If You're Under $1M a Year, Here's What I'd Do in 2026 — Transcript

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1. 0:00I think a lot of entrepreneurs do not
2. 0:01play to win. I think they play
3. 0:03to tell themselves that they're playing
4. 0:05and they do it because they want to give
5. 0:07themselves an excuse
6. 0:09and a reason to make failing acceptable.
7. 0:13And so I'll tell you a story and then
8. 0:14I'll give you some tactics around this.
9. 0:15So, um Shurron told me a friend of his
10. 0:18played for Don Shula. If you don't know
11. 0:19who Don Shula was, he was a famous
12. 0:20football coach.
13. 0:22And he said what was really interesting
14. 0:24about playing for Don Shula compared to
15. 0:25any other coach is that Don Shula, and
16. 0:26he's a legendary coach,
17. 0:28every single play that they had in their
18. 0:30playbook had a way of becoming a
19. 0:32touchdown.
20. 0:33And so that seems kind of I mean
21. 0:36obvious when you think about it to
22. 0:38yourself, but then when you think about
23. 0:40all the moves that you make in business,
24. 0:42are we making sure that every move that
25. 0:43we have in business is one that's going
26. 0:45to ultimately help us accomplish our
27. 0:47goals overall? Like is this one move
28. 0:50going to score the touchdown rather than
29. 0:51just move the ball forward? And of
30. 0:53course, some there's something to be
31. 0:54said for called the consistent yardage,
32. 0:56but there are times when you have to
33. 1:00make
34. 1:01big moves and when you have very limited
35. 1:03resources, which we do as small business
36. 1:04owners, we have to make bets that are
37. 1:06going to have have the highest
38. 1:07risk-adjusted return. Meaning we want to
39. 1:10move the ball the most forward for the
40. 1:12least effort and then do that over an
41. 1:14extended period of time because the only
42. 1:16difference in football compared to real
43. 1:19business is that you don't have four
44. 1:20downs, you have an unlimited amount of
45. 1:21downs, but you don't have an unlimited
46. 1:23amount of energy to do the downs with.
47. 1:24So, it's a little bit different than
48. 1:26that. So,
49. 1:28I want to give you some examples of this
50. 1:29to make this real. So, some of you guys
51. 1:31say, "Okay, I need to hire more
52. 1:32technicians for my HVAC business or
53. 1:34whatever it is." And I'll have the
54. 1:36question come up at a at a workshop and
55. 1:38someone says, "Hey, you know, this is
56. 1:40the limitation of my business and I
57. 1:40can't grow until I get more tradesmen
58. 1:42and it's so hard to find tradesmen, blah
59. 1:43blah blah blah." Right?
60. 1:45When I ask the next question, she says,
61. 1:47"What have you done so far?"
62. 1:50I usually get a lot of like empty faces
63. 1:52and it's like, "Well, what do you mean
64. 1:54like what have I done?" And like, "Well,
65. 1:55I've tried." I'm like, "Yeah, but what
66. 1:56do you specific What have you actually
67. 1:57done besides just continue to run the
68. 1:58business?"
69. 1:59And most times I get one or maybe two
70. 2:03things. And so when I hear these types
71. 2:05of responses, I'm like, "Are you really
72. 2:06playing to win?" They're like, "Well,
73. 2:08there's no one in my area who wants to
74. 2:10do this thing." It's like, "Okay, well,
75. 2:12have you hired head hunters? Have you
76. 2:14gone into all the forums for tradesmen?
77. 2:17Have you offered relocation bonuses to
78. 2:19bring people in? Have you looked at
79. 2:20poaching from your top competitors? Have
80. 2:23you run ads in order to get um
81. 2:26you know, uh these people from your
82. 2:27local area? Are you going to trade shows
83. 2:29and conferences? Do you have an
84. 2:30agreement with uh any of the trade
85. 2:33schools where you can give free or paid
86. 2:36uh internships to the people? Now, when
87. 2:39I list out all these things, most of the
88. 2:40times they haven't done most But, the
89. 2:43thing is is that the people who want to
90. 2:44win, who play to win, is they don't just
91. 2:47have one way to win. It's like, I want
92. 2:49to
93. 2:51be clear about the one constraint that I
94. 2:53have, but I want to solve it 10 ways.
95. 2:55So, let me let me explain what I mean
96. 2:56here. So, how do you How do you
97. 3:00reconcile the idea of
98. 3:03Alex says do more, but then he also says
99. 3:07do fewer or do less. How do we reconcile
100. 3:09these two apparent opposites?
101. 3:12Well, the answer is that we want to have
102. 3:14a single thing we are focused on in
103. 3:16terms of the constraint, which means
104. 3:18that there is a bottleneck in the
105. 3:19business, whether it's like, I need to
106. 3:21get more leads, I need to convert more
107. 3:22of those leads via sales, I need to have
108. 3:24more people can do the delivery,
109. 3:25whatever the thing is for you. But, once
110. 3:28we're clear on what the constraint is,
111. 3:30we might have 10 ways to solve that
112. 3:33constraint. And so we want the
113. 3:35aggression, we want the violence, we
114. 3:37want the unreasonable amount of action,
115. 3:39the volume to be directed towards that
116. 3:43one point. And so the way I think about
117. 3:45it is
118. 3:46imagine you have a piece of paper that
119. 3:47you have to burn through. That's like
120. 3:48the the thing that you're trying to
121. 3:50break through, right?
122. 3:51If you have the sun you, right? You have
123. 3:53the sun behind you. If if I just try and
124. 3:56heat up a piece of paper, it's not going
125. 3:58to work, right? And so I have to take
126. 4:00all of this energy, put it onto a
127. 4:02magnifying glass, and then focus it on
128. 4:03focus on it this one point, and then
129. 4:05it'll burn through. And so this is in
130. 4:08the same way of the analogy around the
131. 4:09football is like, we have to play to
132. 4:11win, not just play to play. And a lot of
133. 4:13people are playing so they can have
134. 4:14excuses, they can tell their wives and
135. 4:15their husbands and their and their and
136. 4:17their the people who pay attention to
137. 4:18them that, "Hey, I I'm fighting the good
138. 4:20fight. I'm trying out there. It's just
139. 4:22not easy." It's just like, "Dude, no one
140. 4:23cares." No one cares.
141. 4:26And so at the end of the day, you just
142. 4:28either won or you didn't. And no one
143. 4:29remembers how tough the referee's calls
144. 4:31were, what the what the weather was like
145. 4:33during the game, um or if it was super
146. 4:35windy, or if you didn't have the right
147. 4:36gloves, or the cleats that you had, uh
148. 4:39or you're injured because you you have a
149. 4:40little bit of tendonitis in your elbow.
150. 4:42Like, no one remembers. People just
151. 4:44remember who won the game. Period.
152. 4:47And so a lot of entrepreneurs I'm saying
153. 4:49are just not playing to win. So let me
154. 4:51see if I got I had I wrote a couple
155. 4:52notes down for us to make sure I hit all
156. 4:53my points.
157. 4:55And so
158. 4:58are you turbo bombing, which is a term
159. 5:00that we use internally, the constraint?
160. 5:02And so I just give you one example of
161. 5:04like, "Okay, I need more tradesmen."
162. 5:05It's like, "Okay, well I'll give you
163. 5:06seven different things that you can do
164. 5:07to get more tradesmen." Let's say that
165. 5:09you have a different issue, which is
166. 5:10like, "All right, um
167. 5:12I need to start making content or like I
168. 5:14need more I need more leads."
169. 5:16Okay, fine. You need more leads. That's
170. 5:17fine. Nothing wrong with that. You need
171. 5:18more leads. Um well, what are you doing
172. 5:20so far? Well, I did there's just not
173. 5:22that many leads out there. Okay. Well,
174. 5:24we can go to trade shows, we can find
175. 5:26affiliates of people who already have
176. 5:28those customers, we can
177. 5:31uh we can run ads, we can run ads on
178. 5:32different platforms, we can make
179. 5:34content, we make content on different
180. 5:35platforms, we can more content. There's
181. 5:37so many different ways that you can get
182. 5:38customers. If it's like, "All right,
183. 5:40well this is the constraint of the
184. 5:41business," then it's like, "All right,
185. 5:42well then are you dedicating
186. 5:44the vast majority of your time
187. 5:47towards that one thing. And so, I want
188. 5:50to be clear. If you're under a million
189. 5:51dollars a year and you're just trying to
190. 5:52get your first million, focus on one and
191. 5:54go super aggressive with volume. All
192. 5:56right, so if you're making content, make
193. 5:57a shitload of content, right? If you're
194. 5:59doing ads, make a shitload of ads. If
195. 6:00you're doing outreach, do a shitload of
196. 6:01outreach and stay stick specific on that
197. 6:03channel. But if you get to the point
198. 6:04where you're like, "Man, I really need I
199. 6:06need way more volume. I'm at 10 million,
200. 6:08right? And I can't I can't seem to get
201. 6:09to 30." You're not going to get there
202. 6:11like imagine the level of effort that it
203. 6:13takes to establish a sales channel going
204. 6:15from zero to a million because you've
205. 6:16done that if you're at 10 million. Okay.
206. 6:18Do you think that somehow if you do that
207. 6:20same level of effort at 10 million
208. 6:21you're somehow going to get to 30? No.
209. 6:23You're going to go from 10 and then
210. 6:25maybe you'll get to 11, which is going
211. 6:26to be de minimis. It's not going to It's
212. 6:28not going to do anything for you. And
213. 6:29so, what's interesting what people miss
214. 6:31out on is that the level of effort
215. 6:32required, the sheer force, the magnitude
216. 6:36of effort, of will that you have to put
217. 6:38towards moving the boulder up the hill
218. 6:40as the as the boulder gets big bigger
219. 6:42and the hill gets steeper and the air
220. 6:43gets thinner,
221. 6:44is that you have to put even more when
222. 6:46you're tired, even more when the ball is
223. 6:48heavier, even more when it's steeper.
224. 6:51And so, like to go from 10 to 30
225. 6:53million, you're not going to be able to
226. 6:55do the same thing you did to get the
227. 6:56same level of effort to add a million
228. 6:58dollars in revenue because adding a
229. 6:59million dollars in revenue is 10%
230. 7:00growth. It's It's nothing, right? You
231. 7:02can get to 30, it's like you have to you
232. 7:03have to change the leverage that you're
233. 7:04operating in the business, which usually
234. 7:06is the amount of violence that you're
235. 7:06willing to employ and the and the bet
236. 7:09size that you're willing to make. And
237. 7:10so, let me make a point on this.
238. 7:12So, if you are accustomed to
239. 7:15a certain level of bet or risk, you have
240. 7:17to completely demolish that in your mind
241. 7:20in order to move to a different level.
242. 7:22So, let me let me translate that.
243. 7:24Let's say that you're used to spending a
244. 7:25thousand dollars a day on ads, right?
245. 7:27And that's what got you to a million
246. 7:28bucks a year or whatever. Okay, cool.
247. 7:30And you're like, "Above a thousand, I
248. 7:32just can't spend it cuz my numbers go
249. 7:33haywire." Okay. Well, then is that it?
250. 7:36Have you just saturated paid
251. 7:37advertising? Like there's there's no way
252. 7:39for you to grow your business? There's
253. 7:41That's it. You're done. You know what?
254. 7:43You can tell your wife, you can tell
255. 7:44your therapist, you can tell your
256. 7:45parents you tried really hard,
257. 7:48um and you fought the good fight.
258. 7:49Congratulations. But, the thing is is
259. 7:51that no one remembers the weather, and
260. 7:52no one remembers whether you were hurt.
261. 7:54They just remember whether you won or
262. 7:55not.
263. 7:55And so, you have to recalibrate your bet
264. 7:59size. You can say, "Okay, well, in order
265. 8:00for me to get to 10 million, I got to be
266. 8:02able to spend 10,000 a day." So, how do
267. 8:04I spend 10,000 a day on my ads? Well, I
268. 8:07can make way more creative than I have.
269. 8:09I can make way better creative than I
270. 8:10have. I can crack a different platform.
271. 8:12And if I'm spending the majority of my
272. 8:14time as the founder on the thing that
273. 8:15matters most, which by the way, the
274. 8:17constraint of the business is the point
275. 8:18in the business where you get the
276. 8:19highest returns. I want to say that
277. 8:21again for the people in the bleachers
278. 8:22here. All right? Where you
279. 8:25The The point in the business where you
280. 8:27get the highest returns on effort.
281. 8:29Remember, we get rewarded
282. 8:31disproportionately for our ability to
283. 8:33get returns on other limited resources
284. 8:35that we have.
285. 8:37If we have a spot where you get the
286. 8:39highest returns, you should put all of
287. 8:42your attention there. The thing is is
288. 8:44that that place is typically not the
289. 8:46place that you like the most. It's
290. 8:47typically not the spot you're most
291. 8:49comfortable in. Because the part that
292. 8:50you like the most about the business is
293. 8:52probably not the limiter. Because you've
294. 8:53already You work on it when you when
295. 8:54you're having fun. Because you're a
296. 8:56marketer, you like to do marketer stuff.
297. 8:57You like You're a sales guy, you like to
298. 8:58do sales stuff. You like product, you
299. 9:00like to do product stuff. It's unlikely
300. 9:02that the place that you enjoy the most
301. 9:03is the place the business needs you the
302. 9:04most.
303. 9:05And so, in the beginning, getting to a
304. 9:07million or maybe 3 million, whatever it
305. 9:08is, it's usually just like it's I don't
306. 9:10want to say it's effortless. Of course,
307. 9:11it's hard. But, like you can you can
308. 9:13kind of just like
309. 9:15you can get away with being sub par at
310. 9:18certain things. But, at some point, that
311. 9:21weak link becomes so weak, it doesn't
312. 9:23matter how strong your strong links are,
313. 9:25you just can't overpower it. If it's
314. 9:27only you selling, it's very hard to take
315. 9:29only so like you can only take so many
316. 9:31sales calls, right? If it's If it's only
317. 9:33one channel, and you're in a local
318. 9:34business, and there's a local area,
319. 9:38there's only so many people who are
320. 9:39searching you know, garage door
321. 9:42Tuscaloosa, right? On Google PPC. You're
322. 9:44going to have to find another way to
323. 9:46generate leads. And you can he and haw
324. 9:49you want, but the market doesn't really
325. 9:50care cuz they don't know you exist. And
326. 9:52so you have to take a significantly
327. 9:54larger level of violence with your
328. 9:55effort towards accomplishing the
329. 9:57objective. You have to play to win, not
330. 9:59play to play. And to be clear, I want to
331. 10:00say play to play if you want to enjoy
332. 10:02the game. That's actually part of it,
333. 10:03but I think part of us also enjoy
334. 10:05winning. And when you get these wins,
335. 10:06sometimes it makes playing a lot easier.
336. 10:08At least it does for me. And so
337. 10:11the question that I would leave you with
338. 10:12is this.
339. 10:14Are you playing to win?
340. 10:16Are you turbo bombing the constraint?
341. 10:18Are you Are you figuring out what the
342. 10:20one thing that's limiting the business
343. 10:22and then finding 10 ways to win? Are you
344. 10:24finding 10 different ways to score a
345. 10:26touchdown? Because the thing is it's
346. 10:27like you know, there's one thing for
347. 10:29attribution which is like it's good to
348. 10:30know what worked, but
349. 10:33I would rather just know that something
350. 10:35worked rather than why it worked. So,
351. 10:37I'll give you a simple example here. If
352. 10:39I say that I need to get
353. 10:41cheaper leads, right? Um I can I can do
354. 10:44that by changing my offer. I can do that
355. 10:46by improving my landing page. I can do
356. 10:48that by improving the quality of my
357. 10:50creative. I can do that by improving the
358. 10:52messaging. I can do that by improving
359. 10:55the targeting on my ads. All of those
360. 10:57things or I could I mean if we're just
361. 10:59talking leads, I'll leave it there.
362. 11:01That's five different things that I
363. 11:02could do off the top of my head that
364. 11:03would decrease my cost per lead. Okay,
365. 11:05great.
366. 11:07If I want to be an armchair
367. 11:11you know, professor, then I can sit here
368. 11:14in my ivory armchair, which is of course
369. 11:16where where professors sit I imagine,
370. 11:17their ivory armchair in their ivory
371. 11:18towers, talking pedantically about
372. 11:21about what what is required to grow a
373. 11:24business. But the reality of growing a
374. 11:26business is that a lot of times you
375. 11:27don't know which the thing worked. You
376. 11:28just know that you worked your ass off
377. 11:30and that you tried everything and that
378. 11:33when you tried everything, one of them
379. 11:35worked, and then you continue and you
380. 11:36forge on. All right? Now, when you want
381. 11:38to become more efficient over time, you
382. 11:40can peel one of them back, see if
383. 11:41anything changes, and then you can start
384. 11:42deleting, and this is the natural
385. 11:43pruning of a business. Like, you're
386. 11:44going to go really aggressive, and then
387. 11:46you'll be like, "I'm pretty sure more of
388. 11:47it's coming from here." And then you can
389. 11:48trim some of these resources to play it
390. 11:50over here, and then redeploy on the
391. 11:51side, right?
392. 11:52But at the end of the day, when I have
393. 11:54these conversations with founders and
394. 11:55entrepreneurs, it's more common that
395. 11:58they are not trialing nearly hard
396. 11:59enough. They're not doing nearly enough
397. 12:01volume, and they're not playing to win.
398. 12:04And so, I would encourage you to play to
399. 12:05win, because
400. 12:08if you aren't, who is?
401. 12:10So, that is my message for the day, and
402. 12:12then we will
403. 12:13open up for some for some Qs and As.
404. 12:15Hopefully, this audio and video If you
405. 12:17like this video and you're business
406. 12:18owner who wants to break through your
407. 12:19current revenue ceiling, I distilled
408. 12:21every lesson from scaling 10 businesses
409. 12:22past 10 million, and three businesses
410. 12:24past 100 million, into a completely free
411. 12:26scaling roadmap that I've used to go
412. 12:28from zero to one, zero to 10, and zero
413. 12:30to 100 plus. And so, you can click here,
414. 12:32and you can check it out. Again,
415. 12:33absolutely free, and since you're
416. 12:34business owner, I appreciate you, and
417. 12:36enjoy.