The Best Businesses Just Copy What Works — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So let's say someone's listening to this
2. 0:01and they're thinking, all right, cool. I
3. 0:02know I like I've I've read Alex Hermosi
4. 0:04he he he he's telling me I've I've got
5. 0:05to I've got to sell a thing. I don't I
6. 0:07don't know what to sell. I don't know if
7. 0:08I have any skills. I don't I don't I
8. 0:10don't know what I could possibly offer
9. 0:11to the world. Yeah. How do we How do we
10. 0:13break that down?
11. 0:14>> Yeah, this is actually a topic that I um
12. 0:17I cover more in the leads book that's
13. 0:18coming out soon.
14. 0:19Uh soon relative terms, 6 months-ish.
15. 0:22>> [laughter]
16. 0:23>> Everybody knows something, all right?
17. 0:25And so the idea is what do you have Like
18. 0:28everyone has unique
19. 0:29depths of knowledge in certain areas.
20. 0:31Because you've been alive and your eyes
21. 0:33and ears have taken inputs, period,
22. 0:35right? And so I like to think of of
23. 0:38people starting Like so if you look at
24. 0:40Are you familiar with Y Combinator?
25. 0:42>> Yeah.
26. 0:42>> I said yeah.
27. 0:43>> But yeah. Yeah.
28. 0:44>> Yeah, so Y Combinator is one of the most
29. 0:45successful, you know, uh
30. 0:48I don't know if they're technically VC.
31. 0:49They're you know, seed capital startup
32. 0:51um investors in Silicon Valley. And they
33. 0:54have a very standard deal structure and
34. 0:55they have criteria for what they look
35. 0:57for in companies. And one of the most
36. 0:58important criteria that they look for is
37. 1:00past experience. And so they're okay
38. 1:02with somebody who's super young, etc.,
39. 1:04but they want to they want you to have
40. 1:06experience in the industry cuz there's
41. 1:07just so much ignorance debt that you
42. 1:09have to pay down if you literally know
43. 1:12nothing about an industry. Like there's
44. 1:14just so much Like if your dad was a
45. 1:15mechanic, you know so much about cars
46. 1:18just by osmosis of being around a
47. 1:20mechanic for 18 years. And so I like to
48. 1:23think
49. 1:24past jobs you've held, you will know
50. 1:26stuff about that industry. Um
51. 1:28the jobs of your parents are things that
52. 1:30you will know about that industry. And
53. 1:32then you've got personal interests. And
54. 1:34so I think that if I had put those into
55. 1:36three buckets, it's like parents stuff,
56. 1:38past jobs of self, and current
57. 1:40interests. And so it's like of those
58. 1:42three things,
59. 1:43which of those three buckets do you
60. 1:45think you could help someone do a thing
61. 1:47better?
62. 1:48And so the idea is
63. 1:50you want to sell the most valuable
64. 1:52thing, right? And so the most valuable
65. 1:53thing is what is the problem that I can
66. 1:55help somebody else solve that I could
67. 1:56charge the most money for or in reverse
68. 1:58that could make them the most money.
69. 2:00And then I will be able to charge a
70. 2:01percentage of the money that I'm able to
71. 2:03make somebody else in this thing. Now,
72. 2:05that's in a B2B setting. In a B2C
73. 2:06setting, it would be how valuable do
74. 2:08people perceive the problem that they
75. 2:10have as, right? Whether it's like I can
76. 2:13teach music, tons of people want to be
77. 2:15able to learn how to and if you're
78. 2:16better, you know, cuz you've had a side
79. 2:17interest in that, awesome. Maybe you
80. 2:19have a side interest because you're
81. 2:19really good at editing the songs. Well,
82. 2:21there's tons of musicians who would love
83. 2:22who hate that part and would love to
84. 2:24have that. So, it's like we all know how
85. 2:25to do stuff and all we have to do is
86. 2:27package the thing that we're doing and I
87. 2:29think the big problem is that people
88. 2:30expect that they're going to have a
89. 2:31perfect business. But if you look at the
90. 2:32track record of all of I can't think of
91. 2:34an entrepreneur besides Jeff Bezos,
92. 2:36who's a freak of nature,
93. 2:37whose first business becomes the most
94. 2:39valuable business in the world is most
95. 2:42people have a graveyard of failures
96. 2:43behind them. And so, the idea is you
97. 2:46start not with the intent of saying this
98. 2:48is going to be the one thing you're
99. 2:48going to do for the rest of your life,
100. 2:49which is the fallacy that employees have
101. 2:52that whatever they pick is going to be
102. 2:53the thing they're going to do for the
103. 2:54rest of their lives. When in reality,
104. 2:55it's I just have to do a thing that I'm
105. 2:56good enough at that I can learn the
106. 2:57game. And the thing is once you start
107. 2:59taking steps, the the next step becomes
108. 3:02illuminated. You trying to think 100
109. 3:04steps into the future when you have no
110. 3:05context is is irrelevant because chaos
111. 3:07is going to break your plan anyways. And
112. 3:10so, do what you know, exchange I like
113. 3:13service businesses to start because they
114. 3:14are the in my opinion the lowest risk to
115. 3:17start cuz you're just it's just your
116. 3:18time, right?
117. 3:19>> So, service businesses meaning
118. 3:21>> do stuff for money.
119. 3:23>> Like mowing the lawn or like cleaning
120. 3:25windows or like whatever.
121. 3:26>> 100% service. Clean houses, like
122. 3:27whatever. Like all of those are just
123. 3:29service businesses, right? And they're
124. 3:30fine. And a lot of people think they
125. 3:31need to have some novel idea to start a
126. 3:33business when
127. 3:34I mean, the best in my opinion, if
128. 3:36you're if you're getting into it, the
129. 3:37best way to start a business is just
130. 3:39look at what everyone else is doing and
131. 3:40just try and do it better. Like that I
132. 3:42mean and there's obvious holes. Like if
133. 3:45you've if you've gone to if you've
134. 3:46gotten your dry cleaning, it's like can
135. 3:47I do this in half the time as this guy?
136. 3:50If I do the lawn care, what are the
137. 3:51things people hate about lawn care? Ah,
138. 3:52they leave the the the trimmings around
139. 3:54the edges, they're all are all all
140. 3:55shitty, the person doesn't speak English
141. 3:57that well. Like, well, cool. Then I've
142. 3:58got advantages, right? So, it's like,
143. 4:00what are things that I already know how
144. 4:02to do or I have past experience in?
145. 4:04What things, because I have past
146. 4:05experience, I know that other people
147. 4:06struggle with that sucks about this
148. 4:07thing? And then I will solve that
149. 4:09specific problem. And it could also be a
150. 4:10problem that other people solve, too.
151. 4:11You just try and do a little bit better.
152. 4:13Like, it's it's it's just not rocket
153. 4:14science, you know what I mean? And then
154. 4:16you exchange you start selling your time
155. 4:18for money. So, yes, you're still trading
156. 4:19time for dollars. You don't need to
157. 4:20reach reach that point just yet, right?
158. 4:22You're still trading time for dollars.
159. 4:24Right, but the point is that you're
160. 4:25you're you're trading that time for
161. 4:27money in order to learn, not to earn.
162. 4:30You need to earn in order to pay your
163. 4:31pay your rent, eat, etc. But, the the
164. 4:33major thing you're doing is you're
165. 4:35paying down ignorance debt. So, the vast
166. 4:37majority of your income is coming in the
167. 4:38terms of in in the form of education,
168. 4:40rather than earning.
169. 4:41>> Real quick, if you're a business owner
170. 4:43and you're not growing as fast as you
171. 4:45like, I'd like to give you a free gift.
172. 4:47So, my team and I put together the $100
173. 4:49million selling roadmap, which is
174. 4:50basically 200 hours of us looking over
175. 4:52all the portfolio companies we've had
176. 4:53and what stages of growth they went
177. 4:56through and more importantly, where they
178. 4:57got stuck and how they got past it. And
179. 5:00so, we broke it in these 10 stages and
180. 5:01we made this little kind of quiz thing,
181. 5:03where if you put in your business
182. 5:04information, it'll tell you where you're
183. 5:05at and the most important part for you,
184. 5:07what to do for each of functions of the
185. 5:09business across product, marketing,
186. 5:10sales, customer success, recruiting, IT,
187. 5:12human resources and finance. And so, no
188. 5:14matter what you're struggling with,
189. 5:16someone else has already struggled with
190. 5:17it and solved it. And so, I'd like to
191. 5:19give you this thing absolutely free. You
192. 5:21can go to acquisition.com roadmap, plug
193. 5:23in your business information and if you
194. 5:24want us to actually help you deconstruct
195. 5:27the business and you're trying to scale,
196. 5:28we'd love to help you out. On the thank
197. 5:30you page, you can just book a call with
198. 5:31my team and we will
199. 5:33look at the business, see if we can help
200. 5:35and if we can, we'll invite you out to
201. 5:36Vegas and we'll do this in person live.