in a different
1:15:44way than knowing that something happens
1:15:46or like I know I know I I know that this
1:15:48works this way but if I said like I know
1:15:51how a business works but it's like but
1:15:52you you know what to do but you've never
1:15:54done it and so until you've actually
1:15:56done it you think you know what to do
1:15:58until you go through it and so I think
1:16:00that's like that experiential knowledge
1:16:01which is honestly I think the base of
1:16:03the content what makes the difference
1:16:04between Ken McElroy's and hopefully our
1:16:06content which is like people can see a
1:16:08depth of understanding that comes from
1:16:10experience like one of my favorite
1:16:11quotes from Alex Hardwick is no man
1:16:12within experiences ever at the mercy of
1:16:15a man with an opinion right and until
1:16:17someone's done it all they have is an
1:16:19opinion and if you have done it they are
1:16:21irrelevant like someone's like well it
1:16:23doesn't work that way like if you've
1:16:24done it they're like no I'm like your
1:16:25opinion does not matter
1:16:30dude I I just remember uh two three
1:16:32years ago one of the guys that um that
1:16:35was leading my marketing team he's like
1:16:37so we'd have this engagement tool called
1:16:3915.5 and you could just here's how the
1:16:41week went you know here's what I'm
1:16:42learning right now and every week it's
1:16:44like watching hermosi videos watching
1:16:46her Mosey videos and this is when you
1:16:47had this is when you were just like
1:16:48maybe 20 000 subscribers or whatever
1:16:50right but it was because of the depth of
1:16:52the content that you have where it was
1:16:54just so and then I started watching it
1:16:56and it's it's like then it's like all
1:16:58the thumbnails on YouTube started the
1:16:59recommendations become started becoming
1:17:01you I was like holy [ __ ] and that's how
1:17:02you start to compound right because it's
1:17:04good stuff yeah I appreciate it yeah
1:17:06yeah it's it's um
1:17:08is I think it's been it's been really
1:17:10honest with yourself about you know we
1:17:12have the investors circle of confidence
1:17:14right I think there's a Content circle
1:17:16of competence that you have to know if
1:17:19it's not in this circle I shouldn't talk
1:17:21about it and that's not because of brand
1:17:22and that's not because of any of the
1:17:24fancy stuff it's just because you don't
1:17:25know it and like anything that you have
1:17:27to add that's outside of the circle of
1:17:29confidence will often be a
1:17:32generalization that you heard from
1:17:33someone else right and if it's a
1:17:34generalization for someone else then
1:17:36that's their opinion and not yours right
1:17:38and so we want first principles first
1:17:40experience type content and so n equals
1:17:42one right or one of zero content as we
1:17:45say
1:17:46um and that's the litmus test it's like
1:17:47is it in that is it is it something we
1:17:49know from experience and I I had this
1:17:52video I think the the long that I had
1:17:54right before this was my explanation of
1:17:55how to get to 10 million plus a month
1:17:58um and I talked about I was like and I
1:17:59think this is how we get to 100 million
1:18:01a month
1:18:02um I don't know that because I haven't
1:18:04been there yet but I'm this is my
1:18:06current plan of how to get there and
1:18:07somebody commented something camera what
1:18:09it was but it's something like uh well
1:18:11you have no idea I can I can coach you
1:18:13on it like whatever right
1:18:14um but the thing is is like it
1:18:17I will only talk about retrospect right
1:18:20right like I will only talk about things
1:18:21that I have done because I can speak
1:18:23confidently on them and if someone says
1:18:25Jim watch wasn't a company it doesn't
1:18:27bother me because it's it's like saying
1:18:29like you didn't have oatmeal for
1:18:30breakfast I'm like I mean I did so okay
1:18:32and that's that's what in my opinion has
1:18:34allowed me to not suffer from the the
1:18:38many inevitable con you know comments
1:18:40whatever you get from the the masses of
1:18:44people who don't know you
1:18:46um because if someone says hey Alex
1:18:47you're short
1:18:49I know that's not true and so
1:18:51it doesn't it doesn't hit me the only
1:18:53ones that hurt are the ones that you
1:18:54feel like have an element of Truth and
1:18:56so if there's an element of Truth it
1:18:58means that I probably stepped out of my
1:18:59circle of competence and I think getting
1:19:01stung outside of my circle has really
1:19:04taught me at least for me to stay in my
1:19:06world of like these are the few things
1:19:08that I know and that is what I'll talk
1:19:09about you know interestingly enough
1:19:11speaking of Circle of competence I think
1:19:13there's also a circle of competence when
1:19:15it comes to constant creation like you
1:19:16should stick to the format that you
1:19:17understand initially before expanding
1:19:19out right and so I really enjoy this but
1:19:22maybe I'm not the best at you know uh
1:19:25telling long-form stories or something
1:19:27like that right so I think it's like it
1:19:29really do whatever works for you play
1:19:30your cards yeah yeah
1:19:33um so going back to the book you got
1:19:35this big launch strategy happening right
1:19:36now it's like the Super Bowl like what
1:19:38can you tell us about that what's going
1:19:39on how much is that yeah
1:19:42so
1:19:43um 100 million dollar offers the first
1:19:45book I'm the goal with every book was to
1:19:48be a meta book meaning
1:19:50I wanted to use the book to demonstrate
1:19:52the ideas in the book as proof that the
1:19:55ideas worked and so 100 million dollar
1:19:58offers how to make offers so good people
1:20:00feel stupid saying no was supposed to in
1:20:01and of itself be an offer so good people
1:20:03feel stupid saying no and so I made the
1:20:05book two dollars on Kindle and I
1:20:09um added in a course that most people
1:20:11would sell for one to five thousand
1:20:13dollars on top of it and made it for
1:20:15free on my site not behind an opt-in
1:20:17wall just made it for free for everyone
1:20:18with downloads and everything
1:20:21um and the idea was if it is good enough
1:20:24people will share it and that's more or
1:20:27less what ended up happening and so with
1:20:29100 million dollar leads the meta
1:20:32concept is not about the offer The Meta
1:20:34concept within leads is advertising and
1:20:36how to get leads right and so the 24
1:20:38months that I did post the offers book
1:20:40was all towards the Leeds book and so
1:20:43the last 24 months was well if I'm going
1:20:45to talk about how to build an audience
1:20:46then I have to build an audience if I'm
1:20:48going to talk about how to run paid ads
1:20:49I have to I have to run paid ads we'll
1:20:51talk about having Affiliates I have to
1:20:52have Affiliates and so there's eight
1:20:54methods of advertising that I talk about
1:20:55in the book right and I use all eight
1:20:58specifically to promote the book to
1:21:00prove that all eight methods work ah and
1:21:03so when we go live at the event I will
1:21:06break down
1:21:07here was our affiliate strategy this is
1:21:09how many Affiliates we had this is how
1:21:11many of you are here from Affiliates
1:21:12this is how uh this is our paid con paid
1:21:15paid ad strategy these are the scripts I
1:21:17use which is directly from this page
1:21:19this is the landing page I use which is
1:21:20directly from this page and it got this
1:21:22many of you guys here I got this much
1:21:24content which is how many we put out
1:21:26over this period of time this is the
1:21:27resulting Impressions this is how many
1:21:29of you hear from that and so I wanted to
1:21:30just give proof that these concept
1:21:33worked 10 years ago and they work today
1:21:35and they'll work in 100 years because
1:21:36people won't change the platforms will
1:21:38but the principles remain the same yep
1:21:39so I mean you're basically showing hey
1:21:41like I'm showing you this in the book
1:21:43and I'm meta this is how it works right
1:21:45yeah but by the way for the Affiliates
1:21:46what are they getting out of this I mean
1:21:47it's a two dollar book like well what's
1:21:49in it for them yeah um and actually the
1:21:51the Kindle on this one is ten dollars
1:21:53because the point was not to be an offer
1:21:56the point was to be a leads thing got it
1:21:58right and the next book will be a meta
1:22:00concept on that so every book will have
1:22:02its own unique thing anyways
1:22:04um so with the Affiliates I think of
1:22:06Affiliates and kind of 2 tiers now when
1:22:08I make a true affiliate strategy for a
1:22:10business there's usually three there's
1:22:11usually first level which is the base
1:22:13level that everybody starts at there's
1:22:15the next level which is an activation
1:22:16Point level which is whatever activation
1:22:18point is for you in your business you
1:22:19make that the next kicker for their
1:22:21income or whatever the benefit is and
1:22:23then you have your like top producer
1:22:25level and so those are usually the best
1:22:27three and we paid a gazillion dollars to
1:22:29Consultants who just only set up
1:22:30affiliate structures and that's what
1:22:31they use they're like always three these
1:22:34are the three and there you go there's a
1:22:35nugget for you let me save you a hundred
1:22:37grand uh that's how you search out of
1:22:39affiliate setups with this book I have
1:22:41two levels if you don't have a massive
1:22:43audience bring 10 friends
1:22:46that's it so bring 10 10 people from
1:22:48your company bring your family bring
1:22:50your cousins whatever it is bring 10
1:22:52people and I'll give you two chapters
1:22:53that I'm not releasing with the book
1:22:54okay so that's the that's the benefit
1:22:56for that level for the top level there's
1:22:59gonna be people who have audiences right
1:23:01who have email lists have subscribers
1:23:03Etc and so for them I wanted to be more
1:23:06competitive and so for them at the top
1:23:08ten I'm going to do an AMA live with
1:23:10their audience with them and they can
1:23:12ask whatever they want and the reason I
1:23:14chose that specific benefit for them was
1:23:18that if I said hey I'm giving a
1:23:19Lamborghini or I'm giving a car to the
1:23:21top 10 people right if they go to Their
1:23:23audience and say hey attend this thing
1:23:24so I can win this car that's them
1:23:26extracting Goodwill from the audience
1:23:28right and I don't want them to do that
1:23:29for me and so I was like how can I also
1:23:32use the concepts that I preach for them
1:23:35and so I made it at AMA so that
1:23:38Their audience clicking their affiliate
1:23:41link benefits Their audience because if
1:23:43I click Johnny's link and we win then we
1:23:47get the time to do the AMA and so he
1:23:49doesn't Johnny or whoever the affiliate
1:23:51is doesn't extract Goodwill for or
1:23:55withdraw Goodwill from their Audience by
1:23:56by promoting my thing and so that way I
1:23:59wanted it to be an easy thing for people
1:24:01to promote so it would just be a net
1:24:02benefit so it didn't have to like work
1:24:04another promotion calendar or be like
1:24:06like how what kind of split them up
1:24:07because there's no Financial incentive
1:24:09for the for this and I also did that
1:24:11because operationally you know 12 10.99s
1:24:13is a pain um and so it was easier to do
1:24:16it that way interesting and these people
1:24:18are willing to promote too because of
1:24:19all the Goodwill that you've built up
1:24:20and I think that's really interesting
1:24:21and important for people to understand
1:24:23and probably
1:24:24um brand Association yeah like for sure
1:24:27like real like that was the thing that I
1:24:29I'm still consistently learning and am
1:24:32impressed by how branding works yeah
1:24:35um but yeah I think that was also an
1:24:36element of it so and the amas that
1:24:38you're doing you're doing basically 10
1:24:40separate M A's yeah amas 10 separate
1:24:42ones so like it's totally like Their
1:24:44audience yeah
1:24:45um and so yeah that's and I don't do a
1:24:47lot of these yeah
1:24:48um by percentage of requests and so for
1:24:51many of them this is like the only shot
1:24:53that they'll probably have to to do that
1:24:55and so I wanted to make it cool and
1:24:57awesome got it how many hours do you
1:24:59think you put into this launch how much
1:25:00did you spent so far
1:25:02I spent a million bucks in cash on the
1:25:04event
1:25:06um so far yeah probably more honestly
1:25:08anyway yeah it's been probably
1:25:11um and then so right now we have like
1:25:14400 and
1:25:15five or ten thousand people registered
1:25:18okay for the event which is pretty nuts
1:25:20it's like seven NFL stadiums dude I
1:25:22imagine attendee attendance rate has to
1:25:24be pretty high too I hope so yeah well
1:25:26you know I this is the first time you
1:25:27know that we've done anything like this
1:25:29big
1:25:30um so yeah we spent I spent that much
1:25:32money and then from a Time perspective
1:25:33this has been if you include the writing
1:25:36of the book I mean it's I've got two
1:25:38thousand hours yes so if we don't
1:25:40include writing the book
1:25:42um the presentation that I'm giving
1:25:45um I've spent
1:25:46I probably put 200 hours into it wow
1:25:48okay
1:25:50so
1:25:51um I I will do the work and so I made
1:25:55the presentation and this and now I feel
1:25:56like I have the process down so I will
1:25:58share this with you so I'm a big fan of
1:26:01uh out working yourself out right like
1:26:04you're never nervous if you're fully
1:26:06prepared and so I don't want to be
1:26:09nervous for this thing and if anything I
1:26:11just want to be excited about it which I
1:26:12am
1:26:13um but the way I approached it was I
1:26:16made the first version of the
1:26:17presentation and then I presented it and
1:26:19I recorded it and then I watched the
1:26:21recording with the deck up and I pause
1:26:23it when every time there's a mess up and
1:26:25I fix the deck and I play Fix Play Fix
1:26:28Play Fix
1:26:29um and then once I have the new fixed
1:26:31one I go top to bottom in my head and
1:26:33then I go top to bottom record it out
1:26:34loud
1:26:35pause fix pause fix pause fix and so
1:26:38right now I do that I do one full cycle
1:26:42of that every day and I started
1:26:44preparing for that
1:26:46um
1:26:47three weeks out I don't know if people
1:26:49are maybe they are seeing this but from
1:26:51my observation here is you just
1:26:52mentioned I will do the work and I think
1:26:53one of your other quotes was like the
1:26:55work needs doing right but then and then
1:26:57you tie it in with really not even a 10x
1:26:59effort but to me it seems like 100x
1:27:01effort just people aren't willing to go
1:27:02that far right but what's interesting is
1:27:05that like if you work a hundred times
1:27:06harder you can sometimes get like a
1:27:08million times the payout and so like the
1:27:10the top end of work still has
1:27:12disproportionate payoffs and so I don't
1:27:15even I don't even like there are
1:27:16diminishing returns but there's a point
1:27:18where you actually get like outsized
1:27:19returns for the effort because like if
1:27:20you think about it from like an Olympic
1:27:22racing perspective like if I work you
1:27:24know 10 times more than everybody else
1:27:26does but I get gold and the next guy
1:27:28gets silver the difference between gold
1:27:30and silver and running is everything
1:27:31even though it's the tenth of a second
1:27:33right and so from an absolute
1:27:35perspective there's diminishing returns
1:27:36but from a relative perspective I think
1:27:38you have exponential returns from being
1:27:40the best from being number the
1:27:42difference between number one and number
1:27:42two can be you know like uber and Lyft
1:27:44like the difference is 10x uh the size
1:27:47and so I I have now been reinforced
1:27:50enough times of how much more work is
1:27:52required to do something excellent that
1:27:54now I understand it and I think the one
1:27:56thing that has continued to level up
1:27:57over time for me and this is also for
1:27:59the audience is that like you don't even
1:28:02know how much you can work like you
1:28:04think you know how much you can work
1:28:06until you like really really work and
1:28:09like with this presentation I was like I
1:28:10will not be the reason this is not good
1:28:12what do you think changed your
1:28:14perspective like flipped you into
1:28:16working 100x harder
1:28:19I think just my standards have gone up
1:28:20like I looked at the first presentation
1:28:23I ever gave and it's like it's
1:28:24embarrassing everything that's truly
1:28:26embarrassing I think it has like 19
1:28:27slides with like four bullets on each
1:28:28slide and I remember being I remember
1:28:30thinking man I spend a lot of time on
1:28:32this and a lot of time to me back then
1:28:34was like I spent a day on it like a full
1:28:37day like eight hours yep that's still me
1:28:39right now yeah and and I think that
1:28:43a little moniker that I have is just
1:28:44counting hundreds it's like how many
1:28:47hundreds of hours did you spend on
1:28:49something because like when you start
1:28:50counting in hundreds like the depth of
1:28:52understanding of something goes to such
1:28:54a such a large degree and it's like if I
1:28:56were to tell someone to edit a video
1:28:57right like a short clip and I said hey
1:29:01um edit this clip uh in 30 minutes right
1:29:03and give it back to me and I was like
1:29:04and then give it back to me like okay
1:29:05I'm not gonna edit it yet if I give you
1:29:07another 30 minutes could you make it
1:29:09better and they're usually like I could
1:29:11make it better another 30. so I give it
1:29:12back to him like give it back to me
1:29:13another 30. it gives back to me another
1:29:1530. they say okay if I give you two more
1:29:18hours do you think you make it better
1:29:19there's a point to this yep he's like
1:29:22yeah I think I make it better it comes
1:29:23back to me I say okay
1:29:25what if I gave you two weeks
1:29:27like well then I would totally approach
1:29:29it differently I'd probably restructure
1:29:30the whole thing like because the the
1:29:33amount of time sure work does expand to
1:29:35the amount of time that you allow it
1:29:36right but
1:29:37I deem work done when there's nothing
1:29:41else that I can do to make it better
1:29:43that there's nothing else that I know of
1:29:45that I can make this better right
1:29:47um and that was the point that I got
1:29:48back with the book like I did 19 drafts
1:29:51I did four full rewrites and the last
1:29:52version that has gone out when I I would
1:29:55you know read it front to back so many
1:29:56times now like they were I was like I
1:29:59can't take anything else out and I can't
1:30:00add anything to it and I can't make
1:30:02anything clear and I've written this
1:30:04whole thing in a third grade reading
1:30:05level and I've added 106 hand-drawn
1:30:06images into this there's nothing else I
1:30:08can do and if it does not succeed that's
1:30:10fine yeah but it will not be for lack of
1:30:12effort let me ask you this then what
1:30:14would be considered success for this
1:30:16book launch
1:30:17it'll be successful the moment I step on
1:30:19stage I genuinely believe this like
1:30:22truly I'll have one by the time that it
1:30:24happens because I I know what I feel
1:30:28like when I walk on stage and I have
1:30:30done everything in my power everything
1:30:33not some of the things or most of the
1:30:34things but there is nothing else that I
1:30:36can conceive of to make this better and
1:30:38then at that point
1:30:39if any like then the chips will fall
1:30:42where they are and I will control the
1:30:44controllables and so that's that is that
1:30:46has helped me get through like some of
1:30:48the the anxieties and things like that
1:30:49that happened earlier on in my career
1:30:51around these types of things yeah but
1:30:52the whole like the reason I have the
1:30:54outwork yourself that like give yourself
1:30:55a stack of undeniable proof that you are
1:30:57who you say you are like if I say that I
1:30:59will I will do my job then I will not
1:31:01make I will make sure that I have done
1:31:03everything in my power which also means
1:31:04and this is the underlying thing is that
1:31:06means I can't do a lot of stuff and
1:31:08that's that's the real cost of
1:31:10Excellence is all the things that you
1:31:13want to try that you can't do because
1:31:15Excellence has a huge price tag
1:31:17associated with it which is how much
1:31:18time you have to put into one thing
1:31:21totally and you actually gave this
1:31:22example when it comes to
1:31:24writing a world-class book there I think
1:31:28the analogy you shared was like you know
1:31:30there's the difference between like a
1:31:317.5 star and a 9.5 star book or whatever
1:31:33it is it's like 100x more work yeah
1:31:35right what was the analogy yeah I mean
1:31:37it's it's exactly that like to go from
1:31:39uh you know from a five to a seven is
1:31:41like twice the work to go from a seven
1:31:42to a nine is like a hundred times the
1:31:45work it's so much more work it's an
1:31:46asymptote when it comes to work and
1:31:48excellence and power loss but yeah but
1:31:50the difference like but the difference
1:31:52between a nine and a half book and a 9.9
1:31:54book on Amazon
1:31:56is the difference between you having one
1:31:58book that you can retire on for the rest
1:32:00of your life like the offers book in
1:32:02sales I think does around 300 000 a
1:32:04month
1:32:06which is crazy good as a book yeah as a
1:32:08book that's your take right huh that's
1:32:10your take no that's not my take that's
1:32:11sales that's Revenue right then Amazon
1:32:13has his has his way with it
1:32:15um and takes the vast majority of it but
1:32:17point being is like for the vast
1:32:19majority I think it is about a million
1:32:20bucks a year yeah net great um but for
1:32:23the vast majority of people like that I
1:32:25think is actually kind of encouraging is
1:32:26like you can put an unbelievable amount
1:32:29of work into one thing and make it so
1:32:32good that it will pay you for the rest
1:32:34of your life like you don't like you
1:32:35could work a job you could have a career
1:32:37you could do all these things but like
1:32:37if you build one amazing product
1:32:40that people will consistently buy and
1:32:42tell their friends about you don't have
1:32:44to work again and I think that like
1:32:45understanding that I've now applied and
1:32:47honestly the offers book was the first
1:32:49probably the biggest real life example I
1:32:51had where I could control every variable
1:32:53like in a business you can't control
1:32:54every variable but in and even in like a
1:32:56tech product I'm not the coder or
1:32:57whatever like I was like I can code
1:32:59every page of this I did the drawings I
1:33:01did the audible I wrote the words I
1:33:04designed the cover like everything yeah
1:33:05and so
1:33:07I can make sure that it's excellent from
1:33:09my perspective and then hopefully the
1:33:10audience will agree I love it and
1:33:13that acquisition.com leads is that going
1:33:16to be an evergreen page or is it going
1:33:18to disappear at some point oh I mean
1:33:19it'll always reroute to probably
1:33:20something about the books so yeah
1:33:22acquisition.com forward slash leads got
1:33:24it let me ask you this I think for 100
1:33:26million dollar offers that book is very
1:33:28Lindy and what I mean by that for the
1:33:29audience is that you know it's that like
1:33:31how to win friends and influence people
1:33:33it's been around for over 100 years it's
1:33:34gonna be around for another 100 years I
1:33:36think your book is written that way for
1:33:37that one I think leads might be a little
1:33:39more difficult because you might be
1:33:40talking about no no you've written that
1:33:42Lindy dude that's why it was so hard
1:33:43there you go think about I mean like I
1:33:45had so so to give context
1:33:48leads has been
1:33:51probably 10 times the work of offers
1:33:53like and it was because I had to rewrite
1:33:56it so many times and and thinking about
1:33:58what topics I was going to get into and
1:34:00what topics I wasn't going to get into
1:34:01and then how at what level do I chunk up
1:34:03or chunk down uh from tactics around
1:34:06advertising right so
1:34:09explaining the concepts like
1:34:12I call it the core four but there's only
1:34:13four things you can do to let other
1:34:14people know about your stuff you can
1:34:16message people one-on-one who you know
1:34:17so it's warm reach outs you can mess
1:34:19with people 101 who you don't know
1:34:20that's cold reach outs you can post one
1:34:22to many to people who know you which is
1:34:23uh posting content and you can post one
1:34:26to many people who don't know you which
1:34:27is running paid ads that's it that's all
1:34:29you can do there's nothing else and if
1:34:31you're not doing those things
1:34:33then people won't find out about your
1:34:34stuff and so the platforms change the
1:34:37principles remain the same and so that
1:34:38was the but like I had to cover
1:34:40platforms media formats placements
1:34:43targeting cold emails cold calls DMs
1:34:47like there were so many things that I
1:34:50had to cover in one book I will I will
1:34:52probably never bite off so much again
1:34:55yeah in terms of narrowing the scope of
1:34:58the book but now that I did for this it
1:35:01really the the problem set that this
1:35:03book answers is literally just one step
1:35:06in the funnel which is a lead is a
1:35:08person that you can contact
1:35:10that is the definition as I Define it an
1:35:13Engaged lead is a person you can contact
1:35:15who has shown interest in the stuff you
1:35:16sell and the entire point of this book
1:35:18is to get someone from a person you can
1:35:20contact to get them engaged got it that
1:35:22is it that is the whole problem of the
1:35:24entire book and then like and that's it
1:35:25in self-destructs
1:35:27[Music]
1:35:28you got offers you got leads can you
1:35:30talk about the next one of the name yet
1:35:32yeah okay but uh but it's green
1:35:35it's great it'll be a green book purple
1:35:37purple wait blue purple green purple
1:35:39blue purple blue okay
1:35:41um just for the audience to know it's
1:35:44typically when you write a book it's
1:35:45usually five to seven drafts right and
1:35:47when I my editor first told me that it's
1:35:49like come on I'll be done in one draft
1:35:50right no it's seven on mine you did 19.
1:35:54that's that's way more and it sounds
1:35:55like you rewrote a couple times too four
1:35:57four rights like end-to-end rewrites
1:35:59that's crazy I think I just give up but
1:36:01uh it was very it was really hard yeah
1:36:03but the work needs doing
1:36:05um and I'll tell you what my editor said
1:36:07when I would get to these points where I
1:36:08would just like throw out my hands and
1:36:09be like dude I don't care I don't need
1:36:11to make the money like I don't like
1:36:12whatever you know you're close to giving
1:36:13up a couple times oh for sure I mean
1:36:15like you know
1:36:16everybody has bad days yeah and he he
1:36:19said that he gave me this visual that
1:36:20like he just like seared into my mind he
1:36:22was like there's a 17 year old kid in
1:36:24Pakistan who has a goat who's gonna be
1:36:25sleeping with this book under his pillow
1:36:27he's like do it for him wow and I was
1:36:30like
1:36:30like all right that's good we get back
1:36:32and we and and we you know I was like
1:36:34dude they can figure this part out and
1:36:36he's like no they can't yeah he's like
1:36:38you'll sell the book no matter what he's
1:36:39like but they won't get it and then uh
1:36:41so then it's like back to the drawing
1:36:43board how can I re think through this
1:36:46framework so that I can make it easy and
1:36:48then make the visual match the words and
1:36:49make it under third grade and all the
1:36:51way through was tough I mean that just
1:36:53goes to show you too because earlier you
1:36:55talked about your mission around the
1:36:56education piece right and sometimes no
1:36:58matter how strong your mission is you'll
1:37:00start to waver a little bit right and
1:37:02you need Heroes like your Editor to come
1:37:04and recalibrate yeah yeah this one's
1:37:07interesting so the guy I had lunch with
1:37:08today
1:37:09um we had been in these masterminds
1:37:11before and in our mid-20s or so it's
1:37:13like yeah tactics you need a dopamine
1:37:14hits right oh that's good right yeah
1:37:17split test you know there's this new
1:37:18channel over here you gotta talk to this
1:37:19person but then as we get older it's
1:37:21like no no it's not about the tactics
1:37:23it's just about hiring good people right
1:37:25like is there anything you want to I
1:37:28mean I thought it'd be good to chat
1:37:29about with you here because after they
1:37:33read the books sure they'll pick up the
1:37:34strategies the tactics but really once
1:37:36they get a certain level it's like I
1:37:37mean it's all about who you know I mean
1:37:39there's that the type was that book who
1:37:41not how yep I mean it kind of summarizes
1:37:43the entire Concept in the title
1:37:45um you I think you and I have had this
1:37:47discussion but like you can you can sit
1:37:49in on a group of entrepreneurs listen to
1:37:51the discussion for 60 seconds and know
1:37:53how much money they make within a rough
1:37:54a rough estimate or what level of the
1:37:57business that they're working if they're
1:37:58employees like where they where they sit
1:37:59on the org chart
1:38:00um because of what level of conversation
1:38:02they're having and so at the highest
1:38:04level you're talking about allocation of
1:38:05resources that's all it is it's just
1:38:07capital and human allocation yeah um and
1:38:10you know one level maybe below that
1:38:12would be uh human like human capital
1:38:15which is how are we going to attract
1:38:16Talent how are we going to train Talent
1:38:18how we're gonna get compounding Returns
1:38:19on Talent uh because you know I I like
1:38:21the saying but um you're just one great
1:38:23hire away from all of the money that you
1:38:25want yeah uh but the thing is is that I
1:38:27think the catch of that that ism is that
1:38:30you have to become the type of person
1:38:32that that person wants to work for
1:38:33totally and that's like that's the hard
1:38:35part yeah that's like sure yeah yeah of
1:38:38course uh what's his name Tim Cook right
1:38:41of Apple
1:38:42he could he could probably grow your
1:38:44business but he wouldn't work for you
1:38:47and so like that has been always at the
1:38:49Forefront of Leland ice minus and that's
1:38:51part of what we do with the brand stuff
1:38:52which is
1:38:54we want the brand to stand for things
1:38:55that because we're we're just as
1:38:57aggressively advertising
1:39:00at a tactical level we're more
1:39:02aggressively advertising from a
1:39:03transactions perspective for the talent
1:39:05we put in portfolio companies so we
1:39:07place Talent
1:39:09I mean a few times a week I mean we have
1:39:11three four leadership positions a week
1:39:13that we fill in our portfolio companies
1:39:15compared to how many deals you do at the
1:39:16portfolio level
1:39:18um and so and that's the that's the
1:39:19highest return on Capital that we have
1:39:21is buy someone and I say buy just in the
1:39:25capital term
1:39:26um buy talent for 200 000 a year make 20
1:39:29million a year yeah no-brainer great
1:39:31trade right and one of the big one of
1:39:33the big misnomers I think one of the
1:39:35biggest mistake entrepreneurs like
1:39:36myself included when I was earlier on is
1:39:38that I didn't understand the difference
1:39:39between a and b Talent you can pay a
1:39:42talent 30 above market and get 10x the
1:39:45output and like there's no sense in ever
1:39:48paying below Market in my opinion
1:39:50because you just don't get you can get
1:39:52so much more for the for the extra
1:39:54premium that you pay that it's one of
1:39:56the best it's like the best best bet in
1:39:57Vegas yeah I mean the best trade you can
1:39:59make is that premium to bring the the
1:40:01right person in that's 10 times more
1:40:03effective you know have you heard of the
1:40:05the Keith or boy
1:40:07um he has this expression about barrels
1:40:09versus bullets so the concept here this
1:40:12guy was um
1:40:13I think he was like a CEO of of square
1:40:16or block whatever you want to call this
1:40:18high up at PayPal but anyway so what he
1:40:20said was like look in an organization
1:40:22you need barrows these are going to be
1:40:24the ones that you give them a problem or
1:40:25like something other just solve it right
1:40:27yeah and then the bullets like they will
1:40:29do what you tell them to do but you
1:40:31should always hire a barrel whenever you
1:40:32meet a barrel and that's kind of what
1:40:33you're saying here and to me like I I
1:40:36love playing poker right like I'm a
1:40:37gambler at heart but in like in business
1:40:41it's like unfair it's like you make this
1:40:43higher it's like
1:40:44upside is unlimited well I mean it's got
1:40:47to the point now where we will like we
1:40:48interview we basically have open
1:40:49interviews so if we see someone who's
1:40:52incredibly talented we will hire them
1:40:54without really having a clear position
1:40:57for them yet and like I'm saying that's
1:41:00a bit that's if we have an incredibly
1:41:01talented person like we had someone
1:41:02recently
1:41:04um who is an exceptional sales director
1:41:05at huge experience was an ex-ceo like
1:41:08all this great stuff Great Value fit
1:41:10um and one of our portfolio companies
1:41:12we're about to uh you know make the
1:41:14recommendation that you should take this
1:41:15person
1:41:16um and they were like we don't we don't
1:41:18think we want to do it
1:41:19um and so we hopped on the phone and
1:41:21we're like you're wrong
1:41:23um like we have a lot more context on
1:41:26this you should do it and it ended up
1:41:27somebody from like there outside it said
1:41:29you shouldn't do it and they had that
1:41:31person had no context yeah and they were
1:41:33like we actually wanted to hire but we
1:41:34didn't trust ourselves which by the way
1:41:35is huge part for entrepreneurs is like
1:41:37you make one bat higher and then you
1:41:38think I can't hire people like you're
1:41:40gonna make mistakes it's part of the
1:41:42game you get better and better at
1:41:43pattern recognition and so this person
1:41:44had it was clear and so we were like
1:41:47just so you know we're hiring him no
1:41:49matter what and so we're either going to
1:41:50put him in your company or putting him
1:41:51with somebody else and they were like
1:41:52okay yeah yeah no no we want him and so
1:41:54it's like I think that's the level of
1:41:55talent is like you should feel fomo when
1:41:57you're talking to the person yeah and
1:41:59here's the other litmus test that I love
1:42:00I got this from Layla if you are not
1:42:02learning on the interview
1:42:04from the candidate about the thing that
1:42:07they're supposed to take over you
1:42:09shouldn't hire them because it means
1:42:10that you know more than them which means
1:42:12that you're required for them to be
1:42:13successful which means that they need
1:42:15you and you know you don't get leverage
1:42:16yep that dude that's way better so I
1:42:18used to use this Larry Page proxy um so
1:42:22he would just get bored on all these
1:42:24interviews right I was like you know one
1:42:25of the founders of Google and he would
1:42:26be like yeah so like tell me about
1:42:28something you're passionate about okay
1:42:29great you're gonna teach me for seven
1:42:30minutes so you can learn something yeah
1:42:32Layla's is even better yeah yeah because
1:42:35if you think about from a from a chunked
1:42:37up example an organization grows if the
1:42:40not if the cumulative knowledge base of
1:42:42the company grows and so if you bring
1:42:44somebody in who you have the complete
1:42:47you have their entire complete knowledge
1:42:48set about whatever the subject matter is
1:42:50then the organization doesn't grow
1:42:53just as simple as that and if you were
1:42:57the smartest person in your business
1:42:59then it means that the business will be
1:43:01capped by your brain if you have four
1:43:03other people who have huge uh trench
1:43:06knowledge then I see it as this like in
1:43:09my head I see it as this Christmas tree
1:43:10where like if you have four like this
1:43:11the peak goes way above because you have
1:43:13this wider wider top so the peak is way
1:43:16way higher whereas if you're the single
1:43:17brain at the top the peak is the top of
1:43:19your head yeah so that's like how I
1:43:21visualize very small Christmas tree yeah
1:43:23very small Christmas tree exactly no
1:43:26presents that's that's good um so
1:43:28actually we have a couple minutes left
1:43:30here but the Layla conversation is going
1:43:32to be really focused on Talent
1:43:33acquisition because that that is the
1:43:35game so um she's a Savage I mean
1:43:38speaking of savages so so a yes both of
1:43:41your Savages
1:43:43um in a good way obviously but B when
1:43:45you find this Talent right like I tell
1:43:47people I tell my staff it's like dude
1:43:48you know and if you have that feeling
1:43:51that little gut feeling you pull the
1:43:53trader you don't you don't wait that
1:43:55long yeah because the next person to
1:43:56interview with Ohio yeah totally so
1:43:58you'll do it on the spot sometimes we
1:44:00don't do I mean we don't we still follow
1:44:01a process but we we do 24-hour
1:44:03turnarounds to move things forward there
1:44:04you go yeah but usually your your
1:44:06turnaround's like we try and do we try
1:44:08and do everything one day apart if we
1:44:09like we always try to do that like we
1:44:11have really good metrics around HR like
1:44:13our cost to fill is way below industry
1:44:15average our time to fill roles
1:44:17um is like 22 days versus industry
1:44:19average is much higher yeah um our
1:44:21two-sided fit at 90 days uh which is one
1:44:23of our key metrics is that the the
1:44:24person above the person and the person
1:44:26both say that it was a perfect match 90
1:44:28days later two-sided fit I like that you
1:44:30guys came up with that one too uh what
1:44:32director of HR did ah and that was
1:44:34because you came from audax uh private
1:44:36Equity Firm and so she was director of
1:44:38people there yeah and so on the
1:44:39interview she was teaching she gave all
1:44:42these metrics that I didn't like time to
1:44:43fill and I was like I should why have I
1:44:46never tracked this like that's so smart
1:44:47and she's like what's the cost to fill
1:44:48and here I am thinking I was like oh
1:44:50yeah I'm this big metric shot I know the
1:44:52costume for our customer CPMC all these
1:44:53things just and she's like oh you don't
1:44:55know what your cost to fill was and I
1:44:56was like wow like such an idiot myself
1:44:59and so that's why like that's why you
1:45:02need really smart people around you
1:45:03because like I learned from from her all
1:45:05the time you should feel like an idiot
1:45:08when you're talking to High Caliber
1:45:10prospects about their subject yep yep I
1:45:13love it cool you know so I'm going to go
1:45:15back to the story here because because
1:45:17um we have a guest question here but we
1:45:19were eating lunch one time and your
1:45:21order was give me four chicken breasts
1:45:23yeah so tell us about the I've seen the
1:45:26the video you have with the ice cream
1:45:27and all that how is your diet like what
1:45:29is the question here from my buddy is um
1:45:31what is Alex's Fitness routine aside
1:45:34from what he has said
1:45:35diet as well yeah
1:45:38um
1:45:38like right now I haven't worked out in
1:45:40like three or four weeks
1:45:42um which is not as common for me but I
1:45:44go through Seasons um I would say like I
1:45:46didn't I didn't miss uh more than a week
1:45:48of working out for like 16 years wow
1:45:51um and then I in my old age
1:45:55um you know I'm crossing 19 years of
1:45:56training now
1:45:57um so I've like for everyone who's like
1:45:59the entrepreneurs who like all of a
1:46:00sudden decide to like start getting into
1:46:01fitness and then they start lecturing
1:46:02people and they've only been doing
1:46:03working out for like two years like I
1:46:05read the book in the article and I know
1:46:06the guy who wrote it I know how he makes
1:46:07his money and you're not seeing the
1:46:09whole truth but that's okay uh there's
1:46:12article already oh I'm just saying like
1:46:14in general like whatever that thing is
1:46:16that you're like really obsessed about
1:46:17right now it's because you understand it
1:46:18very like I'm all keto I'm intermittent
1:46:20fasting I do high carb you know high
1:46:22carb or I only do vegan or I like
1:46:24whatever make-believe thing you have
1:46:25like there's a few things that matter
1:46:27and everything else is just preference
1:46:29you know what I mean and so I don't know
1:46:31if this is a navalism but like if you
1:46:33can't do it for a decade don't do it for
1:46:34a day
1:46:35um and so there's definitely been
1:46:37Seasons where I'll train harder uh but
1:46:40overall
1:46:41I do resistance training because it's
1:46:43the number one thing for you know
1:46:45longevity maintaining bone mass
1:46:47Etc
1:46:48um and then from a health perspective it
1:46:50just comes down to calorie intake from a
1:46:52body Aesthetics and then making sure
1:46:54that you have the vitamins that you need
1:46:55in micronutrients but like
1:46:57for most people in the developed world
1:46:59we don't normally have vitamin
1:47:00deficiencies and we usually don't have
1:47:01mineral deficiencies again
1:47:04that clinic that you go to where they do
1:47:07the blood work and they can have you
1:47:08chew on something and then spit it out
1:47:09and it does pink and then you take a
1:47:11supplement then it's blue like
1:47:13you have to understand that these are
1:47:14also businesses like I come from the
1:47:15health and fitness world like I think
1:47:16there's there's games Behind these
1:47:18things
1:47:19um and so I try to keep things as simple
1:47:21as possible I eat two pounds of meat a
1:47:23day that's how I get my 200 grams of
1:47:25protein in that is very easy for me to
1:47:26do and then I have dessert in excess of
1:47:29my calories to hit my goal if I want to
1:47:31lose weight I eat less dessert if I want
1:47:33to maintain weight I eat the same amount
1:47:34if I want to gain weight I'll add other
1:47:36calories to my other meals that have
1:47:38meat in them so rather than just meat
1:47:40off meat and pasta or meat and rice
1:47:41whatever but training has been
1:47:44Progressive overload on resistance
1:47:45training meaning weights and machines
1:47:47and plate loaded machines for almost two
1:47:49decades is there anything else it's I
1:47:52think you probably my guess here is that
1:47:55you started out and then you tried all
1:47:57the things and it's like no let's just
1:47:58simplify to these and these work yeah
1:48:01do you do anything around
1:48:03anything else that's strange like
1:48:04preventative Healthcare people like oh
1:48:05yeah the MRI scans all this type of
1:48:07stuff I don't maybe I will later but
1:48:09right now I don't I've um I focused I
1:48:12mean all the things that I just
1:48:12mentioned so like I did get about only
1:48:14training I did Barefoot training I did
1:48:16exclusively swim Sprint training
1:48:19um I've done high intensity interval
1:48:20training I've done
1:48:22um like all strong man style training
1:48:23I've I was a competitive power lifter
1:48:25for five years
1:48:27um and now people would probably
1:48:28consider me more like a
1:48:29bodybuilder-esque in terms of training
1:48:30style and Aesthetics and so like I have
1:48:32done a lot of different styles of
1:48:34training and when it comes to diet I did
1:48:36The Warrior Diet when you ate one big
1:48:38meal at night I've done intermittent
1:48:40fasting I've done alternate day fasting
1:48:41I've done
1:48:42um I've done keto I've done uh all um
1:48:46the opposite of cutest so like high
1:48:48carbs super low fat high protein I've
1:48:51done Zone I've like I have done them and
1:48:54it was because in my first decade of
1:48:56Fitness you hop on all of these trains
1:48:59because part of it is like you want to
1:49:01experiment you want to learn you want to
1:49:02see how you react and part of it because
1:49:03you believe the magic right there's
1:49:04something different but there's a few
1:49:07fundamental truths and they all come
1:49:08down to physics which is just like law
1:49:10of thermodynamics like there's a certain
1:49:11amount of energy that you consume and if
1:49:13you have less than that you will lose
1:49:14fat period it will get taken from energy
1:49:16stores like what about uh starvation
1:49:19mode and things like that like there was
1:49:20a Minnesota starvation study where they
1:49:22had star people for like months no food
1:49:25and the biggest decrement they saw in
1:49:27basal metabolic rate was 30 and so that
1:49:30means that when you're truly starving
1:49:31your BMR goes to 70 which I mean is
1:49:35significant but it's also not like like
1:49:38the women that I used to you know have
1:49:39at my gym like I think I'm in Starvation
1:49:41mode I was like I think you just snack
1:49:43you know like yeah I was like if you
1:49:45want to see starvation go to Africa like
1:49:47none of them have cellulite because they
1:49:49are starving like you know we use these
1:49:52words but like in order to truly get
1:49:54that level of decrement and decrease in
1:49:56your you know BMR uh you have to really
1:49:59be restricting for a very long period of
1:50:01time and most people don't even track
1:50:03what they eat and so like if you don't
1:50:04track what you eat it's kind of like the
1:50:07guy with the opinion like I don't I
1:50:08don't care like you don't even have data
1:50:10so
1:50:11and the the thing with any of these
1:50:14these you know diets or at least
1:50:15approaches is you have a certain calorie
1:50:17intake that you maintain your body
1:50:18weight at the thing that fudges this is
1:50:20that people are very bad at measuring
1:50:21what they take in
1:50:23like what they eat and they're but
1:50:25that's even uh that's still easier than
1:50:28measuring what your output is because
1:50:30you have non-exercise activity that
1:50:31really so like if I'm if I'm bobbing my
1:50:33foot or I'm chewing more gum or I'm
1:50:35taking the stairs more I'm cleaning the
1:50:37house like those few hundred calories a
1:50:39day over a week or over a month add up a
1:50:42lot
1:50:43um and so usually what happens is when
1:50:46you get older your metabolism doesn't
1:50:48necessarily decrease nearly as much as
1:50:49people's activity decreases and so they
1:50:51think that their metabolism is really
1:50:53slow but it's like when you were 20 you
1:50:55were in Two Rec leagues and you had to
1:50:57walk across campus uh in college and you
1:50:59were walking three miles a day and you'd
1:51:01even notice it right with a backpack on
1:51:03that was like 25 pounds right like it
1:51:05was rucking now but like you just had a
1:51:07backpack because you were a student and
1:51:08so it's just like we have these
1:51:09perspective ships that have to happen
1:51:10but there's a few things that happen
1:51:12Progressive overload meaning you lift
1:51:13more weight over time works that builds
1:51:16muscle right uh protein increase builds
1:51:19and maintains muscle hormones build and
1:51:21maintain muscle
1:51:23calorie surpluses help maintain anabolic
1:51:27States calorie deficits you lose tissue
1:51:29you go into catabolic States period
1:51:31that's it the rest of it is preference
1:51:34yep look I think this all wraps well
1:51:36together because it's the reason I bring
1:51:38this up too is because you've simplified
1:51:40it and just like business it's comes
1:51:42down to people right a lot of blocking
1:51:44and tackling same thing with this the
1:51:46health stuff too it's like where there's
1:51:48a lot of distractions oh there's this
1:51:49new diet over here oh should we like
1:51:50cold plunge or should we like infrared
1:51:52sauna like should we I don't know blue
1:51:54light blocking whatever right
1:51:56um but it just comes down to the simple
1:51:59stuff and I talk about this just for
1:52:01context so this is for you guys you can
1:52:02add it back in
1:52:03um is this is purely from the
1:52:06perspective of Aesthetics if you want to
1:52:08maintain a certain amount of body mass
1:52:09with a certain percentage of fat and
1:52:11certain percent of muscle those are the
1:52:12only things that matter
1:52:13um the other stuff
1:52:16it gets into you know magic and all the
1:52:19stuff that I I don't I don't partake in
1:52:20and what's interesting is like I don't
1:52:22talk about Fitness much
1:52:24um and it's mostly because I am so I
1:52:27mean it's been 20 years so like I'm I'm
1:52:29I've been in I've been knowing about
1:52:31Fitness for longer than knowing about
1:52:32business for a context
1:52:34um and so I also did that professionally
1:52:36for a very long time and a lot of like
1:52:38the the YouTube world and like the
1:52:39influencer world are people that follow
1:52:41me don't know like they see that I'm
1:52:42quote jacked but like
1:52:45I wrote the plans that 4 000 gyms use
1:52:47like you've probably used my stuff and
1:52:50so you know people are like oh this guy
1:52:52has such great thinking but then if I
1:52:54make a comment about food then everyone
1:52:55feels entitled to an opinion because
1:52:57they have a body right yeah yeah right
1:53:00so they but like they
1:53:02how many people have you helped change
1:53:04like their physiques probably not many
1:53:07um and you probably can't even change
1:53:08your own so like
1:53:09it's kind of like in in business where
1:53:12like no one wealthier than you will take
1:53:13shots at you yep no guy who's ever been
1:53:16more jacked than me has ever said
1:53:18anything negative to me totally about
1:53:20Fitness stuff yeah it's only like laptop
1:53:22Warriors and whatnot and so like again
1:53:24my my level of care is so much more
1:53:26passionate about helping people make
1:53:28money to like sustain their families and
1:53:29whatnot
1:53:30um and it's I don't have a lot of
1:53:32passion anymore around Fitness maybe
1:53:33it's been two decades and maybe that's
1:53:34why
1:53:35um but yeah to me it's the the
1:53:37equation's been simplified and the thing
1:53:39is is that business I remember this
1:53:40there was a moment when I stopped
1:53:42reading T Nation and minded that's not
1:53:44where I got my source of content but I'm
1:53:45just saying it was like back in I mean
1:53:47back in the like the early 2000s okay uh
1:53:50there's like all these articles for like
1:53:52lifting and nutrition and stuff and I
1:53:54remember there was a day when I was like
1:53:55I think I get it like I I human bodies
1:53:59haven't changed and so I I have a
1:54:03sufficient amount of knowledge to do all
1:54:05the things that I need to do and to help
1:54:07other people do what they need to do and
1:54:08so my consumption of new stuff dropped
1:54:10dramatically because everything at this
1:54:11point is such a small increment in terms
1:54:13of changes in physique and performance
1:54:16and all that stuff that like sleeping
1:54:19well eating your protein and working out
1:54:21are still so big compared to everything
1:54:23else that it just doesn't matter
1:54:25and the reason I think I got into to
1:54:27business and I've stayed and I think I
1:54:29will continue to be interested in
1:54:30business whereas I my my love of Fitness
1:54:32started to wane is because business
1:54:34changes all the time yeah so like bodies
1:54:37haven't changed but business and the
1:54:39market changes all the time and I think
1:54:40that's why I love best game ever all
1:54:42right last question for you your coach
1:54:44is 80 year old Alex you're not mistaken
1:54:47um what are some things that 80 year old
1:54:49Alex has told you recently
1:54:54sometimes you have to give time time I
1:54:56mean most of the themes of my 85 year
1:54:58old self like if there was like a
1:55:00handful of themes that our conversations
1:55:01lead toward
1:55:03um one is like
1:55:04this doesn't matter
1:55:06like it's gonna work out either way and
1:55:08it's me it's like basically just zoom
1:55:10out so that's probably one
1:55:12um a second theme is just around
1:55:13patience which is like I think you just
1:55:15need to stay busy I don't think you need
1:55:17to do anything about this so that's the
1:55:19second one I think um redefining
1:55:22problems is not problems like my my
1:55:24undefeated heavyweight champion of the
1:55:25world solution is decide something isn't
1:55:27a problem
1:55:30like how do I solve this it's like what
1:55:32if I just decided it wasn't a problem to
1:55:33begin with and kept living my life and
1:55:35that a lot of times when you're 85 I
1:55:36feel like you have more of that
1:55:37perspective it's like that's just not
1:55:39I'm just not I'm gonna decide that's not
1:55:40a problem yeah no flex given right yeah
1:55:43um and so I would say those are three
1:55:46um
1:55:47the dude patience is by far the biggest
1:55:49one
1:55:50um and and and
1:55:52I'll give the fourth
1:55:54um embracing uncertainty because I and
1:55:58many of us want a guarantee from a world
1:56:02that doesn't give them it's like I want
1:56:04to know that this is going to work which
1:56:06is such a fallacious thought
1:56:08at the onset because if I actually knew
1:56:10beyond a shadow of a doubt that
1:56:11something would happen I would lose all
1:56:13interest because then it would be boring
1:56:14yeah it's like having the cheat codes
1:56:15and playing a video game it's good for
1:56:16like five seconds and then you realize
1:56:18it's not a challenge at all and so like
1:56:19I have this desire that if it actually
1:56:22were met would be the ultimate undoing
1:56:24of my desire so it's just a complete
1:56:26smoke screen that I've made up in my
1:56:28head and so my 85 year old self just
1:56:31I would say like most of the time it
1:56:32just points he doesn't have to say
1:56:33anything he's just like you're like yeah
1:56:36but it's crazy though how powerful it is
1:56:38because I don't like if I had a
1:56:40therapist or a coach or something I'd
1:56:41have to spend 90 of my time trying to
1:56:43give context to the problem that I know
1:56:46the answer to
1:56:47and I'm just not doing it like we give
1:56:49significantly better advice to other
1:56:51people than we adhere to ourselves
1:56:52that's the Paradox here too Solomon's
1:56:54Paradox yeah yeah and so if we can
1:56:56harness our own ability to give better
1:56:58advice with the absolute context that we
1:57:00have on our situation and the aligned
1:57:02incentives that we have that no one else
1:57:03can have as line incentives for us as we
1:57:05are then I think it unlocks at another
1:57:07level of quote coaching that's been
1:57:09tremendously helpful for me and I would
1:57:11say that I haven't like my sessions with
1:57:14Solomon even though it's me but I just
1:57:16call it Solomon
1:57:17um in my head
1:57:19um sometimes they're really long and
1:57:20sometimes they're short because
1:57:22sometimes like things are working and
1:57:24I'm good and so I kind of see it as like
1:57:26the uh the therapist or the performance
1:57:29coach that is on demand like if I need
1:57:31him he's there and I have a blocked you
1:57:33know hour in my calendar every Monday
1:57:34it's the first thing I do every Monday
1:57:36um is have my time with Solomon but it's
1:57:39rare that I take the full hour
1:57:41um it's usually between five minutes
1:57:42yeah and 30 minutes is usually what are
1:57:45you sitting around you walk in oh no I'm
1:57:47on my computer so I actually do a chat
1:57:49back and forth and I go from him to me
1:57:50him to me him to me and I type out all
1:57:52the responses because I think even
1:57:53typing out what my question is even like
1:57:56like many problems if you can properly
1:57:58ask ask the right question that's 90 of
1:58:00the solution is asking the right
1:58:02question yeah or precisely stating the
1:58:04problem you're trying to solve yeah
1:58:05um and so that process helps me solve
1:58:08most of the issues that come up that
1:58:10aren't really issues to begin with I
1:58:11love it well I know we can go on forever
1:58:13but what we're going to end it right
1:58:14here so what is the best way for people
1:58:16to find the book and I mean just Google
1:58:20yeah it's Emoji right how do you find
1:58:22the book yeah you can go to um I mean
1:58:24you can go to Amazon but if you want to
1:58:26uh go to acquisition.com forward slash
1:58:28leads uh and we also have training in
1:58:30courses and other materials that are
1:58:32offering no opt-in on the site at
1:58:34acquisition.com and if you are a company
1:58:36and you have you know an ebitdev a
1:58:38million two million five million eight
1:58:40million
1:58:41um hit us up you know we're always
1:58:42looking for great Founders who are
1:58:43looking for growth partners and because
1:58:44that's that's what our day job is all
1:58:47right I love it Alex thanks so much for
1:58:48doing this thanks for having me

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